OnTrak Winter 2018

The Fair’s commissioner originally
planned to hold a “Festival of the West,”
but after the Russians launched Sputnik in
1957, instead adopted a science and technology
focus. It was a turbulent time for
America—the country was in the throes of
the Cold War, with the Vietnam War heating
up.
Skepticism surrounded the World’s Fair
and the Space Needle. The community was
not enthusiastic; the Fair’s public relations
department reported “widespread public
apathy in many areas and even outright
opposition to the Fair in Seattle.” Alfred
Schweppe, an attorney and former dean of
the University of Washington’s School of
Law, even filed a lawsuit to stop it.
Others saw this World’s Fair as America’s
moment to shine as a leader in aerospace
and science. The post-World War II fairs
around the globe were becoming a thing
of the past, as the age of televisions and
airplanes changed society. But the Space
Needle was a patriotic business gamble,
and Seattle has never looked back. Ticket
sales soared as more than 9.5 million visitors
flocked to Seattle's new Space Needle
and monorail. The World’s Fair paid off its
private investors in just three months.
Museum of History and Industry, Seattle
The fair's commissioner originally
planned to hold a "Festival of the West,"
but after the Russians launched Sputnik
in 1957, instead adopted a science and
technology focus.
44 | WINTER 2018
ontrakmag.com