Bell System film for 1964 World's Fair
The Bell System produced this great musical 15-minute short film to promote its presence at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. The film features monotonic voice-overs declaiming the virtues of tomorrow's telephone systems, along with earnest folk-singing about the miracle of telephony, as well as a ride-through on the Bell System Ride. Link (via Paleofuture)
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Wonderful :)
And the best part is that I was there! When I was six years old or so my father took me to see that fair. I took that helicopter ride and rode around New York! And went into the Chrysler (?) or GM building in a big car that went around the building and into a tube! Great stuff for a six year old :)
Better times in the 60's than now. Perhaps there will be better times still.
Bell had one of the best pavilions. The sideways armchair thing was hot, probably the most memorable part of the fair after the Belgian waffles. In several pavilions, the way that they got you through the ride was more interesting that the exhibits.
The film includes a seemingly pointless shot of a woman using a payphone... but I think the phone's push buttons (as opposed to rotary dial), must have been novel.
Yep, I just checked... apparently the push button phone had just been introduced a couple of years earlier at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.
I recall rotary dials being pretty common while I was growing up in the '70s, so it must've taken a while for push button phones to completely take over.
The NY worlds fair was great I spent a week there at the boy scouts pavilion. Got to talk on the picture phone at the Bell systems site.
VideoPhones were just around the corner (I suppose with the flying cars and Flat screen TVs) . Went to all the exhibits. Good times in 1965.
Who is the folk singer? He sounds familiar.