Disney had committed to supplying Ford, General Electric and the State of Illinois with attractions for the New York World’s Fair. They had been working on these attractions for up to three years and were in a race against time to prepare these for the opening date of 22nd April 1964. Then in mid-1963 Pepsi-Cola decided that they wanted an attraction for their pavilion to benefit the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund – UNICEF. They arranged a meeting with a senior Disney executive but with less than a year to go before the opening of the Fair they were told that the Imagineers were already more than busy working on the three projects already agreed and that they wouldn’t be able to do it. When Walt heard of this he angrily, and predictably, rose to the challenge, saying

“I’m the one who makes those decisions. Tell Pepsi I’ll do it!”

Artist Mary Blair set about creating the backgrounds and overall artistic design of the attraction, while Marc Davis was assigned to providing the actual nine minute ride and the characters. He had now been involved in each one of Disney’s four World’s Fair attractions.

This charming boat ride through the countries of the world perfectly illustrated the Fair’s original theme of Peace Through Understanding.

The building that housed the attraction was relatively plain compared to some of the architectural masterpieces that had been designed around the Fair, nothing at all like the elaborate façade of the Small World rides around the world today. Walt wanted something to help it stand out. Rolly Crump was commissioned to design the Tower of the Four Winds, a beautiful 120 foot high, 200,000 pound collection of mobiles and pinwheels that stood at the entrance to the UNICEF pavilion. It could be seen from almost anywhere on the show ground and with over 100 moving parts it remains one of the most fondly remembered icons of the entire Fair.

The ride needed a theme tune; one that was memorable yet simple. The task of writing it went to the men who had recently provided the theme song for the Carousel of Progress, Richard and Robert Sherman.

They wrote a simple round that could be sung in different languages. The first time Walt ever heard the song was when the brothers sang it unaccompanied, clapping out the beat, as they walked with him through a basic mock-up of the ride. The song has gone on to delight - and annoy - guests around the world for forty years. It’s a Small World opened at Disneyland in California on 28 May 1966.

Both Small World and the Ford’s Magic Skyway had guests board the ride vehicles outside the building, so that they could see that the ride was operational and how far the line stretched. This was a technique that had already been used successfully at Disneyland.

After seeing how successful the boat ride system proved on Small World, Walt suggested changing the Pirates of the Caribbean ride that was in the process of being built at Disneyland. The original walkthrough design was scrapped and a version of the boat mechanism installed.

As the Fair’s opening date drew closer, all development at Disneyland was put on hold, including preliminary work on what would eventually become the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions. Everyone available was rescheduled for World’s Fair work, to the extent that when it came time to install the four attractions in New York, 200 Disney employees flew out to assist.

The Fair ran for two seasons in 1964 and 1965, closing throughout New York’s harsh winter period, and it’s two themes were “Peace Through Understanding” and “A Millennium of Progress”. With 175 pavilions this was the largest Fair to date. It covered almost 650 acres; that’s over twice the size of Walt Disney World’s Epcot. The Epcot that we know today is in many ways a permanent World’s Fair, showing examples of other countries and their cultures, as well as the latest technological advances and some areas that are educational as well as just plain entertaining. All of this is together in one place yet grouped into many smaller pavilions – it’s not too difficult to see the comparisons.

Quite a few African and Asian nations were represented by pavilions at Flushing Meadow, but hardly any European countries attended, which lead to individual U.S. states being invited. Many religious groups hosted pavilions too, further emphasising the “Peace Through Understanding” ideal.

As for the Progress motif, NASA displayed a huge rocket garden much like the one currently at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, and many top American corporations, from IBM to Clairol, hosted pavilions. But there were also bars and dance clubs at the show ground, that were added in an attempt to boost flagging attendance figures at the end of the first season. This and the non-appearance of many developed countries lead to the Fair being criticised for conservatism and commercialism, a far cry from its aims of education and exploration.

Unfortunately Walt was eventually proved right; the Fair was a financial failure. However it was hugely successful for him in a development and advertising sense. 91% of the Fair’s visitors saw at least one of Disney’s exhibits.

At its conclusion the president of the Fair, Robert Moses, offered the land to Walt for an East Coast Disneyland. Walt politely refused. While it had been proven that people would come to Disney attractions on this side of the country, he was concerned about the climate. If Disney were to ever build a park East of the Mississippi, Walt had a few much warmer sites in mind.

Finally, you might like to know that the next World’s Fair will be held later this year, starting on the 5th of March 2005 in Aichi, Japan. For the first time in many years, the USA will be hosting a pavilion, and it will once again feature a huge tribute to a man who looms large in American history.

That man is Benjamin Franklin. But his representation will be on film, not animatronic. And he won’t be provided by Disney.

But a bid to take the 2012 Fair back to New York City is gathering momentum...