 
Tk65
Member
Username: Tk65
Post Number: 86
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 1:28 pm: |    |
These have probably been seen on here before but I figured Id post them anyway.
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1kielsondrive
Member
Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 27
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 1:31 pm: | |
Tk65, thank you so much for the great photos. I've never seen them before. The photo postings here are continually fantastic. 1KD |
Jimaz
Member
Username: Jimaz
Post Number: 6159
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 2:55 pm: | |
Tk65, thanks. Great photos.
It makes me want to refurbish the thing but that won't happen.
Does anyone know how many people could ride in each gondola? They look pretty big. |
3rdworldcity
Member
Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 1291
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 5:11 pm: | |
My wife and I rode on it.
I recall 4 people were permitted in a gondola. |
3rdworldcity
Member
Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 1292
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 5:13 pm: | |
My wife and I rode on it.
I recall 4 people were permitted in a gondola.
I recall we flew from Chicago to LaGuardia on one of the first 707 flights and we broke a speed record while doing it. |
Polaar
Member
Username: Polaar
Post Number: 38
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 6:36 pm: | |
Thanks for the photos. I remember that it was close to Sinclair Dinoland, my favorite exhibit at the fair (I was 4). I have a toy of that ferris wheel somewhere. |
Billybbrew
Member
Username: Billybbrew
Post Number: 332
Registered: 07-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 6:54 pm: | |
I really miss the 1960's look the tire had. Bring back the whitewalls!•• |
Mortalman
Member
Username: Mortalman
Post Number: 86
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 7:11 pm: | |
Great photos! I've never seen them before. |
Onthe405
Member
Username: Onthe405
Post Number: 71
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 7:17 pm: | |
Polaar, what a coincidence that you should mention Sinclair Dinoland. At the World's Fair, Sinclair had a machine that you could observe making instant wax/poly souvenir replicas of dinosaurs (your choice of species, color, etc).
After the Fair, they took the machine "on tour" around the country. One of the stops was Eastland (around '66). Much to my delight my mom bought me a green Brontosaurus, and I think by brother got a blue Stegosaurus.
I recently purchased an original copy of the National Geographic (circa 1964) featuring NYC & the World's Fair. I remembered this issue from our coffee table. It included an insert map of Tourist Manhattan. The issue photos & map are treasure trove of 1960s NYC nostalgia.
Of note on the map: route of the hydrofoil from lower Manhattan to the site of the Fair in Flushing Meadows (such technology!). The much beloved former Penn Station (labeled as "future site of Madison Square Garden") and a plot of land in SW lower Manhattan labeled as "future site of the World Trade Center".
(Message edited by onthe405 on August 22, 2008) |
Polaar
Member
Username: Polaar
Post Number: 39
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 8:23 pm: | |
Onthe405, I got one of those Brontosaurus Dinos at the fair! I still have it even though I broke off the head when playing with it many years ago. I didn't know that they toured the machine to Eastland. I went there a lot with my grandparents from Harper Woods. Dinoland made such an impression on me as a kid that I was sad when Sinclair Oil pulled out of Michigan in the late 60s. I have only since seen Sinclair stations West of the Mississippi. |
Onthe405
Member
Username: Onthe405
Post Number: 72
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 8:52 pm: | |
Polaar, you are so fortunate to have attended the WF! Thanks to those on the thread for the flood of nostalgia. As a young kid in '64 (after seeing that issue of NG) I wanted to visit the World's Fair & NYC more than anything in the world.
In retrospect, it's surprising my dad wasn't more jazzed about the idea of taking us, since he had visited the 1938 WF in NYC with his family--he had fond memories of the thrills.
I ended up spending my entire adolescence idealizing Manhattan as a Downtown Detroit X 1,000. When I finally arrived there at 21, I wasn't one bit disappointed or disillusioned. It was (and still is) a world of fabulousness. |
Jiminnm
Member
Username: Jiminnm
Post Number: 1757
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 8:58 pm: | |
My Cass Tech senior class went to the NYWF in 1965 (12+ hours on a train). I must have ridden on that tire, but my memories are hazy because I was with the then girl of my dreams. |
Downriviera
Member
Username: Downriviera
Post Number: 905
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:07 pm: | |
I live not to far from the tire, ride my bike on a trail that goes right up to it. Always fun to stand right next to it. Whenever I'm out of town and mention I'm from Detroit, many people mention the tire. Better to be known for that than the negative stuff. Great pics. |
Ragtoplover59
Member
Username: Ragtoplover59
Post Number: 309
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:24 pm: | |
Tk65
What other interesting things might you have pictures of? These are great! |
Tk65
Member
Username: Tk65
Post Number: 87
Registered: 12-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:45 pm: | |
I cant take credit for them, I found them on another board.
I am glad that friggin nail is gone from it. I remember the same look as the Fair but with Uniroyal on it instead of US Royal. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 1779
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:46 pm: | |
Driving to Metro as a kid my brother said, "that used to be a ferris wheel". I never saw the pictures until now, cool. He also told me it fell off and rolled onto 94, total BS. |
Sludgedaddy
Member
Username: Sludgedaddy
Post Number: 118
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:54 pm: | |
There is also an Urban legend about a group of hippies squatting inside that tire when it was put up near I-94. Fact or Fiction? It was rumored that they had many creature comforts including stolen electrical access. |
Drankin21
Member
Username: Drankin21
Post Number: 277
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 9:59 pm: | |
Those pics are great. Thanks for putting them up. I always remembered by Dad telling me that there was a Ferris Wheel "inside" of the tire whenever we'd drive by it. Therefore, I always imagined a ferris wheel skeleton inside the tire facade. Not that at all! |
Kennyd
Member
Username: Kennyd
Post Number: 37
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 10:06 pm: | |
I had no idea that it was a tire ferris wheel. I thought they just decided to make a tire out of the round frame. Very cool pics. |
Jcole
Member
Username: Jcole
Post Number: 3332
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 10:27 pm: | |
Drankin, I had the exact same impression, as did several other people I know. Dad told me the same story |