Chapter #1
Remembering "The World of the
Future"
"The
World of the Future Exhibition" was the quintessential creation
of its time, a view of the future seen fresh and new, packed
with a myriad of possibilities because the future hadn't yet
arrived. But when it did, we knew it would be born from our own
toil, tears, hopes, aspirations, visions, and most importantly,
from our collective and individual dreams."
-- Quentin Spoon,
The University of California, Monterey, 1996
"The biggest thing to hit the desert since
Route 66, since the dawn of time, since the age of the dinosaurs!"
-- Calvin "C." Spotrunn,
Los Angeles, California, 1956
These
are the words Calvin Spotrunn used when, in the spring of 1956,
he announced his plans to build what would become known around
the world as The World of the Future Exposition.
Between opening day, January 1, 1959 and its closing on January
1, 1960, the Exposition entertained an estimated 2,750,00
visitors (astonishing considering its rather remote location).
They were drawn by the promise of becoming a part of the future,
to which the fair was dedicated.
Covering 288 acres in the California desert south of Amboy,
California, 10 miles from Route 66 and built atop a dry lakebed,
the ancient remains of a volcano, and an aeronautic test site,
this was one of the most ambitious privately conceived entertainment
projects of the late 20th century.
Visitors to the Exposition came by car and bus (by
way of Route 66), by rail (the Southern Pacific's special Techno-Fair
'59 spur ran right to the Future station - a 3/4 scale replica
of the Union Station in Los Angeles), by air (the Exposition
terminal, sponsored by the MacGregor Aircraft Company), and by
boat (hotel guests staying on-site at the Astro-Inn Hotel in
near-by Tomorrow Town traveled to the fair grounds along a mile
and a half-long Spotrunn Canal in miniature futuristic canal
boats).
Guests came to get not only a look at the future, but also
to see performances by many top entertainers of the day including
crooner Frank Sinatra, singularly and with the whole of the "Rat
Pack," The Ringling Brothers Circus, The Three Stooges (Larry,
Moe, and Joe DeRica), Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin (separately, of
course), Buffalo Bob Smith and Howdy Doody, and red-hot night
club performer Miss Rusty Warren.
After the run of the fair, most of the attractions were sold
off. Sometime during the 1960s, the entire site was annexed by
the US Government and transformed into the super-secret testing
range known as Area 101. This place is now of much interest to
UFO-enthusiasts, who claim this to be the location of Hanger
666, the resting place of several captured flying saucers. Many
of the buildings in Tomorrow Town (residential buildings for
employees and the 1900 room Astro-Inn for visitors) and the sleek
California Moderne constructions of Future Ville (administrative
offices) are reportedly still in use by the military.
The World of the Future Exposition included rides and
attractions (the Rocket Sled, The Meteor Roller Coaster, the
Mission to Venus Tunnel of Love and Space Commander X's Fun House),
restaurants (Hanoi Hattie's Huguenot Hide Away, The Bikini Lounge,
Mike's Route 5 Good Eats, and Capistrano Kate's hamburger stand),
pavilions (Confusatron Computing "The Confusatron Show:
'Inside the Electronic Brain'" and The Universe of Nuclear
Energy), and live musical extravaganzas (the "Plumbing Your
Way!" live musical extravaganza presented by the US Housing
League).
For 366 days, The World of the Future Exposition was
the most far-sighted, technologically advanced and certainly
most entertaining event the desert had seen since, well, since
the age of the dinosaurs.
The following pages are but a few bits and pieces we have
been able to assemble from a variety of documents (newspaper
clippings, press releases, personal memories, and so forth).
Once one of the most photographed and reported upon places on
Earth, there are now few identifiable pictures or descriptions
left to be found.
- © 2000 Kevin W. Whitaker
- The Recovered Entertainment Archives
The Recovered Entertainment Archives