Flashback Friday: The Tower of the Four Winds

Designed by Rolly Crump to stand in front of the Pepsi Pavilion which housed "It's A Small World" at the 1964 Worlds Fair. The Tower of the Four Winds was a massive kinetic sculpture that Walt wanted to dress up the exterior of "It's A Small World" with because the facade of the building was so drab. Rolly's work certainly did the trick. Here is a description of the piece from Disney's press release of the attraction.

"Attached to three primary columns and four slender buttresses will be more than 100 spinning, swiveling, oscillating elements of as many colors and shapes. Propellers of every description and size, a miniature, purely decorative carousel with animals from several countries (a giraffe, camel, reindeer, llama, horse, elephant and donkey), a stylized representation of the sun; figures of birds, flying fish, winged dragon, butterflies, bees and other creatures–all will be in perpetual motion."

It was easy to find Small World just look for the tower.

Walt and his Tower.

Disney characters were often seen on top of the tower because they were being attacked by the New York youth often being stabbed in the backside and punched in the plusher areas.

The Original model of the tower as seen in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort.

1964 World's Fair Souvenir Map: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of this awesome World's Fair map series. Today we are going to look up close at the four areas that Walt had his hand in. Each has its own incredible backstory but those I'll save for a later post. ( have to keep you wanting more right?) 

First on the list was an attraction built for the Ford Motor Company called Ford Magic Skyways. Guest would actually board real ford cars and ride along a track through scenes depicting the history of transportation. From the caveman days to the future. This theme would later resurface at EPCOT Center in the World of Motion. 

Next for the State of Illinois Pavilion Walt built a attraction featuring a great leader from Illinois and one of his personal heroes, Abraham Lincoln. A amazing endeavor for it's time Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln featured the first Audio-Animatronic to stand up. This effect was so believable that many guest would leave the show convinced they had just seen a real person. The show later moved to Disneyland where it has seen a few changes and even took a few years off during the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. However it is currently up and running in its original format.

For the UNICEF Pavilion, Which was sponsored by Pepsi Cola,Walt and his team built It's A Small World. Yes that lovely boat ride with the children of the world singing everyone's favorite song, you have the World's Fair to thank, well the Fair and the Sherman Brothers who wrote the song. lol. The pavilion also featured the 120 ft moving sculpture The Tower of the Four Winds, which you can see on the map in the picture below.

And Lastly for General Electric Walt Built the Carousel of Progress. Then called Progress City, this pavilion was one of the most popular of the fair. So much so that for the 65 season of the fair a lager queue was constructed and a cover over it to protect the guest waiting in long lines from the elements as waits would exceed an hour on a regular basis. 

1964 World's Fair Souvenir Map: Part 1

One hobby of mine and my girlfriends is visiting antique stores here on the gulf coast of Florida. I always have my eyes open for the next piece of Disney history to add to my collection. Well recently we found just that. The store had a whole shelf of 64 World's Fair items. And right in the middle was this amazing map. For those of you that are not familiar with the connection of Walt Disney and the World's Fair I'll enlighten you. Walt was already glowing in the success of Disneyland by the mid 60's so he was asked to work on several attractions for the fair. They were Magic Skyways, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Small World, and the Carousel of Progress. Many of those names may sound familiar as they have become timeless additions to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In Part 2 of this series I'll go into more detail and history of these attractions. But for now I wanted to show you a grand overview of this amazing guide map. I love the cartoon look to it and yet its very detailed and accurate. In Part 3 we will also look closer at the map at some of the non Disney related areas but till then enjoy this birds eye view of the 1964 World's Fair.

The outer cover

Inside the cover. Would love to get my 

hands on that cloth deluxe edition.

The unfolding. So exciting right?

This is the backside of the map with a 

Large view of the Surrounding area.

The backside again. Look at how large this map is.

It takes up most my dining room table.

So here it is... the front of the map lol. I recommend 

right clicking on the image and selecting open

in another tab so you can see the full size version.