Futurama

 

One of the most spectacular exhibits at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City was General Motors’ “Highways and Horizons.”  Designer Norman Bel Geddes created General Motors’ vision of a New York City as it would appear in 1960, 20 years in the future.  Thousands of visitors rode on “Futurama” for an aerial view of nearly 35,000 square feet of a miniature New York City.  The ride took over 300 visitors at a time through multiple dioramas containing hundreds of thousands of houses and buildings, 50,000 futuristic automobiles, and realistic landscaping laced with superhighways. 

Following the Great Depression, the exhibit portrayed a promising future where being an American was synonymous with owning a car and driving through a healthy prosperous city.  While the spectators were buying the idea of owning an automobile, General Motors was selling the system of superhighways funded on taxpayer’s dollars.  “If you build it, they (the automobiles) will come.”  The growth of the city and highways were realized in the New York of 1960 yet not to the extent depicted in “Futurama.”  

Sources:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-12/ff_futurama_original

http://www.1939nyworldsfair.com/worlds_fair/wf_tour/zone-6/witschard.htm#

http://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/uploads/a/a9/1939-3.jpg