Thanks for posting this. My late mother was 11 when she, her parents, and 4 older brothers went to the fair. She talked about the experience her whole life. I scour the old films looking for a glimpse of the family. I know it's a 7 in 44 million chance, but you never know.

Rolandangler Many thanks for this clip. I am English and have memories of that time. My sister married a GI from Connecticut. What struck me was the demeanor of the crowds - apart from their clothes. They walk with a level of dignity and confidence that you wouldn't find among crowds now - public behavior meant observing a few conventions - you didn't behave as if you were in your own living (or bedroom) when out in public. I have sent a link to my niece in Utah - she loves the clip too.

Beautiful video. A really fascinating look back in time. My father was 6 years old in 1939. He's 84 now.

The same year that my late Mother moved there as a 15 year old with her my Grandmother and what an EXCITING time to be in New York! ❤️

People more elegant and your dress .good times

Thanks for using the appropriate music.

I spent a lot of time at the 64-65 fair and loved every minute of it. Wish I could have been able to have gone to this one, too. Thanks for watching!

It always amazes me how radically different people and things looked in these old films and yet they're still essentially the same. I'm fascinated by these historic old movies, thank you for posting them.

Even The Singing in This Video is So Relaxing and Laid Back Like That Era 😌

Looking at the older people in the video it's crazy to imagine that anyone 75 yrs or older were alive during the Civil War. Anyone over 80 wold most likely remember it.

I’ve said it before, I’d say it a thousand times over, they can put it down, call it what you will, but the old times cannot be beaten. Times of that era represented life, aspirations, hope for the future.

And here we sit in the 21st century looking back at people who could never have imagined the world we live in.

Beautiful film, but I am floored as to how I could have gone so long listening to Artie Shaw and never heard this piece! Thanks so much.

first color filming was actually introduced by a russian photographer called Sergey Pokudin-Gorsky, be sure to check out his photos.

Helen Forrest with The Artie Shaw Band "All the Things You Are"

Kinda missed this one. Great photos and wonderful music--well matched, JD, as usual.

What's remarkable about a film like this (among other things) is seeing elderly people and knowing that they probably remember the Civil War.

Thanks for watching! Until the mid fifties, most public events meant dress up, even baseball games. No sneakers, no jeans for a visit to the fair...

what a lovely song.

Great piece of americana and the quality is amazing for its age-thanks

To think some of these people actually lived through civil war... that's mind boggling.

Excellent. Thank you.

Glad you liked it!

Artie Shaw and Helen Forrest and all of us passersby, as always, stepping along, silently hoping.

Wonderful! It almost made me cry.

Artie Shaw! Couldn't have chosen better!

I loved this video. In three brief minutes, it captured a different era of 1939. Having been born slightly there after in the mid 1940's, I remember this time period as being much different from today. There was more conformity within society back then but it came with a feeling of security and stability. The present freedoms of today only seem to free us to live in a more fearful world. Children of today have no concept of self sacrifice or cooperation for the common good. If you don't believe me ask a teenager. Their reply will probably be, "Common good???? Huh??, What's that?"

@historygeeek You have made a VERY good point. Their votes DO count as much as ours. I think it is too late to change anything. We are on the decks of the sinking Titanic sipping brandly while the band is playing....

Wonderful!

The calm before the storm of World War 2.

There was war in the air like a dark cloud hanging over everything.

Beautifully dressed

Wow thankyou

When women dressed like women and men dressed like men. Would love to go back to those days for a couple of years.

Now days people with crazy hair color nd tattos everywhere this lookz clean and classy

Yeah, I don't think this was what they had in mind...

First moving pictures I see of the NY World's Fair.

Boy the way Glenn Miller played Songs that made the Hit Parade. Guys like us we had it made, Those were the days. And you knew who you were then, Girls were girls and men were men, Mister we could use a man Like Herbert Hoover again. Didn't need no welfare state, Everybody pulled his weight. Gee our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days. {In the longer version} People seemed to be content, Fifty dollars paid the rent, Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days. Take a little Sunday spin, Go to watch the Dodgers win. Have yourself a dandy day, That cost you under a fin.

women in dresses and men in suits---what a novel idea! Being young,I'm used to over-fed slobs in sweats and spandex with advertisements across their chests and backs. And of course no outfit is complete without a baseball cap bearing a logo of some sort. The "World of Tomorrow" is here!

MORE OLD PEOPLE THAN YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE FAIR.

excellent piece!

a woman wearing pants at 2:29 not so usual in 1939 but nice :)

An era where Christianity was very strong in our society. Modest dress and demeanour. Children behaving themselves walking along very obediently. Boys and girls always separated in school groups etc. Everything very proper. Clothing very lovely. People cared about their public appearance. Ironed shirts and dresses, gloves and hats, love it!!

There’s a toy/model company called Perisphere & Trylon, Inc. 😀

how do you get footage from the 1930s in COLOR?...

@RickyMoss Kodachrome was introduced in 1936.

Feel sorry for what's going to happen to those guys at 1:15.

Going to the fair was a big deal. Even at baseball games into the fifties, men wore suits and dress hats. Bluejeans were dungarees, and those were worn by farmhands only.

the lights went out in the Polish exhibition on 1 Sep.

how clean and beautiful :-)...ladies with make up,hair;glamour and beautiful dresses and gentlemen with suit,....decent and polite..no the trash that you see around New York with flip flops and screaming obcenities..now is great cause the technology...but people changed too much...beautiful people...well now is the past

great

I noticed some men still wore all white suits like Colonel Sanders. No fast food cups and straws, but the drinking fountains were a hit. And it looked like the school kids were carrying sack lunches.

4k version ?

PLEASE take me backkkkk.....

Wonderful. Very evocative of the age in a more personal way, than the "Industrial" piece; people remain the constant that makes history live, I suppose. I don't know if the people were actually much more "proper", but the average Joe or Jane surely looked more glamorous. Great work. Thank you JDProductions. ksbookman

homesick, thats all

Was this in Flushing?

Everyone looked so much better put together back then.

how do they know which color goes where?.. what's red or purple or orange?

The world today lacks this sort of vision for public attractions. The Disney parks exemplify how every new attraction must be based on a movie, so that basically you're riding through a movie trailer. Too much commercialism and not enough vision.

Was that a UPS truck at 1:00?

@tkoizumi - Hard to believe people used to walk ... No fat people in this video.

Makes me remember the world fair of 2000 in Germany!😆

If those people could see us walking around today the way we are dressed they’d think whole world had become beggars ...

@ThoughtTraveler Unfortunately for us you have described modern America with a perfect accuracy. Wish very much that it were not so. But what do we do now? There are so many of them. And their votes carry the same power as yours or mine.

@leedumett444 - Science and Technology has its limits ... Life appears to have been much better in the past.

@banjo9052 - I couldn't agree with you more ... Society is in a downward spiral today ... No class and decorum.

Oh have times changed

Nope,the hippies happened, leading to PC and multi-culteralisim... The stuff going on to simply would not have been tolerated back then...

That's when we were a civilized society

@Gmancrap Uhhhh.....whatever. Just keep taking your medication ok?

If only we could gos back!

Back then everyone wore dresses and suits all the time when they went out. I don't see any t-shirts, shorts and flip flops....such a change from what people wear when they go out today. People were more proper back then. :-)

Did they sweat or waft sundry human effluvia in their march to a glorious Future? Born in '32

2020 Coronavirus Fair

Wonder how many of the children in this video are still alive. I suppose very few or maybe none.

it seems white shoes were a hit then.

When America was great....God help us now!

2:30 woman wearing pants. First done in the thirties.

If dont have the war 2, now we can split

The fuck happened? Did someone put something into the water during the Cold War?

Everyone's so modest. Civilized human beings

wished the Black artists work were recorded as well like Augusta Savage sculptures which took part of if this fair

It's too bad that this wonderful world's fair had to coincide with the start of WWIi, with all its horrors and with the appalling events in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, as well as with the last part of the Depression in the US. At leaat this made people happy, temporarily.

Not a single person wearing jeans...

Imagine having to dress up to just go out. I’d hate it.

@ThoughtTraveler Would like to invite you to my personal "Titanic". I own and operate a museum and photographic studio. The 1930's are alive and well here! Get on facebook, and look for Liberty studio and museum. I think you would like it. We have to start somewhere!

Hmm.

Two years before America entered WW 2.

virtually all of the people in this film are dead now, trippy.

People had standards.

The two main things that stood out to me in this video ... No fat/over-weight people ... and everyone was dressed so well ... Boy have times changed ... and society is on a decline.

To think some of those older folks were frolicking around in the gay '90's! 😺

@Gmancrap Yawwwwwnnnnn..............

It's weird watching this cause I know what minorities were going through at that time...I hate how everyone just totally disregard"s ALOT about the past ......uh

No obese people

Yeah a "fat" person in that day probably weighed 170, not 370 or 470 like today. I have pictures of my Grandmother at that fair and she's always dressed in Sunday best. we all are such slobs by comparison.

Oh, it looked great, but there's a dark side, too. We really live in the best of times and worst of times in every era you look at. We never had so much at our disposal in history, enjoy it while it lasts.

where are the black people?

Not one black person? Not one?