Moses: "I want this fair so I can refurbish it into a park and be remembered as a philanthropic genius and not a racist destroyer of cities" Disney: "I want this fair because I want to see Lincoln talk"

"Do you suppose God is mad at Walt for creating man in his own image?" has the exact same energy of that "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?" line from Spy Kids.

"It's a miracle, Lincoln is alive and Moses needed him now more than ever" What a sentence to hear out of context

"worse, to the people of seetle" as a resident of seattle this made me laugh my ass off

"Lincoln was not able to comment, mostly due to the fact that he still wasn't working." It's quotes like that and the "losing to Seattle" line that add subtle, sophisticated humor. I love it.

I love how Robert Moses came up with cartoonishly evil supervillain plans to cover up the fact that he was a cartoon supervillain.

“Lincoln, the first president to suspend habeas corpus, was not available to comment.” Had me dying

Kevin's completely nonchalant delivery is a total knockout _every time._ The Seattle gag was rad, but what really got me was- "Moses became more rude towards the members of the press as they wrote negatively about him. And in retaliation, the members of the press wrote negatively about him."

“Walt wanted to show amusement park’s sophistication.” *shows video of animatronic cavemen rubbing their butts*

"It would not bear his name, and it would not be his legacy." I do love a happy ending.

Moses: What if I build a park on this gross swampland? Disney, eyeing Orlando: 🤔

The way you explained the ending made it sound like an oldschool Shyamalan twist. "There was just one problem. Walt Disney was dead."

“There was just one problem. Walt Disney was dead.” THE WAY I SCREAMED

Let's not extend mass transit to the World's Fair. Why is no one showing up to the World's Fair?

'Moses's crusade against the spicy below the neck area angered perverts and local fun havers alike' has to be one of the greatest sentences 😆

It gives me great satisfaction to know that Moses lived long enough to see that he failed, and how he would be remembered 😊

Walt Disney making a 600,000 dollar ride just to spite someone answering a question for him is peak mood

Ah yes, the monster rats, and their leader: a powerful rat named Charles Entertainment Cheese...

Honestly, I feel so sorry for the poor accountant that was literally berated into heart failure. Moses was an evil man, through and through. Classic example of when narcissism somehow gets even worse than it already is.

I really like to see what was going on inside the mind of Robert Moses. He hated middle class or below than that "peasants" which is like most of the population, but also wanted more people to come to the fair and spend money. It's like, what was he thinking? Kings and noblemen would flood in to the fair?

"He wanted a troubled Lincoln. A Lincoln who had seen the horrors of the war. And instead of just telling Dano that's what he wanted, he decided to break him himself." Ah, the Stanley Kubrick method!

As a 19 year old in April of '64, I worked at the World's Fair for several months as a waitress in the Brass Rail Steakhouse. Having come to New York from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I found the Fair beyond anything I had known, and was inspired by its many attractions. My favorite was the movie, "ToBe Alive!" shown in the S. C. Johnson pavilion. I, along with some five million other people, stood in lines, sometimes in the rain (especially in April) to see it. The wait was worth it, every time. So, in spite of all its mismanagement, including its failure to turn a profit, for me, the Fair was a success.

It's kinda funny that Moses sought to make this fair to change the fact that he was seen as a horrible person, Only to prove he was a horrible person every time something didn't go his way in the making of fair.

I was under the assumption those were real flying saucers and the world’s fair was just a cover up for them landing there. Why else would they hold it in Queens?

Oh no, not more Robert Moses. Edit: "After all, he was Robert Moses" should be played after each case of him doing real life Disney villain things.

Yesterday, I was talking with my dad, a lifelong Jewish Brooklynite in his late 60s who grew up in the kind of low-income housing that Robert Moses commissioned and who even went to the '64 World's Fair. I told him how much this series was teaching me about Robert Moses, and he let out an exasperated "Ohhhh boy...", like he wasn't so much angry at all of the terrible things Moses did as he was just in disbelief that he did them at all. Then he said "I'm not sure if he was actually Jewish, but I'm pretty sure he was and hid it." To which I responded "For both our sakes, I'm GLAD he hid it." EDIT: I should clarify, this is not to imply that Robert Moses wasn't a bigot just because he was part of a minority group, it's just that my dad and I have this weird obsession with finding out if certain famous people are also Jewish. And in this particular case, it was more embarrassing than cool.

“Angering local perverts”. Add that to each video please.

Just realised that mostly every episode of Season 3 are literally all the things and events that inspired Walt Disney.

I remember going to the World's Fair twice when I was 4 or 5 living in nearby Hollis, Queens. I loved it, except for remembering a guy dressed in some kind of straw outfit that my mom called a witch doctor. I bumped into him and ran screaming the other direction. I also learned only in the past 13 years that Robert Moses wouldn't allow Branch Rickey to build a new stadium for the Dodgers in Brooklyn, instead offering a site in Queens. Rickey said "we are the Brooklyn Dodgers, not the Queens Dodgers." Moses continued to say no. Then Rickey's team became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Robert Moses is the perfect embodiment of "what goes around comes around." Total lack of self-awareness.

I went to that fair with my family. I was probably 13. I remember seeing Lincoln and tasting for the first time what I now know as teriyaki. We had a great time. I obviously remember it.

Kevin you forgot to mention, another very interesting event during Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair. Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, Kimba, and Unico) actually meet Walt Disney during the 1964 World's Fair. According to some of his sketches and doodles recounting seeing Walt in person. He actually geeked out seeing his idol on opening day. Walt made an agreement with Tezuka on creating a manga adaptation of "Bambi". Another story mentioned from his doodles was that he and Walt were discussing on working on an animated film as a collaboration. But that idea quickly died after Walt's death in 1966. (True Story) Tezuka's own words talking about his once in a life time opportunity on meeting Walt. "I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to him. I came across him leaving the stage just after delivering the speech." "I got nervous but somehow introduced myself to him." Tezuka: "I am a head of a Japanese animation studio." Walt Disney": Nice to have you here." Tezuka: "I am the one who made Astro Boy." Walt Disney: "Really? I know Astro Boy. I saw the work in Los Angeles. It’s a great work." Tezuka: "Thank you very much. My staff would be honored. Well, may I have your comment about the work?" Walt Disney: "It’s a very interesting Sci-Fi story. Future children are looking toward the space. So I, myself, think about making Sci Fi, too. If you have time, visit me in Burbank."

This Robert Moses guy clearly lacked vision. He should have used the army of monster rats as beasts of burden to help build the fairground.

Very well done! I visited the Fair as a boy in 1964. It was quite impressive for a youngster like me. One bit of trivia: The Coca-Cola Pavillion served a recipe for the soda that was far sweeter and tastier than their regular product.

It was really cool to see the development of the first true animatronics! I knew disney was big in animatronics, but I had no idea Imagineers *INVENTED* them! And from one clip, it looked like the Lincoln Bot’s motion was being programmed by a person in a rig going through the motions himself and the bot mirroring. A lot of modern robots, including industrial bots that have to follow a precise path and have delicate motions, are also programmed this way. Robotic surgery uses a similar control technique in real time, and I know of a few prosthetic limbs that use an intact limb on the other side to “train” the motion of the prosthetic. Such cool tech and its amazing that it seems to have started with Theme Park entertainment lol.

"If he died then in 1959, he would certainly be known as the man who destroyed New York" ...dies in 1981, still known to many of us NYers as the man who destroyed New York

“Lincoln, the first president to suspended Habeas Corpus, was not available for comment.” He’s getting shadier every episode, right? I’m dead. I can’t.

The irony of this situation is the most amusing. You had these people who thought they could control progress only for progress to prevail and prove they couldn't control it. You also have a guy named after someone who delivered people to the promised land actually bringing people into debt and pocketing the change. Amazing. Great storytelling, I'm really obsessed with these videos.

I love that Brennan Lee Mulligan made Robert Moses the villain in the Dimension 20 season "The Unsleeping City"

"as a young boy, Walt Disney had dressed as Lincoln and delivered the Gettysburg address. His knowledge on the president had evolved little since, but his childlike appreciation had not wavered." ---- That's my favorite burn in this episode.

BIE rejecting Moses has the same energy as Bender from Futurama getting kicked out of (insert unnamed theme park that I mistakingly identified as Ponyville here I sᴡᴇᴀʀ I'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ʙʀᴏɴʏ ᴏɴ ɢᴏᴅ) *"I'm gonna go build my own World's Fair! WITHOUT blackjack; and WITHOUT hookers!"*

the globe at flushing meadows has become one of the most famous skateboarding spots ever. super cool to see it carried on and become historic for something else. i had no idea it was built for the worlds fair! rad.

An animatronic Lincoln doesn’t seem like a big deal to us in our time but man, think about how insane it was for them to see back then! It’s like when we had holograms of Tupac etc. perform on stage live.

Something about "watching" a terrible man try to make a great legacy for himself by acting more and more horrible, and continuously get hit by karma for it, over and over again until the end.... this really is one cathartic episode to watch.

Man. Defunctland is too quality for KZfaq. He should be makin that History Channel money. Edit: I now see the error of my ways; Netflix/Disney+ money.

Love these documentaries. This one was really good, especially the shade thrown at Robert Moses. Sweet, candy coated shade that we know is extremely bad for us, but goes down sooo good.

Our family went to this fair when I was a kid, taking a 2-week driving vacation and camping along the way. What a grand place for a youngster! I didn't realize that Walt Disney had worked with the crew building this place. I DO recall the huge globe at the fair, our meeting point if we got separated.

Excellent documentary. I attended the 1964 season of the fair, when I was 4. We rode the cars past living dinosaurs. I saw children from all over the world dancing together in the Small World attraction. From my perspective, it was sheer magic. Moses may have been a huge jerk, and the fair a financial failure, but it thrilled those who experienced it. I still have my doll from the Korean Pavillion.

are we not gonna talk abt how moses literally yelled a man to death,?

If anyone has ever watched "The Flintstones", they might remember the time machine episode where they visit a lot of different time periods, including the 'present' (when the episode was made) and they actually at the NY World's Fair!

What an incredible experience in 64 and 65. I will never forget it!

"But he was only able to deliver his speech a total of seven times, which was technically six more times than the real Lincoln had." This is a memorable quote!

I lowkey forgot how evil Robert Moses was until I got to 9:19 where I was reminded that he did NOT want people like me to be anywhere near his work. A whole supervillain.

Spanish Pavilion was wonderful, offering splendid color, music, singing and dancing of various cultural experiences of this country. Memorable and stunning.

My family drove all the way from Kentucky to see the World's Fair in 1965. It was my father's idea. I vividly remember arriving on the outskirts and us finding a parking place. The first thing we saw was the giant metal globe (Unisphere) and all the water fountains. I was 17 years old and VERY impressed. We went to see the Lincoln exhibit and he worked! I sat attentively watching him speak and then stand up! I'll never forget it. We also saw the Disney exhibit of the Carousel and I was amazed with it because I could hear it's gears working under the floor as it it turned us in a very slow 360' circle. We rode the Ford convertibles which were on a track very high up. It was a cool trip. Went to the Vatican exhibit and got on a conveyor belt that slowly moved us to a room where the Pieta was on exhibit. The room gave off a glow of blue and the amazing piece by Michelangelo was sitting behind a bullet proof glass. SO inspiring! We saw the cars that could drive across the lake and then come out of the water onto dry land and continue on. I loved the boxy design of them. Speaking of designs, for someone my age, I look back on it and am amazed that one thing that really stood out to me was the multi colored lights coming from the parking lot into the whole fair grounds. They were interspersed throughout. They has a unique design of perfect rectangles of different color plastic with a regular white lightbulb inside, attached to each other and most lamp posts were different because of how many rectangles were on them. To this day, I still think these were one of the most creative things I saw at the fair! I went to the Korean exhibit and filled out a "Pen Pal" form and actually received letters from a Korean boy! I wrote my name on a paper that was put in the Time Capsule so someone 5,000 years from now will rejoice upon seeing it! :) I think the fair was fabulous and a success in its own right. I'm glad this Moses fellow brought it all to fruition. I still have my fair booklet they gave us when we bought our tickets, plus the Guide Book that I bought. If you want the 100% scoop on the World Fair, go to this site. It is filled with history and details, plus what happened to many of the buildings and how some were torn down and put back up elsewhere. nywf64.com/

Wants to make Low income New Yorkers visit his park to improve his public image but stops the expansion of the subway because it will bring low income New Yorkers to his park. 10/10 Logic

The fact that no one has signed you on for a major televised event is absolutely insane. You are a master of Documentaries

Kudos to the superb narrator. Normally i would lose my focus in a documentary after some time, but I couldn't stop watching and had me kept engaged until the very end. Amazing storytelling!

I live in the New Jersey suburbs, and learned more about Moses here than I have in almost 20 years as an area resident. Well told story. As a 10 year old, my family took me to the World's Fair in 1965, where I remember a fraction of these exhibits.

"People didn't even know how to pronounce 'Seattle'... and worse, to the people of Seat-el"

"Fine, I'll make my own World's Fair - with very little blackjack and absolutely no hookers." -Robert Moses, probably

I was able to attend the ‘64 worlds fair. I can remember those exhibits that were shown in this video. Thanks for the memories.

"Angered local perverts and general fun - havers" I'm dead 💀💀💀

Dingwall: "People didn't even know how to pronounce Seattle..." Moses: "I can't believe I lost to Seetle!"

So many things made me go "oof" in this episode. "We can't have people working 3-4 hour shifts.... Imagine how much we'd have to pay them!"

"The Power Broker" is an amazing and exhaustive biography. Highly recommended.

“one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it” -master Oogway Very applicable to Moses here.

27:51 - One detail about Lincoln's voice that I rarely hear mentioned ( and have only seen in Jim Korkis's well researched books ) is the input of an impersonator who heard Lincoln speak in person. This boy heard Lincoln speak in person back in the day and as an old man he'd had the fortune to lend his impression to a wax recording. While his voice wasn't a match, the cadence became known as the standard for how Lincoln paced his words. In a world before any form of recording device, a really good impersonator ended up being the next best thing.

**This episode in an nutshell** Walt Disney: Haha look at this animatronic parrot! It can talk! Robert Moses: SHIIIII-

My favorite story about the animatronic Abe Lincoln, though I'm not sure if it's true, is about one of the earliest tests. Abe stood up, started to speak, and then a hydraulic line ruptured. Abe immediately collapsed back into his chair with bright red hydraulic fluid pouring out of his chest. Supposedly, one of the men present (It might have been Walt or Moses, I don't recall) quipped "This is great, you recreated his assassination!"

I was 6 years old when I attended the Fair and it was MAGICAL. I would give any thing to go back in time and revisit it

I'm starting to think this Robert Moses guy was kind of a jerk.

The level of anxiety the entire time thinking Kevin was going to play that song..........

I enjoy these videos as I hear what Walt Disney accomplished but never who he was as a man, I sort of find it sweet he loved Abraham Lincoln so much. Edit: This sounds like a movie where you have the man just trying to follow his dream while not knowing the main villain is using him for his devious plans.

Masterful and witty historical information here. Also, to know that Robert Moses is spinning in his grave when the film, The Wiz came out and the opening scene in OZ takes place in Flushing Meadows. I didn't realize it was a real place till many years later. Also to be seen for it's masterful use of a certain lost landmark when they went through the gate into the Emerald City itself.

After almost 60 years, a lot of the fair’s processes and politics behind it are still relevant. Good job on doing a lot of research no matter how ugly it is

Defunctland has such pretty thumbnails. They have such a unique style.

Well, say what you will about Moses, but this kid loved the '64 World's Fair. My school.went there in May of '64 and my friends and I took buses there all summer long whenever we earned enough money for the entrance fee. As a science nerd I still remember the DuPont exhibition where the demonstrator dropped a rose into liquid nitrogen, took it out, then shattered it. He dipped a string into a liquid and pulled out a infinite strand of nylon. We loved the GM world of tomorrow and Ford exhibits (I never got to ride in the mustang...but I bought one years later!). We marveled at James Bond's Aston Martin and the Belgian waffles which our budgets rarely allowed. Yep, complain all you want, but this retired physicist...and many of his friends...were glad it happened.

This whole scenario is so complex and bizarre that it's nearly impossible to believe that it really happened that way.

So Robert Moses tried to secure his legacy but it failed due to him being an asshole who got angered quite easily while Walt Disney succeeded due to being a flawed but amicable man who could control his temper most of the time. What a shock. :P

"Never let Robert Moses do you a favor. He'll use it as a way to destroy you."

One of my father's first memories is being on his father's shoulders at the 1964 World's Fair at 2 years old. I don't think he or I ever knew any of the crazy background to the fair or how downright evil and impossible to work with Robert Moses was.

These world fair things always seem so cool. I really do wonder why they dont seem as big and wacky and dramatic as they were back then.

"After all, they had a robot-Lincoln to protect!" is a very rare sentence.

"Threatening the world with a -bad time-" has the same energy as "I shall make problems on purpose."

I'm 63 now and I remember the Fair eidetically... especially "It's a Small World". I rode the ride again when I was 8 at Disneyland but was too old for it then. Tomorrowland was the hip scene for an 8 year old, not Fantasyland! The Carousel of Progress was one of the most formative experiences of my life, and still is today. VIVA WALT!

Thanks, this was really informative for me. I remember watching TV coverage of this fair on TV in my childhood, which was as close as I would ever get to the fair, living in the opposite side of the country at the time. I especially remember seeing the episode about Disney's "It's a Small World."

Flushing Meadow and My Life In 2020 are both known as The Corona Dump.

So many ppl have commented about the inconsistent look of the pavilions and attractions, maybe it's because I'm looking at it through history, I for one LOVE the different looks, and they still have a mid-century modern style.

It pleases me greatly to know that The Fair was a financial disaster for Robert Moses, and that he died a very despised man. He was absolute evil personified.

Absolutely phenomenal storytelling, especially with weaving the narratives of both Robert Moses and Walt Disney together. Shame it lasted only 40 minutes, I'd have loved to see more details.

I get it now! All the Zoom interviews with people that had "The Power Broker" on their shelves were foreshadowing this Defunctland video!!!

It’s a shame that the majority of people that go to that park today only go north of the subway station to go to a Mets game. They don’t go south to explore the grounds and learn about the site and the fair that was once there. Also a shame how many buildings have remained after the fair. They should’ve kept more. Especially the General Electric dome

I am 90 - was a designer of the interior of the Tower of Light, sponsored by power companies., our animation was very good on a minimal budget' - I was the designer of the World Design Center , 100 foot dia dome constructed of Eurathane foam displaying products from around the world. It was proclaimed by the New York Times as the only truly modern future building method . Our land lease was taken by Moses to construct a modular steel building "Off the Shelf" , not approved by the fair. - It was an Excellent Experience !

I attended the NYWF in both the summers of 1964 and 1965. It's interesting that they wanted more people to attend. One of the things I remember was that the lines for the exhibits were incredibly long and you had to stand and wait and wait. So they wanted to double the number of people there? Forget it. I did get to see Michelangelo's Pieta and the thing about that exihibition was that they had moving walkways so people were moved in and out in minutes. It was a great thing to experience though.

We can all thank Robert Moses for the Cross Bronx Expressway, a road that definitely isn’t paralyzed with traffic 24/7 and definitely didn’t destroy the Bronx. We can also thank Moses for the BQE, a highway that is literally falling apart and is gonna cost the city billions to rebuild. Oh, and it’s also always paralyzed with traffic.

Dislike because no clip of the army of monster rats. What a tease.

I find it beautifully ironic that Moses tried his hardest to not allow low income New Yorkers near flushing meadow park but now if you go to it all you’ll find is low income New Yorkers

47 seconds in I just feel the need to say thank you for creating so much great work man. All of your videos are easily digestible, memorable, funny, fun, interesting, and well done. Thank you for such great work

There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day.

“Amazingly, the figure worked and was able to speak for a short time before the mechanics caused its skin to rip off”