"Design For A Fair"

Much has been said over the years of Buckminster Fuller's iconic design for the exterior of the U.S. pavilion at Expo 67. Perhaps lesser known (but equally as important) were the designers of the pavilion's interior: the American architecture firm Cambridge Seven Associates.

Led by Peter Chermayeff, Terry Rankine and Ivan Chermayeff, the Cambridge Seven Associates were responsible for the overall concept, interior architecture, and exhibits of the United States' pavilion at Expo 67.

The pavilion's interior was a composition of towers and open exhibit platforms, connected by escalators and stairs, all never touching the 250-foot sphere.

A celebration of the creative spirit of Americans, the exhibition contained a wide range of objects and artifacts: from NASA's space exploration technology to the movies of Hollywood, pop-art painting and sculpture, as well as a wide range of inventions, musical instruments, and folk art.

Interesting to note, it was the Cambridge Seven Associates team that required Expo authorities to route the Minirail through the sphere at the equator, adding another unique experience to the space.

Together with Buckminster Fuller's dramatic transparent dome, the overall effect created was an extraordinary experience, allowing different views inwards and outwards, day or night.

Narrated by Cambridge Seven's Peter Chermayeff, "Design for a Fair: The United States Pavilion at Expo '67 Montreal" (top) offers an inside look at the planning of the interior exhibit of the U.S. pavilion.

Check it out, above!

images: (1) expo67.ncf.ca, montage by author
(2) personal collection
(3 & 4) flickr.com
(5) screen capture

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the Expo Lounge!

A Very Michèle Richard Christmas

My retro-licious Expo 67 Christmas tree has a new twist this year: I've added custom-designed Michèle Richard ornaments... ♫ Oui, les amis ♫...!

images: author's own

Retro Recipe: Petticoat Stiffener

After the rationing and shortages of World War II, women were longing for frivolity.

Enter fashion designer Christian Dior in 1947. His debut collection was called "Corolle"... literally, the botanical term for a circlet of flower petals. "I have designed flower women," said Dior of his new silhouette that emphasized wasp waists and flared, petticoated skirts. Harper's Bazaar dubbed it the "New Look", and Dior's name in fashion history was made.

Dior's New Look dominated the fashion world for about 10 years, progressing from a gentle swish in the early 50's to a round ball like bouffant effect by the 1960's (think, Mad Men). Tiered, ruffled petticoats were extremely popular, especially with teenage girls, often worn 2 or 3 at a time. Each petticoat was stiffened in some way either by conventional starch or a strong sugar solution.

From Grandma's Vintage Recipes, a DIY concoction to add pouf to your petticoat and crunch to your crinoline:

3/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons turpentine
2 tablespoons borax
1 quart cold water

Stir up.
Dip in & iron dry.

images: (top) etsy.com
(bottom) fashion.lilithezine.com

The Expo 67 Memorial Album

Of all the Expo 67 books ever published, this one was the Grand Poo-bah.

Released in 1968 by Thomas Nelson and Sons (Canada) Limited, the Expo 67 Memorial Album was the definitive descriptive and pictorial record of Montreal's world's fair.

Designed by Gérard Caron and edited by Jean-Louis de Lorimier, this large, boxed coffee-table book featured a stunning mixture of color and black & white and photography, all interspersed by lengthy articles and observations on Expo 67.

The 368-page document was divided into 10 sections, including an eloquent preface written by Expo's Commissioner General, Pierre Dupuy, and an extensive index for easy reference. All texts and titles were in Expo's ubiquitous Optima font and presented in both French and English.

Pigeons taking up residence at Place des Nations.

An introductory chapter by James Gladstone called "Magic Island" offered a unique and intimate portrait of Expo. In this picturesque example, the author describes the quiet morning hours before Expo's opening:

"An Expo-Express train rumbles into the elevated station and three maintenance workers step aboard, their night's work done. The sound of the train disappears across Concordia Bridge. A pigeon flutters down from the huge concrete Expo symbol at the end of the square and flops heavily onto the deserted podium, the sound clear above the hushed rush of the river."

Expo's Deputy Commissioner General Robert F. Shaw penned the chapter "How Expo Was Built". Shaw credited the Critical Path method for keeping Expo's extensive construction on schedule:

"Probably the most important technique introduced by the Installations and other departments was the critical path method and schedule. [...] The critical path method of scheduling is based on breaking down any given project into specific elements and assigning deadlines for the progress and completion of each element. The method is, of course, only as good as its programming, and all personnel involved were therefore trained to feed their collective skills into this important part of the project, and to receive from it reports on the results of individual performances on a day-to-day basis."

An aerial view of Expo's man-made islands under construction.

A stunning photo of the groovy Pulp and Paper pavilion.

The Memorial Album's largest section was the chapter dedicated to "The Participants".

Divided into 3 parts - National Participants, Private Participants, Sponsors - this was the pavilion-by-pavilion overview of Expo 67. Listed in alphabetical order, an in-depth description and lavish photographs accompanied each and every pavilion and exhibit. The section was over 200 pages long.

The Memorial Album covered each and every Expo exhibit. Here, Monaco.

An aerial shot of the impressive U.S. pavilion.

Over the years, this book has remained my number one research tool for pavilion posts on Expo Lounge. Highly sought after, it is one of my most prized Expo 67 treasures... as much for its beauty as for its usefulness.

Photographs by Michael Francis McCarthy, used with permission.
Check out his ultra-fab blog: designKULTUR

Star Trek's Balok

Balok was one of Star Trek's most iconic aliens.

Designed by noted sculptor and special effects master Wah Ming Chang, the sinister effigy appeared in the first season episode The Corbomite Maneuver.

Wah Chang was responsible for many of Star Trek's most memorable creatures - the Salt Vampire, the Gorn, Tribbles - as well as some of the series' iconic props: the Communicator, the Tricorder, the Vulcan Lute. The design of the Romulan Bird of Prey warship was also his creation.

Trek aside, Chang worked on a host of motion pictures during his career:

At Walt Disney, he created sculptures that were used as references by the studio's animators: articulated deer models for Bambi, and a maquette of the Pinocchio puppet. The spectacular headdress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 feature film Cleopatra was designed by Chang as well, as was one of advertising's most famous mascots: the Pillsbury Doughboy.

The vocalizations of Balok were done by Ted Cassidy, the actor most known for his role as Lurch in the Addams Family television series. Cassidy had been hired to play in the Star Trek episode What are Little Girls Made Of and producers asked him to record Balok's threatening lines with his deep voice.

Throughout the years, the image of Balok has remained legendary in the hearts and imaginations of Star Trek fans and a symbol of one of the most influential television shows of all time. Balok enthusiasts can buy t-shirts, wall graphics... even a Halloween mask...!

The ultimate souvenir, the original Balok head was recently unearthed and put up for auction. It sold for 70,000$...!

The most memorable image of Balok for me was the one that appeared during Star Trek's final credits (above). I just loved that image of the bluish, cat-eyed alien in the eerily-lit control center...



images: (1-3-4) anonymousworks.blogspot.com
(2) google image search
(5) montage by author

Toronto's "Mini-Me" Expo 67

Aerial views of Ontario Place (top), Expo 67 (bottom).

In the early 1970's, the city of Toronto was having a little Expo-envy. Initiated by the Government of Ontario, Ontario Place was Toronto's answer to Montreal’s Expo 67.

Like Expo, Ontario Place was built on man-made islands along the city's waterfront. Officially opened on May 22, 1971, the park encompassed 96 acres of which 51 acres were land fill.

Ontario Place's pods (top) and Expo's Quebec pavilion (bottom) floated on water.

The original Ontario Place consisted of 5 glass-and-steel pavilion pods elevated above the water, each pod being suspended from tension cables anchored to a central column. Glass staircases and walkways connected the pods, islands and shore. The overall transparency of these structures created a feeling of floating in open space between water and sky. [To me, squarish structures floating above water call to mind the Quebec pavilion, while open spaces, tension cables and transparent membranes recall the German pavilion...]

Ontario Place’s five pods were offset by 2 focal points: the Forum, an open-air concert bowl [Autostade, anyone?], and the Cinesphere, the world's first permanent IMAX theatre, housed in a geodesic dome. [Comparisons to the U.S. pavilion are obvious, while the origins of IMAX can also be traced back to Expo 67...]

Boutiques and restaurants dotted the Pod/Cinesphere complex, including a fine dining restaurant called The Trillium.

Toronto's Cinesphere (top), Montreal's Biosphere, 1974 (bottom).

Ontario Place was originally rather sparse, awaiting future development. Early brochures presented Ontario Place as a "work in progress" that would be ever-changing. [Expo 67's follow up permanent exhibition "Man and His World" was also supposed to be an ever-changing "work in progress"...]

All this free space meant that like Expo 67, Ontario Place visitors could take refuge in large, park-like rest areas. And like Expo, graphics and pictograms in brilliant primary and secondary colors guided visitors throughout the site.

Fireworks booming above Ontario Place (top) and La Ronde (bottom).

In the early years, Ontario Place was a success: during its short May-through-September season, the park drew some 2.5 million visitors annually... establishing it as the fifth-most popular theme park in the world.

In 1972, The Children’s Village was unveiled, featuring an interactive play environment for kids. It quickly became Ontario Place's top attraction, and a water play area opened in 1973; featuring water cannons, spray bridges and pedal-powered deluge fountains. [La Ronde had its own Children's Village, while interactive games and water play were key features of the Vienna Kindergarten...]

The Girls of Ontario Place

Ontario Place guides (left) Man and His World, 1968 hostesses (right).

Like Expo 67, Ontario Place's pretty hostesses drew a lot of attention:

Toronto Week magazine claimed: "There’s a lot to see at Ontario Place, and some of the easiest things on the eye are the attractive guides.”

The Globe and Mail did a photo spread of the girls, writing: “The 100 girls who are the hostesses at Ontario Place for the summer… have hot pants and pantsuits, a midi, a jacket and a stretchy yellow-and-white bubble blouse. Most popular are the hot pants. One girl commented ‘I’ve just got to shorten them.’”...

The Ontario Place theme song (above) was written by Dolores Claman, of Hockey Night in Canada fame. [Doesn't it sound just like A Place to Stand?]

images (1-3-5-7) robertmoffatt115.wordpress.com

(2) flickr.com

(4) archives de montréal

(6) chamblycounty.com

(8) alamedainfo.com

(9) montage by author

The Administration and News Pavilion

The Administration and News pavilion was the nerve center of Expo 67.

Located in the Cité du Havre sector near Place d'accueil and the International Broadcasting Centre, the 3-storey structure housed the offices of Expo 67's administration and news services.

The award-winning building featured a stepped exterior, each floor overhanging the one below, providing maximum protection from direct sunlight.

Expo's 6 different administrative departments shared this space, including the public relations department (directed by Yves Jasmin),  Logexpo - the fair's housing bureau, and Expovox - its information centre. 

The building had 3 wings, each with its own entrance hall; the idea being that each area could be used seperately if so desired.

The halls were decorated by large concrete mural sculptures, the work of leading Canadian artists.  Different artists gave each of the entrances its own distinct look. 

Impressive facilities were set aside for international journalists visiting Expo:

A bowl-shaped, 150-seat amphitheatre equipped with 6 television cameras was used for press conferences.  There were 4 studios reserved for filmed interviews, and 9 booths for radio broadcasting. Distinguished guests and newsmen had access to a special reception salon and a completely equipped press room.  Simultaneous translation facilities and interpreters were continually on hand. 

The building also featured a cafeteria, restaurant, bar, and underground parking.

The landscape area between the Administration and News pavilion and the International Broadcasting Centre contained a large reflecting pool and a sculpture.

Unlike most Expo 67 structures, the Administration and News pavilion was designed to be permanent.  The building still exists today, housing the offices of the Montreal Port Authority and the Maritime Employers Association...

images: (1) expo67.ncf.ca
(2-3-4) personal collection (Montréal magazine)

John Fuevog's Munster Shoes

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, footwear designer John Fluevog began his career in the late 1960's at local shoe shop Sheppard's Shoes.  In 1970, he formed a partnership with Peter Fox to design and sell stylish shoes under the name Fox and Fluevog.

After an amicable split in 1981, Fluevog went on to open his first independent store, John Fluevog Shoes, in 1985.

Fluevog's quirky and avant-garde designs garnered him a cult following with the creative, artistic and rebellious crowd.  From ultra-pointy to overly-round toes, platform shoes, severely squared heels, handmade clogs; and adorned with art-deco designs, swirly, colorful patterns, peace signs, hearts, etc.

In 1990, Lady Miss Kier donned a pair of John Fluevog's Munster shoes on Deee-Lite's World Clique album cover, thus making the trumpet-heeled platforms an iconic symbol of the '90s House/Club underground DJ scene...

A limited-edition re-issue is available at the John Fluevog website.

images: fluevog.com

Vintage Labatt 50 Bottle: "Visit Expo 67"

Check out this fabulous flea market find that merges 2 of my retro obsessions:  A vintage Labatt 50 bottle enticing patrons to "Visit Expo 67"...

images: author's own