Images of America: The 1984 New Orleans World's Fair

I've been meaning to write up an article on this book for a while now, and I'm finally getting around to it. This is one incredible book if you're interested or even have a slight interest in the 1984 New Orleans World's Fair (and if you aren't, then what are you doing on this site?). The photographs are absolutely wonderful in the book (although I wish they were in color). The photographs are displayed in chapters which starts off with early photographs of the people behind the idea of the world's fair and drawings of some projects that never fully developed along with construction pictures. The book then features each section of the World's Fair with pictures. The great thing about the book is that along with every picture author Bill Cotter describes each photograph perfectly so that you really get a great idea of the layout and story of the fair itself. This book brought back so many memories that I had simply forgot about.

Bill Cotter's love for the World's Fair really shows up in this book. He shows you the good, the bad, and the ugly about the expo and doesn't hold back on the negatives about the fair, which is a good thing, because the negatives about the fair are just as important as the positives to the history of the fair.

Again, this book is highly recommended and can be purchased at Amazon or at Bill's worldsfairphotos website. You will be doing yourself a great favor if you pick up this book.

Current Neptune Statue (Ole Man River) Video

Been meaning to post these two videos of the Neptune Statue from the fair that they are reconstructing near the convention center in New Orleans. I took this video on August 22, 2009. The first video is of the statue in it's current state. Again, you can see the billboard that blocks the view of the statue from the main road, which I hope they take down. The second video just gives you a perspective on where the statue is located near the convention center.

Regrets that I have about the World's Fair (Part One)

When I think back on the 1984's World's Fair there is always something that I regret not doing while the fair was open. I always blame it on myself being a teen at the time and not realizing what I missed out on. My regrets of what I missed out on will become a regular feature on the site. I am always looking for contributions to the site, and if anyone has any regrets about what they missed out on please pass them on to me.

Regrets (Part One) - The Food

On my numerous trips to the fair, I always seem to remember eating at the same places in the fair every time I made a trip. Usually it was either Popeye's Chicken, pizza, or red beans and rice inside the Taste Of Louisiana cafeteria in the Great Hall. In fact, I don't remember eating anything else at the fair (except for junk like cotton candy, popcorn and candy apples). Now, when skimming the pages of my World's Fair guidebook I realize that I missed out on an abundance of different types of food. There were a lot of different types of foods in some of the country's pavilions, and there were many different booths that offered all types of unusual food. But of course, being a teen at the time, I stuck by the food I did know and did not expand my horizons. If I could go back in time and re-visit the fair again, I would not make the same mistake twice.

Aerial Shot

A Nice beautiful aerial shot of the fair.

Unusually large crowd

This picture must have been taken during the beginning days of the fair, because I don't remember ever running into a crowd of this size during the middle and ending days of the fair.

Current Neptune Statue (Ole Man River) Pictures

Made a trip to New Orleans this past weekend and made it a point of going visit the reconstruction of the Neptune State from the 1984 World's Fair. The statue still has a way to go before it's back to it's full glory, but it was nice to see once again. The only thing I'm worried about is that there is a billboard that blocks the view of the statue when you are driving down Tchoupitoulas, hopefully the billboard is only temporary and will be taken down when the statue is finished.

Neptune sculpture returns to New Orleans.

Last night there was a news story on WVUE Fox 8 about the Neptune Sculpture from the World's Fair returning to New Orleans. The sculpture, now known as, Ole Man River, was located at the Bridge Gate of the World's Fair. It is being put back up on a vacant lot near the Convention Center. It will be located at Tchoupitoulas Street near the Covention Center. I personally can't wait to head over to New Orleans when it's complete and take a picture in front of it.

What Ole' Neptune looked like back at the World's Fair

I don't know how long the video of the news story will be up, but here it is...

Evolution Of Poydras Street Wharf display at the Riverwalk

Today I was walking around the Riverwalk and found this display. It's a display of The Evolution Of Poydras Street Wharf from 1800-2000. There is a part of the display that has information about the World's Fair and the importance it had on the Wharf area. It's a very interesting read and if you're walking around the Riverwalk you should look for it. It's kind of hard to find though, and I only found it by accident. If you're walking around the Riverwalk and entered through the "city" side (by Spanish Plaza), it's located by the first set of escalators. It's to the left of the escalators in a little entranceway that leads to the river. Be on the lookout for it!!

Random Photos

Nice photo of the Ferris Wheel during the evening at the World's Fair. I never rode the thing during my many visits to the fair, something I regret not doing now. I bet it was a nice view from up there, looking down at the fair.



Looks like some people still remember the great Seymour D. Fair, as he is on display on this 2009 Mardi Gras float in the above photos. In fact, it looks like the whole float is a 1984 World's Fair tribute.



I really like this faraway view of the fair in the above photo.



No clue about the above photo, just found it doing a random search on the Internet. It says it was taken at the World's Fair.

This would have been a good post!

This was supposed to be a post about all the cool World's Fair items I found at local thrift stores in the New Orleans area. Only problem, for the first time since I've been going to thrift stores I found nothing to do with the World's Fair!!! Usually, there are a lot of World's Fair items lying around the stores, and now that I actually wanted to find some, I could not find any! So good readers, I humbly ask for your forgiveness in my disappointing quest. Now, before everyone sends me an email stating that I can find a lot of stuff on Ebay or the Internet, that was not the point. I wanted to write up something about how many World's Fair items end up in the local thrift stores. I'm planning another trip in a few weeks, so hopefully this post will be written soon.

World's Fair Shirts still available!

Found these suckers online, it seems that you can still order brand new vintage World's Fair shirts online at Ichabods. The only problem, they are $35 a piece for the women's, and $45 a piece for the men's! That's kind of high for a white T-Shirt with a logo on it, but hey, if you're dying to get your hands on a World's Fair shirt that's brand new, here's your chance.

Where is this sign located?

Someone sent me a picture of this sign and they said it was still up somewhere in New Orleans. Since I'm not planning on any trips to Downtown New Orleans soon, does anyone know where it's located?

1984 World's Fair - Hilton Promo

A video that was used at Hilton Hotels to promote the 1984 World's Fair. This is one great piece of video! A big thanks to Bill Cotter of http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/ for posting this gem!!

Kool And The Gang @ The World's Fair

Found this concert footage of Kool and the Gang playing Celebration at the Amphiteatre. No, I wasn't at this concert, but I was at the World's Fair that night. How do I know, I remember standing outside the Amphiteatre and hearing this song and others being played throughout their show. I particularly remember people dancing in Centenial Plaza while this song was being played live. I don't remember the fireworks going off at the end of the song though.

Awesome view

I really like this picture that I found. It has a good view of the monorail, the Gondola entrance, the convention center, and the Greater New Orleans bridge.

My only World's Fair Souvenirs that survived through the years.

On my last trip to the World's Fair, they had slashed the souvenir prices so much that you could pick up stuff for dirt cheap. The Fair was probably trying to get rid of everything so that they wouldn't have to store it or destroy it. I picked up a lot of stuff on that day, I bought a World's Fair wallet, T-Shirts, keychain, mugs, glasses, hats, and who knows what else. The only two souvenirs that survived through years of moving, college, storms, and kids are my two mugs. I never use them and I am surprised I still have them. I used to have my old season pass also, but in the last few years that has seemed to disappear.

The New Orleans Fair Hangover

Short article from Time Magazine about the closing of the fair...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,927007,00.html

Kangaroo

Who could forget this sight while walking around the World's Fair? Not me! I remember this statue perfectly.

Cheap Trick at the World's Fair Amphitheatre

One of the best days I spent at the World's Fair was the night that Cheap Trick played at the Amphitheatre. As a young teen, Cheap Trick was my favorite band and to get to see them at my favorite place was such a rush. My friends and I got to the fair early that day and spent most of the day walking around the fair. We were getting some food from a vendor in Centennial Plaza, when all of sudden I hear "He's A Whore" coming from the Amphitheatre. Cheap Trick were performing a soundcheck. We rushed to the entrance of the theatre to see if we could spot the band, and sure enough Rick Neilson was at the gate talking to fans. Now in hindsight, I find it pretty weird that Cheap Trick chose the song, "He's A Whore" to do a soundcheck, taking in consideration that probably a lot of older people freaked out when they heard the song and the band even didn't even perform the song in concert that night. They probably did choose the song on purpose to kind of shock the older people walking around the fair, because you could definitely hear the band all over Centennial Plaza. The concert was awesome, with everyone out of their seats dancing to the music and with the breeze blowing off the river, it was just a great once in a lifetime experience. I did go see quite a few concerts while the World's Fair was open, but no other show compared to this one!

Another Monorail picture

Another great shot of the monorail with the Greater New Orleans bridge in the background. The stairs to the right of the picture, behind the boat, was a line to one of the pavilions (I forget which one), the reason the line would get so long on the stairs is because the pavilion would play a short film and only let a certain amount of people in at a time.