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Medicus (P.)[Amateur film: Medicus collection: New York World's Fair, 1939-40] (Reel 5) (Part II) (1939)

Detailed documentation of the "World of Tomorrow" in beautiful Kodachrome.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Medicus (P.)
Audio/Visual: Si, C
Keywords: World's Fairs: New York, 1939-40; Amateur films

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Spuzz - - November 27, 2005
Subject: More plants, statues and nighttime shots!
We start this off by going to the fairs plant section greenhouse.. After that is flower after flower after flower lots of them!! 4 minutes to be exact! We explore other plant life as we look at The voice of the tree a tree carved to somewhat resemble a human it looks like. For heavens sake! THINK OF THE TREES PEOPLE! lol. After, we are teased with the Homes Of Tommorow. They might look futuristic to the person of 1939, but to me they looked perfectly normal. We dont get to go inside either.. From there, we visit the electrified farm, where yes, its a farm run on electricity! We see the cows dont care too much for this either. Just tell me where to go please. Then we see something that Medicus says that we probably wouldnt expect at the fair, a clothesline. Actually, theres lots of things I didnt expect to see in the fair. Topless dancers for one. We then go into an Art museum and yes, check out the art pieces there. Before we do that, check out the murals on the outside! They look pretty awesome. After a tour of the outside, we finally go in and check out the art work. And AGAIN, Medicus focuses on the naked women statues. MAN, what was up with that guy? Amusing part comes when we seee people looking through the window to see if this exhibit is worth going in KEEP MOVING!! We then see a curiously unadorned building. No idea of what that was. We then go the rear of the Contemporary arts building where we see a piece by one Augusta Savage called The Harp. This admittedly, IS kind of neat. Wonder where that wound up after the fair finished. From there, we return to favorite Medicus custom, and thats the fair at night! We return to some buildings he likes, and some we havent seen before.. First off is Romanias building.. Fancy neon there. After that, we have some fountain work, and then we see the spectacular neon outside of the Swift building. I like that combination of green neon and stone! Then we have more fountains, Then return, thankfully, to the Italy pavilion to view THEIR fountain at night, and its just lovely. From there, we see another unknown lit up building, We also see some more art work.. No idea of what it is. Some further artwork is shown, and it appears to be flowers behind glass, and its quite pretty. We see more darkly lit buildings, could it have been the UK building? Whoa! Canadas building is up next! Nice use of backlighting! We see some more art work, it looks to be of a map, made of people? Whoa! Its the NCR echibit, and the giant cash register again! Thats cool looking! We then are shown Kodak, but its quite dark and we dont really see anything. The Medicuses do go into the indoor photo garden though and get pictures of themselves there. We see some more neon on undetermined buildings, more fountains, neon from a building Im sure weve seen before, Back to the distillers for their neon entry, (we havent seen them since the first reel!), Kraft Foods simple Neon, The inside of an undetermined building, a nice mural, a big sign that says Free Dancing, every day except Sunday. More buildings, the outside and the very well done neon exteriors of the Sealtest pavilion, outside of the General Motors exhibit, A torch, the nice neon of Heinz 57, a curious cut to a chemically grown tomato display, and then a teaser for the next reel where it says Coke Works.. Hmmm..

Reviewer: ridetheory - - March 18, 2003
Subject: Pretty night shots
This reel starts off slow, with lots of garden shots, and ends with some nice night photography. Not thrilling, but pretty.

Cactus garden
Lily pond
"The Gardens in Autumn"
"Voice of the Tree" (sculpture of man carved from tree)
"Houses of Tomorrow
Electric farm
"You would never expect this at the Fair." (Clothes hanging on a drying line)
"At rear of Contemporary Arts Building was Agusta Savages creation, 'The Harp'." (Harp made up of African-American figures)
"Night at the Fair."
"Due to the slow shutter speeds required for color night photography the pictures are usually not as steady as the daytime shots."
Various night shots.
Orchids
13:55 Giant Cash Register
"In Eastman Photo Garden" (people posing in front of backdrop
14:41 Crazy flashing neon lights
"Chemically grown tomatoe plants."
"The 'Coke' works."

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