Alright, welcome back and we're gonna
take you back to the year 1962.
The world's farewell was the
biggest thing in the world.
The centerpiece, the iconic Space Needle,
which cost $4.5 million to build,
which was actually a fortune back then,
dubbed the 400 day wonder.
Because that's how quickly they built it.
The iconic tower, known all over the
world as the Seattle Space Needle,
was open for business.
Historian Felix Vanel joins me now to
share more about the history of this
tower and the surrounding Seattle.
Connor, I'm so excited to talk
to you about this Felix.
Welcome to the show.
Yeah, it's the 60th anniversary of the
Seattle World's Fair and everything
pretty much at Seattle Center.
It's a very exciting occasion.
You can't exaggerate,
and you can't overstate how much
impact that fare had on the community
in terms of really focusing our our,
our, our innovation,
and our belief in the power of
the future to inspire everybody.
And there's nothing better that
symbolizes the future and that
fare than the Space Needle.
Absolutely, I'm sorry to
cut you off. I've just no.
I mean, it's 60 years old,
but it's still looks crazy.
Futuristic, I mean you look
around the rest of Seattle.
We have some pretty bizarre
looking newer buildings.
But everything looks like
old school compared to this.
This pointy thing north of downtown
with the sphere on top of this
disc on top that rotates around
and has a restaurant in it.
I mean, it's still a.
It's a wonder of the architectural
world and I love living in Seattle
and taking it for granted because
every time I go there was there
last night celebrating the 60th
anniversary and it's still exciting.
It never fails to make me excited
to walk around the outside,
walk around the inside,
even just look out and see
all the views of the city.
The fact they designed it
and built it so fast.
It's amazing too.
I like there's there's some old
posters from the fair from like
1961 in advance of the fair.
It shows the Space Needle,
but it doesn't does look like the
one that was actually built because
he hadn't really designed it yet.
They designed and built it so
quickly yet so successfully.
It's just perfect marriage of
an innovative idea. You have.
Eddie Carlson.
One of the guys who's running
the world's fair.
He has this idea for something
like a balloon on a string,
and he's seen this difference
tour in Germany and Stuttgart,
Germany,
which is this tall TV tower that
has an observation deck on it.
And then John Graham,
who's a structural engineer.
He's built a hotel in Hawaii
that has a rotating restaurant
as part of its structure,
and they marry these two ideas and
it comes together in this incredible
incredible attraction that you know.
It drew millions of people
visited during the fair,
something more than two million people
went up into the needle during the fair.
Yeah,
but it's just,
but it became the symbol of the city.
And I I've never been able to pin this down.
I don't know when it actually
happened that the Space Needle stop
being just this sort of carnival
ride restaurant at the fair.
It became a symbol for the entire city.
It's so cool.
It is amazing how it did just that,
because it really is.
I mean, as you say,
today I was looking at some of the
other towers that you were mentioning.
We had them on the screen and they
just don't compare when it comes to
the beauty and the elegance that is the
Space Needle and and it does look great.
It was built obviously for the world's fair.
Let's talk about some of the other
buildings that were part of this
that make up the Seattle Center now,
because they're also pretty iconic.
Yeah, and it's brilliant.
One of the guys who worked on the fair.
This guy in his 90s named Louis Larson.
He told me the world's fair was the
creation of a civic campus designed,
you know, disguised as a carnival.
You have this wonderful six month event.
But meanwhile you also got these incredible
things built that we're still using today.
Probably my favorite is it's now called
Climate Pledge Arena where the crack in
play and where the sonics used to play.
It was built as a Washington state
pavilion during the fair it housed the
bubble later and all these other exhibits.
But then it became this incredible place to
have concerts and sports and everything.
You had the Pacific Science Center,
which was funded by huge investment
by the federal government.
We just been beaten into outer
space by the Russians.
We were trying to play catch up
and so focusing on science became
a natural for this fair sort of in
the at the dawn of the space age,
it all fit together.
The look and feel of the Space Needle,
the need to kind of compete with the
Russians and getting into space.
And this idea of trying to inspire a
whole generation of kids and Grown Ups,
even to embrace the future the way
that Seattle has always embraced the
future from the very earliest time
that settlers arrived here back in
the 19th century, it was always.
About the future,
you know was called New York eventually
was what they called Seattle.
That was his nickname. That's fascinating.
The world's fair was like that was.
Eventually it was finally here in 1962,
we'd finally achieved this love and
show of our love for the future
that was embodied by Boeing.
Before the fair, you know,
The Jets of things they were building,
but this way everybody got to participate.
Everyone got sucked in.
Everyone got to go to the fair and use
push button phones for the first time.
Do you feel like about flying cars?
Do you meeting at flying cars though
feel like, do you feel like having the
fare here really kind of solidified Seattle
as a major city center in the world?
Absolutely there is just
you cannot overstate,
and you cannot exaggerate how
much that fare transformed.
A sleepy northwest city,
far from the other big population
centers in the US and put us on the map.
And apart from putting us on the map and
creating incredible Seattle Center campus,
it showed a lot of young people who
worked on that fare that they could
go on and do even bigger things.
We did all sorts of stuff in the
1960s and the 1970s in Seattle,
and many of those things were done by people
who cut their teeth working at the fair,
learning how to put on events.
Learning how to attract investors.
Learning how to communicate with
the the international press to
talk about what we're doing.
Yeah, all those people were
like sort of civic engineers
learning how to get stuff done.
They did it at the fair and then they
took those skills and applied it to
everything like transportation and building.
And you know all sorts of stuff that that
any big city has to deal with in Seattle
just arrived and there's just again.
You cannot overstate how much
that what impact that fare had,
and the fact it left that beautiful
campus so we can all enjoy.
I mean,
last night there's a hockey game going on.
I think there was ballet going on.
Wow, it's still this vibrant,
vibrant place that we're so lucky to have.
I love Seattle Center.
I've been going there every
I'm in my early 50s.
Every phase of my life Seattle Center
has played some important role.
It's a little different in each decade.
Maybe
I could not agree with you more Felix.
It is just an incredible place to go.
It's an incredible place to be.
Thank you for taking your
time and sharing it and have a
little bit of tidbit for you.
I had to share at the King
County Fair in Enumclaw.
They have parts of the original buildings
that were for the world fair that they
have and they use now to this day.
Alright, alright I know those buildings
beautiful concrete yeah alright see
anniversary we'll talk to you soon.