World's Fair Information Manual

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The General Motors Futurama building at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair was created by GM to house an imaginative, yet realistic, look at what may be tomorrow's way of life.

Entrance to the three-acre building is through a canopy, 10 stories high, which leads to the quarter-mile Futurama "ride into tomorrow" and an exhibiton of GM's pure and applied research. The building terminates in a domed pavilion in which General Motors automobiles and other products are displayed. Atop the pavilion is a rotating time-and-temperature indicator.

The 8 1/2 - acre Futurama site is landscaped to display GM trucks, buses, railroad locomotives and earthmoving equipment.

With visitors sitting three abreast in moving chairs, the Futurama ride can carry 70,000 persons each day through a portrayal of the importance of improved mobility as the key to mankind's progress.

Mounted on either side of a headrest atop the back of each lounge chair loudspeakers, small as the palm of a hand, bring Futurama riders a detailed account of the world GM designers foresee for tomorrow. Carefully coordinated narration, sound effects and lighting systems enhance the visitor's feeling of being within the scenes through which the ride passes.

Man and vehicles exploring the moon are within the first scene, then the ride comes to earth in the Antarctic where a weather central forecasts climatic conditions in every part of the globe.

Viewers then dip beneath the sea for a look at ways in which the untold wealth there may be utilized. In the midst of dense jungle a machine creates a highway; in the desert a farmer tends his irrigated fields with remote-control machines. The ride climaxes with the city as a glittering complex of commerce and urban living.

The science exhibit, housed in the center of the building, has been designed to demonstrate the feasibility of some of the ride proposals and illustrate General Motors' product research and engineering.