World's Fair goodies...whadya got?

[keiser31]

Here are a few of my Chicago World's Fair items. Got any different ones to post??

The first item is a bronze tray that I found at a flea market for a dime! It was in a box full of cookie sheets that were marked "ten cents each". I saw through the dust and saw all the detail and said, "Are you sure? You better look at it first". He said, "Naw...I don't wanna see it...ten cents". I could not believe what I had when I cleaned it up. I have never seen another like it. The item next to the bookmark is a billfold (wallet).

[TexRiv_63]

John,

I've got a pretty good collection of items from the Century of Progress and also the 1893 Columbian Exposition. I started collecting when i moved from Chicago to Dallas in 1991, down here the 1936 Texas Centennial stuff goes for big money but the Chicago items are fairly reasonable. I'll try to dig it out and take a few photos, I've even got some auto-related items.

Don

[TexRiv_63]

Here are pics of some auto-related items from the Century of Progress 1933 and 34.

• A cafeteria tray from the Ford "Rotunda" building
  
• A tire ashtray from Firestone
  
• 2 Bronze coins from Ford plus an arrowhead shaped zinc token from Ford / Anaconda Copper
  
• A brochure from the Firestone building where they actually made tires
  

[keiser31]

Great stuff!!

[hddennis]

Here's a couple pictures I found recently. I just wished I was a better photographer and could capture the brightness and clarity of these better. They are called Orotones and apparently gold was used in the process to print them on glass.

Howard Dennis

[keiser31]

Those are awesome, Howard...never seen any like that before.

[TexRiv_63]

The thing that amazed me when I was collecting was the sheer volume of different items available. Here are some additional items:

• A brass ashtray, unused
  
• Mickey Mouse pocket knife and tie clip
  
• paper items including tickets, one is for the 1893 fair
  
• Bakelite salt and pepper shakers
  
• embossed leather portfolio
  
• printed felt pennant and sign
  

Don

[keiser31]

Thanks for sharing!! I have not seen a lot of those items before.

[rocketraider]

A local auction house had a lot of 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fair items a few months back and it went cheap. Had I known I'd have tried to grab some of it for y'all.

To keep this auto-related, in 1964 Oldsmobile published a special World's Fair edition of their Rocket Circle owners' magazine. They used it to introduce the new-for-'64 Vista Cruiser wagon, suggesting that a new VC would be the ideal way to travel cross-country to the Fair!

My dad and I went to the 1982 Fair in Knoxville TN. I bought a Great Wall poster in the China exhibit. I had it in a cheap chrome metal frame for many years, but last year decided that since it was the only souvenir I had of the last trip my dad and I took together, I should get it framed properly.

$80 to frame a $3.00 poster. But it does look nice.

[bhclark]

The '82 world's fair is one of my fondest memories of spending time with my grandparents!!!

I still have a folder full of souvenir brochures and such, including Nasa brochures depicting "before" information of the Skylab, Shuttle and Hubble projects.

I'll see if I can put up a few photos of some of my older Fair items.