QUESTION: Many years ago I purchased a snowglobe from the 1939 New York World’s Fair that contains a miniature Trylon and Perisphere. What’s unusual about this snowglobe is that the snow in it is black. Have you seen one like this?ANSWER: I get almost as many questions about souvenir items from the 1939 New York World’s Fair as there were items sold or given away at the Fair. Well, not really, but pretty many.
This snowglobe, featuring the Trylon and Perisphere, is one of the rarer souvenirs from the Fair. Originally, the snow inside the snowglobe was blue and orange, the colors of the State of New York, but over time, they reacted to the water and turned black or brown.
The Trylon and Perisphere were two monumental modernistic structures designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux that together were the Theme Center of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Harrison later went on to design the United Nations Headquarters.
After considering many different designs, the Fair Committee chose the Trylon and Perisphere to represent the Fair’s futuristic theme.They chose the name "Perisphere," combining the Greek prefix peri-, meaning "all around", "about", or "enclosing" and the name "Trylon," coined from the phrase "triangular pylon." The simple structures could be seen from mid-town Manhattan as the Trylon was the tallest structure in Queens at the time.
Adjacent to it stood the Perisphere, a tremendous sphere 18 stories tall and 180 feet in diameter, connected to the 610-foot spire-shaped Trylon by what was at the time the world's longest escalator. The Perisphere housed a diorama by Henry Dreyfuss called Democracity which, in keeping with the fair's theme "The World of Tomorrow," depicted a utopian city-of-the-future.
The exhibit took up a space more than two-times the size of Radio City Music Hall. After paying 25 cents, visitors viewed the exhibit from two rotating balconies, dubbed “magic carpets,” that encircled the model while a multi-image slide presentation appeared on the dome of the sphere. Every six minutes a recorded narration extolled the wonders of this utopian city, and the lights dimmed to mimic nighttime as phosphorescent paint made the buildings look like they were lit from the inside. The theme song “Rising Tide” by William Grant Still accompanied the narration.
After exiting the Perisphere, visitors descended to ground level on the third element of the Theme Center, the Helicline, a 950-foot-long (290 m) spiral ramp that partially encircled the Perisphere. The 18-foot-wide Helicline had a mirrored underside. Since it was one of the highest locations at the fair, the Helicline became a popular spot to take in views of the fairgrounds.It took 2,000 cubic yards of concrete and reinforced steel, more than 7,000 individual pieces, to create the Trylon and Perisphere. Their combined weight came to approximately 10,000 tons. In order to test the durability of the design, models were subjected to 70-mile an hour winds in a test tunnel.
Originally, the designers planned for the Perisphere to be covered in a smooth and seamless layer of concrete. However, due to the high cost of that material, they decided to use gypsum instead. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts to smooth it out, the gypsum created an uneven texture and had visible seams. Also, surrounding fountains damaged the fragile coating and their arches of water had to be lowered.
The design for the Perisphere called for eight relatively small hidden support pylons, giving the illusion that the sphere was floating. Strategically placed fountains and mirrors covering the supports enhanced the effect. At first, the fountains didn’t provide enough coverage, but the Fair engineers increased their pressure and added additional ones to create the desired effect.At night, projectors with custom designed batteries and the largest long-focus lenses ever commercially made projected moving images of clouds and other things onto the Perisphere from nearby buildings using specially designed glass-mounted slides. Since the amount of light needed to project the images would have burned through regular film, the exhibit designers enclosed the slides in glass.
The Fair Committee licensed the image of the Trylon and Perisphere for use on an estimated 25,000 different products, including this snowglobe. In 1939, licensing was a new concept, but it still earned the Fair $1 million in the first season alone.Every visitor took home some sort of souvenir, from small toys to three-legged folding cane/seats to wallets, bracelets, woman’s compacts, and thousands of pins—all with the image of the Trylon and Perisphere on them.
Learn more about 1939 New York World's Fair souvenirs by reading "Souvenirs from the 1939 New York World's Fair Highly Collectible" in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.
To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site. And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Industrial Age n the 2020 Winter Edition, "The Wonders of the Industrial Age," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.
