My Grandparents were both from Belgium. they both served at the World's Fair, I believe, as representatives for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. My Grandmother served up a few of those Belgian Waffles. I grew up eating many of her wonderful Flemmish treats. Hers always tasted the best, but the waffles at the Seattle World's Fair were made and introduced by my Grandmother (not just her, but she was one of them).

My family attended the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Coming from Ashland, OR, the fair was huge and exciting for the whole family. My brother was 7 and I was 5. I have memories of crowds and rides and smells and especially riding up the Space Needle. My dad's favorite memory from that trip was recounting that my poor brother (who suffered from motion sickness)started looking a little green as we descended the Space Needle's speedy elevator. We exited, and my brother made a beeline to the base of one of the Needle's footings and promptly lost his lunch! Memorable. My brother and I both moved to Seattle as young adults, and have lived here for 20+ years. And every time I pass by the Space Needle while at Seattle Center, I feel a very special connection with that beautiful Jetson-inspiring structure!

My first memory of the Seattle’s World Fair was also the opening day and the Jet that crashed. It was a few houses down from where I lived and my family witnessed the whole crash. My Brothers were on the roof watching planes do various tricks for the opening. We all watched as a Fighter Jet went into a big dive. We were all yelling,” pull up, pull up” and before we knew it was bearing down on our house. It was surreal and a scene I’ll never forget, but just as it was about to hit, the tip of the wing hit a lone pine tree and the Jet switched directions sending it crashing down the street instead. There was a huge fireball and the force was so great, it broke windows all up the street. Sadly, a senior couple was killed, but all the other houses it hit, either the people weren’t home or somehow! Everyone got out, even though their house was hit too. I was 10 at the time and my friends lived in the houses hit so I got in when most of the area was off limits. A crazy sight! My friend’s room was a big hole in the ground and stuff was melted to the walls. Shrapnel was stuck in trees and littered the whole neighborhood. Our summer project was collecting it.
It wasn’t all bad. We usually didn’t get to go anywhere, but our relatives from Illinois came out, so we got to go a couple of times. I LOVED it! –Everything - All the Futuristic stuff, rides, Bubleator, Flag pavilion and especially the Science Pavilion. On one of the trips we had just gotten our tickets and barely were inside when there was all this commotion. Here was another girl getting tagged as the 9 (?) millionth guest! Ahhh, just missed it. Fun visit anyway.
I have been going to Seattle Center ever since. What fun it was when my Kids were small to take them on the Bubbleator, fun forest and up the Needle. Really enjoying everyone’s stories too.

I was living in Arcadia, CA, going to school at L.A. State. My roommate Janet Jones and I drove to Seattle to meet my parents and younger siblings (who lived in Spokane) for a 4-day fair visit. The fair was fabulous, I especially liked the wide range of musical acts and events, as well as the innovative technological ideas and wide array of cultures - the food, the dress - the crafts - the music. It solidified the focus of my studies back at school in folklore and arts administration. I would eventually return to Spokane and become one of the producers of "The Northwest: A Gift of the Earth", the folklife festival that provided the cornerstone theme for the 1974 Spokane World's Fair. I still feel that was my most exciting professional endeavor. By then, Overton Berry (who contributes to this film), and I have become long time friends, along with other many other wonderful PNW musicians and artists I've worked with over the years. Having been involved since with a variety of nonprofit public cultural programming entities, I realize the importance of the Seattle World's Fair that has resulted in the growth and vibrancy of the arts and culture in Seattle. Whether by design or happenstance, it provided the cornerstone (Seattle Center) for an explosion of arts and culture for all Seattleites and visitors. After a stint working in the Southwest, primarily manifesting cross-cultural programming and films with Mexico and co-founding the Tucson Jazz Society, I moved back to Seattle where I became ED of the Seattle Folklore Society, then the parent organization for the Northwest Folklife Festival, still (I believe) the only admission-free festival of its size in the world, held every Memorial Day weekend at Seattle Center. The Seattle World's Fair opened my eyes to a lifetime of creative manifestation and I revel in the joy of its legacy often.

Recollections of the Seattle World's Fair ...
(1) The plane crash from the flyover on opening day that killed a couple watching the fair events on TV at home because they had been advised that crowds would cause problems for those attending the fair on opening day.
(2) Bill Cosby featured as a commentator broadcasting for an extended period on radio from the Space Needle throughout the summer. We didn't know at the time that he would later become famous for his hilarious recordings and for several popular series on TV.
(3) President Kennedy having to call off his planned visit at the close of the fair, reportedly due to illness. We later learned that the reason for his no-show was the escalation of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Knute just showed a helmet from the fair. Wow! My mother (a polio victim) was in a wheel chair and always looked for jobs that she could do at home. I was 9 years old and vividly remember people delivering huge cases of the helmets in assorted colors to our house and she and I would spend hours putting the stickers on them. Then they would come and pick them up and bring more cases. Strangely, I never ended up with a helmet.
What a memory, right at the end of your awesome documentary!

My father was the manager (director?) of the children's section of the Science Center during the fair. He worked from sometime in early spring (well before the fair started), and I know he was still working the day of the Columbus Day storm. He was also a teacher in Seattle Public Schools, so did "double duty" during much of that time.

I was 8 years old and turned 9 that July. My photo is in the original souvenir book, and reappeared in the recent Seattle MET magazine recounting the history of the fair. (...I must say I let out a small shriek in the grocery store when I idly opened that issue and found myself looking AT myself!)

There was a time, years later, when it seemed that he may have been an assistant director of the entire Science Center. That is very unclear to me, and may or may not have been true ~ I have not been able to find out.

I have many memories of the fair, as I was there fairly often. My Bluebird group sang on the flag plaza for some part of the opening ceremonies. Some of my friends were also photographed for the souvenir book on that day in early spring (when my father very suddenly called my mother and said there would be photographers there later that SAME day, and could she possibly round up some children willing to be photographed?? ~ She did.)

At any rate, I was inordinately proud of my father, proud of Seattle, proud to be alive, and excited about the wonderful future ahead of us all in "Century 21"!!

My Aunt Carol worked in the Space Needle gift shop during the fair. I was so proud of her!

My Dad helped make the original huge 6x24" post cards with the photo of the Space Needle against the blue sky. My mom still has a few.

My aunt demonstrated live Horseshoe crabs at the Science Pavilion.

I have a collection of photos and articles on the Christian Witness Pavillion at the fair. My in-laws were instrumental in setting this pavillion up and organizing the activities during the fair--a childcare facility for fair goers who needed a break from their children.

My Dad worked on the sky ride at the World's Fair before I was born and still keeps his ID card in his wallet!

My Dad installed the Bubbleator, I was stationed in Germany at the time of the Fair but when I got home they showed me a newspaper photo and article about him during the installation.

My dad drove to the world's fair at the ripe old age of 16 from northern Minnesota. His older brother lived up here so he had a place to stay. somewhere in South Dakota his car broke down (needed a generator)...so my dad called home and my grandfather said "fix it" and hung up the phone...haha 2 days of sleeping in a barn the parts finally came in and he was on the road again...till the car broke down again in Idaho...which he just put it in neutral and coasted into spokane (no interstates...just a very scary steep drive downhill according to him). He finally made it and enjoyed the fair...but spent most of the time rebuilding the car to make the trip home.

I was born in 1961.

I was almost 12 and my Father won a Salmon Derby that was hosted by the Elks Lodge in Olympia. The top prize was $200 in Worlds Fair money and tickets to the fair. The wind was blowing too much for the elevators to operate up the Needle so we did not get the opportunity to go to the top. To this day I have yet to visit the Needle. My fondest memory of the fair was the water ski show as I knew that I could perform as well as those entertainers and I maintained that dream all the way into my twenties. However, much like riding the elevators up the Needle; being a professional water skier never happened either.

I worked with Mary Boland and Hap Hazard at the space needle gift shop.I enjoyed riding the elevator with the prime rib and those wonderful lemon sweetrolls...We had a hard time finding anything to sell that wasn't from Japan..I do remember one very high wind storm that made the jewelry sway and when Janie Rosselini got stuck in the elevator...the times were so different that I even took the bus to Lake City at 1am. I loved working there, it became almost like home..I remember James Garner and Hogy Charmichael and Sammy Davis Jr.
My mother's best friend Corinne Marshall was an extra in the Elvis movie..those were the days.

I was 9, my brother 12. We'd been at the fair all day, and Mom and Dad parked us at a table in the Arena with a soft drink. They said, "Stay right here", as they slipped off for a cocktail in a lounge nearby (times were different then). I was content to stay put, but my brother kept watching the bubbleator go up and down, up and down -- the coolest elevator he'd ever seen. Noting that the round trip didn't take very long, he started scheming. We could ride up and down the bubbleator (all by ourselves!), return to our assigned table with time to spare, and Mom and Dad would never know.

Off we went on our adventure. One thing we didn't count on: The bubbleator was made out of clear plastic. It was see-through, for crying out loud, and anyone in the entire arena could watch the passengers in full view -- even the people sitting in the lounge having a cocktail. My brother and I were, of course, busted. Mom and Dad saw the whole thing. But I don't think we ever regretted our not-so-secret trip on the elevator of the future.

I was 11 years old and performing as a clown at that time with my father’s Wenatchee Youth Circus. We were there that Summer and Elvis was in production for “It Happened at the World’s Fair”. Dad, aka “Guppo the Clown” and the show’s manager/director since starting the circus as an after school tumbling team a decade earlier, was used for some behind the scenes production w/Elvis' movie. So for all of us kids not only was the fair a big wing ding, but the Elvis factor made it all additionally just amazing beyond words.
We did a couple of shows a day and were set up where the stadium is now as you can see the along with the Space Needle in the pictures. In between shows there was a water skiing show that was presented in the moat that circled our “circus lot” and was constructed especially for them, so that was another close-up fun time for all of us circus kids.
On a totally adolescent boy note, there was also this production revue not too far away from our show area that was a part of the fair as well & something you’d never see in the times we live in today. It was called “Backstage U.S.A” and was a sort of burlesque show, very timid by some of today’s night clubs of that ilk, but nonetheless extremely enticing & provocative for us young dudes.None of us could get in as you had to be 21 as I recall…BUT they had those wonderful posters outside the entrance & even as tame as the pictures on display were, many a young lad spent more than a little time studying, perusing, dreaming.
All in all, between having free access so all of the fairground activities, rides exhibits, monorail and all, we were in heaven to be sure. We all got certificates of appreciation for our performance there that I still have hanging on my studio wall. Well.. that’s my story, I’m stickin' to it & thats the truth!