QUEENSLINE
Constructing the future symbol of the 1964 World’s Fair
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2021 13
In conjunction with the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society, TimesLedger
Newspapers presents noteworthy
events in the borough’s
history.
Welcome to June 1962!
Flushing businessman Max
Abramson is dead at 81. A merchant
from the old school, he
took great pride in his dealings
with the public. Known to all
shoppers and residents as ‘Max,’
he often worked behind the
counter in his later years even
when he was President and sole
owner of the largest department
store on the North Shore.
Max opened his first store in
1909 when Flushing was a quiet
residential and farming community
separated from the rest
of the city. He and his wife, the
former Ida Sweigel of Astoria,
took in $11.59 that first day.
Years later, his store’s daily
take was as much as $250,000.
By 1911, Max moved to a larger
store and had 15 clerks. By
1922, he established a modern
store at 37th Avenue and Main
Street. Max started the Flushing
Merchants Organization
and advised its members to prepare
for the new subway expansion
in 1925. In 1934, his refurbished
store was one of the first
in the city with air conditioning.
Retiring in 1959, he sold
out to the Hecht Company from
Manhattan. He closed the deal
on the 50th anniversary of his
opening day.
Since 1959, the Federal Aviation
Agency is enforcing regulations
on kites and balloons.
Believing them a hazard to aviation,
they are banned within
five miles of any airport. After
dark, they are to be lighted, and
their cables must be marked
with pennants visible up to one
mile. After handing out only
five permits for kite flying in
1961, the Air Traffic Service at
Idlewild Airport expects no requests
in 1962.
Constructing the Unisphere
is an engineering and artistic
triumph. To support the globe
and resist the wind, it requires
670 simultaneous equations of
engineering problems — an effort
that would normally take
ten years. Computers pitch in
at the Electric Boat Company
in Connecticut, which are used
in the construction of submarines
and other sophisticated
military applications. To give
an idea of the complexity of the
problem, only 30-40 equations
are needed for most structures.
It is to be the symbol of 1964
World’s Fair illustrating the
theme, “peace through understanding
in a shrinking globe
of an expanding universe.” Topographic
features on the continents
are inflated 44 times. The
120-foot globe has three tons
of stainless steel arcs orbiting
its structure. It can resist the
force of a hurricane. Designing
engineer Peter Muller-Munk
said “the Unisphere cannot be
treated as a building or monument.
It is a piece of open structure.
This is perhaps the most
demanding form of all art, for it
must be viewed from all sides.”
On the eighteenth anniversary
of D-day, the Star-Journal
wrote a moving tribute to the
veterans. The survivors of that
high adventure are pushing toward
40, growing paunches and
losing their hair, and worrying
over their children. They are
middle-aged American workers
concerned about H-bombs,
taxes and their chances for a
raise in pay. The achievement
of that grim morning is a glory
never to taken from them, however
dull they may find their
present routines, or sorely they
may feel the buffeting of life.
They know, and the rest of us
should never forget, that when
the crises came, they did their
perilous job. They had what it
took and this knowledge they
can cherish forever.
That’s the way it was in
June 1962!
For further info, call the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society at 718-278-0700 or www.
astorialic.org.
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