Pope’s motorcade drove 11 miles through Queens in October 1965
The total for Saturday through Monday
was a record breaking 1,011,725. Not everyone
who visited the Fair just for the
fun of it, though. On Oct. 6 a man stole
a priceless thousand-year-old copy of the
Koran from the Jordan Pavilion. The
following day, perhaps inspired to contrition
by the Pope’s visit, he telephoned
police to tell them he had left the book in
a mailbox in Springfield Gardens. The
repentant thief told police he was drunk
at the time of the incident and hadn’t
known what he was doing. At least he
made no attempt to mail the bottle!
On Oct. 17, when the 1964-1965 World’s
Fair closed, it had been visited by more
than 51 million people. The final two
days were the busiest ever, with many
people standing on line for hours to say
goodbye to their favorite attractions.
General Motors “Futurama” exhibition
was the most popular, playing host to an
estimated 29 million people over the twoyear
period and beating its own record of
24.2.million visitors during the 1939-1940
World’s Fair.
More than 23 million people visited
the New York Pavilion and its 226-foot
observation tower, which Queens groups
were campaigning to have retained for
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | OCT. 8 - OCT. 14, 2021 13
QUEENSLINE
In conjunction with the Greater
Astoria Historcal Society,
TimesLedger Newspapers presents
noteworthy events in the borough’s
history.
Welcome to October 1965!
On Oct. 4 the Pope Paul VI said Mass
at Yankee Stadium to 90,000 people. And
to a country embroiled in the Vietnam
War, Pope Paul preached a 15-minute
homily on peace, telling the crowds that,
“politics do not suffice to sustain a durable
peace.”
Another item on the pontiff’s schedule
was a visit to our borough. Crowds
estimated at 600,000 lined the streets
despite the icy winds to wave and cheer
as the Pope’s motorcade drove 11 miles
through Queens to the World’s Fair in
Flushing Meadows. Pope Paul paid a visit
to an old friend, Michelangelo’s famous
statue the Pieta, in the Vatican Pavilion.
The Pieta, on loan from Rome, was dramatically
displayed in a darkened room
with Gregorian chants playing softly in
the background. It was one of the most
popular attractions at the Fair.
The World’s Fair was pulling in huge
crowds over the Columbus Day weekend.
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the post-Fair park. It was outstripped
only by General Motors and the Vatican
Pavilion.
Fair president Robert Moses was
quoted as saying that the closing was really
a commencement.
“I have seen Flushing Meadow rise
from ash dump to glory,” he said, “and after
this second fair we shall inaugurate
what I am sure will eventually be the
city’s finest park.”
Moses noted that many were saddened
by the closing of the Fair but
added that, “We have fostered enduring
friendships and memories which will
persist and draw the people of a troubled
world closer together.”
It all came to an end late on Sunday,
Oct. 17. Couples embraced as “Auld Lang
Syne” was played through the loudspeakers
just before midnight. In the
press building through which so many
stories of the world’s greatest fair had
passed, “the teletypes fell silent, the rows
of new push-button phones were mute.”
People began to drift out the gates for the
last time.
“I wish it could have gone on forever,”
Tina Stone of Sunnyside sighed as the
carousel in the Belgian Village slowed
to a stop.
But, in the words of the Star Journal’s
headline, “All the Tomorrows were
Spent.” The flags of many nations were
lowered and the Tower of Light went
dark.
On the morning of Monday, Oct. 18,
the Unisphere stood alone and deserted
as the garbage collectors moved in
and the demolition crews readied their
wrecking balls. Children were no doubt
saddened to learn that Sinclair Oil’s
Dinoland would be the first pavilion to
be razed. But they got some good news
on Oct. 21, when it was announced that
a zoo would be built as part of the new
park.
One temporary resident could hardly
wait: the Star Journal announced that
“Caesar, an eight-year-old leopard, got
loose for 45 minutes yesterday during
transfer to another cage at the closed
World’s Fair African Pavilion. Five animal
company employees finally prodded
Caesar back into his cage. The Queens
Zoo is planned for the former Chrysler
Pavilion Grounds, so we may yet see
tigers in tanks. At any rate, a leopard
marks the spot.”
That’s the way it was October 1965!
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