Radio commemorating the New York World's Fair

Radio cabinet made of wood with a moulded composite wood fascia, prominently displaying the World Fair's Trylon-Perisphere trademark bulding. To the far right, near the tuning dial, is a supplementary rendering of RCA's exhibition building. Carrying handle on top of cabinet. Trylon-Perisphere has been picked out in gold paint.

Purchased in 1992 from Gad Sassower [92/1853].

The 1939 New York World's Fair was an international exhibition, it was held on a 492 hectare site at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City. It was attended by more than 40 million people. With its slogan 'Dawn of a New Day', it was the first large trade exposition to focus solely on the future. Planning for the exhibition begun in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression. Its organisers hoped that a show that preached the benefits of modern American technology could be the instrument that might lift the United States from the economic doldrums in which it then found itself. In keeping with the technological theme, President Roosevelt's opening speech was broadcast live on television on 30th April 1939. Dominating the skyline over the Fair were the Trylon and Perisphere, enormous temporary buildings which housed, respectively, the world's longest escalator Democractity: a diorama of a utopian city of the future. These iconic structures appeared on many items, including radios and postage stamps.

W.27-1992