General Electric Pavilion – New York World’s Fair 1964

Visitors wait in line outside the General Electric Pavilion, better known as Progressland, while looking out toward the dramatic spraying water effects of the Pool of Industry and the Fountain of the Planets. Originally created for the 1939 World’s Fair as the Lagoon of Nations, this sweeping body of water became one of the most photogenic spaces of the 1964 Fair, surrounded by pavilions, walkways and choreographed fountains that could shoot water more than 150 feet into the air.

To the left stands the distinctive Progressland sign, marking the entrance to one of the fair’s most celebrated attractions: a rotating “carousel theater” designed and built by Walt Disney and WED Enterprises. Guests remained seated while the theater revolved through multiple scenes depicting everyday life in different eras — from the turn of the century to the imagined future — each one featuring advanced Audio-Animatronic characters demonstrating how electricity transformed the American home. The show was accompanied by its unforgettable Sherman Brothers song, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”

Progressland was Walt Disney’s pride and joy at the fair, and after it closed in 1965, the attraction was moved to Disneyland as the Carousel of Progress. A decade later it relocated again to Walt Disney World, where it still operates — making it the longest-running continuously performed stage show in American history.

Though the fountains have long since fallen silent, the lake survives today in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, while Progressland’s legacy lives on every time a visitor sits down in that still-turning theater and watches the future unfold, just as Walt imagined it.