1962 quarter and Seattle's Fair

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A Lincoln penny that got rolled/elongated/smashed at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, Washington. The host coin is virtually obliterated, but once upon a time the light and the angle were just right, and I’m pretty sure I saw the slight trace of a Lincoln obverse.

Dominating this elongated cent—as it dominated the Fair for which it was constructed—was Seattle’s 605-foot-tall “Space Needle.”

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The formal name for the ’62 World’s Fair was the “Century 21 Exposition,” and it ran for six months between 21 April and 21 October 1962. A familiar souvenir of the event was this big (39mm, 21.43g) “Good For” token, which is still commonly seen these 50+ years later.

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“Good for One dollar in trade at America’s Space-age World’s Fair CENTURY 21 EXPOSITION at the Exposition grounds or at any cooperating business in Washington state through October 21, 1962.”

Winding around the Space Needle is another prime attraction of the Fair—the Monorail—and in the background is the volcano usually called Mt. Rainier. The small “glob” on the globe? Washington state.

And now we come to the little token that triggered my current interest in the ’62 World’s Fair. I’ve owned it for a couple of years but decided it was time to learn a little more about it, and if it was ever used as a money-substitute, to add it to my collection.

It turned out to be something I hadn’t expected. When I got the piece those years ago I had briefly glanced at it, seen what I assumed was “Gateway 21,” thought maybe it was an entrance token for “Gate 21” of the Fair, and put it aside.

Instead, as can easily be seen, the piece actually reads “Gayway 21.” In 1962 “gay” still meant “happy and carefree,” and hadn’t yet gained wide currency as the indication of sexual orientation that it is today.

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It’s a small piece, 20mm in diameter, with a weight of 3.35g, and it was used somewhere among the 19 or so rides and the various attractions of the area of the Fair known as its “Gayway.” And here, in this link, is a short study of the Gayway of the 1962 Seattle Fair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkk16Z5ekww

The above short study notes that the Gayway’s rides cost about 25c apiece (perhaps there were discounts for quantity purchasers). And here is a 1962 quarter-dollar that would have been new at the Fair, and would have bought those 25-cent Gayway rides.

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But this shiny new quarter would have been useful for something else at the Fair. Well, the fictional Fair in the Elvis Presley movie set in 1962 Seattle and filmed in part at the Century 21 Exposition, “It Happened at the World’s Fair.”

In this short clip from the movie, Elvis offers a quarter to a boy (played by Kurt Russell, in his first movie) if the boy will kick him in the shin so he can seek treatment from the doctor Elvis is crushing on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhD5IhVYSxQ

Again, for Elvis , the shiny new 1962 quarter:

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But of course reality often creeps in and spoils the fun. On opening day, the festivities had included a flyover by 10 Air Force F-102 interceptors. Fast jets, noisy and fun. But Cold Warriors too.

The Seattle World’s Fair closed six months later on 21 October 1962. It was the very next day, October 22nd, that President Kennedy spoke to the American people about the missiles in Cuba and the naval blockade aimed at Soviet vessels thought to be transporting them.

Straight from the fun and games of the Fair’s Gayway 21, right into the missiles of October, 1962.

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