WHAT WILL THE world be like in the year 2000? That was the question posed in The Seattle Times’ souvenir edition in 1962.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair, newspaper published a souvenir edition to commemorate the event.
It was the year the Seattle Needle was built so the city was flying high on innovation and space age optimism. So how did their predictions fare?
Here is a round-up of what people thought they had to look forward to in the new millennium:
A built-in babysitter for the home -This was what General Electric predicted for the future. Their exhibition at the World’s Trade Fair said there would be many appliances to make the home a happier place. “Multiple screen televisions will cover one wall” in the home said writer Deborah Neighbors. The “homemaker” can keep an eye on her baby in the other room and can also control the temperature and lights of the rooms through the device also. They also predicted that the TV would be used for activities – children could play games through the TV and “the homemaker can bone up on her bridge” through the closed circuit television also – where other players will appear on the screen. Not bad insight into current computer games.
(PA Images)
TV will teach us – Similar to the TV being used to entertain us at home in the 1960s children said they wouldn’t need teachers in the future as “TV will teach us,” said third grade student Dick Hennessy.
(PA Archive)
Paper space suits for women – “Interplanetary trips” made by women would be done in paper space suits apparently. The idea behind this one is that long-distance space flights to planets would take a long time so it was envisaged that women astronauts would wear paper space suits for up to a week and then eject them from the space ship. This would solve the problem of laundry building up on board.
(Image via Barratts/EMPICS Archive)
Quilted moon pants – It seems it was all about ladies fashion when one was travelling into space. Designer Howard Blair sketched his idea of what the well-dressed woman would wear on a trip to the moon in the year 2000. The pants he designed are pressurised and temperature controlled and comes with a blue velvet and leather cape – or perhaps this ensemble below accompanied with fur coat would work just as well on the moon.
(Press Association Images)
A swimming pool for all, maybe even two – We wish this one had come true. William M Smith of Pacific Pools said that swimming pools would be an absolute requirement to people in the future. He said that while one pool in the 1960s was common enough that in the future people will want maybe two or three, perhaps with different temperatures. He also said that these pools will probably be placed next to the “dancing area” – a place that people will also have outside just for dancing. “The extras we consider luxuries will be common place in the 21st century and will cost very little,” he said.
(PA Archive)
Books on Microfilm – Future predictions for the book industry were not totally off the mark. It was predicted that books would be distributed differently and that they wouldn’t just be available in bookshops. Others stated that due to the rise in printing costs, books would be put onto microfilm. This would save space “in the functional homes of the future”. Leroy Soper of the University Book Store may have been on the right track when he predicted that people will be able to access books and records from libraries around the world. However, he said this would be done through the television.
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Pills to make your hair curly – New York hair stylist Julius Caruso said that in the the year 2000 he expected pills to be available that would make your hair curly – one pill for a wave and two for bouncy curls. He also said that a towering coiffe á la Cameron Diaz in ‘There’s Something About Mary’ would be all the rage.
(Via YouTube/mina vidprak)
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