1982 World's Fair
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The 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville, Tennessee in the United States. The theme of the exposition was "Energy Turns the World." It opened on May 1, 1982 and closed on October 31, 1982 after receiving over 11 million visitors. Participating nations included Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States, and West Germany.
The fair was constructed on a 70 acre site between downtown Knoxville and the University of Tennessee. The Sunsphere, a 266-foot steel tower topped with a five-story bronze globe, was built for the 1982 World's Fair. It still stands and remains a symbol for the city of Knoxville.
Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman appointed banker Jake Butcher to lead an exploratory committee on the fair, and Butcher served as the driving force behind the fair, and some called it "Jake's Fair."[1]
The fair drew over 11 million visitors, making it one of the most popular world's fairs in U.S. history, and even turned a small profit ($57), but short of the projected $5 million surplus. [2]
This was the second World's Fair to be held in the state, the first being the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897.
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[edit] Difficulties with the Fair
The biggest problem associated with the fair was that local hotels and other accommodations were not allowed to directly take reservations for rooms during the fair. Room reservations for everything from hotels to houseboats sold in a package with fair admission tickets through the first 11 days of the fair were handled by a central bureau, Knoxvisit, but financial and administrative troubles pushed reservations to be taken over by PLM[3], which itself filed for bankruptcy[4] and was mired in its own difficulties[5].
[edit] After the fair
In 1992, the city of Knoxville demolished the US Pavillion in a controlled blast. The cleared lawn became host to a regular concert series for 8 years. In 2000, the lawn was closed for two years while a convention center was added to the space.
In 2004, the World's Fair Park was reopened to general events and concerts, such as Earth Fest and Greek Fest.
[edit] The fair in popular culture
The fair was mentioned twice in The Simpsons. In the 1993 episode "Cape Feare," Homer smokes a Knoxville World's Fair cigar in the movie theatre. On the Season 5 audio commentary for this episode, showrunner Al Jean comments that 1982 was a terrible world's fair. In the episode entitled "Bart on the Road," Bart, Milhouse, Nelson and Martin take a trip to Knoxville under the belief that the World's Fair is still in progress. They arrive at the site of the World's Fair to find the Sunsphere now being used as a storage for wigs. Subsequently, Nelson manages to knock it over by throwing a rock at it.
Seven arcade tokens were minted for the 1982 World's Fair, each with a different arcade game gracing its face. These tokens were given out at the arcade at the World's Fair itself. The seven games on each of the tokens are Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Qix, Gorf, Scramble, and Donkey Kong. Each of these games was very popular at the time. A special Coke pin given to 500 dignitaries on opening day is the most prized pin from the fair.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- 1982 World's Fair Research Site
- World's Fair retrospective
- The 1982 World's Fair in photos - www.worldsfairphotos.com
- 1982 World's Fair 25th Anniversary site
- Tennessee Encyclopedia article
- ExpoMuseum's 1982 World's Fair Section
| Preceded by Expo '74 |
World Expositions 1982 |
Succeeded by 1984 Louisiana World Exposition |
