Topic: Amateur photographers at Expo 67

[Francois]

I just recently learned that Kodak had a pavilion at Montreal's Expo 67. I did a bit of searching and found this too!
Somebody took footage of the visitors at expo and compiled all the segments where cameras were visible...
Things sure looked good in 1967!

Enjoy!
And lets play "how many models do you recognize?" 
You'd better get ready to abuse that pause button!

! No longer available

[Bryan]

The ones I'm confident of are the Kodak Brownie Starmite, Bolex H16, Rolleiflex Automat, Kodak Brownie Starmite II, Speed Graphic, Leica M3 and Zeiss Ikon Movikon 8. There were a  lot of other 8mm movie cameras, some looked familiar but I can't tell what they are.  It's hard to tell what most of the SLR's are since many of them look so similar.  I saw a few Kodak Instamatics but it's hard to tell exactly what model. 

On a side note I have a collection of 8mm home movies of the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair.  When I got back into shooting 8mm film I started buying reels at estate sales to put my films on.  If there was film already on the reel I would watch it out of curiosity.  I found several that had the Seattle Worlds Fair and started collecting them.  I wasn't born yet when the fair happened but I have spent a lot of time at the former fairgrounds growing up in the Seattle area.  This is a low quality scan of several different home movies spliced together. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0iBWXSCP-M&t=15s

[Francois]

I'm wondering if there is anything left from the Seattle expo other than the space Needle?

While looking at the expo 67 clip I think I saw a few Nikon F,  there was a camera top plate whose color made me think of a smena, I think I saw a bolex (but I'd have to watch it again to be sure)

[Bryan]

I'm wondering if there is anything left from the Seattle expo other than the space Needle?

There is a lot leftover from the Seattle fair besides the Space Needle.  There's the Monorail that still runs into downtown (about 1/4 mile), The arena that was built for the fair was used for decades by the Sonics NBA team, hockey, concerts, etc.  The science center is a large science museum.  What was the food court during the fair was originally an old military armory before the fair and still has several restaurants in it.  Several of the old pavilion buildings are still being used for various things.  The central fountain has been renovated and is still in use.  Several things have been added as well like Paul Allen's music/sci-fi museum and a Dale Chihuly blown glass museum.  The grounds and buildings have been well utilized since the fair and some of the buildings have been designated as historical landmarks.  It's still a great place to shoot film.

The only film lab in Seattle that still develops film, including E6, is right across the street in what looks like a building left over from the fair.  http://www.pandalab.com/

This is the monorail going through Paul Allen's museum.  The museum was built around the monorail.
Monorail at EMP by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

I guess you fared better than we did...
We still have the Biosphere (US pavillion) which eventually became a natural sciences museum but was closed by the former government, the France and Quebec pavilions are now a casino operated by the provincial lottery, the Canadian pavilion is used for offices, the Haiti pavilion has been renovated a few years ago but nobody knows what to do with it, Place des Nations us used by public works to just dump stuff... we have a few bridges and sculptures that survived...
The amusement part now belongs to Six Flags. There's a marina that's underutilized and the Metro that remains.

The Expo site was actually used in the filming of the original Battlestar Galactica when they needed to film a futuristic city that is in ruins...

[Bryan]

It probably helps that the Seattle fair was in the heart of the city and the Space Needle is a big tourist attraction. 

[Francois]

The big problem in Montreal is that as soon as the Expo was over the mayor decided to move on to get the 1976 Olympic games.
He was the kind of man that always wanted something bigger and better for the city, so the Expo site was essentially mothballed.

I'm currently reading a book on the Expo and it's pretty crazy all the stuff they wanted to do. One of the plans was to borrow the Eiffel tower for a whole year!
Take it apart, transport it on a ship, reassemble in Montreal and reverse the process once the show was over... total insanity.

[Bryan]

I'm currently reading a book on the Expo and it's pretty crazy all the stuff they wanted to do. One of the plans was to borrow the Eiffel tower for a whole year!
Take it apart, transport it on a ship, reassemble in Montreal and reverse the process once the show was over... total insanity.

Ooops, not enough money to send it back, sorry France.

[Francois]

On one hand, I'm pretty happy this plan didn't work out, they probably just would have left it to rust...