The World of Tomorrow

Discover the various ways visitors could travel about the fairgrounds.

At the center of the fairgrounds, dominated by the futuristic Trylon and Perisphere, the Theme Center is where many people began their adventure in the World of Tomorrow.

Powered by dozens of gears and electrical relays, Elektro the Westinghouse Moto-Man fascinated thousands of fair-goers with his witty remarks and state of the art antics.

The central feature of the General Motors Highways and Horizons pavilion, Futurama provided a glimpse of what a modern city might look like in 1960.

Many Americans were introduced to the idea of television at the fair. One feature was a closed circuit studio where visitors could be televised and friends and family could view their performance on a receiver in an adjacent room.

The Transportation Zone included exhibits related to the automotive industry, railroads, marine travel and much more. The most popular attraction was the lavish Railroads on Parade pageant.

Literature, historical documents, consumer goods and scientific information was among the many items crammed into the torpedo shaped Westinghouse Time Capsule. The Capsule was buried fifty feet below the Westinghouse exhibit, to remain undisturbed for five thousand years.

A recent picture of Elektro at his new home in Mansfield, Ohio.

MEET ELEKTRO

Elektro the Moto-Man is a walking, talking robot who cracks jokes and smokes cigarettes. Built by Westinghouse in 1937, Elektro was an electro-mechanical machine, dependent upon gears, relays and photo-electric cells. After the Fair, Elektro appeared across the country to promote Westinghouse products and was later on display at the Pacific Ocean Park in Venice, California for several years. Playing the part of "Thinko", the robot appears in the utterly forgettable 1960s film, Sex Kittens Go To College. Shortly thereafter, Elektro was separated from his head, which was given to Harold Gorsuch, an engineer upon his retirement from Westinghouse.

During the 1940s, Elektro was stored in the basement of the family home of Jack Weeks, who often played with the robot in his childhood. A few years ago, Weeks was able to locate and acquired Elektro's various components and reassembled the Moto-Man. Today, Elektro resides at the Manfield Memorial Museum in Ohio.

In recent years, Elektro has been restored and has found a home in Ohio.

After the fair, Elektro had a career touring the nation to sell Westinghouse appliances.

ELEKTRO IN ACTION

Watch the Elektro demonstration at the Westinghouse building. This clip is also from The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair.

LEAVE IT TO ROLL-OH

Tongue-in-cheek film showing a domestic robot freeing housewives of their chores. This short film is actually a promo showing how relays and switches function in the modern automobile. Shown at the Fair in 1940.

This diagram shows some of the many electro-mechanical contraptions that enabled Elektro to perform his amazing feats.