This souvenir booklet, entitled A Treasury of World’s Fair and New York Attractions, was distributed to visitors of  the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, by Ford Motor Company, to promote their Disney-created Magic Skyway attraction.

Ford had brought in Disney to create an attraction for their “Wonder Rotunda” pavilion (one of four different pavilions that Disney created for the fair) that could compete with GM’s Futurama attraction, which was making its return (an updated version) after a successful run at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. Utilizing a ride system that would eventually lead to the development of Disneyland’s famed PeopleMover, guests of Ford’s Magic Skyway were seated in actual Ford-model cars and transported on a journey that spanned from the age of dinosaurs, to man’s invention of the wheel, and into a futuristic city of tomorrow. At fair’s end, the audio-animatronic dinosaurs were salvaged from the dismantled attraction and transported to Disneyland, where they became the stars of the Primeval World diorama along the route of the Disneyland Railroad, which debuted the summer after the fair.

The sixty-four-page booklet, published by Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan, in 1964, was given away complimentary to entice fair-goers to visit their pavilion, which features prominently in the guidebook. With plenty of photographs and artwork, the guide also touches on such aspects of the fair as shopping, dining, nearby sights and accommodations, as well as providing a brief overview of other fair attractions (though nothing is mentioned of rival GM’s pavilion). The cover is comprised of concept artwork by Harvey Kidder of Ford’s Wonder Rotunda, as the pavilion remained unfinished at the time of publication. The contents of the booklet are as follows:

WORLD’S FAIR and NEW YORK ATTRACTIONS

 

page 2: “An Invitation to the World’s Fair” by Mayor Robert Wagner

 

page 4: “Extravaganza of Fun” by William Laas

 

page 12: “Culture and Sand Castles” by Lars Morris

 

page 19: “Shop the World’s Bazaars” by Joan Cook

 

page 25: “Adventure at the Ford Wonder Rotunda” by Richard Barrett

 

page 37: “Which Way to the Fair?” by Arthur W. Baum

 

page 42: “Around the World at a Dining Table” by Nancy Kennedy

 

page 48: “Enjoy a Resort Vacation while Visiting the Fair” by Lee Morissey

 

page 53: “World’s Fair Exhibits” by Douglas Campbell

 

page 58: “Budget Vacation in New York” by Felice Lee

The souvenir booklet, a lasting reminder of the New York World’s Fair, represents Walt Disney’s success, both with the widely-popular Magic Skyway attraction but also the larger fair, during which he firmly established himself as the premiere showman of the twentieth century.