The World of Tomorrow

• Directors: Lance Bird; Tom Johnson
• AMG Rating:
• Movie Type: Social History
• Release Year: 1984
• Country: US
• Run Time: 83 minutes

Plot

The World of Tomorrow is a delightful, lovingly assembled documentary of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Much of the footage is culled from promotional films made exclusively for the exhibition; one of these features a "typical" midwestern family, soaking in the fair's many wonders. Other sequences are lifted from home movies, given the events of six decades' past a surprising immediacy. Most of the film is devoted to the famous "World of Tomorrow" exhibit, which theorized as to what life would be like in 1960; some of this is quaint and naïve, but a lot of it is surprisingly accurate. Alternating gracefully between color and black and white, The World of Tomorrow occasionally leans towards condescension, but Jason Robards' dead-on narration sidesteps cuteness. For its many PBS showings, the 83-minute World of Tomorrow was pared down to an hour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Credit

Lance Bird - Director, Tom Johnson - Director, Kate Hirson - Editor, Lance Bird - Producer, Tom Johnson - Producer, John Crowley - Screenwriter