A CONCISE HISTORY OF QTIP (QUEENS THEATRE IN THE PARK) 1964 - 1994

UNFINISHED DRAFT  Queens Theatre in the Park, hereinafter abbreviated as QTIP, is a non-traditional cylindrical theatre with a thrust/proscenium stage, originally designed by Philip Johnson for the 1964 New York World's Fair as a 360 degree movie theatre and renovated in 1993, as shown here. USE INTERIOR SHOT?

QTIP began life with the name "Theaterama."  World's Fair patrons paid a quarter to watch a fourteen minute movie while standing on a flat terrazzo floor in the center of an eighty-foot-wide circular room.

A view of three of the six picture sheets (with registration marks), each twenty feet high by forty feet wide, set off by elaborate wooden trim in walnut, top and bottom.  A flat suspended plaster ceiling contained the film loudspeakers and the house lights. 

Mezzanine floors known as rings encircled the auditorium at the second and third floor elevations.  The second ring was a continuous loop and contained the air handlers for the auditorium air-conditioning and a double-height cooling tower which was open to the roof.

The third ring contained the six film projectors and an access hatch to the roof.

The "state of the art" 35MM projectors utilized no shutters.

The Norelco Pulse-Lite that never caught on.

A view of one the film machines in the third ring, a controller in the foreground.  At the conclusion of the Fair in 1965, the machines were removed.

"A-Round New York" in action.  "Each showing is invariably punctuated by sighs of delight, oohs of revelation, or squeals of fright," quipped Business Screen.  The film included a boat ride through the Thousand Islands,  a "shoot the rapids" in Ausable Canyon, and "a spectacular helicopter ride past the nose of the Statue of Liberty."

Hundreds of films were projected as part of the World's Fair exhibits, requiring the services of  225 IATSE Local 306 projectionists.  QTIP opened as a union house and remained so-- with one IA Local 4 electrician-- until 1985. 

Over at the Hall of Science, a 35mm film produced by Frank Capra set the scene for a simulated space docking.  In 1994, the Hall of Science donated their Super-Simplex machines to QTIP and once again 35mm films were projected from the third ring.  FIX

Theaterama was but one of three components of the New York State Pavilion.

A plan of the site.  The floor of the Tent of Tomorrow was a Texaco road map of New York State enlarged 4000 times.

Theaterama was the smallest of the components and least visible in the official post card.

As described in the official Guide.

The World's Fair in general and the New York State Pavilion in particular were the creation of Robert Moses.

If you want to know more about him, read the book.

Mr. Moses reserved the lowest tower for himself and "visiting dignitaries."  As can be seen, T-1 was enclosed and air-conditioned.

Left to right, the entrances to Theaterama, the Tent of Tomorrow, and the Towers and "stairway down."

"Stairway down" led visiting dignitaries down to the lower level of Theatrama which contained the Empire State Hospitality Room.

Mrs. Taylor ruled over the Empire State Hospitality, the only room on Theaterama with windows, to the left.

A circular stair (5) was the only connection between the lower level and Theaterama, an attraction which did not appeal to Mrs. Taylor.

If Mrs. Taylor sat down, it would have been on the floor because Theaterama had no seating.