It is well to remember that Flushing Meadow is filled with hundreds of pavilions, rides, restaurants and hawkers, and every one of them is competing for the fairgoer's attention, time and dollar. The one good way to get the most for all three is to have a plan. A few pointers: not all of the best shows are at the end of the longest lines (it can justifiably be assumed that the line will be half as long inside as out); most pavilions are free, but those that charge usually are less than $1; the restaurants are generally expensive.
PAVILIONS
JOHNSON'S WAX. In the copper-colored clam suspended over a reflecting pool is a short film of surpassing excellence. To Be Alive! sets off on a breathless safari to explore the joys of human experience. The triple-screen montage compiled by Alexander Hammid and Francis Thompson is fast and fresh.
SPAIN'S pavilion is a gentle interlacing of courtyards and corridors filled with surprises. The attractions include prized paintings of old and modern masters (most spectacularly, Goya's Majas), an impressive showing of young avant-garde artists, a display of Dali's jeweled doodads, bullfight movies, and folk dancers.
MONTANA. Cowgirls and cowpokes go drawling and poking around the lodgepole corral. There is a museum with memorabilia of the Old West and a rootin'-tootin' nickel arcade complete with player pianos, games and peep shows.
INDIA. Water cascades down the exterior of the glass pavilion, a quote from Gandhi is carved in pink marble, and sari-clad girls welcome the visitor to view such Indian art objects as the palace doors of Rajasthan, Hindu temple hangings, Buddha sculptures and miniature paintings.
PROTESTANT AND ORTHODOX CENTER. A small circus troupe travels along a country road and a clown, white from head to foot, brings up the rear riding on a donkey. Parable is a wordless but colorful film that lets the viewer draw his own parallels as it follows the clown about his good-will way, winning friends and earning enemies, until finally he is symbolically crucified.
IBM entertains you while you wait on the spiraled ramps--no other exhibit can make this claim. Once in, the People Wall whisks you up into the giant egg where the Information Machine reveals that you too can be a computer, of sorts.
TRAVELERS INSURANCE. Under the red-umbrella roof is a walk-through exhibit that portrays the history of man with arrested-action scenes showing cavemen painting on walls, Roman gladiators in bitter battle, the bubonic plague decimating a medieval city.
BELL SYSTEM. Inside the building, plopped beside the Fountain of the Planets like an upside-down flatiron, a soothing voice says "Fasten your seat belts and adjust your earphones." The floor seems to churn, the roof to fall as the chair-ride jogs along into a spooky tunnel where the spectator sees a 3-D drama on communications. The exhibits include Picturephones on which you see whomever you talk to.
GENERAL ELECTRIC'S Carousel of Progress looks in on an old-fashioned kitchen. Mom is working hard while Dad modestly brags about the wonders of the age; a hand pump in the kitchen that squirts rusty water, an icebox and a coal-burning stove. Times change though; pretty soon it's Mom doing the bragging, and Dad can hardly get a word in. Besides the Disney dummies, G.E. has nuclear fusion.
JAPAN juxtaposes its ancient arts with its modern technological achievements: the delicacy of flower arranging and a model of the world's fastest train, woodblock printing and powerful microscopes. Dominating the three-building complex is Masayuki Nagare's thunderous stone wall, carved out of lava rock.
CENTRAL AMERICA AND PANAMA. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama bring together in one pavilion a handsome display of their contemporary artists as well as the colorful folk art of their cultures. For 25-c-, fairgoers can sip Central American coffee and listen to a Latin rhythm combo in an open-air patio.
NEW YORK CITY. Sitting in a make-believe helicopter, New Yorkers will need binoculars to pick out their house, but it can be done. Thirty experts spent two years and $600,000 to make the model containing virtually every building in the Big Town.
FORD. Mustangs, Mercurys, Falcons, Comets, Thunderbirds and Lincoln Continentals carry the crowds into "the world that was" where dinosaurs chomp seaweed and volcanos spew red-hot lava. Man comes along, finally, and creates the wheel.
GENERAL MOTORS' Futurama ride glides past fantastic machines that fell, slice and eat trees, and extrude four-lane highways, cities that spring from the bush, hotels that float underwater.
TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL. The T & T building generally has. the bads, but "The World of Ancient Gold"--500 gleaming handwrought pieces from pre-Columbian cultures--dangles and dazzles in windows as splendrous as Tiffany's.
ENTERTAINMENT
FIREWORKS. The Fountain of the Planets is a sight to see on any balmy evening from 9 to 9:20. It rises in sprays of myriad colors while fireworks explode in the night sky, then fall in spangled cascades back into the florid waters.
SIERRA LEONE puts on a stand-up show that costs $1 and makes a fair bid for first prize as the best entertainment buy in Moses' Gardens. The 40-member dance troupe in gay-colored costumes of 13 tribes is highlighted by bushy he and she devils, but the show is stolen by little Messi Tommy, who goes into a victory dance with all the furious vitality of her four years.
TEA CEREMONY. The ancient Japanese ritual of chanoyu takes place in a little teahouse beside a stony brook rimmed with flowers. Guests learn how to kneel, bow, and savor the subtleties of the venerable ceremony while munching sweet cake and sipping bitter green tea.
FLAMENCO. Spain raided Madrid's famed Zambra Flamenco Stage, brought its dancers and guitarists to the fair. In the Spanish pavilion's plush Teatro Espanol, the slim senores and saucy senoritas put on a flashy show of fast and fancy footwork to the rhythm of guitars, castanets and intricate handclapping.
CHILDREN & TEEN-AGERS
PEPSI-COLA. The boat ride winds through the canals of Walt Disney's doll land, past a tipsy Tower of Pisa, the Taj Mahal and Swiss Alps, while his prodigious puppets--leprechauns, sheiks, Cossacks, cancan dancers and Dutch boys and girls--sing and sway to beat the band.
HALL OF SCIENCE. Atomsville, U.S.A., is strictly for small fry. So that parents will take the hint, the entrance is only five feet high. The little visitors can prospect for uranium on a world map, produce electricity by riding bicycles, shoot "neutrons" at "uranium atoms" on a pinball machine, and measure their weight in atoms. They seem to have plenty of fun, whether or not they learn very much about atoms.
AVIS. The kids (and oldsters too) guide custom-made "classics" around curves, up hill and down dale. The old gasoline put-puts are lots of fun, seem to bring back memories to nostalgic onlookers.
GENERAL CIGAR. A short, stand-up show best seen with the kids down front. A black-tied magician cuts girls in half and puts them back together again, levitates them until they disappear into thin air, then makes them pop out of empty boxes.
RESTAURANTS
TOLEDO. The Spanish pavilion has three restaurants. The first-class Toledo serves fine French food in an elegant decor, and the service is superb. $5-$25.* The Granada features an all-Spanish menu with cold gazpacho soup, paella and sangria (red wine with soda) at slightly lower prices. La Marisqueria, a typical Spanish seafood bar, makes an excellent place for lunch; a baby paella can be had for $1.50.
DENMARK. The Danish modern pavilion of glass and latticed woods has a fine restaurant that serves the traditional grand cold table heaped with herring, salmon and other goodies for $6.
SWEDEN also has an excellent smorgasbord for the same price, but here you serve yourself.
FESTIVAL OF GAS. Its blue and green color scheme is one of the coolest sights in the industrial area. From the glass-walled room, the diner can look out over a flower-sprinkled moat while enjoying such entrees as compote of squab, tender loin flared in bourbon or baked country ham. $6-$12.
FOCOLARE. The Mexican pavilion has one of the handsomest dining rooms at the fair. It serves good Mexican food (chicken, tacos and enchiladas) while mariachis serenade. $4-$15.
THE MILLSTONE in the New England pavilion has down-East specialties like johnnycakes with hot maple syrup, clam chowder, giant breaded lobster and Indian pudding. $5-$9.
HOUSE OF JAPAN. Fairgoers can dine in traditional Japanese fashion -- shoeless, seated on tatami mats -- or at regular tables and chairs. The food, in any case, is tempura and sukiyaki, cooked on the table. A stage show stars some of Japan's best dancers. In the colorful costumes of samurai, geisha and fishermen, they are adept at everything from kabuki to the twist. $5.45-$6.50.
MARYLAND'S restaurant overlooks a fisherman's wharf, features terrapin, shad roe, and Southern-style fried chicken. $3-$10.
*Dinner prices per person.
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