VERY SCARCE GROUP OF CONCESSION TICKETS FROM THE 1962 SEATTLE WORLD'S FAIR

While there were ticket books issued for the Century 21 Exposition, they did not include tickets for specific attractions. Included were generic "Gayway" (Midway) tickets that could be used at any of the concession and rides in the Gayway. The amuseents and carnival type games were all in a relatively small corner of the fairgrounds, but there were more rides and games than one would expect could've been squeezed into the northeast corner of the grounds.

Having been a 10-year-old at the fair a great many times, even though it was 64 years ago I feel qualified to share my impressions--and fun!--as a young fairgoer. The highlight of the unfortunately named Gayway (there was no inappropriate connotation of the word in the 1960s) was the Wild Mouse. It was a compact roller coaster with its riders in small double cars which accommodated the very sharp turns.

The official guidebook to the fair described the Wild Mouse and other rides as state of the art and made in Europe. They were closer to a carnival than say Disneyland but no one complained. In one trip to the fair with family friends from California I was dragged into a bit of intrigue. I was 10 and I was with the family friend who was about 15. He pulled out a wad of bills, as I recalll pretty substantial, and told me to corroberate the story he would tell his parents--that he found it in the seat of a ride.

His parents did not want him to use his savings account to purchase a new surfboard. He figured his parents would allow him to spend the found money, however. Even as a 10-year-old, I wondered how his parents wouldn't notice it was taken out of his savings account. I never found out if it worked but it's always stuck in my mind along with dozens of other memories from the fair. And on that same day I too found something on a ride--an unopened pack of cigarettes; not too exciting.

This lot consists of three consecutively numbered Rotor tickets, two consecutively numbered tickets for the Meteo and a single ticket for the Quick Draw Theater. Since this type of ticket could only be purchased from a ticket booth, and visitors generally did so to imediately go on a given ride, almost none survived. I'm sure there were occasions where someone had to leave in a hurry, got sick or changed their mind. Those numbers were exceedingly small and it was unlikely the tickets would be kept.

The tickets in this group were part of a find of unused strips and loose tickets I made about 35 years ago. I sold most over time and happened to unearth a few recently. I was quite lucky to have literally dozens of strips of up to 10 tickets each, but most were sold long ago. If you have interest in the Century 21 fair, these would qualify as a very rare group and priced very inexpensively.

We have tried to price EVERY ticket in this sale at a dramtically reduced price, typically about what we estimate to be half the retail price, in this case about $40, $20 for the stip of 3, $15 for the pair and just $5 for the single.