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I think I should start by quoting a remark
made by one of our guests today as she viewed the diorama of
the World's Fair. She said, "It's two years away and my
feet are already hurting from just looking at this model."
One evening last week I attended a neighborhood
supper party with about a dozen couples. It was a scene of American
life such as Norman Rockwell might paint -- a typical group,
representative of our consumer public. We chatted about the New
York World's Fair and I displayed a copy of the latest Progress
Report. I wish you could have seen and heard them. They were
fascinated an plied me with questions. Their genuine interest
suddenly revealed to me that these are the people we are aiming
at. They represent the America that loves a Fair. These people
and millions like them are coming -- in fact, they can hardly
wait to get here and see the latest and best of everything.
World's Fairs have a way of reflecting life
around us. You all remember the wonderful Fair of 25 years ago
on these grounds. It's easy to recall its delight, its excitement,
its amusements, but great as that Fair was, it lacked one big
thing: there was no home furnishings building such as our Pavilion
of American Interiors. There was no handsome showcase to present
a brilliant cross-section of American products and ideas in the
field of interior decoration to millions of people. There was
no home furnishings exhibit at the 1939-1940 Fair, great as it
was. However, this modern-as-tomorrow working edifice, the Pavilion
of American Interiors, to be constructed for the greatest of
all Fairs in 1964-1965, will be the last word in beauty, thanks
to the imagination and perseverance of S. Robert Elton and to
the loyal support of his Advisory Board, a Board which includes
a score of the great names of this industry.
I repeat, at the last New York Fair home furnishings
were conspicuous by their almost complete absence. Possibly,
the public was not quite ready at that time. Home furnishings
were only just beginning the rapid rise to the high place they
now occupy in the hearts and minds of American consumers. The
great speed-up of communications in the past quarter century
has brought to the general public a consciousness of interior
design. In 1939, TV had just been introduced. The miracle of
high-speed color printing, which makes possible the impressive
color pages of today's magazines, was in its infancy.
- Source: NY World's Fair
Corp. publication
- Source: "Groundbreaking Pamphlet"
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The women's pages of the newspapers had not
reached their present degree of influence. Now, the stage is
set, and the timing could not be better for the appearance of
a Pavilion of American Interiors where all can see the results
of an industry cooperating to put its best foot forward for a
public ready and eager for a better home environment. Every segment
of the home furnishings industry and the decorating profession
will be here to implant indelibly, dependable brand names on
the minds of Fair-going consumers, day after day, evening after
evening, for two big years -- 1964 and 1965. I say big years,
because the economists, the commentators and the journalists
have been dinning into our ears the fact that the mid-sixties
will be years of plenty for home furnishings. During the two
six-month Fair operational periods this international exposition
will attract a majority of the new generation of home owners
which has exploded, as they say, since the start of World War
II. The Pavilion of American Interiors will dramatically highlight
the fantastic product advances of the past 25 years. Just to
touch upon a few, we can now offer the variety and beauty of
new furniture woods and finishes, style interest -- a primary
merchandising force -- new dyes, new fibers, new fabrics from
the world of chemistry, radically improved new vinyl floor coverings
and sensationally successful tufted broadlooms which have made
the carped home a way of life for the many instead of a luxury
for the favored few. So for these two important years, 1964 and
1965, this Pavilion will prove to a waiting world that attractive
home furnishings have become an accepted necessity of today's
living. In the so-called service magazine world, I have witnessed
the American woman's craving for better family living grow steadily
during the past quarter century. These women -- your customers
-- are reading and waiting for the Fair. This beautiful Pavilion,
for which we break ground today, provides the assurance that
the Fair will be ready for them.
S. Robert Elton (left), board
chairman of the Pavilion of American Interiors, looks on as a
contract for space is signed by John B. Stevens, vice president
of The International Silver Company.
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