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The French Pavilion at the World's Fair was closed by the
Fair Corporation yesterday because it was not French enough.
The order was issued by Charles Poletti, former Governor of
New York, who is now vice president in charge of international
relations and exhibits of the Fair Corporation.
In one of his daily tours of the fair, Mr. Poletti commented
that "a few of the exhibitors had nothing whatever to do
with France -- one of them, a hawker, was yelling his head off
about liquefying machines, and the scene certainly detracted
from the pavilion's French flavor."
The pavilion, which is not operated by the French Government,
is known as the Pavilion de Paris et Industries de France. It
is operated privately by Exhibitions de France, Inc., F. Roberts
Blair, a lawyer, is its president.
Mr. Poletti checked his records and learned that the objectionable
concessions had not
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been submitted for approval by the Fair Corporation. This
was called a violation of the fair's contract with the pavilion.
"They probably were not submitted for our approval,"
Mr. Poletti said, "because it was so obvious they were not
up to par." He said that Mr. Blair was ordered Friday to
close the objectionable concessions, but that they were open
for business yesterday. Mr. Poletti closed the entire pavilion.
Mr. Poletti could specifically recall only the liquefier concession
as objectionable. This was operated by Chester A. Nairne. Other
sources said a concession that analyzes handwriting automatically
was also ruled out by the Fair Corporation.
The Fair Corporation's action was the latest in a series of
setbacks at the pavilion. The two-story building has nearly 54,000
square feet of space, but most of it, including the entire second
floor, is unoccupied. The second floor had been held for a major
French Restaurant.
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