On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:44:14 -0800, Christopher D. Green wrote: >from Encyclopedia.com's entry for Edward Bernays -- > http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700617.html >(reprinted in Answers.com) >"In 1939 he was the publicity director for the New York World's Fair."
The Wikipedia entry (standard disclaimers) on the 1939 World's Fair says the following: |Planning |In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, a group of New York City |retired policemen decided to create an international exposition to lift the city |and the country out of depression. Not long after, these men formed the |New York World's Fair Corporation, whose office was placed on one of |the higher floors in the Empire State Building. The NYWFC elected former |chief of police Grover Whalen as the president of their committee. The whole |committee consisted of Winthrop Aldrich, Mortimer Buckner, Floyd Carlisle, |John J. Dunnigan, Harvey Dow Gibson, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Percy S. |Straus, and many other business leaders. | |Over the next four years, the committee planned, built, and organized the fair |and its exhibits, with countries around the world taking part in creating the |biggest international event since World War I. Working closely with the Fair's |committee was Robert Moses, New York City Parks Commissioner, who saw |great value to the City in having the World's Fair Corporation (at its expense) |remove a vast ash dump in Queens that was to be the site for the exposition, |and turn the area into a City park after the exposition closed. | |Grover Whalen, a public relations innovator, saw the Fair as an opportunity for |corporations to present consumer products, rather than as an exercise in presenting |science and the scientific way of thinking in its own right, as Harold Urey, Albert |Einstein and other scientists wished to see the project.[1] "As events transpired," |reported Carl Sagan,[2] whose own interest in science was nevertheless sparked |by the Fair's gadgetry, "almost no real science was tacked on to the Fair's exhibits, |despite the scientists' protests and their appeals to high principles." Whatever Bernays role was, he apparently was trumped in the PR area by Grover Whalen (who is now an obscure figure but still gets a Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Whalen ). Of potential relevant to Tipsters, some other quotes from Wikipedia: |The fair was also the occasion for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention, |subsequently dubbed Nycon 1. and |On July 4, 1940 the fair hosted "Superman Day." Notable was the crowning |of the "superboy and supergirl" of the day, and a public appearance by Superman, |played by actor Ray Middleton; the first time any had played the role. Oh, don't miss the section on the "Lama Temple Girlie Show". No relation to Shirley Temple. >And there's an NYU connection as well: "His lectures on public relations >in 1923 at New York University were the first on that subject at a major >university." Which just goes to show that NYU doesn't care who it hires to teach there. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
