EXPO and the CR

New York 1939 / 1940

In December 1936 an official invitation to the New York World's Fair was received, and in November 1937 the government decided that we would take part. A contract on the participation in the New York World's Fair was signed on 3 February 1938 by Ladislav Turnovský on behalf of the Ministry of Trade and by Grover Whalen, General Commissioner and President of the New York World's Fair 1939 Incorporated. On 25 May 1938 the ministerial council set up the Czechoslovak Exhibition Committee headed by Hugo Vavřečka as the General Commissioner. The core commissioners were Vavřečka, Jan Třebický and Ladislav K. Feierabend. Seven ministries were involved in the preparations; in October 1938 their number was reduced to three (Public Works, Trade and Education) and the government cut the original budget of Kc 27,100,000 by 35%. The design of the pavilion was entrusted to Kamil Roškot a F. X. Hruška. The Vítkovice Mining and Metallurgical Works made the steel structure. The 107 metres long and 25 metres wide pavilion with a 16 metres high frontage was assembled and erected by the New York firm Hegeman & Harry. Except the pavilion, we were given an area in the Nations' Building for a state hall that was designed by Ladislav Sutnar. The implementation of the state hall presenting the history and culture was entrusted to Sutnar and Václav Vilém Štech.

Early in March almost all exhibits had been already sent to the USA. At that time the agony of the "Second Republic" reached its peak. In the first half of March Vavřečka still succeeded in sending several key experts, including Roškot, to the USA, and in the last moment also Sutnar departed. It was he who on 13 March 1939 demanded: "after all a guide to the Czecho-Slovak state hall should be issued, at least as a leaflet without a jacket". After the establishment of the Protectorate, the committee was renamed as the Exhibition Committee for Organising the Participation of Czech and Moravian Industry and tried to continue the participation. But the Reich's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin ordered the liquidation of our participation, and the Reich's Ministry of Trade remitted $ 10,000 for liquidation work to the firm B. Soumar a spol., which was in charge of the installation of the exhibition and the running of the pavilion. The New York Fairs Administration disallowed the Protectorate's Exhibition Committee and handed over the Czecho-Slovak pavilion to a new Exhibition Committee headed by George J. Janečka. On 14 April 1939 Sutnar arrived in New York with an authorisation to liquidate the pavilion, but he started to work immediately with Bedřich Grünzweig and others on our exhibition.

The pavilion was successfully opened on 31 May (a month after the beginning of the fair). Representatives of the Czechoslovak government in exile attended the solemn opening. The running of the pavilion was secured in the first and second (1940) fair season by compatriots' organisations. In New York we exhibited as a state that could not be found on the map any more. The pavilion structure had a ceramic shell with a belt of windows along the perimeter. The mass of the monumental front façade (taller than the protracted rear section) was segmented by a large state emblem and entrances in bottom corners. Under the emblem there were encouraging words of Jan Amos Comenius in English translation: "After all the times of oppression, you will regain your rule, oh, Czech nation."

The interior of the pavilion was laid out by Antonín Heythum. Our estate was wedged in between the pavilions of Japan and the Soviet Union (before the second fair season it ended its participation, pulled down the pavilion, and, in its place, the ceremonial grounds of American Common were established), beside a small lake with fountains (Nations' Laguna) close to the Flushing Gate. The architects Cubr and Pokorný designed three showcases (gloves, embroidery and jewels) and arranged the surrounding space. Moreover, they designed installations for the firms Waldes, Zádruha, Dětva, Glaser Goldstein (Czech garnets). A semicircular area with a diameter of 24 metres with five window fields (7 metres wide and 2 metres high) was earmarked for the firm Baťa. Painted on the windows was Baťa's family tree, Tomáš Baťa, J. A. Baťa and Zlín. The boudoir of a modern American woman formed the centre. A soft background choral music was heard and the reality was reflected in rosy mirrors under the ceiling. In the section of fine mechanics and optics there were exhibitions of the firms Pavel Meisel, Srb & Štys, and Josef & Jan Frič. Václav Fiala created a diorama of Washington's Oath, and Minka Podhajská added figures. George Washington was taking an oath from the Congress balcony in front of civilians and soldiers. A hand-knotted carpet of a semicircular shape with a 35 m diameter was made in the Jedlička's Institute for the Handicapped. Max Švabinský painted a personified Czecho-Slovakia for the ceremonial hall of the pavilion. A glass mosaic of Prague with Romanesque and Gothic towers (their stylised verticality was object of criticism) for the entrance halls was designed by Kamil Roškot and executed by Master Jan Tumpach. The Council of the Capital City of Prague bought it from the Exhibition Committee for Kc 50,000, and after the fair it donated it to New York City. The inscription under the mosaic said in English: "Prague - Capital of Czecho-Slovakia, whose first towers were erected for the praise of God a thousand years ago, greets New York City, the gate to the United States." In the years 1946/7 talks were held on the return of the mosaic, but the cost was so high that a compatriots' club placed it on a Chicago cemetery. The linen tapestry by Marie Hoppe-Teinitzerová "Czechoslovak Linen" was designed by the painter K. Putz. Girls' figures on it symbolised the various stages of linen processing. The restaurant on the pavilion roof offered a view of the Nations' Laguna. The bronze casting of Myslbek's sculpture "Devotion", designed for the entrance hall, has tough luck. The sculpture (cast by the firm August Barták, successor Bohuslav Chmelař) was not sent timely enough, and later it was confiscated by the Protectorate's revenue office for alleged tax arrears.

Jaroslav Halada

backtop

print