EXPO and the CR

San Francisco 1939 / 1940

Our participation in the San Francisco 1939 World's Fair was organised by the Czecho-Slovak Export Institute (with headquarters in the Fairs Palace in the Prague quarter of Holešovice). From the beginning, Dr. Jaroslav Kose, Deputy Director of the Export Institute, was very agile. He conducted the first meetings with such enthusiasm that he was appointed General Commissioner. His most reliable partner was the Honorary Consul in San Francisco, Ervin Ladislav Chloupek, who became the chairman of the Exhibition Committee. In December 1938 the budget of our participation was set at Kc 681,000, of which Kc 600,000 was to be paid by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Crafts, the remainder by the Export Institute. The problem was that the Export Institute paid all the advances and expenses, and then it had to press hard for its resources through many interventions to get them back from the Ministry of Trade. The Exhibition Committee of the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) on San Francisco Bay granted 557 sq m of exhibition grounds to the Czecho-Slovak Republic in the indoor hall of the international pavilion of the Exhibit Building C. In January 1939 a coordinated promotional event took place in support of the Czecho-Slovak participation in both world fairs held at that time - in New York and San Francisco.

The main focus of our exhibition in the GGIE, involving 60 exhibitors, was trade. The prevailing character was also reflected in the exhibition slogan: "Buy Goods Made in Czecho-Slovakia". The design of the stand and the exhibition installation were entrusted to Antonín Heythum. On the opening day of the GGIE, 18 February, our exhibition was not ready. An apology was displayed in the showcases (we were not the only country to miss the opening, most exhibitions were not ready in time, but we were the only ones who apologised to visitors). The officials in charge explained the delay claiming that, under "normal" circumstances, the preparation of exhibitions accelerates short before their opening and people work late at night. Nevertheless, this was impossible in the USA because local trade unions resisted overtime and checked the prohibition of work on Saturdays and Sundays. Furthermore, the work rhythm of local workers did not seem sufficient to our staff.

Our stand was surrounded by exhibitions of Holland, Sweden, Haiti and Poland. Our exhibition was flanked by showcases glassed-in from both sides with blue frames suspended on white metal columns, which at the height of 3.3 metres were connected with red strips with white inscriptions. Octagonal showcases were revolving slowly in the stand corners. An information office stood in the centre and four flags were fluttering above it, ruffled by a propeller above the office table. The right-hand part of our section was devoted to our country's natural beauties and folklore. Important exhibiting firms included Baťa a. s. Zlín, Srb & Štys Praha, Waldes & Co., Folk Art Uherský Brod, A. Münzberg Praha, Section of the Glove-making Industry in Prague, Fellowship of Graduates from the Glass School in Železný Brod, Weiss Koblitz, AKA, Interior Textiles Brno, Kosmos Čáslav, L. Auspitz's Grandsons, the Fine Cloth Factory Brno, Foerst and Hausner, the Knitwear Factory Jihlava, J. Porkert, the Factory of Household Machines Skuhrov, Zora, and Solo.

Not even the foreseen delayed opening on 28 February was caught up with, but on 4 March we made a solemn opening of our exhibition with the participation of the Deputy Mayor of San Francisco, GGIE's Vice-president and a series of prominent guests. Barely after a month, on 29 March, the ambassador Rittler sent a message through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Trade to immediately stop the Czecho-Slovak exhibition in the GGIE. The liquidation was ordered officially on 31 March. Francis Freund, the secretary of the Czechoslovak Exhibition Committee, after an agreement the Export Institute, was entrusted to sell the exhibits after the liquidation of the exhibition, and the firms certified it by giving him full authority to sell their exhibits. Duty had already been paid so that the exhibits could be sold off (the price of the vendible ones was set at Kc 138,000). The liquidation of the claims of our firms was entrusted to the compatriots' Exhibition Committee in San Francisco. Engineer Mikuláš V. Mára, the first manager of the Information Office at the Czecho-Slovak exhibition, handed over his post to A. Ručka, a became the head of the Export Institute office in Chicago. Then, A. Ručka was commissioned by the Export Institute to administer the exhibition.

In April a major shift took place that prevented the liquidation of our exhibition. The Reich's authorities were successfully persuaded that it would be beneficial also for German interests to turn the exhibition into a purely commercial presentation, a kind of semi-official exposition of products made in the Protectorate. German authorities were not essentially opposed to Czech Aryan firms exhibiting their products individually. Immediately after the adoption of this attitude, a letter was sent to A. Ručka on 27 April instructing him to label the exhibition as "a show of products made in Bohemia and Moravia" (the only Slovak exhibitor, the firm Kerémy & Co. producing padding in Banská Bystrica, was passed over in silence). The text of the introductory article of the exhibition catalogue (the catalogue was designed by Jaroslav Benda, Professor of the College of Applied Art) was modified to suit the new situation. The event had a sequel in March 1942, when Dr. Deyl from the Export Institute asked the German Ministry of Economy and Labour (Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit) to clear the discrepancies in the accounts with Heythum and Freund, and to settle the debts for the exhibition work done, proposing an immediate renewal of diplomatic relations with the USA.

Jaroslav Halada

backtop

print