Magazine

Czechs at World Expos - Part III

Not long after it came into force, the Czechoslovak Republic signed the "Convention Relating to International Expositions." This took place on February 9, 1932 and the first exposition that Czechoslovakia participated in as a full-fledged member of the International Expositions Bureau (BIE) was the 1933 Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, which was reopened for a second year in 934. The Great Depression had a major impact on the number of international participants and in the end only fourteen countries - including Czechoslovakia - had their own national pavilions. Czechoslovak participation was administered by Dr. Josef Matoušek, the Minister of Industry, Business and Trade and the government commissioner was Dr. Ladislav Turnovský. The exposition committee gave Czechoslovakia a location in the northern part of the exposition grounds - in the very heart of events. From the main gate, the throngs of visitors moved along the main thoroughfare, the Avenue of Flags to the Sky Ride cable car. The Czechoslovak Pavilion was located just before the visitors arrived at the Sky Ride. Its neighbors included Sweden and - across the Avenue of Flags - Italy, with Soldier Field football stadium located right behind the pavilion.

The highly function exposition building was the work of the architect Kamil Roškot; it had a monumental glass façade facing the main promenade. This was connected to a rear building by an L-shaped wing half the height of the front. The sides of the taller building in front glowed yellow - not at all unusual given the profusion of colors at the Chicago exposition. The material used in building these walls was in contrast quite reserved - painted plywood. The 1000 square meters of exposition space created a home for more than seventy Czechoslovak firms. A glass mosaic depicting a very artistic rendering of the national coat-of-arms was located above the entrance. At night the entire length of the glass-walled rear building was lit from in the inside in such a way as to transform it into a giant display case. The front part of the pavilion, which was focused on culture and nature, was dominated by a veduta of Prague by Jaroslav Šetelika and a panorama of the High Tatra Mountains by the Czech painter Otakar Štafl. The remainder of the pavilion gave visitors the feeling that they found themselves in the middle of giant bazaar, a feeling further enhanced by the fact that at the end of the pavilion was a shop where they could buy traditional Czech and Slovak products. The top selling items were porcelain from Karlovy Vary, Slovak embroidery, jewelry from Jablonec and Czech garnets. Almost half of the firms at the exposition were glassmakers, including such well-known names as Ludvik Moser and the Kavalier Glassworks as well as many smaller firms, primarily from Nový Bor and Železný Brod (northern Bohemia), but including companies from across the country (Turnov, Oldřichov, Skalice u České Lipy, Vimperk, Jablonec nad Nisou, Prague, Brno, Frýdštejn, Držkova and Loužnice) and two government institutions that supported the export of glassware. Professor Josef Drahoňovský and his works in glass represented the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In contrast, porcelain works were quite poorly represented: the firm of Bohemia from Nová Role and a company from the Slovak town of Modrá. Two companies from Turnov in northern Bohemia and two from Prague presented Czech garnets. The modern field of ceramic construction materials was represented by two companies from Prague. Basket-making was quite well represented and was dominated by four small companies from Bakov nad Jizerou in central Bohemia, seconded by one company from the nearby town of Mnichovo Hradište and the sector's official association with its headquarters in the eastern Moravian town of Morkovice. "Kooperativa," as the head office of agricultural cooperatives, was also strongly represented. Thanks to presentations by the Czech Hops Syndicate from the town of Žatec and the Public Hops Grader from Úštěk (both in northern Bohemia), hop-growing also made its mark. The honor of our traditionally strong textile industry was saved by four textile mills. Other branches of Czechoslovak industry, including papermaking, the manufacture of musical instruments (V. Kohlert from Kraslice and J. Liedl of Brno), tobacco pipes and leather goods, the manufacture of scientific instruments and toys as well as the food-processing industry, publishing and the applied arts, were less well presented. Mining was represented by the Jáchymov uranium mines. Three government ministries - agriculture, railroads and post and telegraph - also exhibited at the Czechoslovak Pavilion. The latter presented a philatelic collection. Other public institutions exhibiting included the State Educational Institution, the Czechoslovak State Tobacco Monopoly, the Prague Trade Show and the Šroubek Grand Hotel. The central item of interest for Americans in the numismatic collection was without a doubt the Jáchymov tolar (in German Joachimsthaler › thaler › tolar › dollar, which is today the name for more than thirty national currencies including of course that of the United States). Didactic exhibits included a ship's propeller or screw by J. L. F. Ressler and the intaglio printing of Karel Klíč. The "Czechoslovak America Exhibit" was originally conceived of as a part of an exposition of American ethnic groups. This project however collapsed and this exhibit was therefore included in the Czechoslovak Pavilion. The Czechoslovak restaurant was run jointly by the Atlas Brewery and the Plzeň Municipal Brewery.

On the eve of Czechoslovak Day at the world's fair (June 26), quick-thinking compatriots organized the Second American Sokol Slet or festival in Chicago. At the IX All-Sokol Slet held in Prague in 1932, American members of this organization had performed and now 135 members of Sokol from Czechoslovakia headed by the leader of the Czechoslovak Sokol Organization, Dr. Stanislav Bukovský came to Chicago. Dr. Bukovský had become the head of Sokol following the death of its long-time leader Josef Schiner in 1932. Other events at the Czechoslovak Day included the "Ride of Kings" folk parade and the day was brought to a close by an allegorical play entitled My Homeland. That evening Bedřich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride was performed. Attending the Czechoslovak National Day was František Soukup, President of the Senate, the upper house of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic. Over the course of the Expo, more than 6.5 million people visited the Czechoslovak Pavilion. An obligatory stop for Czech and Slovak patriots was a visit to the ship of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, who was preparing for a second trip to the South Pole. Visitors from Czechoslovakia as well as Czech and Slovak compatriots readily paid the 25-cent admission fee to tour his ship anchored in the southern section of the lagoon. Why? Because one member of Byrd's first Antarctic expedition was a Czech, Václav Vojtech (who had died tragically on June 8, 1932). As a part of this expedition, Vojtech reached the Antarctic Circle on December 10, 1929 and became the first Czechoslovak to set foot on the continent of Antarctica on January 27, 1930.

Jaroslav Halada

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