Business screen magazine (1938)

NEW FIELDS for FILMS AT NEW YORK'S FAIR by Grover Whalen President, New York World's Fair, 1939 A New High mark in the use of motion pictures for educational purposes, for the betterment of Hving conditions, for the advancement of science, for the improvement of heaUh, and for the distribution of the products of industry will be reached on the thirtieth of next April when the New York World's Fair opens its gates. The largest number of film subjects ever to be assembled for a single enterprise will be shown upon the 1216 acres of the exposition at the New York World's Fair site. A conservative estimate of the number would be 350. Three hundred of these will be sponsored by the Fair itself. The greatest space ever devoted to the purpose of a screen will be used for the sound-picture portion of the presentation of the World of Tomorrow within the 200-foot Perisphere in the Theme Center where sixty million Fair visitors will be our guests at a magnificent portrayal of life in the future. The use of commercial films to demonstrate the value of a product, the scientific aspects of its manufacture, the precision methods of its assembly, or its proper function in the scheme of life, will receive the most hearty impetus in the history of motion pictures. Even at this early date, dozens of exhibitors have advised us of their intention to include commercial films to highlight their displays. Not only will motion pictures be shown on the grounds, but in three instances they will be made at the Fair. Two other feature pictures, made on the exposition site with the Fair used as a setting, will be shown throughout the world concurrently with the operation of the exposition. Three hundred of the best short subjects available selected for their educational, scientific and health value will be rotated in a continuous performance open free to the public fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, in an especially constructed theatre. In an area to be known as Children's World, artists will be shown drawing the pictures to be incorporated in an animated cartoon feature. All steps in the manufacture of these pictures will be exhibited and the completed product will be displayed in a lounge nearby. A novel use of motion pictures will make possible another form of entertainment in the same area. Children will ride on ponies which will be walked on treadmills. As they ride, they will watch motion pictures of travel scenes so projected that the youngsters get the effect of riding along the paths Rear screen projection of, motion pictures tells the theme story in the Communications huilding at Neio York's Fair. Another view of the design by Donald Deskey on our cover. and through the streets of foreign countrysides and cities. A steady flow of newsreel subjects will be made on the grounds, featuring international dignitaries, important events and spectacular presentations. One or two newsreel theatres within the Fair will offer these films. Nearly every important exhibitor and dozens of smaller ones will include a commercial film in their exliibits, in many cases to complete the story of their presentation from the raw material to the finished product. A feature picture to be called "Cavalcade of America" will form an important part of the United States Government's $3,000,000 exhibit at the Fair. Still another effective use of motion pictures will be made by the designers of the Fair's six huge, free focal exhibits where the screen will enhance the general effect by emphasis or will carry the thread of the story between the animated and mechanical portions of the show. For example, in the focal exhibit on transportation the story of transportation will be told by motion pictures thrown upon a wide, maplike screen, beginning with a film depicting the caveman trotting through an aboriginal forest, to be followed by shots of his immediate descendants learning to use a sled, and so on. When the films reach the story of transportation as it exists today, a model rocketport will go into operation as a climax to the exhibit. We are constantly expanding our plans for motion-picture participation in the Fair, but enough has been developed to make certain that we shall usher in a new era of appreciation of the power of this form of education and entertainment. 15