Off to the Fair

In their first appearance at Vienna's International Trade Fair last week, U.S. manufacturers waltzed off with the show.

Serenaded by electric organ and jukebox music, more than 200,000 Viennese were guided around the U.S. pavilion by 18 pretty English-speaking hostesses, stared wide-eyed at exhibits by 77 manufacturers, e.g., Kelvinator's fully equipped kitchen, illustrating every facet of American life. Outside, visitors lined up for free trips on a Bell helicopter, which caused as much stir as a space ship.

By contrast, the Viennese showed little enthusiasm for Russia's permanent pavilion, stuffed with dowdy furs, and autos patterned after outmoded U.S. styles. Applauded Vienna's Das Kleine Volksblatt; "The Americans stole the show. They show us how we could live if we had plenty of money. But they do it in a way that makes us forget we do not have it."

Indonesia to Italy. The U.S. debut on the Danube followed a similar success a fortnight ago in Stockholm. There, the prize U.S. attraction was a handsomely furnished, California-style model home, filled with 370 appliances. Last week Yankee salesmanship was also proving just as effective at Djakarta's Indonesian International Fair. More than 30,000 visitors a day poured through the gates to see the first TV show ever broadcast in Indonesia.

The U.S. exhibit, from an aqua-green Thunderbird to an automatic voting machine on which visitors registered their favorite products, easily outdazzled competition from Red China, even though its display of heavy equipment included machinery made in satellite Europe.

From Indonesia to Italy this month, the U.S. will show its wares and way of life in seven fairs, in accordance with a program blueprinted a year ago by President Eisenhower. Alarmed that Russia had peddled its goods at 133 fairs in four years, while U.S. exhibitors stayed home, the President obtained a $5,000,000 grant last year from Congress to put the U.S. on the world fair circuit. The aim: build world trade and good will. In its first year, the program did both: more than 12,000,000 visitors in 15 countries gained an insight into how Americans live, while 25,000 trade inquiries were received from foreign businessmen.

Double or Bust. The program, although Government-directed, was made possible only with the cooperation of 1,000 companies. They have lent nearly $900,000 worth of products, sent top executives off to teach businessmen overseas how to sell to the U.S. Reflecting support from all segments of the economy, the U.S. next month at New Delhi will show the biggest atoms-for-peace exhibit ever assembled, in November will spread a model farm over 175 acres outside Addis Ababa.

Reaction abroad is summed up in a cable sent Fair Director Roy F. Williams from the Salonika Fair in Greece this month: "Attendance 52,000 our exhibit. Total fair attendance 52,000." In the program's second year, with more exhibits than ever and bookings at 18 fairs, Showman Williams predicts: "We'll double last year's attendance or bust."

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