Regilded Gate

The promoters of world's fairs like to describe their shows as exhibitions of culture. For that reason Grover Whalen long insisted that New York's World of Tomorrow would have no displays of nudity, a rule not too closely observed. San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition felt the same way. It allowed Sally Rand to establish a "Dnude Ranch" on Treasure Island, but boasted in advance that its Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts would draw more paying customers.

The handsome Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts, described as a $35,000,000 exhibit--destined at Fair's end to become an airplane hangar--proved that the Exposition's officials were wrong about human nature. For six months the art gallery (admission 25-c---children 10-c-) never grossed so much as the "Dnude Ranch" (same price, no children admitted).

But last week Fair officials chortled. In the war between culture and sex, culture had finally won a victory and on no less a battlefield than Treasure Island. Figures for the first three weeks of August showed that the Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts had outgrossed Sally Rand by $776.25.

Turning Point. This triumph was not the only corner which the Exposition had turned. By last week it had collected over 7,000,000 paid admissions. This week the Exposition releases for the first time figures on its financial condition.

None too happy were the Fair's first four months of operations. It had $4,900,000 in debts. Of these $1,600,000 were bills due to contractors for services and supplies, and $3,300,000 were loans from banks and corporations. Under the amateur guidance of plump, pompous Director

Harris De Haven Connick the Fair opened with $4,000,000 more debt than anticipated and it could not have been completed in time for the opening had not Standard Oil Co. of California and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. put up loans of $800,000 and $200,000 respectively.

At the end of three months, the Fair had made nothing from operations and was practically ready for receivership. Early in May the two most interested members of its board of management virtually became its receivers: cagey Standard Oil of California Director Philip Halsey Patchin and solid Pacific Gas & Electric President James Byers Black. They fired Director Connick (annual salary: $17,500) and hired*(at no salary) a new director, smart, baldish Dr. Charles Henry Strub, onetime ball player and chain dentist, present-day Santa Anita race-track operator.

The new director shook up the management. In the Fair's outdoor plaza, Temple Compound, Dr. Edwin Franko Goldman, whose brass band had been playing classical music to crowds of around 1,500 a day, was replaced by swing band leaders, notably Benny Goodman whose hot band played to 2,000,000 customers in five weeks. The Fair's admissions jumped, by last week were averaging 37,600 daily. At this rate by its closing date, December 2, it would have 12,000,000 customers, 40% fewer than originally expected, 13% fewer than San Francisco's 1915 exposition. But at this rate it is netting a good operating profit instead of barely meeting expenses.

Red or Black. In round numbers the Golden Gate Exposition's figures through July 31 showed:

Paid admissions $1,940,000

Concessions (2 to 40% of gross business of restaurants, amusements, etc.) 1,270,000

Fair's concessions (gross of Cavalcade and other Fair shows) 1,155,000

Service charges for maintenance, etc.; resale of electricity to exhibitors; royalties on souvenirs, & miscellaneous 2,285,000

Total Operating Revenue $6,650,000

Payroll (1,800 employes) $2,300,000

Operations & maintenance (upkeep of grounds, materials and supplies, etc.) 1,340,000

Purchase of electricity, gas,

water 450,000

Interest on bank loans 310,000

Total Operating Expenses. .. .$4,400,000 Net Operating Income $2,250,000

These figures for 164 days of operation do not yet include the month of August (the Fair's,best so far) nor do they show that practically the entire operating profit was made in the last two months of the six accounted for. In 124 days (Aug. 1 to Dec. 2) to go the Fair has a good chance of breaking even.

For the Golden Gate Exposition was not set up like New York's World of Tomorrow. The New York Fair burdened itself with $26,995,000 worth of bonds which were supposedly to be paid off, and although it has operating profits of $4,105,000, it has still some $30,000,000 of bonds and debts to pay off.

The Golden Gate Exposition instead of selling bonds collected $6,000,000 in "contributions" and the contributors have only an equity in any possible net profits. So the Exposition had as liabilities only its $4,900,000 of bank loans, debts to contractors etc., of which $686,000 has been paid off. The Fair has now in the till upwards of $1,500,000 (allocated to its creditors but not yet paid), leaving its net liabilities at approximately $2,650,000.

With any luck its operating profits for September, October and November will reach this figure.

Pay Off? The $4,900,000 which the San Francisco Fair must pay off to break even is only about 10% of the $50,000,000 invested in the Exposition. There are few figures to show whether the exhibitors who spent an estimated $13,000,000, the State which gave $5,000,000, and the Federal Government which spent $1,500,000 will get their money's worth. But there are data which indicate what the contributors of $6,000,000 to the Exposition corporation are getting in the form of business.

California has this year the biggest rush of tourists in its history, has taken from them at least $100,000,000 of new business. For this a quiet, gangling Texan named Clyde Milner Vandeburg (32), director of Fair promotion, and his assistant, beaming Crompton Bangs Jr. (29), former G-Man are largely responsible. Two years ago Promoter Vandeburg talked Fair managers into selling their Big Show rs a peg on which to hang a national campaign of travel to eleven far-western States instead of merely plugging San Francisco. To tie the westward movement into a national travel merry-go-round between the two U. S. fairs, Vandeburg went East to see Grover Whalen, impresario of the World of Tomorrow. As Vandeburg remembers it, Grover Whalen responded to his proposition by saying,

"We don't need any cooperation. Ours will be the greatest fair ever built. We do not recognize the San Francisco Fair. It is not an international exposition. You couldn't have had a fair without Federal money. We don't want it or need it."

Some results of Vandeburg's scheme:

>Railroad travel into San Francisco in July was up 166% over last year, 80% for the entire Pacific seaboard. From March through July it topped 1938 by 93% in the San Francisco area, 39% for the Pacific Coast.

>San Francisco and Los Angeles hotels figure their business is better by 50% than last year.

>At close of the year's first seven months, 286,230 out-of-State automobiles entered California (a 16% increase over 1938; 40% over July 1938).

>Some July tourist increases over 1938 at Western national parks: Yosemite, 100%; Muir Woods (about 32 miles from San Francisco), 159%; Glacier. 22%; Yellowstone, 6.5% (a near record).

>Air travel to San Francisco was up 40% for the first half of 1939, up 79% in July.

>Bus travel to the Pacific Coast in July topped last year by 20%.

>July business of San Francisco restaurants was 40% above last year.

For most of this extra business San Francisco and the Pacific Coast thank the Golden Gate Exposition. Since the Fair will probably break even this year, it will not have to run a second year. Fair officials are not yet considering 1940. But since tourist trade has become a vital part of California's economy, community pressure may force the Golden Gate Exposition to run a second year--because it is a success.

*In the interim Fair Director Atholl McBean (nicknamed by irreverent Fair employes "Sweet Pea III") tried to straighten out the mess, failed.

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