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Hong Kong Street Scene from The Coca-Cola
Company's "Global Holiday"
Source: Peter
Warner Collection Courtesy Bradd Schiffman Collection
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Entering the Global
Holiday from the sunny courtyard
of the pavilion, guests find themselves in the lobby of an old-world
hotel in Hong Kong. An ancient unattended switchboard blinks,
and a voice in Chinese summons the operator through the headphone
resting on the dusty registration desk.
Leaving the hotel, visitors
are in a crowded Hong Kong street where well-worn cobblestones
push through the asphalt pavement. Overhead hundreds of Chinese
signs hide the night sky. Babbling conversations from houses,
wind bells and tinkling Chinese music blend with the smell of
pungent spice and fresh fish. Lining the streets are shops bursting
with native Chinese wares. Across floating sampans in the harbor
are Kowloon's twinkling lights.
From the congested street,
a blue stone path leads to a peaceful and romantic Indian garden.
In the distance, past a spray of fountains, is the moon-bathed
Taj Mahal. Delicate music and jasmine fill the air.
A pause, and visitors walk
into a cozy ski lodge high in the Garmish-Partenkirchen area
of the German Alps. The rough pine walls are decorated with ski
club insignias. A welcoming fire crackles in the stove, and upstairs,
people are singing German folk tunes. Outside, in the cool, balsam-scented
air, visitors see the front of the rustic, snow-covered lodge
perched on a rocky ledge. The Alps glisten in the distance.
Leaving the mountains, walkers
enter a humid Indo-Chinese rain forest. Their feet sink into
the leaf-matted jungle floor. Through the dense, lush foliage,
penetrated only by a few sunbeams, is the stone face of a god
of the Temple of Angkor Wat. Two bottles of Coca-Cola cool in
a rushing stream near-by. The sound of the water tumbling over
the rocks mixes with the chattering of monkeys and the shrill
calls of the jungle birds. Looking at the safari jeep parked
in the underbrush, the visitor may catch a movement out of the
corner of his eye. The monkey moved! Looking more closely, he
also sees that the frog croaking on the side of the pond is breathing
and a near-by ant-eater is nodding his scaly head.
Ending the Global Holiday,
the visitor boards a cruise ship anchored off Copacabana beach
for a night view of Rio de Janerio. From the deck, guests can
see the shining lights of the buildings on shore. Gay Latin music
bubbles from the mirrored lounge, bright with party decorations.
American magazines and newspapers
have complimented the Global Holiday. Time called it "the
Fair's best trip of all," and commented that, unlike some
exhibits where visitors are whisked by on moving platforms, people
can see the exhibit at their own speed. Time included
it in its "Best of the Fair" list.
Forbes, a business publication, said it was up to
The Coca-Company's "very high standards." The magazine
said the walk-through has an "almost magical transition
through sight, sound and smell."
New York World Telegram
and Sun hailed it as the "most
attractive free exhibit . . . Adding sound, temperature and scent
to already vivid scenes . . . the exhibit designers created an
effect that is stunning, realistic."
Following the Global Holiday
in the World of Refreshment is an exhibit of paintings and sculpture
from Georgia, the home of The Coca-Cola Company.
Art and Artifice
Formal art isn't the only
kind at the pavilion. Art and artifice of another type went into
the creation of the special effects in the Global Holiday, but
calculated realism, rather than art for its own sake was the
goal.
Designer Gerard Van Duyn, left, assisted by Frank Pisani, pores over plans
for Rio scene.
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Blending the actual and the
artificial is the key to the special effects. The Global Holiday
is an isolation area which takes the visitor away from the disturbances
from the environment outside. The isolation area is divided into
experience areas, each of which has three zones: touch, intermediate
and scenic. In the touch zones, people's attention is directed
to particular effects; full scale and real materials are used.
The scenic zones are really theatrical effects intended to be
seen only. The intermediate zone establishes the change in perspective
from real to make-believe and visually bridges the other two.
Unlike Fair exhibits where
the position of the viewer is carefully controlled, the Global
Holiday was planned so that people can see and touch everything.
At the point where visitors view the Taj Mahal, real marble and
blue stone tiles were used in the touch zone. People can lean
on the edge of the fountain and put their hands in the water.
The sari-clad figure sitting on the far edge of the pool establishes
the perspective and the model of the Taj, made to scale from
actual floor plans, completes the theatrical scene. Where visitors
cannot touch the stone, vinyl floor covering and wood molding,
painted white and brushed with feathers dipped in darker paint,
create the illusion of marble.
Even when materials in the
Global Holiday are true to life, colors may be altered to create
special moods. To give the ship's deck a romantic feeling, it
was painted pink to look like a reflection of the evening glow
from the shore lights.
The lifeboat in this scene
was so real, it attracted a "stowaway." For nine days,
successfully evading searching police, 12-year-old Dominick Tucci
lived at the Fair and slept in the lifeboat one night. A small
plaque was placed on the boat to commemorate his adventure --
"Dominick Slept Here."
Dominick Tucci and happy dad.
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Source: The
Refresher, The Coca-Cola Company Magazine, Date Unknown,
courtesy Bradd Schiffman Collection
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