Press Releases

SOURCE: Eastman Kodak Press Release - Courtesy Gary Holmes Collection

For Immediate Release

KODAK PAVILION TO BE MAJOR WORLD'S FAIR ATTRACTION

The most fascinating story ever told about photography and its impact on our everyday lives has been promised visitors to the Kodak Pavilion at the New York World's Fair.

Now nearing completion, the Kodak Pavilion will be one of the ten largest industrial exhibits at the Fair. The two-level, uniquely designed structure will house over 15 separate show areas that will dramatize the vital role the camera's "searching eye" plays in science, medicine, industry, commerce, education, communications, history recording, outer space exploration, and leisure-time activities.

The exhibit will provide attractive and restful areas where fairgoers can relax, take pictures against exotic backdrops including a panoramic view of the Fair itself, discuss photography with experts and view collections of some of the world's finest photographs.

According to Lincoln V. Burrows, Kodak's director of World's Fair Planning, the exhibit will be an attraction not only for camera enthusiasts but for people of all ages and from all walks of life.

"Our pavilion will be a place where people will be able to do exciting things as well as see them," he said.

Many of the exhibits will incorporate audience-participation devices that will enable visitors to select photographic subjects of their choice for viewing, and practice new techniques to improve picture-taking skills.

One of the most spectacular features will be a giant, circular Picture Tower rising eight stories above the Fair grounds. Around the tower will be five huge outdoor color prints -- the world's largest. Each measuring 30 feet x 36 feet, they will be front-illuminate day and night by a specially-developed lighting system. The pictures, taken by crews of Kodak photographers in most countries of the Free World, will be changed every four weeks. Because the Picture Tower will be visible for miles around, it is expected to become a favorite rendezvous spot for Fair visitors.

A feature attraction at the Kodak Pavilion will be a major film production, "The Searching Eye" by Saul Bass, noted Hollywood graphics designer. Through dramatic applications of color photography and new multi-image, 70mm projection techniques, common-place and unusual wonders of the world will be presented as seen through the eyes and imagination of a 10 year-old boy. The continuous show will take place in a circular, air-conditioned theater capable of accommodating 35,000 people daily.

Of special interest to camera-carrying visitors will be the glass-enclosed, air-conditioned Information Center, staffed by Kodak technicians who will answer questions concerning photography. Helpful literature on how to photograph the Fair will be available and information will be posted announcing the photogenic events of the day around the Fair grounds. Kodak products will be on display and there will even be a darkroom where minor camera adjustments and repairs can be made for the public by the pavilion staff.

Multi-lingual attendants will be on duty in the International area to assist foreign visitors. The Salon area will feature prize-winning press, professional and amateur color photographs from all over the world.

A working model of the Tiros weather satellite will show how space photography is used in weather forecasting, and an animated model of a spaceman will demonstrate a library of the future on microfilm using a microfilm viewer -- all confined in his space capsule compartment.

Informative exhibits of photography in the graphic arts, news photography and the motion picture industry will be displayed. Newsworthy events at the Fair will be photographed and projected in the Kodak exhibit almost as they occur.

X-rays and their application to the physical well-being of man and his machines, their use in crime detection and other uses will be dramatized. Special exhibits will be devoted to expanding the picture-taking horizons of the amateur photographer.

Mr. Burrows estimates that it will take a visitor about four hours to see the complete Kodak exhibition. A number of attractions will be change from time to time as the Fair progresses.

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SOURCE: Eastman Kodak Press Release

For Immediate Release

September 10, 1964

Eastman Kodak is among those firms that count their participation in the Fair as "a profitable business investment."

Lincoln V. Burrows, director of world's fair planning for the company, siad that more than 4 million persons visited the Kodak Pavilion during the first 90 days of the Fair.

The Kodak Pavilion has placed consistently among the top ten exhibits in a popularity poll conducted weekly by the New York World's Fair Corporation.

"More than 70 per cent of the family groups that visit the Pavilion carry at least one camera with them," Burrows noted. He called the Fair "one of the most photographed events in history.

"Every time a shutter clicks at the Fair the photographic business gets another boost," Burrows said. "And the photos made at the fair mean more than immediate film sales and photofinishing. When the visitor returns home and shows his slides, prints, and movies he is promoting photography in a substantial way.

"Dealers, distributors, photofinishers, and other business customers are enthusiastic about the Kodak Pavilion and the company's World's Fair promotions," he said. "They anticipate, as we do, that the Fair and Kodak's participation will result in better business."

Burrows said he would not relate the company's participation in the Fair to specific gains in Kodak sales, but he did note that "Sales and earnings by the company's U.S. units were at record levels during April, May, and June.

Consolidated sales by Kodak's U.S. units in the second quarter of 1964 totaled $278,995,610, the highest in the company's history. Earnings for the quarter also set record highs.

The Kodak executive spoke also of other benefits to Kodak as a result of the World's Fair.

"The fair gives us a rare opoortunity to shake hands with those who use our products and those who are prospective customers," Burrows said.

"Like other firms represented at the Fair," he said, "we are intersted in telling the company story in a way that will help people to know us better," he continued.

"That objective is being met," he said. "Our market research people tell us that thousands of visitors to the Kodak Pavilion are learning, for the first time, of the company's size, scope, and diversification."

The Kodak Pavilion has been called the most complete and colorful exhibit ever assembled to display photography's pervasive scope. Visitors learn there that Kodak's interests extend far beyond the manufacture of cameras and roll film to chemicals, plastics, fibers, and a variety of products and processes that serve business, industry, medicine, science, and defense.

"We believe that our investment in the Fair -- upwards of $10 million -- will continue to produce a good return," he concluded.

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