GREYHOUND EXHIBIT AT THE WORLD'S FAIR

With its Greyhound at the World's Fair, Inc. and the location in the Transportation Section of the New York World's Fair 1964/1965, The Greyhound Corporation has an excellent opportunity to "sell" to a good percentage of the anticipated 80 million people who are expected to attend the two-year New York World's Fair, the virtues of bus travel and the over-all services and subsidiaries of The Greyhound Corporation. In searching for the techniques which would be most valuable in the transmission of this basic message to the Fair audience, a great many factors were considered, and it was decided that a Greyhound World's Fair Exhibit would provide a "showcase" for the over-all Greyhound story. In addition to the means available to us at our numerous terminals, travel bureaus and agents throughout the country, as well as through our TV shows in 56 major markets and 300 newspapers, aboard GWF equipment, GWF tour guides and GWF information booths, the Fair-goer will also be invited into the Greyhound Exhibit Pavilion through the use of directional signing at the front of the building. Upon entering the Exhibit, the Fair-goer will be guided along a series of attractive descriptive panels which form a corridor some 30 feet long. The panels themselves will describe the scope of the Greyhound Corporation, its subsidiaries and services. Having negotiated this area, the Fair-goer will be guided through an entrance into the Circle Theater section.

30-foot long Corridor of Descriptive Panels leads to Circle Theater entrance. Information Circle kiosks can be seen against the rear wall of the Pavilion.

There are approximately 60 people in the group that the Fair-goer finds himself in, who have been conducted into a triangular area bound on two sides with 12 foot walls and appropriately railed in. After about one minute, a voice instructs the audience to keep their eyes on the wall before them. As the narration continues, the audience is given a description of a brief interesting history of ground transportation, both orally and through the use of an exciting series of colorful transparencies and projections. As the audience slowly revolves, this description then culminates in a rear projected, color sound film which pans down closer and closer to a Greyhound bus traveling through the countryside. As the camera virtually reaches the bus itself, the area beyond the walls is suddenly filled with a special stereo sound effect and full dimension color sound motion picture of the experience of being in the bus itself. For three minutes the audience shares with the bus passengers the intimacy and pleasure of bus travel, "seeing America close-up." As the film progresses and then goes dark, the audience has very slowly revolved, and is once again reached through voice narration, which proceeds to describe the large, lighted map of the United States and Canada in front of which the audience now passes; seeing as they go all of the cross-country, regional and local Greyhound bus routes which criss-cross the United States and Canada. This experience lasts approximately one and a half minutes. In his closing remarks, the narrator thanks the audience for their interest and invites them to step to the Information Counter, which will be immediately to their right after they have exited from the theater into the Exhibit Pavilion Area. This exciting and highly communicative show is made possible through the unprecedented use of a 38 foot diameter turntable as the moving Circle Theater. All of the mechanical apparatus and projection equipment are self-contained and are designed so as to require a minimum of maintenance.

Greyhound Pavilion Exhibit Area Floorplan

A- Corridor of Descriptive Panels

B- Circle Theater

C- Information Circle

D- Lady Greyhound Circle Area

SOURCE: Greyhound Corporation, New York World's Fair Marketing Information Letter No. 4, January 20, 1964

Having thus been instructed in the very core of the Greyhound story, the Fair-goer many now ask specific questions about travel and costs or any subsidiary services at one of several Information Circles. This Information Circle Area and its surrounding environment is designed in excellent contemporary taste and is provided with time-saving devices for the people staffing the area. These devices include a simultaneous projection screen, which permits the attendant to either hand write an answer to a particular question on a lighted panel at the counter, or place in this panel a pre-printed set of information which is then immediately cast upon an overhead umbrella screen, visible to passers-by and, of course, to the member of the audience who has provoked this particular answer. All of this is geared toward developing and sustaining the image of The Greyhound Corporation as a fast, accurate and courteous service organization whose interest are customer-oriented. Specifically beamed at the growing leisure time travel market, consisting of those who are older and desire tours both independent and escorted, we provide at the left of the Exhibit Pavilion the Lady Greyhound Circle Area, where people can relax and watch a 12 minute color sound movie of actual Greyhound tours. During the past year, we have produced these 12 minute films covering selected sections of the USA, Canada and Mexico. This is a smartly styled area which utilizes actual Greyhound bus seats set among planters, dividers, etc. The seating arrangement is designed so as to permit the seated audience to view two rear projection-type screens which will take them through various Greyhound tours through self-operated continuous projection with selected breaks to complete the showing or for other events. The screens roll back away and there is a small Special Events Stage which will, at predetermined times during the day, present such interesting events as "Lady Greyhound Appearances," and other special cooperative event programs as will be determined prior to and during the Fair. From this point, the Fair-goer has the alternate opportunities of stopping at the Post House Restaurant for food or drink or exiting from the pavilion. All in all, each member of the audience will have been treated cordially in an air-conditioned, smartly modern styled exhibit and will have developed an understanding of The Greyhound Corporation which will create a lasting impression and will influence their future choice of a transportation medium. Statistically, the exhibit can handle as many as 1,200 people per hour through the theater alone, and, of course, considerable more should they choose to look at the panel story, seek information, shop at the newsstand, relax in the Lady Greyhound Leisure Circle or have a meal at the most modern Post House Restaurant.

Across the Land in CinemaScope

from the Golden Gate to Manhattan's Towers by Greyhound

	A scene from the all-too-brief, four-minute CinemaScope color picture wich carries viewers on A Greyhound trip from California to New York and is the feature attraction in the Circle Theater (see sketch below).

BEHIND THE WIDE FACADE of the Greyhound Pavilion, lobby film showings of travel pictures entertain waiting bus riders but the main attraction is in the turntable "Circle Theater" which alternates illuminated transparencies, an animated map and synchronized slide showings on multiple screens with the main feature: a four-minute 35mm CinemaScope film journey from coast-to-coast, produced by Fred Niles Communications Centers, Inc. The film carries its viewers from the Golden Gate to the Grand Canyon (spectacular shots) -- through the Midwest and on to the towers of Manhattan. The turntable show is fast-paced, there's no long wait as four synchronized projectors show slides of travel history, give way to animated U.S. map. The "audio" then cites advantage of bus travel and guests are told about tours. But the "big show" is that four-minute CinemaScope film.

CIRCLE THEATER DESIGN FEATURES:

(A) Transparencies show travel history. (B) & (C) Projected scenes and aerial view are featured

(D) Screens for the synchronized slides.

Source: BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE Presented courtesy Eric Paddon Collection