Excerpts of transcription of remarks made by Seven-Up and World's Fair officials at Seven-Up Ground Uniting Ceremonies, New York World's Fair, Wednesday, May 15, 1963.

MR. MARTIN STONE [Director, Industrial Section]: The Seven-Up Company has been through a long process of preparation for this occasion and I see here many people who have worked long and hard to make this possible -- particularly the representatives of the J. Walter Thompson Co., Mr. Strouse and his representatives, Mr. Jardine and Ted Royal, who initiated these discussion in behalf of the Fair, and The Seven-Up Company. We are most grateful to them for their help, encouragement and advice. And for Seven-Up, Ben Wells, vice president of Sales and Advertising; Howard Ridgway, vice president of The Seven-up Company and president of The Seven-Up Export Corporation; John Furnas; and of course, Nate Becker, who still has his job before him. We thank them all for the long, sometimes difficult but happy outcome of this occasion.

For the Fair I would simply like to say that I have seldom been more impressed with any company as I have been with The Seven-Up Company, particularly the integrity and the desire to participate on a cooperative basis with the Fair. I think Mr. Wells is a standard of Seven-Up's integrity. I would like now to introduce the vice president in charge of Sales and Advertising of The Seven-Up Company, Mr. Ben Wells.

Mr. Howard Ridgway, vice president of The Seven-Up Company and president of The Seven-Up Export Corporation, performing the "ground uniting" for The Seven-Up Exhibit. Shown with Mr. Ridgway are children of officials of various embassies with samples of their native earth, and to the right is Mr. Ben Wells, vice president in charge of Sales and Advertising of The Seven-Up Company.

Discussing the model of The Seven-Up Exhibit are: (left to right) Mr. Howard Ridgway, vice president of The Seven-Up Company and president of The Seven-Up Export Corporation; General William E. Potter, executive vice president of the Fair; Mr. Ben Wells, vice president in charge of Sales and Advertising of The Seven-Up Company; Mr. Nathaniel Becker, designer of the pavilion; and Mr. Martin Stone, director of the fair's Industrial Section.

MR. BEN WELLS: For this traditional ceremony to launch a new edifice there is no spade, shovel or spoon -- not even a swizzle stick to dig with. Customarily, the symbolic turning-up of earth by amateur diggers opens the way for construction. Everyone is thinking more of the structure-to-be than of the dirt that gives way for it. The structure embodies plans and hopes and dreams. It is the dream of what will occupy the space that concerns us now. So rather than digging, let's visualize the dream.

The pavilion was conceived and translated into drawings and specifications by Becker & Becker & Associates, Inc., designers. As construction proceeds, the area will sprout a bevy of domes resembling billowing canopies tied to earth at the four corners, in designs of varied pastel shades in harmony with the color scheme of the exhibit motif.

The graceful 110-foot tower holds aloft a clock with four faces in a ball and another ball with the Seven-Up insignia facing four ways, so that Fairgoers throughout the area can look up and see what time it is.

Each dome shelters an area of 600 sq. ft and there are twenty-four such domes around the main building interspersed with fountains which convert to stages for musicians and international entertainment provided by John Krimsky Productions.

This is a joint project of The Seven-Up Company, The Seven-Up Export Corporation, and six franchised Developers of the Metropolitan New York area; the Seven-Up Bottling Companies of Brooklyn, Norwalk, Connecticut, and Newark, Hackensack, Plainfield, and Washington, New Jersey, The Seven-Up New York World's Fair Associates.

The designer's drawings give these domes the mundane working name of "dining shells." Under each dome there are tables and chairs, designed by the late Eero Saarinen. To these airy refectories the guests bring their trays from the service counters in the central building where they make their selections of sandwiches from the Brass Rail and Seven-Up -- an inevitable choice.

So Seven-up makes its contribution to the theme of the Fair -- Peace through Understanding. The universal taste appeal of this truly international soft drink points up the common likes of people wherever they live and whatever their nationality. Our materialistic purpose in this exhibit is, of course, to demonstrate the properties of Seven-Up for thirst-quenching refreshment, for drinking at mealtime, and the affinity of Seven-Up for food. Our idealistic purpose is to demonstrate the world community of comestibles and the good eatables and drinkables we have to share with each other. Perhaps a common denominator of taste -- a soft drink -- can be a symbol of international unity.

As a tangible manifestation of that unity, we have arranged a ceremony which deviates from ground-breaking. It is "ground uniting." Soil from lands around the world has been shipped to the headquarters of The Seven-Up Export Corporation, in New York.

The Seven-Up Export Corporation asked its franchised Developers in some fifty countries to send samples of their native earth. We are going to unite this good earth from other nations with the soil of the United States. The imported soil will be reinfused with growth-producing elements and the amalgam will be used for the plants and flower beds in the landscaping of the Seven-Up International Sandwich Gardens.

One more jar is being added by The Seven-Up Company -- two pounds of soil from the site of the Gateway Arch rising on the banks of the Mississippi in downtown St. Louis. The Seven-Up Company is located in St. Louis, where Seven-Up began over thirty years ago, and this soil represents the 500 Seven-Up franchised Developers in the United States.

This is a uniting rather than a breaking of ground. On behalf of Mr. H.C. Grigg, president of The Seven-Up Company, and The Seven-Up New York World's Fair Associates, we unite these pieces of earth from the global sphere. Trusting in the concept of "strength in unity," Seven-Up is adding earth rather than taking it away from this Fair site. We hope and will endeavor to make the Seven-Up exhibit at the New York World's Fair truly a contribution to "Peace through Understanding."