In Mr. Whalen's Image

(4 of 6)

Already the fair's business stimulus has spread far beyond Manhattan. Washington is sprucing up for an expected 5,000,000 more summer visitors than usual. The $100,000.000 worth of materials used in building the fair have come from every corner of the U. S. Labor has benefited by some 96,000,000 man-hours. American Express Co. reports an 8 to 10% increase in export and import freight due to the fair. Railroads, airlines, busses joyously await "the greatest travel movement in history."

All fair contracts were signed for one year, but it is no secret that this Greatest Show on Earth will probably run a second season. If admissions reach the estimated minimum of 40,000,000 (most people are expected to make at least three visits to the fair), Mr. Whalen's project will lose $3,941,445. If 50,000,000 attend, there should be a surplus of $1,024,158. If it is a two-year fair with 40,000,000 the first year, 24,000,000 the second, the surplus will rise to $8,269,555. Any loss will be borne by the bondholders.

Grover Whalen stoutly denies there is any likelihood of loss from war. He argues that only 500,000 of his hoped-for visitors are expected from Europe, that the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 succeeded in the face of a war, and that anyhow there is a strong nonwar omen in the fact that foreign exhibitors have not been holding back.

"Mr. President." Grover Whalen is popularly supposed to be nothing but a good front man. He is that, but he is also an overwhelming executive. He has dominated the career of the fair just as completely as the trylon dominates its landscape.

He arises at seven, has an hour's stiff exercise, tries to get to work before his three secretaries. Barrel-chested and haughty, he pads about his swank offices in the Empire State Building or another set of offices at the fair with regal pomp (stenographers greet him: "Good morning, Mr. President"). Once a week he confers with a management council, whose three chief members are Vice Presidents Howard A. Flanigan, John Philip Hogan and Stephen F. Voorhees. Mr. Hogan is the fair's chief engineer, Mr. Voorhees its chief architect. Howard Flanigan is as close as anyone gets to being No. 2 man. He is officially in charge of commercial exhibits, concessions, and the amusement area.

In keeping with the Whalen vanity as well as the Whalen dominance, all fair publicity releases go out in his name alone. He personally arranged and signed most of the major contracts, hired most of the important employes. His salary is supposed to be $100,000 and he earns it with such smart stunts as the commercial tie-ups he arranged for the fair. He has licensed the trylon & perisphere design for use on some 25,000 products—wallpaper, jewelry, furniture, cameras, rugs, etc.—at a royalty of 3 to 10% of the wholesale price of such articles sold. This has already produced $100,000 in unbudgeted revenue, is expected to bring in $1,000,000 eventually.