Fair Profit

Of all businesses the most uncertain is show business. And of show businesses the most uncertain are fairs. And of fair businesses the most uncertain are world fairs which require huge investments, huge ballyhoo. Last week when A Century of Progress cast up its accounts, it was clear that Impresario Rufus Dawes* had done what has never been done before: he made a world's fair pay. From January 1928 to December 1934 A Century of Progress had taken in $29,321,876 from paid admissions, space rentals, concessions, contributions, etc. Most debts and expenses, totaling $28,548,225, had been paid, including $10,000,000 to bondholders. That left the fair with a net balance of $773,651 on Dec. 31. After it has completed demolition, satisfied a few remaining claims, paid off a skeleton staff now cleaning up odds & ends, A Century of Progress will turn any surplus over to Chicago's South Park Board, whose land was used for exhibits, and to scientific institutions.

*Last week Rufus Dawes's son Charles Cutler Dawes, Colonel in the Illinois National Guard, filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy listing debts of $532,874. His only tangible assets: $300 worth of military equipment and uniforms. With his family of three Son Charles, whose brokerage business was suspended in 1931, lives with Papa Dawes on Lake Shore Drive.

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