Abroad at Home

With all the fanfare of a neighborhood block party, Manhattan's R. H. Macy & Co. this week threw open its doors to "Italy-in-Macy's, U.S.A.," a million-dollar sale of Italian imports spread out over an entire floor of its New York store. More than 25,000 people crowded into the show the first afternoon, were waited on by clerks decked out in Italian costumes, watched Italian craftsmen blowing glass, tooling leather, making ceramics. Other exhibits: a full-size Venetian gondola, models of Columbus' flagship, a reproduction of St. Peter's Church, and a donkey cart (lent by General George C. Marshall, who got it as a present from grateful Sicilians), adorned with paintings of Truman and Marshall.

Among the more than 1,000 types of Italian imports on sale were everything from umbrellas and Provolone cheese to calfskin pocketbooks and Chianti. Macy's, working with the Italian government, scoured Italy for products it could sell in the U.S., tagged the affair Italy's "second Renaissance," invited other stores to set up their own foreign-trade fairs.

Paul G. Hoffman, who was a crack salesman before he became ECAdministrator, thought the fair was just the way to sell more foreign goods. Said he: Macy's show "will serve both America and Italy well, because it will give the Italians the opportunity of earning the dollars they so badly need for the purchase of essential American goods."

Around the U.S., other stores were plugging foreign goods as hard as Macy's. Into Boston Harbor last week steamed the British cruiser Superb and the frigate Snipe. Over the side came a stream of sailors, who, as bands played, marched straight for Boston's Jordan Marsh Co. department store to open up its "Salute to Britain." On display were $750,000 worth of British imports. Dallas' A. Harris & Co. ended its exhibition of more than 5,000 imports from 26 countries, while Los Angeles' J. W. Robinson Co. got ready to put on a similar show. In Denver, Daniels & Fisher wound up its annual "Foreign Fair." Said D. & F. President Edward Yourell: "It was a sensation, and it gets better every year."

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