Goodbye to Expo

To the roar of cannons and fire works bursting in air, Montreal's Expo 67, last week closed down the turnstiles to what had been, by almost all measures, the most successful world's fair in history. In the surge of last-day crowds, souvenir hunters made off with a guitar autographed by the Beach Boys from the U.S. pavilion and a nativity crib from the West German pavilion. But no amount of petty vandalism could sully Expo's singular triumph: in just six months the fair had racked up a total attendance of 50 million*--20 million more than had been expected.

Statistically, Expo was a staggering success. Of the pavilions that kept track of attendance, the Soviet ranked first with 10,500,000, followed by the U.S. (9,250,000), Czechoslovakia (7,000,000), Canada's Telephone Association (6,000,000) and Britain (5,000,000). Open pavilions like Canada's and West Germany's, as well as Habitat also attracted millions but kept no official count. Only limited capacity held Labyrinth's attendance down to 1,200,000.

Expo was the fair of films; a visitor could have spent the entire six months watching movies and still not have seen them all. Francis Thompson's We Are Young at the Canadian Pacific pavilion drew 2,500,000 viewers. Mixing live actors and film, the Czech pavilion's small, 150-seat theater managed to pack in 67,000 to see its Kino-automat, and almost 20,000 viewers fainted or grew queasy at Meditheater's visceral show. Live performers also did well. World Festival troupes played to an audience of 2,136,400. In all, fairgoers watched 1,035 different individual entertainers and groups put on a grand total of 17,823,000 performances.

Despite its success, Expo may still wind up with a $250 million deficit. But as far as Montreal and Canada are concerned, it was worth it. For the fair leaves behind a splendid legacy of international good will and national pride--not to mention an embarrassment of riches. Thirty-six nations have already agreed to hand over their pavilions to Montreal, and Mayor Jean Drapeau, the originator of Expo, is casting about for ways to make the island sites into a permanent summertime exhibit and tourist attraction. Among his envisioned lures: Buckminster Fuller's U.S. geodesic dome, converted into the world's largest arboretum and aviary.

*Compared to 51.6 million at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, 41.5 million at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.