Among the films screened at the World’s Fair include these two, which delighted and divided audiences.
by Rich Watson
During the 1964 World’s Fair, the Protestant and Orthodox Pavilion played Parable, a short film. The Johnson Wax Pavilion showed To Be Alive!, another short.
These two films had different agendas, to say the least, and had different receptions. One bewildered audiences. The other won an Oscar.
PARABLE
Post-WW2 Christian films
After World War 2, audiences responded to Biblical films, especially the ones from Hollywood. Popular productions included The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and The Robe.
Part of the reason was morality: showing plenty of sinful activity, as long as it’s punished by God in the end. Part of it was the trend in widescreen, Technicolor epics, to compete with the new medium of television. Part of it was an upswing in religion as a response to “godless” Communism.
And then came Parable.
A metaphorical take on Christ
Parable is a silent color movie commissioned for the Fair by the NYC Protestant Council of Churches. It was written and co-directed (with Tom Rook) by independent filmmaker Rolf Forsberg.
It puts an unusual spin on the gospels. A clown, who has more in common with the seventeenth-century Italian Pierrot than with Bozo, inserts himself into a traveling circus, doing tasks for other performers. He attracts attention, not all of it good.
Parallels to the tale of Jesus are there, though they’re broad and open to interpretation. It’s closer to The Seventh Seal than to King of Kings. Still, Time called it “an eloquent little film… thoughtful and beautifully handled.”
Fair Director Robert Moses was uncomfortable with Parable. When asked by him to drop it, the P&O Pavilion board of directors refused. The Pavilion’s executive director, Rev. Dr. Dan M. Potter, told the New York Times they would show it “because people want to see it.” The film still received criticism mixed with the kudos.
Forsberg discusses the reaction in this video. This positive review from a faith-based film blog describes how word-of-mouth helped Parable survive beyond the Fair but before VCRs. In 2012, the Library of Congress entered it into the National Film Registry.
Religious representation at the World’s Fair
The P&O Pavilion was one of several religious exhibits at the Fair.
- A Vatican Pavilion shipped Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture all the way from Italy.
- There was a pavilion hosted by preacher Billy Graham (who also denounced Parable).
- The Mormons recreated the Salt Lake City Tabernacle.
- Israel co-sponsored a pavilion with the US, though they endured a controversy of their own.
TO BE ALIVE!
About Johnson Wax
Today, Johnson Wax is known as SC Johnson & Son. They make household cleaning products and various consumer chemicals: Fantastik, Ziploc, Raid, Windex, Pledge, etc. Their Racine, Wisconsin headquarters was designed by Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright.
Wright also designed the Fair pavilion, which showed To Be Alive!
A hopeful message in a time of strife
TBA, co-directed by Francis Thompson & Alexander Hammid, is a documentary showcasing the human condition with an emphasis on youth.
We see children and teens in countries around the world (not just the first world, either) doing their thing and living their lives. Modern audiences might call it patriarchal, but that’s just a reflection of the times in which it was made.
It also seems Pollyana-ish at first, given the conditions in the world—and New York—in 1964. In addition to the ongoing racial discord, for example, the Kitty Genovese murder happened earlier that year.
Johnson Wax head H.F. Johnson saw it another way, one more in tune with the Fair’s theme of “peace through understanding.” From the SC Johnson & Son website:
…Against that backdrop of pessimism and fear, H.F. wanted to offer up a film that would share a vision of peace, understanding and the joy of being alive. It was a pretty unconventional idea, and not one his executive team fully understood…
His gamble paid off. Among TBA’s accolades, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it “a most imaginative film and very beautifully done.”
Multiple screens for one movie
Part of TBA’s success had to do with its format.
In 1952, Cinerama allowed the viewer to take in 146 degrees on a single, curved screen. Thompson and Hammid attempted something similar.
They projected TBA onto three separate eighteen-foot screens. Each was separated by a foot of space yet united as one film. There were precedents for such a thing, but this was a unique experience for the Fair. The New York Film Critics Circle gave TBA a special award.
The Motion Picture Academy ruled it ineligible for the Oscars, however, because of its triple-screen format. The TBA producers created a seventy-millimeter version that played in Los Angeles in 1965. The next year, it won the Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subject.
After the Fair, the “Golden Rondelle” portion of the Johnson Wax pavilion was moved to the company’s Wisconsin headquarters.
To Be Alive! plays there still.
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News: I have a short story published in the November 2022 edition of the Jewish Literary Journal. I’m not Jewish, but my story has a Jewish protagonist. It’s a tale of rediscovering love after a tragedy. Let me know what you think on my Facebook page or e-mail me at rich.watson@gmail.com.
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Did you see Parable and/or To Be Alive! at the World’s Fair?
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