1
MARCH
21, 19 63
Swedish pavilion
GROUNDBREAKING AT THE NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965
Following is a transcription of remarks made
by Swedish and World's Fair officials at the
groundbreaking ceremony for the Swedish Pa-
vilion, New York World's Fair, Thursday,
March 21, 1963.
AMBASSADOR RICHARD C. PATTERSON [Chief
of Protocol]: Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen. I am privileged to begin these
exercises by the presentation of a distinguished friend
who spent ten years as Consul General of Sweden in New
York City, and who I know regards New York as a
second home. He has held ambassadorial posts since he
left the Consulate General here, and I can conceive of
no one better fitted, with an understanding of both sides
of the Atlantic, than His Excellency Ambassador Lennart
Nylander, to address us on behalf of the Swedish con-
sortium which is organizing the Swedish Pavilion.
AMBASSADOR LENNART NYLANDER: Thank
you very much Mr. Ambassador for your courteous in-
troduction. Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen.
It is with the most sincere pleasure that I greet you here
today — our first visitors to the site where our Swedish
Pavilion will soon begin to rise. We are particularly
honored by the presence of His Royal Highness, Prince
Bertil of Sweden, who now starts his American visit by
breaking ground for the building to which millions and
millions of Fair visitors will come to breathe a bit of
Swedish air and learn more about our country.
We in the consortium for participation of private
Swedish industries are also pleased and honored by the
presence of Ambassador Gunnar Jarring from Washing-
ton and our United Nations Ambassador, Madame Agda
Rossel. Governor Poletti, we welcome you as a most
charming landlord, whom we already know quite well,
and I ask you to forward our greetings to your ingenious
president, Robert Moses, who I think is in Nassau right
Cover: His Royal Highness Prince Bertil of Sweden (center) presided at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Swedish Pavilion.
With him are (left) Governor Charles Poletti, vice president, International Division of the World's Fair Corporation and (right)
Ambassador Lennart Nylander, chairman of the Swedish Committee in the U.S.A.
1 1963 New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation
now, and express our regrets to him that he could not be
with us. Within a very short time more professional
ground diggers will move in here and start the construc-
tion of our pavilion. In it will be present the finest ex-
amples of advance Swedish industry and research as well
as handicrafts and arts of our country, all around the
theme, "Creative Sweden." Mr. Moses has called this
Fair the greatest show in our time. I can promise you an
exciting and interesting Swedish participation in that
show. Thank you all for coming out here to this ground-
breaking.
AMBASSADOR PATTERSON: Thank you Your
Excellency. You mentioned the Swedish Ambassador to
Washington, the Honorable Gunnar Jarring and I'd like
to introduce him to those who don't already know him.
And in particular do I wish to present a good friend of
ours who has been at the United Nations quite a long
time, Her Excellency Madame Agda Rossel.
Now ladies and gentlemen, the next speaker is Gov-
ernor Poletti. He is equally well known on both the
European and the American fronts, and as you know he
was the former governor of New York State and he was
the military governor of Rome during the last war, and
is now vice president of the Fair's International Division.
I give you your host, Governor Poletti.
His Royal Highness Prince Bertil of Sweden presenting a gob-
let as a sample of the Swedish art of glassmaking to Gover-
nor Charles Poletti, vice president, International Division.
PAVILION
OF SWEDEN
designed by
Stockholm architects
Sven Backstrbm
and Leif Reinius.
GOVERNOR CHARLES POLETTI: Thank you Mr.
Ambassador. Your Royal Highness, Mr. Ambassador,
friends. I'm very happy to be participating today in this
most significent event. This gives us at the World's Fair
tremendous joy and delight because we know it's been
a very difficult task to achieve the presence of Sweden at
our World's Fair. The difficulty, as many of us on this
platform know, has been caused by the fact that your
government cannot participate on account of its mem-
bership in the Bureau Internationale d' Expositions. But
into the breach stepped some very notable citizens of
your country, and they were able to create a consortium,
and since today is the commencement of what will un-
doubtedly be an exciting pavilion, I want to take a few
moments and probably abuse your patience by mention-
ing the names of the persons who have been stalwart
and devoted and persistent fighters to achieve this con-
sortium and a pavilion that will do honor to the splendid
people of Sweden.
I want, therefore, to mention first our dear friend,
Baron Lionhead. He says his name is different in Swedish
but for us at the Fair, he is Baron Lionhead. I also want
to express our appreciation to Rudolf Kalderen. We are
delighted that Ambassador Nylander is going to be the
general factotum for this pavilion, and we hope that at
the end of the Fair in 1965, he can truthfully say that
this fellow Poletti hasn't been a bad landlord.
In connection with the construction, may I take a mo-
ment to cite the various companies that have been active
in achieving this consortium: ASEA, the Nordiska Com-
pany, SAAB, the Johnson Concern, the Stockholm
Brewery, Pripp & Lyckholm, and the Svensk Form which,
as you know, does a lot of designs, textiles and handi-
craft, and Siporex.
I also want to commend your group for having selected
as its theme what I think is a most appropriate name,
"Creative Sweden." I told Ambassador Nylander when
we were in the hall back there that I like the name and if
I may use a non-Swedish term, going back to the country
of my own forbears, "Creative Sweden" is ben trovato,
I hope that in displaying the creativeness of your
country, you won't tell us only about the magnificent
designs and products of your country, but I trust that you
will remind the seventy million visitors, and most of
them will be American people, that Sweden has given
wonderful public servants to the world — Count Berna-
dotte, Dag Hammarskjold. I hope you will remind the
American people again that your country is the home of
the Nobel Prize.
These are significant contributions that are appealing
and will not only increase the education of the many
millions who will come here but also, I hope, will serve
to give these visitors spiritual uplift. This Fair is not a
trade fair, nor just an industrial enterprise. It is a greater
undertaking that has required years of effort to achieve
and we think it will give the people a spiritual uplift.
So may I reiterate my trust that in the Swedish Pavilion,
this "Creative Sweden," there will be a reminder of the
tremendous services that have been rendered to the world
by the people of Sweden.
Now I want to say in closing that we at the World's
Fair, speaking for President Moses and the executive com-
mittee, are honored and delighted to have the presence
of His Royal Highness, Prince Bertil on this auspicious
occasion. We know how busy he is, and we are grateful
for his taking the time to come here. We feel that his
presence here is that of a friend. He has been to out-
country before — I think this is his sixth trip — and he's
been over many parts of it. I'm pleased to note that
while he's here he is not forgetting the spot where we
have quite a few Americans of Swedish ancestry. I notice
his itinerary calls for a visit not only down at Fort
Cristina to commemorate the founding of the New
Sweden, but he's also touching little places like Chicago
and big cities like Rockfort, Illinois, where I am told
there are a few wonderful American citizens of Swedish
extraction.
In all events we are delighted and honored that he is
here. We think that his presence augurs well not only for
the Swedish Pavilion but also for the success of the
entire World's Fair. And to indicate in a small way our
appreciation of his sacrifice in taking time out to come
here, I'd like to present to His Royal Highness a little
token, a medal of the New York World's Fair. On one
side is our symbol, the Unisphere which is our own
world, and the motto of this exposition, "Peace Through
Understanding." On the other side of this medallion is
the seal of the City of New York, because in 1964 we
also commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding
of the City of New York. So, sir, it is indeed a great honor
for me to present this to you on behalf of the New York
World's Fair. Thank you again.
PRINCE BERTIL OF SWEDEN: Governor Poletti,
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. First of all I
would like to thank you very much indeed for the very
fine memento, this fine medallion which will remind me
of the New York World's Fair 1964-1965. It certainly
is a very fine medallion and I appreciate your kindness
very much, and I shall always cherish it as a good memory
of this ceremony.
Secondly, I would like to thank you very much for your
kind words of greeting to me and to my fellow country-
men and friends in Sweden. I would like to say that I am
certainly very happy to be back in the United States of
America again. It's always such a joy to come here. People
are so friendly and so kind. And especially today, to come
and visit this tremendous place, as we saw it today when
it was so very well, and if I may say so, so amusingly
described by Mr. Douglas Beaton.
And now this place where we are standing today is
supposed to be the Swedish Pavilion. So far it doesn't
look like much of a pavilion, but I know it will be when
the World's Fair is opened in April of 1964. And I hope,
ladies and gentlemen, that this World's Fair will encour-
age the good relationship between the United States and
Sweden. And may I say that I wish you all the best of
luck for the World's Fair, and I thank you very much.
I understand that I'm supposed to do the ground-
breaking and I'll do my best. But before we start there
is one task more I have been asked to perform by the
committee of the Swedish Consortium for the New York
World's Fair, and that is to give a small memento to the
World's Fair Corporation. And I should like to hand this
over to Governor Poletti with warm wishes, Godspeed
and good luck to you all.
SWEDISH PAVILION COMMITTEE FOR THE NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965
RUDOLF KALDEREN, Chairman Swedish Committee
ERIK LEIJONHUFVUD, Treasurer
COUNT SIGVARD BERNADOTTE, Chairman Planning Committee
FOLKE CLAESON, Secretary General
AMBASSADOR LENNART NYLANDER, Chairman US Committee
STIG ZETTERBERG, Genera/ Manager
SVEN BACKSTROM
LEIF REINIUS
JOHN L. O'BRIEN, JR.
Architects
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965 CORPORATION
Flushing 52, N. Y. Tel. 212-WF 4-1964
ROBERT MOSES, President
THOMAS J. DEEGAN, JR., Chairman of the Executive Committee
WILLIAM E. POTTER, Executive Vice President
CHARLES POLETTI, Vice President, International Affairs and Exhibits
STUART CONSTABLE, Vice President, Operations
WILLIAM BERNS, Vice President, Communications and Public Relations
ERWIN WITT, Comptroller
MARTIN STONE, Director of Industrial Section
GUY F. TOZZOLI, (Port of New York Authority) Transportation Section
ERNESTINE R. HAIG, Secretary of the Corporation and
Assistant to the President
WILLIAM WHIPPLE, JR., Chief Engineer
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