Bernbauch and the World Fair 1939 - OUCA401

Bernbauch and the World Fair 1939

Bernbauch worked as a ghostwriter for Grover Whalen, who was the Head of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Over 44mn people attended its exhibits in two seasons, highlighting the importance of the fair. America was recovering from the Great Depression, where a quarter of the population had been unemployed (1933). Therefore, this World Fair was vital in how the world was going to perceive America, and so Bernbauch had an extremely important role. The fair was about the future (‘Building the World of Tomorrow'), and emphasised to the rest of the world that America was going to prosper after the Depression. Not only could America show that it was going to once again be the worlds leading economy, but American companies also got the opportunity to showcase their new products. Bernbach's work on the advertisement of the fair, which was also celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington in New York, helped him get a job at the advertising agency William H. Weintraub.