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But these things are not enough to draw crowds, especially when the main entrance to the fair is so far away. The major shows of the area would have to do that, and they are not succeeding. Texas' huge production, To Broadway with Love, costs from $2 to $4.80 and is an oversized, undertalented anthology of Broadway show tunes—done by performers who seem to have been drawn from the senior class at high school. A circus playing to 35 people is one of the rainiest sights in the world, and one can see it in the Ringling tent. The circus is a good one too. Finally, the entire amusement area is ringed by American Machine & Foundry's monorail, which is a good ride but commands a view of the dreariest part of the fair.
Pike & Watusi. The ultimate amusement really comes with the fair's endless cosmopolitan touches, both great and trivial.
You can see how they dance in Guinea, buy a fez from Morocco, eat a soft-shell Maryland crab. While the Malaysians aren't looking, you can run Malaysian tin ore through your fingers. You can eat walleyed pike from Minnesota and see a chef from India baking bread in mud pots. In the calm oasis of the Irish pavilion, you can drink coffee primed with Irish whisky and listen on earphones to actors like Micheal MacLiammoir and Siobhan McKenna reading Yeats, Swift or Synge. In the Indonesian pavilion, you can look over the Indonesian girls that were personally selected by President Sukarno. There is even a portrait of a beautiful woman painted six years ago by Sukarno himself. Upstairs more girls dance to the gamelan music of Bali.
Fresh Sudanese dates cost 25¢, and 50¢ buys a look at the recently discovered 1,000-year-old Sudanese Madonna. You can watch a New York harnessmaker make a saddle and West Virginians blow glass. At the Singer exhibit, you can see jeweled woolen fabrics that cost $1,200 a yard. You can walk through the African pavilion, see Watusi dancers and royal Burundi drummers and have your eyes opened to a dozen nations you never knew existed, and a year or so ago you were right.
You can eat pastry flown from Tunis, drink Israeli orange soda, savor an Egyptian beancake sandwich, try a taco from Colombia, drink Greek wine, and sober up at an Indian tea bar. You can inspect benni seeds from Sierra Leone, pitchforks from Taiwan, and yourself on RCA color TV. You can see the Pietà of Michelangelo in the Vatican pavilion.
Totems & Pen Pals. You can see wonderful relics of the early West in a train that has come from Montana—an invitation to a hanging, a machine with which a bartender could mix drinks with his foot, Calamity Jane's thundermug, and Custer's watch. In Parker Pen's handsome pavilion, a computer can seine the world to find you a pen pal who matches your interests and talents. In the New York City building, there is a fabulous 100-ft. by 160-ft. model of the city, including every structure in all five boroughs, built at a scale of 1 in. to 100 ft. for $600,000.