The Watson Dynasty
The Fiery Reign and Troubled Legacy of IBM's Founding Father and Son
Chapter OneDefining Moments
The world's fair in New York City at the end of the depression
decade was a big deal. Planning began in 1935. The fairgrounds
covered 1,216.5 acres in what had been a garbage dump in Queens.
By opening day, April 30, 1939, the moonscape that had been
Flushing Meadows was transformed, in the perhaps pardonable
hyperbole of the guidebook, into a "stupendous, gigantic, super-magnificent ... greatest show on earth." Time magazine called it
"the biggest, costliest, most ambitious undertaking ever attempted
in the history of international exhibitions."
Over sixty nations had pavilions and exhibits clustered around
the "Court of Peace" on the fairgrounds. Every major country was
represented save Germany. New York's mayor, Fiorello H. La
Guardia, had suggested in 1937 that a "Chamber of Horrors" be dedicated
to Nazi Germany. The Nazis did not see the humor in the idea
of the man they labeled "a dirty Talmud Jew," lodged a protest with
the State Department, and refused to participate in the festivities.
Dozens of corporations saw the fair, with its theme of "Building
the World of Tomo ... read full excerpt from Watson Dynasty, The ebook
