Abstract
The United States Information Agency (USIA) was America’s international public diplomacy arm throughout the Cold War. The agency used various media to counter Soviet messaging and portray the United States in a positive light. One of the agency’s most effective means of conveying such messaging was through exhibitions, such as trade fairs and world’s fairs. Jack Masey was a skilled designer and diplomat whose experiences on the ground in India and Afghanistan in the early 1950s would shape the USIA’s approach to exhibit design and execution for decades to come. One of his most significant contributions to the agency’s success, was his oversight of the official American presence at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal, better known as Expo 67. Masey had originally planned for a three-screen film to be the centerpiece of the United States Pavilion, but this project did not go as planned. Directors Francis Thompson and William Friedkin both began preliminary work on the film before pulling out, and Masey spent a considerable amount of time pursuing other directors before offering renowned photographer and personal friend Art Kane the opportunity to make his first film. Kane may have been an inspired choice under other circumstances, but A Time to Play (1967) felt rushed and has largely been forgotten. However, an analysis of this film’s troubled production history shows surprising interactions between the American government and the independent, avant-garde, and Hollywood film industries.
Recommended Citation
Real, Brian
(2022)
"Designing Diplomacy: Jack Masey and Multiscreen Cinema at Expo 67,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.476
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol6/iss1/3
Figure 1: The United States pavilion at Expo 67 [The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 2: R. Buckminster Fuller and Jack Masey with a model of the dome for the 1956 Jeshyn International Fair [The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 3: LBJ at Expo 67 President Lyndon B. Johnson ascends what was then the world’s longest escalator while visiting the United States pavilion at Expo 67. Jack Masey is visible several steps behind him.[The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figures 4-5: The Guides' Uniforms at Expo 67 Jack Masey successfully convinced his fellow soldier from the Ghost Army, Bill Blass, to design the uniforms for guides at the United States pavilion at Expo 67.[The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 6: Ivan Chermayeff, Jack Masey, and R. Buckminster Fuller at Expo 67 [The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 7: The American Cinema Exhibit at Expo 67 An overhead view of the American Cinema exhibit at Expo 67, featuring enlarged photographs of Marlon Brando, Rudolph Valentino, Marlene Dietrich, and Greta Garbo. Visitors below examine a chariot from the 1959 film Ben-Hur.[The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 8: Statue at American Cinema Exhibit An unidentified, happy family gathers around a virility statue from the film The Prodigal (1955). An enlarged photograph of Humphrey Bogart is visible behind them.[The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 9: Sketch of the custom theatre for A Time to Play (1967) at the American pavilion at Expo 67. [Unknown author, The Jack Masey Archives, Metaform Design International (Private Collection)]
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Figure 10: A Time to Play (1967), three-screen title screen Director, Art Kane. [NARA 306.8634]
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Figures 12-13: A Time to Play (1967), image juxtapositions Although Art Kane removed most of his planned juxtapositions from A Time to Play (1967), he still included several for the sequence showing the game “Stop and Go.” However, the use of traffic signs for stopping and going and statues for when the children froze in place did not appear to carry deeper symbolic messages. [NARA 306.8364]