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'World's Largest' From '64 FairBig Cheese Due HomeWisconsin legislators and Madi son residents wUI have their flrsl look Monday at the highly publi nzed “World’s Largest Cheese” when It goes on exhibit at the Monona st. entrance to the state Capitol building.Just returned from its 1964 World’s Fair showing, the Cheddar—largest ever made—will be unveiled in its glass and chrome 45 - foot “Cheesemobile which soon will start on a tour of major cities to continue advertising the Wisconsin cheese and dairy industry.Promotional Arm The 17ty-ton mammoth, which used 170,000 quarts of milk to produce in a continuous 43-hour operation at Steve’s Cheese near Green Bay, is owned by the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation, 115 W. Main st.The foundation is the promotion- j a! arm of the 71-year-old Wiscon- j sin Cheeaemakers Assn., whose] annual convention at Green Bay Tuesday and Wednesday will be featured by appearance of t h e Cheesemobile.The target of considerable criticism that it was not favorably located at the fair, that it was too commercial, that it was not well displayed at the rear of the Wisconsin Pavilion and too close to a| steakhouse, the 34,591 • pound “Golden Giant” nevertheless confounded its critics by attracting more than a million people a month and proving to be one of the fair’s most publicised attractions.Asked to comment on these criticisms, Roland C. Behle. managing director of the foundation, said the cheese was located at the rear of the privately financed pavilion to draw people through it.Fair Commercial “As it was, we had to spend several thousand dollars to build a special road to get the huge, heavy tractor-trailer up to the rear of the building,” he said. “It would have been prohibitive to get It to the front, where no space was available “As to the pavilion and our exhibit being too commercial,” he continued, “the entire fair is commercial. The 1939 fair lost $18 million, whereas this 'commercial’ fair is paying off it* entire $30 million bonded debt the first year.”More than 1.5 million people pa tronized the steakhouse, according to Behle, with the result that many more saw the chese than otherwise would have.He said that several state exhibits are In the red, due to excessive costs, whereas the Wisconsin Pavilion is described by Genera] Potter, assistant to Robert Moses, who planned the fair,This Is How Holiday Magazine, in a Summertime Issue, Paid a Humorous Tribute to Wisconsin's Cheeseall the 24 state exhibits at the exposition.Proven SuccessNew York spent $16 million on its project. The Missouri building just across the Avenue of t h e United Nations from the b i g cheese cost $4 million,” Behle said. All of this and much more was taxpayers’ money, but the Wisconsin Pavilion did not. cost Wisconsin citizens a penny.”As an advertisement of Wisconsin’s multi-million-dollar c h eese industry, largest in the world, the cheddar has proven to be a success.The foundation's sera pbook contains so many stories and pictures from newspapers and trade journals that, if they were laid end to end, they would reach the length of three football fields.Trucking and dairy magazines featured photos of the Cheesemobile on front covers, and Holiday magazine ran a full-page, four-color cartoon drawn by Ronaldas being the most successful ofiSearles of Paris and London.Five Buses Carrying 200 Students Pile UpWALLER, Tex, (J!) — Five buses piled into each other at a traffic light here Saturday.There were no serious injuries.Women Gamblers Win Equal Rights RulingYUBA CITY, Calif. (UPI) - A superior court judge has thrown out a city ordinance banning women dealers from card rooms.1i irl rf a Di/kniv4 DoHnn r«t1«w4“That cartoon alone,” Behle said, “if run as an advertisement by Wisconsin cheese makers, would have cost over $15,000.” Generates Interest Most trade associations are unable to get their product or an industry personality on a nationwide TV show, according to Behle, whose foundation succeeded in getting Wisconsin cheesemakers featured twice in 10 months on the TV show ‘To Tell the Truth.“If we had had to pay for the TV shows and the newspaper aid magazine publicity received, we would have spent $260,000,” Behle said. “As it was, the world’s largest cheese generated so much interest and national attention that we feel its promotion of the Wisconsin cheese and dairy in dustry has been an outstanding achievement and an ex cellent investment.”Four per oent of the publicity was unfavorable, according to foundation records — all of it from Wisconsin. Of thousands of comment slips signed by fair visitors, only seven were critical, and six of these were from Wisconsin.One of these criticized the tinted glass through which the cheese is visible. The tinting is necessary, according to Behle, to keepthe inside temperature down while the Cheesemobile is on tour in the South.Finance BalanceIndustry largely has financed the $150,000 project, which was originated by a Madison insurance] executive, J. Addison England, vice-president of Church Mutual Insurance Co. and manager of j cheesemakers divison. Bordens] have contributed $50,000, F o r d 1 Motor Co. the $25,000 Diesel tractor, Highway Trailer of Edg-erton the 35 foot trailer, a n d j Transicold Co. the 10-ton refrig-] eration unit to keep the cheese) edible.Foundation members and Wisconsin cheese and dairy industry and suppliers are financing the balance, aided by a $35,000 grant from the 1963 Wisconsin Legislature. The Bordon Co. has con tracted to buy the cheese at the end of the 1965 fair.“If the World’s Fair and nation-wide tour of our ‘Golden Giant’ can help increase national cheese consumption by only one ounce per person per year, the cheese Industry will have to produce 6,000 more tons of cheese annually, Behle concluded. “Wisconsin’s share amounts to over $2.5 million additional income to cheesemakers and farmers.”Cheddar Critics of Display Given Food for Thought
Newspaper Details
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Nov 08, 1964
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Uw -.
WI, USA 15 Jan 2024
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