HemisFair '68 and the Transformation of San Antonio

$18.95
(softcover)

192 pages, 6 x 9 inches
62 illustrations, index
ISBN 1-893271-28-5

Lee Iaccoca told San Antonio auto dealer Red McCombs in no uncertain words that the Ford Motor Co. would not have a presence at San Antonio's world's fair. Then President Lyndon B. Johnson talked to Henry Ford II. Getting Ford's pavilion was a milestone in the fair's success.

Architect Boone Powell had no funds for a wind tunnel test of plans for the Tower of the Americas. Instead he ran tests in the currents of the San Antonio River. The tower has been a symbol of San Antonio for more than 35 years.

These are only two of the tales told by 34 prominent San Antonians in veteran newsman Sterlin Holmesly's HemisFair'68 and the Transformation of San Antonio . A monolithic Old Guard overcame four decades of post-Depression lethargy to put on the event, only to find itself soon overthrown by populist forces unleashed by the new energy.

As change rippled outward, rising minority political groups gained a decisive voice in economic development. The political, social and economic upheavals were taking place in a city already reflecting the fair's theme: The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas.

These conversational accounts of the fair and its aftermath can be read as entertaining first-person stories and as a significant text of urban history as well.

Maverick Publishing Company
P. O. Box 6355, San Antonio, Texas 78209
210-828-5777, FAX 210-828-7874
email info@maverickpub.com