Found: "Golden Rondelle Theater, Johnson Wax Tower in the background, Racine, Wisconsin" copyright L.L. Cook Co. from an Ektachrome Transparency, circa 1967 |
Another 1964 New York World's Fair pavilion that landed back in Wisconsin looking like a UFO vision. Designed for SC Johnson by Lippincott and Margulies, the Golden Rondelle Theater was reworked by Taliesin Associate Architects to be the "center for Guest Relations" for SC Johnson and opened to the public in July 1967. Seemingly derivative of Frank Lloyd Wright's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (below) in nearby Wauwatosa completed in 1961, the Golden Rondelle brought SC Johnson into the mod space age 1960s with its products protecting consumers from dust (Pledge!), stink (Glade!), dull windows (Windex!), stale food (Ziploc!), and clogged drains (Drano!). Meanwhile up north in Neillsville, the similarly galactic Wisconsin Pavilion, by architect John Steinman of Monticello, Wisconsin, once featured a replica of "The World's Largest Cheese" leftover from the Fair but it vanished years ago. The World's Largest Talking Cow, Chatty Belle, remains bringing us back home although her coin operated talking apparatus doesn't always work and her calf Bullet has been vandalized on numerous occasions. A gift shop featuring Wisconsin products from cheese to maple syrup, and a radio station operate out of the space.
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