Specialty Fabrics Review January 2020 - 68

future HISTORY

James E. McGregor ("Mac"), the first editor of the Review and IFAI's first employee and executive secretary,
once described the yearly meeting of tent and awning business owners-now known as IFAI Expo-as the
"homecoming of the industry." Then known as conventions, the events in the 1920s tended to be fairly rowdy,
one featuring a live elephant ("Tessie"), and others, in the spirit of the times, jugs of moonshine. Shown here:
The 17th Annual Convention (counted from 1912, when IFAI was first formed) of the National Tent and Awning
Manufacturers Association at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., Oct. 1-4, 1928.

IFAI EXPO | 1920-1929

This Business
of Going to Conventions
From James E. McGregor's editorial on page 13 of the
August 1928 National Canvas Goods Manufacturers Review.

I
In July 1928,
the Review featured
its first full-color
cover, a shot of the
Broadmoor Hotel,
location of the 1928
IFAI convention.

CONVENTION
LOCATIONS
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929

San Francisco
Chicago
Philadelphia
Kansas City
Boston
Cleveland
West Baden, Ind.
New York City
Colorado Springs
Chicago

68 REVIEW JANUARY 2020

deas are like the farmer at work. He prepares the ground by
preparing his mind through study of conditions which affect
the future crop. He gets those ideas from Farm schools, practical
experience with the soil and using his knowledge to overcome
difficulties while others fail for the lack of willingness to learn.
Life is a school and the more we can get together and deduct from
suggestions offered by many minds at a convention, valuable ideas
if only one, it may mean a new angle to our competitors and a new
thought for business construction.
Every business man is entitled to a vacation: a change of scenery
from the whirring wheels of factory to the soaring flights of inspired
ambition: from drudgery of commonplace things to frolic and good
fellowship. A National Convention is the testing laboratory of
men's minds in their attitude towards the great movement of group
co-operation against the growing menace of the slime and muck of
cut-throat competition.
If you are a real, honest-to-goodness, up-to-date tent and awning
manufacturer-YOU WILL BE THERE WHEN THE DOORS OF
THE BROADMOOR HOTEL, COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO,
OPEN TO GIVE OUR MANUFACTURERS THE BIGGEST AND
HEARTIEST WELCOME THE GREAT WEST HAS BEEN PLANNING
FOR MONTHS PAST.
Editor's note: Mr. McGregor makes no mention of the stock market crash in the 1929
issues of the magazine, but most likely those publications had already gone to press by
that time. According to our records, the national convention held at the Stevens Hotel
in Chicago that year had the largest number of attendees to date. But at the convention
in Memphis, Tenn., in 1930, the number of attendees only reached 400. We'll take a
look at that decade on this page in the February issue of the Review.

90 YEARS AGO ...
1920
The 18th Amendment, passed in 1919,
and the clarifying Volstead Act, established
the Prohibition Era in the United States,
which took effect Jan. 16, 1920. On Dec. 5,
1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified,
which repealed the 18th Amendment.
The BAND-AID brand adhesive
bandage is invented by Johnson &
Johnson employee Earle Dickson.
BAND-AIDS go on the market the
following year as the first commercial
dressing consumers could apply
themselves on small wounds.

1925
Represented by Clarence Darrow,
Tennessee substitute teacher John
Scopes is found guilty of violating the
Butler Act (teaching evolution) on
July 21 and fined $100.
The Review reports that Pennsylvania
railroad conductor Harry Cordell shot
and killed his wife of two months and then
killed himself; he left a note indicating
that the tragedy was precipitated by an
argument over awnings.

1929
The fireproofwaterproof treatment
of canvas was
destined for history
through its use in
Admiral Richard
Byrd's Antarctic
expeditions. In
November, the famous flight to the South
Pole is launched; fireproof and waterproof
covers are used that have been treated
by Price Fire & Waterproofing Company,
furnished by Baker, Carver and Morrell Inc.
On Oct. 29, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street,
and billions of dollars were lost, wiping out
thousands of investors. In the aftermath,
the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized
world spiraled downward into the Great
Depression (1929-1939).

Specialty Fabrics Review January 2020

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