Relevant quote from Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World":

[The 1939 New York World's Fair's president] Grover Whalen - a former corporate executive, New York City police chief in a time of unprecedented police brutality, and public relations innovator [...] had convinced Stalin and Mussolini to build lavish national pavilions. (He later complained about how often he had been obliged to give the fascist salute.) The level of the exhibits, as one designer described it, was pitched to the mentality of a twelve-year-old.