Castles in the Sand

by Foster, Mark S.

• ISBN13: 9780813018096
• ISBN10: 0813018099
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

In the booming early years of the 20th century, few entrepreneurs rivaled Carl Fisher (1874-1939) for sheer energy and imagination. Born in Indiana, he began as a bicycle racer and salesman, made his first fortune perfecting and marketing the automobile headlight, helped build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and headed promotion of the Indy 500, and was a moving force behind the development of the Lincoln and Dixie highways, America's first improved transcontinental roads. But all of these accomplishments were only prologue to his grandest adventure, as primary developer and promoter of Miami Beach.

This definitive biography of Fisher, abundantly illustrated and written in an engaging style, captures the headiness of the period. Mark Foster traces Fisher's transformation of the South Florida landscape into a tourist's dream of golf, polo, deep sea fishing, and luxury hotels and his animation of that dream with bronzed lifeguards, bathing beauties flashing new swimsuit styles, and visiting dignitaries who generated a stream of tantalizing headlines.

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Author Biography

Mark S. Foster is professor of history at the University of Colorado, Denver.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi
Foreword	xiii
Raymond Arsenault
Gary R. Mormino
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	1	(5)
A Shaky Foundation	6	(12)
Cracking the Door of Opportunity	18	(27)
The Initial Fortune	45	(25)
Building a Brickyard	70	(26)
Roads Worthy of a Nation	96	(23)
Touring Through Dixieland	119	(17)
The Accidental Tourist	136	(15)
Morning Sun	151	(21)
Dressing Up the Beach	172	(28)
Noonday Sun	200	(23)
Seeds of Doubt	223	(20)
A Search for Greener Pastures	243	(32)
Twilight of a Career	275	(18)
Taps	293	(10)
Epilogue	303	(4)
Notes	307	(30)
Bibliography	337	(6)
Index	343