In the 1920s, Carl Fisher used elephants in the development and the promotion of Miami Beach. Ed Ballard, a fellow Hoosier, gave him the first elephant as thanks for a trip to one of Fisher’s Miami Beach hotels. Ballard was the owner of six circuses including the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, one ...
Miami Beach
The Fulford-Miami Speedway
In 1925, Carl Fisher was busy developing and promoting Miami Beach. It was at the peak of the Roaring Twenties development in south Florida. Miami Beach had 56 hotels with 4,000 rooms, 178 apartment buildings, and 858 private residences. Some of the wealthy residents included Harvey Firestone, J. C. Penney, ...
The Allison Hospital
Jim Allison often came home from work and before dinner would go for a swim in the 70 foot by 22 foot swimming pool in the basement of his home, Riverdale Springs. One day in March 1914, he dove into the pool. The shock of the cool water brought on ...
Book Review: Castles in the Sand, the Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher by Mark S. Foster
Carl Fisher, one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a man who very much symbolized the Roaring Twenties. He had unending optimism about his projects and was a promoter who could rival P. T. Barnum. He was fascinated by new technology and anything that moved fast including ...