Real History With Jeff LaHurd: More bits and pieces from Sarasota’s past
I have been researching and writing about Sarasota history for more than 35 years. During that time, I have come across interesting tidbits, some of which I have used in my books and articles, and some that I thought were interesting or colorful enough to jot down and pass them on.
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John Hamilton Gillespie came to Sarasota in 1886 to rejuvenate the failed Scot Colony. Known as the Father of Sarasota, and the founder of the Church of the Redeemer advised, “Be not too zealous to get rich, nor too easily tired of work, and follow a careful observance of the Golden Rule.”
Alex Browning, a young man when he arrived with the colonists in 1885 described Gillespie: “The natives and early settlers came to look upon him as a great big boy who could take a joke and was always ready to do a good turn for his neighbors.”
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Back in the long-ago day before Chevrolet was advertising “See the USA in a Chevrolet, America is asking you to call ...” And even before the pricey Packard suggested “Ask the man who owns one,” the Jordan automobile company that had a dealership on South Pineapple Avenue offered this during the Roaring ’20s: “Somewhere West of Laramie, there is a bronco-busting, steer roping girl who knows what I’m talking about – the truth is the [Jordan] Playboy was built for her. Built for the lass whose face is brown with the sun when the day is done of revel and romp and race.” Revel and romp and race notwithstanding, Ned Jordan’s company went out of business in 1931.
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In October of 1925 when the Atlantic Coastline Railway Station opened at the east end of Main St., placed there at the suggestion of well-regarded city planner John Nolen, it was dubbed “a tribute to the certainty of Sarasota’s future” by the Sarasota Herald.
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John Ringing always traveled in style – be it in his Rolls-Royces, Pierce Arrow, his sumptuous private railroad cars Wisconsin and JoMar, or on the water aboard one of his yachts. The last of these, the Zalophus was delivered to him in 1922. At 125’ long, it offered six staterooms and five bathrooms and could cruise 5,000 miles at 14 knots. The beautiful yacht was crewed by a crew of 10. On Sept. 2, 1930, the shallow draft vessel sank off Lido Key with colorful New York mayor Jimmy Walker and actress Betty Compton, with whom Compton was having an affair, on board. To avoid scandal, they were spirited away before the press got wind of the tryst.
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During the era when Sarasota was segregated, city manager, Ken Thompson, of his own volition, integrated both the library and the Bobby Jones golf course. Of his action, United Press founder Karl Bickel said, “Your statesmanship and far vision of the recent situation at the golf course was so sound and constructive that I am moved to express my personal admiration and thanks.”
Of the iconic Lido Casino, Fredd Atkins told Herald-Tribune journalist Barbara Peters Smith: “I can’t tell you much about the Lido Casino because when I was a boy, we were never allowed to go there so I don’t miss it at all. I didn’t even know it was beautiful.” Atkins would go on to break racial barriers in Sarasota, becoming the city’s first Black mayor and serving for many years as a city commissioner.
When the storied Casino building was demolished in 1969, only one city commissioner Jack Betz had voted to restore it. In a 1992 interview he told me, “The people voted to remodel it. We didn’t do that, and I think it was wrong. I still think it was.”
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Spring training has been a major attraction in Sarasota since 1924 when the mighty New York Giants came to town led by the feisty Hall of Famer John. J. McGraw, aka “Little Napoleon.”
The first order of business was to prohibit his players from playing golf, which bothered slugger Rogers Hornsby not at all: He said that when he hit a ball, he wanted someone else to chase it.
Never known for his reticence, McGraw summed up his coaching style by saying, “With my team I am the absolute Czar. My men know it. I order plays and they obey. If they don’t, I fine them.”
The Giants were followed by the Boston Red Sox whose stars included the “Splendid Splinter” Ted Williams. One of his teammates said of him, “He could hit better with a broken arm than we could with two good ones.”
Another Sox team member, Jimmy Foxx, nicknamed “The Beast,” was a fearsome slugger, so strong it was said his curls had muscles. When trying to figure out to pitch to him, one hurler said, “I’d rather not throw the ball at all.”
When Babe Ruth, the “Sultan of Swat” came to town with the Yankees for Spring Training, he loved to golf. About to put one in the hole, he asked the gallery, “How about a little noise? How do you expect a man to putt?”
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Connecting the Midwest to the South, the Dixie Highway which opened in 1915 was called the “String upon which Florida has strung her jewels.”
The very narrow two-lane road from Sarasota to Venice was dubbed, “The Velvet Highway.”
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For those who did not know the make of an odd looking car driving around town, The News solved the mystery. It was William G. Selby’s Mercedes-Benz which cost $3,600 and got 46 miles per gallon on diesel fuel.
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Between 1952 and 1968, Ross E. Boyer was elected Sarasota County Sheriff five times. A former Florida Highway Patrolman, his slogan for his first campaign was the comforting, “No friends to reward, no enemies to punish.” During his first term he was responsible for an area of 550 square miles with a population of 42,000 people. His staff comprised five full-time deputies, two night officers, two Sunday officers, two school officers and two women who worked in the office.
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On Oct. 30, 1954, The News wrote, “Siesta Key Booms In Seven Years,” and reported that the island had grown from a few hundred to an estimated 500 permanent residents.
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When drive-in theaters were all the rage, especially among the younger set, the Trail Drive In – “the largest screen in the South” – offered for our viewing pleasure “The Touch of Flesh,” a heartwarming story about the “Selfish and shameless rich teenage tramp – Joan Denton – [who] gets impregnated by her earnest yet dimwitted working class pushover boyfriend, Eddie Mercer.” Not steamy enough? The late show was “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” a film adaptation of the controversial late 1920s D.H. Lawrence novel.
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Sarasota has used many appellations over the years to describe its offerings: “A City of Glorified Opportunity”; “The Riviera City”; “The Art Center of the South”; “The Air-Conditioned City”; “America’s Sun Parlor”; “Nature’s Own Solarium”; “The Circus City”; “Where Urban Amenities Meet Small-Town Living.” Perhaps next on the list? “The Circle City: We’ll Have You Traveling in Circles.”
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When Sarasota was, as noted by prominent architect Tim Seibert, “A small elegant, little space,” a forewarning about what could happen was sounded by nationally known writer, Mary Freeman. Writing in The Nation: “Sarasota might turn into an imitation Miami populated by pasty, paunched men with big cigars. We can still take things in hand ... otherwise he’ll destroy our unique assets in an effort to reproduce Miami.” Not too many of today’s developers meet that description, but in the end, they did turn Sarasota into an “imitation Miami.”
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Speaking for many longtime residents who remember the city that Freeman wanted to protect, Seibert said: “There comes a sense of loss that sneaks up when you least expect it, and the lump in my throat and shortness of breath surprised me. There are more and more encounters in Sarasota that now brings on this sense for those of us who have spent our lives here.” Amen to that.
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Finally, something out of Bedford Falls. When local banker Charles Bailey passed away in 1980, Mayor Jack Betz said of him, “Every community deserves a Charlie Bailey.” The same could be said of his son, attorney Dan Bailey.
Jeff LaHurd was raised in Sarasota and is an award-winning author/historian.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Jeff LaHurd: Interesting tidbits from Sarasota history
