Home > Back to Search Results > Carl G. Fisher Death, 1939...
Click image to enlarge 222273
Hide image list »

Carl G. Fisher Death, 1939...



Item # 222273

July 16, 1939

 THE DETROIT FREE PRESS, Michigan, July 16, 1939.
 
* Carl G. Fisher Dies
* Indianapolis Motor Speedway Founder


This 40+ page newspaper has a three line, one column headline on page 5: "Carl G. Fisher, Pioneer in Auto Industry, Dies" with photo.
 
Other news of the day throughout.
 
Some browning with minor margin wear, otherwise in good condition.

Background Information
: Carl Graham Fisher (January 12, 1874July 15, 1939) was an American entrepreneur. Despite having severe astigmatism, he became a seemingly tireless pioneer and promoter of the automotive, auto racing, and real estate development industries.

Regarded as a promotional genius for most of his life, he was a bicycle enthusiast and became involved in bicycle and later auto racing. After being injured in stunts, he helped develop paved racetracks and roadways. An Indiana native, Fisher helped organize the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and operated what is believed to be the first automobile dealership in the United States.

In 1913, Fisher conceived and helped develop the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. He followed that in 1914 with the conception of the Dixie Highway, which first led from Indianapolis, and eventually extended in several northern branches from the Mid-West U.S. at the Canadian borders to southern mainland Florida. Under his leadership, the initial portion was completed within a single year, and he led an automobile caravan to Florida from Indiana.

At the south end of the Dixie Highway in Miami, Florida, Fisher became involved in the successful real estate development of the new resort city of Miami Beach, built on a largely unpopulated barrier island and reached by the new Collins Bridge across Biscayne Bay directly at the terminus of the Dixie Highway. Fisher was one of the best known and active promoters of the Florida land boom of the 1920s. By 1926, he was worth an estimated $100 million, and redirected his promotional efforts when the Florida real estate market bubble burst after 1925. His final major project, cut short by the Great Depression, was a "Miami Beach of the north" at Montauk, located at the eastern tip of Long Island, New York.

His fortune was lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression in the United States which followed shortly thereafter. He found himself living in a small cottage in Miami Beach, doing minor work for old friends. Nevertheless, years after his fortune had been lost, at the end of his career, he took on one more project, albeit more modest than many of his past ventures, and built the famous Caribbean Club on Key Largo, intended as a "poor man's retreat."

Although he had lost his fortune and late in life considered himself a failure, Fisher is widely regarded as a very successful man in the long view of his life. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1971. In a 1998 study judged by a panel of 56 historians, writers, and others, Carl G. Fisher was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in the history of the State of Florida by The Ledger newspaper. PBS labeled him "Mr. Miami Beach." Fisher Island, one of the wealthiest and most exclusive residential areas in the United States, just south of Miami Beach, is named for him. source: wikipedia

Category: The 20th Century