Carl G. Fisher
Carl Graham Fisher (January 12, 1874 -July 15, 1939) was an American entrepreneur. Overcoming a sensory disability (sight-impairment), he became a pioneer of the automotive and auto racing industries. Regarded as a promotional genius for most of his life, he was a bicycle enthusiast. 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. He helped develop the Lincoln Highway, the first paved transcontinental east-west highway in the United States, and the Dixie Highway, which extended from Montreal and the mid-western U.S. to Florida, where he was involved in the successful real estate development of the resort city of Miami Beach. His final 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.
Although he lost his fortune in the U.S. Stock Market Crash of 1929, and later considered himself a failure, Fisher is widely regarded as a very successful man. 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."
Youth, early career, bicycles
Carl Fisher was born in Greensburg, Indiana, nine years after the end of the American Civil War, the son of Albert H. and Ida Graham Fisher. His father left his family when Fisher was a child, apparently suffering from alcoholism, a problem which would also plague Carl later in life. Suffering from severe astigmatism (i.e. very poor vision), it was difficult for Fisher to pay attention in school as uncorrected astigmatism can cause headaches or eyestrain, and blur vision at all distances. He quit school when he was twelve years old to help support his family.
For the next five years, Fisher held a number of jobs. He worked in a grocery and a bookstore, then later he sold newspapers, tobacco, candy, and other items on trains departing Indianapolis, a major railroad center not far from Greensburg. He opened a bicycle repair shop in 1891 with his two brothers. As a successful entrepreneur, he expanded his business and became involved in bicycle racing. During his many promotional stunts, he was frequently injured on the dirt and loose gravel roadways, leading him to become one of the early developers of automotive safety features.
Automobiles
In 1904, Carl Fisher was approached by the owner of a U.S. patent to manufacture what would become known as the sealed beam headlight. Soon Fisher's firm supplied nearly every headlamp used on automobiles in the United States as automotive manufacturing plants were built all over the country to supply the demand. The headlight patent made him rich and led to friendships with notable auto magnates. Fisher made millions in 1909 when he sold his Prest-O-Lite automobile headlamp business to Union Carbide.
Fisher then entered the business of selling automobiles with his friend Barney Oldfield. The Fisher Automobile Company in Indianapolis is considered most likely the first multi-product line automobile "dealership" in the world. It carried multiple models of Oldsmobiles, Reos, Packards, Stoddard-Daytons Stutz and others.
In 1909, he invested in what would become the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is now located in Speedway, Indiana. After seeing terrible injuries to early racers on the loose rock track, he convinced investors to pave the now famous "brickyard" track with 3.2 million paving bricks. Attracting 80,000 spectators to the first 500 mile (800 km) race on Memorial Day May 30, 1911, the Speedway hosted the first in a long line of five hundred mile (800 km) races known as the Indianapolis 500.
Early highways
In 1912, foreseeing the automobile's impact on American life, Carl Fisher was instrumental in the planning, development, and construction of the Lincoln Highway, the first U.S. transcontinental highway, connecting New York City to San Francisco in time for San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition in May 1915. Fisher estimated the highway, an improved, hard-surfaced road stretching almost 3,400 miles (5,472 km), would cost ten million dollars. Fellow industrialists Frank Seiberling and Henry Joy helped Fisher with their promotional skills, so much of the highway was paid for by contributions from automobile manufacturers and suppliers, a policy bitterly opposed by Henry Ford.
Carl Fisher next turned his attention to creating the Dixie Highway, a north-south route extending from Indiana to southern Florida, which he felt would provide an ideal way for residents of his home state to vacation in southern Florida. In September 1916, Fisher and Indiana Governor Samuel Ralston attended a celebration opening the roadway from Indianapolis to Miami.
Miami Beach
The City of Miami Beach became Fisher's last very successful project. On a vacation to Miami around 1910, he saw potential in the swampy, bug-infested stretch of land between Miami and the ocean, and in his mind transformed the 3,500 acres (14 km²) of mangrove swamp and beach into the perfect vacation destination for his automobile industry friends -- he called it "Miami Beach". He and his wife bought a vacation home there in 1912 and he began acquiring land.
The Collins Bridge between Miami and Miami Beach was built by John Collins, an earlier developer, and Carl Fisher and opened on June 12, 1913. The 2 1/2 mile wooden toll bridge connected Miami Beach and the mainland, providing a critical link between the established city of Miami and the new town. The Collins Bridge was awarded the title of being "longest wooden bridge in the world."
Fisher financed the dredging of Biscayne Bay to create its vast residential islands. He later built several landmark luxury hotels and attracted the wealthy and celebrated to visit the community, several of whom took up permanent residence there. At the south end, he built a huge hotel-casino witha roman pool and a dutch windmill. The U.S. public was apparently slow to catch on to the vacation land Carl envisioned for Florida. Ever the innovative promoter, PBS tells of his efforts to draw attention to Miami Beach.
- Carl had acquired a baby elephant named Rosie who was a favorite with newspaper photographers. In 1921 a picture of Rosie as a 'golf caddy' for vacationing President-elect Warren Harding "fixed Miami Beach in the public's mind as a place you had to see to believe." - American Experience Series, Mr. Miami Beach
Billboards of bathing beauties enjoying white beaches and blue ocean waters appeared around the country. Fisher purchased a huge illuminated sign proclaiming "It's June in Miami" in Times Square in New York City. From 1920-1925, the Miami Beach area grew 440%. By 1926, Fisher was worth an estimated $100 million. But, Carl Fisher was always known for moving from project to project.
Montauk, Long Island
In 1926, Fisher began working on a "Miami Beach of the north". His project at Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island in New York was to provide a warm season counterpart to the Florida development. He and four associates purchased 9,000 acres and built a luxurious hotel, office building, marina, and attractions. The project built roads, planted nurseries, laid water pipes and built houses.
However, a land "bust" in Florida, followed by a devastating hurricane in 1927 which wiped out much of Miami Beach, hit Fisher's investments hard, and tourism dropped off severely. Then, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Montauk project went into receivership in 1932.
Decline
The losses in his real estate ventures and the Crash of 1929 left Fisher virtually penniless. Always a man whose lifeblood seemed to be new dreams and projects, by the mid 1930s, he was living in a small cottage on Miami Beach and received a US$500 per month salary from his former partners to do promotional work. Shortly before his death, Fisher built Key Largo's Caribbean Club, a fishing club for men of modest means, "a poor man's retreat."
He died July 15, 1939, following a lengthy illness compounded by alcoholism. He was interred at the family mausoleum in Indianapolis.
Legacy
Will Rogers remembered Carl Fisher as a Florida pioneer with these words:
- "Fisher was the first man to discover that there was sand under the water . . . [sand] that could hold up a real estate sign. He made the dredge the national emblem of Florida."
Howard Kleinburg, an author and Miami Beach historian describes Fisher to PBS:
- "If you look at Fisher's entire life, it's a marathon. It's a race. It was a race to achieve the top of whatever field he was in at the time. Everything he did he went into it with his heart, his soul, his money, and he would not stop until he reached the end. He wanted to be there the quickest and first..."
Carl Fisher's legacies include promotion and distribution of sealed beam headlight bulbs in the U.S. auto industry, the Indianapolis 500, and a national system of highways in the United States. In addition to the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway, and the development of Miami Beach, today Fisher's life story may also be regarded as an inspiration and source of hope and resourcefulness for persons with disabilities. In modern times, Montauk remains a small but popular tourist destination, and Miami Beach has some of the most valuable real estate in the world. And, at Speedway, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, each Memorial Day the race cars still pound the famed brickyard.
In 1947, Jane Fisher, his ex-wife (who married him in 1909 and was divorced in 1926), wrote a book about his life. Fabulous Hoosier was published by R.M. McBride and Co. She wrote:
- "He was all speed. I don't believe he ever thought in terms of money. He made millions, but they were incidental. He often said, 'I just like to see the dirt fly.'"
Other books include:
- Fisher, Jerry M. (1998) The Pacesetter: The Untold Story of Carl G. Fisher Lost Coast Press; Ft. Bragg, California
- Foster, Mark S. (2000) Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher. University press of Florida; Gainesville, Florida
In 1998, PBS produced a program about Carl Fisher titled Mr. Miami Beach.
Sources
Books
- Fisher, Jane (1947) Fabulous Hoosier R.M. McBride and Co.; New York, New York
- Fisher, Jerry M. (1998) The Pacesetter: The Untold Story of Carl G. Fisher Lost Coast Press; Ft. Bragg, California
- Foster, Mark S. (2000) Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher. University press of Florida; Gainesville, Florida
Internet
- Indiana History website
- Top 50 Most Influential people in Florida History website
- Lincoln Highway Association official website
- Lost Indiana website
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway official website
- Newsday: 1926: Carl Fisher Creates Montauk
- Newsday: Mogul of Montauk
- American Experience series: Carl Fisher, "Mr. Miami Beach"
- Collins Avenue history, Miami Beach
- Billion Dollar Sandbar: The History of Miami Beach