From The Media History Project, Inc.

A Timeline of the 1920's and the 1930's to get everyone in the mindset of events in history. The exact date of the game hasn't been established yet. If you have a preference, please let me know. But it I've approximated it around the late 20's and early 30's.

http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/1920s.html
http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/1930s.html

I did notice that there is a post that related to the central area:
1929: Air mail is flown from Miami to South America.

There are some timeline posts that may interest individuals based upon their Advanced Class. For example:
For Ace Reporters -
1924: All-electric recorder and phonograph are built.
1930: Photo flashbulbs replace dangerous flash powder.
You may find many more of interest!

Thanks to Mrs.Coe for the resourse!

Ultimate Pulp Era Gear Archive

The Ultimate Pulp Era Gear Archives are a series of free visual reference documents prepared by Colin Chapman for use with any pulp-era roleplaying game or related project. All contain pictures, manufacturing dates, and other useful real-world statics.

It has a host of downloadable pdfs by categories that you can use that will be invaluable for your character. Enjoy!

http://www.unclebear.com/wiki/...ulp_Era_Gear_Archive

Cameras, radios, typewriters!
Men and ladies fashions!
Vehicles and weapons!

Roaring 20's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_20%27s

Credit was abundant and much of it began to flow into speculation, particularly in the New York Stock Exchange. This created a bubble and set the stage for the Wall Street crash of 1929. A bubble of a different sort occurred in the first half of the decade, namely the Florida Land Boom, which dissipated in 1925-26.

Art Deco was the style in design and architecture that marked the era. Starting from Europe, it spread to America towards the end of the 1920s, where one of the most remarkable buildings featuring this style was constructed as the tallest building of the time: the Chrysler Building. The forms of art deco were pure and geometric, even though the artists often drew inspiration from nature. In the beginning, lines were curved, but later on. rectangular designs became more and more popular. (It is in place even in Miami today, especially in the South Beach area.)
http://miami.about.com/cs/arts/a/aa010603a.htm


Pulp Magazines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

1920's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920s
The Wall Street Crash of 1929
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_crash_of_1929

1930's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930s
Great Depression
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:08, Mon 09 Oct 2006.

Pulp Adventure Roleplaying

http://www.fantasylibrary.com/lounge/pulp.htm

Links about Pulp Roleplaying

Rising with the turn of the century and reaching its pinnacle in the 1930s as a magazine form (but surviving in some forms even today, though not as magazines), the Adventure Pulps assure us that there will always be heroes, and that they will overcome adversity thru the strength of their spirits, the skills that they have honed over decades and the power of the human heart.

The heroes of Pulp are often larger than life, honorable and fearless before enemies that care not who they destroy in their quest for profit and power. They may possess supernatural talents, expertise in unusual martial arts or a strength of will that can overcome the bounds of reality. Pulps see the human potential and show it in its glory. Heroes of the pulps are The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Green Hornet, James Bond and the like.

Whole Pulp Catalog

http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/p...pulp_project1557.cfm

WELCOME TO PROJECT 1557!

The Collaborative Repository of Pulp Information for Pulp RPG GMs and Players

On the Yahoo Groups Pulp_Games http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pulp_Games/ newsgroup, the idea was raised some time ago to construct a quasi-encyclopedic Pulp RPG resource and reference work, a sort-of "Whole Pulp Catalog" as a means of collating together useful information for persons interested in the Pulp RPG genre, which would  not be tied to any one particular RPG system or background setting. The idea was first raised in message #1557, hence the name of this project.

After some initial discussion, and a long hiatus, it was thought that a collaborative "Clipping Service" of interesting information of the historical "Pulp Era", factual essays, inspirational material, and home-brew resources would be an efficient way to both collect and disseminate this information.

This Pulp Wiki Page created on June 13th 2003 is one attempt to do this, and everyone is free to not only add new material, but also to help enhance the organization and appearence of the connected network of pages.

You can do this all by yourself, with no input from others, by simply steering to and editing and adding yourselves the pages you wish to improve and augment. Please tell us who is contributing this information if you add a new page (ie. put your name in the "save by" box!), and it is always more effective to have an introductory line or even paragraph on a brand new page ifs you are just providing a listing of links.

Pulp relevent information for this project should contain background material for the time period 1920-1949 (with material outside this era posted on the pages dedicated to Other Eras).

Pulp Biographies
Pulp Cities
Pulp Timeline
Pulp Transportation
Pulp Communication
Pulp Science
Pulp Business And Finance
Pulp Politics
Pulp Geography
Pulp Culture
Pulp Crime And Law Enforcement
Pulp Military Technology
Pulp Inspirational Material
Pulp Mythology
Pulp Ideas
Pulp Adventures
Pulp Campaign Ideas
Pulp Campaign Write Ups
Pulp Miscellany
Pulp Rpgs
Other Eras
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:09, Mon 09 Oct 2006.

Pulp Fiction Central

http://www.vintagelibrary.com/...lpFictionCentral.php

The description of the Vintage Library!

On May 10, 1996, the Vintage Library opened its doors for business. We currently have over 150 stories available for immediate download. But the power of the internet has gone much farther than just electronic downloads. Its brought together a fan base and created a market where we've encouraged a number of small press publishers to create a regular stream of pulp reprints and to constantly improve quality. The result...

Today we are experiencing a pulp fiction revivial where new fans are coming into the hobby in large numbers and we have more and more books, magazines, reprints and replicas available than ever before. Adventure House, Girasol Collectables, and Wildside Press are some of today's top publishers keeping us awash in pulp fiction.

Pulp Fiction Central is your source to great pulp fiction reading with pulp replicas, pulp reprints, electronic pulps, articles, fanzines, and even original pulp magazines for sale.

History of South Miami

http://www.cityofsouthmiami.net/history.htm

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI
Although Native Americans had doubtlessly roamed the area for centuries, the recorded history of South Miami began at the turn of the century when the rich farmlands of South Dade lured pioneers down through Little Hunting Ground (later known as Coconut Grove) to Big Hunting Ground (now known as Cutler).

In 1897, W.A. Larkins, an early pioneer and founder of South Miami, brought his family into the lush wilderness at the southernmost end of the wagon trail that is now the Ingraham Highway. He started a small dairy and a year later established a post office near what is not Cocoplum Circle.

Upon the completion of the Miami to Homestead extension of the Florida East Coast Railroad in 1906, Larkins bought the property west of what is now Red Road and south of Sunset Drive and established the first grocery and general supply store located in the area. Additionally, the US Government moved the post office to that location, and the surrounding community was named Larkins in honor of the its Postmaster.

By 1917, the population of Larkins had swelled to 350. As with much of Florida, the real estate boom of the Roaring '20's had a large impact on Larkins. Land values reached an all-time high when a ten-acre tract sold for $100,000. The epicenter of the boom was near the original Riviera Theater, which is more commonly referred to today as the Shops at Sunset Place.

Beginning in the mid-1920's, many citizens of Larkins expressed a desire to incorporate their burgeoning community. In March of 1926, a group of qualified voters met and voted affirmatively to annex an area of approximately 6 square miles, bounded on the East by Red Road, on the South by SW 104 Street and Kendall Drive, on the West by Ludlam and the Palmetto and on the North by Bird Road.

The citizens of the newly incorporated area named the new municipality the Town of South Miami and elected Judge WA Foster as Mayor and JL Paxson, JW Barrs, John Myers, WG Stang, RL Martin, JB Janes and Harold Dorn as Aldermen.

The Town Council immediately went to work. Within weeks, it established a Town Seal; formulated a town code; rented a building to be the Town Hall; purchased a fire truck; and appointed a health officer, engineer and an attorney.

The Great Hurricane of September 1926 dealt a punishing blow to the Town of South Miami. Only the courage and determination of its citizens permitted the Town to survive the disaster. Although the Town requested federal assistance, asking Congress to "relieve the people of their income tax for the current year", none was received. To make matters worse, the Florida East Coast Railway station burned down, leaving the town without a station for many years.

Many citizens became dissatisfied with the municipality's status as a town, feeling that the "town" was being ignored by the State and Federal Governments, and began calling for a change to a "city". Therefore, the Town of South Miami prepared a new charter and presented it to the Florida Legislature during its 1927 Session. The Florida Legislature approved the charter, and on June 24, 1927, the Town of South Miami ceased to exist and the City of South Miami was born.

The early 1930's signaled the beginning of what was probably the most turbulent and uncertain period in South Miami's history. Financial problems and local dissension generated a temporarily successful movement to abolish the City in 1931. In fact, all City functions were suspended for approximately six months until the courts intervened and ordered the City to resume operations. On May 17, 1932, Judge Worth A. Trammell ordered the Mayor and Council to resume City business because no one had made any provisions to retire the City's debts! Interestingly, one of the largest debts was to the LeFrance Fire Engine Company, from which the City had purchased a fire engine six years earlier. South Miami may be the only city in the nation to be saved by a fire engine with no flames in sight!

In 1933, in an effort to lessen municipal responsibilities and to appease many concerned citizens, South Miami's total area was reduced from its original six square miles to just over three square miles. Later, in 1937, the City's size was reduced again, as many dissatisfied northern residents sued out of the City. These actions created most of the irregular boundaries that still characterize South Miami today.

During World War II, South Miami's development temporarily slowed, but the post-war period brought exponential growth. The tremendous impacts of growth soon caused the City to realize that its original charter was inadequate. Consequently, a committee was appointed to study the existing charter's shortcomings and recommend improvements. The committee recommended an entirely new charter providing for a city manager-commission form of government. The new charter and form of government were instituted on July 31, 1953, upon the approval of a citizen referendum.

Since the 1950's the City and its charter have experienced several changes, but have largely remained true to the pioneers' vision. Today, much like the post-war period, the City of South Miami is experiencing tremendous growth and redevelopment, as people have recognized the unique "small-town" atmosphere of the "City of Pleasant Living". The City stands poised to lead by example in the next millennium.

---

Prior to the late 19th century, most of South Florida was sparsely populated frontier territory. Miami was a small settlement with a few plantations. Julia Tuttle (think the Julia Tuttle causeway) recognized the areas' value as a strategic seaport. In 1895 she traded land to Henry Flagler (think Flagler Street) in exchange for his extending his railroad to Miami from West Palm Beach. The city reincorporated the following year when the railroad was completed.

A Quaker farmer from New Jersey named John Collins (think Collins Avenue) purchased property on one of Miami’s barrier islands. In 1913, he and Carl Fisher (think Fisher Island) had a bridge constructed connecting the island to the mainland. Biscayne Bay was dredged, creating more waterfront property and stabilizing the island. In 1915, this area was incorporated as Miami Beach.

This became a popular winter getaway with people coming from the north to enjoy the warmth and beaches that South Florida had to offer. Big hotels and estates were constructed during the roaring 20's and through the prohibition era. Movie stars and famous people were regularly seen in the area, from politicians to Al Capone. Al Capone used his stay in Miami Beach as an airtight alibi for his participation in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The area fell on hard times just prior to World War II, but had a resurgence when many of the large hotels were used to house soldiers while they were trained in the area. After the way, many returned to the area to settle, having enjoyed the warm weather and lush tropical environment during their stay.

Biltmore Hotel
The historic Biltmore Hotel has been a Miami landmark since 1926 reflecting the opulence and elegance of the roaring 20's with its sprawling estate-like setting and Mediterranean-inspired architecture.

The Carlton Hotel
The Carlton Hotel is proud of its location in the traditional heart of South Beach. The people visiting the area aren't just amazed by the beauty of our property and the oceanfront, but are able to bask in the rich history that the area has to offer.


Rail History

The history of railroading in Florida spans almost 170 years and is closely linked with the state’s development and growth. While the sound of a steam whistle echoing through the pine forests of north Florida evokes romantic images of a frontier past, the real impact of rail transportation has been the development of the urbanized Florida we know today.

Both freight and passenger railroads are experiencing rebirth. Today’s freight railroads set new ton-mile records yearly, Amtrak has re-established the conventional passenger train and Tri-Rail has brought commuter rail services to south Florida.

Follow us through the four periods of Florida’s rail history as the rural short lines became the major rail systems of today...

1834-1883

The dawn of railroading in Florida was a supplement to water travel. The new railroad technology had not yet found its place in the transportation picture but, by the late 1800's, railroads were the engine of growth in Florida.

1834 - The Tallahassee Railroad began construction of a 22-mile route from the new capital city of Tallahassee to Port Leon, near the Gulf of Mexico. Mules pulled carloads of cotton from the compress and warehouses in Tallahassee to the ocean-going ships at the port. Today, the route of Florida’s first railroad is the St. Marks recreational trail. By 1836, a second line was operating, The St. Joseph - Lake Wimico Railroad serving Port St. Joe.


Cotton ready for loading at Tallahassee

1850 - Senator David Yulee promoted the Florida Railroad from the port of Fernandina to the Gulf of Mexico at Cedar Key. While built to speed shipments between the Atlantic seaboard and gulf coast destinations, the line also encouraged the development of interior north Florida. Parts of this line are still in use today.


Tracks leading to Cedar Key

Prior to the Civil War, the Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad line extended from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and by 1874 was extended to River Junction near Chattahoochee. In 1883, the Louisville and Nashville line from Pensacola made the connection at River Junction.

Early railroads were also build to connect with the St. Johns river boat lines. Example were the Tocoi Railroad bringing early tourists from the St. Johns to St. Augustine, and the Orange Belt Railroad connecting the river port of Sanford to the developing city of St. Petersburg.

1883-1928

This period saw the opening of peninsular Florida and a boom in railroad construction. The "Henry’s", Henry Plant, Henry Flagler and Henry Sanford used their railroads to open previously inaccessible parts of the state.

1883 - The proceeds from the Disston Land Purchase established the Internal Improvement Fund. The fund was used to assist the construction of new rail lines.

Holiday excursion on the Orange Belt Railway

Henry Plant’s rails pushed south from Jacksonville along the St. Johns River to Sanford then southwest through Orlando to Tampa. The University of Tampa now occupies Plant’s hotel at the end of the line. Henry Sanford’s lines penetrated the interior of the state.

Henry Flagler acquired the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway, and advanced construction south along the east coast arriving in the settlement of Miami in 1896.

Henry Plant, developing the midlands and west coast regions of Florida, wired Flagler, "Friend Flagler, where is this place called Miami?" Flagler wires back, "Friend Plant, just follow the crowd!"

Henry Flagler
Henry Plant

1911 - Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway goes to sea and the first train arrives in Key West.

Florida East Coast Railway train in the Florida Keys

The 1920's - The Roaring 20's made Florida the place to be and the land boom was on! The Florida East Coast Railway, already in Miami, added a second track. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad rapidly built south, arriving in Miami in 1927.

The Florida Special arrives at Miami

Major hurricanes in 1926 and 1928 abruptly ended the land boom. Both the Florida East Coast and the Seaboard, burdened by the expense of rapid expansion in Florida, entered receivership.

Atlantic Coast Line train in Main Street, Gainesville

1928-1980

East Coast Champion, all-reserved coach train operating between New York and Miami.

The Dixie Flagler, deluxe streamliner stopped at Hollywood on its Miami-Chicago run.

With the exception of the war years, this period was generally marked by hard times and decline for the railroads. Florida’s tourist trade stayed relatively healthy during the Great Depression, aiding the passenger train business, but following the Second World War, inflexible regulation and competition from air and highway modes took its toll.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Allen/ch11.html

HOME, SWEET FLORIDA

. . ."GO TO FLORIDA--

--WHERE ENTERPRISE IS ENTHRONED--

A tale about the growth of Florida in the 20's, an interesting read...

How Miami grew! In 1920 its population had been only 30,000. According to the state census of 1925 it had jumped to 75,000-and probably if one had counted the newcomers of the succeeding months and Miami's share of the visitors who swarmed down to Florida from the North in one of the mightiest popular migrations of all time, the figure would have been nearer 150,000. And this, one was told, was only a beginning. Had not S. Davies Warfield, president of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, been quoted as predicting for Miami a population of a million within the next ten years? Did not the Governor of Florida, the Honorable John W. Martin, assert that "marvelous as is the wonder-story of Florida's recent achievements, these are but heralds of the dawn"?

Yes, the public bought. By 1925 they were buying anything, anywhere, so long as it was in Florida.

A lot in the business center of Miami Beach had sold for $800 in the early days of the development and had resold for $150,000 in 1924. For a strip of land in Palm Beach a New York lawyer had been offered $240,000 some eight or ten years before the boom; in 1923 he finally accepted $800,000 for it; the next year the strip of land was broken up into building lots and disposed of at an aggregate price of $1,500,000; and in 1925 there were those who claimed that its value had risen to $4,000,000. A poor woman who had bought a piece of land near Miami in 1896 for $25 was able to sell it in 1925 for $150,000. Such tales were legion; every visitor to the Gold Coast could pick them up by the dozen; and many if not most of them were quite true-though the profits were largely on paper. No wonder the rush for Florida land justified the current anecdote of a native saying to a visitor, "Want to buy a lot?" and the visitor at once replying, "Sold."


Was there any doubt that there would be unscrupulous business men? Those who would take life savings to make a buck? This game may have a few...
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:33, Mon 09 Oct 2006.

I will check to see which of these actually existed during the 20's and remove them as I identify the date they began. But these are the 15 newspapers currently in Miami.

XX Biscayne Bay Tribune (can't find)
Daily Business Review
XX Doral Tribune (can't find)
El Nuevo Herald (?)
El Popular (?)
XX Entertainment News and Views (founded < 1981)
XX Hurricane (University of Miami)
La Voz Catolica (?)
Miami Herald
XX Miami New Times (founded 1987)
XX Miami Today (founded 1983)
XX Palmetto Bay News (can't find)
XX South Florida Business Journal (part of American City Business Journals)
XX Street Weekly
XX Westside Gazette (founded 1971)

http://miaminewspaper.com/
http://www.abyznewslinks.com/uniteflmm.htm
http://www.mondotimes.com/1/world/us/9/525

Miami Library (on Microfilm):
http://www.miami.lib.ok.us/special_collections.htm
Miami Newspapers are available on microfilm, dating from 1901 Indian Territory to the present.
"Afton American Newspaper" Death Notices. 1900 - 1941.
"Afton American Newspaper" Death Notices. 1942 - 1986.
"Miami District Daily News".  Aug. 1917 - March. 1922.
"Miami Daily Record Herald".  Nov. 1917 - Sep. 1922.
"Miami News Record".  1901 - present.


The Miami Herald:
First edition published Sept 15, 1903 (as The Miami Evening Record); renamed The Miami Herald on Dec. 1, 1910; acquired by John S. and James L. Knight in 1937

Daily Business Review
1926 - First published as the Daily Record serving Dade County's legal community.
1927 - Consolidated with a second paper, publication renamed the Miami Review and Daily Record.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:37, Tue 10 Oct 2006.

This would have appeared later than our time period, but I thought I would make a note of it. Los Angeles had Philip Marlowe and San Francisco had Sam Spade.

Miami, Florida had Mike Shayne.

He had a tall angular body that concealed a lot of solid weight, and his freckled cheeks were thin to gauntness. His rumpled hair was violent red, giving him a little-boy look curiously in contrast with the harshness of his features. When he smiled, the harshness went out his face and he didn't look at all like a hard-boiled private detective who had come on the top the tough way.

Welcome to Flagler Street (www.mikeshayne.com), a website devoted to author Brett Halliday's most famous creation—Miami's famous redheaded private detective, Mike Shayne. Flagler Street, for the uninitiated, is the street in Miami on which Mike Shayne has his offices.

Mike Shayne debuted in the 1939 novel, Dividend on Death. He subsequently appeared in more than 50 novels, in addition to the hundreds of short stories published in the monthly Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. The last Shayne novel appeared in 1976 and the magazine folded in 1985—an impressive 46-year run in the public consciousness. That's quite a feat for a former writer of circulating library books.

In addition to print, Mike Shayne starred in two series of films during the 1940s and three radio programs during the 1940s and '50s. He had his own TV series on NBC, lasting one season (1960-61), and was featured in his own comic book—a three-issue run published in 1961-62.

http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/

The University was chartered in 1925 by a group of citizens who felt an institution of higher learning was needed for the development of their young and growing community. The inaugural class of 560 students enrolled in fall of 1926.

The Hurricanes:
It began in controversy. Some reports say the 1927 football team held a team meeting to select Hurricanes, hoping they would sweep away opponents just as the devastating storm did on September 16, 1926. Another version holds that Miami News columnist Jack Bell asked end Porter Norris of the 1926 team what the team should be called. Told that the local dignitaries and University officials wanted to name the team for a local flora or fauna, Norris said the players wouldn't stand for it and suggested “Hurricanes” since the opening game had been postponed by such a storm. From time to time, opposition has arisen to the name that would “reinforce Miami’s negative reputation as a weather-beaten community living constantly under the threat of destruction.” But as one UM official rationalized in the 60’s, “Does anyone think Chicago is overrun by bears just because the town has a football team by that name?

Orange, Green & White:
UM’s school colors were selected in 1926. The colors of the Florida orange tree represent UM. Orange symbolizes the fruit of the tree, green represents the leaves and white, the blossoms.

Sebastian the Ibis:
Folklore maintains that the Ibis, a symbol of knowledge found in the Everglades and Egypt, is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane and the first to reappear after the storm. The local marsh bird was considered UM's first unofficial mascot when the school yearbook adopted the name “Ibis” in 1926. Its popularity grew among the students during the 50’s. In 1957 San Sebastian Hall, a residence hall on campus, sponsored an Ibis entry in the homecoming celebration. The next year, student John Stormont performed at games in an Ibis costume that was glued, sewn and pinned together and was the forerunner of today's bird. Through the years, the Ibis has become one of the most recognizable college mascots in the United States.

Alma Mater:
Southern suns and sky blue water,
Smile upon you Alma mater;
Mistress of this fruitful land,
With all knowledge at your hand,
Always just to honor true,
All our love we pledge to you.
Alma Mater, stand forever
On Biscayne's wondrous shore.

http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/1920's.htm

FLORIDA IN THE 1920'S
THE GREAT FLORIDA LAND BOOM

In the 1920's Florida was the focus of one of the greatest economic and social phenomenon in American history as hundreds of thousands of Americans of all types of financial strata poured into the Sunshine State and forever changed the global image of Florida. There were similar movements in the south of France during the 1920's, but the Florida story was so vast and complete in changed the entire scope of the state.

Two important elements played roles in the Florida Land Boom. For the first time Americans had the time and money to travel to Florida to invest in real estate. For the educated and skilled working American, the 1920's meant paid vacations, pensions, and fringe benefits unheard of during the Victorian Era. The United States also had the automobile: that indispensable family transportation that allowed you to travel to Florida. This "welfare capitalism" of time and money contributed to the arrival in Florida of a new kind of tourist - middle class families.

PROHIBITION DAYS
While rural Floridians accepted the outlawing of alcoholic beverages, urban Floridians actively disliked Prohibition. Unlike other Southern states, Florida had serious Prohibition problems due to both its close proximity to the Bahamas and Cuba, and its general environment as a vacation group for Northerners and foreigners.

Nassau and Grand Bahama flourished as rum smuggling centers and Florida's one thousand mile coastline was hardly conducive to stop the smuggling of hootch. Despite the fact that locals were just a boat trip away from a wet vacation, Florida's tourist industry didn't want tourists taking their money to another country. In 1921, there were nine enormous liquor warehouses on Grand Bahama Island, just sixty miles from Palm Beach. This was the start of Rum Run to Florida.

There were more registered crop dusters and more new airplane runways in Florida in the 1920's than any other Southern state. Indignant Florida leaders assailed the laxity of controls in the Bahamas, but the only concession England made was to allow the United States to search British vessels in Florida waters.

The smugglers developed "Bimini boats", large cargo speedboats with equipment designed to detect Coast Guard vessels. Besides their speed and shallow draft many of these boats contained devices to ditch a cargo into the Florida Strait. In 1927, the Coast Guard introduced a thirteen million armada of new, faster ships, and much of the smuggling was curtailed.

Still, some areas of Florida were havens for violations. Tampa, with its large Latin population, Miami, and Palm Beach were filled with speakeasies and gambling. It did not help Florida's image that Al Capone, the kingpin of organized crime, selected Miami as his winter home. Al decided Miami would be an "open crime city" so he wasn't blamed for every criminal offense in Dade County.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum-running

Rum-running is the business of smuggling or transporting of alcoholic beverages illegally, usually to circumvent taxation or prohibition. The term usually applies to transport of goods over water, over land it is commonly referred to as bootlegging.

The term most likely originated at the start of Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933), when ships from the nearby island of Bimini transported cheap Caribbean rum to Florida speakeasies.

Greyhound was founded in 1914 as the Mesaba Transportation Company in Hibbing, Minn. The company was renamed the Motor Transit Corporation (1922) and Northland Transportation Company (1926) before incorporating under the Greyhound name in 1930. The current Greyhound Lines was organized in 1987 after it purchased the United States bus holdings of the former Greyhound Corporation (now known as Viad Corp.) Greyhound Lines was acquired by Laidlaw International, Inc. in 1999.

So, for our purposes, the Transit system will be known as the Northland Transportation Company. (Sounds better than Motor Transit Corporation.)



http://www.miamidade.gov/trans..._famous_families.asp
The Tatum Family

In April 1906, only 10 years after Miami was formally incorporated, the City Council passed an ordinance granting three members of the pioneer Tatum family and several associates the exclusive right to operate a railway over Miami's streets.

July 25, 1906--a single car began running from the old FEC depot near Avenue B and Sixth Street, down Avenue B to 12 Street, then out 12 Street to the FEC crossing at the courthouse. Avenue B is the present NE 2 Avenue, and 12 Street is Flagler Street; so the line served the purpose of linking downtown Miami, such as it was, with the then-outlying FEC station.

On September 3, 1907, the company superintendent announced that service would be suspended so the line could prepare for the coming winter season. Although repairs were supposed to take only a month, the line had carried its last passengers. Miami's first trolley line lasted just one year.

Early in 1915, the Tatums again decided to venture into a field of public transportation. Again, the streetcar was to be the vehicle, and the route would basically be the same. Work on the new system began in 1915, but it was late in 1917 before cars were running the length of the line. This line, unlike its predecessor, used battery-powered cars rather than an overhead trolley system for power.

The car barn was also located near the ball park, standing at Ninth Street and Avenue U. It accommodated the six cars that comprised the system. Early in 1920, the barn was the scene of a disastrous fire that wiped out the entire fleet. Faced with the prospect of an expensive re-equipping of the line, the Company managed to stall for a year before it officially decided to leave the transportation field.

During 1920, the Miami Beach Electric Co. with Carl Fisher  as president, built a single-track line across the County Causeway to Miami Beach. Ten small streetcars, known as Birney safety cars and seating 28 passengers, were delivered to the Electric Company in September 1919. The car barn was situated near the east end of the causeway where the power house now stands.

Early in December the company began running tests at various points over the line, and on December 13, 1920, the first car completed a round trip between Miami and Miami Beach. Shortly before noon on December 18, regular electric railway service was incorporated between the two cities.

Meanwhile, on the west side of the bay, Miami's city fathers were not blind to the success of the Miami Beach Electric Railway Co. Miami had been without local trolley service since the demise of the battery line early in 1920. Late in 1921, the city began negotiations to buy the franchise of the Miami Traction Company. The city ordered eight new streetcars similar to the ten operated by the Beach Company. On January 3, 1922, the agreement was signed, and the city of Miami now owned a trolley system.

Local streetcar operation in Miami proper returned to the city on January 7, 1922 with two safety cars running on a 20-minute headway. In March, 1924, the Miami Beach Electric Railway Company and its rail subsidiary were sold to the American Power and Light Company.

By 1925 the Florida boom was wide open. Miles of new track were built both in Miami and on the Beach. In 1924 and 1925, the city bought 27 more streetcars, now owning a total of 39. The original single-track line across the causeway had been double tracked in 1925-26, and 12 large deluxe cars arrived just in time to inaugurate service on the improved lines.

In 1925 and 1926, the Miami Railway Company was operating 50 buses on a less heavily traveled line.

On April 30, 1924, William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued orator, made a speech extolling the streetcar as "the apostle of democracy."

Seaboard Depot Line--Service for this line began on January 4, 1928 and ended on May 20, 1928, less than five months after it opened with such high hopes.

One final route, which lasted somewhat longer, operated along Ponce de Leon Boulevard in Coral Gables to the University of Miami, then south along the present Magnolia Street to Sunset Drive in South Miami. This service, which began on November 18, 1926, and was operated principally for students at the university and at old Ponce de Leon High, lasted until 1931.

By 1935, the Coral Gables Municipal Railway was operating only the Coral Way high-speed line, and even this line was only a shadow of its original glory. Only four of the 20 trolleys the city owned were required to maintain service on the line.

On November 4, 1935, an unexpected hurricane touched down in Miami. Much of the overhead wire on the Coral Way line was destroyed. The city of Coral Gables, which had contemplated replacing its last trolley line with buses anyway, decided that the estimated $7,500 for repairs was too much.

By the '30s the city had begun to spread beyond its original boundaries, and now buses and jitneys were siphoning off the long-haul traffic. School cars were still popular, carrying students to Miami High in the morning and home in the afternoon.

Early victims of the depression were the local beach lines on Alton Road, Washington Avenue, and Sheridan/Pine Tree. By 1933, the last of these had been replaced by buses, and only the original intercity causeway line still operated between Miami and the Beach.

In 1934, the Kiwanis Club spearheaded a campaign to rid Miami of streetcars and modernize the city transit system. The newspaper took up the cry. On the afternoon of October 17, 1939, only hours after receiving official permission, the last trolleys rolled across the causeway, ending the service that had begun nearly 20 years before. In the rush hour the next morning, 30 buses seating 23 passengers each were required to handle the loads that the 12 trolleys, carrying 48 passengers each, had handled the morning before.

On October 8, 1940, a special election granted the Miami Transit Company the authority to run buses throughout the city. The final conversions were set for November, and on the afternoon of November 14, a gala parade, celebrating the passing of the trolley, rolled through downtown Miami. On the unusually cold night of November 16, 1940, the last trolleys rolled along Miami's streets.

Finally, it is interesting to note that initial proposals for the present-day Miami-Dade County Metrorail system called for early construction of a line across MacArthur Causeway through south Miami Beach, following almost the identical route taken by Carl Fisher's little trolleys that morning of December 18, 1920.


http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/history_1930.asp
1933 - George B. Dunn made a proposal to the city of Miami Beach to operate the local streetcar lines.

1935 - The Coral Gables high-speed service had lasted nine years. Damage to electric overhead power lines during the storm of 1935 was so extensive that the line was permanently shut down and the city of Coral Gables went to an all-bus system.

1937 - Voters rejected a ballot which attempted to unify all transit services in Miami except the jitneys.

1939 - A second attempt to have the public approve a new unified transit franchise was successful.

1939 - October 17: Miami Beach Railway abandoned its three streetcars in favor of 15 new "twins." This company continued as a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light until it was sold to William D. Pawley in 1941. Miami Beach became a military training base during World War II.

1939 - Miami discontinued using its streetcars. The city granted an exclusive franchise to Miami Transit Company.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:49, Wed 11 Oct 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...nternational_Airport
Miami International Airlines was opened to flights in 1928 as Pan American Field, the operating base of Pan American Airways Corporation, on the north side of the modern airport property. After Pan Am acquired the New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line, it shifted most of its operations to the Dinner Key seaplane base, leaving Pan Am Field largely unused until Eastern Air Lines began flying there in 1934, followed by National Airlines in 1937.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P..._Airways_Corporation
Pan American Airways Incorporated was founded on March 14, 1927, by Major Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and partners. Their shell company was able to obtain the U.S. mail delivery contract to Cuba, but lacked the physical assets to do the job. On June 2, 1927, Juan Trippe (Yale '21) formed the Aviation Corporation of America with the backing of powerful and politically-connected financiers William A. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, and others; Whitney served as the company's president. Their operation had the all-important landing rights for Havana, having acquired a small airline established in 1926 by John K. Montgomery and Richard B. Bevier as a seaplane service from Key West, Florida to Havana. The Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean Airways company was established on October 11, 1927, by New York City investment banker Richard Hoyt, who served as president. The three companies merged into a holding company called the Aviation Corporation of the Americas on June 23, 1928. Richard Hoyt was named as chairman of the new company, but Trippe and his partners held forty percent of the equity and Whitney was made president. Trippe became the operational head of the new Pan American Airways Incorporated, created as the primary operating subsidiary of Aviation Corporation of the Americas.

http://www.crazedfanboy.com/npcr/laflapcr192.html
Miami's Airports:
Up to thirteen airports or air stations operated in the Miami area from the late 1920's to the advent of World War Two. This partial listing is of the most notable of these historic fields.

Glenn Curtiss Aviation School (a.k.a. Glenn Curtis Field) /Miami Municipal Airport
Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited for inventing the airplane, the one person who probably did more than any other human being for the growth of the world of aviation as we know it today was undeniably Glenn Curtiss. A native of Hammondsport, New York, and dubbed "The Henry Ford of Aviation", the Wright brothers issued Curtiss Pilots License Number One.

Originally built in 1911 near downtown Miami abutting "Bay Biscayne", Curtiss later moved the facility to a cleared field that was formerly Saw Palmetto and Dade County Pine located between 105th Street and Gratigny Road east of LeJeune Road. General aviation, airmail, and scheduled passenger service began to operate out of this field, and in 1927 Curtiss deeded the field to the City of Miami which brought about the name change to Miami Municipal Airport.

The All-American Aerial Maneuvers mentioned above in this article took place annually at this field from 1929 to 1941. And lastly, on June 1, 1937 famed aviator Amelia Earhart began her ill fated around the world trip after her Lockheed Electra lifted off from the runway of this airport. As a result, the field was lastly renamed to Amelia Earhart Field, a title that it was given in 1947. The field was shut down many decades ago. A nearby municipal park bearing her name is located immediately south of the Gratigny Parkway adjacent to the Opa-Locka Executive Airport.

Dinner Key
Many of the Caribbean and Central and South American countries did not have ground based landing fields due in many cases to mountainous terrain or thick jungles. As a result, flying boats were the most logical choice of reaching these exotic locations and the New York Rio and Buenos Aires Airline (or NYRBA) of New York was quick to capitalize on this, utilizing the most luxurious flying boat of them all at that time, the Consolidated Commodore. In 1929 it began to use a portion of Biscayne Bay in the Coconut Grove area of Miami that would later be called Dinner Key (see PCR Issue # 136 at http://www.crazedfanboy.com/no...d02/laflapcr136.html ).

On February 20, 1930 NYRBA pilot Ralph A. O'Neill landed at Dinner Key bringing with him the first ever airmail from South America. A hostile take over by Pan American forced cessation of the NYRBA, the actual first airline to serve Dinner Key. Regardless, Pan American would indelibly leave its history on the Dinner Key facility, making it one of the most significant airports in Florida.

From here its fleet of Sikorsky S-40's, S-42 and Consolidated Commodore flying boats (fourteen of them acquired from the NYRBA in the hostile takeover) carried passengers to Cuba, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The first flight from this port to the Panama Canal Zone was on November 19, 1931 with Charles Lindbergh as pilot, and aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky riding as a passenger. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt flew into Dinner Key on Pan American Boeing 314 Clipper "Dixie", becoming the first President to fly while in office. This flight was in preparation of his meeting with Churchill and Stalin in Casablanca.

By the end of the Second World War, the flying boats days were numbered as improved land fields began to populate points south, and Pan American shut down the Dinner Key operation shortly thereafter. The once world class terminal still exists as Miami City Hall (see PCR issues 136 and 190 (http://www.crazedfanboy.com/npcr/laflapcr190.html)

36th Street Airport/Pan American Field
Pan American Airways founder Juan Terry Trippe determined that he could make his fledgling airline more money by hauling mail on U.S. contracts on a per mileage basis than on a per weight basis. As a result of this, in the fall of 1928 Trippe moved his Key West operation from Meacham Field to a cleared area adjacent to 36th Street, west of Le Jeune Road next to Glenn Curtiss's developments of Miami Springs and Hialeah.

This move would in essence be the catalyst for the creation of one of the world's greatest airports, Miami International Airport. A 120-acre tract of land, the 36th Street Airport was built in 1927 and on September 15, 1928, Captain Edwin Musick gunned the engines of his Pan American Sikorsky S-38 loaded with 340 pounds of airmail bound for Key West becoming the first scheduled flight to leave that field.

On January 9, 1929 famed aviator Charles Lindberg dedicated the main terminal, possibly the first modern prototypical air terminal in American history. The terminal was designed by Delano and Aldrich, who also designed the terminals at the Dinner Key location and at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

In 1932, Eddie Rickenbacker moved his Eastern Air Transport operation from Miami Municipal Airport to the 36th Street Airport, while yet another South Florida aviation player, George T. Baker, made the 36th Street Airport a destination in 1937 and moved the base of operations for his National Airlines Systems from Jacksonville to Miami International Airport in 1946. Also in the fray was of course Glenn Curtiss who designed and built the Aero-Car on a an aircraft frame to ferry passengers from the 36th Street Airport to Miami's hotels and connecting flights at Dinner Key. The Aero-Car would in large part inspire the Airstream camper.

Now officially known as Wilcox Field, in honor of a South Florida proponent of commercial aviation, Miami International Airport is today number one in air cargo in the United States, number one in scheduled flights to South America from the United States, and has more airlines than any other airport in the country. The airport and its support industries now employ over 40,000 people.

Venetian Causeway Seaplane Base/Viking Field
Located on the Venetian Causeway's Biscayne Island, Viking Field featured both land and amphibious aircraft. Initially constructed in 1928 as the Venetian Causeway Seaplane Base, its name was changed in 1931 to Viking Field. Although shut down many decades ago, this field was Miami's first true downtown and waterfront airport.

Opa-Locka Field
Located north of the Gratigny Parkway and immediately west of LeJeune Road, this airport was yet another brainchild of Glenn Curtiss and like the 36th Street Airport was built in 1927.

It was the home of the U.S. Naval Training Command during World War Two and the home of six naval training bases. Curtiss's other airfield, Miami Municipal/Amelia Earhart discussed above, was located almost immediately south of the Opa-Locka Field and during the Second World War the two airports were connected.

Most notable about Opa-Locka was its gigantic blimp hanger, which housed such notable dirigibles as the Graf Zeppelin and the ill-fated U.S. Navy dirigible, the Akron. In 1967 Opa was touted as being the world's busiest airport with over 650,000 flight operations that year.

It currently houses general aviation, a U.S. Coast Guard auxiliary, aircraft recovery services (scrapping and disposal of retired and inactive aircraft) and possibly the last cargo versions of operable piston aircraft such as the DC-3, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, Convair Twins and Beech 18 left in the lower 48 states.

From a historical perspective, this is probably the best preserved of Miami's original airports, although regrettably the blimp hanger, which was featured in a 1985 episode ("Evan") of the NBC series "Miami Vice", was destroyed by the end of that decade.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:23, Wed 11 Oct 2006.

I have found some information about the area that covers current as well as past info about the Miama area. Instead of stripping out current info, I am leaving it in for now. So ignore any references after 1925. But this gives you a feel for the genuine impact that the time period had on how Miami is today as a result of how it was back then.

This way you can truly appreciate what that period in time meant and what it will be like to play in it. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I will enjoy setting up the playground for you.

Keep in mind that the South Beach area today has become a playground for the rich and famous, mostly models and the party people. Back then, Miami was a place where people went to get rich and make their mark in society. There was a land boom and we are in the thick of it. Prohibition was in full swing and people found themselves on both or either side of the law.

Enjoy!

Miami Beach

Both the sun and the moon shine brightly today over the playground called Miami Beach. The round-the-clock excitement is reflected on the covers of national and international glamour and travel magazines where the trendy South Beach district -- or SoBe -- is displayed like a model newly emerged from a makeover. Not far from the truth… It's the revitalizing of this area's definitive art deco architecture that has put Miami Beach on the map.

Encompassing 17 islands in Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach has enchanted visitors with its incomparable beaches and social scene since the 1920’s. It was during the boom time of the ‘20’s and ‘30’s that the scores of small art deco hotels were built to accommodate pleasure-loving hordes from colder climates. Beginning in the late 1950’s these modest tourist digs gave way to grand resort complexes (like the fabulous Fontainebleau). It is in SoBe’s Art Deco District where today's action is -- from Ocean Drive's magnetic stretch of restaurants, clubs and lovingly renovated art deco hotels to the trendy shops, restaurants and cafes on Washington Avenue, to the cultural nexus taking shape on Lincoln Road. Art Deco Weekend (January 16-18, 2004) is the big beach blowout, but there's almost always something special going on.

Today, the art deco-fueled renewal is certainly packing them in, but it's a diversity of attractions that keeps the crowds happy. Of course there are the fabulous beaches, and all the recreation that goes along with them, but, increasingly, there are also world-class cultural draws, such as the New World Symphony (305-673-3331), Miami City Ballet (305-929-7000), the Art Center South Florida (305-674-8278), and a visible community of dancers, actors, artists and designers.

This cultural side of South Beach is a prominent part of what Lincoln Road has to offer. Once one of the most elegant shopping streets in the country, Lincoln Road was redesigned in the 1960’s by legendary architect Morris Lapidus as America's first pedestrian mall. Now it is envisioned as the center of the new Miami Beach -- a kind of link between South Beach and the mainline attractions, such as the Miami Beach Convention Center (305-673-7311), the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (305-673-7300) and the Bass Museum of Art (305-673-7530) among others.

South Beach

Occupying less than two square miles on the southern tip of Miami Beach, South Beach's subtropical sandbar has an identity all its own as the American Riviera. Here, life is celebrated as one chic, 24/7 street party in an art deco playground.

South Beach 's beautiful architecture makes it a favored location for films, music and television shows, as well as a backdrop for fashion shoots. The Art Deco District boasts the largest concentration of 1920’s and 1930’s architecture in the world, earning a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. –It is also globally recognized as one of Miami 's unique attractions.

South Beach sightseers will want to start out at South Pointe Park for a close-up view of ships heading through the deep-water channel, known as "Government Cut", to the Port of Miami . Across the channel are the Mediterranean-style buildings of Fisher Island , accessible only by ferry.

Next, check out Lummus Park , a green expanse bordering the wide beach. Once there, note how the pastel pinks, bright aquas and canary yellows of Ocean Drive ’s hotels fight for space on the South Beach skyline. Visitors can join a walking tour or check out South Beach 's other attractions, including the Wolfsonian/FIU collection, the Botanical Gardens and the Holocaust Memorial.

This is also a key stop for shoppers with an eclectic mix of intriguing boutiques, bookstores, art galleries, and home design shops. Don’t miss the Spanish-style Espanola Way featuring stores that sell New Age and retro items.

Food is another big draw in SoBe with dozens of restaurants lining the streets creating a culinary meca of sorts for so many different types of cuisine. And in a town that never sleeps, the restaurants are always busy until the wee hours of the morning.

South Beach also stays alive late into the night as visitors and locals dress up or down to hit South Beach’s trendy clubs, pubs and daiquiri bars. No matter your style, a visit to South Beach will redefine how you look at style!

Downtown Miami

No exploration of Miami would be complete without spending some time downtown. There's plenty of shopping here, but you'll also find the center of county government, a wealth of cultural opportunities and some of the city's most famous architecture. Nearby is Biscayne Bay , with Bayfront Park, Bayside Marketplace, a marina, and views of the Port of Miami , which is the world's largest cruise port.

Historically, this is the oldest area of Miami . In the 16th century, a Spanish mission was established near the mouth of the Miami River . It was succeeded by an army outpost built in the 1840’s to protect settlers.Development later fanned out from this point. This is obvious from city maps: The intersection of Flagler Street and Miami Avenue downtown marks the convergence of the city's N.E., N.W., S.E. and S.W. quadrants. Not very interesting, but crucial to knowing where you are in Greater Miami. From this point, numbering begins for streets (running east/west) and avenues (running north/south).

For shopping, the action centers on the Central Business District (CBD), the core of which is bounded by N.E. First Avenue, N.E. Fifth Street, Biscayne Bay and the Miami River . More than 3,000 retailers are located here, from department stores to specialty shops to 300-plus restaurants. Busy Flagler Street is a logical place to start, but don't miss the Jewelry District, on N.E. First Street between N.E. First and Miami Avenues. Bayside Marketplace, a shopping, dining and strolling mecca, takes full advantage of its site on the bay. The waterside ambience and many fine diversions make this the most visited attraction in South Florida .

Downtown has plenty of cultural interest, from the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts (305-374-2444) to the James L. Knight Center (305-284-5137) and the Miami Arena (305-530-4400). The Metro-Dade Cultural Center with its inviting central plaza is the setting for the Miami Art Museum , the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and the art-filled Miami-Dade Public Library. Here, also, is the mammoth sculpture “Dropped Bowl with Scattered Slices and Peels”, perhaps Miami 's most famous public artwork. South of the CBD, across the Miami River , is the Brickell Avenue area sometimes called "the Wall Street of the South" for its concentration of national and international banks.

Coral Gables

Appropriately named the "City Beautiful" by its designer, George Merrick, Coral Gables is an utterly charming community of gracious Mediterranean architecture, monumental gateways, streets shaded by huge banyans and ficus trees, plazas, fountains, and miles of waterways and canals. Merrick grew up here, in a gabled plantation house built of coral rock and pine, which is now open to the public. Call (305) 460-5361 for information. In the 1920’s, he spent more than $100 million to create this dream city on some twelve square miles of former Florida scrub and citrus groves, 4 miles south of Downtown Miami.

Merrick's plan also included "international villages" styled Normandy , Colonial, French Country and City, Dutch South African, Chinese, and Italian. These pockets of thematic architecture punctuate the city like quirky comments on their traditional surroundings.

One of the grander attractions in Coral Gables is the Venetian Pool (305-460-5356). Formerly a quarry from which oolitic limestone (coral rock) was taken for architectural uses, the huge municipal pool is a fantasy of caves, waterfalls, arched bridges, and Mediterranean-style buildings.

On the natural side, there's Matheson Hammock County Park (305-665-5475), a mangrove forest fronting Biscayne Bay , edged with beaches and a boat harbor, and just south is Fairchild Tropical Garden (305-667-1651), a lush hothouse of tropical plantings.

Today, Downtown Coral Gables is a thriving business community, especially along the major shopping thoroughfare known as Miracle Mile ( Coral Way , between S.W. 42nd Avenue and Douglas Road ). Home to more than 130 multinational corporations, plus eleven consulates and foreign trade commissions. Coral Gables also offers some of the top chefs in the city, with more than 120 restaurants the choices are rich and varied.

Be advised, you'll need a map to explore Coral Gables . The curving streets can be confusing and the street signs are small. Drop by City Hall (305-446-6800), which is the imposing Spanish Colonial building complete with a tower and colonnade, for maps and information.

Coconut Grove

If any neighborhood in urban Miami could be termed a "village" it has to be Coconut Grove. On Biscayne Bay , south of Downtown and east of Coral Gables , the Grove has been a diverse community since its settlement in the late 19th century. Sailing yacht designer Ralph Munroe, originally from New York , and the Peacock brothers, from England , settled the area along with the families of Bahamian seamen who salvaged treasure from wrecked vessels offshore along the Great Florida Reef. Munroe's unusual 1891 home, called The Barnacle (305-448-9445) for its conical shape, is a wonderfully preserved slice of old Florida .

On the other end of the architectural spectrum, but built just a decade later, is Vizcaya (305-250-9133), the Italian Renaissance-style estate of millionaire industrialist James Deering. This opulent 70-room palace on Biscayne Bay is the jewel in the city's crown, with its art treasures, formal gardens and preserved natural setting.

But perhaps what comes to mind most often for Miamians when they think of the Grove is shopping, entertainment, good food, and fun. Locals come from all over to dine at the many restaurants, from sidewalk eateries to candlelit dining rooms – all featuring a culturally diverse selection of food. The Grove is also a favorite haunt for locals when it comes to its art galleries, interesting shops and clubs – all of which you will find at CocoWalk, a one-stop entertainment complex in the heart of the Grove. Visitors will also find a wide selection of street artists and entertainers at Cocowalk.

It's never more obvious that the Grove is among the happening spots in the city than during one of the many festivals. A few include, “A Taste of the Grove” (January), the “Coconut Grove Arts Festival” ( February 14-16, 2004 ), the “Italian Renaissance Festival” ( March 19-21, 2004 ) at Vizcaya, the “Goombay Festival” ( June 5-6, 2004 ), a celebration of Bahamian heritage, and the “King Mango Strut” (December 28), which is a spoof on Miami 's Orange Bowl extravaganza.

Many of these events take place outdoors in Coconut Grove's lovely Peacock Park (305-416-1300), but any day of the year is good for enjoying the views of the bay and the marinas from one of the area’s waterfront parks. Bicycling, roller-blading, jogging, picnicking, tennis and more are all here on the water. When you tire of walking the Grove’s tree-lined streets, hop in your car and admire the area’s architectural points of interest -- from old houses of coral rock and gracious homes with expansive grounds to cottages and historic churches.

Key Biscayne

Just across the Rickenbacker Causeway, 2 miles south of downtown Miami (yet a world away, according to residents), is Key Biscayne. This 7 mile long and 2 mile wide barrier island is known for its spectacular beaches and many other recreational opportunities, as well as its relaxed, small-town lifestyle.

The Village of Key Biscayne is little more than a square mile of the island, which includes 1,800 acres of natural parkland. On the southern end of Key Biscayne is Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreation Area, home of the 95-foot-tall Cape Florida Lighthouse.

On the east side of the Key is Crandon Park (305-365-2300). It’s 3.5 mile white sand beach has been rated one of the 10 most beautiful in the United States by CondÈ Nast Traveler magazine. There are two outstanding sports sites here: Crandon Park Golf Course (305-361-9129) and the Tennis Center . Crandon Park Golf Course, with its lush tropical setting and great views of the Miami skyline, hosts the annual Royal Caribbean Classic (February), kickoff to the U.S. Senior PGA Tour. Not to be outdone, the Tennis Center hosts the annual NASDAQ-100 Open (March 24-April 4, 2004). The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center (305-361-6767) with a marina, bike paths, concessions and more, round out the many family offerings in Crandon Park .

Key Biscayne is fabulously situated for water sports. Windsurfing is especially popular from Hobie Island , just 200 feet off the mainland. Scuba diving into offshore reefs and wrecks is also possible, along with sport fishing, snorkeling, jet skiing, and sailing.

Nearby Virginia Key is home to the Miami Seaquarium (305-361-5705), a center for research and conservation, housing some 10,000 creatures of the deep, and the University of Miami 's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (305-361-4000), a leader in oceanographic research. After a visit to these hospitable islands, so close to the bustle of urban Miami , you too will find yourself in the swim.

Little Havana

The official name of this area is Southwest Eighth Street , but everyone knows it as "Calle Ocho."

Cubans who fled from Cuba in the 1960’s recreated their community west of Brickell Avenue , imbuing it with nostalgia for their homeland. This vibrant neighborhood, home to many residents from Central and South America as well, has a distinct Latin flavor. Everything is authentic, from the fruit stands and cigar factories to the eat-at windows of the cafeterias where patrons drink Cuban coffee and passionately discuss politics.

You'll want to visit the area's quaint shops, where you'll find embroidered guayabera shirts, hand-rolled cigars and Latin music, or explore gift shops offering unique items and Cuban memorabilia. And at Little Havana to Go (305-381-7884), you'll find regional crafts, souvenirs, art and more.

Cultural activities are blossoming here, along with art galleries, studios and theaters. Cultural Fridays take place on the last Friday of every month along Calle Ocho and feature dance, music, poetry, visual arts, and theater. The historic Tower Theater is alive with performances, cultural and educational programs, and multi-cultural films, while Teatro Ocho is home to theater productions in Spanish.

Last, but not least is the food. Little Havana is one of the best places to experience Latin cuisine. Latin flavor takes center stage during Carnaval Miami, a week-long celebration of Hispanic culture culminating with Calle Ocho (a street festival that's often referred to as "the world's largest block party"), which attracts more than a million people each year.

Aventura

After becoming a city in 1995, Aventura, located at the northern end of Miami-Dade County , has established its niche as an enclave of tropical landscaping and water, surrounding sleek high-rises and luxurious single-family homes.

Majestic palms and shade trees line the roadways, and colorful flowers cover the medians of Aventura Boulevard and Country Club Drive , which sweeps around the golf course in the heart of the city.

Aventura Founders Park , located in the center of the city, features a bayside path, tennis courts, a children's playground and a multi-purpose athletic field. Nearby you’ll find the 4.3-mile long Don Soffer Aventura Fitness Trail, a popular spot for walkers, runners, cyclists, and rollerbladers.

Aventura is also synonymous with world-class shopping. The Aventura Mall, set among lush landscaping, includes an interesting array of shops and restaurants, as well as a large movie theater inside. The nearby Waterways replicate a village set around the marina. You can wander around the shopping areas, boutiques and galleries, meander down to the lighthouse, and then enjoy a meal in one of the area’s distinctive restaurants. With a selection of cuisine ranging from sophisticated to casual, Aventura will definitely entice you.

Bal Harbour

This may be one of the smallest municipalities in Miami-Dade County , but it is also one of the best known. Covering a third of a square mile, the village has long been a favored hideaway of the rich and famous where celebrity spotting is easy. Here the main street, Collins Avenue , becomes a wide boulevard graced by stately palm trees and greenery. To the east, against a backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean , you'll find the village's 2 luxury resorts and gleaming condominium towers set amid flowers and fountains. On the west side of Collins Avenue , low-rise apartment buildings stand next to the gated entrance to Bal Harbour 's single-family homes. Heading north out of this tiny oceanside city, the road rises to a crest over the Haulover Bridge . On the other side you’ll find Haulover Park where you can enjoy the beach, water, picnic area and more.

Bal Harbour shops are the village's crown jewel. The upscale mall is open to the sky, but designed to protect shoppers from the elements in a tropical garden setting, swathed in scarlet and purple bougainvillea. Here you can browse the collection of internationally renowned boutiques and stores that evoke style centers in New York , Paris , Milan , and London . The latest designer fashions and accessories, precious gems and fine, decorative objects may be found here.

When it comes to dining, you can choose from an array of elegant cuisines -- continental, international, Italian, Latin, seafood, steaks, sushi, and New Miami World cuisine served by the restaurants or the village's two resorts. But whether you dine indoors or outdoors, in a cafe or bistro, or on a terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean , you'll savor the ambience of Bal Harbour.

Sunny Isles Beach

The scene is changing in this lively resort area, as funky 1950’s motels and small beachfront hotels give way to luxury apartment towers and hotels. But little has changed on the Newport Fishing Pier, where you can drop a line and fish from shore.

For the thrill of deep-sea fishing, just head south to the charter boats docked on the Intracoastal Highway at Haulover Beach Park – a park split down the middle by the main road, Collins Avenue. (THIS SHOULD BE ONE COMPLETE PARAGRAPH W/THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.) On one side, bordering the Intracoastal Waterway, ocean breezes cool the 9-hole, par-3 golf course and the tennis courts, making the park a perfect spot for kite flying. Across Collins Avenue, a one-mile long stretch of pristine beach gives you the obvious surf and sand choices, plus shaded picnic areas where you can enjoy a day of fun or a quick oceanside lunch or dinner.

Surfside

One of the attractions of this quiet, family-oriented town is the wide, secluded beach that is bordered by a path through the dunes.

Rejuvenated hotels and luxury high-rise condominiums are changing the style of Collins Avenue , but Harding Avenue retains the feel of an old-style main street with small shops, a 1950’s corner drugstore and a soda fountain.

Small bistros welcome strollers for a casual meal, while the oceanfront Surfside Community Center and Tot-Lotpresent various shows and events year round in an art deco-style outdoor stage that is reminiscent of a miniature Hollywood Bowl.

Just south of surfside, the North Shore State Recreation Area offers an unspoiled beachfront nature preserve and picnic area that also caters to families.

Off topic a good bit and unrelated, but for our Amber friends, this was provided as well.

Not related to 'this' game but might make for interesting reading material.

At ACNW they were running a second installment on a street level Chaos game called "Pulp Chaos." It's basically an attempt to imagine what life is like for the non-Lords in Chaos while still using the Merlin series as canon. There's info on his site at:  http://www.bolthy.com/pulpchaos/

A place to post information about 1920's cars.
http://www.skygaze.com/content/facts/automobiles.shtml

d20 Pulp games
http://paratime.ca/d20/pulp/

Dime Hero Character

http://www.deep7.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv? Screen=PROD&Store_Code=deep7&Product_Code=D71PG008
(copy paste into browser)

Adventure!
http://www.white-wolf.com/Games/Pages/Adventure.html

GURPS: Cliffhangers
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/cliffhangers/

Zeppelin Age
http://www.zeppelinage.com/

Danger Quest
http://www.torchlightgames.com/TLG_DQ_P1.html

Pulp Cthulhu
http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/d20cthulhu/8800.shtml

Savage Worlds
http://www.peginc.com/SavageWorlds/index.htm

Final Fantasy:

FFRPG 3rd ed.(beta)
http://www.returnergames.com/wiki/

Returner Games Homepage
http://www.returnergames.com/

FFRPG Rules(.hlp File)
http://www.returnergames.com/ffrpg.hlp

Pulp Links:

The Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

Pulp Character Archetypes:
http://www.chill.uk.net/eon/ch...ulperaarchetypes.php

...and Pulp Villain Archetypes:
http://www.chill.uk.net/eon/ch...villainachetypes.php

Jess Nevins' superb directory of Pulp and Adventure Heroes of the Pre-War
Years:
http://www.geocities.com/jjnevins/pulpsintro.html

The Pulp Avengers: Game Mastering Pulp Adventures in the 1930s and 1940s.
http://www.fantasylibrary.com/lounge/pulpavengers.htm

Crimson Skies:
http://www.crimsonskies.com

Lester Dent (creator of Doc Savage) published a master template for writing
a pulp story:
http://dept.english.upenn.edu/~rbarrett/mc/dent.txt

More than 300 e-books featuring The Shadow:
http://www.spaceports.com/~deshadow/

Steampunk links:

Detailed game system and adventure modules in a variety of steampunk settings.
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/index.htm

Resource on use of robots, Victorian era.
http://bigredhair.com/robots/index.html
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:47, Fri 08 Dec 2006.

Chris-Craft Powerboats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris-Craft_Industries

Boat types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Boat_types

Rum Running:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum-running
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/hi...ion_Photo_Index.html
http://www.providenceri.com/na...bay/rum_runners.html

Motorboats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedboat

Yachts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht

Launch (boat)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_%28boat%29
http://www.working-boats.co.uk/
(A selection of Launches, the styles that could have been used in Rum Running, for speed against Coast Guard ships)
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:23, Wed 01 Nov 2006.

Only Yesterday - An Informal History of the 1920's - by Frederick Lewis Allen

I also found the book available on the web! The full text is available.
That makes it easier to capture and make available for news stories if they look interesting.

The book is here:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Allen/Cover.html

It is a very informative and interesting book!

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~YP/yppop.html
This site has a wealth of information.

Probably one of the most dramatic decades in United States history, the 1920s had it all.
Women's rights, political scandals, crimes of the century, and economic upheaval. This was a time where the old and the new clashed, and that clash caused some of the most sensational events in our history.
ILLINOIS TRAILS Welcomes You To The 1920s!
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/state/alhn1920.html




Check out the British perspective of America in the 1920's.
The USA was one of the victors in the First World War and it enjoyed a period of great prosperity in the 1920's, though there was a darker side to American life even then.
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/america/index.htm




The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA) presents over 9,000 images, with database information, relating to the early history of advertising in the United States. The materials, drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, provide a significant and informative perspective on the early evolution of this most ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/


A comprehensive directory that covers all facets of the 1920's & 1930's.
http://users.snowcrest.net/jmike/20sdep.html



Descriptions and illustrations of 1920's flapper fashions.
http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html



American Popular Songs in the form in which they were originally published, beginng with the 1920's.
http://digital.library.ucla.edu/apam/



From the Library of Congress, Dance Instruction Manuals 1490-1920.
An American Ballroom Companion.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html



Free to Dance--Dance Timelne 1619-2001
From PBS.org
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freeto.../timeline/index.html



American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment 1870-1920
Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vshome.html



And there are even more links at:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~YP/yppop.html



More Links can be found at:
http://www.trailend.org/main-links.htm
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:24, Thu 16 Nov 2006.

http://news.scotsman.com/inter...al.cfm?id=2434192005

Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
CHRIS STEPHEN AND ALLAN HALL

THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.

According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."

In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science with the order to build a "living war machine". The order came at a time when the Soviet Union was embarked on a crusade to turn the world upside down, with social engineering seen as a partner to industrialisation: new cities, architecture, and a new egalitarian society were being created.

The Soviet authorities were struggling to rebuild the Red Army after bruising wars.

And there was intense pressure to find a new labour force, particularly one that would not complain, with Russia about to embark on its first Five-Year Plan for fast-track industrialisation.

Mr Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the Tsar when in 1901 he established the world's first centre for the artificial insemination of racehorses.

Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in impregnating chimpanzees.

Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's birthplace - for the apes to be raised.

Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.

A final attempt to persuade a Cuban heiress to lend some of her monkeys for further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting on the story, and she dropped the idea amid the uproar.

Mr Ivanov was now in disgrace. His were not the only experiments going wrong: the plan to collectivise farms ended in the 1932 famine in which at least four million died.

For his expensive failure, he was sentenced to five years' jail, which was later commuted to five years' exile in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in 1931. A year later he died, reportedly after falling sick while standing on a freezing railway platform.

The Time magazine archive

http://www.time.com/time/archive

This is a free online database of the nearly 300,000 stories published since
the magazine's launch in 1923. It allows users to read articles not in
retrospect from today, but as the events unfolded.

The archive is organized into collections, but readers can also search
by date or keywords.

Collections are hand-picked covers and excerpts from the best articles on a wide variety of subjects. Use them as chronological guides to TIME's past coverage of a person, event, or topic.

Contents of May 25, 1925
http://www.time.com/time/magaz...3,7601250525,00.html

Contents of June 1, 1925
http://www.time.com/time/magaz...3,7601250601,00.html

Contents of June 8, 1925
http://www.time.com/time/magaz...3,7601250608,00.html

Jack found some good background stuff for 1920's clothing.

Men's fashions:
http://www.murrayonhawaii.com/nolan/index.html
http://www.murrayonhawaii.com/...istory_1920mens.html

Women's fashions:
http://www.murrayonhawaii.com/...tory_1920ladies.html

Dept. of the Army Regulations For Operation Of (Aeroplanes) Aircraft - Commencing January 1920

01. Don't take the machine into the air unless you are satisfied it will fly.

02. Never leave the ground with the motor leaking.

03. Don't turn sharply when taxiing. Instead of turning sharp, have someone lift the tail around.

04. In taking off, look at the ground and the air.

05. Never get out of the machine with the motor running until the pilot relieving you can reach the motor controls.

06. Pilots should carry hankies in a handy place to wipe off goggles.

07. Riding on the steps, wings, or rail of the machine is prohibited.

08. In case the engine fails on takeoff, land straight ahead regardless of obstacles.

09. No machine must taxi faster than a man can walk.

10. Never run motor so that blast will blow on other machines.

11. Learn to gauge altitude, especially on landing.

12. If you see another machine near you, get out of the way.

13. No two cadets should ever ride together in the same machine.

14. Do not trust altitude instruments.

15. Before you begin a landing glide, see that no machines are under you.

16. Hedge-hopping will not be tolerated.

17. No spins on back or tail sides will be indulged in as they unnecessarily strain the machines.

18. If flying against the wind and you wish to fly with the wind, don't make a sharp turn near the ground. You may crash.

19. Motors have been known to stop during a long glide. If pilot wishes to use motor for landing, he should open the throttle.

20. Don't attempt to force the machine onto the ground with more than flying speed. The result is bounding and ricocheting.

21. Pilots will not wear spurs while flying.

22. Do not use aeronautical gasoline in cars or motorcycles.

23. You must not take off or land closer than 50 feet to the hanger.

24. Never take a machine into the air until you are familiar with it's controls and instruments.

25. If an emergency occurs while flying, land as soon as possible.

The statuettes were found here:
Teotihuacán, commonly translated from the Nahuatl as "City of the Gods".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan
They were found inside the "Pyramid of the Moon"
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/mexico/

A photograph gallery of the "Avenue of the Dead" is here:
http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~dhixson/teo/teo.html

More sites:
http://archaeology.la.asu.edu/teo/
http://www.differentworld.com/...city/teotihuacan.htm
http://www.teotihuacan.com/
http://www.mexicocity.com.mx/teoti_i.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/TEO.HTM
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/teot/hd_teot.htm
http://www.inaoep.mx/~sole/tur...ico/Teotihuacan.html

This was an interesting news story...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...ech/main522626.shtml
Mysteries Of The Pyramid Of The Moon
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico, Sept. 19, 2002
Quote: Teotihuacan was a master-planned city, spanning 12 square miles and thrived longer than imperial Rome, its contemporary. As originally built, the Pyramid of the Sun rose to a peak of 195 feet.

REUTERS) Archeologists digging at Mexico's famed Pyramid of the Moon think they could be a few feet away from a royal grave, key to unlocking the secrets of the first major metropolis built in the Americas.

The Aztecs stumbled on these awesome stone pyramids, plazas and temples in about 1500 A.D., several centuries after the city was torched and abandoned. They believed it was a divine work and so named the site Teotihuacan, "City of the Gods" in their indigenous nahuatl tongue.

After 200 years of excavations and research, archeologists are similarly in the dark about who built the city, which at its peak in 500 A.D. is believed to have housed 200,000 people, rivaling Shakespeare's London, but a millennium earlier.

It is not known who ruled in Teotihuacan -- founded around the time of Christ 30 miles northeast of Mexico City and mysteriously collapsing around 700 A.D. -- or what the original city was called, or what language its people spoke.

But Japanese archeologist Saburo Sugiyama and his Mexican colleague, Ruben Cabrera, believe some of the answers lie inside the Pyramid of the Moon and their recent find of three skeletons of high-ranking officials or priests has given them hope of unraveling Teotihuacan's mysteries.

"We don't know if they were sacrificed, but their form suggests they were of a very high social ranking, like the priests that appear on wall etchings, heavily adorned with collars, ear and nose rings, possibly with headdresses," Sugiyama said this week at the foot of the square-sided pyramid.

A pump blows air into the narrow tunnel that a team of archeologists under Sugiyama and Cabrera are excavating just below the peak of the pyramid. Musky wooden beams and planks hold up the tunnel, dimly lit by a string of bare light bulbs.

Some 20 yards inside, the excavation widens and deepens at the point where the archeologists discovered the three skeletons, all seated cross-legged with their hands clasped in front.

Aside from the bodies, the dig has also uncovered jade stones, figurines, animal remains and carved sea shells.

It is not the first time graves have been discovered in Teotihuacan, an extremely popular tourist site.

Cabrera and Sugiyama, who started their excavation of the Pyramid of the Moon in 1998, had previously uncovered 22 other piles of bones -- all sacrificial offerings -- in three separate sites in the 140-foot-high pyramid.

But Sugiyama says these latest three skeletons are of a higher social rank and higher up in the pyramid's structure -- whereas other bodies previously unearthed were sacrificed soldiers or prisoners of war and closer to the ground.

Sugiyama believes the latest skeletons are only part of a larger grave. His theory is that they are very close to a burial site of a Teotihuacan king or governor.

"We have not found any burial chamber tombs to date. But it is possible that there is something special, the grave of a governor or someone of maximum importance," Sugiyama said. "If anyone important died, it's logical they are buried here."

Sugiyama and Cabrera have focused their efforts to unlock the mysteries of the city on the Pyramid of the Moon -- rather than its bigger neighbor the Pyramid of the Sun or even the ornate Feathered Serpent Pyramid -- because it is strategically at the top end of Teotihuacan's north-south axis road, known as the Avenue of the Dead.

Teotihuacan was a master-planned city, spanning 12 square miles and thrived longer than imperial Rome, its contemporary. As originally built, the Pyramid of the Sun rose to a peak of 195 feet.

"The origins of Teotihuacan are in Teotihuacan itself, and the Pyramid of the Moon has to have a very important significance ... the place with more possibilities of obtaining information," said Cabrera.

The Pyramid of the Moon is a structure of seven pyramids built on top of each other.

Sugiyama and Cabrera, unassuming scientists dressing in blue jeans and distant from Hollywood's archetypal archeologist Indiana Jones, are the first to dig close to the top of the pyramid for clues to the city's past.

"It is a part of the building that has not been investigated ... let's say its virgin territory," said Cabrera.

© MMII Reuters Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Weather permitting, a man in his lifetime might expect to see some 50 lunar eclipses, more than half of them total, and perhaps 30 partial solar eclipses.

A total eclipse of the sun, however, is a rare event at any one location. For example, the last total solar eclipse visible in the vicinity of New York City was in January 24, 1925 at 9:00 am, and the next will not be until 2079. What makes the spectacle so rare is that the sizes of the sun and the moon in the sky are almost identical, and as a result the conical shadow cast by the moon barely reaches the surface of the earth. The path of totality may be some 15,000 kilometers long, sweeping across as much as 140 degrees of longitude, but the umbra, or region of dark shadow, is seldom more than 250 kilometers wide.

The last total Lunar (Umbral) eclipse witnessed by the people here, was on August 14, 1924.

The last Lunar (partial) eclipse was witnessed February 8, 1925 at 21:40.
The next Lunar (partial) eclipse will be on August 4, 1925 at 11:52.

Regarding lunar cycles, the First quarter takes place May 30, 1925 and the Full Moon takes place June 6, 1925. The ceremony at the museum would take place well before the Full Moon.

These are ALL well established facts! And I usually take great pains to make sure that I find accurate information that fits well for this period.


However, as games tend to rewrite history a little bit. This game is no exception. In this case...
The *next* total Lunar (Umbral) eclipse will occur on June 1, 1925 at 9:00am.
And will be in full view of those who live in Miami.

If you are reading this, you are picking up on a clue that hasn't been mentioned yet...
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:00, Tue 12 Dec 2006.

Brainy History 1925

http://www.brainyhistory.com/years/1925.html

Lil's Pulp Adventure site that she's working on for us (it's not ready yet):

http://www.geocities.com/torra_jhed/Pulp_Adventures

It will be an additional resource for our game. She is finding more information for us. And I love the font and design. She is working on the links and gathering the details.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 19:39, Wed 13 Dec 2006.

The statuettes might have been responsible for this as well.
The statuette that is linked to blood could be responsible for this. And it may have been one of the stops along the way to the final destination.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...emic_remembering1918

Survivors recall horror of flu pandemic

CHEVY CHASE, Md. - At the height of the flu pandemic in 1918, William H. Sardo Jr. remembers the pine caskets stacked in the living room of his family's house, a funeral home in Washington, D.C.

The city had slowed to a near halt. Schools were closed. Church services were banned. The federal government limited its hours of operation. People were dying — some who took ill in the morning were dead by night.

"That's how quickly it happened," said Sardo, 94, who lives in an assisted living facility just outside the nation's capital. "They disappeared from the face of the earth."

Sardo is among the last survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic. Their stories offer a glimpse at the forgotten history of one of the world's worst plagues, when the virus killed at least 50 million people and perhaps as many as 100 million.

More than 600,000 people in the United States died of what was then called "Spanish Influenza." The flu seemed to be particularly lethal for otherwise healthy young adults, many of whom suffocated from the buildup of liquids in their lungs.

In the United States, the first reported cases surfaced at an Army camp in Kansas as World War I began winding down. The virus quickly spread among soldiers at U.S. camps and in the trenches of Europe. It paralyzed many communities as it circled the world.

In the District of Columbia, the first recorded influenza death came on Sept. 21, 1918. The victim, a 24-year-old railroad worker, had been exposed in New York four days earlier. The flu swept through the nation's capital, which had attracted thousands of soldiers and war workers. By the time the pandemic had subsided, at least 30,000 people had become ill and 3,000 had died in the city.

Among the infected was Sardo, who was 6 years old at the time.

He remembers little of his illness but recalls that his mother was terrified.

"They kept me well separated from everybody," said Sardo, who lived with his parents, two brothers and three other family members. His family quarantined him in the bedroom he had shared with his brother. Everyone in the family wore masks.

The city began shutting down. The federal government staggered its hours to limit crowding on the streets and on streetcars. Commissioners overseeing the district closed schools in early October, along with playgrounds, theaters, vaudeville houses and "all places of amusement." Dances and other social gatherings were banned.

The commissioners asked clergy to cancel church services because the pandemic was threatening the "machinery of the federal government," The Washington Star newspaper reported at the time. Pastors protested.

"There was a feeling that they couldn't turn to God, other than in prayer," Sardo said. "They liked the feeling of going to church, and they were forbidden."

The flu's spread and the ensuing restrictions "made everybody afraid to go see anybody," he said.

"It changed a lot of society," Sardo said. "We became more individualistic."

In a list of 12 rules to prevent the disease's spread, the Army's surgeon general wrote that people should "avoid needless crowding," open windows and "breathe deeply" when the air is "pure" and "wash your hands before eating."

One slogan was, "Cover up each cough and sneeze. If you don't, you'll spread the disease."

Those who were healthy wore masks when venturing outside. People who were known to be infected were threatened with a $50 fine if they were seen in public. Sardo remembers people throwing buckets of water with disinfectant on their sidewalks to wash away germs from people spitting on the street.

At the time, rumors swirled that the Germans had spread the disease — which Sardo did not believe.

A second flu survivor, 99-year-old Ruth Marshall, says she, her two sisters and a brother came down with what they thought was a cold. Then the fever struck and the illness became severe, she said.

Marshall, who lived just steps from the Capitol at the time, said the influenza deaths reported in the newspapers came as a surprise.

"We never thought we were going to die. We did pretty good — a lot of prayers," she said.

Others were not so fortunate. As the death toll started to mount, there was a shortage of coffins. Funeral homes could not keep up. Sardo's father, who owned William H. Sardo & Co., and other funeral-home directors turned to soldiers for help embalming and digging thousands of graves.

Talk of the threat of another pandemic brings back memories for Sardo, who says he has gotten a flu shot every year they are available.

"It scares the hell out of me. It does," Sardo said.

Health and Human Services Department pandemic flu preparation: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

This is an interesting look into the past...

What Was it Like in the 1920s?

Salem State College
http://www.salemstate.edu/150/150-the1920s.php

Music
"Always", Irving Berlin
"Carolina In The Morning", Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson
"5 Foot 2, Eyes of Blue", Ray Henderson
"Don't Bring Lulu", Rose, Brown & Henderson

Literature
Ulysses, James Joyce
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Mark Twain
Ulysses, James Joyce
Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence
A Passage to India, E. M. Forster
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle, Hugh Lofting
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

Entertainment
Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments"
First successful talkie, "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson
Marx Brothers take to the vaudeville stage in "The Cocoanuts"

Average Salary: $1,324.00

Cost of Living
Loaf of Bread: .09¢
Gallon of Milk: .56¢
Dozen Eggs: .44¢
Average House: $7,809.00
Average Car: $265.00
Gallon of Gas: .22¢

World Events
Civil War continues in Russia. Ottoman Empire is dissolved. Britain institutes unemployment insurance. League of Nations meets in Geneva. Southern Ireland granted dominion status and Sinn Fein founds the IRA. Fascist Benito Mussolini named dictator of Italy. Egypt has new ruler on throne, Faud I, and old ruler, King Tut, dug-up. The USSR is formed. Hitler and Nazi Party seize Munich; he goes to jail and pens Mein Kampf. Japan suffers terrible earthquakes and fires. Lenin dies and Russia is headed by Stalin-led trio, later by Stalin only. France holds the first Winter Olympics and debuts Art Deco. Chiang Kai Shek rises to power in China as does Emperor Hirohito in Japan. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes becomes Yugoslavia. A German-U.S. friendship treaty is signed. Greece's King George II is overthrown by army/republic.

U.S. History
"The Roaring Twenties". Nineteenth Amendment grants the vote to women. Warren Harding becomes 29th president. League of Women Voters and the ACLU are founded. Prohibition goes into effect. Lincoln Memorial opens on the Potomac. Pres. Harding dies in office, Coolidge finishes term and is then re-elected. Macy's launches Thanksgiving Day parade. Clarence Darrow defends John Scopes in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. Gangster Al Capone rules in Chicago. Literary Renaissance with novels by Sinclair Lewis, Langston Hughes, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Gertude Stein, and many more. The Delta Queen steamboat begins running. In the Spirit of St. Louis Charles Lindbergh flies over the Atlantic; first telephone calls are made under. Herbert Hoover is elected. Wall Street crashes on Black Friday - 10/29/29 - ushering in the Great Depression. The World's Fair opens in Chicago. Babe Ruth becomes all-time home run champ with number 120. J. Edgar Hoover assumes leadership of the FBI. Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens.

At Salem Normal School
The Debating Club is formed. In 1921, the men's athletics teams resume competitive play. This is the first year since the start of World War I that there has been a sufficient number of men in the school to put an athletic team on the field. During 1924, the Women's Athletic Association is formed. The first issue of "The Log," the student newspaper, is issued. The Special Education department is established.

Toys and Games
The pogo stick and Tootsie Toys are the newest toys.

A link to fashions of the 1920's:
http://costumes.org/history/100pages/1920links.htm
Too many links to go through, actually dozens, but here are a few to tease you with!!!

A Timeline of Costume History the 1920's:
http://costumes.org/history/10...linepages/1920s1.htm

A History of Fashion and Dress from WWI to WWII:
http://costumes.org/classes/fashiondress/WW1toWW2.htm

The Illustrated Milliner June 1923
http://costumes.org/history/100pages/illusmilliner.htm

The Costume Gallery Research Library the 1920's:
http://www.costumegallery.com/1920.htm

Beauty in 1920:
http://beauty.about.com/od/beautyin1920/

Fashion in 1920's:
http://www.authentichistory.co.../1920sfashion01.html

A Year in Fashion: 1920 - Flapper Era Fashions - Evening Wear
http://www.onlinecostumeball.c...omen/EveningWear.htm

Fashion & Style » The 1920's-1930's » *20's Fashion*
http://adorevintage.proboards3...mp;thread=1122285967
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:10, Thu 11 Jan 2007.

Payphones were available in the 1920's:
http://www.telephonetribute.com/payphones.html

In 1889, the first public coin telephone was installed by inventor William Gray at a bank in Hartford, Conn. It was a "postpay" machine (coins were deposited after the call was placed). Gray's previous claim to fame was inventing the inflatable chest protector for baseball.

In 1898, the Western Electric No. 5 Coin Collector, the first automatic "prepay" station, went into use in Chicago. The depositing of coins before placing a call would gradually become the norm in pay phones until the introduction of "dial tone first" service in 1966.

By 1902, there were 81,000 pay telephones in the United States.

In 1905, the first outdoor Bell System coin telephone was installed on a Cincinnati street. It wasn't an instant hit; people apparently were reluctant to make private calls on a public thoroughfare.

In 1910, Western Electric and Gray Telephone Pay Station Co. signed an agreement for Gray to manufacture coin collectors for the Bell System using both Gray and Western Electric patents.

The result of that agreement, the 50A coin collector, went into production in 1911. By the end of 1912, 25,000 of these coin telephones had been ordered for New York City alone. The 50A model had three coin slots--for nickels, dimes and quarters --and was a "prepay" machine. The basic design, though often modified, was so practical and reliable it remained in production until 1964.

Our president!
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/cc30.html

Moving Images of Calvin Coolidge - Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/details/coolidge_1924

Recorded voice of Calvin Coolidge:
http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfin...?findaidid=CoolidgeC

All 6 State of the Union Addresses:
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-1.html
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-2.html
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-3.html
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-4.html
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-5.html
http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/coolidge-6.html

Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation:
http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/

Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.forbeslibrary.org/coolidge/coolidge.shtml

Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1919-1921
http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/ccoolidge.htm

The Library of Congress:
Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/coolhome.html

Calvin Coolidge Links:
http://www.davidpietrusza.com/coolidge-links.html

Have faith in Massachusetts; 2d ed. by Calvin Coolidge
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13748

Extensive essay on Calvin Coolidge and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs:
http://www.millercenter.virgin...anpresident/coolidge
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:27, Fri 19 Jan 2007.

http://www.oldphoneman.com/ForSale23D.htm

This was a common payphone in the 20's.
This message was last updated by the GM at 00:19, Mon 05 Feb 2007.

Paul Savage provided these links:
This would happen in 1926, but then again... We can write our own history. *grin*

http://www.fpl.com/storm/1926_hurricane.shtml

From Paul: And this North Miami Beach website has some history, it's interesting the speedway was built, had one race, and then was destroyed by the hurricane.

http://www.citynmb.com/index.a...10-8BCC-F9503851CDF3}

Thanks, Paul!
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 00:17, Mon 05 Feb 2007.

Thanks to Lil, here are a few cool Pulp links...

THE PULP AVENGERS: Game Mastering Pulp Adventures in the 1930s and 1940s.
Brian Christopher Misiaszek's introduction to the Pulps:
http://www.fantasylibrary.com/lounge/pulpavengers.htm

The Fedora Chronicles!
It’s the intention of The Fedora Chronicles to provide our readers with news and updates of the latest releases of books, movies and music - from, about or reminiscent of The Golden Era and World War II.
Articles may include the subject of (but are not limited to) historical events during the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, the events leading to and during the Second World War, and current events and how they relate or differ from those events of our favorite era.
http://thefedorachronicles.com/index.html

Pulp Project 1557:
http://project1557.wetpaint.com/page/Catalog%20Index
This is a wetpaint based on the original project of:
Whole Pulp Catalog
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/p...pulp_project1557.cfm
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Mon 05 Feb 2007.

Pic of miami docks 1920


http://www.eastman.org/ar/stri...4_ful.html#topoftext

Molly found this one! Thanks!

http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/vr/miami/miami.htm

Virtual Reality Movies: Miami
Each panorama movie is available in two file sizes. The small movies display at the same size on your computer screen as the large movies, but the small movies do not allow you to zoom in on as much detail as the large movies do. Most of the color movies are a full circle (360 degrees). The black and white VRs are approximately 180 degree views.

I am putting the word out for everyone to visit the site:

The owners of the site would like to have some assistance compiling Pulp Project 1557
< http://project1557.wetpaint.com/ >, which was intended to be "The Collaborative Repository of Pulp Information for Pulp RPG GMs and Players."  Ideally, they'd love to have all of the information located in one neat place where players and GM's could go to first, without having to scour all over the place.

Please check it out and see what is available. Help support their site!
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:45, Thu 08 Mar 2007.

Two Capone and Ness stories.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/ga...s_others/ness/3.html

http://www.crimelibrary.com/ga...s/capone/pay_23.html

Current local times and distance from Miami
http://www.timeanddate.com/wor...distances.html?n=156

Miami is 90 miles to Havana, Cuba.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:47, Tue 30 Oct 2007.

Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo by Don Boyd

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories
http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories_1920to1929

Miami-Dade Police Website:
http://www.miamidade.gov/mdpd/
http://www.miamidade.gov/info/...ami-dade_history.asp

Other Links:

City of Miami Beach Website:
http://www.miamibeachfl.gov/

University of Miami:
http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:19, Sun 25 Jan 2015.

Looking Back:
http://com.miami.edu/workshop/1999/page10.htm

1900-1924:
By Sofia Santana
Sunset High School

The first World War was fought, plastic was developed, a world-wide flu epidemic  killed millions and women had earned the right to vote. Though much was going on in the nation, the early period of South Florida reflected a beginning for the city of Miami, which incorporated in 1896.

Thousands of people moved to South Florida in the early 1900s. The need for more land became apparent. The ãLand Boomä of the 1920s drew people from all over the country, hoping to buy land and selling to get rich quick. The communities of Miami Shores, Hialeah, Miami Springs, Boca Raton and Opa-Locka were among those that developed during the 'Land Boom.'

Tourism also blossomed in the 1920s as the Miccosukee Indians began to make their presence known in the Everglades by making crafts and wrestling alligators for their share of the tourism industry. Florida also became the nationâs winter playground, with its beaches, fancy hotels and big-time entertainers.

The population did not face the cultural diversity that South Florida is now famous for. In the 1900s, Hispanics as an ethnic group were in the minority. The black community was the leader in the labor force for building Miami, though blacks were mostly confined to a northwest section of Miami that is now Overtown.

George Merrick had come down from Pennsylvania with the dream of building a 'city beautiful' in South Florida with the 3,000 acres of swampland his father left him. The area grew to be Coral Gables.

Henry Flagler planned and built a railroad from St. Augustine to Miami. He also built an overseas railroad to Key West that was later destroyed in the 'Labor Day Hurricane' of 1935.


1925-1949:
By Laura Esguerra
Coral Gables High School

The Roaring Twenties were Miami's boom time. Midway through 1925 Miami became a great real estate market. Land sales - legal and illegal - were being conducted so briskly that lawmakers passed an ordinance forbidding the sale of property on the streets.

A gala premiere on Feb. 18, 1926, marked the opening of the Olympia Theater in  Miami's first air-conditioned structure. At the same time, crowds were drawn to Hialeah to watch the Spanish game of jai alai. The Hialeah Race Track opened in 1932. The countryâs fourth miniature golf course was built in Hollywood.

The great boom also brought a bang. A killer hurricane blew through South Florida Sept. 17-18, 1926. More than 200 people were killed by the stormâs fury. The University of Miami, however, stood strong and opened its doors two weeks later.

By 1927, the aviation industry had emerged. Pan American Airways moved to Miami in 1928, and by the 1930s its Clipper Ships dropped anchor at their new home in Dinner Key.

"Scarface" Al Capone settled in Palm Island in 1928. Police and politicians tried to run him out of Miami, but his lawyers stopped the harassment. Although the federal government convicted him of income tax evasion in 1931, organized crime already had taken over Miamiâs gambling, prostitution and alcohol during Prohibition.

The Dade County courthouse opened in 1928. Standing 360 feet, it was the tallest building in the South. The building also was home to city of Miami offices, and both the city and county jails.

Florida tried desperately to keep pouring in.  Bathing suits and liberal divorce laws attracted people to South Florida.  Today's Orange Bowl Festival football game was created in 1933 by civic leaders and dubbed it the Palm Festival.

Tourists' numbers began to dwindle and Miami became a haven for Cuban exiles in the 1930s.  Franklin Roosevelt's 'New Deal' also swept through Miami. The Civilian Conservation Corps created Greynolds and Matheson Hammock parks, and David Fairchild Tropical Garden in 1932.

After the Japanese dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor, local leaders decided Miami was the ideal area for training military personnel. Federal dollars poured in. In 1942, after German submarines torpedoed tankers off the Florida coast, Miami was made the Navy's Gulf Sea Frontier headquarters.  Today's Metro Zoo was Richmond Field, a naval air station.  The Army Air Force took over the apartment houses on Miami Beach.  The Biltmore and Nautilus hotels were converted into military hospitals. When the war ended in August 1945, Miamians celebrated on Flagler Street.  That same year Virginia Key Beach was given to African-Americans.  Once again Miami became a national resort.

http://www.answers.com/topic/f...nd-boom-of-the-1920s

The U.S. state of Florida's first real estate bubble burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay. The preceding land boom shaped Florida's future for decades and created entire new cities out of virgin swamp land that remain today. The story includes many parallels to the modern real estate boom, including the forces of outside speculators, hurricanes, easy credit access for buyers, and rapidly-appreciating property values.

By the 1920s, economic prosperity had set the conditions for a real estate bubble in Florida. Miami had an image as a tropical paradise and outside investors across the United States began taking an interest in Miami real estate. Due in part to the publicity talents of audacious developers like Carl G. Fisher of Miami Beach, famous for purchasing a huge lighted billboard in New York's Times Square proclaiming "It's June In Miami", property prices rose rapidly on speculation and a land and development boom ensued.


SPECIAL NOTE: Carl G. Fisher was the original owner of Fisher Island, who sold it to the Vanderbilt's in 1925!!!


By January 1925, investors were beginning to read negative press about Florida investments. Forbes magazine warned that Florida land prices were based solely upon the expectation of finding a customer, not upon any reality of land value. New York bankers and the IRS both began to scrutinize the Florida real estate boom as a giant sham operation. Speculators intent on flipping properties at huge profits began to have a difficult time finding new buyers. The inevitable bursting of the real estate bubble had begun.

On January 10, the Prinz Valdemar, a 241-foot, steel-hulled schooner, sank in the mouth of the turning basin of Miami harbor. The old Danish warship had been on its way to becoming a floating hotel.

The railroads, already strained by the burden of transporting both food and building supplies, had already begun raising shipping rates. When the sea route to Miami was blocked the city's image as a tropical paradise began to crumble. In his book "Miami Millions", Kenneth Ballinger wrote that the Prinz Valdemar's capsize saved a lot of people a lot of money by revealing cracks in the Miami facade. "In the enforced lull which accompanied the efforts to unstopper the Miami Harbor," he wrote, "many a shipper in the North and many a builder in the South got a better grasp of what was actually taking place here."

In October 1925, in an effort to improve Florida's clogged rail system, the railroad companies placed an embargo on all railway goods other than food, which further contributed to Florida's skyrocketing cost of living. New buyers failed to arrive, and the property price escalation that fueled the land boom stopped. The days of Miami properties being bought and sold at auction as many as ten times in one day were over. The first Florida real estate bubble had burst.

The next year brought the 1926 Miami Hurricane, which drove audacious Biscayne Bay development projects such as Isola di Lolando into bankruptcy. The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 continued the catastrophic downward economic trend, and the Florida land boom was officially over as the Great Depression began. The depression and the devastating arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly a year later destroyed both the tourist and citrus industries upon which Florida depended. In a few short years, an idyllic tropical paradise had been transformed into a bleak, humid remote area with few economic prospects. Florida's economy would not recover until World War II.

Miami: One Hundred Years of History - HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA

http://www.historical-museum.org/history/sfhm242.htm

Miami was already booming when the Roaring Twenties began. The city’s population had climbed to nearly 30,000, a 440 percent increase over the figure for 1910. It represented the largest per capita increase of any municipality in the nation. Its expanding borders now extended several miles in each direction beyond the original parameters. At the outset of the 1920s, the Miami Herald marveled at the “astounding growth of Miami as a tourist center.”

Increasing numbers of tourists remained in the area after the winter season had ended, many becoming permanent residents. But this growth would pale by comparison with what lay ahead—the onset of the great real estate boom of the mid-1920s.

The Land Boom
Speculation brought people from all parts of the nation to Florida in quest of quick wealth in the overheated Florida real estate market and Miami was its storm center. In the late summer of 1925, as the boom neared its zenith, nearly 1,000 subdivisions were under construction in Miami and its environs. Speculators were selling lots several miles from the city’s center for fantastic profits. Beautiful developments bearing a Spanish eclectic or Mediterranean Revival style of architecture arose in areas that had only recently been farms or woodland. Most prominent here were the sparkling new municipalities of Coral Gables and Miami Shores.

The annexation of Lemon City, Coconut Grove, and other historic communities and neighborhoods in 1925 led to the expansion of the city of Miami from 13 to 43 square miles. This event, together with a population that unofficially stood in excess of 100,000 by 1925, was indicative of Miami’s emerging status as a metropolitan area.

The boom was accompanied by a breakdown in law and order. Bootleggers sold liquor obtained from the nearby Bahama Islands or from local moonshine stills to thirsty “boomers” and natives oblivious to Prohibition and its enforcement. Owing in part to the wrenching changes that accompanied the boom, the rate of violent deaths (homicides, suicides, and accidents) for Miami and Dade County in the middle years of the 1920s, was greater than at anytime since the state of Florida began record keeping.

And the Bust
The boom began dissipating in 1926. Wary speculators backed off from further investment in light of inflation, and a series of setbacks brought construction to a standstill. The spring and summer of 1926 witnessed a mass exodus of speculators. The boom was over.

In September, a hurricane with winds of 125 miles per hour smashed into the Miami area, with a portion of the eye passing over downtown. More than 100 Miamians and Dade Countians lost their lives in the storm. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Unfinished subdivisions were leveled. The entire region was plunged into a severe economic depression three years before the rest of the nation.

Miami weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s better than many other communities. This was due in part to the advent of commercial aviation—Pan American Airways and Eastern Airlines established headquarters in the Magic City—and a resurgent tourism in the second half of the decade. Tourism was pegged to special events and activities such as the Orange Bowl Festival, which began in the mid-1930s, and became a popular tourist draw.

New Deal programs put more than 16,000 Miamians to work, building fire stations, schools, and post offices. The federal government was also responsible, in this era for the creation of Liberty Square, one of the nation’s first black public housing projects. It arose in Liberty City, a new African-American community in the city’s northwest sector.

Miami Florida Panoramic Photo Gallery - Panoramic Images of Miami

http://www.hellomiami.com/Photos_Panoramic.Cfm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/m...ore/description.html

A film, The American Experience...

In 1925, Miami Beach was the hottest spot in America. Thousands flocked to this narrow spit of land between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to be part of the trendy vacation scene -- grand hotels, bathing beauties, speedboat races, polo matches. Yet just fifteen years earlier, this magical playground by the sea did not exist -- not the hotels, not the mansions, not even the ground it was built on. Everything -- even the brand new paved road to Florida -- was the inspiration of one extraordinary man.

"Mr. Miami Beach" is the story of Carl Graham Fisher, a millionaire promoter and entrepreneur from Indiana who risked everything he owned to turn a thousand acres of Florida swampland into an American Riviera. Fisher's Miami Beach was just one of many fantastic obsessions in a life lived close to the edge. A fast-living, speed-craving dreamer who raced to realize his many improbable ideas, Fisher lived life at full tilt until it was cut short by drink, bad luck, and natural disaster.

"This is a classic American story," says producer Mark Davis. "Fisher was a true character of his time -- a self-made man who embodied the early twentieth-century notion that anything is possible. He was obsessed with speed and fast living. For him, life was just one hell of an exciting proposition."

Fisher was a born promoter. After his alcoholic father disappeared, Carl left school at age 12 to help support the family as a railway newsboy. Sales shot up when he began flashing a photo of a naked woman under his apron.

Over time, Fisher's salesmanship grew more revved-up and fine-tuned. By age 20 his daredevil stunts as a bicycle racer had made him the most successful bicycle dealer in town. Later, he promoted his automobile dealership by floating over Indianapolis in a car suspended from a helium balloon.

Stunts like these caught the eye of a local girl, Jane Watts. It was love at first sight. He courted her in his flashy roadster, and they married in 1909. She was 15; he was 35.

"He was all speed," Jane Fisher wrote later. "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.'"

Fisher loved the automobile and believed it would become an American institution. He made a fortune manufacturing the first bright headlights for cars, then put his tremendous energy into the construction of an automobile race track -- a concept few thought had any merit -- and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was born. Later Fisher helped launch the Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast paved road from New York to San Francisco, and the Dixie Highway, which led conveniently from the upper Midwest to Miami.

At the age of 40 he discovered Florida, and poured his considerable fortune into the creation of Miami Beach. To the astonishment of the locals, he dredged up sand from Biscayne Bay to fill in the swampland, shipped in hundreds of tons of topsoil from the Everglades, and then began to build fantastic hotels with polo grounds, yacht clubs, and golf courses on his new waterfront property.

"It was a world to suit himself," says Helen Muir, a friend of the Fishers, "with more imagination than I can even think of anybody else having at the time. He thought so big you wonder where it sprang from."

To attract attention to his development, Fisher brought in a circus elephant, imported a polo team from England, dressed young women in risque bathing suits, and started taking pictures.

"The national press just ate that stuff up," says Howard Kleinberg, a columnist for the Miami Herald. "You couldn't pick up a paper in the United States without seeing a picture of either the elephant or some group of bathing beauties standing by the beach.... Miami Beach all of a sudden became the place to go."

The promotion of Fisher's tropical paradise helped spark the national hysteria of the Florida land boom. Six million people poured into Florida in three years. By the end of 1925, Fisher was worth more than fifty million dollars, but his personal life was in a shambles. Devastated by the death of his only child in 1921, Carl became a heavy drinker and womanizer. In 1926 his marriage to Jane ended in divorce.

Desperate for a new venture, Fisher borrowed heavily against his Florida assets and set about building the "Miami Beach of the North" at Montauk Point on the tip of Long Island. But then a devastating hurricane struck Miami Beach in 1926, and Fisher's financial house of cards began to collapse.

"His marriage is broken, the boom is busted, the hurricane has caused him tremendous damage, he's got cash flow problems. And as a result, at the end of 1926, this man was not on good footing, emotionally or financially," says Kleinberg.

The stock market crash in 1929 sealed Fisher's fate. By 1933 he was wiped out. Living alone in a small Miami Beach house, Fisher faded into obscurity and died in 1939. A simple statue in a Miami Beach park is the only reminder of his legacy.

An interesting tool! Trulia Hindsight Maps of Properties Through Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trulia Hindsight is an animated map of homes in the United States from Trulia. The animations use the year the properties were built to show the growth of streets, neighborhoods and cities over time.

http://hindsight.trulia.com/

Focus on Miami! 1920 to present!!!

http://hindsight.trulia.com/ma...=built&mix=0.500

It starts out at South Beach.

FYI... Ran across this quote online: "If you ever run a game set in 1930s America, you need a WPA guide to the area you're setting the game in. They're reprinted periodically, but go to E-bay if you have to. These things are gold."

Thanks! I'll see about getting a copy. There is one available on ebay now.

Florida. WPA. American Guide Series. 1939
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Florida. Florida. A Guide To The Southernmost State. American Guide Series, Illustrated.(with photographs).  There is supposed to be a map in the back pocket of the inside back cover- it is missing. New York. Oxford University Press. 1939. The front end papers are a Key To Florida Highway Tours. 5 1/2 by 8 1/4 inches bound in green cloth with dark blue lettering. 600 pages. The binding is well worn and is only in fair condition, fraying around the edges and corners, and soiling. It is tight and contains a lot of information. $4.95 Priority S&H in the U.S. $3.50 Media.

Current bid is $5.99. Sounds like a bargain!

Thanks again!

In case anyone is interested in reading or downloading online for free, here is "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

http://etext.library.adelaide....rald/f_scott/gatsby/

The file can be downloaded in a Zip file:
http://etext.library.adelaide....tt/gatsby/gatsby.zip

More info about it is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby
Published April 10, 1925. Just before our game time and very timely and appropriate to our game. I haven't read it yet, but I hope to get around to it sometime. Probably after reading Harry Potter. LOL!

http://www.coololdstuff.com/bathing.html

http://www.fashion-era.com/swimwear.htm

Just for a fun giggle on what was considered 'risque' in the twenties. They've also got some good historical information.

Jackson Memorial Hospital
http://www.jhsmiami.org/body.cfm?id=129
Built in 1916 and expanded to 250 beds in the twenties.

During the 1920s, the hospital grew to 250 beds as a real estate boom brought thousands of new settlers to Miami, and the School of Nursing was established. In 1924 following the death of Dr. James M. Jackson, the first permanent physician in Miami and the first chief of the hospital's medical staff, the Miami City Hospital was renamed in his honor.

From: http://www.miamibeachghosttour.com/history.html

Miami Beach History

South Beach isn't an official city, but rather it is an informal name attached to approximately the southern one third of Miami Beach. South Beach is in fact the originally inhabited part of Miami Beach.

The history of Miami Beach really starts in 1870. John Lum, from New Jersey, was returning from Havana, saw what is now MiamiBeach from a ship, and decided it looked like a promising place to establish a coconut plantation. He started that venture in 1882, but the business eventually failed. His son Charles, along with Charles' wife, tried to live in the area for a few more years, butsince Miami Beach was then primarily a swampy jungle, they toogave up and left. To this day, coconut palm trees are plentiful throughout Miami Beach.

Southern Florida in general got a boost from a man named Henry Flagler, who co-founded Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. Despite being retired, Flagler became interested in Florida on avisit, and bought two railroads. He extended those further south than they had previously been, reaching Miami in 1896. Heeventually extended his railroad all the way to Key West, building the foundation for the road that now connects the Keys to the Florida mainland in the process.

In 1896, a New Jersey farmer named John Collins, who had lost money in John Lum's ill-fated coconut venture, visited the area tosee why the business had failed. He felt the area did in fact show agricultural promise, and eventually acquired 1,675 acres of landin 1909 (at the age of 71!). He succeeded in growing mangoes, avocados, bananas, and other tropical fruits. Collins in 1912 built the first bridge from Miami Beach to mainland Miami on the siteof what is now the Venetian Causeway.

But the area really took off based on the efforts of a man by thename of Carl Fisher, an Indianapolis automobile baron. He madea large fortune by developing one of the early headlights for the fledgling automobile industry. He eventually sold his Prest-o-Lite business to Union Carbide, thus becoming even richer. Flagler decided the railroad would bring winter tourists to southern Florida, and wanted to form a business venture to capitalize onthat. He ultimately chose what is now Miami Beach as that site.

At the time, Miami Beach was literally a swamp, dominated by a thick mangrove jungle, and inhabited by alligators and other wildcreatures. Fisher acquired a substantial amount of land (partially from John Collins in exchange for helping finance his bridge to the mainland), and funded the monumental task of having people cutdown (primarily by hand) the thick mangrove jungle. He thenspent about two years (and literally millions of dollars) dredgings and from the bottom of Biscayne Bay, and putting it on top of thelevelled mangrove trees. Once that sand had been filled to a suitable height, and had dried, he had a layer of topsoil broughtin, and planted grass. During those dredging operations, he also formed some of the islands which are now part of Miami Beach, including Star Island, Belle Island, and Sunset Island. The dredging also had the beneficial side effect of making Biscayne
Bay suitable for recreational boating.

The ultimate purpose of Fisher's huge investment was to sell the resulting property. He helped two Miami banker brothers, named J.E. and J.N. Lummus, set up the first real-estate company. They established Ocean Beach Realty, and set up an office to sell the 580 acres of what is now South Beach that they had acquired.

The main portion of Miami Beach was originally a peninsula. In 1924, a strip of land around what is now 110th Street was blown away to allow for boat traffic between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This turned the main part of Miami Beach into an island.

Fisher spent many years cultivating and promoting Miami Beach as a vacationland for people from the midwest and the northeast. He built incredible homes and hotels, and enticed his many millionaire friends to likewise develop elegant hotels and homes. It was his money and connections that largely were responsible for the upscale orientation that has long been a part of Miami Beach's (and thus South Beach's) history.

In 1920, there were only 644 permanent residents in Miami Beach, and all eighty phones could be listed on a single page in the Miami telephone directory. Then as the 1920s went on, however, Florida in general, and Miami Beach specifically, experienced a tremendous land boom. As the stock market went up dramatically, more and more people had the money to buy land and build homes. By 1925, Miami Beach had grown to 15,000 residents. During this boom of the 1920s, some of the unique buildings were constructed that still remain today. In particular, the popular style of that era was Mediterranean Revival. And Spanish-style architecture was used in some locations such as in the vicinity of Española Way.

Two disasters hit Miami Beach, resulting in the end of the boom times. The first was a major hurricane in 1926. Since many of the buildings were put up hastily, the damage from the hurricane was quite severe. Then of course in 1929, the whole country was hit with the stock market crash, and beginning of the resulting Depression.

Miami Beach recovered from these fairly well, however, and slowly but surely the 1930s evolved into a second boom era. It seemed that the beautiful beaches, sun, and warmth of Miami Beach (including South Beach) just couldn't be held in check for long. By the mid-to-late 1930s, Miami Beach buildings were once again going up, with the South Beach region experiencing the biggest boom. People wanted to see a change, and the architecture now known as Art Deco (the term first used in the 1960s to describe a ground-breaking design show held in Paris in 1925) provided a light-hearted and exciting new environment. There were several architects that designed a very large number of structures that still stand today during this period. In the 1930s, 2,028 homes, 164 hotels, and 485 apartment buildings were built. Late 1930s era photos of Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, and Washington Avenue look amazingly similar to how those streets look today.

The 1940s saw World War II. For a variety of reasons, Miami Beach became virtually a military base during the 1940s. During WWII Miami Beach became a training center for early 500,00 U.S. Army Air Corps Cadets Military personnel trained on the beaches, and lived in the many hotels and apartment buildings. Although the building boom slowed during this peroid, the presence of significant military personnel
(and thus money, and the need for housing) caused construction to continue. The period during and after the war also saw Miami Beach's nightlife to flourish (and it still does today).

In the 1950s and 1960s, Miami Beach overall thrived as one of the premier vacation destinations. However, the portion of Miami Beach known as South Beach started a downward trend as people migrated further to the northern part of Miami Beach. New and much larger hotels and apartment building were built, particularly along Collins Avenue. The older Art Deco buildings from the 1930s and early 1940s were quickly going out of style, as compared to the new mega-resort complexes like the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc.

Ultimately, Miami Beach had enough hotel rooms for the very large number of annual visitors, and the building boom tapered off. The last new luxury hotel built in Miami Beach for a very long time (until 1998) was the Hilton in 1967.

The 1970s and 1980s were a down period for Miami Beach, and a very down period for South Beach. In 1960, the average age of a Miami Beach resident was 50. In 1972, the average age had increased to 65. And not only were many of the residents fairly old, they were increasingly poor and suffering from bad health. South Beach was in fact nick-named "God's waiting room" by some. Crime was also rampant throughout the area.

By the 1980s, it became clear that something had to be done to bring back the glory days of Miami Beach. One major effort was the replenishment of the beach itself. Years of wind and surf and unchecked beachfront building had taken its toll on the beach. Many of the building went right to the ocean, and there was literally almost no beach for public use. The Army Corps of Engineers once again looked to dredging (although this time from the Atlantic Ocean) to solve the problem. The project took nearly three years, and by 1982, Miami Beach had a completely new beachfront, increased in width by about 250 feet, and stretching about ten miles long (going from South Beach to in fact further north than even Miami Beach). This resulted in the beautiful sandy beach which is considered such a treasure today.

Many influential people in Miami Beach felt it was time to tear down the old Art Deco buildings to make room for more high rise hotel complexes. Such demolition was in fact started when a woman by the name of Barbara Baer Capitman took an interest in preserving the old buildings. She founded the Miami Design Preservation League, a non-profit organization devoted to preserving the rich history of Miami Beach. She crusaded to have the Art Deco buildings placed on the National Historical Register, and ultimately succeeded in getting approximately 400 bulidings listed in 1979. The buildings were the youngest placed on the Register (in fact, the only ones from the twentieth century). Also, the area so designated (roughly one square mile) was the largest area on the Register. The Art Deco District lies between 5th Street and 23rd Street, and between the Atlantic Ocean and Lenox Avenue. Barbara Capitman is viewed by most as the person who saved the beautiful Art Deco buildings which are now universally viewed as part of the rich visual content of South Beach.

Although there were many factors in the resurgence of South Beach, perhaps two things stand out more others. One was the popular television show Miami Vice, which was filmed to a large degree in South Beach. The beautiful people, cool clothes, hip music, and exotic cars captured the world's imagination (even if with a significant dose of crime and violence). South Beach started to show a bit of resurging magic as it moved to the late 1980s, due in part to this show.

Then the fashion industry provided the second boost. Photographers, always looking for unique scenery, good and predictable sunlight, and a warm place for shooting during the winter months, found that South Beach provided a truly fabulous setting. Fashion magazines began showing up with photos taken around the nature and architecture of South Beach, and people started to take note of just how beautiful the place was. The modeling industry took note and many modeling agencies established a major presence in South Beach.

Today, it is estimated that there are over 1,500 professional models working basically full time in South Beach during the season (the winter), and many more working at least part time. Although this may not be as many as in New York, Paris, or London, one must keep in mind this is in roughly a one square mile area rather than in a large city. Many have said there are more models per square area in South Beach than in any other location in the world, and merely strolling down the sidewalk is evidence of that.

All of this combined to turn South Beach around, and into one of the most desired locations in the world. Money once again started pouring in, with the beautiful Art Deco buildings continually being restored to their former elegance, and incredible new condominium complexes like the Portofino Towers and Il Villagio being built with wonderfully modern interpretations of the Art Deco architecture.

South Beach is now "the happening" place. The beautiful, the rich, and the famous come here not only for periods of the winter, but increasingly even during the summer. The place is just too fabulous to stay away, and everyone who comes here always goes home with incredible memories of a great time.

For those wishing to read further about the history of Miami Beach, the following is an excellent book which was used as a reference for some of the above information: "The Life and Times of Miami Beach" written by Ann Armbruster, and published in 1995 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York.

From the Yahoo Pulp Games Group
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Pulp_Games/
There is a Pulp Game resourse that one of the members put together for their game.
It is based upon the early 30's and in Europe, BUT! there is a lot of cool information to be found in their site:

http://www.asmrb.org/michaelb/PulpIndex.html

Search through the various categories for areas of interest.
There are diagrams and charts that may catch your attention.

Sears, Roebuck - Summer 1933 catalog
Cars, planes, trains, ships.
Currency and gems.
Spy agencies and more.

It is certainly worth a look-see.

The year is 1907, one hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years old.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S. and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 Cents per hour.
The average U.S. Worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year.
A dentist made $2,500 per year.
A veterinarian $1,500 per year.
And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all U.S. Doctors had no college education! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S.:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars: Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. Adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.'?

There were about 230 reported Murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.

-------------------------------

There were considerable changes even by 1925.
I'll try to find some stats.

1920s History Sites:

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1920s.html
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1925.html

http://www.archaeolink.com/american_1920s_history.htm
(Has several links as well)

http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1920s.html
http://www.vialarp.org/20s/20s_timelines.htm
(Has tons of links and a timeline)

Illinois Trails:
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/state/alhn1920.html

Yahoo Directory:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Huma.../20th_Century/1920s/

General History linking Prohibition and the Flapper culture:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Gen...74/1920s-history.htm


http://www.johndclare.net/America5.htm#Prohibition
http://www.answerpoint.org/col...co...mn_type=feature
http://www.crimelibrary.com/ga...tl...angs/index.html
http://www.encyclopedia.chicag....org/pages/1768.html
http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm

St. Valentines Day Massacre
http://www.lawlessdecade.net/29.htm
Al Capone
http://www.lawlessdecade.net/29-1.htm
The Lawless Decade:
http://www.paulsann.org/thelawlessdecade/index.html

The Roaring Twenties:
http://www.westmount.ci.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/1920s.html

Fashion in the 1920s:
http://beauty.about.com/cs/1920sbeauty/p/index.htm
http://culturecat.net/1920s-history-womens-bodies
http://flapper-fashion-swicki....20's+harlem+fashion/

Consumerism in the 1920s:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=337623

1920's Books:
http://www.20th-century-histor...m/1920s_History.html

Gulf of California area - Sea of Cortez

Here are some images of the Gulf of California if the sealevel was to rise from the current level to up to 6 meters. Apparently, a lot of the land masses are well above 6 meters above the current sea level.

http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dge...ifornia/slr_gc_i.htm

It shows that the vast majority of the Guardian Angel Island remains, so the majority of the island is over 6 meters above sea level. For expedition purposes, that means that there is a good deal of climbing and higher terrain.

And the island is over 50 km East to West and over 60 km North to South. It looks like it is almost shaped like the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Current image of the area:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dge...lr_gc_present_lg.htm

To the 6 meter rise:
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/dge...slr_gc_6meter_lg.htm

NOTE: The Tamiami Trail wasn't available at the time of our game. But there was a huge demand for people to work on this project, including hunters to keep things safe for the workers. Our Big Game hunters may want to consider this as something to think about to sign up with, after returning from their San Felipe expedition.

---Cal

BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking @ miamiherald . com
http://www.miamiherald.com/new...da/story/250522.html

PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Back in 1923, when completion of the 275-mile Tamiami Trail from Tampa to Miami was stalled, 23 men calling themselves the Tamiami Trailblazers and two Seminole guides decided to cross the Everglades in cars.

To demonstrate that the final section could be built through the treacherous swamp between Fort Myers and Miami, they set out in their Fords on April 4, a Wednesday, intending to reach Miami four days later.

Their cars got stuck in the marsh, forcing them to board a Caterpillar tractor, build 17 bridges by hand, cut through eight miles of dense cypress forest, and get food and gas dropped in by bomber aircraft. The supposed five-day journey of 190 miles took 23 days.

But the Trailblazers got everyone's attention: After much drilling, blasting and dredging, the highway was completed in 1928.

Nearly 80 years later, Trail travel is a lot easier, although one can still find plenty of Trailblazer-like, outdoorsy and touristy things to do heading west out of Miami-Dade. Here are some highlights of a recent 74-mile car trip from the outskirts of Miami to the outskirts of Naples:


• Dade Corners Travel Center, 17696 SW Eighth St. (corner of Krome Avenue and Tamiami Trail).

This is your one-stop shop for just about everything you need for trail-braving: gasoline, canoes, guns, propane, fishing rods, camo wear, goggles. Also glass figurines, preserved gator heads, coffee mugs in the shape of women's breasts, and Subway sandwiches.

After loading up, but before continuing west, turn back about a block, hang a U, and test-fire your gun at . . .


• Trail Glades Range, 17601 SW Eighth St.

Operated by Miami-Dade Parks, this is a favorite hangout of hunters, police officers, security guards and target shooters. There's a rifle-pistol range and a separate area for skeet and trap. If you don't have your own, you can rent a rifle or shotgun.

On the day of my visit, a group from the Keys (where it's illegal to shoot guns anywhere) were practicing their skills on clay targets. Readying their shotguns, they called, ''Pull!'' and range master Mike Kuvin pressed a button that sent disc targets flying in all directions.

''It's fun for me,'' said Eddie Wenzel of Sugarloaf Key. ``I don't hunt anymore. You keep your skills up.''

Islamorada's Ken Gleason managed to hit 24 of 25 targets, which bodes well for the upcoming fall duck hunting season.

''If it flies, it dies,'' Gleason said, laughing.

Having heard enough gunfire, it was time to embrace a different kind of loud noise at . . .


• Coopertown Airboat Tours, about five miles west of Dade Corners, Tamiami Trail.

For $19, we took a 40-minute airboat ride into the sawgrass marsh of the East Everglades with guide Chris Malm and got to watch a real-life swamp soap opera.

Arriving in Shark River Slough, we saw a brilliantly colored purple gallinule being menaced by a five-foot alligator. The bird stood at water's edge, cheeping in distress at the gator.

Suddenly, three grayish-brown chicks emerged from the sawgrass and began to pick their way with long, spindly legs over the vegetation away from the villain's jaws. The gator, defeated, submerged. Happy ending.

Back at the dock, visitors posed for photos holding baby gators and reveling in their alleged bravery.

The next gator sighting occurred a little farther west at . . .


• The S-333 spillway near the ValuJet Memorial, about 12 miles west of Dade Corners.

Seated canalside on folding chairs about 20 yards apart were Mae Mack of Miami and her adult daughters Guitannie Randolph and Pam Brown. Armed with two 20-foot-long cane poles each, the three were trying to catch bass, bluegill, catfish, mullet, or bream despite the presence of a seven-foot gator intent on intercepting their hooked fish.

''Sometimes they come and grab the pole,'' Mack said, nodding toward the reptile.

Fortunately, the animal was slow on the draw, allowing Mack to land a bluegill and a mullet in quick succession.

''I'm going to clean them and cook them,'' she said happily.

Once again, a gator went hungry. But its cousins probably fared much better farther west at . . .


• Shark Valley entrance, Everglades National Park, about 18 miles from Dade Corners.

The best place to view large numbers of gators, Shark Valley offers tram tours and bicycle rentals along a paved 15-mile loop trail through a vast, grassy prairie. Gators swim in ponds along the the roadway, station themselves at the ends of culvert pipes to intercept fish and warm themselves along the canal banks.

A bicyclist once observed from a distance as a hungry reptile ambushed an anhinga and devoured it in the middle of the road. Visitors can watch piles of gators from a 65-foot observation tower at the trail's halfway point.

At Shark Valley, travelers now have choices to make: Cross the highway from the park entrance and eat fried catfish, frog legs and gator bites in the air conditioning at the Miccosukee Restaurant; go next door to the Miccosukee convenience store and sample pickled pigs' feet for $2; stop and fish for bass in the L-28 canal aboard a small outboard-powered Gheenoe as Miami's Herbert Hatch has been doing for the past 42 years; or take an unguided side trip through the Big Cypress National Preserve on the mostly unpaved 24-mile Loop Road.

We skipped the fried and pickled local cuisine, took a short but speedy Gheenoe ride with Hatch, and traveled the entire Loop Road.

For the record, Hatch's best day on the L-28 was in October three years ago when he caught and released 216 bass using a Heddon baby torpedo lure. He says the fishing used to be good back by Krome Avenue, but these days he drives nearly 22 miles west to catch bass. His paddle bears the scars of skirmishes with gators.


• Loop Road, about 22 miles from Dade Corners. Don't think about a side trip unless you've got at least two hours to kill.

This shady, scenic one-lane road through the swamp goes from primitively paved to pocked with puddles within just a few miles. Best traveled by mountain bike, Loop Road provides excellent wildlife viewing opportunities; you might see deer, otter, gator, bobcat or black bear. A rich array of bird life includes wood stork, egret, great blue heron, cormorant and anhinga.

Some of the cypress marsh vistas will look familiar. That's because they are depicted in the acclaimed black-and-white photographs of Clyde Butcher, which you can admire or buy at . . .


• Big Cypress Gallery, 52388 Tamiami Trail, about 43 miles from Dade Corners.

The world-renowned photographer was not here the day we visited. Sales associate Ailyn Hoey told us he was exhibiting his work in Virginia, after having recently completed America the Beautiful: The Monumental Landscape, a book of photographs taken at 18 national parks in 2006.

Perusing Butcher's stark, silver-tinged views of the South Florida landscape is always a treat; his northern images inspire as well.

One subject Butcher has failed to capture is the notorious Everglades Skunk Ape -- the smelly, seven-foot tall Big Foot/Sasquatch look-alike reputed to live in the swamp. To view images of the Skunk Ape, you must head for . . .


• Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, 40904 Tamiami Trail, about 52 miles from Dade Corners.

Chief researcher Dave Shealy, author of Everglades Skunk Ape Research Field Guide, was off conducting field studies in the Big Cypress on the day of our visit. Rick Scholle, working the front desk of the combination gift shop/campground/zoo, didn't give the subject much credence.

''The only thing more elusive than the Skunk Ape is the research into the Skunk Ape,'' he sniffed. ``I'm in charge of the animals that do exist.''

By way of explanation, Scholle led us into the back of the shop where several Burmese and reticulated pythons, a Nile monitor lizard, anaconda, parrots, macaws, and cockatoos reside in pens and cages.

Everyone got to hold and pet Sassy the cockatoo, whose attention-getting whistle is so shrill that it got him kicked out of Islamorada's Theater of the Sea.

Food for Sassy and the other animals -- including crickets for the snakes -- are delivered from the smallest post office in the United States . . .


• The Ochopee Post Office, about 55 miles from Dade Corners.

A favorite stop of shutter-snapping European tourists, this eight-foot, four-inch by seven-foot, three-inch building is run by postmaster Nanette Watson, a six-year veteran and Ochopee native. Watson sorts the mail for more than 900 residents from Jerome to Shark Valley, which is delivered by a lone carrier with a route that stretches 132 miles across three counties.

Watson loves her job, despite the sometimes intrusive wildlife.

''We used to have pygmies [rattlesnakes] in here really bad till we redid the floor,'' Watson said nonchalantly. ``Snakes, spiders, ants, rats -- that's just part of the job. But I'm not crazy about flying palmetto bugs.''

For the record, Watson has never seen the Skunk Ape. However, a likely place to look might be the . . .


• The Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, about 65 miles from Dade Corners.

Here is a 6/10-mile wooden walkway through a dark and mysterious-looking swamp where there's the potential for observing not only the swamp's Sasquatch, but gators, black bear, pileated woodpecker, several varieties of wading birds, even otters. Many of the larger tree trunks are encircled by the boughs of strangler figs, which look like squiggly wooden snakes.

The strangler fig once was famously misunderstood by a New York City journalist who thought his guide said ''strangler pig'' and kept an all-night vigil for a tree-dwelling predator intent on throttling him in his sleep.

Nearing the end of the sparsely settled portion of the Trail just before the outskirts of Naples is . . .


• Collier-Seminole State Park, 20200 E. Tamiami Trail, Naples, about 73 ½ miles from Dade Corners.

Here you can camp, hike and bike beneath a thick canopy of royal palms, gumbo limbo, and Jamaican dogwood, or stroll a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp that ends overlooking a salt marsh.

You can also launch a boat, canoe or kayak and go fishing.

But to truly appreciate all that you have seen in your Trail trek, take a good long look at the peculiar mechanical contraption just past the ranger station. It's a walking dredge that helped dig the highway out of the swamp back in the day -- now designated a historic mechanical engineering landmark.

You can thank 1920s Trail investor Barron Collier, for whom the park (and the county) are named, for your quick and easy drive back to Miami.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:14, Mon 01 Oct 2007.

http://www.floridatoday.com/ap...70909/LIFE/709090310

Entrepreneurs of 1920s had big dreams for Rockledge
September 9, 2007
BY LYNN PICKETT
FOR FLORIDA TODAY ADVERTISEMENT

Anticipating growth. When the original Rockledge Municipal Building was constructed in the 1920s during the Florida Land Boom, some entrepreneurs anticipated big growth in the area. The historic structure is being remodeled by the city and already is attracting history buffs, such as those shown at a recent reception. Lynn Pickett, for FLORIDA TODAY

Rockledge is a lovely community, and most of its residents probably like it just about the size it is -- about 25,000 people living (mostly) quiet lives.

In 1925, however, Harry Bourinot had big dreams for the riverfront town. Bourinot came from Miami and formed the Cocoa-Rockledge Land Co. with Gus Edwards, a young Georgia lawyer.

Bourinot wanted to make Rockledge "The City Supreme" of the entire area. He envisioned a town of 100,000 people with 600 new homes, an airport, hospital, tourist camp, cannery and cold storage plant, and 12 schools. To get started, the Cocoa-Rockledge Land Co. platted a 40-acre, five-street grid near Barton Boulevard and Fiske Road began building a hospital on what is now Huntington Lane, south of Barton Boulevard.

About that time, the fabled Florida land boom of the 1920s crashed to a close. Bourinot lost everything, and his grand plans were soon forgotten by nearly everyone.

Debra Wynne, archivist at the Florida Historical Society Library in Cocoa Village, shared information with me when I was researching Valencia Road, another project of the boom.

The Roaring '20s in Brevard are still a time of legend, probably because many of our prized historic buildings arrived on the scene during that period. In Cocoa, there was the Aladdin Theater, now the Cocoa Village Playhouse, and the still-lamented Brevard Hotel. St. Mark's Episcopal Church was remodeled in that same time frame.

Rockledge built a new municipal building to house city offices and the town's first mechanized fire truck. Improvements in roads, streetlights and sidewalks were started, and a block of store building went up at Orange Avenue and Rockledge Drive. The old Hotel Indian River, a resort hotel built in 1885, was demolished. In its place, a new Mediterranean Revival structure with a swimming pool went up in 1923.

The chambers of commerce in Cocoa and Melbourne promoted the area with brochures designed to attract tourists, new residents and businesses to their towns. An exhibition of Indian River citrus appeared in Madison Square Garden in New York City and aimed at investors and entrepreneurs who might enjoy a warmer climate.

As quickly as the land boom began, it was over, leaving behind a trail of failed banks, over-extended investors and bankrupt builders. In 1928, the Cocoa Bank and Trust Co. failed after it was revealed that cashier J.C. McLeon had embezzled more than $1 million. The Great Depression started early in Florida and got worse after the stock market crash of 1929.

Even so, some of the homes and buildings that took shape during that exciting period still grace our county. Standing in front of one of the beautiful homes designed by architect Richard Rummell along Valencia Road in Rockledge, it is hard not to be glad that entrepreneurs in the 1920s dreamed big and built well.

Contact Lynn Pickett at floylynn @ aol . com if you would like to suggest a history spotlight topic.

A link was just provided by our new Doctor:
The Medical Front
http://www.vlib.us/medical/

This provides extensive medical information about what was available in the 1920's.
And lots of helpful links!

More sites:
WWW-VL: HISTORY: MILITARY: WWI: THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918
http://vlib.iue.it/history/mil/ww1.html

http://www.teacheroz.com/wwi.htm

The Early History of the Infant Mortality Rate in America: "A Reflection Upon the Past and a Prophecy of the Future"
http://pediatrics.aappublicati...ull/103/2/478?ck=nck
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:58, Tue 02 Oct 2007.

Shaffer Library of Drug Policy
Liquor Control, Temperence, and the Call for Prohibition
http://www.druglibrary.org/sch...ohib/temperance.html

Historical Research on Drug Policy - 1920's
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/1920.htm

Did Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm

Was Alcohol Prohibition the most lawful period in US history?
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults4.htm

It Pays to be Tough on Drugs (A bad assertion?)
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults5.htm

THE OPIUM MONOPOLY - Table of Contents
http://www.druglibrary.org/sch...istory/om/ommenu.htm

What Prohibition Has Done to America
http://www.druglibrary.org/sch...t_prohibitiontoc.htm


And many many more articles on the 1920's are found on the main page:
http://www.druglibrary.org/toc.htm

What one would find in a Doctor's bag in the 1920's.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=17

A doctor's bag filled with obstetric instruments and supplies, donated by R.P. Westover, M.D., in December 1960. The case and contents are generally in good condition, although rubber pieces have hardened and cracked. The black leather bag has dual leather-covered handles and brass hardware.

It contains: 1) magnifying lens in a small leather pouch, 2) two razor shavers, 3) tweezer-type uterine dilator, 4) two tweezer-type tissue forceps, 5) eight rolls of bandage material, 6) small trocar, 7) two directors, 8) ear spoon with applicator, 9) scissors, 10) two hemostats, one curved and one straight, 11) cylindrical metal canister containing wooden tongue depressors, 12) Schick electric razor with carrying case and power cord, 13) seven packages of sterile gauze pads, 14) eleven glass vials of suture material, 15) glass vial filled with sulfathiazole, 16) box containing ampules of evipal and water, 17) two blue glass bottles of thyptol, 18) small glass jar with lid, 19) hypodermic ampule of metacaine, 20) box of red pills identified as Cascara compound, 21) bottle containing epragen capsules, 22) green bottle of sulfanilamide, 23) black plastic vial with cap, 24) binaural stethoscope, 25) box of steel safety pins, size #1, 26) two bottles of metycaine, 27) roll of adhesive tape in a metal package, 28) box of circumcision sutures, 29) seven rolls of gauze, and 30) nine medicine droppers in a small box.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=18
Shows contents.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=19
A leather surgical doctor's bag, donated by J.M. Batcheller, M.D., in March 1961. The black leather bag measures 42 x 14.5 x 19 cm. The case contains: 1) two retractors, 2) Wieder's small tongue depressor, 3) Bosworth's steel tongue depressor, 4) four bougies, sizes 15, 24, 26, and 29, 5) two uterine curettes, 6) minor surgery knife, marked "Rockey, England," 7) three sounds, 8) placental curette, 9) three urethral sounds, marked "W.C. & Co.," 10) plain bone shears, 11) curved tissue scissors, 18 cm long, 12) tonsillotome, 13) spiral placental curette, 14) mouth gag, 15) double ended vaginal speculum, 16) double bladed vaginal speculum, 17) Simpson's uterine sound, 18) curved compression forceps, 19) two curved tenaculum forceps, 20) small vulsellum forceps, 21) graduated uterine sound, 22) nasal cutting forceps, 23) Cushing's vulsellum forceps, 24) straight vulsellum, 18 cm long, 25) uterine dilator, 29 cm long, 26) plain uterine douche, 29 cm long, 27) two hemostatic forceps, 28) tissue scissors, 19 cm long, 29) spoon curette, 18 cm long, 30) rectal proctoscope, 13 cm long, 31) metal syringe with double aspirator nozzle, 32) sphygmomanometer, with printed instruction booklet, 33) two sharp uterine curettes, without handles, 34) two spoon curettes, without handles, 35) double-ended blunt uterine curette, 25 cm long, 36) two placental forceps, 25 and 30 cm long, 37) two small hemostatic forceps, 38) curette handle, 39) regular pattern nasal scissors, 40) double-ended tonsil spatula and knife, 41) throat forceps, 42) three metal cotton applicators, 29 cm long, 43) thin eyed probe, 28 cm long, 44) seven metal sounds, French scale sizes 19, 20, 23, 27, 29, and 31, 45) Recamier's uterine sound, 26 cm long, 46) catheter with single loop handle, 24.2 cm long, 47) Leonard's uterine douche, 27.5 cm long, 48) purple cloth instrument roll with instrument loops, 49) Mathieu-Kersten needle holder, 20 cm long, 50) trocar set in a small case, with three needles, 51) angled nasal knife, 21.5 cm long, 52) bone chisel, 13 cm long, 53) wire dilator with screw adjustment, and 54) metal pipette. The case and instruments are in good condition.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=20
Shows contents.
http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=1
Shows contents.
http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=2
Shows contents.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=3
Drug kit, showing contents:
A drug kit in a leather case, measuring 17.5 x 10 x 2 cm. Four flaps open to reveal two rows of ten metal vial clips. The case contains fifteen glass vials with metal screw tops, each with a blue label with white lettering. Two loose labels are set into the case.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=8
Drug kit, showing contents:
Drug kit in a dark brown folding leather case. The case has two rows of leather loops for vials, and contains 27 glass vials of various sizes. Most are labelled as to the contents and have cork stoppers. Both the case and vials are in good condition.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=16
Metal syringe with case.
Syringe kit in a black leather case. The case is lined with purple velvet and silk, and measures 16 x 6.5 x 3 cm. The metal syringe has a glass barrel, and three accompanying needles of various sizes.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...CISOBOX=1&REC=17
Misc. surgical instruments.
A collection of miscellaneous surgical instruments donated by John C. Brougher, M.D., in February 1976. The items are all in good condition. The collection includes: 1) uterine tenaculum, 2) gallstone scoop, 3) gallstone probe, 4) post-nasal forceps, marked "BF17 Germany," 5) perineum needle, marked "HOV," 6) perineum needle, manufactured by Sklar, 7) pedicle needle, manufactured by Sklar, 8) foreign body forceps, 9) knife and dissector, manufactured by Haslam, 10) rubber and metal penis clamp, manufactured by Bard, 11) esophageal dilators, stored in the hollow metal instrument handle, 12) nasal tampon forceps, manufactured by Penn S.M. Co., 13) chrome forceps, 14) catheter, and 15) ligature needle.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=2
Razor case.
Gillette razor kit containing several pieces inside a black leatherette case lined with purple velvet. The Gillette logo and slogan are imprinted in gold on the inside upper half of the case. The case measures 9.6 cm x 4.5 cm x 1.4 cm. The case holds: a brass razor handle (7.8 cm) and brass head piece (4 cm), a two-piece brass razor case (4.7 cm), and three wrapped packages of double-edged blades.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=1
Post cautery.
A Post electric cautery in a case, measuring 24.5 x 9.8 x 7.7 cm. The black leatherette case is lined with maroon flannel and has a black button-snap fastener. The case is fitted with a removable instrument tray, and contains: 1) a curved knife with Bakelite handle, sliding sleeve, and connector cord, 2) insulated cylindrical heat guard with metal ring, 3) porcelain resting block, 4) printed brochure describing the instrument, 5) printed directions for use, and 6) printed directions for use of heat shield and porcelain block.

http://drl.ohsu.edu/cdm4/item_...;CISOBOX=1&REC=3
Signature stamp.

On the Bob and Tom Show, a 93 year old granny mentioned something I hadn't heard of and I had to research and share. She said as a little girl, they listened to the superheterodyne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver

In electronics, the superheterodyne receiver (also known by its full name, the supersonic heterodyne receiver, or by the abbreviated form superhet) is a technique for selectively recovering the information from radio waves of a particular frequency. It is used in radio and television receivers and transmitters in order to tune them to a particular frequency.

The superheterodyne principle was originally conceived in 1918 by Edwin Armstrong during World War I as a means of overcoming the deficiencies of early vacuum triodes used as high-frequency amplifiers in radio direction finding (RDF) equipment. In a triode RF amplifier, if both the plate and grid are connected to resonant circuits tuned to the same frequency, stray capacitive coupling between the grid and the plate will cause the amplifier to go into oscillation if the stage gain is much more than unity. In early designs dozens of low-gain triode stages sometimes had to be connected in cascade to make workable designs, which drew enormous amounts of power in operation. However the strategic value was so high that British Admiralty felt it was money well spent.

Armstrong had realized that higher frequency equipment would allow them to detect enemy shipping much more effectively, but at the time no practical "short wave" (defined then as any frequency above 500 kHz) amplifier existed.

It had been noticed some time before that if a regenerative receiver was allowed to go into oscillation, other receivers nearby would suddenly start picking up stations on frequencies different from those they were actually transmitted on. Armstrong (and others) soon realized that this was caused by a "supersonic" heterodyne (or beat) between the station's carrier frequency and the oscillator frequency. For example, if a station were transmitting on 300 kHz and the oscillator were set to 400 kHz, as well as the original 300 kHz, the same station would be also heard on 100 kHz and 700 kHz.

In a flash of insight, Armstrong suddenly realized that this was a potential solution to the "short wave" amplification problem. To monitor a frequency of 1500 kHz, he could set up an oscillator to, say, 1560 kHz, which would down-convert the signal to a 60 kHz carrier, which was far more amenable to high gain amplification using triodes.

The first superheterodyne circuits used the self-resonance of iron-cored interstage coupling transformers to filter the intermediate frequency, and this is why the Intermediate Frequency tuned circuits were still referred to as IF "transformers", long after they had been replaced by proper tunable coils. Early superhets used IFs as low as 20 kHz, which made them extremely susceptible to image frequency interference but at the time the main interest was sensitivity rather than selectivity.

Armstrong was able to put his ideas into practice quite quickly, and the technique was rapidly adopted by the military; however, it was less popular when radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, due both to the need for an extra tube for the oscillator, and the amount of technical knowledge required to operate it. For domestic radios, an alternative approach to Short Wave "Tuned RF" ("TRF") amplification called the Neutrodyne became more popular for reasons of simplicity and economy.

However, by the 1930s, improvements in vacuum tube technology rapidly eroded these advantages. First, the development of practical indirectly-heated cathodes allowed the mixer and oscillator functions to be combined in a single Pentode tube, in the so-called Autodyne mixer. This was rapidly followed by the introduction of low-cost multi-element tubes specifically designed for superheterodyne operation and by the mid-30s the TRF technique was rendered obsolete. Just about all radio receivers, including the receiver sections of television sets, now use the superheterodyne principle.

There is more, but it's pretty technical. (If that wasn't technical enough.)

An interesting tidbit in the news:

Immigration over the past seven years was the highest for any seven-year period in U.S. history, bringing 10.3 million new immigrants, more than half of them without legal status, according to an analysis of census data released by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

One in eight people living in the United States is an immigrant, the survey found, for a total of 37.9 million people, the highest level since the 1920s.

The survey released Wednesday was conducted by Steven Camarota, director of research at the center, which advocates reduced immigration.

Camarota has been active in the national immigration debate.

Independent demographers disputed some of the survey's conclusions, but not Camarota's methods of data analysis.

Articles on the web:
http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/1...migration/index.html
http://www.vdare.com/fulford/1894_1924.htm
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/H/1990/ch7_p5.htm
http://www-personal.arts.usyd....ers/immigration.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/...e/looking_back2.html

It's not the Pyramid of the Moon, but an interesting story nonetheless.

News images gallery:
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/...0_us_mexico_pyramid/
'Plaza de las Tres Culturas' or the plaza of the three cultures.

Ancient pyramid found in central Mexico City
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200...RBZbAwK4CK1.ODcDW7oF

By Miguel Angel Gutierrez - Thu Dec 27, 10:40 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.

Mexican archeologists found the ruins, which are about 36 feet high, in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political centre for the Aztec elite.

Since the discovery of another pyramid at the site 15 years ago, historians have thought Tlatelolco was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the same year as the twin city of Tenochtitlan nearby, the capital of the Aztec empire, which the Spanish razed in 1521 to found Mexico City, conquering the Aztecs.

The pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed.

"We have found the stairs of this, much older pyramid. The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on Thursday.

Tlatelolco, visited by thousands of tourists for its pre-Hispanic ruins and colonial-era Spanish church and convent, is also infamous for the 1968 massacre of leftist students by state security forces there, days before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.

Ledesma and the archaeological group's coordinator, Salvador Guilliem, said they will continue to dig and study the area next year to get a better idea of the pyramid's size and age.

The archeologists also have detected a sculpture that could be of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, or of the god of the sky and earth Tezcatlipoca.

In addition, the dig has turned up five skulls and a series of rooms near the pyramid that could date from 1431.

"What we hope to find soon should tell us much more about the society of Tlatelolco," said Ledesma.

Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In August, archeologists in the city's crime-ridden Iztapalapa district unearthed what they believe may be the main pyramid of Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs, a warlike and religious people who built monumental works and are credited with inventing chocolate, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)


More information about Mexican prehistory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica
Aztecs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:29, Wed 07 Jan 2009.

Modern day Rocket Ranger

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352477,00.html
Attack Wing: Glider Makes Waves With Stealth and Speed

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,3818,00.html

It weighs only 30 pounds and can be fully weaponized for assault and rescue. It has a 6-foot jet-wing that is steered with handheld rotary controls connected to its rudder. And it can hide more than 100 pounds of combat gear in a built-in compartment.

The Gryphon attack glider, designed to penetrate combat zones at 135 miles per hour, could revolutionize the art of parachuting. It has got to be at the top of James Bond’s Christmas list this year.

A vision straight out of "Batman," the carbon-fiber stealth glider quadruples the speed of similar craft — and there are quite a few special forces soldiers who would like to jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet and give it a whirl.

Its helmet has a heads-up display and provides on-board oxygen for the jump. To land, a soldier separates the wing from his pack and releases his parachute to slow his descent. The wing remains attached to the soldier by a cord and lands before him.

You might wonder who would volunteer to test-pilot a glider traveling at such high speeds. At ISNR London, a security conference, I had the opportunity to meet Erich Jelitko, who not only conceived the ultimate boy toy but also enthusiastically test-pilots the glider.

A former special forces operator and German army paratrooper instructor, Jelitko has made more than 50 jumps with the glider.

He took me through a test flight of a simulation of Paris. He demonstrated the glider’s agility by flying through the legs of the Eiffel Tower — not an easy feat at high speed. Soldiers also can opt to train on other city simulations from New York to London.

Currently, planes and pilots are put at risk because soldiers need to jump close to combat areas. Typical high altitude, high-opening, or HAHO, jumps from around 27,000 feet allow soldiers to travel only about 30 miles after exiting the aircraft.

The Gryphon could increase that range fourfold, creating an attack corridor of nearly 125 miles. Unaffected by headwinds or crosswinds because of its favorable lift-to-drag ratio, the glider would allow elite units to reach targets with increased speed, precision and stealth.

The Gryphon’s built-in oxygen supply system allows soldiers to jump from up to 30,000 feet. And with temperatures at that altitude sometimes reaching minus 64 degrees Fahrenheit, every second counts. Even in upwind conditions, the Gryphon could reduce HAHO jump duration to a third, from an average of 45 minutes to just 15, vastly reducing the risk of exposure to extreme cold.

The Gryphon’s designers, SPELCO GbR, are even planning to affix a relatively cheap and small turbo jet, which is used for unmanned military drones. Harnessing that jet, the glider would allow soldiers to jump lower, maintain altitude and travel farther than is currently possible.

With its stealth technology and high speed, the Gryphon will provide maximum surprise and safer entry into target areas. And with the Gryphon virtually invisible to ground and airborne radar, enemy forces would struggle even to detect it.

The stealth and speed capabilities also could be handy for agile hostage rescue operations and rapid reaction to moving targets. SPELCO is developing an electronic system to automate some of the steering to make it easier to fly, more like an airplane. If it succeeds, the average bungee jumper — and not just elite forces with specialized training — can have a go, too.

And those commercially available Gryphons could mean that friendly neighborhood Batmen might be just around the corner.

More 1920s resource material:

1920 attire
http://www.costumesgalore.com/...mes_Historical_1920s

Flappers - a little pricey
http://www.fancyflappers.com/

Cute little flapper
http://www.costumecraze.com/FLAP17.html

Children's flapper clothing
http://www.brandsonsale.com/ch...-dress-costumes.html

Flapper makeup ideas
http://www.dinnerandamurder.co...ontent/20smakeup.htm

Makeup Steps for a Twenties Flapper Look
Cleanse & Moisturize

Foundation: Pale peaches and cream shades were popular at this time. *
Also apply to lips!
Powder
Rouge: Apply deep rose or berry shade to the apples of your cheeks. Do not blend.
Eyebrows: Darken as thin and long as possible
Eyeliner: Thick line around entire eye and smudge
Eyeshadow: Light shadow on lid and Dark shadow on brow bone. Smudge
Eyelashes: Curl Lashes and apply 3 coats of Mascara
Lips: Apply lipstick to pads of your thumbs and then apply the 2 thumb prints to top and bottom lip to create a cupids bow. Pencil line entire lip dreaded party lulls.

Hair style:
How to fingerwave:
http://www.dinnerandamurder.co...ent/fingerwaving.pdf

More costumes
http://www.dinnerandamurder.co.../20s/20scostumes.htm

1920 Theme ideas for a party!!! Cool!
http://www.dinnerandamurder.com/themes/1920s.htm

1920s radio network. Cool! 24/7 music
http://www.whro.org/home/1920s/

Camel
http://indymotorspeedway.com/cigs/1920s.html

Marlboro
http://www.courses.rochester.e...ealth%20Hazards.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f...34A15752C1A964958260
And Chesterfield, with an unfiltered version brought out in 1912 that is still sold, is one of America's oldest brand names. From the 1920's through 1950's, Chesterfield vied for supremacy against brands including Camel, Lucky Strike and Old Gold.
http://www.courses.rochester.e...Marlboro_History.doc
Marlboro was first introduced to the public in the 1920s behind the theme “Mild as May”. The brand originally targeted a female audience through a series of ads in 1926 showing a feminine hand reaching for a cigarette. It faced trouble in the 1930s and attempted to rejuvenate itself with a clever advertising gimmick, changing the ivory tip to red in order not to smear ladies’ lipstick. During World War II, however, the brand again faltered and had to be taken off the market. Three brands, Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfields surfaced with a firm hold on consumers after the war.  All brands were consumed in abundance.

http://findarticles.com/p/arti...-4_2003/ai_n18617013
Tobacco companies began their search for new clients with the emergence of industrialization. Since cigarettes could be mass produced in large numbers, the tobacco industry needed to increase its market. In the 1920s tobacco companies began to promote brand name cigarettes.
Prior to this time, women's consumption of tobacco products was considered scandalous or low-class. But the 1920s was a decade of great social transformation: women were being recognized as a force to be reckoned with as they demanded social and civic equality. Slowly, public opinion on women's role in society began to change, and in this context the tobacco industry decided to expand aggressively.
The tobacco industry also exploits the fantasies and fears of women and adolescent girls. For example, some tobacco ads focus on women's desire to be thin and emphasize the "benefits" of smoking for weight control. In the 1920s, the slogan "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet" first linked smoking with slenderness. The association of Lucky Strike with keeping thin led to a 300% increase in sales in the first year of this advertising campaign. (5) This profitable image wedding tobacco consumption with a svelte figure continued in more contemporary campaigns: six years after the introduction of "Virginia Slims" (and other cigarettes especially designed for women), the number of adolescent girls who smoked had increased by 110%. (6)
As a direct result of the campaigns that began in the 1920s, the number of women smokers age 18 to 25 increased significantly. The highest rates of new tobacco consumers were among women age 18 to 21: their numbers tripled from 1911 to 1925 and tripled again in 1939.

http://cigarettespaper.org/the...ry-of-cigarettes.php
History of Cigarettes.

http://www.peelregion.ca/healt...tobaccor/thintob.htm
In the 1920s, the wife of a tobacco company executive complained to her doctor about gaining weight; he told her to go smoke a cigarette. An advertising campaign based on this notion, suggested to women to "Reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet". This was the beginning of smoking among women. Before the 1920's it was not "proper" for women to smoke.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.e...dvertising/index.cfm
1890 - 1920
Advertisement encouraged consumers to buy brand name products. An ad for Kellogg’s, the cereal maker, portrays an assertive woman telling her grocer: "Excuse me. I know what I want, and I want what I asked for, Toasted Corn Flakes. Good day."
The product itself remained at the center of advertisements.

1920 - 1929
The 1920s was the decade during which the phrase “Madison Avenue” was first used to describe the advertising industry and in which many products are sold because they hold out the promise of a more modern and freer life, filled with exciting opportunities to consumer new products.
Some ads stressed that ordinary Americans could have the same products as the rich and the socially prominent. Others described natural products are superior to artificial products. Many ads for cars and refrigerators treated these products as objects worthy of worship by surrounding them with halos. Invented characters like General Mills' Betty Crocker and Philip Morris's little bellhop, Johnny helped consumers establish a personal connection with a particular product.

http://www.answers.com/topic/tobacco-industry-2
In 1913 the newly independent R.J. Reynolds launched Camels, the "first modern cigarette." An innovative blend of burley and Turkish tobacco backed by a massive publicity campaign, Camels were quickly imitated by American's Lucky Strike and Liggett and Myers' revamped Chesterfield cigarettes (in 1926 Lorillard jumped in with its Old Gold brand). All three brands stressed their mildness and catered their appeal to men and women alike. Between them the three brands enjoyed 65 to 80 percent market share through the 1940s. The 1920s saw the "conversion" of many tobacco consumers to the cigarette in the Unites States, United Kingdom, Europe, China, and Japan. Between 1920 and 1930, U.S. cigarette consumption doubled to 1,370 cigarettes per capita.

http://www.nationalcigarmuseum...story_1910-1960.html
1924  Philip Morris re-introduces MARLBORO as a ‘woman’s cigarette.’

1925  Only three brands, Camels, Chesterfield and Lucky Strike, sell 82% of all cigarettes, in great contrast to the cigar industry with many tens of thousands of brands sharing the pot.

1925  7,000 full and part time people are involved in cigar tobacco growing in Connecticut. More than 50% of tobacco was grown outdoors (as opposed to shade leaf) on small farms of 10 acres or less.

1925  Of the 3,300 cigar workers using automated machines, only 157 were men. Women who worked the machines were not well paid. Nearly 80% made less than $1000/year; 10% of the women made less than $5 a week, mostly in PA.

1925  POR LARRANAGA became the first Cuban factory to make machine made cigars for the lower price market. The addition of machines led to a boycott by factory workers.


History:
1920's
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade20.html
http://historytogo.utah.gov/ut...scausedanuproar.html

http://news.nationalgeographic...80822-maya-maze.html

Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico
Alexis Okeowo in México City
for National Geographic News

August 22, 2008
A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves—some underwater—have been uncovered on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists announced last week.

The discovery has experts wondering whether Maya legend inspired the construction of the underground complex—or vice versa.

According to Maya myth, the souls of the dead had to follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife.

In one of the recently found caves, researchers discovered a nearly 300-foot (90-meter) concrete road that ends at a column standing in front of a body of water.

"We have this pattern now of finding temples close to the water—or under the water, in this most recent case," said Guillermo de Anda, lead investigator at the research sites.

"These were probably made as part of a very elaborate ritual," de Anda said. "Everything is related to death, life, and human sacrifice."

Stretching south from southern Mexico, through Guatemala, and into northern Belize, the Maya culture had its heyday from about A.D. 250 to 900, when the civilization mysteriously collapsed.

(Read about the watery graves of the Maya in National Geographic magazine.)

Myth and Reality

Archaeologists excavating the temples and pyramids in the village of Tahtzibichen, in Mérida, the capital of Yucatán state, said the oldest item they found was a 1,900-year-old vessel. Other uncovered earthenware and sculptures dated to A.D. 750 to 850.

"There are stones, huge columns, and sculptures of priests in the caves," said de Anda, whose team has been working on the Yucatán Peninsula for six months.

"There are also human remains and ceramics," he said.

Researchers said the ancient legend—described in part in the sacred book Popul Vuh—tells of a tortuous journey through oozing blood, bats, and spiders, that souls had to make in order to reach Xibalba, the underworld.

"Caves are natural portals to other realms, which could have inspired the Mayan myth. They are related to darkness, to fright, and to monsters," de Anda said, adding that this does not contradict the theory that the myth inspired the temples.

William Saturno, a Maya expert at Boston University, believes the maze of temples was built after the story.

"I'm sure the myths came first, and the caves reaffirmed the broad time-and-space myths of the Mayans," he said.

Underworld Entrances

Saturno said the discovery of the temples underwater indicates the significant effort the Maya put into creating these portals.

In addition to plunging deep into the forest to reach the cave openings, Maya builders would have had to hold their breath and dive underwater to build some of the shrines and pyramids.

Other Maya underworld entrances have been discovered in jungles and aboveground caves in northern Guatemala Belize.

"They believed in a reality with many layers," Saturno said of the Maya. "The portal between life and where the dead go was important to them."

Important information to remember!

Travel time:
Distances from San Felipe and from Bahia San Luis on travel on the Princess.
The Princess has a full out speed of about 20km/hr, and a 15km/hr cruising speed.

From San Felipe to Guardian Angel Island would take just under fifteen hours. From Bahia San Luis to Guardian Angel Island would take just over six.

Under a day's travel, unless something goes wrong.

Reposting the Vizcaya Museum layout in the Resources Thread...
Keep in mind that the *real* museum doesn't have this layout.

Ground Floor



Main Floor



Upper Floor


This message was last edited by the player at 17:20, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

The Airship Heritage Trust:
http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/index.html
The Airship Heritage Trust was set up in 1985 by a group of dedicated enthusiasts and relatives of the original crew members. Over the last few years from its humble beginings the Trust has grown and worked very hard to where it is today, with it's membership of over 300 worldwide.

This site has some very interesting pages dealing with historic airships - not just containing pictures and details of when the ship was aloft, when it got lost in a storm, etc., but also interesting "life on a zeppelin" stuff such as times for watches and such.

A few of them:

R100 - G - FAAV
http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/r100/index.html
R101 - G - FAAW
http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/r101/index.html

From the main page, there is a link to many types of airships.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:10, Mon 15 Dec 2008.

Here are some statistics for the Year 1908:

The average life expectancy was 47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in 1908 was 22 cents per hour.
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME. Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they at tended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day. Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

Female office workers in 1925.


10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/141312.html
1. John D. Rockefeller
2. Andrew Carnegie
3. Nicholas II of Russia
4. William Henry Vanderbilt
5. Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
6. Andrew W. Mellon
7. Henry Ford
8. Marcus Licinius Crassus
9. Basil II
10. Cornelius Vanderbilt

USS Florida (Battleship # 30, later BB-30), 1911-1931
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/129332.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/129333.html

USS Utah (Battleship # 31, later BB-31 and AG-16), 1911-1941
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/128138.html

USS New York (Battleship # 34, later BB-34), 1914-1948
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/142905.html

The Silent Generation...
people born between
1925 and 1945.

FRENCH FARMAN F-4X JABIRUS - TRI-MOTOR AEROPLANE
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/113684.html

1925 ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM I JONCKHEERE COUPE
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/114844.html
1925 ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM "JUNCKHEERE AERODYNAMIC COUPE"
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/120864.html
1925 ROLLS ROYCE "ROUND DOOR" PHANTOM
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/127169.html

USN AIRSHIP USS LOS ANGELES ZR-3 - 1927 - BLIMP
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/141014.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/141013.html
USN AIRSHIP USS LOS ANGELES ZR-3 - OVER NEW YORK CITY - BLIMP
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/141015.html

STRANGE OLDE PIX - 1924 LADY IN A TINY TOY CAR!
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/143432.html

ENGLAND - 1924 MORRIS OXFORD
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/133063.html

EARLY SEAPLANE - CURTIS GLIDER - SEPT 11, 1922
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/136962.html

NAVAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY PN-9
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/128802.html

STRANGE UNI-RAIL TRAINS IN IRELAND (circa 1888 to 1924)
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/116649.html

1923 PIX - INDIANS OF FINGER LAKES REGION NEW YORK
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/143978.html

1922 KING OF EGYPT - TUTANKHAMON - OPENING OF THE TOMB
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/144584.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/144585.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/144586.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/144587.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/144588.html

STRANGE OLDE 1920'S AUTO - THE FIRST CAMPER?
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/135279.html

STRANGE "POPEMOBILES" THRU THE YEARS - 1920'S
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/143143.html
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/143137.html

STRANGE 1920'S WRECKER
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/141789.html

STRANGE OLDE RUSSIAN OPEN COACH - C 1920'S
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/142272.html

1920'S SWIMWEAR NAZI - THIS IS MUCH TOO SHORT!!!!
http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/136973.html
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

http://www.time.com/time/magaz...,9171,720660,00.html
Monday, Aug. 03, 1925

Married. Miss Muriel Vanderbilt, famed heiress, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, great-great-granddaughter of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, to Frederic C. Church Jr. of Lowell, Mass., stock broker and onetime Harvard halfback. Though Miss Vanderbilt was brought up in the Catholic faith, they were married by Protestant clergymen. Her mother is a Catholic, her father an Episcopalian.

Married. Miss Esther F. Moody, missionary to China, grandniece of the late Dwight L. Moody,* and George W. Loos Jr., missionary to China; at

Sued for Separation. Hugh McQuillan, a right-handed pitcher for the New York National League Baseball Club, by Mrs. Nellie T. McQuillan; in Brooklyn. Said she: "Gay parties, women and intoxicants . . . brute . . . habitual drunkard . . . unfeeling sot . . . pleasure-bent, drunken carouser. . . ." (Pitcher McQuillan's professional record has not been good this year. Up to July 28 he had won 2 games for his club, lost 3.)

Died. Mickey Shannon,* (real name Howard Palmer), 25, Chicago light heavyweight pugilist; from a fall in the ring during a boxing match in Louisville with Harry Fay.

Died. Antonio Ascari, Italian automobile racer, "champion of Europe"; in Linas, France, of injuries received in a crash at the Grand Prix Auto Race.

Died. W. B. Jemmett, British miniature-painter and dandy; attempting to save a woman from drowning, at Biarritz.

Died. Diki Diki, 49, famed dwarf, 37 inches tall, weight 25 pounds; in Manila, P. I. His widow, also 37 inches tall, weighs five pounds less than he.

Died. Parker A. Henderson, Mayor of Miami, Fla., in Miami, of apoplexy.

OR DID HE???

Died. Princess Wanda zu Shönaich-Carolath, 77, onetime mother-in-law of Princess Hermine, wife of Wilhelm Hohenzollern; in Amititz, Germany.

Died. William Jennings Bryan, 65, "the great Commoner," thrice Presidential nominee of the Democratic party; in Dayton, Tenn., of apoplexy.

*Famed evangelist who founded the Northfield Seminary for Girls at Northfield, Mass., a boys' academy at Mount Hermon, Mass., the Moody Bible Institute at Chicago, training schools for religious workers. *Illfated name. Another Mickey Shannon, heavyweight, a few years ago met the same fate in a boxing match in Pittsburgh, with the now middleweight champion Harry Greb.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:51, Mon 15 Dec 2008.

http://www.mistercapone.com/people.htm

FAMILY

Parents: Gabriele (Gabriel); Theresa Raiola
Siblings (in order of birth): Vincenzo (Jimmy, later Richard Hart),
Raffalo (Ralph), Salvatore (Frank), [Al], Amadeo Ermino (John, nicknamed "Mimi"),
Umberto (Albert John), Matthew Nicholas (so baptized), Rosalia (Rose), Mafalda

PRINCIPAL MEMBERS OF HIS GANG (after he succeeded Johnny Torio)

Frank Nitti (Francesco Raffele Nitto) - second in command;
Jack Guzik - business manager, bag man;
Lawrence Mangano, Charley Fischetti (Capone cousin) - beer distribution;
Joe Fusco - liquor distribution; John Patton - brewery operations, political fixes;
Frank Pope, Anthony "Mops" Volpe - overall gambling operations;
Peter P. Penovich, Jr. - floating casinos;
James V. Mondi - oversaw independents;
Hyman "Loud Mouth" Levine; chief collector;
Duke Cooney - brothel operations;
George "Red" Barker, William J. "Three-Finger Jack" White,
Murray L. "The Camel" Humphreys - labor extortion;
"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (Vincenzo Gibaldi), Frank Milano - chief gunmen
Frank Rio (Cline), Frank Maritote (Diamond), Phil D'Andrea - chief bodyguards
James Belcastro, Joseph Genero - bombs, explosives
Rising young stars: Sam "Golf Bag" Hunt; Anthony Accardo (Joe Batters),
Joseph Aiuppa (Joey O'Brien), Sam "Mooney" Giancana, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca

GANG LEADERS

Charles Dion "Deany" O'Banion
   -succeeded by: Hymie Weiss (Earl Wojciechowski), Vincent "Schemer"
    Drucci (Di Ambrosio), George "Bugs" Moran;
   -Louis "Two-Gun" Alterie (Leland Verain), adjunct members: Samuel "Nails"
     Morton (Markowitz), Daniel J. "Dapper Dan" McCarthy, Maxie Eisen,
Genna Brothers: Samuel, James, Peter, Antonio, Michael, Angelo
Terrence J. Druggan, Frank Lake
William "Klondike" & Myles O'Donnell; Bernard (brother) (West Side)
   -James J. Doherty, Thomas "Red" Duffy, James "Fur" Sammons
Ralph Sheldon
   -Danny Stanton; John "Mitters" Foley
Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis (actually born in Hungary, spelled his name "Soltis")
   -Frank McErlane
Edward J. "Spike" O'Donnell (far South Side)
   -brothers Walter, Thomas & Steven
Joseph Aiello
Claude "Screwy" Maddox
Martin Guilfoyle
Herschel Miller

MAYORS

William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson, Jr., William E. Dever (reformer),
Anton J. Cermak (corrupt)
   -Fred Lundin - political operative (Republican, Thompson's mentor)
   -George E. "Boss" Brennen - (Democratic Party boss)
Joseph Z. Klenha - corrupt mayor of Cicero
    -Edward G. Kovalinka - political boss, courted Capone's election help
John Patton - "Boy Mayor," suburban Burnham when Torrio came

LAWMEN & GOV'T AGENTS

Robert E. Crowe - State's Atty, Thompson ally, capable, equivocal honesty
William Harold McSwiggin - Crowe's star asst., murdered by mistake
Morgan A. Collins - honest police Captain, Dever made Chief
Metellus Lucullus Cicero Funkhauser - Morals Div. head, undercut by Thompson
 George E. "Q." Johnson - U.S. Attorney in Chicago
James H. "Shooey" Malone - arrested Capone in Philadelphia
Michael F. Malone - undercover work as Michael Lepito
Eliot Ness - Prohibition agent, head of special "Untouchables" squad
Michael J. Ryan - crooked police captain in Levee district
Max Nootbar - honest, replaced Ryan after scandal, exiled to sticks by Thompson
Edward J. O'Hare - key informer; murdered; father of "Butch" O'Hare (cf. airport)
Charles F. Rathbun - special prosecutor in death of Jake Lingle
Patrick J. Roche - star investigator of Treasury Dept's, Special Investigation Unit (SIU)
Michael Hughes - blowhard, ineffective chief of detectives; later chief under Thompson
William F. Russell - Hughes's replacement after scandal; Lingle's pal, doubtful honesty
Elmer L. Irey - head of SIU
Anthony L. Ruthy - cop who chased Lingle's killer, changed testimony, later murdered
William H. Shoemaker - honest cop, promoted by Dever, later chief of detectives
John Stege - tough, honest detective captain, later dep. chief
Len Small - corrupt governor of Illinois
Nels Tessem - dogged SIU agent; with Arthur P. Madden uncovered key evidence
James H. Wilkerson - judge at Capone contempt and tax trials
Frank J. Wilson - SIU agent, uncovered key evidence against Capone

ST. VALENTINE'S MASSACRE VICTIMS

James Clark (real name, Albert Kachellek)
Frank Gusenberg (survived briefly, died in hospital; wouldn't talk)
Peter Gusenberg (Pete's older brother; they were gang's muscle; Henry was due later)
John May
Reinhart H. Schwimmer (gang groupie, failed oculist)
Frank Snyder (Adam Heyer)
Albert R. Weinshank (probably mistaken for Moran by Capone's watchers)
Highball (May's Alsatian - only permanent survivor)

OTHERS (Alphabetic Order)

Michael J. Ahearn - Capone's lawyer, researcher, brief-writer; at tax trial
Salvatore "Samoots" Ammatuna - bagman for Gennas; briefly head of Unione, before Capone had him killed to make way for Tony Lombardo
Albert Anselmi - with Scalise, ace killer, lured from Gennas, then killed by Capone when they conspired with Guinta to betray him
Robert "Bobby" Barton - Jack Guzik's driver, lent to Torrio; driving when Torrio shot
Sylvester Barton - Bobby's brother, Capone's driver
Judge Bernard P. Basara - Crowe's candidate in '28 "Pineapple Primary"
Morris Becker - honest dry cleaner; enlisted Capone to fight extortion
James V. Bennett - Director of Prisons, sent Capone to Alcatraz
Anthony C. Berardi - newspaper photographer, Capone's favorite
Leo V. Brothers - cheap crook, framed for Lingle's murder
Herman M. Bundesen - Coroner, ran St. Valentine's inquest
Frederick R. "Killer" Burke - St. Valentine's suspect (unlikely)
Albert Francis "Sonny" Capone - Capone's son, later changed name
Mary "Mae" Coughlin Capone - Capone's wife
Ralph "Risky" Capone, Jr. - Capone's nephew; used "Gabriel" as last name; suicide
John J. "Bathhouse" Coughlin - crooked alderman of Levee district with Kenna
James M. Cox - Ohio publisher; '20 pres. candidate; Miami oligarch against Capone
Louis "Diamond Lou" Cowen - gnomish newsstand owner; Capone's bondsman
Anthony D'Andrea - election fight with Michael Powers showed gangs (before Beer Wars erupted) wisdom of Torrio's plan for gang cooperation.
James "Files" DeAmato - Capone's spy, told Capone of Yale's treachery; murdered
Sen. Charles S. Deneen - Crowe's opposition to his candidate sparked Pineapple Primary
Albert Fink - with Ahern, Capone's lawyer at tax trial; botched defense
Carl "Skip" Fisher - Miami oligarch
Arthur Finnegan - White Hand gang member in Brooklyn, beaten up by Capone
Frank Foster ("Frost," "Citro," Ferdinand Bruna) - Zuta's man; killer of Lingle
Frank "Galluch" Galluchio - petty thief, scarred Capone over insult to sister, Lena
Vincent Giblin - Capone lawyer in Miami
Joseph "Hop Toad" Guinta - briefly, Unione head; see Ansemi
Jacob I. Grossman - lead prosecutor in tax trial
Daniel Healy - detective who killed Vincent Drucci
Parker A. Henderson, Jr. - son of former Miami mayor, became Capone groupie
Peter B. Hoffman - corrupt Cook County (Chicago) sheriff
Joseph L. Howard - killed by Capone, personally, after beating Guzik, insulting Capone
James A. Johnston - warden of Alcatraz, interviewed Capone extensively
Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna - see Bathhouse John Coughlin
Paul A. Labriola - killed by D'Andrea's men for loyalty to Alderman John Powers
Alfred J. "Jake" Lingle - Tribune legman; gang ties; murdered
Edward R. Litsinger - Sen. Deneen's candidate in Pineapple Primary
Frank J. Loesch - head of Crime Commission, asked Capone to police '28 election
Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo - Unione head, Capone friend, murdered by Aiello
Anthony Lombardo - same as Lolordo, but even closer to Capone
William "Wild Bill" Lovett - Brooklyn gang lieutenant, psychopathic killer intended to avenge Artie Finnegan's beating; reason Yale sent Capone to Chicago in 1919
John H. Lyle - honest but erratic judge; Thompson called him "nutty"
Samuel D. McCreary - Miami Director of Public Safety; after Capone at oligarchs' order
Daniel "Big Dan" Mahoney - Cox's son-in-law; directed Miami anti-Capone campaign
John J. Maritote - Mafalda Capone's husband, Frank Maritote's kid brother
Lawrence P. Mattingly - Torrio's, then Capone's tax lawyer; incompetent; wrote damning (by mistake) "Mattingly Letter" to IRS
Mike Merlo - strong Unione head; natural death cleared way for O'Banion murder
Thomas D. Nash - partner of Ahearn, courtroom wizard; mysteriously not at tax trial
Ted Newberry - walking to garage with Moran when Massacre occurred; later botched murder attempt on Zuta
David V. Omens - Capone's doctor
Kenneth Phillips - Miami doctor, signed phony affidavit in contempt case
John "Gianni Pauli" Powers - alderman in war with D'Andrea
Fred Ries - head cashier at Capone Casino, The Ship; key testimony at tax trial
Louise Rolfe - McGurn's mistress, "the Blonde Alibi"
Edward C. Romfh - Miami oligarch, banker, ex-mayor
John Sbarbaro - Asst. State's Atty, later judge; also undertaker for all gangs
Daniel A. Seritella - City Sealer; Capone pal
E. G. Sewell - Miami oligarch, ex-mayor
Jack Sewell - E. G.'s nephew, a Capone groupie
Billy Skidmore - bondsman Capone used before Lou Cowen
Manley Sullivan - petty crook in key Supreme Court decision: IRS could tax crime income
John A. Swanson - honest judge, involved in Pineapple Primary, murders of Lingle, Zuta
Edward D. Vogel - slot-machine king/pol in Cicero; opposed Torrio-Capone, then ally
Frankie Yale (Francesco Ioele, "Uale") - Capone's mentor in Brooklyn; killed Colosimo, O'Banion as favor; betrayed Capone, murdered
Jack Zuta - pimp, minor far North Side gang leader; had Lingle killed; murdered
This message was last edited by the player at 17:59, Mon 15 Dec 2008.

http://www.harveyseedspost29.org/2169/index.html
The American Legion Founded in 1919

While many of their fellow soldiers were slowly returning to the United States in the spring of 1919, on March 15-17 under the guidance of Theodore Roosevelt, some members of the World War I American Expeditionary Force still in Paris founded an organization of U.S. war veterans called the American Legion to provide for the care of the disabled and sick veterans, and to promote compensation and pensions for the disabled, widows, and orphans. Nonpolitical and nonsectarian, its membership requirement was honorable service and an honorable discharge.

Meanwhile Miami’s public spirited Mayor William Pruden Smith wanted to organize a servicemen’s club, and so invited all of the county’s veterans to a meeting on April 10. Evidently virtually every man in Dade County who had served in World War I turned out; including several of Miami’s most outstanding business men, and the organization was quickly incorporated as the “Dade County Veterans of the World War”.

Infantry Major Robert W. Ralston, the ranking officer from Miami, was elected to be the commander of the organization. And when the Dade County Veterans of the World War received word within a week of their incorporation of a national call to convene a Caucus in St. Louis to form a national organization of veterans, Major Ralston selected prominent Miami businessman Junius T. Wigginton, a captain of Miami’s company of infantry before it was sent overseas, to be their delegate. Short of money to make the trip, the founders of the Miami veteran’s organization floated a loan to send Wigginton to St. Louis, where he was one of the five Floridians in attendance at the founding of the American Legion.

The May 9, 1919 Caucus meeting in St. Louis adopted "The American Legion" as the organization's official name. The Legion's draft constitution was approved, and so was its preamble, which begins: "For God and Country, we associate ourselves together. . ." The preamble, with its heartfelt dedication to freedom and democracy, is still recited today at official gatherings of The American Legion.  On September 16, 1919 the U.S. Congress chartered the American Legion, and on November 10-12, 1919 the Legion convened its first annual convention in Minneapolis.

Miami’s American Legion on lower Biscayne Boulevard 1926

When Captain Junius T. Wigginton returned to Miami he suggested that Miami’s American Legion Post be named after the first man from Dade County to die in the world war. Although the Harvey Seeds Post was one of the first to be established in the United States and by right the first in Florida, when it finally received its charter, the Florida number was already up to 29.

Lacking a formal meeting place, the newly formed Legion Post met at the Miami Central School, the Chamber of Commerce, the courthouse and the YMCA. When the Armistice was signed, and most of Dade’s veterans were finally home, the Post’s first order of business was to commemorate their return with an explosive 4th of July 1919 holiday celebration. Orphans and underprivileged children were invited and with financial help from the Chamber of Commerce an impressive fireworks display was mounted in the first of what has become a proud annual tradition of the Post that is still celebrated today with generous financial assistance from the Upper Eastside Miami Council, the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County and local businesses and individuals.

With its membership growing to over 700, on February 2, 1926 the Post finally moved into its first real home, a new building on city property on Biscayne Boulevard and NE 8th Street. Even though Miami charged a nominal fee for the property, supporting the Post property cost money and the Legionnaires tried several ill-fated venues to raise funds, among them minstrel shows, and boxing bouts, none of which were financially successful. The Legion’s much needed financial angel came in the form of Doyle E. Carlton, Florida’s governor, who saved the day when he approved the Post as an official state automobile tag agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Miami
Mayors of Miami

Term   Mayor
1896-1900 John B. Reilly
1900-1903 J. E. Lemus
1903-1907 John Sewell
1907-1911 F.H. Wharton
1911-1912 S. Rodman Smith
1912-1913 J.W. Watson, Sr. (Acting)
1913-1915 J.W. Watson, Sr.
1915-1917 P.A. Henderson
1917-1919 J.W. Watson, Sr.
1919-1921 W.P. Smith
1921-1923 C.D. Leffler
1923-1925 P.A. Henderson - Mayor at the time of this story
1925-1927 Edward C. Romfh
1927-1929 E.G. Sewell
1929-1931 C.H. Reeder
1931-1933 R.B. Gautier
1933-1935 E.G. Sewell
1935-1937 A.D.H. Fossey
1937-1939 Robert R. Williams
1939-1940 E.G. Sewell

http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/FL/ofc/miami.html

Henderson, Parker A. (d. 1925) — of Miami, Dade County (now Miami-Dade County), Fla. Mayor of Miami, Fla., 1915-17, 1923-25. Died in 1925 of apoplexy. Burial location unknown.

Romfh, Edward C. — of Miami, Dade County (now Miami-Dade County), Fla. Mayor of Miami, Fla., 1925-27. Presumed deceased. Burial location unknown.

Sewell, E. George (c.1875-1940) — of Miami, Dade County (now Miami-Dade County), Fla. Born in Hartwell, Hart County, Ga. Brother of John Sewell. Merchant; mayor of Miami, Fla., 1927-29, 1933-35, 1939-40; died in office 1940. Died April 2, 1940. Burial location unknown.

Reeder, C. H. — of Miami, Dade County (now Miami-Dade County), Fla. Mayor of Miami, Fla., 1929-31, 1941-43. Presumed deceased. Burial location unknown.

I was a well established recording artist before the time of the game.

b. c.1890s, USA, d. 3 February 1960, USA.
Ace Brigode's Virginians varied in size from 10 to 15 musicians and vocalists, including Fred Brohez, Happy Masefield, Gene Fogarty, Johnny Poston, Eddie Allen, Billy Hayes, Teddy King, Abe Lincoln, Don Juille, Dillion Ober, Cliff Gamet, Bud Lincoln, Al Tresize, Frank Skinner, Ray Welch, Ignaz Berber, Charlie Sexton, Bob Kinsley, Max Pitt and others.
As their name implied, they were formed in Charleston, West Virginia, in the early 20s, with Brigode leading the band on alto saxophone and clarinet. By the late 20s the Virginians had secured a recording contract with MCA Records, and the band played all the major ballrooms and hotels on coast to coast tours with frequent radio play on programmes such as The White Rose Gasoline Show and Jersey Cereal Show. Further releases on a multitude of labels, including Edison, Harmony, Columbia Records and OKeh Records, continued until the group effectively disbanded at the close of World War II.
After his final shows as a bandleader in Salt Lake City, Brigode then took a post as publicity and promotions manager for the Chippewa Lake Park hotel in Cleveland. When he died in 1960, there was a revival of his dance band's theme song, "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny".

Yes Sir, That's My Baby - Ace Brigode And His 14 Virginians
#10 hit released 10/24/25

Linger Awhile - Ace Brigode & His Ten Virginians - 1923
More - Ace Brigode & His Ten Virginians

Never Again - Ace Brigode & His Fourteen Virginians 04/04/24
Don't Mind the Rain - Ace Brigode & His Fourteen Virginians 04/04/24

ACE BRIGODE AND HIS FOURTEEN VIRGINIANS

New York, c. October 13, 1924 OK 40223, Par E-5342
Bye, Bye Baby
A Sun-Kist Cottage In California

New York, January 13, 1925
Alabamy New York Bound Col 282-D, Re G-8377
A Sun-Kist Cottage In California

Note: Regal as CORONA DANCE ORCHESTRA

New York, January 23, 1925
Ever-Lovin' Bee Ed 51496
In The Shade Of A Sheltering Tree

New York, February 20, 1925
Tokio Blues Ed 51511
I'll See You In My Dreams

New York, March 10, 1925
What A Smile Can Do Col 341-D
When I Think Of You

New York, March 25, 1925
Fooling Ed 51533
When I Think Of You

New York, c. April 24, 1925
My Sugar Cam 725, Lin 2338
Wondering Cam 726, Lin, 2337

New York, April 30, 1925
Sleeping Beauty's Wedding Col 385-D
Yes, Sir! That's My Baby -v2 Col 398-D, 3730

Note: Columbia 3730 as DENZA DANCE ORCHESTRA

New York, June 2, 1925
Wait’ll It's Moonlight Col 401-D, 3757
Make Those Naughty Eyes Behave

New York, July 15, 1925
Alone At Last Col 426-D
I'm Tired of Everything But You 3782

Note: Columbia 3782 as DENZA DANCE ORCHESTRA

http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/tech.html
The Impact of Technology on 1920s Life

World War I, "The war that would end all wars.", had ended by 1918; Europe was left in ruins physically, politically, and economically. The years following the most devastating war to take place prior to the 1920s, Europe would struggle with economic and political recovery, but not the United States. Left virtually unharmed by World War I, the United States was even able to experience a decade of peace and prosperity following such a disastrous war. Of the many reasons for America's prosperity, technology played one of the most vital parts in bringing the great economic and cultural prosperity that America experienced during the 1920s. New advancements, new discoveries, and new inventions improved American lives in many if not every conceivable way, but not without a few negative side-effects.

One of the first major inventions to become a national craze was the automobile. First developed with a combustion engine in 1896 by inventor Henry Ford, he later started the Ford Motor Company, which mass produced affordable automobiles known as the Model-T. Ford's Model-Ts became such an overwhelming success that he sold over 15 million Model-Ts by 1927 (Gordon and Gordon 77). By the end of the decade, there was almost one car per family in the United States (Bruce 80). As a result, the automobile became an increasingly important part of American lives. Workers no longer needed to live close to their workplace, instead they could live farther away and still arrive at their jobs with ease. Homemakers could run errands with greater convenience. The overall increase in productivity and efficiency left the American people with more time for entertainment and recreation. Families could visit relatives on a constant basis, even distant relatives. The automobile provided a perfect way for people, especially for adolescents, to socialize and make merry. The automobile craze even came to a point where the back seat of a car replaced the parlor as a place for courtship and love (Gordon and Gordon 58).

The popularity of the automobile also brought immense economic prosperity. One of the major contributions to the prosperity of the 1920s was the construction of roads and highways, which poured fresh public funds into the economy (Bruce 79). Automobiles appeared everywhere and were being driven everywhere. However a major problem was experienced by everyone as a result of this. According to Kenneth Bruce:

"...there were very few good roads outside the east coast; crossing the continent was a real adventure, as during the spring when the snow melted or after a good rain storm, automobiles would sink into gumbo mud up to their hubs. Travelers crossing Iowa or Nebraska were often forced to wait several days until the road dried before moving onto the next town. ..." (79)

In 1924, the Federal Road Act offered federal money to state legislatures, which would organize highway departments and match federal funds. Spurred on by this federal money, every section of the country launched ambitious road building programs during the 1920s. By the end of the decade, highway construction programs employed more men and spent more money than any single private industry. The increased use of automobiles touched every corner of the American economy. It stimulated the oil industry, it boosted road construction, extended the 1920s housing boom to suburbs, and even developed new businesses (Bruce 79-80).

The success of the Ford Motor Company was so great that it can even be compared to that of today's Microsoft. And like today's Bill Gates, Ford and his Ford Motor Company had become a national symbol of industrial prosperity. By 1922, Ford, who earned over $264,000 a day, was declared a billionaire by the Associated Press (Gordon and Gordon 32). Luckily for the federal government, Ford paid a record $2,467,946 in income taxes for the prosperous year of 1924 (Gordon and Gordon 50). According to Elizabeth Stevenson:

"... Nothing ever dramatized the system of factory organization so well as the break in Ford automobile production stretching across a good part of the year 1927. Ford was the epitome of everything in the world of everyday work that the citizens of the 1920s admired. His faults were overlooked or accepted as virtues, and his success in this great mechanical and business venture seemed a test of the health of the nation itself. The public found itself absorbed, entertained, and delighted by such toys as Model-Ts and Model-As. If Ford should fail, they all in some measure failed. But anticipation was joyous. Even the suspense was delicious, it would be a misunderstanding to think that it was all a matter of sober self-interest, that this man would again bring about the car that suited at the price that was right. ..." (190)
Evidently Stevenson was not the only person to feel this way. Bruce even said that Ford was the high priest of mass production, which people of the world saw to be more important than any ideological doctrine as the industrial miracle-maker to the curse of world poverty. (80)

The combination of an increase in American recreation and the advent of the automobile helped to bring about the success of the movie industry. Early movie attendance was fairly low due to the sparse distribution of movie theaters. But as automobiles became more popular, transportation became less of a hassle, and consequently movie attendance soared with the increase of automobile sales. With comical performances by comedian, Charlie Chaplin, dramatic performances by sex symbol, Rudolph Valentino, and many other famous actors, the movie industry was able to attract a massive audience of loyal viewers, even during the years of silent black-and-white films. Later in 1922, improvements in sound recording technology enabled the filming and broadcasting of the first movie ever made with sound, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson. And finally in 1926, the advent of Technicolor enabled the creation and broadcasting of movies with not only sound but with color also. Consequently, the movie industry became a major part of American industry in general. In 1927 alone, over 14,500 movie theaters throughout the nation showed over 400 films a year each, as movies became America's favorite form of entertainment (Gordon and Gordon 68). As the movie industry grew, so did the salaries of actors. In 1924, John Barrymore's contract with Warner Brother's reached $76,250 per picture, plus $7,625 over seven weeks, and all expenses paid (Gordon and Gordon 50). The trend of increasing salaries continued throughout the decade. However, after the advent of sound in movies, many actors were fired because of their poor voices, inabilities to memorize lines, or even their inabilities to speak English. But those who still continued to act experienced remarkable salary increases. Greta Garbo's salary rose from $350 a week to $5000 a week at MGM and football star, Red Grange, was paid a stunning $300,000 per picture (Gordon and Gordon 68); while the average American worker earned around a mere $2,000 annually. The advent of certain technologies helped to bring about the immense success of the movie industry; a success that would persist even to this very day.

The automobile was certainly one of the greatest crazes of the 1920s, but it was not the greatest. An invention of smaller dimensions, lower cost, and with the same abilities to bring people together spurred on the greatest craze of the 1920s. The radio became an instant success among the American public. Being substantially cheaper than a car, the radio became a part of virtually every home in America in only a few short years. Following the startup of the first public radio broadcasting station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh, thousands more broadcasting stations pop up all over the country in the next few years. Radio instantly became a national obsession; many people would stay up half the night listening to concerts, sermons, "Red Menace" news, and sports. Those without home radios gathered around crystal sets in public places (Gordon and Gordon 32). The advent of public radio allowed listeners to not only keep up with national issues and events, it also allowed listeners to experience new ideas, new entertainment, and to form opinions on matters that had never been publicized to a national degree. The radios in thousands of homes linked people in simultaneous enjoyment and excitement (Stevenson 150). According to Stevenson:

"... The mechanical inventions of the day were keeping up with the events. Radio not only reported the events but shaped them. Radio strengthened a tendency already working to make the people of the United States feel united and whole; for the first time, it seemed as if they could have thoughts and feelings simultaneously. For certain individuals this was comforting and strengthening. It had the effect of making people wish to have simultaneous sensations. ..." (114)

"... There was a tendency upon the part of a whole population to become amused spectators at events. The hobby of radio listening encouraged the tendency, but the set of mind was a new thing, a feeling that one's country and one's self were exempt from unpleasant consequences. What happened happened to other peoples and other individuals, mostly other kinds of countries and individuals. One lived, one lived indeed well, and had a predictable kind of success, and the tragedies and comedies of life were performed as in a show. ..." (154)

With the benefits of the radio also came many negative side effects. For example, those who spent a lot of time listening to the radio became very idealistic, and some even experienced difficulties discerning reality from "radio reality". As Stevenson quoted, "The hobby of radio listening encouraged a tendency, ..., a feeling that one's country and one's self were exempt from unpleasant consequences.", which demonstrated that people of the 1920s only saw the "good" in life and were ignorant of the "bad". Radio advertisements quickly followed the outburst of radio popularity. And according to Stevenson, radio advertising did not help the American public to become more open-minded. Take the following passage from Stevenson's The American 1920s:

"... Advertising was false in promising more than the seller delivered to the buyer, but it was false in seeming to be a world to which real life must bring itself to relation. It was false to particular American life and it was false to particular human nature in its blindness, narrowness, its smoothing away of individual corners and all inconvenient or tragic exultations or despairs. It was so persuasive a surface, so willingly adjusted to by many people that it was like a lowered, limited horizon. Strong emotions and fierce beliefs were stoppered down so that when they burst forth they rushed out with violence and exaggeration. ..." (151)

The false advertising of radio advertisements helped to create a sense of ignorance among most Americans towards anything unpleasant. Even though radio had brought the nation together as a whole, it also had the unfortunate side effect of making people of the 1920s more close-minded, ignorant, and disillusioned. Perhaps it was the sense of denial and false-hope created by radio that made America so mentally unprepared for the Great Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression.

The car and the radio were not the only inventions to penetrate into the consumer market. Ford's methods of mass production and efficiency enabled factories to produce a plethora of diverse consumer appliances ranging from dish-washers to electric toasters. As a result of World War I, production in American factories had been overhauled to accommodate for wartime needs. And after the armistice, these factories had to either mass produce other goods besides munitions or fire workers, so they turned to the world-wide market of consumer goods. American demands for consumer goods sky-rocketed during the 1920s, not only because of post-war demands but of American indulgence in luxury and convenience. The primary reason why Americans bought so many household appliances was to simplify everyday tasks such as dish-washing or cutting grass, so that they could spend more time with their families or on entertainment. Like the domino effect that took place with the boom of the automobile industry, demand for consumer goods spurred the growth of various other industries and increased demand for labor, which consequently increased worker wages. In fact, wages increased were up 33 percent from prewar periods even after being adjusted for inflation (Gordon and Gordon 86). In order to accommodate for the labor shortages, factories began to mechanize small tasks to cut back on labor requirements. Simple tasks such as packaging and cleaning of parts and tools which were once handled by people were handed over to faster and more efficient machines.

The standardization of the assembly line process further increased factory efficiency. Instead of having workers move around to select tools, tools were brought the workers by means of conveyor belts or movable storage units. The massive resource requirements of factories and household appliances stimulated the growth of utilities industries like never before. Electricity and plumbing became a standard in American homes. As a result of the massive growth of the consumer goods market, the national economy was greatly strengthened, but a harmful side-effect also resulted. The specialization of labor tasks in factories decreased the need for skilled workers, since workers were only required to do a few tasks many times instead of doing many tasks a few times.

Scientific advancements during the 1920s was not confined to only industrial technologies, health and medicine advanced greatly during the same time period. Surprisingly, a post-war interest developed in nutrition, caloric consumption, and physical vitality (Gordon and Gordon 14). This crusade for health was lead primarily by the "Flappers", liberal and out-going women, of the 1920s. A Flapper was often described as a women who "bobbed her hair, concealed her forehead, flattened her chest, hid her waist, dieted away her hips and kept her legs in plain sight (Noggle 161)." The Flapper's focus on "dieting away her hips" lead her to increase consumption of vegetables and fruits while decreasing consumption of meats and fats. With the rise in popularity of the Flapper, came a significant change in the dietary habits of Americans as a whole. Coincidentally, the discovery of vitamins and their effects also happened around the same time. Herbert McLean Evans discovered Vitamin E, and its anti-sterility properties in 1920. Elmer V. McCollum discovered Vitamin D, its presence in cod liver, and its ability to prevent rickets, a skeletal disorder, in 1920. Vitamins A, B, C, K, and various subtypes of each were also discovered during the 1920s. Through radio broadcasts, the public learned of the benefits of consuming foods with high nutritional values, and thus a generation of health fanatics was started. However, this was very ironic because cigarette consumption rose to roughly 43 billion annually (Gordon and Gordon 23) and bootleg liquor became a $3.5 billion a year business during the same time period (Gordon and Gordon 68). While pursuing a pure goal of excellent health, the American people failed to realize the harm that cigarettes and liquor had wrought upon them.

The prosperity that America experienced during the 1920s seemed like it would last forever. There were virtually no signs of economic depression; wages were at an all time high, the Dow Jones Industrial Stock Index never stopped increasing, everyone indulged in luxuries and entertainment, and there was always a general atmosphere of hope and promise for the future. Life was easy and convenient thanks to the many technological advances that took place during the 1920s. Who would have thought that it would all come to an end on October 24, 1929 and that a decade of despair and depression would follow such an age of happiness and prosperity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cited Works
Bruce, Kenneth YOWSAH! YOWSAH! YOWSAH! The Roaring Twenties.
     Belmont California: Star Publishing Company, 1981.

Bunch, Bryan and Alexander Helkmans The Time Tables of Technology.
     New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1993.

Gordon, Lois, and Alan Gordon American Chronicle.
     Tennessee: Kingsport Press, Inc., 1987.

Noggle, Burl Into the Twenties.
     Urbana Chicago Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1974.

Sloat, Warren 1929 America Before the Crash.
     New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979.

Stevenson, Elizabeth The American 1920s.
     New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962.

http://www.brickhaus.com/amoore/magazine/house.html

PROMISES, PROMISES: THE ALLURE OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES IN THE 1920S
By Loretta Lorance

On today's homefront very little thought is given to throwing a load of laundry into the machine, stacking the dishes into the dishwasher and quickly running the vacuum before jumping into the car for a quick trip to the store to pick up dinner. Washing machines, dishwashers, vacuums, automobiles and numerous other machines are more or less givens as accessories to contemporary life. Of course, some people do not possess these accouterments, but, most can be rented or used at commercial facilities. Whether they are owned or let, the power to operate these various machines is obligingly available. At the end of the 20th century, these types of machines and the power to run them have become integral parts of modern life.

So entwined have mechanical devices become with modern life that the not so distant past, before they were established as necessary adjuncts to it, is often viewed with nostalgia and gratitude for the lessons learned during the preceding centuries of drudgery. In a Darwinian view of the history of household technology it is easy to accept that today's home has naturally benefitted form the progress of science and technology.1 And, if the path of this progression were traced, the beginnings would be found long before the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. However, if the interest were the point of conjunction between the home, technology and readily available energy, it would be found in the 1920s.

On the corners of this 1920s intersection between the home, technology and readily available energy stand the housewife, domestic servants and household appliances. As technology produced more opportunities for women in industry and business, less were willing to spend long hours working for low wages as domestic servants.2 Correspondingly, those who were willing to serve as domestics were in a position to demand better wages. Middle-class housewives, whose budgets could not accommodate the increase in the cost of domestic help, would be more likely to purchase appliances to ease their own workload than wealthy woman who would probably purchase appliances for their servants to use. Numerous manually operated appliances were marketed before the 1920s, but, the rapid electrification of urban areas during that decade3 was complimented by increases in the types and availability of electric appliances which were much easier to use than the manual models.4 Electric appliances began to be championed as 'electric servants'5 that would make housework less strenuous and less time consuming while being more efficient and more manageable than traditional domestic servants.

To persuade housewives that their products would cleanly, safely, and efficiently decrease housework electric companies and appliance manufacturers utilized articles, expositions, women's magazines and advertisements as tools of propaganda. For example, in the second half of the 1920s the Electrical Development Association (EDA), an English organization, began to heavily promote the development of the British domestic market6 through a variety of advertisements emphasizing the rewards reaped by housewives who used electricity. One 1928 ad featured a fashionably dressed woman leaving to play golf during the day because, as the caption insists, she was 'no longer tied down by housework' since she 'spring cleans with electricity' which was readily available 'at the flip of a switch.'7 The meaning here is obvious: the use of electricity will allow the housewife to keep her home clean, her appearance neat, and enjoy leisure activities even if she can no longer rely on hired help. In an earlier ad from the American Corporation General Electric, the 1917 The Lamp that Lights the Way to Lighter Housework featuring the Edison Mazda lamp, electricity was promoted as a way for the housewife to carry out her duties, such as washing, ironing, toasting and vacuuming, in a well lit environment with the aid of her agreeable and competent electric servants.8

Not only would electricity benefit the housewife by easing her work load and solving her servant problem, it would do so in a safe and healthy manner. This was another argument posed to increase the appeal of electricity to housewives. For example, a 1927 EDA poster was carefully composed to communicate this exact message. Bright white and rising triumphantly in the center of a dense black background is an athletic figure holding a globe in its raised right hand. Looping from the bottom of the globe and held up by the figure's left hand is a 'cord' that curves down to a power station within a white silhouetted skyline extending across the width of the poster. Dramatically positioned under the skyline in commanding white text is the caption that boldly advises: "For Health's Sake Use Electricity." 9

The promotion of electricity as safe, clean, and efficient served to emphasize the disadvantages of using its competitors, coal and gas. The use of coal, which must be carefully tended and emits a grimy soot when burned, was limited to fireplaces and stoves. The heavily polluted skies of 19th century cities are legendary, but rarely are the thick air and sooty surfaces of homes heated with coal addressed.10 Gas, coal gas in the 19th century and natural gas in the 20th, is more flexible since pipes to supply it can be installed throughout walls and floors. But, coal gas, which is made from carbonized coal, had an unpleasant odor and was somewhat unsafe. If a gas appliance was not completely turned off, or, if a pilot light went out, the resulting build-up of gas could lead to an explosion. Furthermore, the exposed flame of a gas light could start a fire. Electricity, on the other hand was espoused as clean, invisible, odorless, flexible and tireless. At any time one simply flips a switch or inserts a plug to have an unlimited and convenient source of energy. The primary disadvantage to the use of electricity is the availability of outlets. This is, however, a potentially easy problem to remedy. In the 1920s magazines such as Building Age and Electrical World featured articles concerned with ways to include the optimal number outlets in a house to provide the housewife with ample opportunities to use appliances. 11

Therefore, by the 1920s the use of electricity was promoted as the perfect way to ease the drudgery of housework without reliance on servants. Electricity was unlike coal which both required constant tending and produced soot and in preference to gas which was less safe. Praise and promise were heaped upon electricity, electric appliances and their capacity to improve the lot of the housewife. Emil Rathenau, a German industrialist who was a leader in the development of the electrical industry in Europe, thought that electric light would be like a little man, a helper of the housewife. Rathenau also advocated that the use of electricity would help to bring housewife out of the hidden darkness of the household.12 Similarly, in 1895 Thomas Edison, the inventor of the incandescent light bulb who founded the first distribution center of electricity in Manhattan in 1881, claimed that "technology will give less attention to the home because the home will need less: [the housewife] will be rather a domestic engineer than a domestic laborer, with the greatest of handmaidens, electricity at her service."13

Rathenau's and Edison's visions of the freedom that electricity could bring the housewife were echoed by exhibition organizers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.14 For example, at the 1893 Columbia World's Fair in Chicago numerous international models of electric appliances were exhibited in the Electricity Building. In addition, an electric kitchen was also exhibited at the Fair.15 Beginning in 1908 The Daily Mail, an English newspaper, sponsored an annual 'Ideal Home' exhibition featuring improvements and innovations in housing design and household technology.16 Appliances were essential to the Daily Mail's concept of the 'Ideal Home' and manufacturers used the expositions as opportunities to simultaneously plug known appliances and introduce new products. According to Deborah Ryan, this combination of the status quo with the promise of invention demonstrated that an 'Ideal Home' was only attainable in theory, not practice. Ryan writes:
From 1923 onwards, the Ideal Home Exhibition...concentrated on the presentation of a constantly evolving and progressing new commercial culture of home-making. In effect, the modern housewife could never achieve her 'ideal home,' because technology was constantly improving; each ideal was surpassed by another. Each Ideal Home Exhibition promised to surpass the previous one with its labour-saving innovations and the promise of improvement.17

Still, in the late 1920s, numerous electric appliances were available to assist the housewife in her quest for the ideal home. Manufacturers aggressively advertised these products. The ads usually featured one or more time- and labor-saving products in combination with the image of a relaxed housewife effortlessly using an appliance. An English division of General Electric, Magnet Household Appliances, drew upon both the notion of the 'Ideal Home' and the advantage of using electric appliances in its 1927 ad campaign entitled 'Miss Magnet's Ideal Home.' Cheerfully using an electric iron, 'Miss Magnet' is surrounded by the full range of available electric appliances: waffle iron, toaster oven, toaster, vacuum, stove, light, fan, cream separator, and washing machine. The text expounds "the advantages secured by the use" of these products: The Home where comfort, convenience and economy are ensured by the use of 'Magnet' Household Electric Appliances.

Where cooking is hygienic, uniform and economical; where cleaning is an easy and pleasant job, but thorough and complete; where ample heating, clean, smokeless, fumeless is always available.18 Although this ad was ostensibly selling appliances, subtly included was the message that the magic of electricity made it all possible. In their quest to convince women of the benefits provided by electricity and to increase revenues, electric companies began to offer advice and assistance to housewives in the late 1920s. In 1928 the need for electric companies to educate housewives about the virtues of electricity was explicitly explained by Sophia Malicki:
A utility company should be the community household management center. It should answer the plea of housewives for a place to which they can turn for advice and assistance on problems of efficient management of the home...The fact that women need to place a higher value on their energy and time brings a direct responsibility to the utilities for a liberal portion of education in standards of health and decency. Our services supersede the largest portion of drudgery in housekeeping, and ours the blame if so many women are still doing physically work for which machinery is developed. This is a social problem and ours is a fault chiefly of omission. 19

One approach to remedying the need to educate housewives was to sponsor courses in 'electrical equipment economics' which were intended to teach women the use and benefits of appliances.20 A second strategy was to establish women's councils on electricity such as the Electrical Association of Women in Great Britain and the Women's Committee of the National Electric Light Association in the United States. The motivating factor behind these tactics was to increase profits by increasing the domestic use of electricity. Electric companies understood that housewives would willingly consume more kilowatts if they were convinced of the rewards gained by using the tools run by electricity.21 And, housewives would more often use these tools if they could confidently and efficiently operate them. In addition, housewives would be more eager to learn about these tools if the tools would help bolster their self-images as modern, self-sufficient women who now summoned 'electric servants' to help them manage their homes.22 Therefore, by expanding the domestic market in the 1920s, electric companies could help offset the cost of urban electrification and ensure continued income by convincing housewives that electricity and electrical appliances were necessary tools for modern living.

So convincing was this argument that by the late 1920s the image of the 'Ideal Home' was determined more by the number of appliances and gadgets that were in it than by its design. This has prompted some 20th century historians to find more significance in the effect that appliances have had on homes than in changes in the design of the house. For example, Adrian Forty wrote in The Electric Home, 1975, that "the principal change in the home environment this century has not occurred through the improvements in architecture or building standards, but as a result of the equipment that has become available for people to put in their homes."23

Although such an argument might seem apparent to a historian in the 1970s, it was not a consideration to the majority of architects working in the 1920s. At that time the primary consideration was to change the physical characteristics of a house to make a better living environment rather than to make a better working environment for the housewife. A comparison of the designs for two innovative houses from the late 1920s, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House, will clarify this point. Le Corbusier was a Swiss architect who practiced in France and is credited as one of the founders of the International Style of architecture. The Villa Savoye, 1928-31, is considered to be an early masterpiece of Corbusier's since it is a textbook example of his five points of architecture: free facade, free plan, ribbon windows, pilotis, and roof garden. Fuller, an American inventor and designer, adapted some of these for his 1928-29 Dymaxion House: free facade, living quarters lifted one story above the ground, and recreational use of the roof.

Corbusier used the space under the house to provide quarters for the servants and to enhance circulation whereas Fuller thought this an ideal place to park the family's vehicle. Corbusier and Fuller shared the idea that standardized, pre-fabricated and mass-produced components should be used in the construction of their houses. Corbusier used these to design his ideal of a modern house that was based on the orthogonal model. Fuller used these elements to design his ideal of a modern house with an unusual design: a hexagonal donut supported by a inflated central mast and stabilized with cables.

In addition, because Fuller recognized that a house is not only the place to which a man returns after work, but is also the place where a housewife spends most of her time, he included an unusual complement of appliances in his ideal home which he understood would be cleaned and managed by the housewife, not servants. For example, the kitchen, which had "nothing to do with a servant," included a dishwasher, an oven and cooking grills with keys, not burners into which food could fall. To save space as well as time, shelving was designed to revolve and bring stored items to the person desiring them. Fuller also incorporated a complete laundry system that would wash and dry clothing in 3 minutes. There was also a central ventilating unit that was intended to circulate air throughout the house and clean the incoming air to keep the interior dust free. This would eliminate one of the most mundane tasks: dusting. The central ventilating unit would additionally serve as an environmental control system to maintain an optimal temperature abolishing the need for bedclothes and to wash bedding. This was the explanation given for placing the nude doll on the bed in the model of the house: to show that the temperature was perfect.24 However, the doll could have been a promotional device to show how carefree and relaxing life in a Dymaxion House would be for the housewife since Fuller specifically stated he included the appliances "to ease the drudgery of the housewife." 25

Despite the claims made by Fuller, the Dymaxion House was never advanced beyond the model stage. There are a number of reasons given for this which include that it was technologically impossible to manufacture the house in the 1920s and that the design was too weird, too futurist.26 In theory, however, Fuller's idea of including appliances as part of the house was not at all farfetched since paradigms for many of the appliances he stipulated were already considered standard home equipment by the late 1920s. This is verified by the itemized list of the 7 to 11 electric appliances commonly found in homes James Ryan published in October 1929. These were: washing machines; vacuum cleaners; refrigerators; flat irons; toasters; curling irons; percolators; heating pads; corn poppers; vibrators; and manglers (regardless of the name these were used to iron sheets).27

Ryan's list demonstrates that by the late 1920s electric companies and the manufacturers of electric appliances were successful in convincing women that their products would lessen the burden of housework. They were successful because these products do make housework easier. Washing machines eliminate the need to boil water, use a scrub board and hand-wring clothes. Dryers remove the back-straining chore of hanging up wet laundry to dry. Electric irons stay warm and do not require constant shuffling back and forth from the stove in order to keep them hot. Refrigerators prevent the need to make daily trips to the market and also the need to salt or smoke meats to preserve them. Vacuum cleaners are more efficient than brooms; they also eliminate the excessive manual labor of beating the dust and dirt out of rugs. The Hoover Company capitalized on this early in its advertising campaigns. One 1924 ad shows an elegantly dressed and bejeweled lady daintily manipulating a capable vacuum with her right hand while her left holds the machine's cord. The graphics reinforce the machine's efficiency: directly under the vacuum is black text that has just been cleaned. On either side of this is dull gray text awaiting the gentle sweeping action of the vacuum's brushes.28 Such advertisements may have been a little overzealous in their claims, but, they were correct in asserting that household appliances make housework less strenuous.

Unfortunately, these appliances have eased the drudgery of one type of household labor only to find it replaced by another: the role of family chauffeur. Of course, it can be argued that being in a car going places is less confining that being inside a house cleaning. This argument does overlook the fact that driving family members to their different activities is still performing duties, still giving service to someone else. This change from house-bound service to car-bound service was noticed very early in the drive to make electric appliances a part of every household. Wilma Cary used this as the plot for her 1928 prize winning essay, Modern Revelation, written for the National Electric Light Association, a commercial organization in the United States.29 Cary pits the old fashioned housewife, Joyce, who does not yet have electric appliances against her new neighbor, Mrs. Stuart, who is always running off with the children in the family car. Joyce believes that Mrs. Stuart must be a terrible housekeeper until Joyce visits her neighbor one day. During this visit Joyce discovers that Mrs. Stuart's secret is household appliances. With the assistance of these 'electric servants' Mrs. Stuart is able to keep her house spotless, the laundry washed and ironed, and take her children on daily excursions. After having completed all these chores, Mrs. Stuart can still make a delicious dinner for her husband on her electric stove. Amazing! Joyce sees the light and decides to persuade her husband to purchase these appliances for her to make her life easier and more enjoyable.30

The argument of Ruth Schwartz Cowan's 1983 book More Work for Mother provides a different perspective for interpreting A Modern Revelation. Although Joyce may have been correct in her assessment that Mrs. Stuart's appliances eased her housework, Joyce was not as accurate in thinking of Mrs. Stuart's use of the car as increasing her freedom. Schwartz Cowan has shown that when the time devoted to chauffeuring family members is factored into the amount of time a woman spends on housework there is very little difference between the total for a woman in the 1920s and her late 20th century counterpart.31

Yet, electric companies and appliance manufacturers could not anticipate the effect that the automobile would have on family life. In the 1920s electricity and household appliances were forms of technology intended to ease the burden of housework within the home. So successful were these electric servants that they came to be considered necessary parts of modern life, both as it was and as it was envisioned. This explains why Buckminster Fuller included them in his 1920s interpretation of the ideal home, the Dymaxion House. He also somewhat prophetically brought the family vehicle into the realm of the home by conveniently providing space for it under the house. The car, however, is one form of technology that extends the family sphere beyond the confines of the home. As a result, electricity and electrical appliances may have lessened the labor of cleaning a house, doing laundry and feeding a family, but, the car has prevented any decrease in the amount of time a housewife is required to devote to caring for her family.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:23, Mon 05 Jan 2009.

http://library.thinkquest.org/.../science/science.htm

Diabetes: Killer Disease until the 1920's (1921)

In 1921, two researchers from Canada, Frederick Grant Banting (1891 - 1941) and Charles Herbert Best (1899 - 1978), made an incredible discovery - insulin. This hormone is very important because it regulates blood sugar levels in the human body. Persons suffering from diabetes are unable to maintain safe levels and are at risk of comas and death. After the discovery of insulin, however, it was found that injections of the hormone and a well-controlled diet could help people to lead a regular lifestyle.

Banting was later knighted in 1934 and became Sir Frederick Grant Banting. Sadly, on his way to England in 1941, he was killed in a plane crash.

Albert Einstein is Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1921)

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) was born on March 14, 1879, in Germany. In 1905, Einstein published his theory of relativity in "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." Among his other publications included The Meaning of Relativity. His research eventually earned him worldwide fame and a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Despite the fact that he was born in Germany, he woulSd not stay in his mother country forever. Einstein, who was a patent clerk and Jewish, immigrated to the U.S. in 1933 after Adolf Hitler seized control of Germany. In the U.S. he taught at Princeton University in New Jersey. In 1939, Einstein helped to inform Franklin Roosevelt, then President of the U.S., that Germany was possibly creating atomic weapons. The Advisory Committee on Uranium was created and the Manhattan Project, as the plan to develop atomic bombs was code-named, went into effect.

Vitamin E (1922)

In 1922, two American scientists, Dr. Herbert McLean Evans and K.S. Bishop discovered vitamin E (named by Evans). This discovery was an important one. Vitamin E serves as an antioxidant and is found in foods such as margarine, peanut oil, sunflower seeds, walnuts, and several others. It protects body tissue and polyunsaturated fats from oxidation. Gladys Anderson Emerson (1903 - 1984), another American scientist, would later go on to isolate the vitamin in pure form.

Tutankhamen's Tomb is Found (1922)

On November 4, 1922, an English archaeologist and Egyptologist named Howard Carter (1873-1939) and Egyptologist George Herbert (Lord Carnarvon) found the long-sought grave of Tutankhamen or Tutankhamun (1343 - 1325 B.C.) The body of the 18-year old king and his treasure were uncovered after more than 3000 years. Popularly known as the "boy-king" or "King Tut," Tutankhamen is believed to have become king at age eight or nine.

The Arrival of the Baby Austin (1922)

Herbert Austin (1866 - 1941) was born in England on November 8, 1866. His credits include creating the first Wolseley motor car (1895) and the Austin Motor Company (1905). In 1922, Austin introduced the Austin Seven in Great Britain. The "Baby Austin," as it was nicknamed, allowed several consumers who were previously unable to afford cars to buy one. The car featured four cylinders, a three-speed gearbox, and seated four. Five years prior to his death, Austin gave Lord Rutherford of the Cavendish Laboratory £250,000 for scientific research. Austin died on May 23, 1941.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is Created (1922)

In October of 1922, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was created for the public. Because promotions were restricted, money was earned from people who purchased annual wireless licenses. In December of 1926, the BBC became a public corporation after receiving a Royal Charter. The first television broadcast to the public was made by this company in 1929. The BBC has had world-wide influence on radio and television and is still active today.

Innovations in Immunization (1923)
The medical field added another accomplishment to its existence during the 1920's. Diphtheria, caused by bacteria, became better controlled in 1923 by newly introduced immunization. Within a year, Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin of France would create Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), a vaccine against TB.

Clarence Birdseye and Frozen Food (1925)

Clarence Birdseye (1886 - 1956), a naturalist, developed a way of freezing food while maintaining its flavor and nutritional benefits. The frozen foods, packaged in rectangular-shaped containers, became quite handy.

He came upon his discovery while working near the Arctic for the American government. Birdseye found that immediately frozen meat kept its flavor. Creating a business in 1922, Birdseye Seafoods, Inc., he further improved his discovery. His new findings were used to create another company, the General Seafood Corporation. Despite Birdseye's death on October 8, 1956, Birds Eye remained in business and is still functioning today.

The Scopes Trial (1925)

During the 1920's, a courtroom case in the United States changed the public's view of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution forever. This particular trial would also be the first-ever to be broadcast live on radio.

In 1925, a Tennessee biology teacher named John Thomas Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolution. In the previous two years, Tennessee had been among several states in the U.S. to have fundamentalists propose laws to make teaching evolution illegal. The American Civil Liberties Union, with Clarence Seward Darrow (1857 - 1938) as its lawyer decided to defend Scopes. On the opposing side, William Jennings Bryan fought for Tennessee and against evolution in the classroom. Despite the fact that Scopes eventually lost a trial that he never testified at and was charged $100.00, Darrow was seen as the superior lawyer. Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate was humiliated and outsmarted. Only five days after the trial had ended, Bryan passed away. The outcome of the "Monkey Trial" was later changed; a technicality was found.

John Baird Introduces His Television (1926)

John Logie Baird (1888 – 1946), a Scottish engineer, held several jobs throughout his lifetime: shoe shiner, salesman, and electrical engineer. His most appreciated accomplishment, however, is not a clean shoe. It is the Baird Televisor: the first working system of television. While developing his invention, the founder of the Television Development Company became a pioneer when he transmitted the image of a boy in action. In 1926, Baird displayed his breakthrough creation in London at the Royal Institution. Within two years, he would also become the first person to transmit images to and from London and New York. These were not the Scot’s only contributions, however. He also created the stereoscopic television, electrical recordings (of images), and the color television.

The first American to transmit pictures of a moving object was Charles Francis Jenkins. He accomplished this feat in 1927.

Penicillin is Discovered (1928)

In the summer of 1928, Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955), a British scientist, discovered green and yellow mold on a culture plate of Staphylococcus bacterium. This discovery would eventually earn Fleming and two other scientists, chemist Ernst Boris Chain and pathologist Howard Walter Florey, a Nobel prize in 1945. In 1944, King George VI had knighted Fleming.

What was all the commotion behind green and yellow mold? The mold that Fleming discovered growing on a left-out culture plate had eliminated some of the Staphylococcus. Afterwards, he isolated Penicillin notatum and cultivated it, finding that the mold was deadly to other bacteria as well. Alexander Fleming had discovered the world's first antibiotic.

In 1929, Fleming published a report on penicillin and its antibacterial characteristics. Aside from the discovery, Fleming did not continue work on the antibiotic. Two other scientists, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey, however, went on to purify penicillin for medical purposes. Their advances would rescue the lives of servicemen fighting in World War II.

Sir Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881, in Ayrshire, Scotland. He studied at Saint Mary's Hospital Medical School and graduated in 1908. Previous to Fleming's discovery, his research had included attempts at slowing and stopping infections. At the time of his find, the scientist had been working with Staphylococcus bacterium, trying to reproduce the works of another researcher. Fleming died of a heart attack on March 11, 1955, in London.

Quick Facts
• The public is able to hear radio broadcasting for the first time. (1920)
• In Italy, the first highway is established. (1924)
• The very first motor hotel or motel, Motel Inn, is opened in the state of California. (1925)
• The first water resistant watch was created in Switzerland. (1926)
• Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882 - 1945) of the U.S. becomes the first person to launch a liquid-fuel rocket. (1926)
• Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) makes the Model A, a new car, available on the market. (1927)
• Edwin Powell Hubble (1889 - 1953) introduces Hubble's law.
(1929) • Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893 - 1986) isolates vitamin C. He later received the Nobel prize in 1937 for physiology or medicine. (1928)
• Kodak introduces 16mm color film. (1929)

http://inventors.about.com/od/...ines/a/twentieth.htm

20th Century - the technology, science, and inventions

1900
The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.

1901
King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor.
The first radio receiver, successfully received a radio transmission.
Hubert Booth invents a compact and modern vacuum cleaner.

1902
Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.
The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie.
The birth of the Teddy Bear.
George Claude invented neon light.

1903
Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.
Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.
The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane.
Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.
William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.

1904
Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan.
Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.
John A Fleming invents a vacuum diode or Fleming valve.

1905
Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity and made famous the equation, E = mc2.
Mary Anderson receives a patent for windshield wipers.

1906
William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.
Lewis Nixon invents the first sonar like device.
Lee Deforest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode).

1907
Leo Baekeland invents the first synthetic plastic called Bakelite.
Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.
The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.

1908
The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry.
Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger.
Model T first sold.
J W Geiger and W Müller invent the geiger counter.
Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates.[/liu]

1909
Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.

1910
Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.
Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp to the public on December 11, 1910, in Paris.

1911
Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system.

1912
Motorized movie cameras invented, replaced hand-cranked cameras.
The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.
Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy in 1912.

1913
The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne.
The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as, ecstasy.
Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra.
Gideon Sundback invented the modern zipper.

1914
Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask.

1915
Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City.

1916
Radio tuners invented, that received different stations.
Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.

1917
Gideon Sundback patented the modern zipper (not the first zipper).

1918
The superheterodyne radio circuit invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. Today, every radio or television set uses this invention.
Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.

1919
The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite.
Short-wave radio invented.
The flip-flop circuit invented.
The arc welder invented.

1920
The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.
The Band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dade) invented by Earle Dickson.
The public is able to hear radio broadcasting for the first time.

1921
Artificial life begins -- the first robot built.
John Larson invented the lie detector.
Albert Einstein is Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

1922
Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.
American scientists, Dr. Herbert McLean Evans and K.S. Bishop discovered vitamin E (named by Evans).
Air conditioning with downward supply in Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, Los Angeles.

1923
Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal.
The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.
John Harwood invented the self-winding watch.
Clarence Birdseye (1886 - 1956), invents frozen food.
Diphtheria, caused by bacteria, became better controlled in 1923 by newly introduced immunization.  Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin of France created Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), a vaccine against TB.

1924
The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg.
Notebooks with spiral bindings invented.
In Italy, the first highway is established.

1925
The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird.
The very first motor hotel or motel, Motel Inn, is opened in the state of California.
Five million cars mass produced.

1926
Robert H. Goddard (1882 - 1945) of the U.S. invents liquid-fueled rockets.
The first water resistant watch was created in Switzerland.

1927
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) makes the Model A, a new car, available on the market.
Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy.
JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system.
Technicolor invented.
Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can.
Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock.
Philip Drinker invents the iron lung.
The first American to transmit pictures of a moving object was Charles Francis Jenkins.
The first pop-up toaster is designed in the U.S.

1928
Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer.
Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver.
Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893 - 1986) isolates vitamin C. He later received the Nobel prize in 1937 for physiology or medicine.
Fleming discovers penicillin, a cure for infections.

1929
American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio.
Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad.
Edwin Powell Hubble (1889 - 1953) introduces Hubble's law.
Kodak introduces 16mm color film.
Stock market crash on Wall Street.
Kitchens with continuous work surfaces.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:27, Wed 21 Jan 2009.

http://www.miamibeach411.com/H...story_timeline_3.htm

Miami Beach History - Historic Events Timeline: 1900's-1920's

Year 1903
The Army Corps of Engineers dredge the first opening to the Atlantic Ocean, cutting through mangrove swamps at Government Cut. The project allows for a safer, more direct access to the port of Miami.

Year 1907
Collins extends his land to the north from 14th to 67th Street. He finds native plants which indicate fresh water on the island. His discovery leads him to plant avocados, fruits, and vegetables.

Year 1912
Miami businessmen, the Lummus Brothers, acquire 400 acres to the south of Collins, from 14th Street to Government Cut. They establish the Ocean Beach Reality Company. Their vision: to build a city fronting the ocean made up of modest single family residences.
Construction begins on Collins Canal.

Year 1913
Carl Fisher arrives in Miami Beach. He too has a vision for the island--a city existing in an of itself - not as an adjunct to the established city of Miami across the bay.
Fisher acquires the land between 14th and 19th Street; linking Lummus to the south and Collins to the north.
Collins constructs the Collins Bridge. The bridge connects Miami and Miami Beach; and is awarded the title of being "the longest wagon bridge in the world".
Joe's Stone Crab opens on Miami Beach.

Year 1914
The W.J. Brown Hotel, the first hotel on Miami Beach, open s for business.
Collins Avenue opens on the Beach and is the first paved road suitable for automobiles.
August 4, World War I begins.

Year 1915
On March 26, 1915, Collins Lummus, and Fisher consolidate their efforts and incorporate the Town of Miami Beach.
J.N. Lummus rallies the thirty-three registered voters on the Island and is elected the first mayor of Miami Beach.
Lummus sells his oceanfront property from 6th Street to 14th street to the city for $40,000. The land is dedicated as a public park and beach, to be named Lummus Park.
Fisher clears Lincoln Road out of a mangrove swap with the help of Rosie the Elephant.

Year 1916
The Lummus brothers offer free lots to anyone who promise to build homes on their land.
Fisher opens the Lincoln Hotel at the corner of Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road.

Year 1917
Miami Beach changes it's status from a town to a city.

Year 1918
Mac Arthur Causeway is completed connecting the mainland and 5th Street.

Year 1920
The Miami Beach land boom begins. Between 1920 and 1929 millionaires like Harvey Firestone, J.C. Penney, Harvey Stutz, Albert Champion, Frank Seiberling, and Rockwell LaGorce build mansions on the three-mile stretch of Collins Avenue know as "Millionaire's Row."
Fisher opens the Roman Pools and Casino at 22nd Street and the Ocean.
Fisher's trolley car system is completed linking the mainland and Miami Beach via the Mac Arthur Causeway.
The cities main arteries--5th St., Alton Rd, Collins Ave, Washington Ave, and Ocean Dr. are all suitable for automobile traffic.
Fisher's Flamingo Hotel opens at 15th St. and the Bay.
The Army Corps of Engineers begins construction of Star Island.

Year 1922
The Bayshore Golf Course is completed.

Year 1923
The Nautilus Hotels opens and the present site of Mount Sinai Hospital.

Year 1924
Fisher completes the LaGorce Golf Course, named after his friend, Rockwell LaGorce.

Year 1925
The Rooney Plaza Hotel is completed.
Construction begins on Espanola Way.

Year 1926
A severe hurricane strikes South Florida. Extreme flooding catches the Beach community by surprise and causes substantial loss of life and property damage.

Year 1927
The Million Dollar Pier is constructed at the southern tip of Miami Beach.
The Kennel Club opens at the southern tip of Miami beach.
Construction begins on the second City Hall at Drexel and Washington Ave. in South Beach.
Temple Beth David, the Beach's first Synagogue, opens at 3rd and Washington Ave.

Year 1929
Flamingo Park is acquired by the city and dedicated as a public facility.

Year 1930's
Miami Beach flourishes with a boom of art deco buildings.

Year 1930
Miami Beach Population: 6,500

Year 1935
Miami Beach Population: 13,350
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:17, Tue 06 Jan 2009.

The Princess would have had 'ship to ship' radios installed, that handled short wave transmissions. Infer what you can from the articles below.
Neither walkie talkies or car radios are available yet. Not even the ones used by the military.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...graphy_and_telephony

Charles David Herrold
In April 1909 Charles David Herrold, an electronics instructor in San Jose, California constructed a broadcasting station. It used spark gap technology, but modulated the carrier frequency with the human voice, and later music. The station "San Jose Calling" (there were no call letters), continued to eventually become today's KCBS in San Francisco. Herrold, the son of a Santa Clara Valley farmer, coined the terms "narrowcasting" and "broadcasting", respectively to identify transmissions destined for a single receiver such as that on board a ship, and those transmissions destined for a general audience. (The term "broadcasting" had been used in farming to define the tossing of seed in all directions.) Charles Herrold did not claim to be the first to transmit the human voice, but he claimed to be the first to conduct "broadcasting". To help the radio signal to spread in all directions, he designed some omnidirectional antennas, which he mounted on the rooftops of various buildings in San Jose. Herrold also claims to be the first broadcaster to accept advertising (he exchanged publicity for a local record store for records to play on his station), though this dubious honour usually is foisted on WEAF (1922).


RMS Titanic (April 2, 1912).In 1912, the RMS Titanic sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean. After this, wireless telegraphy using spark-gap transmitters quickly became universal on large ships. In 1913, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was convened and produced a treaty requiring shipboard radio stations to be manned 24 hours a day. A typical high-power spark gap was a rotating commutator with six to twelve contacts per wheel, nine inches (229 mm) to a foot wide, driven by about 2000 volts DC. As the gaps made and broke contact, the radio wave was audible as a tone in a crystal set. The telegraph key often directly made and broke the 2000 volt supply. One side of the spark gap was directly connected to the antenna. Receivers with thermionic valves became commonplace before spark-gap transmitters were replaced by continuous wave transmitters.

On March 8, 1916, Harold Power with his radio company American Radio and Research Company (AMRAD), broadcast the first continuous broadcast in the world from Tufts University under the call sign 1XE (it lasted 3 hours). The company later became the first to broadcast on a daily schedule, and the first to broadcast radio dance programs, university professor lectures, the weather, and bedtime stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Wave

Amateur radio operators are credited with the discovery of long distance communication in the shortwave bands. The first successful transatlantic testswere conducted by radio amateurs in December 1921 operating in the 200 meter mediumwave band, the shortest wavelength then available to amateurs. In 1922 hundreds of North American amateurs were heard in Europe at 200 meters and at least 20 North American amateurs heard amateur signals from Europe. The first two way communications between North American and Hawaiian amateurs began in 1922 at 200 meters. Although operation on wavelengths shorter than 200 meters was technically illegal (but tolerated as the authorities mistakenly believed at first that such frequencies were useless for commercial or military use), amateurs began to experiment with those wavelengths using newly available vacuum tubes shortly after World War I.

Extreme interference at the upper edge of the 150-200 meter band--the official wavelengths allocated to amateurs by the Second National Radio Conferencein 1923--forced amateurs to shift to shorter and shorter wavelengths; however, amateurs were limited by regulation to wavelengths longer than 150 meters. A few fortunate amateurs who obtained special permission for experimental communications below 150 meters completed hundreds of long distance two way contacts on 100 meters in 1923 including the first transatlantic two way contacts in November 1923, on 110 meters.

By 1924 many additional specially licensed amateurs were routinely making transoceanic contacts at distances of 6000 miles and more. On September 21, several amateurs in California completed two way contacts with an amateur in New Zealand. On October 19th, amateurs in New Zealand and England completed a 90 minute two way contact nearly half way around the world. On October 10th, three shortwave bands were officially made available to amateurs by the Third National Radio Conference, at 80, 40 and 20 meters. The 10 meter band was created by the Washington International Radiotelegraph Conference on November 25, 1927. The 15 meter band was opened to amateurs in the United States on May 1, 1952.

NOTE:
The first radio receiver/transmitter to be nick-named "Walkie-Talkie" was the backpacked Motorola SCR-300, created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin Manufacturing Company (fore-runner of Motorola). The team consisted of Dan Noble, who conceived of the design using frequency modulation, Henryk Magnuski who was the principal RF engineer, Marion Bond, Lloyd Morris, and Bill Vogel.

NOTE:
From the earliest days of radio, enthusiasts had adapted domestic equipment to use in their cars. The commercial introduction of the fitted car radio came in the 1930s from the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Galvin Manufacturing was owned and operated by Paul V. Galvin and his brother Joseph E. Galvin. The Galvin brothers purchased a battery eliminator business in 1928 and the corporation’s first product was a battery eliminator that allowed vacuum tube battery-powered radios to run on standard household electric current (see also Rogers Majestic Batteryless Radio). In 1930, the Galvin Corporation introduced one of the first commercial car radios, the Motorola model 5T71, which sold for between $110 and $130 and could be installed in most popular automobiles. Founders Paul Galvin and Joe Galvin came up with the name 'Motorola' when his company started manufacturing car radios. A number of early companies making phonographs, radios, and other audio equipment in the early 20th century used the suffix "-ola," the most famous being Victrola; RCA made a "radiola"; there was also a company that made jukeboxes called Rock-Ola, and a film editing device called a Moviola. The Motorola prefix "motor-" was chosen because the company's initial focus was in automotive electronics.

In Germany Blaupunkt fitted their first radio to a Studebaker in 1932 and in the United Kingdom Crossley offered a factory fitted wireless in their 10 hp models from 1933.

A gallery:
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Vi...izcaya_Photo.htm#Pic

This is an aerial view of the grounds.
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Vi...yaAerialView.htm#Pic
There is a small building on the south end of the property. Apart from the museum. This could be the residence area. And giving you the best of both worlds. Living on the property and allowing for a walk to and from the residence.
The Vizcaya Village:
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Vizcaya/Vizcaya3.html#Pic

There is also a pool, that the residents can enjoy (off hours of course.)
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Vi...izcaya_Pool.html#Pic

This is the rear steps of the garden. Beyond is the ocean.
http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Vizcaya/Garden3.htm#Pic

This is a walking tour of the Vizcaya:
http://www.evensens.net/vizcaya/vizcaya.html

Aztec spirit flutes:
http://www.selfhelptapes.com/o...hop/occultaztec1.htm

Aztec flutes:
http://www.warmsprings.biz/flutist/flute.html


From a Hopi perspective, you may have heard of the legend of Kokopellie. If not, let me tell you about him. He has become a dominant figure in the Southwest. The humpback flute player has numerous reasons of how he came into existence. Being a Hopi descendant of the Gresewood Clan from my Grandmother's side of the family, I have heard many stories and legends. Kokopellie could bring rain to the Hopi rain crops in the middle of the desert, or bring fertility to the Hopi villages. Yet he lived over 3000 years ago, long before North America was titled that.

I believe Kokopellie was of Mayan, Aztec or Incan origins from what is now known as South America or Mexico. From there, Kokopellie brought his spiritual magic within himself, playing his chants with deep concentration. He was aware of our two worlds; the world in which we stand and the world of The Great Spirits.

As he traveled North to the four corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, the first people to recognize his gift was the Hopis, who he lived among as a spiritual deity.

According to Hopi folklore, his adventures did not end with the Hopi people. He moved throughout the four corners region, for Anaszi people began to leave his trademark along cliff and canyon walls dating back 3000 years ago.

Currently, in Hopi culture, they honor Kokopellie in a ceremony every other year to keep the universe in balance.

When Kokopellie appeared, he used a traditional 5-hole flute. Today, you will see mainstream flutists using the 6-hole flutes. The flutes have become a hand carvers work of art, usually made of Western Red Cedar. Each taking a week to create, each never the same, like twins. They can look alike, but carry on like people with their own personality and identities.

Today, you will come across flutes with 2 or 3 chambers. They will give you a sound of many flutes playing together. I've also encountered bone whistles made of eagle or wild turkey bones. They produce a high-pitched sound used during sun dances, powwows or spiritual callings.

Overall, I possess and utilize these musical instruments of prehistoric melodies, just as Kokopellie. As one of his children, or Kokopellies Flute Child.

With all respect to flute enthusiasts, I not only share my opinion, but what I believe. The Native American Flute brings pure and honest enlightenment to all walks of life.

The history of the flute will always remain a mystery, just as the stars and galaxies. This new millennium of mankind is here for now, but Kokopellie will remain with me throughout eternity.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:07, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

This might make an interesting twist in the story.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373702,00.html#
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...8_3d98c83ce6.jpg?v=0
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,4428,00.html

Archaeologists Recreate Aztec 'Whistles of Death'
Tuesday, July 01, 2008

MEXICO CITY —  Scientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand.

But no one blew into the noisemakers for nearly 15 years.

When someone finally did, the shrill, windy screech made the spine tingle.

If death had a sound, this was it.

Roberto Velazquez believes the Aztecs played this mournful wail from the so-called Whistles of Death before they were sacrificed to the gods.

The 66-year-old mechanical engineer has devoted his career to recreating the sounds of his pre-Columbian ancestors, producing hundreds of replicas of whistles, flutes and wind instruments unearthed in Mexico's ruins.

For years, many archaeologists who uncovered ancient noisemakers dismissed them as toys. Museums relegated them to warehouses.

But while most studies and exhibits of ancient cultures focus on how they looked, Velazquez said the noisemakers provide a rare glimpse into how they sounded.

"We've been looking at our ancient culture as if they were deaf and mute," he said. "But I think all of this is tied closely to what they did, how they thought."

Velazquez is part of a growing field of study that includes archaeologists, musicians and historians. Medical doctors are interested too, believing the Aztecs may have used sound to treat illnesses.

Noisemakers made of clay, turkey feathers, sugar cane, frog skins and other natural materials were an integral part of pre-Columbian life, found at nearly every Mayan site.

The Aztecs sounded the low, foghorn hum of conch shells at the start of ceremonies and possibly during wars to communicate strategies. Hunters likely used animal-shaped ocarinas to produce throaty grunts that lured deer.

The modern-day archaeologists who came up with the term Whistles of Death believe they were meant to help the deceased journey into the underworld, while tribes are said to have emitted terrifying sounds to fend off enemies, much like high-tech crowd-control devices available today.

Experts also believe pre-Columbian tribes used some of the instruments to send the human brain into a dream state and treat certain illnesses. The ancient whistles could guide research into how rhythmic sounds alter heart rates and states of consciousness.

Among Velazquez's replicas are those that emit a strange cacophony so strong that their frequency nears the maximum range of human hearing.

Chronicles by Spanish priests from the 1500s described the Aztec and Mayan sounds as sad and doleful, although these may have been only what was played in their presence.

"My experience is that at least some pre-Hispanic sounds are more destructive than positive, others are highly trance-evocative," said Arnd Adje Both, an expert in pre-Hispanic music archaeology who was the first to blow the Whistles of Death found in the Aztec skeleton's hands. "Surely, sounds were used in all kind of cults, such as sacrificial ones, but also in healing ceremonies."

Sounds still play an important role in Mexican society. A cow bell announces the arrival of the garbage truck outside Mexico City homes. A trilling, tuneless flute heralds the knife sharpener's arrival. A whistle emitting cat meows says the lottery ticket seller is here.

But pre-Columbian instruments often end up in a warehouse, Velazquez said, "and I'm talking about museums around the world doing this, not just here."

That's changing, said Tomas Barrientos, director of the archaeology department at Del Valle University of Guatemala.

"Ten years ago, nothing was known about this," he said. "But with the opening up of museum collections and people's private collections, it's an area of research that is growing in importance."

Velazquez meticulously researches each noisemaker before replicating it. He travels across Mexico to examine newly unearthed wind instruments, some dating back to 400 B.C. and shaped like animals or deities. He studies reliefs and scans 500-year-old Spanish chronicles.

But making replicas is only part of the work. Then he has to figure out how to play them. He'll blow into some holes and plug others, or press the instrument to his lips and flutter his tongue. Sometimes he puts the noisemaker inside his mouth and blows, fluctuating the air from his lungs.

He experimented with one frog-shaped whistle for a year before discovering its inner croak.

Renowned archaeologist Paul Healy, who made an important discovery of Mayan instruments in Belize in the 1980s, said many of the originals still work.

"A couple of these instruments we found were broken, which was great because we could actually see the construction of them, the actual technology of building a sound chamber out of paper-thin clay," he said.

Still, their exact sounds will likely remain a mystery.

"When you blow into them, you still can get notes from them, so you could figure out what the range was," Healy said. "But what we don't have is sheet music to give us a more accurate picture of what it sounded like."

USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. She was built from 1922 to 1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September, 1923. She developed the Navy's experience with rigid airships, even making the first crossing of the North American continent by airship. On the 57th flight,[1] Shenandoah was torn apart in a squall line over Ohio in 1925.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_(ZR-1)

On 2 September 1925, Shenandoah departed Lakehurst on a promotional flight to the Midwest which would include flyovers of 40 cities and visits to state fairs. Testing of a new mooring mast at Dearborn, Michigan was included in the schedule. While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of the 3rd during its 57th flight,[1] the airship was torn apart and crashed in several pieces near Caldwell, Ohio. Shenandoah's commanding officer, Commander Zachary Lansdowne, and 13 other officers and men were killed. Those killed were:

LCDR Zachary Lansdowne, Commanding Officer, Greenville, Ohio
LCDR Lewis Hancock Jr., Executive Officer, Austin, Texas,
LT. Arthur Reginald Houghton, Watch Officer, Alston, Mass.
LT. JG Edgar William Sheppard, Engineering Officer, Washington D. C.
LT. John (Jack) Bullard Lawrence, Watch Officer, St. Paul, Minn.
CPO George Conrad Schnitzer, Radio Officer, Tuckertown, N. J
AMM1C James Albert Moore, Radio Generator, Savannah, Ga
AR1C Ralph Thomas Joffray, Rigger, St. Louis, Mo.
AMM1C Bartholomew (Bart) B. O'Sullivan, Lowell, Mass
CPO James William Cullinan, Binghamton, N. Y
CPO Everett Price Allen, Chief Rigger, St. Louis, Mo.
AMM Charles Harrison Broom, Tom’s River, N. J.
AMM Celestino P. Mazzuco, Murray Hill NJ
AMM William Howard Spratley, Venice, Ill.
Twenty-nine survivors succeeded in riding three sections of the airship to earth. The survivors were:
Louis E. Allely
LT. Joseph B. Anderson
G. W. Armour
LT. Charles E. Bauch
CBM Henry L.Boswell
CBM Arthur E. Carlson
Warrant Officer Chief Gunner CWO Raymond Cole
Lester Coleman
James E."Red" Collier
Mark Donovan
John J. Hahn
Col. Chalmers G. Hall
Chief Machinist CWO, Shine S. Halliburton
Thomas Hendley
Benjamin O. Hereth
Walter Johnson
Aviation Machinist's Mate Ralph Jones
MM2C Julius E. Malak
CPO Franklin E. Masters
ACR, Chief Rigger John.F. McCarthy
LT. Roland Mayer
ACR Frank L. Peckham
ACMM August C.Quernheim
LT. Walter T. Richardson (Naval Reserve, traveling as a civilian observer)
LCMDR Charles Emery Rosendahl
ACMM William A. Russell
AMM1c Joseph Shevlowitz
Charles Solar
CBM Frederick J. "Bull" Tobin

The fatal flight had been made under protest by Cmdr. Lansdowne (a native of Greenville, Ohio), who warned of the violent weather conditions which were prevalent in the area and common to Ohio in late summer. His pleas for a cancellation of the flight only led to a postponement. His superiors were keen to publicize airship technology, and justify the huge cost of the airship to the taxpayers, so publicity, rather than prudence won the day. This event was the trigger for Army Colonel Billy Mitchell to heavily criticize the leadership of both the Army and the Navy, leading directly to his court-martial for insubordination and the end of his military career.

The survival of the 29 survivors has been attributed to the fact that the airship contained helium,[citation needed] which does not react chemically with air. If hydrogen had been used, the ship probably would have burned - as the LZ 129 Hindenburg would twelve years later.[citation needed]

Shenandoah Elementary School and Shenandoah High School in Noble County, Ohio, where the crash occurred, is named in honor of the ship and crew. Its sports teams are nicknamed "The Zeps".

[1]A truck stop, Shenandoah Plaza, located in Old Washington, Ohio was built in the early 1970s in memory of the airship.

ARCTIC CHRONOLOGY
http://www.south-pole.com/aspp013.htm
A Postal History Gallery of Related Events 1925

Roald Amundsen filled the role of Fridtjof Nansen as a "renowned polar celebrity". Because of his long years of success in the polar field, Norway issued this set of stamps (Scott 104-10) in 1925 to support his planned flight to the North Pole in two "Dornier Wal" seaplanes. The flight failed to reach its objective, but was an example of the role of aviation in future travel. About two hundred thousand sets were issued, of which a large percentage was used for postage by the public.

The MacMillan Expedition to northern Greenland carried three U.S. Navy amphibians, commanded by Lt. Richard E. Byrd. They made aerial surveys possible for the first time

Commander Donald MacMillan introduced wireless radio to Arctic exploration in 1925 . . . MacMillan approved every message transmitted on the new radio and his initials appeared on even the most routine messages.

MacMillan maintained radio contact with Commander Richard Byrd who led the air survey of Greenland from the S.S. PEARY in 1925.

The first wireless radio was carried to the Arctic on this voyage, however the leader required that all messages would be approved by himself or his second in command. The radio operator kept all the messages with their approval signatures certifying the authenticity of the messages.

August 26
Research Club Provincetown, Mass.

Greetings from N. Greenland to all my good friends in Provincetown. Have many new things of interest for the museum -- MacMillan
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:37, Sun 18 Jan 2009.

1921 - Called the "Alligator Boy" from Miami, Florida, he is pictured here as WRESTLING WITH ALLIGATOR in article entitled WILDCAT, ALLIGATOR, GORILLA, WHALE and OCTOPUS as saved from this old American Pictorial magazine.



Henry brought this interesting concept to Miami to bring in tourists.

Seminole Indians picked up this side trade in 1925.

Seminole and Miccosukee Indians, mainly at Musa Isle and Coppingers (tourist camps on the Miami River) and along Tamiami Trail. Views include dugout canoes, studio portraits, fishing, parades, alligators and alligator wrestling, cooking, sewing, villages, and the 1927 Back to the Land publicity event. About 225 views.
http://www.hmsf.org/rc/matlack...52-001-series_30.htm
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:09, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926, born Ehrich Weiss)[1] was a Jewish Hungarian-American magician, escapologist and stunt performer, as well as a skeptic and investigator of spiritualists, film producer and actor. Harry Houdini forever changed the world of magic and escapes, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest escapologists in history.

Harry Houdini died of peritonitis secondary to a ruptured appendix. It has been speculated that Houdini was killed by a McGill University student, J. Gordon Whitehead, who delivered multiple blows to Houdini's abdomen while he was in Montreal.

The eyewitnesses were students named Jacques Price and Sam Smilovitz (sometimes called Jack Price and Sam Smiley). Their accounts generally agreed. The following is according to Price's description of events. Houdini was reclining on his couch after his performance, having an art student sketch him. When Whitehead came in and asked if it was true that Houdini could take any blow to the stomach, Houdini replied in the affirmative. In this instance, he was hit three times, before Houdini protested. Whitehead reportedly continued hitting Houdini several times afterwards, and Houdini acted as though he were in some pain. Price recounted that Houdini stated that if he had had time to prepare himself properly, he would have been in a better position to take the blows.[27] Although in serious pain, Houdini nonetheless continued to travel without seeking medical attention. Harry had apparently been suffering from appendicitis for several days and refusing medical treatment. His appendix would likely have burst on its own without the trauma.[28]

When Houdini arrived at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 1926, for what would be his last performance, he had a fever of 40°C degrees (104 F). Despite a diagnosis of acute appendicitis, Houdini took the stage. He was reported to have passed out during the show, but was revived and continued. Afterwards, he was hospitalized at Detroit's Grace Hospital.[29] Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 on October 31 (Halloween), 1926, at the age of 52.

After taking statements from Price and Smilovitz, Houdini's insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing-room incident and paid double indemnity.[27]

http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/governors/

State Governors (1845-2008)
(posting only those in a brief range)
William S. Jennings January 8, 1901 to January 3, 1905
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward January 3, 1905 to January 5, 1909
Albert Gilchrist January 5, 1909 to January 7, 1913
Park Trammell January 7, 1913 to January 2, 1917
Sidney Catts January 2, 1917 to January 4, 1921
Cary Hardee January 4, 1921 to January 6, 1925
John Martin January 6, 1925 to January 8, 1929
Doyle Carlton January 8, 1929 to January 3, 1933

Current governor John Martin:
http://www.floridamemory.com/C...governors/martin.cfm
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Lt. Governor: None
First Lady: Lottie Wilt Pepper Martin

Florida Cabinet in 1925:

Secretary of State: Clay Crawford (1902-1929)

Comptroller: Ernest Amos (1917-1933)

Treasurer:  J. C. (John Christian) Luning (1912-1928);
William V. Knott (1928-1941)

Commissioner of Agriculture:  Nathan Mayo (1923-1960)

Attorney General: Rivers Buford (1921-1925);
J.B. Johnson (1925-1927);
Fred H. Davis (1927-1931)

Supt. of Public Instruction: William S. Cawthon (1922-1937)

Florida Palms generic poker chips have these in red, blue, yellow and dark brown.  OK-decent used condition. .... .....Shipped 1925 to H. C. Evans, Chicago.  This is a generic chip, used for private poker games, and since they came in so many colors, they were probably used in illegal clubs for roulette and other table games.


This message was last edited by the GM at 17:10, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

Royal Palm Hotel (Miami)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palm_Hotel_(Miami)

The Royal Palm Hotel was a large resort hotel built by well-known railroad magnate, Henry Flagler, in Miami, Florida. Opening its doors in 1897, the Royal Palm Hotel was one of the first area hotels in Miami. Five stories tall with a sixth-floor salon, the Royal Palm Hotel featured the city's first electric lights, elevators and swimming pool. Almost thirty years later, The Royal Palm Hotel was grievously damaged by the 1926 hurricane, and infested with termites. In 1930, it was condemned and torn down.

The hotel was built on the site of a Tequesta village. A large mound was removed to make way for the hotel veranda. Between 50 and 60 skulls were found in the mound, and tossed into barrels. Some were later given away as souvenirs.

The hotel stretched 680 feet (210 m) along the Miami River's north bank. A verandah surrounded the hotel, about one-sixth of a mile in length. The hotel was described as "modern Colonial", with an air of "decorous opulence". There were 450 guest rooms and suites. The average guest room was twelve feet by eighteen feet, and 100 of the rooms had private baths. The main dining room would seat 500 guests. A second dining room was for maids and children. There were also private dining rooms. There were parlors, a billiards room, other game rooms, a 45-foot (14 m) by 50-foot (15 m) ballroom, and 100 dressing rooms at the swimming pool. The boiler room, electric plant, kitchens, laundry and ice-makers were in a separate building. The hotel had a staff of 300, including sixteen cooks. Although, at the insistence of Julia Tuttle, a clause prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages had been included in all land deeds for the new city of Miami, the Royal Palm Hotel had an exemption to serve alcohol to its guests during the three months of the tourist season.

Book:
Miami sprang into existence on July 28, 1896, following the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway from West Palm Beach on April 15, 1896, and the publication of the soon-to-be city’s first newspaper, The Miami Metropolis, on May 15, 1896. However, evidence suggests people lived in the area as early as the 1700s. Nicknamed “the Magic City” by publicists working for railroad and hotel builder Henry Flagler, Miami has weathered yellow fever epidemics, World War I, the 1920s boom and bust, World War II, and numerous other economic ups and downs to become one of the world’s great cities and the catalyst for the growth of the South Florida megalopolis.

More details
Miami:: The Magic City
By Seth H. Bramson
Edition: illustrated
Published by Arcadia Publishing, 2007
ISBN 0738543683, 9780738543680
128 pages

Shows picture of Leamington Hotel and Seminole Hotel.
http://books.google.com/books?...tel+miami+historical
&source=web&ots=UJobODxc5r&sig=VGk1luNESeRm8Ei6rhcuiyR4Wsg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result

Leamington Hotel (Miami)
307 NE 1st St

Seminole Hotel (Miami)
53 East Flagler Street
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:35, Sun 08 Feb 2009.

http://www.kilduffs.com/GAS.html
Old Baltimore Gas Stations

http://www.artistsdomain.com/dev/eere/web/1920.html
1920's Gas Stations and Motor Courts Everywhere, USA

http://www.offbeattravel.com/r...as-new-mexico-2.html
Historic Route 66 recalls the golden era of automobile travel. Small towns unfolded as families took to the highway. Motels, and attractions popped up along the sides of the road. Today major highways have supplanted much of the route, but more and more of the towns time left behind are burnishing their road-history for visitors.

http://flickr.com/photos/ted_andes/2565648132
1920's Gas Station - Middletown, KY
Picture of the "First Gas Station in Middletown".
According to the historic marker, it was built in the late 1920's. It sold Aetna Oil products. When US 60 was rerouted in 1936 and bypassed this location, it was put out of service as a gas station. It found other uses over the years, including a dry cleaner's office and taxi stand. In 1996 it was dontated to Middletown, and they have since restored and maintained the building.

http://www.rreid.net/OldTrails/
Old Trails - US and Canadian Roads in the 20th Century

List of items with more information for camping equipment:

Survival Kit (including a compass, flint and steel, Water Cleaning Kit, waterproof matches, several days of field rations)
http://www.worldwarwonders.co....ng-Compass-Case.html

Knife & Sheathe
http://www.worldwarwonders.co....-hooked-quillon.html

Spade (Small take apart folding shovel)

Grooming kit (Shaving supplies and mirror)

WWI British Field Officer's Cuttlery
http://www.worldwarwonders.co....ign-Cutlery-Set.html

3 Safari Outfits with extra pair of boots, vest, wide brimmed hat (made with hidden pockets), passport
http://www.worldwarwonders.co....Knee-High-Boots.html

Vest:

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:11, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

http://www.time.com/time/photo.../2009/who_we_were_a/

The Book, Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America

Nice photo album of the past.

http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/about/index.html

SAN FELIPE ... a remote desert community enjoying the benefits of a warm, dry, winter climate, and a hot, humid (Florida-like) summer. The Sea of Cortez is one of the world's most prolific salt-water habitats with sport fishing tours being available for avid anglers (see, for example, Drake's Fishing Tours on this site).

Located 125 miles south of the International border between Calexico, California and Mexicali, Baja California, the primary route to San Felipe is via Mexico's Federal Highway 5. A secondary route exists via Tijuana following Highway 1 south to Ensenada, Highway 3 east to Highway 5 and south from there to San Felipe.
The largest major metropolitan area with good airline and transportation connections is San Diego, about 5 hours drive by car north-west of San Felipe.

Geopolitically a part of the Mexicali municipality, San Felipe depends upon tax-based funding for all its public services. It is governed locally by a "Delegado" (Mayor), representing Mexicali's Presidente, who is responsible for all municipal matters.

San Felipe was founded in 1916 as a commercial fishing port. Still operating a sizeable shrimp-fishing fleet of small pangas, the pueblos' principal income has changed over the past five years, from fishing to tourism to retirement living and real estate, with as many as 250,000 American and Canadian visitors annually. November through March is the prime "snowbird" season with mobile homes arriving from all regions of the US and Canada. Increasingly we now also see tourism and investment in retirement homes from places as far away as Australia. Hotel rooms are at a premium and traffic jams are routine on the road to and from the border crossing in Mexicali. During the summer months, May through September, the weather is ideal for a relaxed lifestyle on the beaches. Fishing is good and the pace of life slows considerably. There are dozens of accommodation options in Baja. You can find timeshares for sale and rent, hotels or motels, all overlooking the Sea of Cortez. If you're planning on basking in the warmth of San Felipe again and again, consider purchasing property there.

With a population topping 25,000 (including foreign residents), this seaside community is a delightful retirement area. Over the past several years there has been a major influx of retirees who are building homes here and cashing out on their property investments in the USA. Local businesses provide the requisite services including, but not limited to, House Design Services, Architectural Services, Construction Services, Lumber Yards and Hardware Stores.

San Felipe is a "cash" society, they may accept Traveler's Cheques. And there are a couple places that will actually provide cash for you.

El Marino/OXO liquor-grocery store on the corner of Calle Chetumal and Mar de Cortez
Bancomer on Mar de Cortez and also on Calz. Chetumal
Banamex on Calzada Chetumal
The El Dorado Ranch office area (by the swimming pool)

The city water supply comes from wells about 30 miles south of town. While it is considered safe to drink, it has a high mineral content. Bottled water and mineral water is available at all liquor and grocery stores and excellent, purified, water is available at KonsAgua, Pelicanos and other producers for around $.12 a gallon. Purified water is used in all restaurants and homes and for making ice for the bars.

The city sewage system is unusual for a coastal town in that most of it does not discharge into the sea; it is piped to a plant in the desert for treatment. Septic systems are used for all properties away from the town's main collector system. This includes all developments to the north and south of San Felipe along the beaches. In some cases these septic systems are barely able to cope with the major influx of visitors on weekends.

The sea water is maintained as clean as possible because of the great dependence of the town on the fish and shrimp industries. Tests of the bay water in past years have revealed minimal detectable e-coli contamination. However, the further away you are from beachfront development, the cleaner the water will be. Because of the high salinity of the sea water, swimming and floating are almost effortless. Twice a month, around the time of the new and the full moon, very large tides develop and you will see the spectacular rise and fall of the water - see our tide tables.

Although San Felipe has an airport (symbol SFE) there are no commercial flights here. Visitors travelling from distant locations in the USA, Mexico or internationally will want to fly into a major airport. The closest ones are San Diego (SAN) in California, and Mexicali (MXL) and Tijuana (TIJ) in Baja California. Imperial airport (IPL) in El Centro does have commuter service to Los Angeles and Phoenix where connections to all major intercontinental carriers can be made.

Small cargo planes make air delieveries bi-weekly, but more frequently are shipments by truck.

Pictures of San Felipe

I want everyone to have a flavor of the time on the Princess and in San Felipe.

These are from Tony Reyes Fishing Tours, but in our game it will be Drake's Fishing Tours and the Princess will be a little more... nice.


http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/about/SatSglsFishing.html
http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/about/MB1.html
http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/about/mb2.html
http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/about/mb3.html
http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/ab...SglsFishingCrew.html

This is a diagram of the Gulf Princess
http://www.cgn.ch/var/plain_si...2b0e410b7e437548.pdf



This is a picture of what the Paddle Steamer would look like docked with passengers.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.../5f/CGN_Montreux.jpg
Another picture of the steamer underway:
http://www.5at.co.uk/SS-Montreux.html

These are the Geoffroy's Cats that roam the Princess:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroy%27s_cat
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:00, Fri 23 Jan 2015.

A video of a 1926 designed "Snow-Motor" using a tractor body ot a Chevrolet body.
It was very cool to watch. I'm surprised that they don't have these around!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=568_1233111054


Typical Kinograms Newsreel from the silent era, featuring Jack Dempsey, a balloon race, women dancing in chilly breezes, a juggler, and opium being confiscated and burned in Shanghai.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=eef_1194131897
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:28, Sun 08 Feb 2009.

Engine Room Tour Of 1922 Heritage Steam Tugboat SS Master...

Chief Engineer, Doug Shaw gives us an impromptu look at the inards of the Master's engine room, both while at sea (Noisy) and while alongside dock. She's powered by a triple expansion engine.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=074_1209115755

Gives an idea what it is like inside a paddlewheel steamer.

Flying Car About to Take Off?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=197_1192196525

An aeronautic startup looks to complete a prototype of its roadworthy aircraft within a year.

In 1918, long before George Jetson commuted to Spacely Space Sprockets, the U.S. Patent Office issued Felix Longobardi the first patent for a vehicle capable of both driving on roads and flying through the air. But given all the impractical prototypes built since Longobardi's original whimsy, history suggests that any vehicle design combining these two modes of transport will be a commercial failure: aero-auto hybrids always seem to result in a compromise that serves both functions poorly.

Now a group of MIT alums believe that they are on their way toward overcoming this problem. Founded in 2006 and called Terrafugia, their startup, based in Woburn, MA, recently produced the first automated folding wing for a light sport aircraft. (A light sport aircraft is a type of airplane deemed by the Federal Aviation Administration to be easier to fly and hence more accessible than regular private planes.) The wing, however, is just the first step toward an aero-auto hybrid that the company plans to call the Transition.

This summer, the group demonstrated its folding wing at the annual AirVenture aviation festival in Oshkosh, WI. With more than 650,000 attendees, the festival is the most important event in experimental-aircraft aviation.

"Going into this, we knew our two biggest design challenges to make it practical would be the wings and the power train," says Anna Mracek Dietrich, an engineer at Terrafugia and the company's chief operating officer. "By validating the durability of the wing's construction and engineering, we've checked one major design challenge off of the list, and now our focus is on the second."

Previous prototypes of road-drivable aircraft have featured manually folding or detachable wings. But to allow for a seamless and quick transformation from plane to car and back, the Terrafugia team has devised a system that allows the pilot to enfold or extend the wings by pushing a button in the cockpit. Dietrich says that at Oshkosh, the researchers opened and closed the wings more than 500 times--the equivalent of three to five years of typical use--and that they're more than pleased with the wings' durability.

The wing features off-the-shelf electric actuators, but Dietrich says that the team had to design from scratch the mechanical linkages between the actuators and the rest of the craft. The group also uses dual electromagnetic locks to hold the wings tightly to the fuselage when they're enfolded.

"We're building the rest of the first vehicle now," Dietrich says. "Our schedule calls for us to start flight testing by the end of 2008, and so far we're on track for that."

The technical challenge now before the team is to build a power train that uses one engine both in the air and on the ground and is capable of running on a tank of super unleaded gasoline--the kind that can be bought at any gas station. To make the transition between engine uses smooth, the team is devising a mechanism to transfer power from the propeller to the wheels and back as needed. The difficulty here, Dietrich says, is that the system has to be as simple, reliable, and lightweight as possible. (For the team, the weight of the vehicle is a constant concern, not only because the vehicle has to be relatively light in order to fly, but also because FAA regulations require it to be less than 1,320 pounds.)

"They're doing some interesting things," says Mitch LaBiche, an engineer at LaBiche Aerospace, a company based in Alvin, TX, that has assisted the military in the construction of a wide variety of flying vehicles, from the F-117 to the Apache AH-64 helicopter. LaBiche's company is now working to build a flying sports car called the FSC-1. "[The Transition] is a light sports aircraft, so they're going to have to work hard to meet the weight requirements," LaBiche says.

The greatest nontechnical challenge Terrafugia must face is meeting the regulatory requirements of both the FAA and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). To satisfy FAA regulations for the category of light sports aircraft, the Transition must have a maximum level speed of 138 miles per hour, a one- or two-person occupancy, and fixed landing gear, among other things. For the NHTSA, the Transition must be able to pass the same requirements that a regular car would.

"There are systems in place with both organizations to make working with them as painless as possible," Dietrich says. "It is still a lot to go through, but we've made inroads with both, especially the FAA."

The company plans to build and sell between 50 and 200 Transitions a year, most likely starting in 2009, and it's marketing the vehicle to the roughly 600,000 licensed pilots in the United States. The Transition will be comparable in size to a Cadillac Escalade but won't be nearly as heavy. Terrafugia plans to charge $148,000 per vehicle.

"Very interesting! I would love to have one," says Kenny Huffine, a pilot for a major commercial airline who flies recreationally. "My one concern, though, is about having a plane parked around other cars. If it were pushed or damaged, would that make it unflyable and dangerous?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bix_Beiderbecke

Leon Bix Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist and composer, as well as a skilled classical and jazz pianist.

One of the leading names in 1920s jazz, Beiderbecke's career was cut short by chronic poor health, exacerbated by alcoholism. Critic Scott Yanow describes Beiderbecke as the "possessor of a beautiful, distinctive tone and a strikingly original improvising style. Beiderbecke's chief competitor among cornetists in the '20s was Louis Armstrong, but (due to their different sounds and styles) one really could not compare them." Bix Beiderbecke recorded many jazz standards during his career in the 1920s and early 1930s, including "Riverboat Shuffle", "Copenhagen", "Davenport Blues", "Singin' the Blues", "In a Mist", "Mississippi Mud", "I'm Coming, Virginia", and "Georgia On My Mind".

Bix Beiderbecke was one of the great jazz musicians of the 1920s, the Jazz Age. Beiderbecke first recorded with the Wolverine Orchestra in 1924. The ensemble was casually called the Wolverines, named for "Wolverine Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton, a tune that they played often. The group recorded the jazz standards "Riverboat Shuffle", written for the band by Hoagy Carmichael, and "Copenhagen", written by Charlie Davis. Jazz composer and pianist Hoagy Carmichael had booked their appearance at Indiana University in 1924.

Bix Beiderbecke became a sought-after musician in Chicago and New York City. He made innovative and influential recordings with Frankie Trumbauer ("Tram") and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra.

I encourage everyone to include as many mixed drinks into this post.
If you can't add them, let me know and I'll add them.

Cocktails:

The El Presidente is a mix of rum, curacao, vermouth, and grenadine. The El Presidente originated in Havana, Cuba and was popular from the 1920s through the 1940s. The cocktail was named in honor of Cuban President Gerardo Machado and quickly became the preferred drink of the Cuban upper class.


Beverages:
Cafe Cubano (Cuban coffee)
http://www.tasteofcuba.com/cafecubano.html
1. Using an espresso machine, add the desired amount of finely ground coffee, common Cuban style brands include Bustelo, Pilon and La LLave (I'm partial to Bustelo supreme, I buy the Cuban brands online from the Cuban Food Market).  You can also purchase fresh whole coffee beans from supermarkets like Albertson's or Whole Foods, any of the very dark roast Colombian brands will work best for Cuban coffee. I myself grind whole beans there at the store so that it is fine, fresh and ready to be made (espresso grind setting).  Do NOT store your ground coffee in a freezer, but do keep it in a cool place away from sunlight.  If you insist on drinking real Cuban coffee, only one site online sells it (pictured at the bottom of this page with a link).

2. For every demitasse cup of coffee you plan on making, use a teaspoon of sugar. The key to Cuban coffee is that it be very sweet. The trick here is to put the sugar into the glass carafe before you even brew the coffee.

3. Brew the coffee just as you would an espresso. The coffee will pour over the sugar in the carafe as it begins to brew. After it is finished filling the carafe, stir it briskly as there will still be a little undissolved sugar. Pour the coffee into several demitasse cups and enjoy.

* For Cafe con Leche, simply use 2 parts Cuban Coffee to 1 part steamed milk.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Tue 10 Feb 2009.

I contacted the wonderful people of San Felipe to get some information on what life was like in their town during the 20's. I was surprised to discover that the town itself wasn't as developed as I thought it would be. I am including all the information I gathered on it. I will load and post the pictures on my site and provide links.

Historically, there was no town as we depicted it, but we will continue on as though it was an established and growing Mexican fishing village. They just won't have anything sophisticated there. General and dry goods stores (prevalent), clothing stores, gas station, and other stores like that. Also, the Spanish mission would likely be redeveloped, but not in the greatest of shapes, more like what you would see in a western movie. Most items for construction would be brought in by water, the roads would be very rough and trecherous. The adobe buildings would be built from naturally found materials.

For our purposes, the Delegado was established, only to maintain order and communication with the outside world. And to assist the fishermen and their customers coordinate activities. The demand for the Totuava and Corvina continues to grow and natives are drawn to fishing to supliment their income. The community grows to handle the constant influx of fishermen and merchants. I am using the name of the current Delegado for our game, since one did not exist in the 1920's.

We can take a 'little' literary license in projecting the town as more developed at this time than I estimated. It is often difficult to get maps of areas at earlier time periods and almost impossible to get a completely accurate representation. But we continue to search and strive for accuracy when possible. It was a stroke of fortune to find someone who was interested in indulging our fun game. I think it was pretty cool.

I will thank Mr. Colleraine for his generous and gracious assistance. I am always excited to discover information and facts that few other people are remotely interested in. I'm sincerely fascinated by all that we discover as we research for this game. I hope you share in my excitement!

-------------------

Hi Cal,
An intriguing request!

The port of San Phelipe de Jesus has been mentioned in exploration accounts from about 1760. However there were extended periods, as the old Spanish missions fell into ruins, when the area was barely inhabited. Expeditions show that as late as 1905 there was no permanent settlement here but that migratory fishermen came during the winters, probably from Guaymas, to catch totuava. The first census to show a permanent population was in 1930 (271 people). This grew to 427 people in 1940.

There was no road connecting the village to Mexicali until the mid-1940's (completed in 1950) and that is when development of the area started in earnest. There was no local government and no Delegado until the early 1960's.

For the period that you are interested in, around the end of the 1920's, all I have been able to come up with is the following which is slowly being added to our website.

I hope you can find some useful tidbits in the text below.

Tony Colleraine

-------------------

The first permanent residents arrived at San Felipe during the period 1910 to 1915. Northern Baja California offered them the Mexicali Valley's rich soil for agriculture in addition to the gulf's fish resources. During this time towns and villages of permanent residences took form, and the village of San Felipe was established.


I. BEGINNINGS OF THE TOTUAVA FISHERY

San Felipe first attracted fishing folk from Guaymas. The totuava was held in high esteem by the fishermen of Guaymas. Chinese residents of that Mexican mainland port discovered that the sound or swim-bladder of the fish was of unusual character, and not dissimilar to that of fishes in the Orient, which, when properly dressed and dried, sold for astonishing prices. [George Roger Chute, "The Totuava Fishery of the Gulf of California," California Fish and Game XIV (October, 1928), p. 276.] The product secured from the swim-bladder is called "buche" and is made simply by removing the bladder and as much of the peritoneum as possible and drying it in the sun. Sometimes as much as three pounds of this dried material is secured from one fish. Today's market for "buche" is not as large as it was fifty years ago, but the $1.50 to $2.00 price per pound still remains the same. The Chinese consider it a great delicacy, and use it in chop suey and other dishes. [Craig, loc. cit.] [Chute, op. cit., p. 277.]

The people of China took so well to the new product that a regular sound-drying business arose in Guaymas at the turn of the century. Many Mexicans, induced by the high prices offered for sounds of "buche", set to sea in dug-out canoes in quest of the fish. Eventually, so many of the totuava were caught that to capture more became exceedingly difficult. A group of former German seamen also were attracted to the Guaymas fishery. When local scarcity reduced their revenue, these eager men went sailing into virgin waters to discover the "buche"-yielding fish where it might be plentiful. These Germans found rich fishing grounds far to the north on the opposite side of the gulf, fifty miles from the mouth of the Rio Colorado.

II. SETTLEMENT AT SAN FELIPE

At the foot of a high rock headland, in the curve of San Felipe Bay, the German fishermen built shelters of desert brush and adobe. They found fresh water available and commenced work. This settlement, about one-quarter of a mile north of the present-day site of San Felipe was called Campo Uno (plate 9).


Plate 9. Site of Campo Uno at the Base of San Felipe Point.

Fishing was rich and the venture highly productive. The Germans sailed back to Guaymas with canoes loaded with bales of "buche". The spectacle of their splendid success so emboldened the natives that each year thereafter increasing numbers of them followed the pioneers across the gulf to San Felipe. Only men went the first season but during the second, wives and children were brought; in this way the village grew. San Felipe grew from an original five Germans to many hundreds of Indians and Mexicans. [Ibid.]

Analysis of recent photos of Camp Uno reveals five or six remnants of the original shelters. Some of the adobe walls have been weathered to ground level, leaving only a square discolored pattern visible in the soil (plates 1-13). Water was piped from the lowland area behind the beach ridge at the present site of the village today. [Statement by Jose Hernandez Limon, personal interview.] The Campo Uno site at the base of Point San Felipe offered the settlers good protection from northerly winds. Affording further protection, was a small inlet which fronted the site within the larger bay of San Felipe.


Plate 10. An Old Spanish-built Wall at Campo Uno.


Plate 11. Rubble at the Site from Adobe Walls that once stood at the first Camp.


Plate 12. Further Evidence of Dwellings at Campo Uno.


Plate 13. Ruins on the Beach.

Soon Camp Uno could no longer support the sudden arrival of great numbers of people who flocked from Guaymas. The settlement expanded southward to encompass the present-day site of San Felipe adjacent to the small tidal estuary. Shelters were made of desert bush, adobe, and tents. The number of shelters gave San Felipe its first semblance of permanent settlement.

III. FISHING AT THE SETTLEMENT

The equipment used in catching the totuava was small. In 1927 the largest boat in the fleet was a sailboat about thirty-eight feet long, with a small auxiliary gasoline engine. The smallest boat was a flat-bottomed skiff which could accommodate two fishermen (plate 14). Between these two extremes were round and flat-bottomed row boats, very small launches propelled by small gasoline engines, and Indian canoes or skiffs were commonly used. The skiffs were made from huge logs hollowed out by the Indians on the mainland. They averaged from twenty to twenty-five feet long, and were about two feet in diameter. These canoes were equipped not only with sails, but three or four fishermen, each of whom worked a paddle. [Wiley V. Ambrose, "New Game Fish Lures Sportsment to Gulf," Touring Topics, XIX (January, 1927), p. 39.]


Plate 14. An Original Log-hewn Fishing Vessel.

The tackle used by the fishermen was a line composed of quarter inch rope with heavy wire leaders and on the end was a hook about seven inches long. They used a fish called Corvina as bait. Corvina resembles sea trout, being about twenty inches long and weighing up to four pounds. When the large hook was baited with one of the Corvina, the line was carried to the bottom with heavy sinkers, and the fisherman waited for results.

During a day's catch, some of the boats would take as many as six or eight of these fish. That was all that could be carried in boats of that size. Each fish would bring one to two dollars worth of "buche". The carcass of the fish was left to rot. Only the swim bladders or sounds were saved, these being cleaned with exact care and dried in the intense heat of the desert sun.

IV. AMERICAN BUYERS

It is impossible to calculate the tons of fish these people wasted securing only the swim bladder. News of the presence of the fishing camp and the waste of fish reached the border town of Calexico. In 1924 two wholesalers from the United States struck south in their Model T trucks to investigate San Felipe and the story of the large fish. They finally arrived after two and a half days of hard traveling over the sand dunes and salt flats of the Colorado desert. [Statements by J. J. Camillo and Harry Orfanos, personal interview.] The wholesalers, recognizing the possible value of the totuava in United States markets, bought some of the fish at five cents apiece from the eager Mexicans. In the United States the excellent eating fish sold well, encouraging the wholesalers to continue the business. Soon afterwards other fish buyers came to San Felipe and engaged in the business of buying and selling totuava. By 1927, San Felipe had become a well-known fishing port to fish wholesalers in the United States. By this time the Mexican fishermen were selling the totuava at four cents a pound, thereby realizing a good profit from their fish catch.

In 1927 there were fifteen trucks hauling totuava from the small gulf port to the United States border. Short traveling time with a full load of totuava was important to prevent spoilage. Within a short period of time the fish buyers were able to negotiate the trip to Mexicali with a full load of fish in ten to twelve hours. At the border an ice truck waited to carry the totuava to processing plants at San Diego and San Pedro.

The following is an account of a traveler who in 1927 made a run to San Felipe:

"It would be hard to describe realistically the road across these flats. Generally speaking, it was nothing but two ruts, and the travel had cut them down about to the depth of our axles. As may be imagined, the roads were winding, full of chuck-holes, and a speed of over six miles an hour was impossible. In various places turnouts are found where vehicles may pass without sinking in the spongey earth.

This entire barren waste glittered in the sunlight like silver, on account of the white salt which had dried on it, and the only signs of human touch in the whole great distance were piles of decaying fish which we found in great numbers. These fish had been unloaded from trucks coming north from the fishing camp of San Felipe, the trucks having broken down or become stuck and forced to unload. We also ran across a number of trucks and machines that had broken down and had been abandoned, standing out, as great derelicts, against the horizon. [Ambrose, op. cit., p. 38.]

The records of the United States Customs at the entry port of Calexico show that a sportsman brought the first totuava across the border there in 1923.

"Seventy-five pounds sea bass-two fish." reads the meticulous record, and that ended the business for the year. [Chute, op. cit., p. 278.] The following year, with the arrival of fish wholesalers from the United States, the importations rose to 170,000 pounds. The following season's annual increment exceeded one million pounds.

"Totuava Catch of the Gulf of California by Seasons, July First of One year to July First of the Next. [Chute, op. cit., p. 281.]

1923.....None

1924-25.....171,000 lbs.

1925-26.....664,000 lbs.

1926-27.....1,039,000 lbs.

1927-28*.....1,838,000 lbs.

*To April 25

During the summer months many of the fishermen of San Felipe would wander away from the bay, following the migrating schools of totuava down the gulf. But in autumn, once again the men would straggle home to San Felipe. Again the truckers would begin their seasonal hauling of the totuava to ports in the United States.

Probably no other food fishery has sent its product to market by so strikingly a method. It is believed that the four hundred mile Gulf-to-San Pedro route is the longest motorized fish transit known... [Ibid.]

The superior food fish and wholesale price made the transit very profitable for the wholesalers and pleasing to the Mexicans who made extra money. Perhaps the most important effect was the encouraged permanent settlement of San Felipe Bay.

V. STABILIZATION OF THE VILLAGE

The initial boom of the totuava industry began to level off in the 1930's, but the demand for the excellent food fish continued. Mr. J.J. Camillo, a seafood broker, is credited with introducing totuava to restaurants in San Diego and Los Angeles. The totuava became a prized delicacy, with initial demands exceeding the supply. Originally, all the totuava was hauled to California markets, but the mid 1930's found increasing amounts sent to Phoenix, Kansas City, St. Louis, and other inland cities.

Little is known about San Felipe during the 1930's and 1940's. Reports of the fish crossings at the border and population of the village were the only subjects printed about San Felipe during these years.

Totuava was the basis for other small mainland fishing camps on the gulf. These villages also sent their fish to the United States across the border at Calexico. Generally speaking, San Felipe accounted for 85-90% of the total totuava catch passing the border, and today San Felipe still enjoys this same percentage.

The period 1930 to 1940 was rather static in the life of San Felipe. The village was still isolated from much of Mexico and California. The inhabitants resided in rather crude habitations made of adobe, desert brush, some wood, and occasionally metal secured from auto skeletons. The village had no electric power. Water was available from wells easily dug in the ground. No tourist accommodations existed, for only the hardiest of vacationers attempted the route to San Felipe. Village supplies were obtainable at a bay-front grocery owned by a Chinaman who lived at San Felipe since 1916. Of course, the most popular spot in town was the cantina that helped the menfolk of San Felipe pass many idle hours. Similar to most Mexican villages the life in San Felipe stabilized to a slow pace as the residents became permanent.

No population statistics exist for the years 1910 or 1920; in 1930 the census of population classified San Felipe as an "Embarcadero" or port, with a total population of 287, of whom 192 were men and 95 women. [Censo de Poblacion 15 Mayo: Baja California Distrito Norte (Mexico,, D.F. Estados Unidos Mexicanos 1932).] The 1940 census reclassified San Felipe as a "Pesquiera" or fishing village, with a total population of 427; 284 men and 143 women. [Estados Unidos Mexicanos 6º Censo de Poblacion 1940 Baja California Territorios Norte y sur (Mexico, General de Estadistica 1948).] In a ten-year period from 1930 to 1940 the population of San Felipe doubled. However, the 1930 population was quite small, therefore, the 1940 doubling of population is not particularly unusual.

VI. THE VILLAGE, 1940 TO 1950

The mid 1940's found a new highway to San Felipe under construction. This Mexicali-to-San Felipe link guided the village from isolation. The completion of the highway was one of the most dramatic occurrences in the history of San Felipe. The village was in ready access to the large cities of Baja California and the United States border. This easy access to the north immediately offered the village better and swifter transportation of its number one resource--fish. The village also gained greater attention of fish wholesalers from the United states who helped San Felipe develop and expand its fishing industry. Easy passage to the gulf coast village offered San Felipe the greatest opportunity for future development with the arrival of tourism.

VII. FISHING BECOMES BIG BUSINESS

United States interests saw profits to be made in San Felipe's fishing industry. The village was not only in proximity to the totuava fishing grounds, but also near the shrimp of the upper gulf. With the proper negotiations, the United States' interests agreed to supply the fishermen of San Felipe. Large, thirty-five to fifty foot long diesel fishing boats and equipment were given in return for fifty per cent of the catch.

In order to aid San Felipe and other fishing communities of Mexico, the Mexican government initiated fishing cooperatives. The cooperatives were organized on three levels: local, regional, and national. The government also organized a bank from which the local cooperatives could borrow money at low interest to improve their methods of fishing. But today in San Felipe, as in other fishing villages, most of the needed funds come from the foreign interests rather than the government banks.

In order to fish commercially at San Felipe, a fisherman must belong to one of the four local co-ops in the village. The local co-ops are composed of a group of twenty to eighty fishermen who unite and pool their resources. Through the cooperatives the catch is sold. Without the co-ops fierce competition among the individual fishermen results in very low prices for their catch. By means of the co-ops, fish prices can be somewhat regulated and equipment can be purchased easily by the greater cash reserves of the co-ops.

Each local co-op called "Cooperativa de Produccion Pesquiera," pools its members' catch and sells it to the regional co-op known as the "Federacion de Cooperatives de Produccion Pesquiera," who in turn sells to wholesalers. Each regional cooperative may administer ten to twenty local cooperatives. Owners of the fishing vessels receive approximately fifty per cent of the vessel's catch. The other fifty per cent is then shared among seven to eight crew members on the vessel. The captain receives one and one-half shares; the engineer one and one-quarter; and the crew receives one share apiece.

VIII. MODERN FISHING METHODS

The fishing boats are from thirty-five to fifty feet and use gill and trammel nets. These net boats have replaced skiffs and canoes of earlier days. The nets used in the fishery are usually from 1000 to 1500 feet long and the gilling mesh between ten to fourteen inches stretched measure. The nets are generally fixed perpendicular to the shore in shallow water, being set at high tide and left in position from one to three days, depending on the availability of totuava. During the set, the boat lies at anchorage just beyond the offshore end of the net. Two crew members in a skiff run the length of the net every two to three hours removing totuava, sharks, and porpoises.

"Camaron" or shrimp are captured by a purse net, which is dragged near the ocean floor while the fishing boat maintains a speed of about four miles per hour. A small net is lowered while the boat is working and then raised every half hour to check on the amount of shrimp in the area. A heavy catch indicates what is happening in the big purse nets and they are raised and emptied accordingly. By law, one-third of the shrimp harvested in the gulf must remain in Mexico, but the other two-thirds usually goes to the United States where prices are higher than domestic markets.

IX. OUT OF ISOLATION

The one hundred and twenty-five mile long highway between San Felipe and Mexicali was completed in 1950. This highway put the village within easy and direct communication with Mexicali and the United States border. The trip to the border requires two hours auto traveling time, a far cry from the two and one-half day journey that the first buyers experienced.

The highway opened new economic horizons for the village. Now tourists could easily travel to San Felipe, taking advantage of the pleasant climate and excellent sport fishing. The first to see the future possibilities was Sr. Jose Hernandez Limon, now residing in San Felipe. In 1946 Sr. Limon had heard of the pending highway construction to San Felipe. Realizing the attractiveness of San Felipe to tourists, Sr. Limon and his partner purchased thirty-two thousand acres of land surrounding the bay. Included were the village lands, which he turned over to the government in order that the villagers could claim their land holdings legally. [Discussion with Jose Hernandez Limón.]

The village was not prepared for the influx of tourists that came in the first few years after 1950. The village offered nothing to the visitor. There were no tourist accommodations, no electricity, and poor sanitary conditions. These initial tourists were telling others about the poor conditions they found at the village. Therefore, the future of tourism for the village was bleak. Sr. Limon and others approached the Mexican government and pleaded for financial support to help San Felipe acquire electricity and proper sanitary conditions. The result was a study in 1952 by the government of the existing conditions found at San Felipe. [Enrique Santos de Prado Rojas, Estudio e Informe General Sobre las Condecciones Sanitarias en el Puerto de San Felipe, Territorio Norte de la Baja, California. (Mexico, D.F. 1952), p. 17.] The report well illustrated the problems of the village. The 1952 study estimated the population at seventeen hundred inhabitants, thirteen hundred fixed population, and four hundred transient. The inhabitants of San Felipe were in the immense majority Mestizo with a small nucleus of Chinese.

According to the report, the village was not formed according to any preconceived plan. The majority of the streets were, and still remain, sinuous and narrow, crossing the land freely within an idealistic grid pattern. Much dust invades the houses contaminating the air and drinking water. In 1952 there was no public lighting. The majority of the dwellings were illuminated with petroleum or gasoline lamps. Only a few shops possessed auxiliary generators. The report found that a majority of the houses were fabricated from the trunks of ocotillo with the gaps filled with mud. The soil was the floor.

The report summed up the section on housing:

"The hygienic conditions of these inhabitations leaves much to be desired; each one houses about eight persons, including the elders, a transmissible disease will be felt in a major or minor part by the total family. [Ibid.] A major portion of the inhabitants in 1952 consumed the local well water. This water is hard, and contains many carbonates that tend to discolor the teeth. Only a few of the inhabitants bought decanters of purified water at a price of three pesos (25 cents) brought from Mexicali. The report discovered that the well water produced many digestive problems. The dominant maladies of the population at that time were respiratory problems, digestive ailments, and venereal diseases. [Ibid., p. 28.]

In 1957, five years after the Sr. Limon's initial plea, work was begun on a one million peso (80,000) electrification project for the port of San Felipe. Cost of the power plant, distribution lines and other facilities were underwritten jointly by the local businessmen and the state government. [News item in the San Diego Union, November 14, 1957.]

In subsequent years Limon's partnership was dissolved, and the vast land holdings were subdivided and sold. Sr. Limon retained a beach front tract of land just south of the village, and there began construction of a trailer court for tourists. Soon other villagers followed in Limon's footsteps by constructing motels, hotels, and trailer courts, thereby offering appropriate tourist facilities and enhancing the future of tourism at San Felipe.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:16, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

In reference to:

I found some more about this and similar vehicles:

The 1922 Patent for the “Snow Motor Vehicle”:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=_oJZAAAAEBAJ

An excellent picture of one of the few Fordson’s left with the screw-drive in good condition:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/...ted=1&size=large

Just for reference, a Fordson with its normal undercarriage:
http://www.cfgphoto.com/img834.htm

And from Wikipedia, some solid information:

In the 1920s the Armstead Snow Motor was developed. When this was used to convert a Fordson tractor into a screw propelled vehicle with a single pair of cylinders; the combination became known as the Fordson Snow Devil. A film was made to show the capabilities of the vehicle as well as a Chevrolet car fitted with an Armstead Snow Motor.[4] The film clearly shows that the vehicle copes well in snow. Steering was effected by having each cylinder receive power from a separate clutch which, depending on the position of the steering gear, engages and disengages; this results in a vehicle that is relatively manoeuvrable. The promotional film shows the Armstead snow motor hauling 20 tons of logs.
In January 1926, Time magazine reported:

“Having used the motor car for almost every other conceivable purpose, leading Detroit automobile makers have now organized a company entitled "Snow Motors Inc.," to put out a machine which will negotiate the deepest snowdrifts at six to eight miles an hour. The new car will consist of a Ford tractor power-plant mounted on two revolving cylinders instead of wheels—something on the order of a steam roller. The machine has already proved its usefulness in deep snow previously unnavigable. One such machine has done the work which formerly required three teams. In Oregon a stage line uses a snow motor in its two daily round trips over the Mackenzie Pass between Eugene and Bend. Orders are already in hand from Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Alaska. The Hudson Bay Co. has ordered a supply to maintain communications with its most northern fur-trading stations. The Royal Northwest Mounted Police have also gone into the market for snow motors, and may cease to be horsemen and become chauffeurs, to the deep regret of cinema people. A number of prominent motor makers have also been interested in the proposition from the angle of adapting the snow motors equipment to their ordinary models. Hudson, Dodge and Chevrolet are mentioned especially as interested in practical possibilities along this line.”

And finally, while it’s not old, something similar:
http://www.icechallenger.com/icechallenger/
This message was last edited by the player at 23:56, Sat 07 Mar 2009.

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/top...ly-costs-ad-nauseum/
Colin's Period Weapons Vehicles Clothing Daily Costs ad nauseum.


http://dsrindustries.org/rpg/C...or%20The%201920s.pdf
A Sourcebook for the 1920's


http://www.chlive.org/pbeck/eastlibrary/1920s.htm
Radio in the 1920s
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Wed 08 Oct 2014.

https://www.google.com/search?...wAQ&ved=0CB0QsAQ

1920's washing machines. Someone had to do it back then.

http://www.tworiverseconomicde...on/history-dryer.htm
Driers of the 1920s.



https://www.google.com/search?...spell=1&imgdii=_
1920s Vacuum cleaners.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:16, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

Laptops and office supplies of the 1920's.
http://www.pinterest.com/khrystalno/1920s-office/

1920's laptop:


1920's office equipment.
http://tattyjackets.blogspot.c...920s-office.html?m=1
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:18, Wed 29 Oct 2014.

http://www.officemuseum.com/ph...lery_1920s_1930s.htm
Early Office Museum
Antique Office Photographs 1920s

https://www.classzone.com/net_...s/U7/U7_article3.cfm
Home appliances in the 1920s.

https://www.google.com/search?...&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Images of appliances of the 1920s.

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/20selectrical.html

Photo of a 1920s Drug Store:

http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org...n/vg2/id/9083/rec/41

Article about Drug Stores:

http://www.providencejournal.c...drew-us-together.ece
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:38, Sun 19 Oct 2014.

I don't know if we've linked this blog before but this gal researches her stuff!

https://marymiley.wordpress.com/welcome-to-the-1920s/

Links to the Mexican freedom fighters, revolution, and Christiada Knights.

http://www.kofc.org/en/columbi...ero_war_knights.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War

http://www2.ups.edu/faculty/jlago/fl380/source3_02.htm

https://www.google.com/search?...QBg&ved=0CB0QsAQ

http://acculturated.com/human-...n-for-greater-glory/

Nautical terms.

http://www.usmm.org/terms.html

http://www.seatalk.info/

http://phrontistery.info/nautical.html

http://www.marineinstitute.org/nautical%20terms.htm

http://star-trek.answers.wikia...have_the_con%22_mean
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:20, Tue 21 Oct 2014.

http://www.candyfavorites.com/...ro-candy/1920s-candy

http://www.oldtimecandy.com/decades/1920s-candy/

http://www.blaircandy.com/candy-from-1920s.html

http://www.candycarrollton.com/pages/candy-by-decade

Candies of the 1920's!

Map Image of Miami

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bonanno

What is known about Joe Bananas...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55283313

The first new material about the ruins that I've seen.

Aztec skull tower: Archaeologists unearth new sections in Mexico City

Archaeologists have excavated more sections of an extraordinary Aztec tower of human skulls under the centre of Mexico City.

Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said a further 119 skulls had been uncovered.

The tower was discovered in 2015 during the restoration of a building in the Mexican capital.

It is believed to be part of a skull rack from the temple to the Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice.

Known as the Huey Tzompantli, the skull rack stood on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, the patron of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

The Aztecs were a group of Nahuatl-speaking peoples that dominated large parts of central Mexico from the 14th to the 16th centuries.

Their empire was overthrown by invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who captured Tenochtitlan in 1521.

A similar structure to the Huey Tzompantli struck fear in the soldiers accompanying the Spanish conqueror when they invaded the city.

The cylindrical structure is near the huge Metropolitan Cathedral built over the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples of Tenochtitlan, now modern day Mexico City.

"The Templo Mayor continues to surprise us, and the Huey Tzompantli is without doubt one of the most impressive archaeological finds of recent years in our country," Mexican Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto said.

Archaeologists have identified three construction phases of the tower, which dates back to between 1486 and 1502.

The tower's original discovery surprised anthropologists, who had been expecting to find the skulls of young male warriors, but also unearthed the crania of women and children, raising questions about human sacrifice in the Aztec Empire.

"Although we can't say how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives destined for sacrificial ceremonies," said archaeologist Raul Barrera.

"We do know that they were all made sacred," he added. "Turned into gifts for the gods or even personifications of deities themselves."

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/...8006_064758579-1.jpg

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/...diaitem116038003.jpg