73:, in his orchards and for clearing the mangrove forests on the barrier islands that would become Miami Beach. His crews used imported Asian elephants for pulling stumps and heavy lifting as well as mules and machinery. The black workers who did the work of clearing the mangroves and building solid land in Miami Beach out of a mangrove sandbar were unable to purchase property on the new land because the Lummus brothers' Ocean Beach Realty Company sold lots only to whites, and Fisher's Alton Beach Realty Company sold much bigger and more expensive lots for more expensive luxury homes.
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Fisher acquired a baby elephant, which he named "Rosie". "I'm going to get a million dollars worth of advertising out of this elephant," he said. He featured Rosie as a sort of mascot for the area in publicity photos that promoted Miami Beach as a luxury vacation destination. In 1921 Rosie starred
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Rosie remained a fixture at press events for Fisher's resort hotels, giving rides to children while another of Fisher's elephants named Baby Carl helped to scoop sand during the construction of the
Nautilus hotel in 1924. She was well-known and widely loved, and apparently survived as late as at
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Another of Fisher's publicity gimmicks, the Miami Beach bathing beauty, originated at around the same time. "We'll get the prettiest girls and put them in the goddamndest tightest and shortest bathing suits, and no stockings or swim shoes either. We'll have their pictures taken and send them all
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over the goddamn country!" The controversial photographs, depicting more bared flesh than was considered appropriate at the time, had exactly the desired effect. Property values in Miami Beach soared.
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31:. Her appearance in publicity photos helped to contribute to the area's early reputation for being a place that a visitor had to see to believe.
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least 1938, where she appeared at a party in support of the Miami Beach
Committee of One Hundred on Boca Chita Key.
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which they began to call "Miami Beach". They worked to clear and protect land for development by building the
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to generate interest in his new development properties. He organized speed boat races in the bay south of
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that includes a publicity photo of "the Mother of Miami Beach", Rosie Weiss, riding Rosie the
Elephant
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across the bay in Miami, but who shunned the more casual oceanfront casinos operated by
Collins.
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Collins hired predominantly black work crews from "Colored Town", now known as
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in publicity photos as a "golf caddy" for vacationing president
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100:, which established Miami Beach as an exotic destination.
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Braham D. Lavender, Miami Beach in 1920 pg. 13, 2002
23:, was an instrumental figure in the history of the
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318:Individual elephants in the United States
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257:Claude C. Matlack photograph of Rosie
167:Review of book on Miami hotel history
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278:Miami Beach document archival system
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136:Mr. Miami Beach - Carl G. Fisher
313:History of Miami Beach, Florida
36:Florida land boom of the 1920s
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183:, documentary film transcript
118:List of individual elephants
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147:John S. Collins Biography
42:worked with fruit farmer
285:Boy Scout Benefit Circus
230:40 Years of Miami Beach
38:, pioneering developer
283:Rosie performing at a
242:Biscayne National Park
205:"The Man Who Invented"
76:Fisher loved to stage
193:American Heritage.com
84:, to promote his new
308:Miami Beach, Florida
262:Photographs of Rosie
29:Miami Beach, Florida
228:Ruby Leach Carson
60:artificial islands
276:Photographs from
98:Warren G. Harding
46:to "improve" the
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64:Biscayne Bay
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34:During the
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215:2006-06-07
124:References
82:Belle Isle
62:in north
112:See also
71:Overtown
27:city of
287:in 1929
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50:near
19:, an
17:Rosie
25:U.S.
264:at
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