Description
Book SynopsisHow one man brought the Olympics to Los Angeles, fueling the city's urban transformation.Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles's pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city's transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis. Leading that pursuit was the Prince of Realtors, William May (Billy) Garland, a prominent figure in early Los Angeles. In important respects, the story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles. After arriving in Southern California in 1890, he and his allies drove much of the city's historic expansion in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Then, from 1920 to 1932, he directed the city's bid for the 1932 Olympic Games. Garland's quest to host the Olympics provides an unusually revealing window onto a particular time, place, and way of life. Reconstructing the narrative from Garland's visionary notion to its consequential aftermath, Barry Siegel shows
Trade Review"A fascinating tale." * New York Times Book Review *
"A gripping portrayal of [Billy] Garland’s marathon campaign to get the Games." * Los Angeles Times *
“Wonderfully written narrative. . . . Recommended." * CHOICE *
"In sum, one might say that Siegel’s Olympic effort to demonstrate how the Games and Los Angeles each boosted the development of the other is a medal-worthy effort in itself."
* The New England Journal of History *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Author’s Note
Prologue: Billy’s Parade
1 Billy’s Migration
2 LA on the Cusp
3 The Quest
4 A Foot in the Door
5 The Hand of Man
6 Rome, 1923
7 The Great Migration
8 Protecting the Image
9 A Bolt from the Blue
10 Planting a Seed
11 Then Came the Crash
12 Berlin, 1930
13 A Sacred Duty
14 Desperate Hours
15 Competing Narratives
16 Playing His Cards
17 A Lush New World
18 A Parallel Universe
19 The Games
20 A Footing in the World
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes and Sources
Bibliography
Index
