1674-1 Helen Muir Interview with
Helen Muir
7/1/92
Bill Muir was at Columbia Law School with some associate of
Fisher; I forget who. After graduation, he went back to his
home in Portland, Ore. Got a call to come to Miami Beach to be
Carl Fisher' s lawyer. He arrived the day after the 1926
hurricane. His work was about real estate development -- later
he worked with CF on Montauk Point. In last days of Fisher' s
life, it was Bill who stuck with him. Would come on Sundays, go
to the Caribbean club.
Fisher never sdtopped thinking. You could compare him to
Merrick; Carl put as much into Caribbean Club operation as he
did Miami Beach.
etc.
He arrived day after 26 storm. work turned out to be all-
inclusive about real estate devel; also handled montauk.
last days of fisher, i had two little girls at time. bill muir
stuck with fisher.
merrick went down to keys, really put a lot of dash into it.
bill admired his dash. pete chase was more of a buddy-type to
fisher. bill was horseman from birth, got ponies. when other
people got ocean fronts he got ponies.
king cole was built especially for horse riding crowd.
1930 columns "The Madding Crowd" quit in 1939 season when
pregnant with Melissa.
We started on house on Palm Island, 198 S. Coconut Lane. Summer
of 36, preg with mary, took exercise. There until moved to
Grove. Capone house down the road. Mary born Aug. 11, 1936.
Thing I remember about that period> Nunally' s downtown next to
Olympia and on the Beach. Would go for ice cream sodas. Lincoln
Road was still a pretty place.
The pancoasts were quakers and they were tight-fisted and bill
was very fond of Arthur.
dan hardee and fisher hit it off. I spend a lot of time with
hardee and admired him as a person getting ready to die. his
family has been so wonderful. , etc. . .
Dan was a bit of a fraud and his wife Florence. . . . In 1943, hoke
welch brought me in and said gov. cox wanted helen muir back.
byline: Helen Muir, society and women' s editor. When I first
went on in Spring of 1935. No woman smoked.
Dan came down and said I had to dress office up. get Plummer
here. , put pink in, etc.
1935-36 Miami Beach: South Beach was people mainly Jewish and
they came for the climate and the apartments were kind of
pretty. Thinking of woman I wrote about, she made a lot of
money taking old bottle tops and putting ant poison in them.
She made a lot of money doing it.
The galas that Alfred Barton had at the surf club. it was
humorous . if you came from a big city as I did, it was
ludicrous. there was one woman whose husband made fortunue in
dairy. all dancing around glittering dresses. man made all
money in trucks. they were showy. one I liked best was sally
gannett, whose husband owned newspapers. she was real person,
very attractive woman. Barton would bring in everything.
Wonderful red carpet they brought out at christmastime. you
went at night, drank for an hour, sat down to lavish food, then
you danced. they were boring. one person I was fond of martin
bell faris, wife had arthritis .
what did your father do? my father was a peddler. of course, in
poland, he did teach school, but he was a peddler. gotten lot
of nonsene from people when asking that question. He had to
stay at Lord Tarlton because he was a Jew, turned away
Morgenthau at Pancoast.