Brain Trust Island

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 4th Year

Issue

Issue No.

3

Date Released

8 Aug 1938

Length of issue (in feet)

1841

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Czechoslovakia
2. 2Brain Trust Island

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 2

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: The Harvard Law School has been the parent of many New Deal braintrusters, but today attending first-year law classes at Cambridge, Mass., is a most unusual student, 36-year-old Julius F. Stone, Jr., of Columbus, Ohio. He has during the last four years been responsible for one of the most successful and probably the most unorthodox of Rooseveltian experiments. In 1934, Braintruster Stone was sent to Key West to administer relief to the island, 80 per cent of whose population was on the dole. Despite a steady pour of relief money, Key West’s people were without means of self-support. Bereft of a once-lucrative cigar industry, a sponge trade, a sprightly port business, and even of the pay-day money of military and naval posts once stationed there, the Caribbean island, four miles long, one wide, had to find a source of livelihood. Administrator Stone saw no reason why Key West with its fine climate, populous fishing grounds, traditions of a glorious past, should not make an ideal tourist resort, thus restore Key West to a self-supporting basis. Promptly the City Council turned Key West over to the plans of Stone and his aides the March of Time shows them proceeding with hum and enthusiasm to the job of cleaning up the city, replacing shacks, restoring old homes. Federal artists paint Key West’s charm and quaintness on canvas, to advertise it to all the world. A million-dollar sewerage system is installed. A New Deal yacht club is organized. Cleaned up as an excursion place is old Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas, an island sixty miles away where the famous Dr. Mudd was imprisoned after the Civil War.

To speed up the work, Stone calls for volunteers, and half the city’s population assists contributing nearly 2,000,000 work-hours. Soon, declares Administrator Stone, Key West will be as attractive a resort as Palm Beach. Then suddenly - the hurricane of 1935. Key West, happily is spared, but the overseas railway, the tourist link with the mainland is wrecked beyond repair. Undaunted, and aided by £1,720,000 of PWA money, Stone is shown building a new super highway on the abandoned railroad bed, spanning the 150 miles of Florida Keys. Impatient to see the glories of Key West, already tourists have begun with trek to the remote island via temporary ferries. Now, a new worry wrinkles Key West’s tranquil brow. Promoters are coming in. The danger now is that the lovely semi-tropical island may become a cheap resort. Key West citizens are seen preparing to keep their four square miles from becoming a raucous Coney Island, and to maintain, as far as possible, the unspoiled charm of the storied past.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.4 No.8 of the US edition.

Keywords

Entertainment and leisure; Social conditions; Scenery and travel; Town and country planning

Written sources

The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.