How 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 how one man’s grit and imagination made California history.
By:
Barry Siegel
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 363g
ISBN: 9780520379718
ISBN 10: 0520379713
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 15 September 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List 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
Barry Siegel, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and the author of seven previous books, is a former national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He now directs the literary journalism program at the University of California, Irvine.
Reviews for Dreamers and Schemers: How an Improbable Bid for the 1932 Olympics Transformed Los Angeles from Dusty Outpost to Global Metropolis
"""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 *"
