1932

"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 helped drive much of the city's historic expansion in the first two decades of the twentieth century, and 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"--Provided by publisher.

In the 1930's, as the world slid towards war, speed was all the rage. Bobsledding, the fastest, most thrilling sport of the era, was the must-see event at the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. The competition required exceptional skill and extraordinary courage because the course was so lethal. The American team was composed of a ragtag lot---Clifford Gray,a notorious playboy and ex-movie star; Eddie Eagan, a heavyweight boxing champion, scholar, and lawyer; Jay O'Brien, a handsome Gatsby-ish gambler and rogue; and Billy Fiske, a boy just barely out of his teens, who would quickly become the star of the sport. They faced fierce competition from the very same German athletes they would be fighting against in World War II only a few years later. Billy Fiske joined the British Royal Air Force and fought during the Battle of Britain and became the first American fighter pilot killed in the war.