4
Closing In on the Deal
Bertram Mayo had discovered a gold mine in California, a movable gold mine that could be transported anywhere he could find available land and eager customers. Louis Smadbeck found that developing land adjacent to water made real estate even more attractive to buyers. Mayo also came to this realization and with his next project began to combine proximity to water with the elements of the newspaper deal.
Inexpensive farmland near water and trees could be found in the vast, and still largely rural, center of the country. Mayo purchased just such land on Fox Lake twelve miles north of Muskegon, Michigan, and presented his idea to offer lots as a subscription premium to the Chicago Evening Post in 1912. The proposal was destined for success. The Post was a big city newspaper with a working-class readership and a thirst for building up its subscriber base. The Michigan land was ideal for summer homes, camping vacations, and weekend bungalows, and the lake would attract swimmers, boaters, and fishermen. Combining the geographical features of a lake and woodlands, Mayo coined the name “Lakewood” for this newest venture.
In spite of the subscription tie-in, large advertisements in the newspaper were not used. Rather, mention of Lakewood in the Chicago Evening Post took the form of announcements. The first appeared on May 22, 1912, proclaiming that Decoration Day would herald the opening of Lakewood where carpenters and road men have been hard at work. A tent city and a lunch room were promised to be ready.1 Subsequent notices tell of special train and boat arrangements on Sundays in June to provide owners the opportunity to visit their lots.2
None of these announcements mention the terms of the subscription offer. Instead those details were contained in a circular mailed to potential subscribers and lot purchasers. The terms were also revealed by the Post in an article headlined “‘On to Lakewood!’ Slogan of Fire Fans,”3 describing a group of Chicago friends who shared the excitement of chasing fires. Seventeen of the group bought adjoining lots at Lakewood, comprising nearly an entire block, and were making plans to share in the expense of building a jointly owned private clubhouse on their land. There were hints that a group of Chicago city employees and officials, having been caught up in the fad, were thinking of doing the same thing. The report explains that the property was carved up into lots 25' × 100' selling for $11 each with a six-month subscription to the Chicago newspaper.
Newspaper articles suggest that Mayo took great effort to upscale the development, at least on the surface. The lots were still tiny but much in the way of window dressing was employed to attract customers. The seven-foot-wide cobblestone fireplace in the spacious clubhouse, fitted with a crane, kettle, and andirons, bore an inscription, in gold lettering and old English script, reading “for you, the hearth fire burns.” Numerous rocking chairs, hammocks, and swinging seats were scattered about. A tent city provided “cottage tents” furnished hotel style with a double bed renting for seventy-five cents a day. At a separate public dining room the crockery and table linens were made to order and imprinted with “Lakewood Club.” Breakfast and lunch cost thirty-five cents and dinner fifty cents. An orchestra played music during the dinner hour as well as for dancing. Telephone and telegraph service was available. A variety of watercraft including launches, rowboats, canoes, punts, sail boats, and rafts, were provided. Mayo also lured the Pere Marquette Railroad to add a Lakewood stop by building a depot at his own expense and provided buses to transport visitors from the depot to the clubhouse.4
Lakewood then implemented a service not tackled at any other newspaper resort. This was the construction and operation of a railway to transport passengers and cargo from the Pere Marquette depot at Lakewood to the clubhouse, a distance of five and one-half miles.5 All of the officers, directors, and shareholders for the Lakewood Street Railway Company were part of Mayo’s cozy group of friends—Chicago associates engaged in real estate, the newspaper business, advertising, or else self-employed as an accountant or lawyer.6
Mayo’s tentacles reached to all aspects of the community. In January of 1913 he formed the Lakewood Lumber and Construction Company to sell building materials and construct bungalows for the lot customers.7 Then he hired a couple to invest in and operate a construction camp to provide living quarters for the carpenters. In addition to paying for tent space and meals, lot owners paid to rent a boat, play billiards, use the bowling alley, and patronize the barber shop and the cigar and candy counter. He set up an auto repair shop and brought in a pianist to play at the dance pavilion,8 probably finding a way to have the piano player collect payment from the dancers. All of these add-on enterprises were structured to make money for Mayo or at least to not cost him anything.
* * *
Even as Lakewood was in its early stages, Mayo was planning his next project. In mid–1912 he began negotiations to purchase 2,000 acres of scrub pine and oak bordering on the Toms River near Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Complications with past ownership and liens delayed the purchase of the land until 1914.
At Lakewood Mayo had become embroiled in a dispute over compensation owed to the real estate agent used to purchase the land. A lawsuit, a jury trial, and a court ruling were needed to resolve the matter.9 Mayo avoided this from happening at the New Jersey tract by using the services of Addison Nickerson, his old friend from the Boston days, and now a civil engineer. Nickerson obtained the land at a sheriff’s sale and almost immediately transferred title to Mayo who, in turn, deeded it to Stanley D. Brown10 as trustee for Mayo’s latest ally, the New York Tribune.
This venture was named Beachwood for the river front shoreline and the woods. As with Lakewood, the subscription offer was not the subject of display ads. Instead, articles extolling the virtues of the project and detailing the progress of its development, appeared in both the New York Tribune and the New Jersey Courier in Toms River.11 The sales pitch itself was contained in a four-page “Extra” made to look like a special edition of the Tribune.
Bertram Mayo created an “Extra” edition for the New York Tribune to promote the Beachwood colony. Vaguely dated November 1914, it was sent out by direct mail. The Smadbecks borrowed heavily from this advertisement (courtesy Erik Weber, Beachwood, New Jersey, History Archive).
For both Lakewood and Beachwood Mayo created a thirty-eight-page pamphlet, also mailed to prospective subscribers and lot purchasers. The covers bore the title “The Greatest Subscription Premium Ever Offered—And the Reason Why” followed by the name and address of the respective newspaper referring to the premium department, in the case of the Chicago Evening Post, and the promotion department at the New York Tribune. These booklets are small in size and more horizontal than vertical. Each of the left-hand pages bears a photograph of a water view or a path cut through the woods and brush with dreamy, enticing captions such as “the fish are waiting for you,” “wood roads wind in and out,” and “bushels of blueberries here.” Any structures depicted were nearby, such as the train station at Toms River, and not located on the resort property. As he had done at Beverly Glen, Mayo was promoting wilderness and nature rather than developed land.
The right-hand pages of the booklets contain a few sentences of the sales message surrounded by a linear border. The details of the wording in the two pamphlets varies but the message is consistent. The narrative begins with “A Little Plain Talk” and lays the groundwork explaining that newspapers offer premiums to obtain subscribers but, in order to do so, the premiums must be obtainable at a bargain price. The paper wanted to do something bigger and better than the household gadget items usually offered and so it came up with the idea of offering land at a ridiculously low price. The newspaper was able to do this by purchasing an entire resort, contracting for miles of road work and months of surveying, and eliminating the middle man. Of course, not all of these claims were true, especially the statement about eliminating the middle man. At this point the message is personalized as the newspaper justifies the necessary substantial outlay of money by its desire to have “you” as a subscriber.
Each pamphlet then proceeds to describe its respective resort. Both lie in the center of a resort region: for Lakewood the summer resort region of Michigan and for Beachwood the coastal resort region of New Jersey. Each is “just far enough” from Chicago (Lakewood) or New York City (Beachwood) followed by a description of the wonderful transportation facilities including the fares and schedules for boats and trains.
The particular attractions are next identified. Lakewood is surrounded by several other lakes brimming with big and little mouth bass, perch, pickerel, and muskellunge with fine duck shooting in the fall, while Beachwood is almost a part of the town of Toms River and close to the popular resort of Pine Beach with its well-known hotel. The free clubhouse, waterfront beach, and shoreline parks are touted before concluding with a promise, not to refund the purchase price if the buyer is not satisfied, but to offer assurance that the buyer’s displeasure will cause the newspaper to lose what it most seeks—the reader’s continued friendship and subscriptions.
A map is provided and the back cover is a mail-in postcard for requesting further details. The Lakewood booklet merely gives a phone number and encouragement to request more information. Beachwood improves on this by specifying the costs and contract terms.
* * *
Using the postal system to distribute the “Extra” edition and the informational material nearly got Mayo and the New York Tribune into trouble. In early 1915 Victor Watson, a journalist for the New York American, launched an investigation into the Beachwood promotion. The American was a Hearst paper and a rival of the Tribune. Watson visited the site several times, took photos, interviewed lot buyers, and even planted spies in the solicitation office of the Tribune. Apparently, anyone willing to push sales of the lots for a commission could find a job there, an opportunity that was not wasted on Watson and his staff.
When he felt that he had gathered enough evidence to make a case for mail fraud, Watson reported his findings to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, H. Snowden Marshall, who, in turn, referred the matter to postal authorities. Two postal inspectors, Oliver Schaeffer and Hugh McQuillan, met with Watson, visited Beachwood, and even traveled to Michigan to evaluate Mayo’s Lakewood project. Their conclusions echoed those of Victor Watson.
The alleged fraud claims involving Beachwood had a slippery focus: the Tribune claimed that the land was being sold at near cost and well below actual value as a goodwill gesture to build a broader subscriber base when, in reality, the newspaper stood to make a profit of at least $300,000; the promised perquisites—clubhouse, yacht house, restaurant, hotel, and train depot—were cheaply constructed. In addition, only one road was passable, the rest being cluttered with tree stumps and unfilled depressions. Most lots were accessible only by climbing up and down railroad embankments and crossing the tracks; any improvements were concentrated in the beach area, while buyers were steered toward lots miles from the shore or offered land near the water at magnified prices.
Watson also found fault with the Lakewood promotion. He claimed that a generous area of parkland was promised along the lake but that a new map was later produced showing the parkland reduced to a narrow strip while the bulk of the recreational area was divided up into lots and sold for high prices.12 He complained that the lot owners were given an inflated cost of the Lakewood railway, causing them to invest more than necessary while Mayo retained the controlling interest in the railway and the utility company that operated the side businesses. The lot owners had been trying to wrest control away from him without success. But when the postal authorities began their investigation, Mayo generously turned these interests over to the property owners by distributing a notice from “The Management” stating that all concessions would now be operated by the utilities company in cooperation with the lot owners’ association and all profits or losses would go to the company. The notice urged patronage of the concessions to make the utilities a profitable investment.13
Mayo managed to head off suspicions raised by the investigation at Lakewood by sending telegrams to the press claiming, quite misleadingly, that the postal authorities deemed everything above-board and had found no evidence of wrongdoing.14 In actuality inspectors McQuillan and Schaeffer concluded that both the Lakewood and Beachwood promotions violated the law and passed their findings on to H. Snowden Marshall, but made no recommendations to him.15
Both Watson and the postal inspectors anticipated a New York grand jury probe into the Tribune’s actions with concurrent proceedings in Chicago pertaining to Lakewood. But U.S. Attorney Marshall disappointed the accusers when he declined to take any action.
Between January and May of 1916, a Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives conducted hearings, motivated by conflicting pre–World War I political interests, investigating charges of misconduct against H. Snowden Marshall on a wide variety of issues including failure to follow up on the allegations against the Tribune in the Beachwood promotion.16 A subcommittee was appointed, contempt charges were made against Marshall, and an assignment was made to a select committee, all of which became entangled in politics. In the end nothing came of the claims against Marshall, just as nothing had come of the claims against Mayo and the Tribune.17
From a positive viewpoint Beachwood was populated by some prominent people who owned yachts and built sumptuous summer homes, two of which were owned by Addison Nickerson, a man who was instrumental in establishing the resort. He negotiated the purchase of the land for Mayo, surveyed it, managed the colony, built 70 bungalows, and became the tax collector.18 Work at Beachwood was eventually completed, the roads finished off, and most of the lots sold. A Property Owners Association was formed, with Mayo biographer William Mill Butler, one of Beachwood’s earliest residents, as its president. When the colony incorporated as an independent borough in 1917, Mayo deeded the riverfront lots where the public buildings were located to the municipality and sold an additional 209 lots to the borough for a park later named Mayo Park in his honor.19
But Mayo’s tactics left negative imprints as well. The substantial residences that Nickerson built were all near the river shore. It was the lots far from the water, those in the hinterlands, the ones on the wrong side of the tracks, those that were sold to the working-class newspaper readers, that were the subject of Watson’s investigation. Butler was an enthusiastic advocate for Mayo even claiming that he refused to sell 2,000 Beachwood lots as not being good enough to meet his standards.20 But given his past actions, it is unlikely that Mayo considered any lots, regardless of quality, to be unsaleable.
Already in mid–1915 the county clerk was having considerable difficulty identifying and preparing a list of lot owners. Between 1916 and 1918 a string of notices published in the Tribune encouraged property owners to apply for their tax bills if they had not been mailed to them,21 a situation resembling that encountered by the assessor at Cazadero Redwoods and perhaps suggesting that Nickerson’s service as tax collector was grounded in self-interest. Despite Butler’s praise, Mayo’s real estate development methods were not entirely laudatory.22
* * *
Browns Mills in the Pines, Mayo’s last newspaper colony, offered him a different starting point. The area around Mirror Lake in Burlington County, New Jersey, was populated with cranberry bogs, blueberry fields, and poultry farms in addition to being an established resort region. Boardinghouses and hotels were in operation there at least by 1820.23 Visitors were attracted to Browns Mills by its reputation for healing spring waters in a setting of healthful pines. By the early twentieth century it was home to tuberculosis treatment facilities as well as private nursing cottages that provided screened porches for sleeping in the fresh air.24
A healthy environment was a priority for Bertram Mayo. William Mills Butler claims that curative air of California was the reason Mayo moved there from the East Coast in the first few years of the 1900s25 and more than one newspaper report noted that he was impressed with the climate of Florida.26 Of course, the local New Jersey papers found the invigorating atmosphere of the Jersey woods where Browns Mills was situated to be superior to that of either California or Florida.27
Most likely, however, it was economic opportunity that drew Mayo to Browns Mills. Located a mere twenty-five miles straight west of Beachwood, and given his interest in land speculation, Mayo would certainly have been aware of the bubbling financial troubles at Browns Mills.
Mahlon W. Newton was a well known hotelier in the Delaware River valley. He began investing in and running hotels when still in his mid-twenties and achieved considerable success in renovating and updating older hotel properties. At the turn of the century he owned several large hotels, including Green’s Hotel in the business center of Philadelphia, and was involved in other extensive land holdings and commercial activities.28
Newton first became involved with Browns Mills in 1903 when, along with former New Jersey State Senator George Pfeiffer, Jr., of Trenton, he invested in 3,100 acres of land in Burlington County with the intent of developing the property into a year-round resort.29 A bad omen appeared a few days later when the same newspaper that reported Newton’s purchase of this land expressed the opinion that the attempt to rehabilitate Browns Mills was a doubtful endeavor, suggesting it might be more successful if the name were changed and it was moved closer to the railroad.30
Newton soon opened bids for the construction of a hotel estimated to cost $50,000.31 By the start of 1905 Newton was seeking $150,000 for improvements at the resort32 and, when the new and completely equipped colonial-style inn opened on March 1, 1905,33 the project had already defaulted on tax payments.34 Pfeiffer, who tried his hand at operating a duck farm at Browns Mills, proved to be a poor choice for an investment partner. In December of 1905 he filed for voluntary bankruptcy, the failure of the duck venture at Browns Mills being only one of his unfortunate business experiences.35
An additional $100,000 investment was sought in 1910 when Mahlon W. Newton, with new partners James B. Reilly and Joseph J. Summerill, reorganized the corporate structure.36 The Browns Mills project languished and Newton’s plans to turn it into a full-time resort never materialized. Eventually, in June of 1916, the property was “sold” to Newton at a foreclosure sale. Already heavily invested in the scheme, he put up another $23,000 to maintain control of the property and protect himself against further loss in spite of the existence of other obligations pending against the land including the back taxes.37
Newton was ripe for an opportunity to be relieved of this fruitless endeavor. The timing of his situation could not have been better for Mayo. In August of 1916 the Marshall hearings had just concluded with no repercussions and Beachwood was winding up with the formation of the POA. Whether or not Mayo was looking for another project, the situation presented by Browns Mills was too advantageous to ignore, and so he bought the 3,100 acres from Mahlon Newton in late September of 1916.38
Newton had attempted to create a hotel where people came and stayed for short periods of time. This worked for him in the cities where he could attract businessmen as repeat customers but this method did not translate well to the rural resort area of Browns Mills. Mayo’s approach toward establishing a resort was different. He diced up the land into tiny pieces and sold it rapidly through his newspaper scheme. It was not an ongoing employment but rather a fast-moving operation with a defined start and a quick finish that created a miniature city rather than a grand hotel destination.
Thus far Mayo had worked with rugged, woody, undeveloped land, property that had not been developed because of its roughness, providing him with a clean slate that could be platted out and developed to suit his newspaper promotional plan. Although Browns Mills included a hotel, stables and garage, a lake, waterpower, and several miles of roadway, Mayo found no difficulty in adapting it to his formula. He teamed up with the Philadelphia Press and involved A.D. Nickerson in engineering and platting the lots. He put his plan into action with rapid fire precision laying out a golf course and building a large ice house, a real estate office, and a clubhouse. Carpenters from Beachwood were transferred to work at Browns Mills where over one hundred men were employed and provided with rooms and cots. It was rumored that Mayo sold 5,000 lots in just the first few months of ownership.39
With Beachwood and Browns Mills in the Pines Bertram Mayo had further refined the newspaper deal format. The lot size was trimmed to 20' × 100' and the ownership of the land passed through several hands making it more difficult to trace. Both the narrower lot size and the confusing chain of title holders, together with proximity to water, would become standard characteristics of the newspaper colonies.
* * *
Bertram Mayo married in 1888 and he and his wife Amy Girdler had one child, a son named Geoffrey. Mayo’s varied business dealings kept the family mobile and they found it convenient to live either in apartments or hotels. In spite of his modest background, Mayo had achieved a fair degree of wealth and in 1913 began thinking about building a home.
In the fall of that year, still officially California residents, the Mayos spent the winter season in the Tampa area to make a comparison of the Florida and southern California climates. Favorably impressed, Mayo purchased property in Tarpon Springs to establish a winter residence.40 Curiously, the local newspaper characterized Mayo as the owner of the Oakland Enquirer and, as such, a gentleman of more than average intelligence and discernment, proving that Florida offered greater attractions, better climate, and larger inducements than southern California.41 A few weeks later the paper elevated him to owner of the Chicago Post.42
The Mayo winter retreat was built on three lots at a stylish enclave known as Van Winkle Island, a piece of land projecting out into Whitcomb Bayou. An architect was engaged to design a structure that news accounts variously described as lovely, handsome, elegant, and palatial. When completed, the home included a boat house for Mayo’s yacht Amy M. II, a name that suggests it was not his first boat.
Busy with the Beachwood project in New Jersey, Mayo spent most of his time either at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn or at the New Jersey resort. In addition to the clubhouse, a yacht club was built at Beachwood where the Amy M. II was moored in the warm summer months and used for entertaining neighbors from Florida. In November or December the Mayos would ship their car to Florida and travel south in the yacht. Friends and relatives visiting in Tarpon Springs were entertained with driving tours and boating outings including a week-long hunting trip in the Everglades that netted deer, turkey, and bear.43
Just as Congress was investigating the charges against H. Snowden Marshall, Mayo was entertaining former California governor George Pardee, Gilbert Daniels, and their wives at the Florida home. The guests stayed for many weeks enjoying yacht cruises and motor excursions in Mayo’s big Cadillac.44 To further compliment his friends, Mayo named streets at Browns Mills for them with Pardee Boulevard running parallel to Daniels Avenue.
* * *
Florida was not only for pleasure. Mayo also mined Tarpon Springs for commercial opportunities, intertwining the business and social worlds. In addition to property for his own home he bought land for the construction of rental cottages as well as other real estate.45
Early on he joined the Tarpon Springs Board of Trade and offered to pay for a carload of Florida oranges to be sent to the people of New York as a goodwill gesture by the board, suggesting that the fruit be consigned to the New York Tribune for distribution to the poor.46 For the cost of a carload of oranges he ingratiated himself with both the Tarpon Springs business community and the Tribune.
Mayo’s connections with Noah A. Van Winkle, a building contractor and president of a local bank, led to Mayo achieving a seat on the board of directors of the bank.47 The day after being elected to the board, Mayo closed on the purchase of a strip of land adjacent to Van Winkle Island and dedicated the tract as a park, adding value to Van Winkle’s subdivision and his own property.48 These events took place just a few days before the visit from Pardee and Daniels, so Mayo had the added benefit of showing off for his friends, and Mayo actually did become owner of a newspaper when he partnered with L.L. Lucas, the editor of the Tarpon Springs Leader, to buy that paper in May of 1917.49
* * *
The business relationship that Bertram Mayo had with his son is ambiguous. Upon completing college in 1913, Geoffrey immediately became involved in the Lakewood project where he was put in charge of recruiting staff to operate the various concessions. At Beachwood he was the manager of the solicitation office at the New York Tribune50 and was in partnership with his father by the time Browns Mills was developed.51
Mayo was still healthy when he wrote his will in December of 1914. His bequest of $100,000 to Amy was to come entirely from personal bonds and cash while he carefully delineated that his commercial interests were to pass to his son Geoffrey.52 Once the winter home in Tarpon Springs was completed, he signed a codicil providing that the dwelling, together with its boat house, buildings, horses, carriages, and automobiles was to pass to Amy. The bequest of all his commercial assets to Geoffrey remained in place.53
While Mayo clearly favored his son and looked to him as heir to his professional enterprises, his asset with the most potential value, the real estate/newspaper premium idea, was transferred to Louis Smadbeck’s two sons. There is nothing to suggest a cleave between Bertram and Geoffrey so perhaps the son lacked the personality or the inclination to carry on his father’s profession. By 1920 Geoffrey had returned to living in California and eventually became a financial advisor and a member of the Board of Directors of Douglass Aircraft.
How Mayo crossed paths with Warren and Arthur Smadbeck and what kind of financial arrangement they had with each other is unknown, but most likely Mayo sold his promotional ideas and writings to the Smadbecks. Bertram Mayo certainly would not have just given them away.
In 1913, just one year after introducing Lakewood to Chicago residents, a new publication, Trend Magazine, placed ads in the Union Postal Clerk, the official organ of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks. Trend offered to sell summer home lots at Cedar Lake, Indiana, with a subscription to the magazine. The land, referred to as Post Office Colony, was located at the already established resort known as The Shades.54 Mayo responded swiftly by filing an action seeking an injunction against Trend and two of its employees. Then he filed a second lawsuit asking for damages from the same parties.55
Court records revealing the specifics of Mayo’s allegations and the judge’s ruling have not been retained, but it can be safely assumed that Mayo did not prevail in the litigation. Mayo had failed to preserve copyrights to “The Greatest Subscription Premium Ever Offered—And the Reason Why” Lakewood pamphlet. A comparison of the Lakewood and Beachwood promotional booklets shows that only the latter bore the words “Copyright November, 1914 B.C. Mayo” on the inside front cover. A writer was obligated by Section 9 of the Copyright Act of 1909 to include such a statement in each copy of a published work in order to secure exclusive publication rights. Without the notice printed in the Lakewood pamphlet Mayo was precluded from relying on copyright protection.
But even if Mayo had included the required words in the booklet it still would not have helped him prosecute his claim that the magazine had usurped his promotional invention. Trend had used the “idea” of offering resort lots as a subscription premium. While an assemblage of wording can be copyrighted and a product can be patented, a mere idea cannot be protected with either a copyright or a patent. Six months after Mayo filed his lawsuits Trend was advertising in the Chicago Daily Tribune offering lots at The Shades with a subscription to the magazine, and pronouncing that the offer was absolutely unique, quite without precedent, and that no such proposition had ever been made to the people of Chicago before.56 Oh, how Mayo must have recoiled at that claim!
The newspaper promoter had learned his lesson. The magic copyright words appeared in each printing of “The Greatest Subscription Premium Ever Offered—And the Reason Why” pamphlet for Beachwood. In addition, Mayo applied for and was awarded, in early 1916, copyrights for the New York Tribune extra edition and the Beachwood booklet.57 Mayo could not prevent others from imitating him by selling lots as a subscription premium, but at least he alone could exploit his collection of words.
When Smadbecks’ ad for Asbury Park Estates appeared in August of 1916, it was evident that a deal had been worked out between the brothers and Mayo. The Jewish Daily News ad copy echoes the layout and the appearance of the Tribune extra edition written and copyrighted by Mayo. For example the headline “Here’s the Simple Proposition” in Mayo’s Beachwood Extra Edition becomes “Here is Our Proposition” in Smadbecks’ Asbury Park ad. However, the resemblances go far beyond that. The Smadbecks’ Jewish Daily News ad has a box with Mayo’s heading “A Little Plain Talk” and, word for word, precisely the same language as the first three pages of Mayo’s Beachwood booklet, excepting only the names of the newspapers and the resorts. The Asbury Park “Plain Talk” concludes with the sentence: “This [offer] is in line with similar offers successfully made by the New York Tribune, Chicago Evening Post, and other leading papers,” obvious references to Mayo’s developments of Beachwood and Lakewood.
This leads to the inescapable conclusion that Mayo shared or transferred his ideas and his copyrights to the Smadbecks almost certainly in exchange for monetary compensation.
* * *
If Mayo moved to Florida for his health, he miscalculated for it was at Tarpon Springs that he contracted tuberculosis.58 He was probably aware of his diagnosis when World War I ended on November 11, 1918. One year later he was so ill that an airboat aviator suspended flights over Tarpon Springs because the engine noise disturbed its prominent citizen.59
A smattering of newspaper notices suggest that Mayo proceeded to sell off his assets in the spring of 1920. He disposed of land at Beverly Glen60 and also at Tarpon Springs.61 He transferred a mortgage for property on Park Avenue in New York62 and his newspaper, the Tarpon Springs Leader, was also presumably sold.63
Exhausted by his illness, Mayo was too sick to bother with careful wording, lawyers, or formalities when he executed a holographic codicil to his will. It consisted of only two sentences. In one he increased the bequest to his wife by $250,000 and in the other expressed the hope that this change would be honored even though not in strict legal form.64
Mayo entered Saint Joseph’s Sanitarium in Asheville, North Carolina, on June 17, 1920. By the time he died less than a month later, both his wife65 and son66 had obtained residences in California. The estate, with Geoffrey acting as executor, was appraised at just under $355,000. Amy received $350,000 and Geoffrey the remainder.67
When Bertram Chapman Mayo died on July 12, 1920,68 Warren and Arthur Smadbeck were perfectly poised to exploit the newspaper deal. They were trained and experienced in realty, they had begun newspaper deals under Mayo’s tutelage, and the economic, social, and political landscape was primed for the scheme.
1. Chicago Evening Post, 5.
2. June 18, 1912, 9; June 21, 1912, 14.
3. June 3, 1912, 9.
4. Chicago Evening Post, Announcement, May 22, 1912, 5; C. W. Redfern, “Lakewood, Transformed Wilderness, Shows Possibilities of Lake Resorts,” Muskegon (Michigan) News Chronicle, June 3, 1912, 8.
5. “First Street Railway Ever Operated in State Summer Resort Begins Operations,” Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, October 27, 1913, 8.
6. Lakewood Street Railway Company Articles of Incorporation, Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, July 31, 1913, ID No. 800170911; Ninth Annual Report of the Michigan Railroad Commission for the Year Ending December 31, 1915, 123.
7. “Sells Resorters Lumber” Muskegon Chronicle, February 12, 1913, 5.
8. Classified Ads, Muskegon Chronicle, June 7, 1913, 6; July 1, 1913, 6; July 15, 1914, 6.
9. “Judge Sullivan Cuts Jury’s Verdict, Holds Sum Allowed Excessive,” Muskegon Chronicle, February 16, 1914, 1.
10. Stanley D. Brown was an attorney who specialized in newspaper law and served as general counsel for the Tribune. Obituary, Ithaca Journal, October 24, 1967, 7.
11. See, e.g., “Summer Homes Offered Readers,” New York Tribune, November 18, 1914, 5.
12. H. Snowden Marshall: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, 64th Cong. (1916).
13. Marshall Hearings, 987–88.
14. “Postal Probe of Lakewood Resort Fizzles,” Muskegon Chronicle, July 20, 1915, 9.
15. Marshall Hearings, 963, 969.
16. Marshall Hearings, 32–34.
17. “Kill Resolution to Impeach Marshall,” New York Times, July 12, 1916, 6; see also Marshall v. Gordon, 243 U.S. 521 (1917).
18. Butler, Beachwood Borough Directory, 22.
19. Butler, Beachwood Borough Directory, 48.
20. Butler, Beachwood Borough Directory, 22.
21. New York Tribune, December 15, 1916, 6; December 12, 1917, 9; January 5, 1919, Part 2, 5.
22. A series of articles by Erik Weber ably describes the entire Beachwood saga—Mayo’s background, his relationship with Nickerson, the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the land, the articles in the Tribune and the Courier, and the investigations into the mail fraud charges. Weber’s history also includes many early photographs. “Building Beachwood, Parts I, II, III, and IV,” Riverside Signal 1, issues 6–9 (February 25–April 21, 2011).
23. Marie F. Reynolds, Browns Mills, Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2000, 7, 81, 107.
24. Reynolds, Browns Mills, 90–92.
25. Butler, Beachwood Borough Directory, 132.
26. “Likes Florida’s Climate,” Tampa Morning Tribune, December 10, 1913, 7; “A Significant Incident,” Tampa Morning Tribune, December 12, 1913, 8.
27. “Picturesque New Jersey,” Jersey City News, January 21, 1905, 1.
28. Leland M. Williamson, et al., eds., Prominent and Progressive Pennsylvanians of the Nineteenth Century, Philadelphia: Record Publishing, 1898, v. 3, 317–19.
29. “Brown’s Mills To Be Made Into Summer Resort,” Trenton Times, March 2, 1903, 5.
30. Editorial, Trenton Times, March 10, 1903, 4.
31. “Plan $50,000 Hotel at Brown’s Mills,” Woodbury (New Jersey) Daily Times, April 30, 1903, 1.
32. “Brown’s Mills Improvements,” Trenton Times, January 6, 1905, 3.
33. Display Ad, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1905, 12.
34. Proclamation, Trenton Sunday Advertiser, April 14, 1907, 17.
35. “Ex-Senator Pfeiffer Goes in Bankruptcy,” Trenton Sunday Advertiser, December 3, 1905, 5.
36. “New Corporations,” Trenton Evening Times, March 5, 1910, 9.
37. “Pines Resort Sold at Master’s Sale,” Trenton Evening Times, June 3, 1916, 5.
38. “Browns Mills,” Allentown (New Jersey) Messenger, September 28, 1916, 5.
39. “Doing Things at Browns Mills,” Allentown Messenger, January 18, 1917, 4; “Browns Mills,” Allentown Messenger, February 22, 1917, 8.
40. “Likes Florida’s Climate,” Tampa Morning Tribune.
41. “A Significant Incident,” Tampa Morning Tribune.
42. “Two Elections Claim Attention of Voters,” Tampa Morning Tribune, February 1, 1914, 2.
43. “Tarpon Springs,” Tampa Morning Tribune, December 8, 1915, 11.
44. “Tarpon Springs,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 27, 1916, 7.
45. “Two Elections Claim Attention of Voters,” Tampa Morning Tribune.
46. “Send a Car of Oranges to Poor,” Tampa Daily Times, February 20, 1915, 20.
47. “Tarpon Bank Increases its Capital by Double,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 14, 1916, 12.
48. “Arrested at Tarpon on Incendiary Charge,” Tampa Morning Tribune, January 15, 1916, 9.
49. “The Florida Press,” Tampa Morning Tribune, May 3, 1917, 6.
50. Marshall Hearings, 934.
51. U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, No. 21, June 5, 1917, Burlington County, New Jersey.
52. Bertram C. Mayo, will dated December 18, 1914, Ocean County Courthouse Wills and Probate Records, 1917–1921, v. 17, pp. 112–40, Tom’s River, New Jersey.
53. Mayo, codicil to will dated May 1, 1915, pp. 125–26.
54. Display Ad, Union Postal Clerk 9, no. 10 (October 1913), 8.
55. “Sues Publishers for $20,000,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 14, 1914, 11.
56. Display Ad, September 3, 1914, 7.
57. Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 2, Washington, D.C., Copyright Office (1916): 333.
58. North Carolina Death Certificates, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Bertram Chapman Mayo, Register No. 444, Buncombe County, North Carolina.
59. “Rides in Plane to Study Lines for Speed Boat,” Saint Petersburg Daily Times, January 25, 1920, 3.
60. “To Purchase Lots,” Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1920, 1.
61. “Many Realty Deals in Tarpon Springs,” Tampa Morning Tribune, March 16, 1920, 9.
62. “Real Estate Transfers,” New York Times, January 12, 1919, RE 9.
63. “Tarpon Springs,” Tampa Sunday Tribune, June 29, 1919, 4B.
64. Mayo, codicil to will dated January 9, 1920, p.132.
65. North Carolina Death Certificates, No. 444.
66. 1920 U.S. Census, Population Schedule, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, p. 43A, line 48.
67. “Estates Appraised,” New York Herald, April 6, 1921, 18.
68. North Carolina Death Certificates, No. 444.