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15. Max was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker
- The University Press of Kentucky
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Richard Fleischer 93 15 Max was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker. He rarely traveled outside the city. His out-of-the-country experience, not counting his first four years in Austria, amounted to three days in Canada and one night in Mexico. He didn’t do much better within the United States. New York City was his home, and almost nothing could lure him away from it—except Miami Beach. He liked Miami Beach so much that, in 1933, he actually bought a winter home there. It was a modest two-story, Spanish-style house at 3090 Alton Road for which he paid $31,500. During the nasty strike business, Max started to become disillusioned with New York, and his thoughts turned more and more to the attractions of his home in Miami Beach. He often dreamed about building from scratch a state-of-the-art animated cartoon studio there. Then, on December 21, 1937, a world-shattering event took place in the motion picture industry. Walt Disney premiered 94 Out of the Inkwell Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was the first feature-length Technicolor cartoon, and to call it a phenomenal success would be a vast understatement. For several years, Max had wanted to make a feature-length cartoon, but Adolph Zukor, the head of Paramount Pictures, had always turned him down. Who wants to sit through such a long cartoon? It would be too expensive. It would take too long to make. Apparently, Mr. Zukor’s cloudy crystal ball suddenly cleared up because Max was informed that Paramount wanted a feature -length color cartoon. Naturally, Max and Dave were overjoyed , but the problems facing them were nothing less than daunting. Their present staff was about 250. In order to make a feature and still keep up their present output of short cartoons, they would have to expand to seven hundred or more. Obviously, their present quarters at 1600 Broadway were far too small to house that number of artists and technicians. Any space in and around New York large enough to accommodate a mob like that would be prohibitively expensive. And, with a mob like that, union problems were inevitable. It made Max shudder even to consider that prospect. Then, one night at home in the Windermere, Max mentioned these problems to Essie. “Why don’t you talk to the councilmen down in Miami?” she asked. “Maybe they can help.” Max was puzzled by the suggestion. Then he remembered that Essie, being the wife of an international celebrity, had been introduced to some of the city councilmen at a charity dinner in Miami. They had told her how proud they were to have Max buying a home there and had dropped some serious hints about his moving the studio to Miami. They could make it very attractive , they said. Essie had mentioned this conversation to [44.192.47.250] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:45 GMT) Richard Fleischer 95 Max when she got back to New York from a short vacation. It was such a far-fetched notion that, at the time, Max had given it no consideration whatsoever. But suddenly it wasn’t such a far-fetched notion at all. In fact, two days later Max was in a special meeting of the city council members in Miami. In order to understand what was happening, it is necessary to remember that Miami then was not Miami now. In the late 1930s, Miami and Miami Beach were underpopulated, underbuilt, and underknown (the Flagler House was the only large hotel in Miami Beach). The city was desperately looking for someone or something to put it on the map and boost its economy. With Max and a movie studio the equal of Disney’s, plus hundreds of new residents coming in, Miami could have it all. The city councilmen presented Max with a sweetheart deal if ever there was one. There was no space large enough or suitable enough to take care of the studio’s personnel. But, if Max wanted to build a new studio from scratch, they would practically give him all the land he needed. Special deals would be worked out for construction costs. The new studio would be exempt from some taxes and have others drastically reduced with long deferments for payment. Anything and everything that was needed to get the studio built in Miami would be provided on the most favorable terms possible. And then there was the most attractive...