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ent000854-067

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ent000854-067
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    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    INTERNATIONAL ROUND UP OF CORRECT WE A THER-READY?½ COATS A. IMPORTED CAR COAT. Dashing im- ported campus coat of weatherproofed Swiss cotton gabardine, huge stowaway pockets, square leather buttons, ivy-look striped lining. Ivory shade. THE YALE?╟÷About $21.50 B. RAIN STORM COAT. Detachable Or- ion ?╟úfur?╟Ñ collar and zip-out lining make this fine poplin coat warm, plushy and ready for any weather. Washable too! Fly front, slash pockets. Oyster shade. # 4069--?╟÷About $40.00 C. GENUINE LODEN IMPORT. Conti- nental casual coat, imported, of 100% wool Loden Cloth, %% length, side vents, square leather buttons. Front and back yoke for practical protection. Loden Grey, Brown, Navy and Green. #1201?╟÷About $39.50 At smart stores for men?╟÷or write for name of nearest dealer. bushes, a half canoe, an imitation swordfish, a floating palm tree, a portable dock and machines for making wind and waves, though for waves we usually use an outboard motor. We shoot cheesecake by the ton here, although we don't go for still lifes. We like the girls to be doing something in our photos." A strip of paper fluttered across the walk and Pope pounced on it hungrily. ?╟úWe've tried to make the place an outdoor cathedral, pretty as the cathedrals of Europe. Ruins the effect when there's paper lying around," he said, setting off again. ?╟úOh, dear, there?╟╓s a broken branch on that bush. The garden-club ladies will spot it right away." He plucked off the offending branch. ?╟úEvery time I walk through the Gardens I feel so peaceful. Look at that vista with the weeping lantana, bougainvillaea, green lawn, palm trees and Spanish moss. Pretty as a picture. Who'd guess that half the trees are supported by telephone poles? ?╟úWe're getting the celebrities down here now, too?╟÷Ricardo Montal- ban, Leslie Caron, lots of generals, weight lifters, wrestlers and governors, Guy Lombardo, who used to race his boat on our lake, Willie Hartack, the Shah of Iran (he caused a little trouble with his fast driving, until finally I was saying, ?╟ Let's get the Shah on the road?╟╓; fine man, though) and lots of others. I love this business. I had an offer recently to sell the Gardens for upward of three millions. I said ?╟ That won't even cover the down payment.' I don?╟╓t have any trouble placing my pictures any more, except in the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. They think I'm corny. What do I care? Every other newspaper and most of the magazines run my pictures. Television loves me. When you get this big, everybody helps you?╟÷even the tourist. Most tourists take pictures and show ?╟╓em to their friends back home to prove they've been here. Do you know that Cypress Gardens and the Grand Canyon are the two most photographed attractions in the world? I won't say we're as well known as the Canyon, but we're coming up fast." Pope was attracted to the tourist-garden business during the Depres- sion when he heard of a Charleston banker who had opened his gardens to the public at $2 a head. The banker was raking in the leaves, and Pope liked the sound of it. Originally, Pope saw the Gardens as a base from which he could sell real estate, and succeeded in talking the federal government, through the PWA, into financing the project as a public park, with Pope as its eventual director. Influenced no doubt by local newspaper articles that no tourist would come eleven miles from the nearest highway to visit a swamp, which the site then was, the government withdrew its support. Pope decided to plunge alone, despite the refusal of the local banks to lend him money. From his family, Pope managed to raise $35,000, and proceeded to acquire the land, fill the swamp, dig the canals and lay the paths. Pope was no landscape gardener or horticulturist?╟÷he did not know an azalea from a zinnia?╟÷but he laid out the grounds looking through a camera sight. His early verdure came chiefly from the back yards of his neighbors, not all of whom, he says, were at home when he came for plants. In 1935, after two years of preparation, Cypress Gardens was opened to the public, and a few days later Pope crowned his first queen, Miss Holly, a redhead, although Pope has come to prefer blondes because they photograph better. Since then, business at the Gardens has been bloom- ing, despite several near-bankruptcies caused by Pope?╟╓s lavish outlays on publicity. After Cypress Gardens opened, Pope featured stunting for the benefit PLYMOUTH MANUFACTURING COMPANY ?╟≤ BOSTON 18, MASS. TOPCOATS ?╟≤ RAINCOATS ?╟≤ SPORTS OUTERWEAR ?╟≤^26 ESQUIRE z September