Caribbean Club on

Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected b ...

, northernmost of the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

, was developed and built by auto parts and real estate promoter

Carl Graham Fisher Carl Graham Fisher (January 12, 1874 – July 15, 1939) was an American entrepreneur. He was an important figure in the automotive industry, in highway construction, and in real estate development. In his early life in Indiana, despite fam ...

in 1938. Carl Fisher, considered a genius as a promoter, had conceived the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

, the first road across

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in 1913. Fisher had helped develop the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...

and

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...

and had at one time been worth an estimated $100 million. He lost his fortune in the

Stock Market Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

and the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. One source indicates that during the years before his death, Fisher was living in a modest cottage on Miami Beach. His last project was the development of the Caribbean Club on Key Largo as a

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

club for men who were far from wealthy. Eight years after his death, the Caribbean Club became famous as a purported " on location" filming site for the 1948 film ''

'' starring

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

and

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...

. In fact, only that film's initial exterior shots were filmed in the Florida Keys, and the rest wa
filmed
in the Warner Bros. studio. After Fisher's death, the club was turned into a casino. In 1990, the

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

reviewed the sources of the rumours about the filming of "Key Largo" in an article titled "Who Cares if Bogie and Bacall Never Set Foot Here". At that time, the property was described as a motel with "modest rooms and cottages". By 1948, the property was owned by the Krone family in 1948; it was extensively damaged by fire in 1955 and it was rebuilt in a different style. The Caribbean Club was acquired by Ruth and Lefty Whitehurst in 1963; fire again caused damage in 1971 and repairs were completed. As of 2021, the business was operated by the couple's children and grandchildren. The family's website was reporting that exterior shots for "Key Largo" were filmed here.

References

Books

*Fisher, Jane (1947) ''Fabulous Hoosier'' R.M. McBride and Co.; New York, New York *Fisher, Jerry M. (1998) ''The Pacesetter: The Untold Story of Carl G. Fisher'' Lost Coast Press; Ft. Bragg, California *Foster, Mark S. (2000) ''Castles in the Sand: The Life and Times of Carl Graham Fisher''. University press of Florida; Gainesville, Florida

External links

*
Top 50 Most Influential people in Florida History websiteLincoln Highway Association official website''Newsday: Mogul of Montauk''
* ttp://www.fisherisland.com/ Fisher Island official websitebr>Caribbean Club Official Website2004 article
in the

Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

{{coord, 25, 8, 41.97, N, 80, 23, 48.56, W, scale:2000, display=title Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Florida History of Monroe County, Florida 1938 establishments in Florida