History of the Brazilian Court Hotel

Beach Chamber of Commerce. Hotel Openings

In the early years of the war cars were hard to come by. War production had concentrated on war materi- als such as tanks, jeeps, munitions and war planes. Ford had retooled its Detroit auto factories to make airplane engines and other critical war necessities. Edsel Ford had twisted his father Henry Ford's arm into building the largest factory in existence to build the B - 24 Liberator Bomber. By the end of the war the factory located west of Detroit was turning out more than 750 planes a month. Henry Ford II vacationed in Palm Beach and was dating a guest at the Brazilian Court Hotel in 1942. Ironically Ford had been unable to find a car to use. Bright Johnson ended - up renting him his personal Plymouth during his three - week stay at $50 a week. Ford made Bright remove the 35 mile - per - hour speed governor which had been required during the war as a "patriotic speed limit". Ford, who could be quite cantankerous, swore Bright to secrecy that he was driving a competitors car. After renting to Ford there were several guests at the hotel who rented the car. Bright had to apply for a Motor Vehicle For Hire License. Bright had paid $1,198 for the car new. The rentals brought in $400. Bright was then called into the Army Air Command for service in November 1942. His wife Ruth sold the car to a Miami auto dealer for $1,700. Bright al- ways regretted not going into the auto rental busi- ness. The golf course located west of town on Belvedere Road had been used by a few private airplanes as a landing strip. It was taken over by the Army Air Corp and turned into Morrison Field for war opera- tions. It was common to see bombers flying over the Palm Beaches headed to war.

With no hotels in Palm Beach taken over by the government, managers have been deluged with reservations for mid - season. Some hotels are open already, and others plan to start their season during Decem- ber. Oly Whitehall and Biltmore have not yet announced winter plans. The Brazilian Court will open Dec. 1 ac- cording to Elliott Bishop, manager, who had an outstanding summer season at Montauk Inn. The Venita will open Dec. 15 under Gerald F. Alley, former assistant manager, also owner of the St. Sauveur Hotel at Bar Harbor while its associate, the Brighton opens Nov. 25. James J. Far- rell will return to open the Palm Beach Hotel as usual in early December. The Seaglade will also open early that month with James J. Joyce as manager. Despite the amount of work entailed in preparing the Breaker ’ s Hotel to meet dimout regulations owing to its ocean front location, the Florida East Coast Ho- tel Company announced in the late sum- mer plans to open with full facilities Dec. 24, thus insuring unbroken continuity of the famous resort hotel. John W. Greene, manager, will return early in the month to prepare the placed for opening.

By early 1943 all of the large hotels and even some residences had been taken over by the war effort. The Biltmore became a training station for the wom- en ’ s Coast Guard Reservists known as the Spars. Later it was turned into a hospital. The Breakers be- came the Army Ream General Hospital. The Boca Raton Hotel and Club housed Army Air Corps per- sonnel. Bright Johnson, the assistant manager of the BC, lived at the hotel in the early days of the war. He re- called nearly being thrown from the bed on two oc- casions when German U - Boats torpedoed supply ships just a mile off the coast. Eight ships were sunk off Palm Beach County during the war. There were rumors of Germans coming ashore in the night to buy food and cigarettes on Worth Avenue. There were a couple of incidents involving the cap- ture of Germans, but it is unlikely that any came ashore, bought items and then returned to their ships.

The Whitehall and Brazilian Court were the only two

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