5 things: The price was right and the stars aligned in selling early Cape Coral
A look at how Cape Coral got off the ground in pictures
5 things: The price was right and the stars aligned in selling early Cape Coral A look at how Cape Coral got off the ground in pictures Check out this story on news-press.com: https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/cape-coral/2019/03/23/5-things-price-right-and-stars-aligned-selling-early-cape-coral/3195956002/
Cynthia Williams, Special to The News-Press Published 9:41 a.m. ET March 23, 2019
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a few historical photos of Cape Coral ought to be equivalent to a written history of thousands of words. Now, as we all know, the history of Cape Coral is a wee bit odd, the way it was started by a couple of hair oil hucksters and kind of zig-zagged its way into becoming, not merely a bedroom suburb of Fort Myers, as originally intended, but an insanely fast-growing city.
The following photos should convey, better than words, how the aforementioned salesmen jump-started a city out of a Florida wilderness.
An early promotional pitch for Cape Coral from sports celebrities. (Photo: Courtesy of Cape Coral Historical Museum)
1. First, you get people interested by hiring trusted sports celebrities to promote your product, on site and in person.
in the early days, Cape Coral effectively used airplanes to show prospective buyers home sites. (Photo: Courtesy of Cape Coral Historical Museum)
2. When you get prospective buyers on site, you excite them with sales gimmicks like taking them up in airplanes to toss bags of flour on their chosen home site.
The Nautilus Motel introduced America to the luxurious Cape Coral lifestyle. (Photo: Courtesy of Cape Coral Historical Museum)
3. You pamper guests in luxurious accommodations to which they are not accustomed, giving the illusion that life in Florida is a perpetual vacation in paradise.
The Waltzing Waters were a big attraction in early Cape Coral. (Photo: FL State Archives)
4. You wow prospective buyers with spectaculars, like the Waltzing Waters show imported from Germany, dolphin shows and exotic gardens, furthering the illusion that Florida is a tropical paradise of fun and easy living.
Television game shows were giving away Cape Coral homes and other gifts in the early 1960s. (Photo: Courtesy of Cape Coral Historical Museum)
5. You create excitement for your Waterfront Wonderland nationally by giving away homes as prizes in television game shows.
Did it work? Did it ever. Wow.
Cynthia Williams (cwilliams1020@gmail.com)
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