R: That is right. And then Mr. Rickey died and Joe Brown was the general manager
 and we became very close to Joe Brown. That is the son of the famous comedian,
 Joe E[van]. Brown [American actor, comedian, 1892-1973]. This is Joe L. Brown.

P: I have a wonderful picture, by the way. When the University of Florida played
 California, I have a picture of Joe E. Brown, Governor [of Florida 1933-1937, David]
 Scholtz, and Dr. [John J.] Tigert [president, University of Florida, 1928-1947].

R: By golly, that is a collector's item. I think we have a lot of pictures in here of Mr.
 Rickey and things like that. Then, at that time, there was beginning to be more
 activity and growth out on the islands. There was always some talk [that] "we need
 to form our own chamber." So I spent a lot of time cementing relations and assuring
 them that we would be sure that our advertising for tourists talked about the islands
 and talked about the beaches.

P: Greater Fort Myers.

R: That is right, greater Fort Myers. They had a great deal of success with that. We
 did not have any breaking off from the chamber at that period of time. Then there
 was also work on the promotion of the [Thomas Alva] Edison festivities. All the
 Florida tourist towns have some sort of a peak period. Here the peak period was
 the two weeks when the Edison festival occurred.

P: What did they call it, the festival of lights or something?

R: That is right. That was a big thing.

P: Were you instrumental in organizing that or was it already in place?

R: That was in place, but we were constantly working to add to it, to improve it, that
 sort of thing. We worked closely with that. It was really the typical kind of chamber
 of commerce thing, that we needed to do to promote business, that we needed to do
 for the good of the community, and that we needed to work on with the county and
 the city, that sort of thing. I did that for two years, Sam.

P: Now we are talking about 1957?

R: 1958.

P: 1958 and 1959?

R: And 1959 and 1960. Then toward the end of 1960, Mr. Fagan [hired me].

P: Made good on his [earlier promise].

R: The new bank is under construction, and he invited me to come work at the bank
 as vice president.

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