Leisureville by Andrew D. Blechman

leather billfolds with zippers. He wrote his own advertising copy, placed it in comic books and other publications, and shipped the products from his office.
    Harold’s first wife, Mary Louise—Gary’s mother—grew up in the same tenement building as Harold and attended the same high school. Once married, the young couple moved in with Harold’s extended family. They divorced about ten years later, and both remarried. Mary Louise left Chicago with Gary and his sister, and eventually resettled in a small town in northern Michigan called Central Lake, a vacation area not far from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
    Mary Louise shared her ex-husband’s entrepreneurial streak. When sugar was rationed during World War II, she and her second husband, Clifford Morse, raised bees and produced honey. She andGary sold the honey door-to-door, as well as at a makeshift roadside stand. In time, the roadside stand, which was enlarged and renamed the Brownwood Honey House, carried vegetables and flowers grown by the family, and local crafts such as moccasins and pottery. Not surprisingly, Mary Louise turned to mail order as well: first Christmas greens, then gift boxes with honey and homemade jam. To further promote the growing business, Gary’s mother relocated an old one-room schoolhouse to the Brownwood site and opened a small country store.
    Mary Louise’s next marketing idea brought her regional fame for its bravado: one winter she moved an abandoned stagecoach inn across a frozen lake to her growing tourism complex. Halfway across the lake, the ice began to shudder and crack, and the workman jumped to safety as the inn slowly sank. Fortunately, it sank atop a sandbar and the frigid water reached only the first floor windows. Residents far and wide gathered to catch a glimpse of the half-sunken country inn, many opting to figure-skate around it once the ice refroze. Mary Louise refused to admit defeat and was said to have been furious when several local men offered to set the inn afire. Two weeks later laborers were able to cut a path in the ice and float the inn to shore. The Brownwood complex eventually added an ice cream parlor, history museum, and tearoom. The family’s farmhouse was soon transformed into a small steak house.
    Gary seems to have inherited his family’s drive to make money and its uncanny ability to promote its business ventures. As a teenager, he took his stepfather’s name—Morse. After high school he left town for college, but soon dropped out and moved back in with his mother.
    Gary put all his energy into making the Brownwood complex grow, paying particularly close attention to the steak house. He began offering free nightly entertainment, and the restaurant soon became the place to hang out for locals and the legions of tourists visiting during the summer months. At one point, Gary had to erecta giant circus tent to accommodate all his customers. He eventually built a dedicated concert space, and continued expanding the restaurant until it sprawled across the Brownwood property.
    Many locals fondly refer to that time in Central Lake’s history as the “Brownwood era.” This was a time when scores of attractive coeds worked for the restaurant and partied intensely after work. In contrast to the Brownwood’s lively reputation, Gary is often described as somber, aloof, and a “hard guy to get to know.”
    Meanwhile, Gary’s father, Harold, remained in Chicago, but traveled extensively, buying radio stations, gas stations, office buildings, and other real estate across the country. At one point he owned the maximum number of broadcasting stations permitted for one person and circumvented the federal law by setting up two “border blasters”—extremely high-power radio stations that broadcast to the United States from across the Mexican border. It was at one of these stations that the legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack