Mini Golf Literature's Common Ancestor

Yesterday was my day to go to the library.  Most of the web-sites I’ve been consulting on the history of minigolf have one book as their source:  “Miniature Golf” by John Margolies.  As far as I can tell, this is the one and ONLY book ever written on the subject of miniature golf!!

I was amazed to find it in the card catalog at the Evanston Public Library, and even MORE amazed to find it on the shelf!!  So, imagine my surprise when I pulled the book off the shelf, only to realize that its cover was made of ASTRO-TURF!!!  I kid

you not!!!  It’s hilarious!!  Seriously, the library just put their weird plastic wrapper right over the astro-turf, just like any other book.  Only, because it’s covered in turf, and now the turf is kinda smashed, it seems like matted fur, making the book feel a lot like that Book of Monsters that Harry Potter had to buy!!  You remember, the one that came with a belt around it so it wouldn’t bite you!!

This book is great - it talks about what fierce competition there was between minigolf courses in the 30s.  They had jungle-themed courses with live animals:  a bear was tethered on one course, a monkey at another.  They were both trained to snatch balls that people had putted!!  
 
 

The Caliente course in Los Angeles had a pool and sunken gardens.  And it had a castle built on top of a natural geyser that spewed steam 100 feet into the air.    Denver, Colorado, had an indoor course that was the first venue of any kind to use neon light tubes submerged in pools!!  Man, what an amazing effect!!  I would like to see that!!  I would like to SWIM in a pool like that!!!

 

John Margolies theorizes that a lot of “theme courses” allowed people to escape from the grim economic realities of the Depression - and immerse themselves in minigolf reality!!  There was a course in Hewes Park (an L.A. suburb), “that had dragons and Chinese junks floating in the water hazards, and an ‘eight piece orchestra of genuine Chinese musicians playing Chinese classical and jazz’.”  

 
Courses that contained miniatures of famous world architecture allowed people to feel as if they’d traveled, during a time when travel was too costly for the majority of people.    I guess that explains the number of Eiffel Towers on courses around the country.

Courses also appeared in some crazy locales.  There was a course installed in a graveyard in California - using the tombstones as a hazard!!  Which reminds me,

there is a course in the Chicago suburbs that’s in the basement of a funeral home!!  If you’re having your funeral there, you get (well, I guess your relatives get) a free round.  I wonder if you can have your coffin be a hazard??  OK, a little over-the-top??  Sorry.  Aaron and I keep saving that course for a day when it’s raining.  So, hopefully we’ll get there before much longer!!

There were minigolf courses built in prisons (the New Hampshire State Prison was one) and at the Lincoln, Nebraska State Hospital for the Insane.  (What a title!!) 

The Ile de France was the first ship to install a course on board.  I haven’t been on a cruise ship as a passenger - I wonder if minigolf is standard on them now??

In any case,  courses sprung up everywhere, and particularly in vacant lots, where many felt minigolf was saving the neighborhood from Depression-era blight (while others felt the minigolf was dragging the neighborhood further down - on account of people playing all night and swearing over their missed shots all night!!)

Although most felt that minigolf was the hope of the Depression, and it did provide 100,000 new jobs at a time when the country clearly needed them, one industry was hurt by the minigolf boom:  the movie industry.   The studios actually discouraged their stars from being seen playing minigolf - they were so threatened by it.  Box office receipts plummetted 25% during the heyday of minigolf.  And yet, at the height of that fight, Mary Pickford built her own, surreal, Max Ernst-inspired course.  Jackie Cougan also built his own private course.  And Fred Astaire, as well as many other stars, were photographed playing minigolf.

Eventually, the studios gave in and began converting failing movie theatres into minigolf courses!!
 
You know, I keep thinking that minigolf is on the rise again on account of it’s cheap, and the economy is so awful right now.  I can’t help but think a rise in minigolf is healthy - simply because of the human interaction required to play.  Seriously, it’s cheaper than the movies, and you get vitamin D.  What could be better??

Coming next:  yet MORE Dollywood (how long were they THERE???)