@@@@@I felt for Dave Davis, long dead though he 700
@@@@@I felt for Dave
Davis, long dead though he must be
"How much of his own debts could he cover? Any?"
"He managed at firstThose were boom years in
other parts of the country
"You know a lot about this
"Suncoast art is my passion, EdgarSuncoast
history is my hobbySo Davis survived the Land BustI imagine he sold his stocks
on the bull market to cover his first round of
lossesAnd friends helped him
"Eastlake?"
"John Eastlake was a major angel, and that's aside
from any of Dave's bootleg hooch he may have
stored out on the Key from time to time
"Did he do that?" I askedThat was another time and another
FloridaYou hear all sorts of colorful
Prohibition-era booze-running stories if you live
down here awhileBooze or no booze, Davis would
have been flat broke by Easter of '26 without John
EastlakeJohn was no playboy, didn't go
nightclubbing and cathousing like Davis and some
612
of Davis's other friends, but he'd been a widower
since 1923, and I'm guessing that old Dave might
have helped a pal with a gal from time to time
when his pal was feeling lonelyBut by the summer
of '26, Dave's debts were just too highNot even
his old pals could save him
"So he disappeared one dark night
"He disappeared, but not by the dark of the moon
That was not the Davis styleIn October of 1926,
less than a month after Hurricane Esther knocked
the living hell out of his life's work, he sailed
for Europe with a bodyguard and his new gal-pal,
who happened to be a Mack Sennett bathing beauty
The gal-pal and the bodyguard got to Gay Paree,
but Dave Davis never didHe disappeared at sea,
without a trace
"This is a true story you're telling me?"
She raised her right hand in the Boy Scout salute
- the image slightly marred by the cigarette
smoldering between her first two fingersIn November of '26, there was a memorial
service right over th
