Business: Tom Thumb from Tennessee

While many an old industry sagged last week under the steady pressure of depression, a new one finished a phenomenal first half-year, looked forward to acceleration during the next six months. Furnishing no basic commodity or luxury product, it helps supply the one U. S. demand which no depression can diminish—the demand for new amusements.

Inventor of and apparently chief investor in this new industry is Garnet Carter, the mild, easygoing, drawling owner of Fairyland Inn on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. About a year ago Mr. Carter did what many a U. S. hosteler had done in the past—installed a miniature putting course on his lawns. Finding guests used this more than they did his $340,000 regular course, he made improvements. Tunnels, bunkers, miniature traps were added. Then he invented a putting green made of cotton seed hulls, sure to wear long and well.

Guests saw the course, paid Mr. Carter to build others in their home cities. The U. S. asked him to design one for a District of Columbia park. At this point a great idea came to the Master of Fairyland Inn. He patented his special greens, the name “Tom Thumb Golf.” Patents for his hollow log hazard and other features are pending. Tom Thumb Golf courses became his private property, to use as he would. And he used them shrewdly. A Mr. J. P. Young of Florida, land of many real estate schemes, joined with him and they started to organize. Regional districts were created in which were started manufacturing and distributing companies for Tom Thumb Golf courses.

Thus was inaugurated the newest U. S. industry, miniature golf. The Carter course consists of 18 holes, each from 26 ft. to 50 ft. long. There are runways, small bunkers, hillets, passageways. Only a putter is used. The charge for playing is usually 35¢ in the daytime, 50¢ by night.

Any vacant lot of 60 ft. by 120 ft. or more will do for the Tom Thumb Golf course. The outfit costs $2,000, and an additional sum (more than $1,000) is required for lighting, office and fence equipment. So far Mr. Carter has reaped royalties from about 5,000 courses, 150 of which were sold by the New York office alone during the past 60 days. Still slightly incredulous, he is amazed at the increasing backlog of unfilled orders.

At present the Carter course seems to have a monopoly in the new industry. Any small gasoline station proprietor or owner of a vacant lot could lay out a putting course with only a caddy’s knowledge of the game. But Mr. Carter’s advertisements warn: “Patent No. 1,559,520 controls and protects the construction, maintenance, sales and use of Putting Greens and Playing Surfaces of Cotton Seed Hulls or any comminuted flocculent vegetable material, either in a natural state or dyed to simulate grass, and with or without an admixture of binding substance”

Large scale advertising (THAR’S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS, STRANGER—MILLIONS WILL PLAY) serves both to attract buyers and players. The eloquent Tom Thumb booklet explains: “Passersby see the course, they see people putting—they stop—they lean on the fence surrounding the course—they watch the ball as it travels toward the cup—they scream—they laugh . . . they are fascinated—they want to play—they do play . . . they laugh—they scream—they groan—at last they are playing golf.”