Theodore Pratt Briny Breezes Author

Theodore Pratt ~ Author ~ Resided briefly in Briny Breezes

I remember seeing numerous adults painting seascapes while standing at their easels either at the beach or on their lots.

The Briny Breezes Trailer Park Artists strove to catch the beauty of Florida’s surf and sky. Many of these artists were retirees who had never painted before arriving at the Park. My mother was an artist as well, painting in both watercolor and oil.

Another type of artist stayed for a time at the Briny Breezes Trailer Park, the author Theodore Pratt. My mother recalled meeting the author of the Flame Tree and the Barefoot Mailman, among other works.

Theodore Pratt (author of ): The Barefoot Mailman

Theodore Pratt and his wife lived in Old Floresta in Boca Raton at the time, and decided to stay in the Park for a while to get the feel of trailer life to write his Murder Goes in a Trailer, which was set in a trailer park modeled on Briny Breezes.

Theodore Pratt, author of books and movies about historic Florida and other topics, lived in Florida from 1934 until his death in 1969.

Fourteen of Mr. Pratt’s thirty-five novels are set in Florida.

Florida Based Books by Theodore Pratt:

• Seminole: A Drama of the Florida Indian – (1953)The white men invaded his land, stole his woman and drove his people into the swamps; but Osceola and the Seminoles could not be conquered.
• Seminole (1963). A novel, adapted from the author’s drama: Seminole
• The Story of Boca Raton – 1963
• Florida’s Spanish River Area (1969)
• Pratt’s Trilogy of Southeast Florida
• The Barefoot Mailman (1943) tells of the mail carriers who risked their lives to carry the mail from Palm Beach north to Juno and south to Miami. While the work is fictionalized, the basis is true and it is simply amazing what these men withstood to see the mail delivered.
• The Flame Tree (1950) is about Palm Beach, Flagler’s rail line, the Royal Poinciana Hotel, Bradley’s Beach Club gambling house and Lake Worth.
• The Big Bubble (1951). A novel of the Florida boom.
• Mercy Island – While on what is supposed to be a relaxing fishing trip in the Florida Keys with his wife and his friend, a young husband imagines that his wife is having an affair with his friend. The husband plots are interrupted when they come upon a doctor who is on the run from the law for a crime he didn’t commit.
• Murder Goes in a Trailer (1937) Anthony Adams’s second mystery series is set in a trailer park modeled on Briny Breezes. Written under the pen name Timothy Brace.
• Florida Roundabout (1959)
• Tropical Disturbance (1961)
• Escape to Eden (1953)
• That Was Palm Beach (1958)
• Jacksonville (1947)
• America’s no-surrender Indians (1959)

(Florida) Filmography by Theodore Pratt:

• The Barefoot Mailman (1951) From the novel of the same name; starring Robert Cummings.
• Juke Girl (1942). From a story written by Pratt. The movie starred Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. Two migrant farm works, Danny and Steve (Reagan), wind up in Cat Tail, Florida where Danny works for Madden Packing while Steve works for Nick, a farmer. Madden destroys the tomato crop, Steve, Lola (Sheridan) and Nick take off for Atlanta to sell their crop for big money; only to return Cat Tail and go up against Danny and Madden.
• Mercy Island (1941). Based on Pratt’s novel with the same name.

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