In a nutshell. For some reason most of we Ameri­cans who have never visited Spain think of this country as a small one and it comes as a shock to find that of all of our States only Texas is larger than she. And her population is pushing thirty million which makes her one of the more populous countries of Europe.

Possibly our ignorance of Spain is due to the fact that few members of this generation have visited Spain. Her civil war broke out in 1936 and didn't end until 1939. Hardly was it over but the Second World War began and for nearly seven years Europe was wrapped in conflict and tourism was a forgotten luxury. Both Spanish and American officials are trying to ignore the fact now but Spain was, and is, a fascist country and during the war she supported the Axis Powers. This undoubtedly helped, when the war was over, to keep American tourists from the country. For years Spain was virtually ignored.

Tourists were coming to Europe as never before, but the main points of interest were further north, England, France, Switzerland, Italy. In 1947 only 3,700 of our countrymen entered Spain and the figure only slightly more than doubled in 1948.

But finances have been chaotic since the war and everywhere prices have literally zoomed. France, once a bargain paradise, became as expensive as the United States, or nearly so. And Switzerland and Italy trailed not far behind. Rumors began to drift up from the south that Spain was still operating at pre-war prices. That you could travel in Spain at a fraction the price in the more popular tourist countries, or could retire on a pittance.

And nothing spreads so fast in the traveling set, and those who live permanently, or semi-permanently abroad as such rumors. Thousands began to drift into Spain, and then tens of thousands, until at this writing at least a quarter of a million Americans visit Spain each year, and thousands have become permanent residents.

Of course, just because a country is cheap is no reason to retire there. Possibly the cheapest place I have ever been is the interior of Turkey. I would estimate that given the current black market rate of exchange, you could live there like a pasha for $50 a month for a couple. But what would you do? What would you see? Who would you talk to? You might live in a palace and have a swarm of servants on $100 a month in one of the smaller towns of inland Turkey—but you'd probably go stark raving mad after a couple of months or so.

But Spain offers a good deal more than economy. Her scenery is varied, her climate probably the best in Europe, with the possible exception of the Greek islands, there is a wide Anglo-American population which guarantees companionship if you cannot find it among the Spaniards, and the luxuries as well as the necessities of life are available.

There is one thing that you are undoubtedly going to resent in Spain and I might as well state it bluntly. In spite of the fact that Uncle Sam is currently playing footsie with Franco, in return for military bases, this country is a police state and everywhere you see signs of it. In no country in Europe, even behind the Iron Curtain, have I seen so many armed police and soldiers continually patrol-ing the streets and roads, two by two, machine guns slung over their backs. Spain has one of the largest standing armies in Europe, and have no doubt about it, it is not because Franco's state fears invasion—the army and police are there to protect the state from the Spanish.

However, as far as you, personally, are concerned you are not apt to be touched by this situation. Foreigners, and particularly Americans, bring foreign exchange into the country so largely they are left alone. Spain is a beautiful country, her people wonderful people. If you are not depressed by her social system you will probably love her.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. All you need to enter Spain is your American passport. If you decide to stay for more than six months you'll need a resident's permit but this is no more complicated to acquire than expending a few minutes at the local police station. In fact, as soon as you leave your hotel or pension and take up residence in a house or apartment, you are supposed to register the new address with the police. However, these things are usually handled in a rather lax way.

When I first entered Spain I didn't know of this requirement until I'd been living in my own house for nearly four months. So one day I went around to the police and told them I wished to register. They asked me why I had taken so long and I shrugged and told them I didn't know there was such a requirement. So they looked at me for a minute, as though they didn't know what the hell to do, and then shrugged too and listed my name and new address in their books.

If you are thinking in terms of retiring permanently in Spain, or even living in the country for several years you might well consider bringing with you a used refrigerator and/or a used butane-gas type stove. These are ultra-expensive in Spain but you are allowed to enter with used ones, tax free, if it is for your own use and not for sale. Other household equipment comes under the same regulations.

TRANSPORTATION. Spain is almost as easy and as economical to reach as are England and France, but not quite. All of the great airlines have services between New York and Madrid: TWA, Pan American, BOA, KLM, SABENA and Swissair. At this writing 1st class is $436.40 one way, tourist class, $320.30.

In the past couple of years there has been a great increase in the number of travelers who sail directly to Spain when coming to Europe, rather than landing in England or France. In fact, the facilities in Gibralter and Algeciras are currently being strained to accommodate the visitors landing from Italian Line, American Export Lines, Home Lines and a score of other shipping lines ships. The Italian Line ships start at $200 tourist class, New York to Gibralter, in off season. American Export, at $210. You can also get passage by liner or freighter to Malaga, Barcelona, San-tander, Bilbao and Cadiz.

Transportation within the country has its grim side. There are some swank trains, particularly those running to Madrid from the French border, and the 2nd class diesel trains whose tickets are premium priced aren't too bad, but as a rule Spanish trains are not the best and schedules are poorly kept. They are apt to be crowded in all but first class and except for the special trains mentioned above, very dirty. The government is currently spending a good deal of money revamping the railroads but how long this will take is a question. However, rates are very cheap and this is one country in which we recommend that you travel first class, particularly if you want a seat.

Roads are no better than railroads. There are a few passable highways, once again mostly stemming from Madrid which is, of course, centrally located and dominates Spain as Mexico City does Mexico.

If you planned to buy a car in Spain upon arrival I strongly advise against it. At this writing it would cost you from two to three times as much to buy a car in Spain as it would in the United States or one of the other European countries. Taxes on cars are sky-high. Usually, Americans residing in Spain buy their car in Gibralter, Tangier, France or England and then drive it into Spain as a tourist. Under this arrangement you are at present only allowed to have it for two and a half years, then it must be taken from the country, and you are not allowed to return with it for another six months. Happily there are rumors, at this writing, of the law being changed. I suggest that you check with the A.A.A. if this is one of your problems.

Mechanics in Spain are good and repair prices low unless new parts are involved. The gas is expensive and of very poor quality and the oil is horrible.

THE SPANIARDS. It is possible to type a people such as the Swiss or the Danes with a certain amount of accuracy but when you take a country as large as Spain it becomes as difficult as it would be to type the American. Obviously all Americans aren't the same—neither are all 30 million Spaniards.

In Andulusia in the south, for instance, live the gypsies and although I have no prejudices in matters of race, nationality, or color I think I can truly state that the Spanish gypsy is the dirtiest, most poverty stricken, most dishonest, most untrustworthy people I have met in Europe, certainly they are the most lazy and shiftless. To the other extreme you have the residents of Madrid and also the Catalans of Barcelona who are modern, aggressive, hard work­ing, honest folk who differ comparatively little from the average American.

Personally, I like the average Spaniard. I find him honest; clean, to the extent his poverty allows him to be; hospitable far beyond the extent he can afford; in love with his country, but with an amazing lack of knowledge about the rest of the world; a lover of his family, but also of good wine and good food, not to speak of good folk music. He is also, in spite of all misinformation to the contrary a hard worker (except for the gypsies).

MONEY. Spain has one of the softest currencies in Europe, and all indications are that it will become softer, especially if Uncle Sam discontinues plowing large sums of dollars into the shaky economy. At this writing, officially the peseta sells at a tourist rate of 42 to the dollar but in Tangier you get 53.50 to the dollar. I have seen it as low as 62 to the dollar in Tangier which is an indication of how greatly it can fluctuate.

No laws are broken by bringing pesetas into Spain. You are allowed to bring 10,000 of them for each member of your group. And you are also allowed to have your bank send you 3,000 pesetas a day. Before coming to Spain, however, I'd check this again with either the travel agent, your bank, or your money exchange house since laws can change quickly in this field.

WORK PERMISSION. You are allowed to work in Spain only if you have a work permit and if the job is of a type that a Spaniard could not fill. Actually this doesn't really affect you since Spanish pay is so inadequate that you would not be interested. As in all economical countries, labor prices are appallingly low. If you're interested in working, you'll have to swing some deal that involves a job other than an ordinary one for a Spanish concern. If you have some angle that will help tourism or in some other way attract dollars or other foreign currency, the authorities couldn't be happier.

If you work for dollars either for some American concern with a branch in Spain or for the American Armed Forces, no per­mission is necessary for such jobs. As far as I know they're the only jobs worth having in Spain.

Usually in opening a business, the American will take on a Spanish partner in whose name the business will operate. It is possible otherwise, but more difficult.

If you are the exception that proves the rule and do wish a work permit so that you can take a Spanish job, paid in pesetas, you apply first to the Ministerio de Informacion y Turismo and even­tually are put in the hands of the Ministerio de Trabejo (Ministry of Labor). Address in both cases is simply, Madrid.

PRICES. As we've stated above, Spain is currently the cheapest country in Europe. It is still quite possible to live comfortably on one hundred dollars a month—for a couple. A single man or woman can make out on about $75. We know of various people who are doing it on much less. Adding to this amount, even just a little bit sends your standard of living up very rapidly. Doubling it puts you in a living standard group probably considerably higher than the average American's what with a really large home and two or more servants. An income of $300 a month in Spain is real wealth; you would live like a SpanisL Don and his Senora.

Let's break this down into definite prices.

Rent, as always, is the largest single item on your budget. When this writer lived on Majorca in 1955 he rented a rather large villa in the town of Soller during the summer season when rents are highest, for 750 pesetas a month which today would be somewhat less than $15 but at that time was about $17.50 due to the weakening of Spanish money. For this I had a three bedroom house, one room of which I converted to a study. I had a large living room, complete with fireplace, a dining room, a kitchen with gigantic pantry, a balcony which overlooked the town of Soller and the Mediterranean sea, a patio, a sundeck and two gardens.

The gardens contained more than twenty rose bushes as well as other flowers and also almond and fruit trees. A gardener's assistance came free with the house. The house was completely furnished including linens, dishes and kitchenware.

But this was in 1955 and prices have gone up since then although little faster than the Spanish peseta has fallen in the money markets of the world. Consequently, if your money is in dollars, you find prices little higher than they were then.

More recently we took a villa in the art colony of Torremolinos, just eight miles south of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, the southern coast of Spain. This area is booming currently and is by no means the cheapest section of Spain. For another three room villa we paid 1,200 pesetas a month which comes to $21.80 at the current ex­change. That's rather high rent for Spain but not bad for Tor­remolinos. Our view was superb, we were in a pleasant, quiet, and "good" section of town.

But one thing must be understood in regard to Spanish villas. You must have servants. The modern American home com­paratively runs itself, the Spanish villa doesn't. The floors are usually of tile and must be washed every day. There are few washing machines and laundry must be done by hand. Little canned food and no frozen food is used in the average home so cleaning and washing of vegetables becomes a daily chore.

In a small villa, if you wish to do your own cooking, one servant will be ample. If you want a cook, and you probably do since Spanish stoves and other kitchen equipment are primitive by our standards, that will make it two servants. If you go in for gardens, and most folk do in Spain, you can have a gardener come in once or twice a week. Cost? Six or eight dollars a month for a good all around girl. Eight or ten for a good cook. The gardener will run you about fifty cents a day.

If you have your servants live in (most houses come equipped with servant quarters) you'll have the cost of their food added to the above, of course. If your house is quite small, one way to save is to have the girl come in the morning at about eight and work through until two o'clock which is lunch time in Spain. Then let her go home for the day. Cost? About six dollars a month, but you have no expenses feeding her, except breakfast which is merely coffee and bread in Spain.

Food prices? Almost everything is purchased fresh or in bulk in the town markets. Practically no canned or bottled foods are used. Those that are in the shops are usually quite high, pro­hibitively so to the Spanish themselves. In season vegetables and fruits are almost unbelievably cheap. Following are some typical food prices:

Bread, pound loaf 5*    Milk, quart 10*

Rolls, apiece 1 1/2*      Cheese, pound 60*

Oranges, apiece 1 1/2* Butter, pound 65*

Prawns, 40* a lb.   Steak, pound 55*

Lettuce, head 1*    Stewing beef, pound 35*

Swordfish, pound 25*  Leg of lamb, pound 35*

Clams, pound 4*   Pork chops, pound 50*

Live lobster, pound 154            Eggs, apiece 5*

Spain is one of the few countries in the world where drinking is not prohibitively expensive even for the very poor. Foreigners usually soon get used to having an aperitif before lunch or dinner and either red or white wine, or both, with the meal. Red wine costs 14* a liter (slightly more than a quart) and white wine 12* a liter. Vermouth, popular as an apertif, or dry sherry will go higher at 18* and up a liter. Really fine wines, the best sherries, which would cost you three or four dollars in the States, and even more, will go for about 80*. Even spirits are not high. Cognac starts at about 36* a liter and the really fine brands are about 75* a bottle. Good gin is 80* or 90* a bottle and rum about the same. The only good whiskey is imported and prohibitively expensive. Spanish cham­pagne starts at about 40* a bottle and very good bubble water will run about a dollar a bottle.

Even drinking in cafes and bars is not at all expensive. At a sidewalk cafe in Soller we used to pay one peseta (less than 2*) for a vermouth and soda. In Torremolinos, the cheapest bar in town has a one peseta cognac, or you can sit at Manolo's on the square and have a large glass of white wine for two pesetas. At Manolo's this price includes a tapa which is Spain's equivalent of free lunch and is apt to be some shrimp, some bread and cheese, or a dish of french fried fresh sardines.

Clothing? Spanish labor being as cheap as it is, the usual thing is to have your clothing tailored, your shoes made to order. A suit of good quality will cost about $35 tailored in Malaga or Palma—a bit more in Madrid or Barcelona, a bit less in some of the smaller cities. It is customary in southern Spain for Americans and British to buy their textiles in Gibralter where the high British taxes that plague you in England do not apply. They are then taken into Spain and done up by a Spanish tailor. Thus you get the finest tweeds or gabardines plus the excellent Spanish tailoring. A pair of custom made men's shoes will run eight dollars in Torremolinos, but the price can be beaten in Malaga, only eight miles away.

Other costs of living are in proportion. A movie will go 10^ to 16^ admission. Doctors charge fifty cents to a dollar for a home visit. English speaking doctors, by the way, are usually graduates of the Barcelona medical school which boasts a world wide reputation. Transportation by either bus, rail or air is probably the cheapest in Europe—but not the best by any means.

PARTICULARLY RECOMMENDED LOCALITIES. Spain has a score or more cities and towns that would be suitable for an American living abroad. Among the best of these are: Marbella, Torremolinos and Malaga, on the Southern Coast and Tossa de Mar, Cadaques, San Feliu de Guixols, Rosas, Tamariu, Playa de Aro and Ampurias, on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona. On the Atlantic in the south both Cadiz and Huelva (from whence Colum­bus sailed) are attractive but have comparatively small Anglo-American colonies. As a contrast, American military bases have recently been built in the Seville and Jerez (from whence comes Sherry) area and there are swarms of Americans. This ups your chances for employment or for starting a small business, but it also ups prices. On Majorca, the particularly recommended towns are Palma itself, the capital, and Deya, Soller, Formentor and Pollensa.

Of all these—and there are many more in Spain—I will choose two as examples, Torremolinos and Soller.

Torremolinos, just a short time ago was an unknown fishing village nestled up against a cliff. It had scenic beauty, miles of beaches in both directions, and had a quaint Spanish charm which brought its first foreigners—artists. Art colonies, as I've pointed out in the chapter devoted to them, grow slow at first, then at a rapidly accelerating speed. One artist tells another. Here is a beauti­ful, inexpensive, untouched, unsophisticated paradise. Soon writers, musicians, sculptors drift into town and following them, would-be artists and writers. As the colony grows retired folk with an in­terest in the arts begin finding homes, buying them, improving them. An American bar springs up, an American store, an Ameri­can restaurant. And then, overnight, there are thousands of foreigners in town.

And thus it was with Torremolinos. Today she still retains her beauty, her climate, and most of her economy of living, but the untouched, unsophisticated qualities are gone. A paradise she remains, and probably one of the best spots in Spain in which to retire at any age.

Soller is in contrast to Torremolinos. Not nearly as overrun with tourists and short time sojourners, she is quieter, and cheaper than the southern city. About ten miles from Palma as the crow flies, Soller is on the north coast of Majorca often described as the most beautiful coastline in the world. Actually, there are two towns, Soller proper and Puerta de Soller, the town's port which is about three miles away and nestled about a bay which has been used as a port since Phoenecian times. (In fact, skin divers are continually bringing up old wine and olive oil vases from Greek and Phoen­ecian times). A small trolley connects the two towns.

Swimming in Soller is superb with some of the clearest blue water this writer has ever seen this side of the South Pacific atolls. Such sports as skin diving reach their heights and boating is popular. Water sports are practical about nine months of the year, some­times as many as eleven. Although on the water, Soller lays claim also to unrivaled mountain scenery since she is located in a small valley from which the tallest mountains on the island are seen to loom in all directions.

For the American on the lookout for a job, an investment, or interested in opening a business Torremolinos would be the better of these two cities, but a person primarily interested in retiring in a beautiful location and rock bottom prices would find Soller preferable. The number of Anglo-Americans is much smaller in Soller but those that do reside in this bargain paradise are more apt to be permanent. The "case histories" described below could in many cases be applied to either town. In fact, most of them could be applied to any of the dozen or more towns and villages enumerated above.

CASE HISTORY No. 1. I doubt very much that Robert L. Trimmell was the originator of the little system he uses to make an excellent living in Palma, capital of the island of Majorca (also spelled Mallorca), and the Spanish province of the Balearic Islands. We doubt it because we've seen the same plan used elsewhere and assume that it will be used again and again because it is a natural, needs very little capital to start and makes everyone involved happy including the Spanish authorities who sometimes take a dim view of foreigners making good money in Spain.

Trim, as everybody calls him for short, puts out a papercovered book entitled Trim's Majorca Guide which is to be found on every newstand and in every magazine shop in Palma, and, for that matter, in hotels, restaurants, tourist shops and everywhere else he can think of as an outlet for distribution. The copy I have before me as I write this, cost about fifty cents in American money as I recall. I would estimate that, Spanish labor being as low as it is, it cost Trim approximately .05 per book to print; certainly not more. But his book sales are only a part of his revenue since Trim's Majorca Guide is crammed with advertising and his ad rates are high and justifiably so because advertising with Trim pays off.

What it amounts to is that any American or British tourist, or anyone else who can read English, who comes to Majorca and fails to buy a copy of Trim's guide is being foolish. The book consists of some 75 pages of information on night life, beaches, shopping, maps, photos, timetables, history, geography, churches, museums and special tips on seeing the islands. Your fifty cents investment pays off in saved time and greater enjoyment a dozen times over.

English speaking tourists literally swarm to Palma and every­where they turn on disembarking they are confronted with the opportunity of purchasing one of Trim's guides. Thousands of them do so every year. The shops, hotels, restaurants and real estate agents who take ads in the guide can feel the pull of his advertisements. Each year he brings out a new edition, keeping it up to date—and collecting for new ads.

Such a guide is not difficult to compile. Everybody in town wants to cooperate with you—obviously. The tourist officials will deluge you with material both printed and verbal. The police and other officials, realizing that you are performing a service that a Spaniard cannot, and that you are helping tourism in the vicinity, cooperate in every possible way. The maps and photographs in Trim's guide were provided free of charge by the tourist bureau.

It was a matter of Trim collecting his material, going around to potential advertisers and securing ads, locating a printer and then going about the book shops, magazine and newspaper stands and elsewhere to line up his distribution. Once the first edition was out, it was a matter of coasting. Changes made in new editions are not considerable ones. Prices might fluctuate a little, one restaurant close and another open, a new hotel might be erected, but basically Trim's Major can Guide remains about the same. Year in and year out this wonderful little source of revenue pays off while Trim enjoys the climate and scenic beauty of one of the most desirable islands in the world.

Just to give you a more complete picture of Trim's baby, here are the chapters into which his Table of Contents breaks down: Introduction; Majorca's Geography; the Majorcans and their Language; Palma; Rope-Sole Beach; How Much To Tip; Lotteries; History; How to Read the Map Without a Dictionary; Souvenirs; How Not to Spend a Fortune at the Bullfights; Airlines Serving Majorca; Passenger Ships; Train Timetables; Bus Lines; Excur­sions; Beaches; Where to Go by Night; A Place too Beautiful To Live In; Shopping Areas; Money Changing; Our Advertisers; Hotels.

Among his advertisers are: real estate agents, jewelers, bars, restaurants, night clubs, tailors, snack bars, hairdressers, a lending library, grocery stores and delicatessens, antique shops, garages, hotels and photo shops.

As I've said before, Trim isn't the only American abroad cashing in on this scheme and we'll investigate variations of it under dif­ferent chapter headings. However, not even a dent had been made in this field in the great tourist cities of Europe. Every city that is deluged with tourists is a natural for such an English speaking guide. In the very large cities, of course, there are or could be more than one. But in the smaller cities and resort towns there are usually none at all and a crying need for such a publication.

What would I estimate it would cost to get such a guide going? In a cheap country like Spain, where printing costs are astonish­ingly low, less than one hundred dollars.

How much writing know-how would you need to produce such a guide? Very little. Practically none. If you've had a high school education, and didn't flunk too badly in English, you'd be able to do it. Most of the material you use is copied from tourist office literature. But if you are incapable of doing the little writing in­volved, you'll almost always find in such towns as these an Ameri­can or British newspaperman or free lance writer who would do up for you that part of the booklet calling for writing. What would this cost you? Peanuts. There would be little time and effort involved on his part.

If you'd like a copy of Trim's Majorca Guide to give you a more complete picture of just what he publishes, a dollar to the follow­ing address would pay for the book and postage: Trim, 649 Calvo Sotelo, Palma, Majorca, Baleares Islands, Spain.

CASE HISTORY No. 2. Miss Valerie Wilson is a British subject but her method of making a comfortable living in Torremolinos, in Southern Spain, is one gaining popularity in a score of cities where there are large Anglo-American colonies.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of Americans living abroad and even larger numbers of Britons who prefer not to live in what is sometimes described as the worst climate in the world— that of England. Invariably the larger number of these expatriates gather into resorts and world beauty spots where they can enjoy not only the gracious living but also each other's company. Many of these Americans and British never learn the language of the country in which they reside. They stick to their own groups and live, to the extent possible, the same type of life they would at home.

Valerie Wilson, a quiet, cultivated girl of less than thirty years, rented a large house and converted the first floor to an "Anglo-American Club." She had built a small bar, bought half a dozen bridge tables and some chairs, decorated the place nicely but in­expensively with local art and handicrafts, and opened for business.

At any one time Valerie would have at least a hundred members of her club. They liked to have a gathering place, a meeting place, a place where you could always find sufficient friends for a game of cards. They paid a monthly membership fee of one hundred pesetas (about $2) which is almost meaningless in the States but added up to a comfortable $200 a month for Valerie.

But that was just the beginning. Valerie also put in a circulating library of papercovered American and British popular fiction and charged one peseta a day for rental. This item alone more than paid for her rent in book hungry Spain.

She also served tea, an absolute must in British diet. "My dear, don't you know, Valerie's club is the only place this side of Gibral-ter where you can get a decent cup of tea."

For American tastes there was coffee, small sandwiches and cakes.

The bar was another profitable source of income. Valerie's members were not the town's drinking set, but a glass or two of sherry in the afternoon, or a highball or so in the evening, were the usual thing. Liquor is cheap in Spain, but, as everywhere else, mark-up when you sell it over the bar is high—more than one hundred percent. Valerie hired an attractive young Spanish boy for a few hundred pesetas a month as a bartender and taught him the little he had to learn about the ins and out of polite drinking. She also hired two pretty Spanish girls to wait on table and to keep the house clean.

However, Valerie still had two floors to her large house that were not as yet in use, so she fixed up three of the rooms for permanent residents and charged them rates for occupancy that were slightly higher than those of local hotels. Her guests were willing to pay the premium for the sake of living in a completely English speaking atmosphere. The large room of her second floor she rented in the mornings, when club members were seldom present, to a teacher of flamenco dancing.

On the third floor she made her own quarters, and very com­fortable they were.

What were her costs? The house rented for exactly two thousand five hundred pesetas a month which is less than fifty dollars at the present free market rate of exchange. Her tables, chairs, the bar and decorations would have come to possibly another seventy-five dollars in all. Servants in Spain cost from six to ten dollars a month.

This case history even has a story book ending because Valerie no longer runs her Anglo-American Club in Torremolinos. Into the club, one day, came a young Briton who was on his vacation from his job in Kenya, Africa, where he was manager of a large cattle ranch. When he returned to Kenya, Valerie went with him as his bride.

What chance is there of an American woman opening a similar establishment? The chances are excellent—but not in Torremo­linos. Someone else took up where Valerie left off and there just isn't room in town for a competitor. However, there are cities all over Spain (Marbella, Sevilla, Alicante, to name just a few) where there are openings. It would be a matter of traveling about a bit, asking questions of the local residents in each town touched, and settling down when a spot was located. Nor is Spain the only country where the plan is feasible. True, both rents and servants are cheap in Spain but the same applies to Austria, Greece, Morocco and other nations. For that matter, American and British residents in such expensive countries as France and Italy fully expect to pay more for their entertainment and would hardly object to double and triple the prices that prevail in Spain.

CASE HISTORY No. 3. The following is the story of an Ameri­can boy of about twenty-five whom we shall call Friendly Ed which isn't his name—but on the other hand the compiler of this book has no intentions of being sued for libel, so a little discretion is in order. This case history may sound amusing to you, but it's true. The name of the town we'll call Huesca, an Anglo-American art colony in Southern Spain and this is the way Friendly Ed tells it as accurately as I can recapture his free-wheeling method of talking: "I was working in this slaughter house in Brooklyn, see. Geez you never seen such a job in your life. Holy hell, that was work, see. Knee deep in guts. The pay, it wasn't so bad. I took home maybe eighty bucks or so, not bad. But, Holy hell, every week-end I'd blow it around the bars, see, and on the dames. How about that? Well, anyway, I got fed up with all that jazz. I woulda been a old man by time I was forty. So I cut out the beer and all and I started saving my dough. You'll never believe this but I saved a thousand bucks in half a year, maybe seven months, then me and a friend we took off for Spain. We didn't even have enough dough to get back, but we didn't give a Holy hell. First off where'd we hit? Huesca. We went on a tear, see. Started spending what little dough we had in the bars but, Holy hell, that doesn't cost anything in Spain, we coulda stayed drunk for six months. But the end of a couple of weeks or so, I was standing around talking to this Span­iard who owns the Cafe Continental. He's moaning about needing some money to expand. Well, me and Dick we looked around the place. It was jammed. Huesca was growing like Holy hell. Tourists was just beginning to dig Spain. Geez, we sobered up and got to thinking about it. What this town needed was a real American bar. You know, a place where you could get martinis, stuff like that. A place where they got cold beer, like that. Well, we wrote back to the States and we put the bite on everybody we could think of, my old man and everybody. I had them sell some crap I had back home, like this old beat up Hudson, I had, and when I got it all together I bought into the Cafe Continental for two thousand bucks. Two thousand lousy bucks for one third. How about that? Well, then the funny thing is neither me or Dick, he bought in too, could work there. We could tell them what to do, and we could have the place fixed up American style, we had this artist do up the walls, but the government wouldn't let us work behind the bar. Holy hell, all we could do was sit around and be our own best customers. Anyway, like me and Dick knew, it got to be the hang­out for all the Americans and the foreigners. We had money coming in all over the place. So what'd we do? Huesca was growing like crazy so we opened up a nightclub, just a couple of doors down. A swanky place, see. Holy hell, you'd think you was in Miami Beach. We had to borrow dough to get it decorated and all, but we wanted to open up before somebody else got the bright idea there was room for a night club in Huesca. So we opened El Simpatico and it boomed too so we added a orchestra and a floor show and boosted prices and it still boomed. So we borrowed some more money and enlarged again, see. If it wasn't for all this here en­larging and all we'd be rolling in dough, but just about time me and Dick figure we're going to start really living it up, Holy hell, some other chance comes along and we have to get into it. How about that? I don't know if we'll ever see any real dough. Anyway, it's a good place to live, Huesca, and we're still our best customers."

I repeat, the real name isn't Friendly Ed, the name of the town isn't Huesca and we've even changed the name of the bar and nightclub but otherwise the story is straight and that's approxi­mately how Friendly Ed reports it. On a two thousand dollar investment he's parlayed up an enterprise now worth many tens of thousands of dollars.

This is a good example of having a small amount of capital, American dollars are always preferable, and stumbling onto an opportunity. Every country in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, on our side of the Iron Curtain, is short of investment capital and particularly dollars. Opportunities are everywhere. Business opportunities, real estate, putting out money on loan at rates that would shock an American loan shark.

Could you duplicate this case history? No, of course not. The opportunity Friendly Ed ran into was unique. But there are hundreds, thousands, of similar opportunities, all of them unique in their own way. You have to be on the spot, have a little capital and recognize a break when one comes along.

CASE HISTORY No. 4. Possibly one of the best examples of Americans making a go in Torremolinos shouldn't be in this book because far from retiring, Mrs. Stevens and her son Paul have probably never worked so hard in their lives. It happened like this: Mrs. Stevens, a still-young, attractive woman decided some years ago that the humdrum life wasn't for her. At one time or another she lived in such attractive cities as San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and other art colonies. Unfortunately, she hadn't sufficient money to live without work and finding a job was in order.

The Stevenses arrived in Torremolinos even before Valerie Wil­son. The town, a former sleepy fishing village, was already showing signs, however, of growing into the Anglo-American art colony it has now become. Mrs. Stevens, who had seen the success of the Book Shop in San Miguel de AUende, decided a similar shop would go in Torremolinos and on a shoestring rented a small place right on the plaza. American magazines, stationery, tourist postcards, some souvenirs, that sort of thing. In one of the back rooms, Paul, a boy in his early twenties, started a circulating library using mostly paperbacks.

Right from the first things went fairly well. As the Stevenses per­fected their Spanish, they went better. La Galeria, handily located there on the plaza became somewhat of an information bureau and center of the Anglo-American tourists and permanent residents. Time after time tourists would come in and ask if there was a local photo shop where they could have film developed. Paul had to explain that there wasn't, that the film had to go into Malaga eight miles to the north. Finally he got tired of this and since he was an amateur photographer himself, altered another of the rear rooms into a dark room. He has a couple of Spanish boys now who do almost all of the printing and developing of the extensive Tor­remolinos area. A neat little business in itself.

Above all, American, English—and Germans, French and Scandinavians, for that matter—would come in and ask about house rentals. Not being able to speak the language themselves, they had difficulty in finding apartments and villas. So, without even trying, the Stevenses got into the real estate business along with everything else. And Torremolinos real estate was booming.

Meanwhile, business in La Galeria was growing. The more Tor­remolinos grew as a tourist and art colony center, the more the shop became the town center. Mrs. Stevens' taste is excellent and she began adding expensive art objects, antiques and Spanish clothing to her stock. Without doubt, La Galeria is today the best establishment within many miles in which to pick up Spanish art objects and handicrafts.

So today La Galena is the photoshop, one of the largest real estate agencies, the largest circulating library, the largest English language magazine shop, the smartest souvenir shop in the boom­ing town of Torremolinos. But have the Stevenses, mother and son, retired? Afraid not. They're working just as hard as they would in a similar establishment in Southern California. There are several big differences, of course. They hire half a dozen or so Spanish to take the drudgery off their shoulders, and their income is sufficient to allow them a way of life far beyond the average American one. At the rate they are going it's not difficult to imagine them selling out one of these days and really retiring. It wouldn't be difficult, the business is worth a mint.

Could you do what Mrs. Stevens and Paul accomplished? Cer­tainly, given a small amount of capital. Spain is currently booming. The cheapest country in Western Europe, the tourists are descend­ing upon her like swarms of locusts. A dozen towns, unknown a few years ago, are becoming internationally famous centers. All along the Costa del Sol age-old fishing villages are waking up to find themselves deluged with money-heavy tourists. Literally tens of thousands of pensioners from the United States, England and all the European nations are retiring along this most pleasant beach area of Southern Europe.

The thing you possess which is priceless in Spain is your knowl­edge of the English language and of the things that Americans and other tourists want. Not one out of a thousand Americans who come to Spain is looking for work or for an investment opportunity. He's either arrived as a tourist and will be gone in a few months at most, or to retire in this bargain-basement paradise. For these Americans to find someone to give them a hand is a great relief. Such shops as La Galeria are gold mines because they serve this need.

CASE HISTORY No. 5. David and Florence Friend didn't arrive in Torremolinos quite as soon as Mrs. Stevens and Paul, but they too saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. Prices for Spanish houses were low. Dirt cheap, we'd call them in the States. The Friends bought one for themselves and settled down in semi-retirement. David was working out a new system for teaching art and writing a book on the subject.

Across the street from them on the Calle de San Miguel was another house open for sale. David bought it up and converted it into four efficiency apartments, each a one room affair with a small kitchen and a small bath. Cost of this conversion was small due to the fact that Spanish electricians, plumbers and other skilled laborers work in Spain for about a dollar a day.

Now efficiency apartments are dear to the heart of the big city dwellers of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles—or Paris and Lon­don for that matter. But they are an unknown in Spain. People with enough wealth to afford bathrooms and modern kitchens build large houses and staff them with hah0 a dozen servants. After all, labor is cheap.

But many Americans, in town for a few months, don't want extensive establishments and above all don't want servants under foot, particularly if their Spanish is inadequate to give orders and instructions.

David Friend's efficiency apartments aren't elaborate but they're snug, clean and comfortable. They are always rented.

Could you do the same? Certainly, this is just one more example of having a little capital, seeing a need and filling it. With your knowledge of the American way of life, opportunities present them­selves to you that would never occur to the native Spaniard. An efficiency apartment? We have a suspicion that half the Spaniards in town think that David Friend was crazy to build such things, and probably all the Spaniards in town are convinced that the people who live in them at the cost of $20 and $30 a month are absolutely simple.

CASE HISTORY No. 6. The story of Micheal Wands starts back during the war when he spent several years in the South Pacific. The war over, he decided that factory work, or office drudgery, wasn't for him. He went to Paris and, on a shoestring, opened a small restaurant. It was slanted toward Australians and New Zea landers and got quite a play from English speaking tourists and Parisian residents. But after a time, Mike found himself working just as hard as he would have been doing in the factory or office to which he had originally objected and wasn't getting particularly ahead financially. He called it quits, sold out and headed for Spain.

Palma Majorca, was the first stop and Mike looked around for some means to stretch out his small and rapidly dwindling reserves.

At that time—1954—Overseas Holidays, Ltd., of London was beginning a new series of tours to the Balearic Islands. They sold their British clients a "package vacation" for a flat sum of money. They sold them, for this sum, a round trip flight to Spain in char­tered airplanes and their housing and food in good hotels. The hotels were located on the beach and the vacationists had no excuse for missing a good time.

Except one.

Few of them could speak Spanish and few of the hotel employees could speak adequate English. The chartered plane that brought them to Palma carried 36 at a time and that's a lot of chattering British tourists—each of them desperately wanting to know where they can buy a proper cup of tea, or where they can change their pounds into pesetas, or where they can buy a souvenir for dear Aunt Pamela back in Nottingham.

Mike approached Overseas Holidays and suggested that he take over the job of meeting each plane and getting the vacationists squared away. He'd take them to their hotels, answer all their questions, show them all the local ropes, then see that they got safely back on the plane for their return to London when the vacation was over. In the beginning Mike received for this service very little; his meals at the hotels and a nominal salary. But that was just the beginning.

These package tours went over so well that Overseas Holidays decided to branch out and start their package tours going to Tor-remolinos in Southern Spain. Mike was sent over to set up the new deal; to arrange for the landing of the charter planes at the Air­port and to sign up reservations in the Torremolinos hotels. The tours were for the summer only, less than six months in all, but during those months Mike found himself moderately busy.

The travel agency was being more generous now and supplied him with a car, an allowance for his rent, and a higher salary. And Mike discovered other ways in which to turn a penny. The package tour covered all the expenses of the vacation but some­times the tourists wanted extra items such as a side trip to Granada to see the famous Alhambra, or a side trip to Gibraltar, a hundred miles or so to the south, or to notorious Tangier right across the straits in Morocco. Mike arranged these himself, making a neat profit. Or some of the tourists wanted to go into Malaga to see the night life, the flamenco dancing, or perhaps a bullfight. This too Mike arranged himself—at a profit.

Mike now found himself working, not too strenuously, for about five months and making enough to loaf the rest of the year. There is no place in the world more happily suited for this than Southern Spain.

But this was when Spain really began to boom as a tourist Mecca and Mike soon found himself with twice the number of tourists, and then four times as many as previously. Along in here he mar­ried and Jenny was available to help out—luckily. Even at that it was more work than was wanted, but what can you do?

Overseas Holidays continued to boom and they decided that Tangier and Morocco were next in order for their popular package tours. So who was sent to set up the deal? You guessed it.

Mike Wands is today in charge of the Southern Spain and Moroccan tours of Overseas Holidays. He's also set up a small local travel agency of his own in Tangier. For a fellow who was trying to get away from work perhaps Mike hasn't succeeded too well, but he's certainly achieved a considerably more desirable way of life than the factory or office he turned down when the war ended. And he's living in one of the most beautiful, actually exotic, cities in the world.

What chance have you of breaking into something like this? A good one. Of all job opportunities abroad, the tourist field is one of the best. Not only in Spain, of course, but in every country where American tourists swarm in season. Much the same situation applies as that described above in Case History No. 4. There is an almost insatiable demand for English speaking local representatives for travel agencies.

Usually these jobs are similar to Mike's in that the tourist season lasts for only a few months and you then knock off for the balance of the year—or turn your efforts to other projects, if you're that eager a beaver.

CASE HISTORY No. 7. Marilyn Guy's name I'm going to have to change because although Marilyn is a good friend of mine, I haven't been able to locate her to get permission to use it. But the name isn't particularly important.

Marilyn, and a partner, opened her shop in Torremolinos and filled a need that probably wouldn't even be thought of by the average American. She provided American styles abroad.

All our lives we Americans have thought in terms of "imported" things being superior. Imported clothes from Paris are the best in the world; imported Rolls Royces from England are the best cars in the world; imported beer from Germany is the best beer in the world; imported cheese from Switzerland or Holland is the best cheese—and so forth.

Actually, Europeans feel the same way. By that I mean that they think that "imported" things are better than those in their own land. And from whence comes the "imported" goods with the highest reputation? From the United States!

If you have never traveled abroad, you would be amazed to see the prestige American products have in just about every country in the world. When I was living in Rhodes, Greece, where the finest British tweeds and other textiles are tax free and very cheap, I was amazed to see the extent to which the local Greek girls doted on American clothing from Sears and Roebucks. They would go to almost any length to get someone connected with the American armed services to send an order to Sears and Roebucks for them. When these girls paraded the streets in the evening, going around and around the city square, there was no item in their wardrobe of which they were more proud then their cheap mail order American cotton dresses.

So Marilyn and her partner opened an American style dress shop in Torremolinos, threw a cocktail party as an opening day event and settled back for business.

It overflowed. Marilyn did most of the designing herself, being a clever gal in that line and having designed her own clothes back home since she was a teenager. She located the best Spanish seamstresses in town and hired them at the usual low wage rates.

Being a man, I'm not up on the ins and outs of the dress busi­ness, but I do know that Marilyn's shop was a roaring success. It had prestige. It was an American dress shop and, consequently, tops.

Could you do this?

Like I say, being a man I'm not up on the subject, but if you too have the know how that Marilyn Guy had, I see no reason why not. Initial investment isn't too high. Marilyn rented a small shop, did up a couple of dozen dresses, skirts and blouses and such. Augumented her stock with clever local shawls and things for the American tourist trade. Then sat back with textile samples and let the customers come in. Often she'd design clothes for them on order.

I would have liked to have seen how the shop prospered over a period of years but something came up back home in New York and Marilyn sold out at a pleasant profit and left Spain.

CASE HISTORY No. 8. Del Rainer, of San Francisco, is an example of a gal who came to Europe on a vacation, not expecting to stay over a couple of months but then remained for years. Here's her story.

Del studied in City College in San Francisco but didn't have secretarial work in mind. She had taken typing in high school and, so she told me, got a "D" in the subject. Newly out of college she got her first job in an advertising agency in her home town. After a couple of years or so she'd saved enough money for a European vacation.

She liked Europe, decided to stretch out her stay, and looked about for a job which wouldn't be too hard and which would pay as well as possible. Her idea was to work a time in Madrid, save enough money for a few months of living, then to move on to Paris or Rome and find a similar position.

She approached the United States Navy Offices in Madrid and was hired right off the bat and become secretary to the Deputy Officer in charge of construction. Working hours were about the same as in the United States and Del, at this writing, clears $127 every two weeks. On top of this she is allowed up to $900 a year living allowance for being abroad. She is also allowed to shop in the U.S. P-X which means American products, tax free.

She and two girl friends split a very large apartment and a full time servant in the old section of Madrid at a cost of 4,250 pesetas a month, or less than $30 a month apiece.

Del's been thrown off on her trip to Paris, however. She couldn't resist buying a new Karmann-Ghia, which is a Volksvagen with a special Italian body which makes it a very snaky looking sportscar indeed. Cost of this was $1,800 spanking new in Europe, and I imagine it would be double that at home. At any rate, she'll have to pay that off before she can pull up stakes again.

Del, by the way, liked the idea of this book when I told her about it. She let me know that Madrid is currently full of Ameri­cans, young and old, who have opened up this, that or the other project. Chap named Rosenthal who put a few thousand dollars into the Cine Voy, a movie house located at Alvarez de Castro 20. This house specializes in English speaking movies and draws its capacity houses from not only American and English permanent residents and tourists but also from Spanish folk who are attempt­ing to learn or improve their English.

Then, Del told me, there is "Wit" Whitver who is currently building Spain's first drive-in theatre on the outskirts of Madrid. He has a new gimmick which I've never heard of before. Into each car is put a speaker and it is up to the occupants to decide whether they want to hear the movie in Spanish or in English. In other words, there are two sound tracks and you can take your choice.

CASE HISTORY No. 9. Another fairly recent project in Madrid is somewhat similar to Trim's Majorcan Guide (Case History No. 1) but it has its own angles, so I'll deal with it here briefly.

D. H. Lowell and John W. Leibold, neither of whom have had any newspaper or other professional writing experience decided that what Madrid needed was a weekly magazine devoted to local entertainment, shopping information, social notes, classified ads and that sort of thing. The Guidepost was born and was, at first at least, distributed free to the tourists, the permanently retired, and the Americans and English living in Madrid who worked with private business concerns or with the U.S. Armed Services.

The Guidepost is printed on good paper, has excellent art work and draws down a respectable amount of advertising both display and classified. To give you an idea of its contents I list the follow­ing sections and articles: Nightclubs and Dancing, Bars and Cafes, Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Motion Pictures in English, Spots, Con­certs, Art Exhibitions, Museums, The Social Side, Fallas of Val­encia, Recipe of the Week, Directory Service, Classified Ads.

Dan Lowell, who originally came to Spain to work for one of the contractors building U.S. bases in this country, blows hot and cold on whether or not to charge for the magazine and perhaps by the time this is read The Guidepost will no longer be a giveaway.

Could you bring out such a publication?

It's roughly the same deal as Case History No. 1, although there is certainly more work involved in doing a weekly magazine that there is in an annual guide. Personally, the annual guide idea appeals to me the more—but then I'm on the lazy side when it comes to working hard for nothing more important than money.

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