DARE TO BE GREAT

by Rudy Maxa ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 1976

True tales of colorful rogues and their chicanery perpetually entertain, and the story of Glenn W. Turner--the poor ole' boy who built Turner Enterprises into a parody of American business enterprise--is dandy entertainment by a probing reporter. Sometimes imperious, often likable, Turner rediscovered and modernized the classic principle of the pyramid scheme. Early investors were paid from the investments of avaricious pigeons who arrived later; buried beneath the pyramid seemed to be the wealth of the pharoahs. Using a system of multi-level distributorships, Turner soon expanded from selling the right to market the Koscot cosmetics franchise to doing the same for an evangelical motivation course named Dare To Be Great. Life savings poured into his ""interplanetary"" headquarters in Florida, hard by Cape Kennedy and Disneyland. Eventually, of course, it all began to unravel. When the attorneys-general of 41 states closed in on the country-boy Dale Carnegie, a phalanx of high-powered attorneys--including the ubiquitous F. Lee Bailey--couldn't stop them. The SEC, the IRS, the FTC, the Postal Inspection Service, and even Interpol joined the chase, and lengthy legal proceedings brought Turner down. Down now, but not quite out. Descendant schemes are surfacing, and Turner himself has a style folks find hard to resist. Meanwhile Maxa has written an informative and lively bit of Americana, provocative in its implications about out values.

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION