07/22/96 TYCOON'S TALE

TYCOON'S TALE

MARTIN DRESSLER
The Tale of an American Dreamer
By Steven Millhauser
Crown -- 294pp -- $24

Back before the turn of the century, even the corniest advertising gimmicks seemed fresh and industry held out the promise of riches for all. Or at least that's the way the period looks in Steven Millhauser's compelling novel, Martin Dressler. It was a time when ``on any streetcorner in America you might see some ordinary-looking citizen who was destined to invent a new kind of bottlecap or tin can, start a chain of five-cent stores, sell a faster and better elevator, or open a fabulous new department store....''
Though the setting is the 1890s, the sensibility is strictly 1990s. And that's what makes this novel work. Millhauser, who also wrote Edwin Mullhouse, examines the seeds of modern commercialism from the viewpoint of someone who knows all about the theme parks and fast-food chains to come.
In classic bootstrap fashion, the eponymous hero works his way up from cigar-store clerk to real estate mogul. Dressler's first success is a chain of restaurants featuring the Five-Minute Breakfast, then a succession of ever more elaborate hotels. Like Howard Johnson's orange roofs, Dressler's blue storefronts help build a brand identity for his Metropolitan Cafes. An elaborate ad campaign builds hotel traffic.
In the end, Dressler, the American dreamer, is brought low not by greed but by the corrupting nature of the dream itself. In his final achievement, he realizes his vision: a vast hotel filled with artificial lakes and forests, lit by mechanical moons, meant to supersede the outer world. As this spectacular folly devours his fortune, he is reduced to hiring actors to impersonate customers and even himself. Meanwhile, the real Dressler wanders out penniless into the harsh sunlight of the new century.
BY MARY KUNTZ