In 1926 Pierre solicited press agent Elsa Maxwell to improve the image of the principality. She conducted a media operation to pivot the principality's reputation from that of an "interior" site of fancy gaming tables and midnight catering for wealthy adults to a family-oriented outdoors venue, offering roomy beachside cabanas, golfing, a circus and, in 1929, the first Monaco Grand Prix. Pierre persuaded his father-in-law to allow the nation's streets to be converted annually into an auto race course for the event.