Jane's History Nook : Fort Lauderdale 1970s: Celebrities flock to Le Club International

Lloyd Bridges at Le Club 1973
State of Florida Archives

Le Club International Yacht and Tennis Club
Once located at 2900 NE 9 St., Fort Lauderdale

By Jane Feehan

Le Club, as we called it then, opened early in 1969 and took off like its sponsored Formula 1 car that was to race in a Monaco Grand Prix.

Once site of the Everglades Yacht and Tennis Club, just south of the Sunrise bridge, the property underwent a $175,000 renovation in 1968 as a venture of Atlanta hotelier and Miami resident, Carling Dinkler. The renovation was considered the first phase of a project that was to eventually include a 17-story condominium.

The condo, planned intermittently over the next decade as a 14- or 32-story project, didn’t materialize, but the club thrived. It was known as a celebrity and swinging nouveau riche magnet, thanks to the efforts of country club impresario and consultant Paul Holm.

Holm and brother Lambert had been involved in country club launches in Georgia and elsewhere before the Fort Lauderdale endeavor.

Paul Holm, then 36-year-old general manager and secretary-treasurer of Le Club, planned to hold a charity event about once a month. He and Lambert (referred to in some accounts as publicist), knew how to line up celebrities. Dinah Shore appeared at their Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic in 1970. That was the year Elke Sommer, Barbara Marx (widow of Harpo), and a host of other Hollywood notables joined in the fun and also discovered Fort Lauderdale.

The list of celebrities visiting Le Club over the years was a very long one and included Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Bobby Riggs, Burt Bacharach, George Peppard, Liza Minelli, Red Buttons, James Franciscus, Charlton Heston, Lloyd Bridges, Bill Cosby, Pat Boone, Kentucky governor and one-time Kentucky Fried Chicken magnate John Y. Brown, jockey Eddie Arcaro and Revlon heir Peter Revson.

Other than high-profile yearly tennis tourneys, high-stakes card games and sponsorship of Formula 1 racing, Le Club was involved in off-shore boat racing and hot air balloon events. Always thinking big, Paul Holm produced the movie, the Great Balloon Race in 1977. He bought the entire first-class section of a 747 jet for club members to attend the movie’s premier at the Canne Film Festival that year.

No doubt Le Club was the place to be for “nouveaus” during the 1970s. The food was excellent, service top-notch and the setting glamorous—if not a bit naughty. A few classified ads pointed to the mindset of the place—and times. Some ads indicated Le Club was looking for an “alert young lady 27-35” to assist an interior design firm at the club. Others stated management was looking for a single, 30-34 social director; others ads were for an “attractive young lady” for another job, etc. One can laugh looking at the ads through today’s lens but knowing the club at that time, many would say the ads seemed perfectly normal.

Tides turned by the end of the 1970s. The club was first sold to John Y. Brown and then in 1981 to Texas oil man James Keenan, also a member, who had plans for renovating the club and building a 14-story condo. Times weren’t right for the project or the club. Tax laws changed during the Reagan administration restricting business write-offs, and it curtailed club business.

In 1985 the Romani Corporation was listed as owner. They also had big plans for Le Club, but it finally closed February 1986. The building was torn down in 1990. Today, a 16-story condominium, Le Club International, sits there. (No connection to the yacht and tennis club.)

L to R: Lambert Holm, Carling Dinkler, Paul Holm
State of Floridaa Archives/Florida Memory

Paul Holm moved to Las Vegas, married and had children. He died there in 2007 at age 74 (obituary below) after years contributing his expertise to local charity events. Carling Dinkler, who built Miami’s Palm Bay Club and Tower, died in 2005 in Morgantown, West Virginia, home town of his second wife; he was 85.

The long gone Le Club International will not be forgotten by those who participated in its legacy of well-known, untold, outrageous or sometimes notorious stories.

Jane's History Nook

Pages

Monday, February 4, 2019

Fort Lauderdale 1970s: Celebrities flock to Le Club International