Muriel’s Exotic Jade House, that cigar and Jade Beach

By Jane Feehan

Muriel’s Exotic Jade House was quite the nightspot in its day. Sitting off A-1-A in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Jade House featured tunes of the Gay 90s—that’s 1890s—and a one-item menu of prime rib. But people  frequented the club to see Muriel Window Turnley in her feathered hats playing piano and singing under a large umbrella adorned in Christmas bells and lights.

Muriel

Quite the character, Muriel hailed from Burlingame, Kansas, where she had her start in vaudeville with a stage appearance at three months. In 1910, she officially joined vaudeville theater in signing with the American Music Hall in New York. Three years later, she became a Ziegfeld girl, featured by Flo Ziegfeld in a single act in his Follies review as the Peacock Girl. Muriel also performed in the Orpheum and Keith circuits in those days. She performed with Will Rogers, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Dorsey and other high-profile entertainers of the era. Muriel also flirted with opera singing, she  told friends, as a protégé of opera great Maria (she probably meant Luisa) Tetrazzini.

Muriel played in London—Drury Lane and the Victoria Palace—where she claimed to have introduced the song “Till we meet again.” She later told friends she became an ambulance driver in London, one of the first women to do so in World War I, transporting wounded soldiers returning from France in a “touring car borrowed from Herbert Hoover.” This can’t be confirmed, nor can her claim the Muriel Cigar was named for her.

What can be certain is Muriel opened her Exotic Jade House in 1953 where she was seen with her giant Macaw, Sophie. Known for her generosity and as a soft touch for those in trouble, she invited fans
over 60 to be her guest for dinner at her 65^th birthday in 1956. In 1958, she joined a highly-publicized neighborhood fight to quell the noisy underage drinking parties on Jade Beach, across the street from her club. Jade Beach partying was later depicted in the 1961 movie, "Where the Boys Are."

She made one album and after years of wishing for a national network television spot, appeared on the Michael Douglas Show a few months before her death. The popular entertainer died Aug. 29, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale’s Holy Cross Hospital after an appendectomy, or ruptured appendix, depending on the account. Muriel Inetta Turnley, married three times (Robert Emmet Keene, Arthur Hanford and Howard Turnley) is entombed at the Lauderdale Memorial Gardens Mausoleum, where her mother Catherine I. Window* lies.

And the Jade House? After closing and reopening a number of times, it finally shuttered as Mitchie’s Steak House in 1970 to make way for a townhouse development. Muriel's was a tough act to follow. Copyright Jane Feehan 2018.

 ------

*Catherine I. Window joined daughter Muriel in Pompano in 1954 or 55, where she died in 1961 at age 90.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 13, 1953

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan.6, 1954

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 5, 1956

Fort Lauderdale News, April 11, 1958

Fort Lauderdale News, March 2, 1961

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug 30, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 31, 1965

Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 23, 1966

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 25, 1968

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept 5, 1970



Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale clubs, Fort Lauderdale restaurants of the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale entertainers, history of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale traffic solution nixed: Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway Center,1963

Gateway Interchange 1963 · Mon, Jan 7, 1963 – 29 · Fort Lauderdale News (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) · Newspapers.com
By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale traffic jams have long vexed residents, visitors and city officials.  During the late 1940s and 1950s, the city could boast it had the worst traffic snarl in the state until the completed Henry E. Kinney Tunnel carried U.S. Route 1 under New River in 1960. That solution fared better than the proposed Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway did in 1963.

According to news that year, accidents in the city with the highest property damage occurred at Gateway Center at Sunrise Boulevard. The State Road Department offered a solution at a city commission meeting in January, 1963—a Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway. Engineering firm Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff presented a rendering of an interchange that was to cost $1.4 million and take about a year and a half to build.

Before the month ended, city notable Jack Gore, whose father Robert H. Gore opposed the Kinney Tunnel, opined in the Fort Lauderdale News that property devaluation would occur in that area if the interchange materialized. He also said traffic was most congested along North Federal Highway between the Jefferson Store and Oakland Park Boulevard and from Sunrise Boulevard east from Gateway to Bayview Drive. (Sound familiar?) By March 1963, 82 businessmen had banned together to protest the interchange. It would, they claimed, isolate Gateway from northeast Fort Lauderdale, disrupt business for a year and a half and would cost too much. Besides, newly installed—and much cheaper—traffic lights were already driving accident stats downward.

The Tri-Level Interchange never came about; it would soon give way to concerns about other interchanges along the turnpike and I-95. But the traffic? The same snarls along Federal Highway now join a growing list of others in Fort Lauderdale.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose or … the more things change they stay the same … right?

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale traffic

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 20, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, March 25, 1963

More restaurants, nightspots of the 1960s - Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale,  Broward County ... South Florida ... all were booming in the 1960s. Below are ads from some of the popular dining and club spots of 1962-1965. None remain open.  For a more comprehensive list, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2014/04/those-1960s-fort-lauderdale-night-spots.html

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale nightspots, Fort Lauderdale restaurants

Wolfie's: memories of good and plenty and ...

Wolfie's
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

During the 1960s, before malls became popular high school hangouts in Fort Lauderdale, Wolfie’s Restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard was the place to be seen. The deli was a winner among all ages with its overflowing bowls of tiny breakfast Danish, mouth puckering dill pickles and crunchy coleslaw, overstuffed pastrami sandwiches and creamy New York cheesecake. 

For those of us who spend a lot of time in Fort Lauderdale, the restaurant’s demise is but one of many markers on the road of long gone and forgotten … until someone who moved away while it was still open asks “whatever happened to Wolfie’s?” A Publix now sits near that once-hallowed spot.

Wolfie’s history is complicated—except for its beginning. In the beginning was Wilford or “Wolfie” Cohen. He got his start in the restaurant biz working as a kid in the Catskills. He came to Miami Beach during  the late 1930s and bought Al’s Sandwich Shop at 23^rd Street and Collins. He made it a popular place—one that Al Jolson and Milton Berle visited. Customers seeking a glimpse of celebrities and a good meal flocked to Cohen’s restaurant.

But Cohen set his sights on a larger empire. He sold his place (with Wolfie's name rights) at four times what he paid for it to Meyer Yedlin in 1948.  Wolfie opened another winner, Pumpernick’s, in the 1940s and sold it in 1955, according to a Miami News obituary.  When Cohen died at 74 in 1986, he had also owned the Bull Pen, Mr. Mahzik, and the Rascal House (restaurant names should be unforgettable he once said). At the time of his death, he owned only the *Rascal House, which he left to his daughter actress Robin Sherwood. (Sherwood appeared in Brian de Palma’s Blow Out, in Death Wish II opposite Charles Bronson and in other films.)

Meyer Yedlin opened Wolfie’s in two Miami locations, at Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue and another at 163^rd Street in North Miami Beach. He also opened one in St. Petersburg in 1953 (sold it in 1955) with partners and incorporated Fort Lauderdale Wolfie’s in 1958.  Joseph Sloane, a partner in the St. Petersburg venture, was also listed as owner of the Fort Lauderdale Wolfie’s. As I said, this ownership history gets complicated.

As tourism grew in South Florida so did the national reputation of Wolfie’s, especially among New Yorkers. In 1961, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the Wolfie’s name could not be used by a deli in Brooklyn; only the two restaurants in Miami had rights. The Brooklyn partners claimed they did not steal the name; “Wolfie” was a nickname earned by one of them for a reputation as a ladies’ man. The judge didn’t buy it.  Yedlin (who died about 1960) or his relatives had their hands in various Wolfie’s, thus the permitted use of the name at some other locations.

In 1968, during the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Chef Craig Claiborne wrote in The New York Times that Wolfie’s, open 24/7, was worth a visit but to conventioneers he recommended the breakfast spread at Pumpernick’s, by that time out of Wolfie Cohen’s hands.

Long after Wolfie’s closed in Fort Lauderdale—the corporation involuntarily dissolved in 1984—it was announced that Wolfie’s Deli Express was set to open a number of franchises in South Florida. I’m not sure about the genesis of this corporation or whether it was even related to the Wolfie’s we all knew and loved.  In 1998, the president of the company claimed this was to be the “biggest news” in franchising since McDonald’s. Anybody hear of it?

In 2002 Wolfie’s closed on 21^st Street in Miami Beach. The last owner of the one on Lincoln Road was Samuel Kaye who died in 2012, but I'm not sure when that Wolfie's shut its doors; the same fate was dealt the restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. International residents and exotic palates have replaced the taste for Jewish borscht, bagels, lox and cheesecake but not the fond memories woven into Fort Lauderdale and Miami history.  And it all began with Wolfie Cohen ...  Copyright 2015. Jane Feehan

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*Rascal’s closed in 2008, and is currently the site of Epicure Market.

Sources:

St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 18, 1953

Miami News, Sept. 21, 1958

The Reading Eagle, Feb. 13, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 22, 1961

The New York Times, June 10, 1961

Evening Independent, Aug. 13, 1964

Miami News, Oct. 7, 1986

Schenectady Gazette, Jul. 3, 1987

Boca Raton News, June 3, 1998

Tags: Wolfie's, Wolfie Cohen, Fort Lauderdale restaurants in the 1960s, Miami Beach deli restaurants, Fort Lauderdale history,

Fort Lauderdale's four railroads in 1967: Can you name them? Think tourists.

Postcard 1946
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale frequently made the pages of Sunday newspaper travel sections in the north after airlines began nonstop service here in the 1950s. Ads for and tips on what to see and do in the seaside town have peppered travel pages from January until April each year since.

With tongue in cheek, a reporter from The New York Times claimed in January 1967 that Fort Lauderdale was becoming a major railroad center. Why? There were four miniature “railroads” in the city that ran in circles for tourists. The little trains hardly made for a rail center but the premise did catch the attention of those heading south for a winter vacation. Some long time residents may have also availed themselves of the four sightseeing venues:   

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum ran eight cars on tracks near U.S. Highway 1 (near today’s Snyder Park) and into Port Everglades so visitors could view cruise ships and freighters. The museum, originally based in Miami, was first known as the Miami Railroad Historical Society. The group had asked for and received from the federal government in 1959 the presidential Pullman car 

used by Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. They moved the vehicle, known as Ferdinand Magellan and later as U.S. No. 1 Presidential Car, to Fort Lauderdale in 1967 and housed it along with other railroad cars in their new site near the port. (The museum has since moved back to Miami and the U.S. No. 1 was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1985. See www.GCRM.org for more information. This deserves an entire post.)

Magellan Rail Car
Florida State Archives

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park featured a small diesel-powered train that ran on a three-mile narrow gauge track.  Visitors rode the train along the Intracoastal, atop a trestle and over a fresh water lagoon in the 180-acre park. This was also a great source of amusement to some locals who wore masks and pretended to be raiders swooping down on unsuspecting visitors who rode the rails at little over 10 mph. I only heard laughter on these jaunts and never saw a fearful face. The popular ride ceased to operate in 1985.

Birch State Park Train
Florida State Archives

Pioneer City operated a train 15 miles west of Fort Lauderdale in Davie. The train, known as the Jenny Lynn, was a replica of a steam locomotive used in 1890. It transported “dudes” to a sternwheeler headed for a mock-up of a 19^th-century cow town featuring a saloon, shops, shoot outs and staged bank robberies. Visitors could take the train past an artificial mountain and a real buffalo grazing on a prairie sprinkled with whitened steer skulls. Pioneer City opened in 1966. It was closed and up for sale by 1968 due to poor ticket sales. The buffalo was also included in the property sale.

Not really a train, but a string of cars pulled by a rubber-tired vehicle, the Voyager Sightseeing Train took visitors on a 30-minute tour of the city landmarks. Based at 600 Seabreeze Blvd. and launched in 1962, the Voyager became a landmark itself. We knew tourist season had arrived when the cars were filled to capacity and the Voyager became a traffic nuisance. It no longer operates. 

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, June 6, 1966

The New York Times, Jan. 8, 1967

Lakeland Ledger, Apr. 16, 1978

Evening Independent, Mar. 19, 1968

www.GCRM.org

Tags: Fort Lauderdale tourism, Pioneer City, Hugh Taylor Birch Park, Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Voyager Sightseeing Train, Fort Lauderdale history

Plans before Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse: What were they thinking?

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1967
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse lifted the curtain on its first production Feb. 6, 1967*.  The theater is located at the fringe of Holiday Park off Federal Highway near Sunrise Boulevard, but few remember another theater was planned in 1959 for a site off A1A near the Galt Ocean Mile.

The participants in the two projects were different – and so were the plans. George S. Engle, owner and producer of the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, teamed up with famed Florida architect Alfred Browning Parker (no relation to donor Louis W. Parker of the Parker Playhouse), to draw up elaborate plans for the A1A location.

The $2 million project would include features “never before attempted in the entire country.” For starters, its marquee was to be so large that 30 automobiles could pull up at once to discharge passengers. A drive-in ticket window would be available where patrons could view available seating and purchase tickets before parking their cars. A restaurant and lounge seating 1,000 theatergoers would operate near another lounge with a soda fountain and dining area for teenagers.

There’s more. Much more.

The ambitious plans also included a library for playwrights, producers and directors, a private room for the press, an art gallery and exhibit hall for artists and students, and a theater memorabilia room featuring thespian history since Greek and Roman times.

A penthouse and club would operate late into the night for dining and dancing. Also, a model of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre would be constructed featuring manikins draped in clothes of that era. A drama and art school was to operate at this very busy facility. The entire complex and its offerings were to be run by a Society of Theatre Arts that would coordinate activities and performances at the Coconut Grove Playhouse … and a theater in Nassau, Bahamas (a tropical paradise teaming with theatergoers).

Engle proposed a 99-year lease on an 800-ft frontage property along A1A. A condition of the project would be a substantial advance subscription sale. That never happened. What were they thinking? People came to Fort Lauderdale (and still do) for surf, sun and fun, and depending on the age group, the fun might be boats, booze, and babes—not theater.

Theater sanity arrived with electrical engineer and inventor, Louis M. Parker, Ph.D., who tired of driving to Miami and Palm Beach to see plays.  In 1966 it was announced that Dr. Parker would

Parker Playhouse before
2020-2021 renovations

donate $700,000 for construction of a theater on land near Holiday Park. The City of Fort Lauderdale would pay $300,000 for the property. Some papers reported that Parker donated up to $1.5 million.

The theater, run then by Zev Buffman, opened with about 2,000 seats, 48 shimmering chandeliers and two cocktail lounges, a much more realistic venture than the one proposed earlier.  Its architect, John Volk was the last of the early 1920s Palm Beach architects that included Addison Mizner. Volk  had also designed the Good Samaritan Hospital, parts of the Everglades Club, the Royal Poinciana Theater—all in Palm Beach—and a long list of other landmarks.

The Parker Playhouse is now run by the Performing Arts Center Authority, which includes the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Playhouse recently underwent renovation.

Copyright © 2015, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*The play that night was Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” starring E.G. Marshall and Dennis O’Keefe. It was directed by Danny Simon, the playwright’s brother.

Sources:

New York Times, Nov. 15, 1959

Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 25, 1966

Palm Beach Daily News, Feb. 22, 1984

New York Times, Feb. 6, 1967

Tags: Fort Lauderdale theater, Parker Playhouse, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Alfred Browning Parker. Louis M. Parker, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale history, architects

Yankees film in Fort Lauderdale - Safe at Home!

The Yankee baseball team held Spring training in Fort Lauderdale during the 1960s after local hotelier Bob Gill encouraged the club’s owner, Dan Topping Sr., to come to the growing city. Stories about team legends Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford abound and firmly claim a place in this city’s celebrity history.

Part of Yankee history includes filming of the kid’s movie Safe at Home! in 1961 in Fort Lauderdale and Pompano. Hollywood, as captivated as the nation was with Roger Maris’s successful bid to break Babe Ruth’s homerun record during the 1961 season, thought a movie with Mantle and Maris would be a hit. (Where the Boys Are also filmed in Fort Lauderdale, was released in 1960).

Local public relations guru, Jack Drury, who played a small part as a police officer, arranged for the film crew to stay at the beach side Trade Winds Hotel (later associated with the wild Candy Store and its wet T-shirt contests).  

Trade Winds Hotel (built 1940)

The movie starred Mantle, Maris, Don Collier, Patricia Barry, William Frawley (of I Love Lucy fame) and Bryan Russell as the kid who told friends he knew the players, but did not. Team Manager Ralph Hauk also appeared. According to Drury who has written about Fort Lauderdale’s celebrity past, it was Frawley’s last feature film.

By all accounts, working on the film provided Spring training diversion for players. Mickey Mantle claimed he forgot a few of his lines but wasn’t concerned because “they didn’t want me for my acting ability.”

Safe at Home!, while not a box office hit, was continuation of a Hollywood tradition featuring sports stars in their productions; Babe Ruth appeared in 10 films, Olympian swimmer Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan in a number of films and the tradition continues …

Safe at Home! Is available to rent or purchase from Amazon. See below.

Sources:

Drury, Jack. Fort Lauderdale, Playground of the Stars (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008).

IMDB.org

Sun-Sentinel, Apr. 21, 1989

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Filmed in Fort Lauderdale, Yankees in Fort Lauderdale, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford William Frawley, film researcher Jane Feehan

First U.S. high-speed hydrofoil sails from Port Everglades

US Navy hydrofoil PHM-1Pegasus 1970 (not HS Denison)
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

The nation’s first oceangoing hydrofoil, the H.S. Denison, sailed out of Port Everglades February 2, 1964 for a sea trial. The vessel, first of its kind designed for high speeds over rough waters, was scheduled for passenger service between Fort Lauderdale and Nassau.

Capt. P.O. Clarke ran the vessel through an impressive test. At 23 knots, the 104.6 foot Denison began to rise from the water. At 30 knots it was free from the seas and at 50 knots it was “flying” on its foils with the hull five feet above the ocean.

Though its sea trial was impressive, the Denison remained an experimental vessel, a disappointment to many. The project, initially developed by the Marine Administration (MARAD) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Aircraft Engine Corporation and General Electric, was coordinated by enthusiastic supporter Charles R. Denison in 1958. The group’s objective was to research possibilities for express cargo shipping and passenger travel at 200 knots. Dension died early in the ship’s design, which diminished impetus for and focus on the project in the years that followed.  

It was reported that 73 companies collectively invested more than $8 million to develop the hydrofoil named posthumously for its most ardent supporter. General Electric built a 14,000 horsepower gas turbine engine for the experimental 94-ton ship. The vessel was completed and launched June 5, 1962 by Grumman Corp. in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Sea trials commenced a few days later and were conducted along the eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida in ocean waters as high as nine feet.

The U.S. Navy withdrew its support of the project to pursue development of its own hydrofoil, which affected commercial plans for the H.S. Dension. Today, a ferry service from Port Everglades to Bimini operates at about 32 knots for passenger and cargo transport—considerably slower than Charles R. Denison envisioned during the 1950s. Maybe speed is why a solid business model for ferry service in this market seems elusive. 

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 2, 1964

www.foils.org/denison.htm

https://foils.org/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale historian, Port Everglades history, film researcher, hydrofoils, maritime history

Those 1960s Fort Lauderdale Night Spots

Live entertainment reigned in Fort Lauderdale restaurants and clubs of the 1960s. Below is a list of hot spots, some with the entertainers they regularly showcased. A few, such as Woody Woodbury, who celebrated his 99th birthday in 2023, were more familiar to people than the venues they appeared at.  Andy Bartha’s Dixieland Band was a big draw at several places in Fort Lauderdale and Pompano. There were other clubs and restaurants, but these places were landmarks.

Bahama Hotel – Woody Woodbury – See more about Woody at: www.woodywoodbury.com

Bahia Cabana - off A1A (torn down) near Bahia Mar

Beach Club Hotel - A1A and Oakland Park Boulevard

Captain Al Starts Showboat Belle at A1A and 36^th Street

Cat's Meow - off 17th Street Causeway

Cellar Bar on Federal Highway

Charcoal Pit – Federal and Sunrise Boulevard – Living Room Lounge

Chateau Madrid – Kennan Building – Federal and Oakland Park

Colonial Lounge – Federal Highway – any drink 48 cents

Dante’s Restaurant – Federal Highway

Fazio’s House of Prime Ribs – Federal Highway

Forum Restaurant – A1A and Las Olas – also featured lounge music at night

Gaslight Inn – State road 7 near Broward Boulevard

Heilman’s  - at one time featured duo Roger Fenton and Faye Cantrell who played drums wearing long white gloves.

Jolly Roger Hotel featured the Punchinellos.

Lamplighter – McNab Road in Pompano – Piano by Mr. Pinky

Le Dome of the Four Seasons – off Las Olas, west side of Intracoastal. Four Seasons condo still there

Mai Kai Restaurant – Polynesian revue. Still operating.

Marlin Beach Hotel on A1A showcased “Flip” Phillips

Muriels's Exotic Jade House, north of Lauderdale by the Sea

Mark 2100 - 1900 N. A1A with its Patio Bar nearly on the sand at the beach

Mousetrap – 2960 N. Federal Highway featured Pat Brown, Ed Hunt, Peggy Martin

Pier Top Lounge at Pier 66 – opened in 1965

Round Table Restaurant at Oakland Park and Federal – lounge with live music and jukeboxes with accompanying movies/videos – ahead of its time.

nu

Rum House at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel

Sea Shore Resort – A1A north of Sunrise featured Danny Bridge and the        Tunesmen at the Tapis Lounge

Statler Hilton Hotel on the Galt Mile

Tale O’ the Tiger – N. Federal Highway – featured Jay Wray

Tea House of the Tokyo Moon – Seabreeze Boulevard – live music

TJ's Lounge on Commercial Boulevard - jazz

Yankee Clipper featured a Polynesian Revue. Today, home of world acclaimed mermaid show at the Wreck Bar (swimming pool with portal windows to the bar)

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale entertainment history

Mackey Airlines, its colorful founder ... and Fort Lauderdale

Mackey 1972 destinations -
 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Mackey Airlines played a leading role in the South Florida aviation scene from 1946 when it was established as Mackey Air Transport, a charter airline, to 1967 when it merged with Eastern Airlines.  

Founder Joseph Creighton Mackey started up four airlines, including Mackey International operating 1969-1981. His life and career resembles a film script.

Convair CV-240 -
one type flown by Mackey Air

Mackey (1909-1982) was known as a circus barnstormer or aerial stuntman before he served in the USAF during World War II, reaching rank of colonel. Before the U.S. entered the fighting, Mackey was recruited as a ferry pilot for the Canadian war effort. In 1941 he was pilot and sole survivor of an air crash in Newfoundland. Three died on their way to England Feb. 21, including 49-year-old Dr. Sir Frederick Grant Banting who co-discovered insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

In 1943, Colonel Mackey served as commander of the First Foreign Transport Group that flew for the Fireball Express, touted then as the world’s longest, fastest air freight line. Mackey and crew operated four-engine giant C-54 transport planes from Miami to India. The  Fireball Express crew told Miami News reporters that they made the 28,000-mile round trip in “as quickly as six days, 10 hours and 15 minutes.” One year after the freight line started, it logged nearly 7,000,000 miles with only two fatalities.

After the war, Mackey returned to Fort Lauderdale where he had lived on Sunset Drive since 1937. He launched Mackey Air Transport in 1946 (it transitioned to Mackey Airlines in 1953) with routes from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach to the Caribbean and Cuba.  His Fort Lauderdale-based air carrier became one of only three in the U.S., including Pan Am, to earn a government certification as an International Airline.

After Eastern Airlines bought Mackey routes in 1967 for $19 million, the colonel started up Mackey International Airlines (1969). Its Fort Lauderdale headquarters was bombed in 1977 by a Cuban exile group who objected to Mackey’s vice president meeting with the Cuban government to re-establish air routes. As a result, the airline withdrew from negotiations. Mackey International Airlines closed its doors in 1981.

Joseph Mackey was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame six months before he died at his Flamingo Road home near Davie in 1982. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For a post about Fort Lauderdale's first aviator, Merle Fogg,  see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/12/merle-fogg-fort-lauderdales-first.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 15, 1982

Miami News, Nov. 12, 1944

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1941

http://www.historynet.com/erroll-boyd-world-war-i-combat-pilot-and-aviation-daredevil.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arx_Fortis/Mackey#cite_note-0

       

Tags: Fort Lauderdale aviators, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida airlines, Joseph Creighton Mackey, Mackey Airlines, film researcher

Broward County's Black-White teacher exchange and desegregation

By Jane Feehan

Though public schools in the U.S. were ordered to desegregate in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education), they remained segregated for decades in schools across the nation and in Broward County, Florida.

When Broward County announced its Black-White teacher exchange program was a success in March 1966, it made news.

The pilot exchange program was conducted for a week, with no major problems reported William Drainer, Broward County elementary education supervisor. 

White teachers were sent to teach Black students, Black teachers taught in White schools. Sixteen elementary schools participated in the program.  Teachers, parents, and students favorably evaluated the exchange afterward, leading to plans for a second exchange weeks later at 16 different schools.

“A good teacher is a good teacher no matter where he teaches,” said Drainer. A teacher is a teacher.

Apparently the program did little to abate resistance to desegregation by parents and some county politicians. In August of 1966, Broward County did not (at first) sign federal guidelines for desegregation, jeopardizing $4.5 million in federal funds. A confrontation among different stakeholders brought the county back to the drawing board.

By 1970 there were four public school systems in the South that refused to bus students to desegregate: Dade and Broward counties in Florida and two counties in North Carolina. 

Miami-based attorney Ellis Rubin, on behalf of United Stand for America, Inc., filed a petition against busing in the court. The group, which was also headed by Rubin, contended that a recently adopted state law prohibited expenditures of state or county funds for desegregation purposes. 

Based on that reasoning, a judge granted temporary injunction to prevent busing. Eventually, Broward County received a $1.7 million federal grant to help pay for the school buses but lost that temporarily for noncompliance to federal requirements.

William Drainer, acting superintendent of Broward Schools in 1970, fully endorsed the transfer of 500 teachers and 3,000 students. Though his pilot program four years prior underscored a teacher was a teacher, it did not take into account politicians. 

The busing controversy was not resolved until the early 1970s. Today, many desegregated schools in Broward and Miami-Dade are once again minority schools.

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, March 17, 1966

Palm Beach Post, Jul 16, 1966

Palm Beach Post, Jul 23, 1966

St. Petersburg Times, Jul 24, 1966

Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Dec. 22, 1969

Palm Beach Post, Aug. 26, 1970

 Tags: African American history, Broward County history,  Broward County in the 1960s, Broward County in the 1970s,

Kenann Building and its Chateau Madrid: singular in architecture and nightlife memories

See photo below for changes to this corner

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale's Kenann Building, the cylindrical landmark structure at the northwest corner of Federal Highway and Oakland Park Boulevard was completed in 1964. Builder and realtor Kenneth G. Burnstein entertained an idea for such a structure long before it was set to blueprints by architect F. Louis Wolff.*

Historically, builders shied away from round structures because they were thought to be more expensive to construct, restricted usable space, and were tough to get loans for.  Burnstein, 32 years-old at the time, admitted it took longer than usual to land a loan for the eight-story office building but he was successful in obtaining one in New York.

Ground was broken for the building, named for Burnstein and his wife Ann, on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Seven stories were dedicated to 1,000 square-foot offices. Each floor had its own air conditioning unit.  Burnstein claimed the structure offered 30 percent more usable space than did conventional construction.

When completed, the building featured a circular entrance of reinforced concrete that tapered vertically to a singular round pylon, similar to that used by Frank Lloyd Wright in his design of the Johnson Wax headquarters built in 1940. The lobby included two cypress trees four-stories tall, and a large pool with waterfalls, plants and fish.

Construction also included a colorful, external 60-foot vertical mosaic, a South Florida design element popular in the 1960s and 70s. According to Tropical Magazine (Oct. 2012), the mosaic, with images of swordfish, ocean waves, and tropical palms, holds the distinction of being the “best mid-century mosaic from Fort Lauderdale to Miami.”

Other than for its design, the Kenann Building evokes memories among many for its eighth floor nightclub and dining venue, Chateau Madrid. For 20 years the night spot, opened by John and Diane Bachan, was the place to go for top-tier entertainment including Rosemary Clooney, Buddy Greco, Tony Martin, and Louis Armstrong. Armstrong played there for one week in 1966, including New Year’s Eve. Revelers could have dinner and be entertained by Armstrong for $25 per person.  (Trivia: the club was also managed by Philip Zaslavsky, once manager of Wolfie’s on Sunrise Boulevard and later part owner of Durty Nelly’s. He died in 1991.)

Fortune changed for Burnstein, who first came to Fort Lauderdale from Mobile, AL in 1957. He became the target of several investigations. The realtor reportedly died in a plane crash in 1976. According to legend, only his severed finger was found.

After Burnstein’s death, the Kenann Building slid into disrepair; tenants left. In 1991, investors purchased the property for $1.3 million. Architect Dan Duckham redesigned the landmark and included a second level attachment that resembles a satellite that has since been occupied by various restaurants and nightclubs.

The Kenann Building, with its colorful past and blend of Wolff and Duckham architectural features, still holds a special place in Fort Lauderdale's past—and its present. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* F. Louis Wolff and wife Jean established an endowed scholarship for the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University in 2002.

KenAnn Building 9/2023; it no longer dominates
the Oakland Park, Federal Highway corner

 Sources:

Miami News, June 28, 1964

Miami News, Dec. 27, 1966

Miami News, Oct. 11, 1991

Tropic Magazine, Oct., 2012

 Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Chateau Madrid, Fort Lauderdale architects, film researcher, architects

Bob Gill's Escape Hotel and his other Fort Lauderdale landmarks ...

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1949
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

News that the long-closed Escape Hotel  opened as the Gale Hotel, later the Kimpton,  sparked memories about the remarkable man who founded a hotel chain that stretched from the Bahamas to Tampa.

Chicago-born George “Bob” Gill came to Fort Lauderdale after World War II. He started out with his father building houses. A post-war dearth of hotel rooms in the growing city probably informed his decision to venture into the hotel business.

It proved to be an endeavor with significant impact on Fort Lauderdale history and one that unleashed Gill’s marketing genius. The Escape Hotel, the first on Fort Lauderdale beach to feature a pool and to remain operating year-round, opened its doors on New Year’s Eve 1949.   

By 1960, Gill had built the Jolly Roger, the iconic Yankee Clipper (with a bar facing the pool interior that features underwater shows today) and the Yankee Trader. Then he bought the historic British Colonial Hotel (built 1901) in Nassau, Bahamas. During spring 1960, the Gill Hotel chain purchased the 400-room Hillsboro Hotel in downtown Tampa. 

Gill had a knack for marketing. He brought travel agents from around the nation to visit his hotels in Fort Lauderdale. He also knew how to court Floridians. Gill hosted a well-publicized junket from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa in June, 1961.  He chartered a Mackey Airlines DC-3 to bring 25 Fort Lauderdale movers and shakers to participate in the debut of the new Gaslight Room at the Hillsboro Hotel. His guest list included Yankee Clipper manager Tom Brown, attorney Bill Leonard, and WFTL sales manager Bob Peggs. On the plane, they were entertained by a guitarist and served a champagne breakfast by seven “modern-day Floradora girls.”  The partiers returned 24 hours later decked out with dark glasses and more baggage under their eyes than they carried in hand.

Bob Gill died at 93 in 2009. His hotels were sold and became properties of Sheraton, the Hilton and other hotel companies. He probably would have been happy to hear that another chapter, though bittersweet, lies ahead for the Escape Hotel. Operating as the Tiffany House, an assisted living facility in the 1980s, the Escape property lay vacant for years under several owners. Some plans included a large condo to replace the historic hotel, but  it was renovated opened as the Gale Hotel, adjacent to the Gale Residences.  It is now a Kimpton property, the Kimpton Shoreland. 

Renovated as the Kimpton Hotel

Copyright © 2013, 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the Yankee Clipper, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/11/yankee-clipper-hotel-still-sails-in.html

For more on the Jolly Roger, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/trailblazing-jolly-roger-hotel-jaynes.html

--------

Sources:

Ocala Star Banner, April 3, 1960

Miami News, June 25, 1961

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 26, 2009

Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 22, 2013

Tags: Fort Lauderdale hotels, Fort Lauderdale history, historical researcher, 

Fort Lauderdale notables circa 1965 - Do you know who they are?

For more Florida history visit my other blog, Janesbits.blogspot.com 

These photos are from the 1960s, probably mid-decade. We're trying to identify the subjects (one or two we know, including one-time resident Johnny Weissmuller). If you can identify any below, post a comment below or email me.  Photos courtesy of Susan Mitchell Sygitowicz.

Tags:History of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, history researcher, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s

Fort Lauderdale and Johnny Weissmuller

Weissmuller 1939 filming in Silver Springs, FL
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

He swung from vines as Tarzan to meet up with Jane, his leading lady Maureen O'Sullivan, bellowing a victory call a time or two— perhaps 20. That’s how many Tarzan films Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984) made after achieving acclaim in the swimming world, winning five Olympic Gold medals and setting 67 world records during the 1920s.

Courtesy of Susan Mitchell
Sygitowicz

Chicago-born (some say he was born in present-day Romania) Weissmuller stopped making Tarzan films in 1949, getting involved in other ventures around the country. He came to Fort Lauderdale with his fourth wife, Maria, in 1965 and lived at the sixth hole of the Coral Ridge Country Club Golf Course, where his apartment was broken into in 1970; two of his Olympic medals were stolen during the incident.

The famed swimmer teamed up with the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), built in 1966 where he served as honorary board chairman. The pictures here were probably taken during the early days of the ISHOF (Buck Dawson with eye patch, first executive director of the ISHOF). A swimming museum is part of the complex and contains a wax likeness of the Olympic champion. Weissmuller often played host at the museum, giving visitors a tour (museum mostly closed now pending completion of renovation).

Courtesy of Susan Mitchell
Sygitowicz

Weissmuller turned in his vine and drove a Cadillac in Fort Lauderdale where he was often seen around town. One of those places was the popular Mai-Kai Restaurant where he was known to let out the well-known jungle bellow. Another of his favorite spots was Uta’s, a small neighborhood bar (long gone) behind what is now Shooter’s Café. Weissmuller operated a pool business for awhile in Fort Lauderdale and then decided to promote Tropical Wonderland, the old Florida Wonderland in Titusville, but backed out.

Though Johnny Weissmuller lived in Fort Lauderdale fewer than 10 years, many residents still like to claim him as the city’s own. He is, indeed, a part of Fort Lauderdale* history.

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
_________

* Weissmuller died in Acapulco, Mexico at age 79.

Sources:
St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 29, 1970
Daytona Morning Journal, July 1, 1979
www.tcm.com/this-month/article/489136%7C489280/Johnny-Weissmuller-Profile.html

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Johnny Weissmuller, International Swimming Hall of Fame, film researcher, history of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale in the news - 1964

Kenann Building

By Jane Feehan

Below are Fort Lauderdale news tidbits from 1964 ...

Sky Harbor East  -The first high-rise condominium in southeast Fort Lauderdale opens adjacent to Port Everglades. The second co-op building, Breakwater Towers, opens nearby.

Jim Bouton, a New York Yankee, signs a contract for $18,000 in Fort Lauderdale  March 12 after being threatened with a $100-a-day-fine. He was the league’s first contract holdout in 25 years. Bouton had the league’s best earned-run average that year. He had demanded $20,000, a 100 percent increase in salary over the prior year. Mickey Mantle signed a $100,000 in 1964.

Kenann Building – Ken Burnstine opens the seven-story round building designed by architect Louis Wolff. Named for Ken and wife Ann, the Kenann Building remains a landmark at the corner of Oakland Park Boulevard and Federal Highway.

Hurricane Cleo, Aug. 26 – The storm moves north from Miami and hits Fort Lauderdale as a Category 2 hurricane. It was the only day the Fort Lauderdale News was not published.

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park – More people (about 500,000) visited this Florida park than any other in the state in 1964.

Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater – The Fort Lauderdale News endorses the senator for president of the United States.

Commercial Boulevard Bridge – After protest by some in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the $1 million bridge opens Oct. 16.

Brian Piccolo –Fort Lauderdale resident and Wake Forest football team full back named by the Associated Press as back of the week. Piccolo was 20 years old.

College Students – More than 15,000 students spend spring  break on Fort Lauderdale’s beach. (This number seems low for those who were there).

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Florida historical researcher, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida sports history

Drury introduces Johnny Carson to Fort Lauderdale

McMahon and Carson 1967 in Fort Lauderdale
Florida State Archives/Erickson

By Jane Feehan

Jack Drury moved his family from New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale in 1962 where he continued his public relations career. That move proved invaluable not only to Drury but also to the ocean-side city.

Through his marketing savvy and considerable charm, Drury cultivated Hollywood, CA friends including Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Jayne Mansfield, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, and “Buffalo Bob” Smith - all who subsequently embraced Fort Lauderdale as a favorite place to visit, reside or perform.

Drury wrote a book about those days, Fort Lauderdale, Playground of the Stars (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008) in which he shares the genesis of those friendships. Most will know the names but not how they came to stay in Fort Lauderdale; the book details it all.

Among the first Drury enticed to Fort Lauderdale were Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon. After Carson contracted with NBC’s Tonight Show in 1962 to replace Jack Paar, he, McMahon, a few writers and producers decided to head for Miami to work on Carson’s first host appearance. Drury convinced Carson to visit Fort Lauderdale instead; it was a much quieter place.  They spent 10 days in this beach town at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel mapping out ideas for the show. Carson was sold on Fort Lauderdale.

It was the beginning of Drury’s close friendship with Carson and McMahon and the first of many visits the television duo made to Fort Lauderdale. Carson liked it so much he arranged for an apartment at the Ocean Manor Hotel, which he made his home away from home. (I used to run into Carson and McMahon around town or at Le Club International and can verify they were, indeed, having a good time.)

Drury played a part in two other significant events in Carson’s life. In a presentation a few years ago, Drury recounted a time he, Carson and Carson’s son, Chris, played golf at the Coral Ridge Country Club. It was a bad golf day for Johnny. So bad, the entertainer threw his bag of clubs into a lake on the course and said he’d never play again. But Drury had already taught him how to play tennis; it became Carson’s sport of choice after that grim day at Coral Ridge. 

The public relations guru also persuaded Carson to make what turned out to be one of the best financial investments of the comedian's life. Coral Springs was selling land in 1963 and Drury suggested that Carson buy a few lots. Carson purchased 60 acres and was on hand for the city’s groundbreaking in 1964. He held on to the land for eight years, then sold it for a huge profit.   

Jack Drury might credit his success to his gifts of persuasion but his likability and authenticity may count for even more. Fort Lauderdale – South Florida - owes much to this public relations legend. 

(Drury's book available through Amazon)
Other sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 12, 1962

Tags: Celebrities in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale history,

 Jack Drury, Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, Coral Springs history, film industry researcher, historical researcher

Cruise mishap stirs up party off Fort Lauderdale in 1967

NOT the SS Atlantic

By Jane Feehan

Ship mishaps have occurred throughout the history of vacation cruising.  Passengers have not always reacted the same.

The 564-foot SS Atlantic set sail from Port Everglades Jan. 20, 1967 for a seven day voyage to the Caribbean.* The ship with its 313 passengers and crew of 330 did not get too far; it ran into a sand bar about 700 yards off shore after the harbor pilot turned her over to Captain Charles F. Troxel of Fort Lauderdale. It must have been an embarrassing moment for this seafaring resident with 30 years experience.**

It was less traumatic for the passengers.

According to Gerard P. Zornow, assistant public relations director for American Export Isbrandtsen Lines, Inc. owner of the SS Atlantic, passengers were frolicking in the pool and dancing to orchestra music. The party lasted 49 hours.

It took several tugs and three high tides before dislodging the ship from the sand bar that one happy passenger referred to as their “private island.” A short time later later, sirens, flashing lights, streamers and the orchestra playing When the Saints go Marching In marked the ship’s return to Port Everglades. Smiling passengers, some wearing silly hats, were photographed disembarking.

Passengers paid $215 to $475 for the voyage with the sand bar stop. About two thirds of them opted to take an abbreviated cruise to Kingston, Jamaica that week. The remaining vacationers chose to take the full cruise at a later date.  The less litigious 1960s … 

_______________________ 

*About the ship: It was built as a C4 cargo ship in 1953 for the US Marine Commission by Sun Ship Building and Dry Dock who named it SS Badger Mariner.  It was sold in 1958 to American Banner Lines, to American Export Isbrandtsen Lines in 1959. The SS Atlantic was sold to Seawise, Inc. and bore the name SS Universe Campus and then SS Universe. It was scrapped about 1996.

**Captain Troxel blamed an errant harbor marker for the incident. The Coast Guard did not agree.

Sources

New York Times, Jan. 22, 1967

Palm Beach Post, Jan. 23, 1967

Miami News, Jan. 23, 1967

Ocala Star Banner Jan. 23, 1967

www.ssmaritime.com

 Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale during the 1960s, Port Everglades history, cruise ship history, historical researcher, film researcher