By Jane Feehan
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| Dania Jai Alai Palace circa 1959 Florida State Archives/Rubel |
Plans to close Dania Jai Alai were reversed February, 2022. A look back at the genesis of the game in South Florida highlights its popularity.
Miami realtors Carson Bradford and Joe Adams thought the Spanish game of jai alai, played in Cuba, would interest Florida winter visitors. The first U.S. jai alai fronton was built for the 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair and closed after a few months. But Bradford and Carson thought the sport would flourish in Florida. They were right.
On Nov. 28, 1923 they established the South Florida Amusement Company to promote and organize the sport in the Miami area. Bradford and Carson, president and vice president, offered executive positions in their endeavor to A.P. Vasque and E.A. Serafin, owners of two successful jai alai frontons in Cuba. Their expertise guided the Florida plans that materialized with Fronton Hialeah built 1923-24 near today’s 13501 NW 134th Street.
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| Fronton Hialeah - 1924 Florida State Archives |
The grand opening on Feb. 2, 1924 drew capacity crowds, including high society women dressed in sequined gowns and fur wraps and men in dinner or polo jackets. Attendees came from Miami, Miami Beach, from yachts and hotels. The "in" crowd included Hialeah Mayor and Ms. Edward Romfh, Ms. Jane Fisher, wife of Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher, William Jennings Bryan, a Coconut Grove winter resident and political figure of national stature, and James Deering of the Deering Harvester Company and the Vizcaya Estate.
Fronton Hialeah averaged about 2,500 spectators a game until the facility was shuttered by the Great Hurricane of 1926. Biscayne Fronton, also damaged by the hurricane but not as extensively, operated for nine months before the historic storm. Known today as Miami Fronton (3500 NW 37th Ave.) and as the “Yankee Stadium of Jai Alai.” The arena seats about 13,500 and is the world’s largest fronton facility. Jai alai serves as the basis for much of Florida’s parimutuel betting.
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| Biscayne Jai Alai 1926 Florida State Archives/Fishbaugh |
Some facts about the game:
* Jai alai is referred to as the “World’s Fastest Sport”
* Jai alai means “happy time” or “happy festival” in Spanish
* The game, with origins in Spain and parts of France, is (and was) played by boys and girls. It was thought to be a “health-building exercise.”
* The top player in the 1920s made $50,000 for a nine-month contract– more than baseball players at the time. Average salaries ran $1,500-2000 monthly.
* Jai alai was expensive in 1920s Spain: According to a 1924 Miami News story, jai alai cost about $3 an hour to play with an $8 ball made of goat skin,
* Several had been killed by the fast-flying balls in Spain, but Fronton Hialeah installed a wire mesh screen on the court boundary to protect spectators.
* Girls used a tennis racquet; boys and professional players used the traditional wicker basket or cesta.
* The world’s first female professional jai alai player is Miami’s Becky Smith.
For more on jai alai around the U.S. see:
For Miami Fronton:
https://www.magiccitycasino.com/jai_alai
Dania Beach Jai Alai: (to close Nov. 28, 2021)
https://www.casinodaniabeach.com/jai-alai
Miami News, Nov. 21, 1923
Miami News, Feb. 2, 1924
Miami Herald, March 2, 1924
Miami News, July 26, 1924
Miami New Times, May 24, 2019
https://sayhili.com/the-first-u-s-frontons/
Tags: Jai alai history, Jai alai South Florida, Jai alai US, Hialeah history, Florida sports history
