Hotel Havana Riviera: Meyer Lansky gambles on Cuba

Havana Riviera*
Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

By Jane Feehan 

Social and political pressure nearly shut down casino gambling in Dade and Broward counties during the late 1940s and early 50s. Organized crime figure Meyer Lansky ran the Colonial Inn, a posh casino in Hallandale Beach, for three short years until the government closed it in 1948. The
high-profile Kefauver Crime Committee hearings, which arose out of concern about the growth of syndicated crime after World War II, ramped up scrutiny of illegal gambling operations in Florida and around the country. It was time for Lansky and friends to look for a more hospitable environment.  

That place was Cuba, where exiled mobster and Lansky associate Lucky Luciano held court under the cooperative eye of Cuba dictator Fulgencio Batista, an old Lansky friend.  Gambling brought tourists, so the Batista regime granted state loans to cover 50 percent of a hotel/casino valued at least $1 million. Honors went to Meyer Lansky who built the lavish 19-story, 354-room Hotel Havana Riviera along the waterfront. Seventeen other casinos were also partially financed by Batista.

Lansky had gambling interests in Las Vegas, where state law prohibited operators of gambling concessions from simultaneously running another casino. That included Havana, so Lansky tapped others, including businessmen Harry and Ben Smith, as owners/stockholders. A cadre of individuals listed as operators of the Havana Riviera was surreptitiously headed by Lansky.

Valued between $12 and $15 million, Hotel Havana Riviera was the first large hotel and casino to be constructed since the Gran Casino Nacional 27 years prior. With gold-plated slot machines and other amenities, the hotel opened December 10, 1957 with a floor show that included Ginger Rogers and an audience comprised of American press, and television and Hollywood celebs.  On Jan. 19, 1958 TV personality Steve Allen broadcast (NBC) from the Riviera with transmission made possible with new technology, the “over-the-horizon microwave system.”

It wasn’t long before the Cuban tide of fortune changed for Lansky and his associates. A violent storm that shattered windows and flooded the lobby of Hotel Havana Riviera on Jan. 4, 1958 foreshadowed the downturn. The growing July 26 movement, launched by lawyer and rebel Fidel Castro in 1953, was gaining momentum. By 1958 U.S. support for Batista waned after his army was routed by rebels. The breakdown of Cuba’s air force soon followed as did Castro’s repatriation from Mexico, Jan. 1, 1959.  Batista, purse heavy with state money, left quickly for the Dominican Republic.

The casino at the Riviera, looted as others were during the coup, was closed by Castro within days. Lansky arrived in Miami from Cuba on Jan. 7, hopeful that the new leader would soon change his mind. He told reporters that hotel employees were about to ask the government to reopen the casinos to save their jobs. Lansky returned and Castro reopened casinos (only to non-Cubans) on Jan. 18, welcoming U.S. tourists to his “beautiful land of happy people.”

Summary trials and executions by firing squads were the order of the day with support of many. In late January, a group of mothers whose sons had reportedly been killed by Batista met with 300 members of the international press in the lobby of the Riviera. Trials and executions continued, people fled to Florida and relations with the U.S. deteriorated. In May, Lansky’s brother Jake and colleague Dino Cellino who also worked at the casino, were detained 25 days in the Tiscornia Emigration Station. They were released, according to the Cubans, when they had word the two were not wanted by the U.S. government.

Hotel Havana Riviera lost an estimated $7 million by the time Castro seized the hotel and outlawed all casinos in 1960. Cuba anticipated a U.S. invasion. A bomb went off at the Hotel Havana Riviera Oct. 31, 1960, destroying a room and furnishings on the 12^th floor. The hotel was nationalized, the mob left, and gambling prospered in Las Vegas, the real land of happy people.

Today, Havana Riviera remains a popular, if not luxurious hotel, with rooms selling for less than $100 (in 2015). It is recommended to business travelers and honeymooners, an odd juxtaposition of guests.

Photo of Havana Riviera:

<a title="Leandro Neumann Ciuffo, CC BY 2.0 &lt;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hotel_Riviera_(525406392).jpg"><img width="512" alt="Hotel Riviera (525406392)" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Hotel_Riviera_%28525406392%29.jpg/512px-Hotel_Riviera_%28525406392%29.jpg"></a>

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Jul. 21, 1957

Miami News, Dec. 1, 1957

Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 12, 1957

The New York Times, Jan. 4, 1958

The New York Times, Jan. 2, 1959

Ocala Star Banner, Jan. 8, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1959

The New York Times, Jan. 25, 1959

The New York Times, May 31, 1959

The New York Times, Oct. 31, 1960

Iberostar

Dick Cami and Convulsion at Miami's Peppermint Lounge: the Twist, HullyGully, Mashed Potato and ...

By Jane Feehan

Note : Richard "Dick Cami" Camillucci, Jr.,  quoted below, died July 28, 2020 at  age 86.

One of Miami’s hottest night spots in the early 1960s was the Peppermint Lounge, a place where old and young, rich and famous danced their nights away to the latest gyrating crazes, including the one that launched the club, the Twist.

Ernest Evans, known forever after as Chubby Checker, recorded Hank Ballard’s rhythm and blues tune, The Twist, in 1959. The record did not sell well so Checker went on tour across the nation to sing the tune and demonstrate a dance that went with it. Some say he lost 30 pounds in just three weeks of performing. The tune – and the dance—finally caught on 14 months later as a fad that swept the world.

It proved to be a draw at the Peppermint Lounge on West 45^th Street in New York where people waited in line to get through its doors. The popularity of the club spawned a few others, including the Peppermint Lounge on the 79^th Street Causeway in Miami.

The Miami club opened Dec. 1, 1961 at the former site of Colonel Jim's. The Miami News reported Lee Ratner and Morris Levy of Roulette Records were its backers but according to Dick Cami (in his mid 20s at the time), he ran the place. Cami was repotedly married to the daughter of New York mobster Johnny “Futto” Biello.

An impressive roster of big name entertainers played at the Miami club.

"Major rock and roll acts worked at the Peppermint Lounge like the Coasters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty ... and more," said Cami.

Miami’s Peppermint Lounge, with its mirrored ceilings and fenced-in dance floor attracted locals, tourists—and the famous. Nat King Cole asked Cami if he could play the piano there a few nights to get the feel of the rock ‘n roll thing his daughter Natalie liked so much. He was at the piano when singer Sam Cooke, who recorded his own top-of-the-chart tune, Twistin' the Night Away, came in one evening. The Beatles visited Cami's place to pay homage to rock n' roll—the inspiration for their music—three times when they

Lenny Bruce, frequent visitor.
Domita Jo on his left, photo courtesy of Dick Cami

were in the area to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Politicos ventured fearlessly into the club to be part of the action. Gov. Grant Sawyer of Nevada was at a Governors Conference in Miami when he found the Peppermint Lounge. He visited the club each night with his wife; a large crowd gathered as the governor climbed the dance floor fence and twisted the night away.

And the Twist kept raging “round and round” Miami, Miami Beach and the rest of the country. “How long will the Twist epidemic last?” asked columnist Herb Kelly as he listed all the Miami Beach hotel lounges bowing to the fad. “It’s spreading so fast nobody knows.”  Gray-haired matrons were shaking their hips on the same dance floor with green-haired girls and bearded young men, “all shaking like there was no one else in the world, not even their partner,” mused Cami.

The Twist was invented by chiropractors, quipped comedian Bob Hope.  “The whole world’s sacroiliac is going to be out in about three days.”

Actually it took a bit longer than three days.

Things began to slow down about a year later. That’s why the Peppermint Lounge started featuring a dance revue, the “Crazy Crazes,” a history of dance fads. Four dancers—two male, two female—and singer Regina Rae highlighted the show presenting dance crazes from the 1920s to the Twist.

Other dances caught on at the Peppermint Lounge as they had elsewhere in the U.S.: the Hully Gully, the Mashed Potato, the Fly, Bird, Dog, Frug, Slop, and the Continental. The Legends provided the music at the Miami lounge for all the crazes and so did a band from Jamaica, Freddie Scott’s Blues Busters. Their claim to fame was blending calypso and rock ‘n roll, known then by another name.

"We were the first to bring Ska, the precursor of Reggae, to America, " reminisced Cami.

Lights went out on the dance floor by 1964 or early 1965. In late ’64, Cami sold the lounge to Joe Camperlengo of Fort Lauderdale; Camperlengo owned the 4 o’Clock Club in that city. The Peppermint Lounge reopened shortly after the sale and soon became the Inner Circle. By 1965, the place was razed to make way for a new steak house.

Lucky for South Florida, Dick Cami remained but moved on to other endeavors in the area. He said he opened Applause, a nightclub at the Omni Center in Miami. Some reported that he wanted to go into construction but he (and later with his two sons) became the driving force behind several restaurants: Cami’s Seashells in Dade and Broward counties; Grumpy Dick’s in Plantation, Crabby Dick’s in Key West, and Islamorada Fish House in Dania. 

The restaurant closest to Cami's heart was his Top of the Home in Hollywood, FL. For 26 years  it stood acclaimed for its fine Continental dining, outstanding wine selection, and stunning panoramic vista of Broward County. His popular lounge featured two singing bartenders and piano player Sonny Gambino. 

Today, Cami no longer owns a restaurant but with a wealth of experience accumulated over the years he serves as chief operating officer of food and beverage for Excelsior Hospitality Management International, a consulting and asset management company. 

There is more to Cami's past —and present—than the restaurant biz.

He said he stepped into the boxing world for a time, managing a few fighters who the late, great Angelo Dundee trained at his Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach.

Cami also mentioned he manages affairs for his friend, Sandi Lansky*, daughter of reputed mobster, gambling kingpin and former Miami resident, Meyer Lansky. Cami has served as advisor during the compilation of her memoirs by William Stadium. The book, Daughter of the King, was released March, 2014.

The former restaurateur said he is currently in discussions with Fox about a TV pilot series, The Twist, and has teamed up with a former colleague to produce an animated musical feature, The Dog Show, a story about a mutt who wins the Westminster Dog Show.   

Cami lives in Oregon today but memories of those sizzling Miami Beach days and the jumping Peppermint Lounge nights loom large. I wonder if he ever asked anyone to do the Twist.                       

*  Sandra Lansky, daughter of Meyer Lansky wrote a memoir, Daughter of the King, in 2014.

Copyright ©2013, 2014, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 5, 1961

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1961

Miami News, Aug. 17, 1962

Miami News, Nov. 27, 1962

Miami News, Aug. 7, 1963

Miami News, Oct. 8, 1964

Miami News, Sept. 19, 1965

Beaver County Times, Aug. 19, 1964

Lakeland Ledger, Feb. 29,1988

Reading Eagle, May 20, 1965

Rome News-Tribune, Mar. 14, 1972

Richard "Dick Cami" Camillucci, Jr.

Tags: Miami history, Miami dance clubs, Peppermint Lounge, the Twist, Chubby Checker, Sandi Lansky, Meyer Lansky,Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian

Florida's casino gambling and bingo madness - 1930s, 40s

Cashing winning tickets at Miami Jockey Club 1937
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Postcards

By Jane Feehan

While politicians and law enforcement looked the other way, residents and tourists engaged in casino gambling in South Florida during the 1930s and 40s. Legal status of gambling seesawed in Tallahassee depending on the governing administration.

It wasn’t until the early 1950s, after hearings led by U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver, that early casinos in Florida were permanently closed;  a connection was made to at least 50 members of organized crime. But until then (and not until the Seminoles opened casinos decades later), gambling joints were popular in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Slot machines were ubiquitous in the early 1930s; in 1935 the Florida Supreme Court legalized them. Bingo, sometimes called corn games when payoffs were made in merchandise, drew thousands to casinos (and to churches). Patrons tried their luck at roulette, dice and other games. Nearly 2,000 customers crowded one large casino just over the Dade County line in south Hallandale seven nights a week during 1938.

For $2 a patron could play six games to win $50, $100 - or much more. Operators would dump all remaining proceeds into the final game, driving the winnings up to at least $1,000, a considerable sum during the Great Depression. The house took no cut, knowing they now had players for more lucrative games. The casino provided bodyguards to women who won and wanted escorts home to safeguard their winnings.

Casinos or gambling clubs, many with floors shows, abounded in Miami: Royal Palm Club at Bay Front (not the Royal Palm, Miami’s first hotel) owned by Miami Beach councilman Art Childers; the Little Palm (Walter Winchell’s favorite), also owned by Childers near the old Herald building; the Brook Club on the beach, and the Beach and Tennis Club at Lincoln Road and Collins; Sunny Isles Casino; Palm Island Club on Palm Island, where Al Capone lived; the 86 Club on 86^th Street and Biscayne; the Island Club on Poinciana Island, where a reporter once found a cop in the kitchen making a sandwich; the Riviera Club, a crooked establishment on Sunny Isles; the Teepee Club on SW 8^th Street, the Deluxe Club on NW 27^th and the Turf Club on NW 79^th Street.

Broward County touted a number of casinos, the most famous being the Colonial Inn on Hallandale Beach Boulevard. La Boheme, Greenacres, and Plantation Resort also operated in south county. The IT Club on South Federal Highway and Lopez Restaurant attracted gaming customers in Fort Lauderdale and surrounding communities.

Gambling was reserved for wealthy tourists known to casino management in Palm Beach County. Patrons were scrutinized through door peep holes before entering. Residents were not allowed to play.

Today, as in the old days, casinos still manage to part people and their money. Now it’s legal - and perhaps less glamorous. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the Colonial Inn and Meyer Lansky see index at right.

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 18, 1935

Miami News, Feb. 3, 1938

Palm Beach Post, Mar. 28, 1938

Miami News, Dec. 9, 1976

Tags: Early gambling in South Florida, casino gambling in Miami, casinos in Miami Beach, Dade County history of gambling, Broward County gambling in the 1930s 1940s, Florida gambling in the 1930s, 1940s. Organized crime in Florida, Florida slot machine history, Florida bingo history, film industry researcher,  historical researcher

Meyer Lansky: Gambling, sure. Mobster? No way.

Lansky in 1958 (LOC)

Posted by Jane Feehan

Mobster Meyer Lansky (1902-1983) operated casinos in Miami, Hallandale, Las Vegas, pre-Castro Cuba and other places across the country in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. U.S. Senate committees and law enforcement officers labeled Lansky a top figure in organized crime; some noted his association with the notorious Murder, Inc. of the 1930s.

When the federal glare became too hot, Lansky left for Israel with his wife Thelma (or “Teddy”) in 1972. He claimed those were the two happiest years of his life but Israel said he was a threat to public safety and expelled him. Lansky returned to the U.S. (Paraguay refused his entry) where he was arrested and convicted on a federal contempt charge for failing to respond to a subpoena. The decision was overturned on appeal. Then Lansky was tried for tax evasion but was acquitted.  

During those troubles, he and his wife lived in Miami Beach on Collins Avenue where he read philosophy and watched very little television -- except for the public broadcasting channel. A move to legalize casino gambling dominated Miami news during the late 1970s in the days before the Seminoles assumed their role in the industry. Legendary Miami News reporter Milt Sosin interviewed Lansky, who was about 76 at the time, to get his take on the gambling controversy.

When asked if he was in favor of casino gambling, Lansky said there would always be people who would gamble; they found places to go such as The Bahamas and Vegas, why not Miami? Why not junkets to Miami? Sosin pointed to gambling opponents who claimed organized crime would infiltrate the business. But Lansky said there was no such thing as organized crime … and that police would say anything. “The whole thing [casino gambling] will be taken over by the puritan establishment, like Hughes and the hotel people in Vegas,” added the aging mobster.

Sosin asked about the dangers of “enforcers,” or increased crime if casinos were legalized. Lansky said everybody had collectors – even building and loan associations - but he didn’t believe stories of people having their legs broken or being killed.

He lacked credibility but some could say, as far as casino gambling is concerned, Lansky was a man ahead of his time. Today, instead of people taking junkets to Miami, many in South Florida – and in other states - merely drive across town to gamble.

Meyer Lansky died in Miami in 1983 of lung cancer. Thelma died in 1997. The size of the estate of the “accountant to the mob,” according to his will was not much, and has long been subject to conjecture. 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on Lansky, see index.

Sources:

Miami News, Feb, 10, 1978.

Miami News, Feb. 8, 1983

New York Times, Aug. 24, 2000.

Tags: Organized crime in Miami, gambling in Miami, Miami mobsters, Meyer Lansky, Miami history, Florida mob history, film researcher, Jane Feehan

Meyer Lansky buys Colonial Inn from Lou Walters - 1945

Colonial Inn, circa 1946.  Courtesy of Broward County Historical Commission

By Jane Feehan

The purchase of the Colonial Inn* in Hallandale for $80,000 topped the week’s real estate transactions reported by the Fort Lauderdale Daily News, June 9, 1945.

Meyer Lansky (1902-1983), an organized crime figure, bought the property from Louis E. “Lou” Walters. The Colonial Inn, near Gulfstream Park, was closed from 1941 until Walters opened it December 22, 1944. The inn operated for five days. Walters, father of today’s TV personality Barbara Walters, was a night club “impresario,” with clubs and shows in Las Vegas and New York City (He died in 1977.) 

After closing the Colonial Inn, Walters took his night club show to the Cabaret Restaurant in Miami Beach. He was the original operator of the Latin Quarter on Palm Island in Miami Beach and the famed Latin Quarter in New York City.

Lansky was also known for “dabbling” in the nightclub biz. The Fort Lauderdale Daily News noted his affiliations with nightclubs in Broward County and reported “future plans for operating the Inn await Lansky’s return from New York City.”

Those future plans were probably known to many. Lansky, long affiliated with mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano, was expanding his gambling operations in Florida and Las Vegas, and later to Cuba. He opened the Colonial Inn December 1945. The Inn became a profitable, posh East Coast gambling establishment. It was closed by the government in 1948. For more on the demise of the club, and Meyer Lansky, search labels at right.

* Not to be confused with the Colonial Inn on Motel Row.

For more on Lansky, see index.

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Tags: Hallandale history, Broward County history, Meyer Lansky, Colonial Inn in Hallandale, South Florida gambling history, Broward County in the 1940s, Lou Walters , Florida mob history, 
film researcher, Jane Feehan
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Gran Casino Nacional - "Monte Carlo of the Western Hemisphere," run by mobsters - for awhile

Photo by nurzumspass,
CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

Gran Casino Nacional 

Hotel Nacional de Cuba

www.hotelnacionaldecuba.com

  

By Jane Feehan

There’s a scene in Godfather II depicting a meeting of  underworld characters at a Havana hotel during the late 1940s. It was a re-enactment of a summit held at the Hotel Nacional attended by mobsters Meyer Lansky*, Lucky Luciano, Santo Trafficante, Jr., Frank Costello and others. They came to discuss, among other mob interests, expansion of  their gambling world. Trafficante ran the hotel’s famous casino, Gran Casino Nacional. The law (if not politicians) was making it difficult to run gambling houses in South Florida. Cuba was a ripe opportunity.*

They had a lot to work with at the Havana hotel. It had an elegant reputation, drawing the upper crust from all over the world.  Designed and built in 14 months by two American companies, McKim, Mead and White (architects), and Purdy and Henderson Co., Hotel Nacional opened in December 1930 to wide acclaim. Its Hispanic-Moorish architecture with Art Deco accents provided an elegant setting that drew the rich and famous for years before it caught the attention of Lansky and friends.

The Miami News ran a story (Jan. 17, 1932) extolling the hotel’s guest list and sumptuous opening festivities of its third season.  “Havana has an attraction to offer the tourist which no resort in the United States can offer – a casino,” the reporter wrote. “Its beauty and splendor rivals the hotels of Europe and it is called the Monte Carlo of the Western Hemisphere.”

Opening night that third year, the ballroom was converted into a setting for a “Spanish fiesta,” with “intriguing lighting effects of Spanish and American lanterns,” priceless shawls and appropriate formal dress for such an occasion. Guests included American notables Harry F. Guggenheim and wife, A.J. Drexel Biddle and wife, and the British Duke of Manchester and his actress wife Kathleen Dawes (married there). They were joined by prominent South Americans and European royals. 

Fast forward nearly two decades to when Trafficante managed this casino and others in Havana. Some say he ran it into the ground but not before drawing movie stars and other celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway and assorted world figures such as Winston Churchill to the hotel. Fidel Castro chased Trafficante – and the rest of the mob – out of Cuba a year or so after he overthrew Fulgencio Battista in 1959. (Mobster Jimmy Fratianno claimed Castro sent Trafficante to Florida to spy on Cubans there; later Trafficante was linked to a plot to assassinate Castro.)

The 457-room, eight-story hotel has had its ups and downs over the years during Castro's cash-strapped regime. It was restored during the 1990s in a bid to attract more tourists. Most of its glamour belongs to history, not the present. See link above for more photos.

* Ben "Bugsy" Siegel's Las Vegas dream, the Flamingo Hotel, opened in 1946.

Tags: Casino history, mob history, Meyer Lansky, Sandi Lansky, gambling casino, organized crime in Cuba, film researcher,

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Hotel_Nacional_de_Cuba_-_panoramio.jpg

Colonial Inn - east U.S. gambling hub in the 1940s

By Jane Feehan

Opened in Hallandale (a few miles south of Fort Lauderdale) in December, 1945, Colonial Inn* was one of the plushest gambling spots in the eastern United States. 

Gambling wasn’t legal but Broward County officials turned a blind eye on the operation as it drew in millions of dollars for its owners.

Gangsters thought to have been involved in its operations included Joe Adonis, Meyer Lansky, Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo and perhaps, Frank Costello (Kefauver Committee Hearings Interim Report #3, 1951). “Gambling Baron” Mert Wertheimer operated the place when it first opened and later moved to Las Vegas to oversee the popular Riverside Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

During its short life as a casino, the Colonial Inn, which was located near today's Gulfsream Park, hosted big-name floor shows. Some of the entertainers included Carmen Miranda who headlined weekly for $11,000 with comedian Joe E. Lewis as master of ceremonies for $6,500 a week (Miami News, Feb. 13, 1948).

Fort Lauderdale’s Dwight Rogers Jr., Florida’s assistant state attorney 1948-1952, closed casino operations in 1948. The inn later served as a television studio and was then sold for conversion into a hotel in 1951 (Miami News, Jul. 30, 1951, p. 14). 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* This is NOT the Colonial Inn of Motel Row in North Miami - no connection.

Meyer Lansky buys Colonial Inn, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/04/meyer-lansky-buys-colonial-inn-from-lou.html


For information about Sheriff Walter Clark and gambling in Broward County during the 1940s, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/09/sheriff-walter-clark-broward-gambling.html

See index for more on Lansky.

Tags: Miami gambling in the 1940s, casinos in Miami Beach in the 1940s, Meyer Lansky, Hallandale history