Barons of early Miami Beach: oil, tires, baked beans and beachside manses (or before the Fontainebleau Hotel)

 

Snowden Place 1923
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory - Hoit

By Jane Feehan

It’s hard to imagine Miami Beach in the days before it was established as a town in 1915. Yet the mangrove-dense barrier island east of the city of Miami was beginning to capture the attention of those with big imaginations and plenty of money.

One of the island’s pioneers, James H. Snowden, understood beach-side opportunities. Perhaps his associate, the better-known beach developer Carl Fisher, influenced him. Or maybe not. Snowden, born in Oil City, Pennsylvania was a sharp businessman. He made his fortune in the oil industry in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. His obituary claimed he had been a Standard Oil executive.

The Collins Bridge* (now the Venetian Causeway) connected the mainland to the barrier island in 1913. It spurred  development. Snowden began clearing property about a mile and a half north of the wooden span for his new winter home, Snowden Place, in 1916.  

Snowden Place circa 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Snowden Place sat between Indian Creek and the ocean. It was known as one of the “handsomest” houses in early Miami Beach. Snowden spent about $250,000 to landscape and build his palatial home with its 1,400 feet of oceanfront. His staff moved “carloads” of palm trees from parts of the property to replant along a quarter-mile drive to the residence. 

Palm trees were planted in an intermittent arrangement with “extra-large” 10-foot high oleander plants. It was, no doubt, an impressive sight to his neighbors, which included R.P. Van Camp of pork and beans fame and fortune. He built a house on the smaller property adjacent to Snowden Place with a 700-foot span of oceanfront (near today’s 41^st Street).  

Though Snowden was a Miami Beach resident and a registered voter there, he spent months away from Florida.  He rented the mansion during winter months to auto tire millionaire and Akron, Ohio resident, Harry S. Firestone several times. One news account reported Firestone and wife, with a retinue of 80 staff (many housed elsewhere) and as many as 10 children spent the winters of 1921 and 1923 at the estate. The tire magnate usually brought a fleet of cars but rented a boat for cruising and fishing. At Firestone’s invitation, his long-time friend and one-time president, Warren G. Harding, also spent time at the estate before his death in 1923.

Firestone Estate circa 1920
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory/Romer

In 1923, Firestone bought Snowden Place for a reported $250,000–the same for what the estate was built—if the reporting is accurate. Many today refer to the transactional history of that part of Miami Beach as pertaining to the Firestone Estate not Snowden Place. Snowden died in 1930 in New York at age 57. By that time, he had divested most of his holdings in Miami Beach. Firestone died in 1938.

Firestone heirs, who had re-zoned what remained of the property for commercial use, sold the estate to Ben Novak, operator of the Sans Souci Hotel, in 1952 for $2.3 million. Novak then built the world-famous Fontainebleau Hotel (designed by Morris Lapidus) on the site.

Fontainebleau Hotel under
construction 1954 
Florida State Archives/
Florida Memory

And it so it went – from mangrove to a sophisticated world-class urban setting of shoulder-to-shoulder hotels.

 

 Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* For more on Collins use search box.

 

Sources:

Miami News, June 14, 1916

Miami News, Feb. 13, 1919

Miami News, Dec. 15, 1922

Miami News, Aug. 3, 1923

Miami Herald, Oct. 26, 1930

Miami News, July 21, 1952

Tags: Miami Beach in the 1900s, Miami Beach in the 1920s, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Firestone Estate, Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach history, history of Miami Beach

Miami Beach: celebrities and glamour since the 1940s and 50s

 

Delta DC-6 over Miami Beach, 1954
Florida State Archives 

By Jane Feehan

For many across the U.S. in the 1950s, Miami was the place to be during the winter. Some could credit radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey with making Miami America’s vacationland with his live broadcasts from the Kenilworth Hotel. But many already knew about the city’s attributes thanks to mobsters who drew the adventurous into casinos masquerading as nightclubs in the 1940s.

By the late 1950s, mid-February was considered high season. Hialeah Park Race Track was open, the weather was stellar and Miami’s South Beach hotels were packed with tourists knee to knee at 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. Morris McLemore wrote a terrific column during the 1950s and 60s for the Miami News about the tropical playground.

He wrote in February, 1959 that 104 hotels were built in Miami Beach after World War II. More were built there “than the rest of the world combined.” In all, there were 374 hotels with 30,200 rooms. He counted 24 bakeries and two Wolfie’s restaurants on the beach serving Northern visitors. McLemore also noted there were 158 bars, 94 in hotels, 16 in social clubs and “only 43 regular bars.”*

The Miami Federation of Musicians reported 500 musicians “tootling or thumping away.” In a week, a visitor could be entertained by headliners Tony Martin at the Eden Roc Hotel, Jimmy Durante at the Latin Quarter or Teresa Brewer at the Diplomat. Cabaret singers, burlesque queens, big bands and bevies of show girls were ubiquitous. Everyone wanted to see or be seen in Miami; night life was central to that quest. It was the "only town in the world with ermine cabana jackets," claimed McLemore.

The legacy of Miami Beach includes the Liston-Clay fight in 1964, catapulting Muhammad Ali onto the world stage and a visit that year by the Beatles. Also, both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of 1972 were hosted by Miami Beach  -  the last time one city hosted both conventions. 

Ermine cabana jackets may be scarce today but Miami Beach still captures plenty of headlines as it draws rich and famous glamour seekers from around the world.


* A recent count of South Beach clubs: 49

Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:
Miami News, Feb. 26, 1959

Miami Herald, Feb. 28, 1964

Miami News, June 16, 1972

Tags:  Miami in the 1950s, Miami entertainment during the 50s, Miami Beach history, Miami entertainers, mobsters, Mafia in Miami, Miami floor shows, Miami Beach in the 1950s, 

Morris Lapidus: Architect with a sense of fun ... ahead of his time?

Fontainebleau today
 Creative Commons
Wikipedia 

By Jane Feehan


Once mocked by critics, architect Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) designed 250 hotels and 1,200 other buildings throughout the world. Among his most noted buildings were the Fontainebleau Hotel (1954), Eden Roc Hotel (1955) and the Americana (1956) - all in Miami Beach.*

Lapidus was a retail architect whose first Miami Beach hotel commission was to complete the Sans Souci Hotel in 1949 (another architect began the work). He was known for his use of whiplash curved facades, bright colors, and heavy adornments. His was a blend of French provincial and Italian Renaissance styles, leading some of his peers to call his work “boarding house baroque,” even “pornography.”

When he saw the Fontainebleau, architect Frank Lloyd Wright exclaimed it looked like an “anthill.” That didn’t bother the Russian-born Lapidus who said, “I’m flattered. An anthill is one of the greatest abodes nature ever perfected.” Critics said he was pandering to the public. “My critic is the masses,” Lapidus answered. “I design for them. Let’s stop educating the human race. Let’s just make them happy.”

Miami Beach 1954 41st Sreet
Florida State Archives

And he did make the masses happy. Among its many “gaudy” features, the Fontainebleau (once called “America’s grossest national product”) was known for its staircase to nowhere. It actually led to a cloak room from which people could descend dramatically in all their jewels and other finery to an admiring audience. His Americana Hotel kept alligators in terrariums to remind tourists they were in Florida. “What I try to do is to create buildings which give people a sense of exhilaration and enjoyment,” Lapidus explained in a 1959 interview.

Architects today take a kinder view of Lapidus. Some call him the first post-modernist architect. He may have been ahead of his time, especially with pedestrian-friendly Lincoln Road Mall opened in November, 1960. Spanning several blocks, the outdoor mall was closed to traffic and accented with pools, fountains, shelters, gardens and tropical foliage.

Whatever critics think of him, Lapidus, who lived on Miami's Venetian Causeway until his death in 2001, will be remembered by his creed: “Even a doghouse or a birdhouse should have an adornment.”

*Fontainebleau Hotel - Listed year 2008 in National Register of Historic Places (as of April 2024 the hotel is owned by Fontainbleau Resorts and controlled by the Soffer family).
Open today

Sans Souci - now the RIU Florida Beach: 

Eden Roc  - now a Marriott Renaissance Hotel 

Americana imploded 2007

Sources:

Miami News, Sept. 3, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 26, 1960

New York Times, Jan. 20, 2001

LA Times, Jan. 20, 2001

Tags: Miami Beach history, Miami Beach architect, architect of Fountainebleau, architect of Eden Roc, architect of Americana, Lincoln Road architect, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Frank Lloyd Wright, Miami Beach hotels of the 1950s, film industry researcher, Morris Lapidus

Art Deco and Miami Beach's revival

Aerial view of Art Deco area  -
 Florida State Archives

In May 1979 one square mile was designated “Old Miami Beach,” a historic preservation area comprising more than 1,600 buildings from the 1920s and 30s. Registered with the National Register of Historic Places, the area covers one fifth of the city from 6^th to 23^rd streets between Ocean Avenue and Alton Road.

Many refer to the area as the Art Deco District. Linear symmetry, gaudy ornamentation, and spires characterize many of the buildings of the Art Deco style. Most structures were built of Keystone, a limestone quarried in Florida. Roots of the term art deco came from the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs.  The term entered the English lexicon in the late 1960s.

The assorted architects of the buildings, which included Henry Hohauser, Roy France, L. Murray Dixon (and others) were not aware they were employing any particular style, nor did residents in Miami Beach, until the arrival of Barbara Capitman in 1973.

Capitman was a New York design journalist who saw something in Miami Beach that many did not – a distinctive style. For her, the buildings – hotels, apartment buildings and theaters - defined the city. She became the driving force behind the movement, along with friend Leonard Horowitz, to preserve the Art Deco District.

Miami Beach was inert in the late 1970s; one hotel was built in the late 60s but many of the old buildings were occupied by elderly residents. A battle against developers, some long-time residents, and old-time hotel owners ensued to preserve the area with its distinct architecture. When it was over, the federal government certified 400 buildings as historic.  Federal tax incentives were made available to those who renovated and rehabilitated their buildings in the historic style. Buildings could be knocked down but advance notice would have to be given and incentives would be taken away.

Some hotels were renovated and revived, beginning in the early 1980s; others were revived and then shuttered. Old Miami Beach has seen its ups and downs and buildings have seen their share of serial owners but South Beach is now viewed as one of the trendiest, most sophisticated destinations and night spots in the United States, with emphasis on youth, sophisticated dining and entertainment.

Thanks, Barbara Capitman (d.1990) and friend, Leonard Horowtiz (d. 1988) and legions of others who worked with them to preserve Art Deco architecture, ensuring Miami Beach’s place in history.

Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Houses. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami Beach Hotel Association (2005).

Miami News, May 15, 1979

Miami News, Dec. 26, 1987

Tags: Art Deco Miami Beach, Miami Beach history, Miami Beach hotels, Miami Beach architects, film research, Miami Beach history

Miami Beach's first oceanside grand - Roney Plaza Hotel

Roney Plaza Hotel, circa 1930 - Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The Roney Plaza Hotel opened in February, 1926. Built by N.B.T. Roney (Newton Baker Taylor Roney) of Camden, NJ, the $2 million project was the first large luxury hotel on the ocean in Miami Beach.*

Roney, a lawyer who was more interested in construction than law, first came to Miami in 1909 passing through on a trip from Cuba. With investment notions, he returned to the Magic City in 1918. The following year, he bought the Biscayne Hotel on Flagler and Washington Avenue. Roney gained notoriety as a wheeler dealer or “Man with the Golden Touch.”  News accounts relate his quick deals and spectacular purchases in New Jersey and Florida.   

In 1924 Roney announced his plan for a luxurious hotel in Miami Beach. The site for the Roney Plaza - Collins Avenue at 23^rd and 24^th streets – was purchased from from T.J. Pancoast and John S. Collins during February, 1925. Roney hired New York architectural firm Schultze and Weaver* to design the most ambitious of his 30 ongoing projects in Miami Beach.

A year later advertisements for the opening of the Roney Plaza Hotel welcomed visitors to elegant dining, 15 acres of formal gardens and gracious rooms. It became the place to vacation in Miami Beach, drawing European royalty, high society, and Hollywood notables. Roney hosted NJ Governor Morgan F. Larson - one of many prominent politicos who were to stay at the hotel - for his three-week honeymoon during the 1920s. 

Roney Plaza Hotel circa 1920 Florida State Archives

Neither the devastating hurricane of 1926, from which the hotel emerged structurally sound, nor the Depression stopped Roney from adding to and improving his hotel. In 1931 Roney spent $200,000 to build a pool and cabana colony. He sold his interest in the profitable Roney Plaza to Henry L. Doherty, a financier, utilities expert and oilman, in 1933.

With a string of owners, the hotel continued to take center stage in Miami Beach until it faded in the 1950s; other glamorous hotels such as the Fontainebleau competed for the limelight. The Roney Plaza was torn down in 1968, making way for the Roney Apartments. Today, after a $25 million renovation, the building stands as the Roney Palace, a resort and condominium.* 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 _________

* Carl Fisher's Flamingo Hotel was actually the first grand hotel in Miami Beach but it sat on the bay side.

*The firm also designed the Coral Gables Biltmore, Miami’s Freedom Tower, and the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

*Roney died in 1952. He left a rare map collection to the University of Miami in Coral Gables and a legacy of being one of Miami Beach's most significant developers.

Sources:

Miami News, July 3, 1922

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Holes. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami & Beaches Hotel Association (2005)

Florida International University archives

USGenWeb Archives

Tags: Miami Beach hotel history, Miami Beach history, Miami Beach during the 1920s, Florida hotel history, first large, luxury ocean front hotel in Miami Beach,  Roney Plaza Hotel

Lincoln Road Mall - where time caught up with architect Morris Lapidus

Original Lapidus geometric feature as seen today

By Jane Feehan

During the 1920s, early Miami Beach developer—and promoter—Carl Fisher (1874-1939) envisioned east-west thoroughfare Lincoln Road as a shopping area to rival New York City’s Fifth Avenue. Only a few decades later, Lincoln Road had devolved into an area overrun by automobile traffic and dimmed by urban blight.

Seeds of another idea, a pedestrian mall, first surfaced in the mid-1940s. By the 1950s, controversial Miami architect Morris Lapidus (1902-2001) and firm Harle and Liebman were commissioned to design a pedestrian mall to replace the ageing Lincoln Road shopping area. “I designed Lincoln Road Mall for people, a car never bought anything,” said Lapidus, also the architect for the Ponce de Leon Shopping Center in St. Augustine, FL.

Original Lapidus design 

The proposed $600,000, mile-long mall featured fountains, shaded walkways, lush landscaping, piped-in music and electric trams. The city and merchants approved the design, but funding would come from mall merchants. Stakeholders went to the polls Nov. 3, 1959 to vote in a special bond election. Merchants would repay a $600,000 bond or face a lien on their business. A few objected to the new plans citing limited accessibility with a ban on autos but there wasn’t much of a dramatic showdown on election day. Unofficial vote tallies the next morning revealed the proposal’s popularity: 2,993 for; 899 against.

In anticipation of increased business, merchants such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Andrew Geller Shoe Salon began extensive improvements, renovating interior and exterior displays and signage; prospects for the new mall also prompted lease extensions and attracted new merchants.

An official groundbreaking event for Lincoln Road Mall was held August 1, 1960. On hand for festivities was elephant Rosie, Jr., who stood patiently by with a shovel in her mouth. (The first Rosie was the elephant used by Carl Fisher to help clear Miami Beach mangroves and appeared at several Fisher hotel openings.)  Among others at the festivities were Pat Fisher, Miss Lincoln Road Mall, Mona Fillmore, Miss Lincoln Road Mall Hospitality, and Marcie Lieberman, vice mayor of Miami Beach. Work on the project,however, began July 11, 1960. The city of Miami Beach provided most of the construction; the arrangement eliminated the need for a general contractor.

Lincoln Road before and after
Florida State Archives

Lincoln Road Mall opened a few months later, Nov. 28, 1960, with adjacent parking for 3,500 cars. Visitors described it as “glamorous and beautiful.” Others touted it as one of the most picturesque streets in the world. Interestingly, the new shopping area was not the first pedestrian mall in America. That honor went to one in Kalamazoo, MI and was followed by one in Toledo, OH. Both sites were unsuccessful—and temporary.

Like several areas of Miami Beach, the Lincoln Road Mall went through years of decline after the 1960s. In 1997, a $16-million restoration project brought it back to life. Landscape architect Martha Schwartz helped revive the landmark with replanting of sabal palms and other flora. In 2010 one block was added to the original eight-block thoroughfare by designer Raymond Jungles.

A resurgence of South Beach has also affected the popularity of Lincoln Road Mall—as has environmental interest in pedestrian-friendly shopping areas and central business districts. Today, the mall, extending from the west side of Washington Avenue to the east side of Alton Road, is home to a long list of stores, restaurants and other businesses (see www.lincolnroadmall.info for a directory). 

Time has finally caught up with Lincoln Road Mall and its forward-thinking architect, Morris Lapidus.

Sources:

Miami News, June 6, 1959

Miami News, Sept. 16, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 1, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 2, 1959

Miami News, Nov. 4, 1959

Miami News, June 19, 1960

Miami News, July 25, 1960

Miami News, Aug. 1, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 27, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 28, 1960

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1960

Miami News, Dec. 24, 1961

Sun-Sentinel, April 18, 1999

www.lincolnroad.org

The Cultural Landscape Foundation at: https://tclf.org

https://lincolnroadmall.com/on-the-go-3-popular-ways-to-get-around-in-south-beach

Tags: Miami Beach History, Morris Lapidus, tourist attractions in Miami Beach, South Beach, Mi Mo architecture, Miami Beach in the 1950s, Miami Beach in the 1960s, Miami Beach in the 1990s, Carl Fisher, Miami Beach tourism, Jane Feehan

A profitable alliance: Boxing and Frankie Carbo

By Jane Feehan

Miami Beach boxing promoter Chris Dundee denied doing business with mobster Frankie Carbo, but admitted he first met the “Czar of Boxing” in 1937 at Stillman’s gym in New York City.  There was probably more to that relationship than he let on.

Carbo, part of the New York-based Lucchese crime family, had ties with boxing managers and fighters as far back as 1936. He was always ready with the “long green,” paying the gym tabs, car notes and other expenses of fighters. He also lined the pockets of managers. They were in too deep by the time they realized favors led to obligations. 

It wasn’t easy doing business without getting involved with the mob. Carbo had the connections to make things happen. Money flowed to those who associated with the unofficial “commissioner” of boxing. Fighters and managers saw money that they may not have seen otherwise. In 1959, a New York Amsterdam News reporter suggested many boxers would have remained in obscurity had it not been for Carbo.

Fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco wrote that Chris Dundee “had to join the boxing union of Frankie Carbo.” The "membership" helped Dundee, brother of manager Angelo Dundee, to develop world champions at his 5^th Street Gym. Without happy fighters and worthy matchups there was no business.

Some in the fight world would  turn over as much as 50 percent of the take to Carbo. Boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson resisted. Though he was considered to be in Carbo’s circle of influence, he didn’t like taking orders. Famed fighter Jake La Motta admitted Carbo ordered him in 1947 to take a dive in a bout with Billy Fox. To his many boxing credits, Muhammad Ali was the first heavyweight champion to be totally free of mob ties.

Carbo, who used the alias “Mr. Gray” in arranging fights, chose the contenders; he was probably behind what was then thought to be a mismatched bout between Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston in February 1964 at the Miami Beach Auditorium. Throughout the years, however, Dundee maintained he hadn’t done business with Carbo. In 1960 he was quoted as saying boxing wasn’t “big enough any more to attract a real racketeer.” There was more money, he said, in horse racing, football and baseball.

Before that historic, if not pretty, 1964 fight, rumors flew about Chris Dundee using Carbo’s influence to obtain certain closed circuit television rights for another championship fight. But Dundee steadfastly denied connections ... and then there was the time Frankie Carbo, in the company of Chris Dundee, picked up the check of Miami News editor Howard Kleinberg and his wife at the Saxony Hotel restaurant. He asked Dundee who the friend was who waved when he attempted to pay the check. Dundee told a startled (and not entirely happy) Kleinberg it was Carbo. Wink wink.

It was reported that Carbo illegally arranged a long roster of fights at Madison Square Garden and other venues, including Miami Beach, for more than two decades. In the 1940s he kept an apartment in New York City to conduct business with boxing managers. A few years later, the FBI knew he had a place at the 2000 block of Taft Street in Hollywood, FL. Carbo was seldom there, it was reported, but it was also used for business.

More on Carbo’s pedigree: He was born in New York’s Lower East Side in 1904 as Paolo Giovanni Carbo. By age 11, he was declared a juvenile delinquent. He went on to run a Bronx taxicab protection racket in the 1920s and was arrested and convicted in 1928 for murdering a driver who would not pay up. Carbo served 20 months in prison for a reduced charge of manslaughter. The conviction precluded his obtaining a license for boxing operations. An associate of mobsters Owney Madden and the “Lord High Executioner” Albert Anastasia, Carbo was suspected of being a trigger man for Murder, Inc., with possible involvement in several mob hits including that of Bugsy Siegel (yet unsolved) in 1947 . He was also thought active in bootlegging and bookmaking during his career.

In 1958, Carbo was indicted along with Frank “Blinky” Palermo with seven counts of undercover management and two counts of unlicensed matchmaking in fights. Charges included conspiring with Herman (Hymie the Mink) Waller, New York furrier and fight manager, to commit a crime of undercover management of boxer Don Jordan. While awaiting trial on Rikers Island in New York, he was brought before the Kefauver Committee in Washington, D.C. investigating organized crime. Carbo responded to each of the 25 questions he was asked by invoking the Fifth Amendment giving up no information.

The Czar of Boxing was convicted in July of 1961 with Attorney General Robert Kennedy as U.S. prosecutor and was sentenced to 25 years at McNeil Island Penitentiary in the state of Washington. Like many mobsters during jail time, he remained a powerful influence in his criminal domain. Kennedy long suspected him of continued involvement in the fight world and particularly with Sonny Liston. Carbo was released for health reasons 12 years into his sentence. He died in 1976, aged 72 at a Miami Beach hospital.

Dundee probably didn’t need Carbo’s help during the ensuing Muhammad Ali years, but he maintained  that the czar was a gentleman, if not a friend. The Dundees are gone now and so too the electrifying days of heavyweight stars, matchups at the Miami Beach Auditorium and the roof raisers at the Garden. And mob influence?   Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the 5th Street Gym, see the labels for boxing or use search box.

Sources:

Pacheco, Ferdie. Tales from the 5^th Street Gym. University Press (2010).

Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Thomas Dunne Books (2006).

Chicago Daily Defender, Jul. 24, 1958

New York Amsterdam News, Jul. 25, 1958

Chicago Daily Defender, Nov. 2, 1959

New York Amsterdam News, Nov. 7, 1959

Chicago Daily Defender Mar. 21, 1962

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1954

New York Times, Nov. 11, 1976

Tags: Boxing history, Chris Dundee, Mob history, Miami Beach history

Brothers Dundee, the 5th Street Gym, and boxing's best days in Miami Beach

By Jane Feehan

Angelo Dundee at Rourke -Powell fight 1991
Florida State Archives

I was hooked on boxing as a kid after seeing World Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson running along River Road in Chatham, N.J., training for his matchup with Ingemar Johansson. In his early 20s then, Patterson exuded intensity and purpose, endurance and physical magnificence. I was awe struck when I learned it was all for professional fighting.

A few years later we moved to Fort Lauderdale, about 25 miles from the epicenter of boxing, the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach. Lucky were they who climbed those creaky wood stairs to the dilapidated, termite-infested gym sitting above a drugstore and news stand.  How else to authentically experience this fraternity of the "sweet science" whose members were punching, jabbing, left hooking and pivoting hours each day in hopes of reaching pugilistic fame and fortune? I could only read about it … and that was OK.

Born in Philadelphia, Chris Dundee (1907-1998) had managed the boxing career of brother and club fighter, Joe Dundee. The family name was Mirena but “Dundee” sounded Irish, loaning (they thought) street cred to their boxing finesse and promoting abilities. It stuck.

Chris first came to Miami Beach in 1938 to promote the Ken Overlin-Ben Brown fight at the jai alai fronton. The area was ripe for boxing events; Miami was the new land of opportunity. He returned to stay in 1950 and opened a gym at 5th Street and Washington Avenue. Younger brother Angelo Dundee (1921-2012), who gave the gym its name, came aboard as trainer and manager. The Miami Beach Auditorium often served as stage for official boxing events. Chris remained the consummate promoter, keeping seats filled. With complementing skills, they yin-yanged their way to success. 

Brothers Dundee kept the gym humming with hopefuls and Chris scored a few notable promotions. The first big smack up was in 1956 with the lightweight World’s Championship fight between Wallace “Bud” Smith and Joe Brown. The most famous, of course, was the Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston matchup for the World Heavyweight title in 1964. It catapulted Clay, who had just taken the name Muhammad Ali, the 5th Street Gym, and the Dundees—especially Angelo—into world fame.

There was another among the gym’s notables who rode this rising tide.

Dr. Ferdie Pacheco (1927-2017) operated a free clinic in Miami’s poor Overtown neighborhood when he joined the cast of characters at the 5th Street Gym in 1962. He became known as the fight doctor, corner man and personal physician to Ali and other boxers. Pacheco left Ali’s camp after a controversial bout with Ernie Shavers in 1977. He went on to become a media personality as boxing analyst for NBC and Univision. Pacheco and Ali remained friends.

Pacheco’s book, Tales from the 5th Street Gym (University of Florida Press, 2010) captures both the history of the gym and essence of what it meant to fighters. Among them included a troupe of talented Cuban pugs, their fellow exile fans, and other managers and trainers during the decades before the gym's demolition in 1993. Several practitioners of the sweet science contributed to Pacheco’s compilation, but he set the background and tone, providing context. His wife, Luisita Sevilla Pacheco, provided many of the photos.

To know the gym’s history is to understand why Ferdie Pacheco was “steamed” in 2006 when Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer ceremoniously installed a plaque at the site of the demolished gym dedicated solely to Angelo Dundee who was on hand for the occasion. Chris was gone by then but Angie remained in the collective conscience (he still does). 

Powell-Rourke fight 1991
Florida State archives

Pacheco was a treasure trove of good, bad and hilarious memories from this Golden Era of boxing. He was a prolific writer, with 14 books to his credit and painter of works that fetch thousands.

No, I never made it to that boxing mecca in South Beach, but reading the doctor’s tales was almost as good as climbing those stairs to boxing heaven. Sweet.

Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Tags: history of Miami Beach, Ferdie Pacheco, Angelo Dundee, Chris Dundee, Muhammad Ali,  5th Street Gym, film researcher, Miami Beach history, Jane Feehan

Al Capone and "Capone Island" Deerfield Beach: facts and folklore

Capone in 1930 (FBI) see below*

By Jane Feehan

Al Capone folklore in Florida is nearly as ubiquitous as that of George Washington visiting towns during America's War for Independence.

The storied visits of our first president were based on fact. Not so with gangster Capone. Yes, he did live and die on Miami’s Palm Island. He did drive up the South Florida coast for recreation and to seek business opportunities during the boom times of the 1920s. But he did not buy what became known as “Capone Island” in the Intracoastal Waterway off Deerfield Beach.

During 1928 or 1929, the gangster and a few friends stopped at a speakeasy just south of Boca Raton, where Capone viewed a peninsula jutting out into the water off the north bank of the Hillsboro Canal west of the Intracoastal Waterway. The secluded, vacant property probably looked like an ideal place to conduct some bootlegging biz during Prohibition. Capone made an offer for the southeast portion of the peninsula.

A Saint Petersburg, FL, newspaper reported in 1930 that Judge Vincent C. Giblin, “chief of Al Capone’s legal staff in Miami,” was going to buy the property where Capone was to build a residence for $250,000 and a pool for $125,000. This was, no doubt, hyperbole. The Chicago gangster had paid only $40,000 for his Miami Palm Island digs in 1928. The reporter editorialized that Capone’s “presence in Miami is destructive; his presence in Broward County, close to the Boca Raton Club in Palm Beach County, will be destructive to the club and both counties.”

The state was willing to make a deal but the transaction never materialized for two reasons: Boca Raton residents did not want Capone in the neighborhood and the state wanted a road to be built on the property. The road was the deal breaker; Capone walked away. Anyway, he would not have had much time to enjoy it.  In 1932, at 33 years old, he was convicted of tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz for seven years.

Today the 53-acre property is Deerfield Island, operating as a Broward County park since 1981 after it was leased from the state for 99 years. Waterway dredging during the 1960s created a canal, which turned the peninsula into an island (Capone's vision?) The park serves as a popular Boy Scout camp, wildlife refuge and recreational area for boaters and hikers. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

See more on Capone on this blog.

-----------

Sources:

Evening Independent, Saint Petersburg, FL. July 19, 1930

The Day, New London, CT, Jan. 25, 1985

Broward County

Wikipedia - Al Capone in 1930" by Wide World Photos, Chicago Bureau (Federal Bureau of Investigation)  Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - 

Tags: Al Capone, Capone in Florida, Deerfield Island, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian

Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill and Miami Beach

1928

By Jane Feehan

Ben “Bugsy” Siegel (b. 1906) was shot dead in the rented Beverly Hills home of girlfriend Virginia Hill in 1947 while she was partying in Paris.  The girl from Alabama liked to party in many cities and Miami Beach was one of them.

During Hill’s early days with the Chicago mob, she caught the eye of trucking and oil millionaire - and mob front man - Major Arterburn Riddle who took her on a vacation to Miami Beach; it was probably her first time there.  When she hooked up with Siegel, he bought her a house from publisher William Randolph Hearst’s son at Number One Sunset Isle in Miami Beach.

After Siegel’s murder, which was never solved, Hill’s brother Charles “Chick” Hill and his girlfriend Jerri Mason, took refuge at his sister’s Miami Beach home. Virginia made her way back to the U.S. and headed for Sunset Isle. While in South Florida, she bought a $6,500 car and took off for Mexico. The house was sold soon after.

Virginia Hill continued to make the news when she appeared before the U.S. Senate Crime Investigating Committee (1951) headed by Sen. Estes Kefauver.  She appeared in a $5,000 mink coat late for testimony; Kefauver excused her saying "ladies from my part of the country are traditionally late.”  When asked how she supported her lavish lifestyle, Hill said she made a living with lucky horse-racing bets. Those bets, according to some, were all won at the end of the year and in even amounts.

In 1951, Hill, who federal agents chased around the country for back taxes, married Austrian Hans Hauser, a ski instructor with whom she had a son. She died of an apparent (and much disputed) sleeping pill overdose in Austria in 1966 at age 49. Today the 1930s Miami Beach house Virginia Hill occasionally called home still stands. 

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on Kefauver hearings, see index

Use search box at top right to find more on gambling and mobsters.

Sources:

Miami News, Mar. 15, 1951

Miami News, Jul. 7, 1951

Palm Beach Post, Mar. 25, 1966

Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 2, 1992


Tags: Organized crime in Miami, Miami Beach history, Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, Sen. Kefauver, film researcher, Florida film research,  historical researcher

Miami Beach sweeps TV land in 1955 with "Today," "Tonight" and ...

Eden Roc today; Fontainebleau adjacent (south)

By Jane Feehan

Tourism was already a growth industry in Miami Beach before World War II. It continued to expand when some of the first post-war hotels constructed in the United States went up in Miami Beach. Building accelerated throughout the 1950s, making the beach side city the most glamorous vacation destination in the nation; it also became a favorite spot for Europe’s elite. The Fontainebleau, Bal Harbour, and Ankara hotels opened in 1954. Tourists flocked to the Eden Roc, Bal Moral and Lucerne when they were completed in 1955.

Hank Meyer, public relations director for the city during the 1950s, hoped to establish Miami Beach as the winter entertainment capitol of the U.S. His dream was well on its way to fruition when he announced 30 hours of broadcast network programs were to air from beach hotels to living rooms across the country. The week of Jan. 9, 1955 was to be the busiest television week in Florida history. 

Dave Garroway of Today and Steve Allen of Tonight (both shows produced by Mort Werner) plus 62 NBC staffers made the Sea Isle Hotel (opened in 1940) home for one week while they televised from its pool, cabana area, and beach. Steve Allen used some of the local night spots as background. The Colgate Comedy Hour, also an NBC property, beamed from the spectacular Fontainebleau; the network's Friday night boxing show took over the Miami Beach Auditorium. ABC also used the Fontainebleau for a program featuring Walter Winchell.

Arthur Godfrey (b. 1903 - d. 1980) paved the way for television aired from Miami Beach in the early 1950s when some of his winter shows were produced there.  In 1954, he and two others purchased the Kenilworth Hotel, the site for many of his winter programs. The Jackie Gleason Show, which ran from 1966 to 1970 from the Miami Beach Auditorium (later renamed the Jackie Gleason Theater), marked the end of the big-show television era of Miami Beach. The era ended but not before giving millions the idea of Florida as a place to live as well as visit. Copyright © 2013 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
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Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Holes. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami & Beaches Hotel Association (2005).

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press (1996).
Miami News, Jan. 9, 1955

Tags: Miami Beach history, Miami television history, Miami broadcast history, Jane Feehan historial researcher for films

Florida and Flamingos – not so much

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

 By Jane Feehan

For years flamingos* have been associated with Florida but according to the Audubon Society, Florida is not a breeding ground for them today. Europeans probably saw them when they visited the peninsula 500 years ago. A few are spotted in Everglades National Park but they are most likely from a flock indigenous to the Yucatan.  Some may really be the state’s Roseate Spoonbill. So why is the flamingo an unofficial but iconic symbol of the Sunshine State?

It could be …

On Dec. 31, 1920, developer Carl Fisher (also of Indiana Speedway fame see: http://tinyurl.com/ll6bptv) opened the doors to the first grand hotel on Miami Beach, the Flamingo. The $2 million, 200-room, 11-story hotel was named the Flamingo by Fisher before plans were off the drawing board. During a fishing trip to Andros Island, he had become captivated by flamingos after seeing a large “pink cloud” lifting into the sky that turned out to be thousands of the long-legged wading birds.

In addition to naming the hotel for the bird and an unsuccessful attempt to import live flamingos from Andros to the hotel grounds, Fisher commissioned artists Louis Fuertes and N.C. Wyeth (father of Andrew Wyeth) to paint murals in the hotel’s lobby featuring flamingos. Soon-to-be hotel manager Charles Krom objected to the flamingo theme, deeming it inappropriate. Fisher prevailed.

With the opening of the glamorous Flamingo Hotel (famous for its dome of colored lights shining at night) Miami Beach’s stature as a luxurious resort area was firmly rooted. Fisher, as good a promoter as he was a developer, had no trouble snagging President-elect Warren G. Harding as a guest in January, 1921. Harding stayed in one of the hotel’s cottages (and he returned in 1923). Photos of the visit reached across the nation.

Fisher’s fortunes went the way of the real estate bust after the great hurricane of 1926 and the stock market crash of 1929 but the Miami area continued to be a popular vacation destination. Hialeah Track was built in 1936 and for decades pink flamingos lived there. They were an integral part of the race track’s marketing. Later, television ads for Hialeah Park featuring the graceful birds reinforced the pairing of Florida and flamingos.

Today, the flamingo is the national bird of The Bahamas but the pink bird remains emblematic of Florida living: bright tropical colors and warm water living. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* The plastic pink flamingo was designed in 1957 by Don Featherstone while working for Union Products.  It became a  pop culture symbol; many Floridians appropriated them as lawn ornaments.  In 2010, Cado Products (cadocompany.com) purchased the copyrights and plastic molds for the Pink Flamingos and continues to manufacture them.

Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Holes. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami & Beaches Hotel Association (2005).

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press (1996).

Armbruster, Ann. The Life and Ties of Miami Beach. New York:  Alfred A. Knopf (1995).

Wikipedia

Audubon Society

Tags: Florida and flamingos, Miami Beach history, Miami history, Flamingo Hotel, Florida film researcher, Florida historical researcher

Discrimination on Miami Beach and the first kosher hotel

Nemo Hotel 

Collins and 1st 

Miami Beach

 

By Jane Feehan

During the 1920s, Miami Beach’s first boom era, covenants in land deeds prohibited sale of lots to Jews. Hotels of the time advertised having “restricted” clientele, meaning Gentiles only were allowed. Until 1925, Jews did live on Miami Beach but only from Fifth Street south to the southern tip of the barrier island.*

Nemo Hotel, built in 1921 by New Yorkers Sam Magrid and Joseph and Harry Goodkowsky, was the first Miami Beach hotel to cater to kosher Jewish guests.  Others, such as the Seabreeze Hotel at Collins and Second, soon followed. A law was passed in 1949 by the Florida legislature to end discrimination in real estate and hotels.

Miami Beach 1922
Florida State Archives/
Fishbaugh

Years later the Nemo was considered to be an Art Deco gem of a building. Ownership of the hotel has changed several times during its history. At one time it was owned by the Hotel Astor Corporation headed by Herman Schatzberg (who may have owned part of another hotel  in Miami). In 1949, the Hotel Astor in Atlantic City (at Pacific and Connecticut avenues) was sold to Schatzberg, then listed as owner of Nemo Hotel in Miami Beach.

Like many of the hotels and apartment buildings on Miami Beach, Nemo Hotel hit hard times after the 1950s. By the 1980s it was a known crack house. South Beach’s revival and movement to save art deco buildings generated a renewed interest in the Nemo. Myles Chefetz bought it in the early 1990s, and, with Chef Michael Schwartz, operated a popular restaurant on the site, known as Nemo. They kept many of the old accents of the building including a picturesque archway, courtyard and tiled floors.   

At this writing, Nemo appears to have recently closed. I expect the building may transition to another purpose and rise again, like a phoenix from the ghosts of its Art Deco past.

For an old postcard photo of the hotel, see: http://tinyurl.com/p8qu4kv

*For an excellent history of the Jewish community in Miami-Dade County, visit www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

Sources:

New York Times, April 9, 1949

New York Times, June 21, 1995

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

Tags; Miami Beach history 1920s, Miami Beach hotel history, Nemo Hotel, Hotel Nemo, Art Deco buildings, historical researcher South Florida

New Jersey link to SOFLA palm trees and a failed Miami Beach biz

Coconut palm
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Coconut palm trees are not indigenous to Florida; there were high hopes in the 1880s that Miami Beach would be ideal for growing these trees.

Henry B. Lum, and his son Charles first visited the Miami area in the early 1870s. A successful nurseryman from Middletown, NJ, Lum was impressed by Florida’s agricultural possibilities. In 1870, he saw a few palm trees near an old wharf in Miami. They were thought to have washed ashore and taken root. Coconut palms are difficult to grow in the wild. Lum saw an opportunity for coconut tree farming.

Lum bought property from the government at 35 cents an acre in what became Miami Beach.  Two other Middletown residents, Elnathan T. Field and Ezra Osborn, purchased land from Lum’s property line north to Jupiter for 75 cents to $1.35 an acre. The three, who probably met in NJ, teamed up to launch a coconut palm business.

In 1882, a crew of about 25 workmen, hired from NJ lifesaving stations for the Florida venture, loaded supplies onto a Mallory line ship that sailed to Key West. From there the team, headed by 20 year-old Robert Carney (first sheriff of Miami Beach - see below*) moved supplies onto the Ada Dorn and headed for the barrier island off Miami. In those days there was no dockage so they off loaded supplies, including mules, into the water and guided them to shore by swimming or with smaller boats. The first tree-planting camp was established at what became Lummus Park.

The Ada Dorn then set sail for Trinidad for coconuts and returned with the first load of 100,000. By 1883, the crew had planted thousands.  Another shipment arrived from Nicaragua that was planted near the Hillsboro House of Refuge, north of Boca Raton.

Red line shows range of coconut habitat
They are thought to have come from the Indian Ocean area
Wikipedia 

By the end of the third year, the nurserymen ran into problems. Rabbits preferred the palm tree shoots to their normal diet of sea oats. Lum, Field, Osborn and their 60 stockholders had exhausted all their funds. Many coconut palms remained and have since become an iconic symbol of Florida, but in the 1880s the crop did not materialize into a money-making venture.  A more successful attempt to commercialize and develop Miami Beach was left to John Collins, also from Middletown NJ, and his son-in-law, Thomas Pancoast.

*Carney later became the first sheriff of Miami Beach. He built a house in Middletown that he loaded onto the supply ships, threw overboard and floated to shore. According to his obituary (New York Times, June 22, 1941), it was the first house on Miami Beach. He died in 1941 at age 79.

For more on John Collins and Thomas Pancoast, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/miami-beach-farmer-collins-his-avocados.html

Sources:

Tebeau, Charles W. , Ed. Tequesta: Journal of the Historical Association of South Florida. Number XV, 1955.

New York Times, June 22, 1941

Tags: Florida coconut palms, palm trees in Florida, Miami Beach plam trees, where are palm trees from, Florida historical researcher, Jane Feehan, film researcher

Luxury, kitsch and convenience - Sunny Isles motels of the 1950s and ...

Thunderbird Motel circa 1960
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Motels played a key part in Florida’s tourism industry during the 1950s and 60s.  In 1946, the Florida Hotel and Motel Association reported there were only 1,311 in the entire state. But by 1955, the organization tallied 5,085 motels along Florida’s highways and beaches. A motel was defined as a place  a car could be parked in front of one’s room. That definition was modified over the years but it translated into cheaper accommodations than those offered by hotels.

Sunny Isles today

Miami area motels appealed to families seeking an alternative to expensive hotels along Miami Beach. Motels competed with the glitz of the Fontainebleau, the Eden Roc and other hotels.

Rates were kind to a family’s purse. A comfortable room at a glamorous Sunny Isles motel fetched $18-28 a day during the winter season, about half of what a Miami Beach hotel charged. The same rooms would sell for $10-16 a day during summer months. (Fort Lauderdale room rates ran as low as $6 during the summer but motels had fewer amenities.)

Nowhere were motels as splashy as those built in Sunny Isles (near 170th Street, the Fontainebleau is close to 40th Street).

Luxury, kitsch, and convenience reigned during the 1950s and 60s. Curbside check-in made it possible to register without leaving the car at some motels. Others offered supper clubs, beach cabanas, dance floors, children's programs and upscale restaurants with down-scaled attire; coats and ties were not required. The Sahara Motel posted two stuffed camels and a figure of a desert nomad at the entrance. Others touted elaborate interior waterfalls and kitschy architectural design. 

Not only were they flashy, motels were large.

Sun City, with 476 rooms, claimed to be the largest in 1955. The Castaways*, built about 1951, opened with 172 rooms (in 1958 it expanded to 300 rooms and eventually to 540 in the next decade). The Dunes built an indoor skating rink and a 350-seat convention room.

  

Motels in the U.S. declined in popularity with the advent of the super highway, highway interchanges  and lodging chains. In Sunny Isles, motel bookings decreased as resorts in other locales competed for tourist dollars. Land values went sky high and so did taxes.

By the 1970s, the Castaways Motel attracted  few families. By then, the motel was better known for its famous Wreck Bar and night life than for its family accommodations. Owner Joe Hart sold the motel in the 1970s; today the site is home to the Oceania Condominiums. The Dunes was replaced by a condominium; the Sunny Isles of the 1960s is now a wall of condominiums, barely more than a  memory of the motel heydays of the 1950s and 60s.

*Architect Tony Sherman designed the early Castaways; Charles McKirahan designed the expansion in 1958. The Wreck Bar at the Castaways drew celebrities, including Lenny Bruce and, in 1964, the Beatles after they finished playing on the Ed Sullivan Show at the Deauville Hotel.

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Sources:

New York Times, Dec. 11, 1955.

Armbruster, Ann.  The Life and Times of Miami Beach. New York: Alford A. Knopf, Inc. (1995).

Tags: Miami history, Sunny Isles history