New Year 2024, meet Miami headlines from 1924

 

Miami 1924 - State Archives of Florida/Romer

Below is a sampling of headlines from sections of the Miami News-Metropolis of January 1, 1924. A mix of local and national stories show how some themes remain the same a century later.

Panoramic view of Coral Gables from Water Tower Showing Development of Two-year-old Town

Coral Gables from the water tower 1924

 

Thousands See Monster Parade  - Seven miles of floats pass in colorful array

Fruit and Flower Pageant – 40,000 view the parade that stretched more than 100 blocks. It was a “typical June day in January.” Note: Miami held a variety of parades in its early days, including Labor Day, Shriner’s, Palm Fete and Orange Bowl parades. See index or search for Orange Bowl.

 

Construction of Large Concrete Fronton at Hialeah for Spanish Game of Jai Alai Introduced from Cuba Opened Feb. 2, 1924 (see index for short history). Most are closed today, but one still operates in Dania.

 

Hialeah Fronton 1924 State Archives of Florida

 U.S. Stirred Over Obregon Lack of Force  

“Washington hopes Mexican revolution will be halted … disappointed over its failure to solve internal problems…policy limits supply of arms.” Alvaro Obregon served as president of Mexico from 1920-1924. Deemed a centrist and peacemaker, he was assassinated in 1928.

 

Mystery Marks Liquor Supply in Washington

“Unusual conditions for guzzlers.” Why has so much illicit liquor appeared during the holiday season, the reporter asks (Prohibition – 18th Amendment, 1920 – 1933). Conflict arose between local police and federal agents about enforcing the law against liquor. Confiscated liquor disappeared or mysteriously “turned into water.”

 

Man with a drink in tourist photo booth at Hardie's Bathing Casino
during Prohibition 1920-1933 State Archives of Florida

Democrats See Chance to Win in 1924 Election

“Politically the coming year holds more at issue than is usually the case.”

Calvin Coolidge, Republican, succeeded Warren G. Harding as president when he unexpectedly died in 1923. A booming economy and world peace favored Coolidge, who won the 1924 election as the second vice president tapped as president via circumstance who later won the presidency in an election.

President Calvin Coolidge and wife Grace
State of Florida Archives

Tags: Miami in the 1920s, Miami Jai Alai Fronton, Fruit and Flower Pageant 

One of the first registered architects in Florida - August Geiger - his Fort Lauderdale and Miami projects

1917 advertisement from Directory of City of Miami Beach

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s first high school, Fort Lauderdale Central, was built in 1915. Its architect was August Geiger (1887-1968), already well known in Miami and Miami Beach for his work.

From Connecticut, Geiger settled in Miami in 1905 and opened an office in 1911. He was off and running soon after, becoming one of the first (10th) registered architects in Florida.

Miami and Miami Beach grew significantly during the early 19th century with its burgeoning tourist industry, land boom and accompanying skyline of notable buildings.

Geiger’s work includes the Lincoln Hotel and Apartments (1917) on Miami Beach, demolished long ago. His firm also designed Miami’s first “sky scraper,” the 12-story Ralston Hotel (1917), and, in the same year, the Miami City Hospital (now Jackson Memorial). 

Additionally, he designed the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course House, the Community Theater of Miami Beach, the Dade County Courthouse, and Villa Serena, home of William Jennings Bryan, noted orator and politician. He commissioned Geiger to design his home in 1913 in Coconut Grove.

Wm Jennings Bryan home, 1920
State Archives of Florida

Geiger, known for his Mediterranean Revival style, also drew the plans for the Lincoln Road oceanfront home of Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher. In 1915, demand for the architect's style prompted Geiger to open an office in Palm Beach.  Many of his surviving buildings in South Florida have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Geiger designed Fort Lauderdale Central High School (demolished in 1970) and the Fort Lauderdale Women’s Club in 1915 with his signature Mediterranean Revival imprint.  His firm drew up plans for many schools in Dade County and a few others in what became Broward County in 1915, including the Davie School. Geiger was tapped as architect of record for the Dade County School Board.  Among his later works was the $1.5 million Coral Gables High School in 1950.

Though Geiger was the design force behind Fort Lauderdale’s high school and its women’s club, the city claims Frances Abreu as its own architect. Both men brought a vision to Miami and Fort Lauderdale that defined early 19^th- century South Florida. 

Lincoln Hotel, 1922
States Archives of Florida/Fishbaugh 1922

Copyright © 2012, 2023 . All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on Frances Abreu, see index for architects

For more Fort Lauderdale High School history, see index.

For more on William Jennings Bryan, see index.


Sources:
Kleinberg, Howard. Woggles and Cheese Houses. Miami Beach: The Greater Miami & Beaches Hotel Association (2005)
Miami News, Mar. 16, 1917
Wikipedia

Tags: early South Florida architects, Fort Lauderdale history, Miami history

Marlin catch places Bimini on world stage of big game fishing

Blue Marlin Mount, State Archives of Florida/ Dale McDonald
Circa 1970 

By Jane Feehan

Known today as the “Big Game Fishing Capital of the World,” Bimini entered the international sport fishing scene during the 1930s. Before 1930, locals were unable to land a marlin. The reason may surprise some.

Locals always knew the big fish were out there, but they didn’t have the heavier, more expensive gear to land many, according to local historian Ashley B. Saunders (History of Bimini, Vol. 1, Alice Town: New World Press, 2000). Miami Herald fishing columnist Earl Roman also knew the big ones were plentiful. But, in the early days, he returned to the mainland with broken lightweight rods, cut lines and no game fish. 

By 1933, possibilities grew; he wrote about how “shallows and flats around Bimini are good for bonefish hunting.” He recommended trolling with a heavy rod.

Earl Roman with student and
trolling rod 1948. State Archives of Florida

Bimini, with fewer than 1000 residents during the early 1900s, was known for its beautiful aqua waters, attracting the yachting set years before its sport fishing days. But the island could not provide much ice, had little electricity and no docks except for one used for mail and supply boats Nevertheless, yachters would visit from Florida, only 45 miles away, anchor in Bimini Bay, cook food onboard or get to a beach on small boats provided by locals where they could set up for meals. Steamship excursions, popular short trips from Miami, were advertised during the 1920s—until the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 took a terrible toll on its population and economy. Bleak days.

Ill winds seemingly began to turn in 1930, thanks in part to Earl Roman’s column, Angler’s Notes, about Bimini fishing. U.S.-based Bimini Enterprises, Inc., advertised 1,000 homesites were available for purchase on this slice of the Bahamas. Flights $5 for the 20 minute-seaplane flight were offered to view the lots, there, which had the “greatest fishing grounds in the world,” and “where no passport is needed.”

Bimini’s reputation as a game fish hotspot took off when Miami-based fishing guide Tommy Gifford and fellow American Louis Wasey, visited in 1933. They hooked a marlin but lost the fish after a dramatic 14-hour fight. 

Months later, American writer and noted angler S. Kip Farrington landed the first blue marlin off Bimini weighing 155 pounds. Betty Moore, yet weeks later, hooked and fought a 502-pound blue marlin for a few hours that Louis Wasey eventually managed to land. Bimini big game fishing launched like a sailfish leaping out of blue ocean waters.

According to Saunders, Tommy Gifford designed the “first outriggers for deep sea fishing” and trained locals in big game fishing techniques, equipment and bait.

Writer Ernest Hemingway, who was also a top-notch fisherman, heard about the Bimini news. He traveled there in 1935 and remained with his family at the Compleat Angler Hotel writing and fishing until 1937 (this landmark hotel was destroyed by fire in 2006). Firsthand accounts of Hemingway’s fishing endeavors are available in Saunders’ book.

Fishing news from and about Bimini continued. The first big game fishing tournament was held in 1940. None was held during World War II but fishing events resumed and Bimini’s economy took off during the late 1940s with expanded availability of electricity, ice, freezers, drinking water and construction of docks and hotels.   

Saunders notes the island’s first nightclub – Calypso Club opened in 1947. Local restaurants also opened as did Bimini’s first straw works kiosks. By 1949 big game fishing enthusiasts from around the world traveled to the island in hopes of catching any of the game fish – bonefish, white marlin, bluefin tuna, sailfish and swordfish. Locals created the high-profile Annual Native Fishing Tournament during the 1960s; it remains as one of the key fishing events to this day with world-wide participants. About swordfish: they only swim at night. The first nighttime swordfish tourney was established in the late ‘60s or early 70s

Interest in Bimini, its people, big game fishing and today the island’s real estate, grows. A population count in 2010 indicated 1,988 residents. In 2022 the count went up to 2,417. Real estate listings show homes sell from $250,000 to millions of dollars. Resident visitors are not all there for the fishing. Bimini waters are beautiful and its people rock.

For lots of stories,tournaments, stats and more, visit International Game Fishing Association at IGFA.org (located in Dania Beach off I-95).

Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Saunders, Ashley B. History of Bimini, Vol. 1, Alice Town: New World Press, 2000.

Miami Herald, Sept. 21, 1928

Miami News, May 18, 1930

Miami Herald, June 28, 1931

Miami Herald, July 12, 1933

Miami Herald, July 2, 1934

Bahamas Realty

 

 

Tags: Bimini history, Bimini fishing, Bimini big game fishing, Miami history, marlin, tuna, swordfish, bonefish, Earl Roman

Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk and Chalk's Flying Service, once oldest in the world

Chalk's seaplane landing 1974
 State of Florida Archives

 

By Jane Feehan

The history of his eponymous airline is better known than the personal story of Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk. A look back at decades of articles, want ads and his obituary fills in some of the gaps in his background while raising contradictions. His choppy personal and career history suits a timeline presentation rather than a narrative format. The A.B. Chalk story—gaps and all—remains an interesting one.

1889 – Arthur Burns Chalk was born in Illinois. One Miami obituary claims wanderlust prompted him at 11-years old to move to Paducah, Kentucky. Wanderlust probably didn’t claim him. There were a few people named Chalk in Paducah at that time; some were elected officials. Someone he knew lived there, father or other relative maybe?

1911 – Chalk reportedly operated an automobile garage service in Paducah. He learned to fly after Tony Janus, a “dare devil” pilot, gave Chalk a flying lesson in return for a plane repair. Chalk “flew as an amateur” for five years.

1916 – Chalk moved to Miami – probably with his mother, “Mrs. E.J. Chalk,” and two sisters. They lived on NE 23^rd Street. Nothing was in the news about Chalk that year. Some accounts say he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I but returned after a short stint because of a “disability.” Wikipedia reports he flew for the Army Air Service.

1917 – A.B. Chalk’s name begins appearing in Miami newspapers. He informally launched his flying service in July that year at the end of Flagler Street “under an umbrella.” Columbian airline Avancia once claimed it was the oldest airline in the world, also established in 1917. Chalk’s by some accounts, began a few months earlier. (Some say KLM is now the oldest existing airline.)

1918 - Chalk had also been operating a garage for car repair as he launched flying service. A classified ad introduces his shop, a “first class auto repairing” service at 1508 Avenue D in Miami. It read:

Attention – Arthur B. Chalk, formerly foreman of the mechanical department of Dixie Highway Garage has bought the Seminole Garage at 1508 Avenue D. We announce a policy of efficient, careful attention to all makes of automobiles … free air and water can be obtained in front of the garage – no inconvenience of driving inside.

1918 – Another classified ad by Chalk offers a Cole 7-passenger (car), a bargain, phone 643

1919 – Chalk’s Flying Service begins “boat plane” flights between Miami and Bimini

1920 – Chalk moves his flying operation to Watson Island (near MacArthur Causeway) where his company remained until after his death. In the early days, he offered sightseeing flights for $5 and flying lessons for $15 an hour.

Chalk's Flying Service
       Watson Island circa 1920
State of Florida Archives

1920 – Automobiles became ubiquitous and provided Chalk a steady income through repairs and sales. He advertises cars and planes for sale at his now-named Royal Palm Garage on Avenue D:

One Curtis F Flying boat for $1,500. Includes flying instructions

One 1920 5-passenger Maxwell for $1,000

One 7-passenger Hudson with wire wheels for $2,000

1923, February – Chalk aborts his flying boat takeoff with two passengers after hitting a “porpoise” in Biscayne Bay. He delayed the flight to repair holes left in the pontoons after the incident.

1923, August – Chalk and a mechanic announce a plan via Miami news outlets to fly across the country to Seattle. On the itinerary is a stop in St. Louis to enter an international air race representing Miami. They discuss plans to remove pontoons from their flying boat and install landing gear. There is no other information on this trip or race in either Miami or St. Louis newspapers. Perhaps they had problems installing landing gear?

1924 – Chalk's Flying Service picks up movie director Alan Crosland in Nassau for a flight to Miami. His company gains notice. The airline grows its business by flying big game anglers to Bimini.

1928 – A piece appears in the Miami Herald about Chalk and “aviation enthusiast” J.R. Lilly of Chicago discovering a toothpick in the engine of a plane that crashed and killed its pilot off Melbourne Beach. They thought the toothpick was used to determine fuel flow and was mistakenly left in the engine. The news is noteworthy for two reasons: One that Chalk was known to the press (as referred to then) as an aviation expert and two, that he operated a school, Chalk’s School of Aviation off County Causeway (MacArthur Causeway).

1920-1933 – Prohibition years. Some sources report Chalk made money smuggling large hauls of alcohol to the U.S. from the Bahamas. This is not verified. His obituary reported long-time business partner Dean Franklin said Chalk made money during Prohibition, but it was from flying bootleggers to the Bahamas and at times, revenue agents on the hunt for bootleggers. (No comment.)

1932 – Chalk married Georgia native, Lillie Mae, who ran his business with an iron hand until her death in 1964. Her maiden name did not appear in local obituaries. She was known as “the energetic figure who ran the world’s smallest international air depot.”

1936 – Chalk and Lillie Mae built the airline’s office by hand with coral rock at Watson Island.

1966 – Chalk “sold the airline to a friend” but remained active in operations until 1975. He claimed his airfield was the smallest port of entry in the United States.

1977 – Arthur Burns “Pappy” Chalk fell out of a tree while attempting to trim branches. He died May 26 at age 88 of complications (broken hip) from the fall. He and Lillie Mae did not have children together but she had a son from an earlier marriage. They also helped raise two of Chalk’s nephews.

Chalk owned and operated his airline without fatalities for 50 years. Chalk’s was later bought by Resorts International who flew passengers to its hotel in the Bahamas. The airline was moved to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport for security reasons after September 11, 2001. A fatal accident occurred in 2005 and its license was revoked in 2007.

Note: Yes, that was a Chalk's seaplane in the opening scenes of the 1970s TV series, Miami Vice.

 Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Sept. 6, 1918

Miami News, Oct. 7, 1918

Miami Herald, Oct. 29, 1918

Miami Herald, July 8, 1920

Miami News Feb. 9, 1923

Miami News, Aug. 23, 1923

Miami Daily News and Metropolis, May 24, 1924

Miami Herald, March 1, 1928

Miami News, June v10, 1964

Miami Herald, May 27, 1977

Miami News, May 26, 1977

Florida State Archives

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami airlines history, Chalk's Flying Service, Aviation history, Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk, Miami history

Aeromarine Airways launches flying boat service in 1920s: breakfast in Miami, lunch in Nassau, dinner in Palm Beach?

 

Flying boat used by Aeromarine in 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Flying boats. Flying luxury boats. That’s how Miami reporters described the new passenger planes of Aeromarine Airways in 1922.  One headline in the Miami Herald teased readers with the idea of “breakfast in Miami, luncheon in Nassau …. and dinner in Palm Beach.” The idea could be transformed into reality by the airline.

Described as “a Pullman on wings,” the planes offered writing and card tables, a bathroom and individual seats and windows.  Music was played from a radio to a loudspeaker in the cabin, which carried only 11 passengers. The planes, powered by two 400-H Liberty engines, were flown by two pilots and guided by one “radio man.”

A reporter described ascent from the water into the air as a swift, smooth glide to an altitude of 100-500 feet. Forty minutes later they viewed the clear waters (and large fish) of Bimini. After a 2.5-hour flight the flying boat landed in waters off Nassau, 187 miles from Miami.

Aeromarine Sightseeing and Navigation Company merged with Florida West Indies Airways (among the first to fly U.S. international passenger flights) in 1920 or 1921 (reports vary) to form Aeromarine Airways with a Miami office at 28 North Bayshore Drive. 

The new company acquired the old FWIA Key West to Havana mail route. Mail routes were contracted with and paid for by the United States Postal Service, providing most of the capital for the early passenger airline industry.  Aeromarine Airways’ maiden flight took place from Miami to Bimini in late 1920 or early 1921 (accounts vary) on the Christopher. 

The company's  fleet of 27 aircraft, manufactured in Keyport NJ, bore names of historic explorers or their ships (think Nina, Columbus, Santa Maria and Balboa). Aeromarine had flown much of the eastern seaboard area before the Florida initiative.

Flights were a hit with many in Florida, including a few in the movie/entertainment industry. The Miami News reported a film crew producing a movie for Paramount Studios took a trip from Miami to Nassau for the project. Another story featured an onboard party for a famous French dancer. It was probably the first time a chef whipped up and served a fancy inflight meal (excluding dirigible flights) for guests.

Cost? About $30-$80 a ticket depending on one way or roundtrip fare and whether to the Bahamas, Key West or to Havana. 

Company President Charles F. Redden and his colleagues proposed big plans for Aeromarine. They hoped for service between New York and Miami (only 20 hours!) and Miami and Havana. Redden visualized Miami as a “mammoth” transportation hub not unlike some in Europe. The company planned to build a flying boat with four engines for 26 passengers and a cabin twice the size as was in service. Not all came to fruition, but they did tout new technology that was deployed to enhance safety: a large signal kite equipped with a radio aerial that could expand the area to call for help in an emergency.

Though Aeromarine could boast about a stellar safety record before Florida, an accident occurred in the Florida Straits January 13, 1923. The Columbus experienced engine failure and crashed into the seas with 10 to 12-foot waves flooding the hull. Four people died; a ferry, the H.M. Flagler, rescued four or five including two pilots.

The accident, however, did not spell the end of Aeromarine Airways by 1924. The freeze or cancellation of their valuable mail route contracts did.  The name was not forgotten. Aeromarine West Indies was incorporated in Florida in  2007.

 Copyright © 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami Herald, Dec. 2, 1920

Miami News, Dec. 14, 1922

The Herald, Dec. 31, 1922

Miami News, Jan. 15, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 30, 1923

Miami News, Jan. 31, 1923

Miami News, Feb. 12, 1923

Miami News, April 19, 1923

Miami News, Nov. 13, 1924

Miami Herald, Dec. 20, 1924

Miami News, June 22, 1925

Wikipedia

 Tags: Aviation history, Transportation history, Miami history, flying boats

First African American radio station in Miami is ...

WFEC studio Christened at
the Lord Calvert Hotel,
Overtown, Miami  circa 1950
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miami radio station WFEC (Florida East Coast Broadcasting Company) launched operations April 10, 1949. Located at that time at 350 NE 71 Street, it promoted itself as the “Whole Family Entertainment Center.”  The station, 1220 on the radio dial, featured news from the communities of Allapattah, Miami Shores, Miami Springs, Little River, 54^th Street, Edison Center, North Miami and Opa-locka. Part of its early schedule included news from the Jewish community.

A day-time operation only, it shifted to “all-Negro programming” by July 1952. By the end of that year the WFEC touted itself as “the only station in Florida featuring all-Negro programming.” One of its disc jockeys, Carlton King Coleman (1932-2010), became a popular Miami radio personality by the late 1950s when the station evolved into WMBM. Coleman later provided some of the vocals for the hit song (Do the) Mashed Potatoes recorded with James Brown’s Band. His career included his own radio shows in New York City and acting in a few films including Bad Boys II.

The station served as an early starting point in the illustrious career of Noble V. Blackwell (1934-1994), known as "HoneyBee" to listeners. He moved on to work as director of broadcasting at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia for more than two decades and as broadcaster for NBN New York City. In 1972 Noble was honored as "Man of the Year" by the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers. He also hosted the popular TV show, Night Train in 1964. His dream of owning a radio station was realized when he bought twin staions WCDL AM and FM in Pennsylvania. He successfully transitioned them into WLSP Hit Kickin' Country. (A recently-launched documentary about Noble Blackwell can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/@noblevblackwell).

Another WMBM personality, Larry King (1933-2021) launched his interview show there in the late 1950s, early 1960s. He later moved to Miami’s WIOD* and syndicated the show nationwide before landing at CNN.

Through a series of license sales, owners, radio dial numbers, frequencies, and locations, WMBM now offers urban gospel programming serving Miami at 1490 on the dial.

Looking back, it could be said WFEC paved the way for ethnic programming with its rhythm and blues and gospel format for Miami’s African American community. The station helped place the city at the vanguard of radio broadcasting before a nationwide increase in station consolidation and decrease in local radio identity became the norm.

Copyright © 2022, 2023, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

For more on WIOD, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/07/miamis-radio-610-wiod-wonderful-isle-of.html

Sources:

Miami Herald, April 10, 1949

Miami Herald, Feb. 10, 1950

Miami News, Aug. 8, 1951

Miami Herald, July 21, 1952

Miami Herald, Jan. 15, 1953

Miami Times, Nov. 30, 1957

The Tennessean, Sept. 13, 1994

Wikipedia

NB Production Team/Tracye Blackwell Johnson

Tags: Miami radio history, African American history, Miami in the 1940s, Miami in the 1950s, Miami history, Noble V Blackwell,  Carlton King Coleman, Larry King

Fort Dallas then, today Miami

Fort Dallas, circa 1890
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 By Jane Feehan

First built as a plantation on the mouth of the Miami River in 1844, Fort Dallas served as an outpost during the Seminole Wars of 1849-1855. It was named after Commodore Alexander James Dallas (1791-1844), then in command of U.S Naval forces sent to chase down pirates in the West Indies.

The area attracted settlers, traders, and ornithologists long before Ohioan Julia Tuttle decided to call it home in 1892. She built a house near Fort Dallas as Henry M. Flagler extended his railroad south from St. Augustine to Palm Beach.

One-time partner of Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller, Flagler was enticed, as the tale goes, by Tuttle and her bouquet of orange blossoms to bring the railway to Fort Dallas after a bitter freeze in 1894 decimated orange trees from Palm Beach north.

Fort Dallas 1870s
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

A deal was made and the Florida East Coast Railway (so named in 1898) reached the Fort Dallas platform in 1896. The city of Miami, whose name could have been Flagler had he not suggested its original American Indian name, was incorporated three months later.

 Flagler then built the Royal Palm Hotel on Biscayne Bay, Miami’s center piece, in less than two years. The city captured America’s attention when 7,000 U.S. soldiers were deployed there in 1898 after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana, the fuse setting off the Spanish American War.

Some of Fort Dallas remains in Lummas Park making it one of the oldest structures in the area.

Copyright © 2020, 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Standiford, Les. Last Train to Paradise. New York: Crown Publishers (2002).

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books (1978)

www.wikipedia.org

Tags: Florida history, Miami history, 

FDR escapes assassination in Miami; would be assassin dealt justice in six weeks

Jailed Zangara 1933
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 By Jane Feehan

A look back at the assassination attempt on Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Miami’s Bayfront Park shows how things have changed - or not – since 1933.

After a pleasure trip aboard Vincent Astor’s yacht, President-Elect Roosevelt planned to speak briefly to a gathering at Bayfront Park on February 15. His itinerary, published in newspapers, attracted the attention of 33-year-old Italian immigrant Giuseppe Zangara who had planned to target President Herbert Hoover months before until he realized his term was about to end. Suffering from what was later determined as gallbladder disease, he moved from New Jersey to the kinder, warmer weather of Miami. Zangara, now a naturalized citizen, blamed his loss of a job and health problems on rich capitalists, presidents and kings.

FDR had just ended a two-minute talk from the back seat of an open car at Bayfront when Zangara climbed a chair to better aim at him with a gun he had purchased at a Miami pawn shop. A woman standing nearby jarred his arm when the chair started to wobble. His shots struck five people, including visiting Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. FDR escaped injury. Zangara was immediately arrested saying he was “sore at the government.”

The would-be FDR assassin was brought to trial five days later in Miami and sentenced to 80 years. But on March 6, Mayor Cermak, who had been recovering, suddenly died. Zangara was brought to trial again and then sentenced to death.

Wounded Mayor Cermak
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Zangara died in the electric chair at Raiford prison March 20, 1933. His only regret: not having his picture taken in the chair. “All capitalists lousy bunch – crooks,” he reportedly said when hearing there would be no photographers.

Security for presidents has greatly improved since 1933 but unfortunately, nuts still abound. Arrest, trial and execution of Zangara all occurred in less than six weeks. Today, in most cases, justice has slowed to the speed of a Burmese Python’s crawl.
_________

Sources: 

Brands, HW. Traitor to His Class: The privileged life and radical presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New York: Anchor Books (2008), p. 277-281.

Miami News, Nov 2 1950, p28 at:

Palm Beach Post, Mar 20, 1933, p 1

Palm Beach Post, Mar 21, 1933, p. 1.

Tags: Florida history, FDR in Florida, FDR assassination attempt, Miami history,  film researcher, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

South Florida filmmakers held high hopes for local studios in the 1920s

By Jane Feehan

The motion picture industry in the U.S. was launched in the early 1900s by D.W. Griffith and a few other filmmakers. Of acclaim was his controversial Birth of a Nation filmed in California in 1915. Four years later, Griffith came to Fort Lauderdale to make Idol Dancer*. By the early 1920s, a few industry hopefuls opened studios in Florida.

Miami Studios, Inc. was built in Hialeah, eight miles from downtown Miami in 1921. Its two buildings contained two studios each with stages configured 125 by 60 feet for interior shots. Construction progressed “just as though a permanent building is being erected except using plaster board instead of plaster and it was being painted more carefully than a hotel,” reported the Miami Daily Metropolis  (Jul. 28, 1921).

The first movie out of the studio was  Outlaws of the Sea (1923). It was based on Filigree Flask, a story about rum runners written by Miami area resident EH Lebel (Prohibition had been underway since 1920). John Brunton produced the action film shot on Miami’s streets and waterfront. Jack Okey, who went on to have a long career in the film industry, directed the project starring Marguerite Courtot, Pierre Gendron, Gordon Standing and HH Patlee. 

Another movie released the same year was Where the Pavement Ends based on a novel by John Russell. It was directed by Rex Ingram and starred Edward Connelly, Alice Terry and Ramon Navarro. A desert scene was filmed on the beach near today’s Fontainebleau Hotel. Part of the movie was also shot in Cuba. Unfortunately, the film is lost.

Studio principals also hoped to produce a movie about Thomas A Edison’s life to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of his invention of the incandescent light bulb. It’s doubtful this came to pass; no record exists of such a film produced by the company. No other films are mentioned in news of those years about the studio, the “largest motion picture plant in the South, where the greatest personages of filmdom have operated.” D.W. Griffith shot White Roses in Florida and Louisiana but it wasn't a production of Miami Studios. Newspapers of 1923 show attempts to sell lots owned by the company. By that time, Hollywood was the place to be in the film industry and Florida’s chances as a movie production center were all but a dream. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

*For DW Griffith and other early filmmakers in Florida, use search box or index

Additional Sources

Miami Daily Metropolis, Feb. 2, 1923

Miami Daily Metropolis, Mar. 5, 1923

Miami Daily Metropolis, July 8, 1922

Tags: Miami history, film industry history in Miami, film industry history South Florida, 

DW Griffith, movies made in Miami, Miami movie studio,  Hialeah movie studio, film studios in Miami, 

Orange Bowl plan: to extend Miami tourist season

Coca Cola Float Orange Bowl Parade 1939
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miami’s tourist season used to span six weeks, beginning in February and running concurrent with horse racing at Hialeah Park. Times were tough for the young city after the 1926 hurricane and during the Great Depression so the city’s movers and shakers got together at the Biltmore Hotel in 1933 to brainstorm a way to extend the winter season. The winning idea was a football game on New Year’s Day.

The first Palm Festival game was held in 1933 and was a match up between the University of Miami and Manhattan College. Manhattan was guaranteed $3,200—the Hurricanes nothing—but the Florida team routed the northern college with a 7-0 victory. The Palm Festival was held that year and the following in Moore Park at NW 36th Street and 7th Avenue. Both games were a sellout of 8,000 seats.

A charter was issued to 27 Miamians forming the new Orange Bowl Committee, which included Miami Herald editor and namesake of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park. Oranges were not a big crop in South Florida then but the name resonated with the committee headed by Director Ernest Seiler. The inaugural Orange Bowl Festival game was held Jan. 1, 1935 between Bucknell University and Miami; Bucknell prevailed 26-0. Ground was broken for a stadium in 1936 at 1501 NW 3rd Street; the sports facility was named Burdine Stadium until 1959. (Orange Bowl Stadium closed in 2008.)

Seiler was able to keep the new stadium filled; he was the consummate public relations practitioner. He developed elaborate 12-minute shows for halftime that were heralded as a popular highlight of the games. His PR skills paid off for the 1939 game when he traveled to Oklahoma to meet with the Sooners and enticed them south with pictures of beaches and palm trees for a bowl game. Seiler asked the team coach to call Tennessee to suggest they play their big game in Miami and it was a go; the bowl game of 1939 propelled the Orange Bowl into the nation’s lineup of major bowl games.

Seiler kept adding to the Orange Bowl festivities with a parade along the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, a boating regatta, beauty pageant and more. By the 1940s, it was the place to be New Year’s Day. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the honored guest in 1947; President-Elect John Kennedy attended in 1961.

Today the Orange Bowl is a tradition in Miami and across the nation – and the winter tourist season runs five or six months instead of six weeks. The game is now played at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens at 199th Street or 347 Don Shula Drive.

www.orangebowl.org

Sources:
Miami News, Jan. 2, 1963
Miami News, Dec. 27, 1946
www.orangebowl.com


Tags: Miami history, Orange Bowl history, Orange Bowl sponsor, Palm Festival, first Orange Bowl game, Florida film researcher, film researcher

Orange Bowl, 1960 Miami,
Florida State Archives, Florida Memories
Dept. of Commerce

Hippodrome opens in Miami 1917 - a new venue for film and entertainment

Hippodrome 1917
Florida State Archives/Hoit

By Jane Feehan

Miami’s second Hippodrome, a large movie house that replaced the original, smaller venue across the street, opened in January, 1917. Located downtown at the 200 block of Flagler Street, the theater was acclaimed for its spaciousness, seating 1,100.

When completed, the new building cost New York-based owners Hickson, Whitener and Scacht [sic] $200,000. Its interior, with balcony, was painted white and dark green and featured a lattice work ceiling for an open, airy atmosphere. The Hippodrome took four months to complete and was designed with “Italian lines of architecture” for both the exterior and interior. Illumination, according to the Miami Metropolis, was provided by “inverted bowls” containing lights that could be regulated from a bright flood of light to a dim glow.

“Pictures will be thrown upon a Silveroid screen – the last word in the line of screens …” the paper reported.  There were to be two hour shows throughout the day between 1 and 9 p.m. Music was to be furnished by an eight-piece orchestra and a five thousand dollar pipe organ.

The Hippodrome was leased by Ohioans Joseph F. Foster and his son, Raymond W. Foster who planned to show the best films available, including Where are My Children, Purity, and the controversial Birth of a Nation. For opening day they featured 

six-reel The Common Law with Clara Kimball Young.

In 1928, the Hippodrome proudly announced the showing of The Lights of New York, the first all-talking movie (The Jazz Singer was the first partly-talking film). Dialogue was through the latest film industry gadget – the Vitaphone - and starred Helene Costello.

No doubt the Hippodrome was one of the most popular Miami theaters of the day, featuring not only movies but also plays, comedy acts, and musical events. It’s hard to imagine 1,100 people seated in a building without air-conditioning in August. The Hippodrome closed in 1930 and reopened as the Rex Theater in 1931. 

Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Cinema Treasures.org

Miami Metropolis, Jan. 05, 1917

Miami Metropolis, Jan. 6, 1917

Miami News, Aug. 19, 1928

Florida State Archives, Florida Memory

Tags: Florida history, Miami history, movie houses in the early 1900s, film industry research, film researcher

Murf the Surf: Jewel thief, murderer and violin prodigy

Star of India

Picture taken by Daniel Torres, Jr. January 14, 2007,        

                           via Wikimedia Commons

By Jane Feehan

Florida crime headlines of the 1960s were dominated by the capers of Jack “Murf* the Surf” Murphy. Born in 1938, prodigy violinist, surfing champ and stuntman Murphy was convicted of a New York jewel heist and later, the murder of one of two women found bludgeoned to death in Broward County’s Whiskey Creek waterway.

Murphy, along with robbery mastermind Allan Kuhn, and Roger Clark were nabbed a few days after their 1964 theft of the 563-carot Star of India, the Midnight Sapphire, the de Long Ruby and about 20 other gems from New York's American Museum of Natural History. Poor security was faulted. The trio left their fingerprints all over a window and display case, leading to their arrest.

A few months later, an anonymous tip led police to the uninsured Star of India sapphire at a Trailways Bus station locker in Miami. The de Long Ruby was recovered in September 1965 in a phone booth near the Palm Beach Gardens exit off the turnpike. Businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur paid a $25,000 ransom for the historic jewel “as a public service.”

Murphy and Kuhn, who were living at Brickell Town House in Miami at the time of the heist, were sentenced to three years. They were released two and a half years later for good behavior.  Murph’s good behavior did not extend past his release.

On Dec. 8, 1967 the bludgeoned bodies of two women, Terry Rae Frank, 24 and Annelie Mohn, 21 were found in Whiskey Creek, south of Port Everglades. The California secretaries were involved in a securities scam; prosecutors suggested Murphy and accomplices did not want to share proceeds with the women. The glamorous playboy was convicted in 1968 and sentenced to life for the crime.

Murphy’s story, which includes dropped charges for pistol whipping actress Eva Gabor at Miami’s Racquet Club, was brought to the silver screen in the 1975 movie, Murph the Surf, co-written by crime partner Allan Kuhn. It starred Robert Conrad and Donna Mills and was filmed in Miami. But Murphy’s story was not over. He found religion, became an ordained minister and was released on parole in 1986. In 2000 his parole was terminated. 

Murphy died in September, 2020. He had lived in coastal central Florida (forbidden to return to Dade and Broward counties) with his family. Jack Roland Murphy worked with a prison ministry around the world and wrote  Jewels for the Journey. 

* or Murph the Surf

 Copyright © 2012, 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Jan. 8, 1965

Miami News, Sept. 3, 1965

Miami News, Sept. 1, 1967

Miami News, Oct. 23, 1986

                                          

Tags: Florida crime history, Jack Murph the Surf Murphy, Jack Roland Murphy, Whiskey Creek murders, film industry researcher, Florida film research,  historical researcher

Tampa to Miami on the Tamiami Trail

1923 Trailblazers
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

The Tamiami Trail, linking Tampa and Miami, opened to great fanfare – 25 aerial bombs, an aerial marriage, live music and speechmaking - on April 25, 1928. It marked the completion of work begun in 1915 that was interrupted by a World War and funding shortages.

In 1922, Lee County ran out of money to complete its portion of the road. Advertising mogul Barron Gift Collier stepped up to the plate with a pledge to pay the shortfall if the state would carve out a new jurisdiction and name it Collier County. The state complied; work on the Trail continued. (Most know Collier today for its posh county seat, Naples.)

Completion of the east-west connection between Fort Myers and Miami Beach was nudged along by Miamian Capt. J.F. Jaudon who conceived the idea of a trail in 1915. A large holder of land in the Everglades and Miami who stood to benefit by the project, Jaudon organized a group of businessmen from West Florida in 1923 who rode in Model T Fords across the Everglades guided by two Seminoles. The “Trail Blazers,” as the group dressed in Safari khakis became known, dramatized the need to finish the Trail to Miami. Five and a half years after the Model T trek, the road connected Fort Myers and Miami Beach.

Dynamite was used for every foot of the way through the Everglades. The highest point on the road, which today serves as the northern border of Everglades National Park, is 12 feet above sea level. Tamiami Trail received U.S Highway designations in 1926. Portions are U.S. 90 , U.S. 27, U.S. 41 (hidden designations).The southeast part of the Trail extends through Coral Gables, downtown Miami, over S.W. Eighth Street (Calle Ocho), across the Venetian Causeway and to Miami Beach. It ends at Brickell Key Drive.

Unfortunately, the scenic road interrupted the flow of water through the Everglades, the “River of Grass,” compromising wild life and forever changing its ecosystem. Today, proposed reclamation initiatives include digging channels through parts of the Trail and building bridges to ease the flow of water. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 --------------

Sources:

Miami News, April 30, 1926

Miami News, April 25, 1928

Miami News, June 8, 1958

Douglas, Marjorie Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books (1947). 

For the Florida Turnpike story, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/floridas-turnpike-opens-in-1957-miami.html

Tags: Florida history, Florida roadways, Tamiami Trail, U.S. 90, U.S. 27, U.S 41, Collier County, Everglades National Park, film researcher

Miami launches first Florida TV station and a few long television careers

                    Below; Early WTVJ News crew:
                    *Leslie, Thurston, Tucker
                    State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Florida’s first and the nation’s 16th television station, WTVJ, began broadcasting with a 25-minute news show March 21, 1949. At the time there were roughly 2,000 TV sets in South Florida.

Key Wester Mitchell Wolfson*, communications pioneer and president of Wometco Enterprises, brought his idea to reality at a studio established at the Capitol Theater on Miami Avenue in Miami. He tapped Ralph Renick*, fresh out of the University of Miami, as the station’s first news director. 

Renick, who had no one to direct in the first days, remained the news ratings leader in the South Florida market for 35 years. He closed his news broadcasts with “Good night and may the good news be yours,” until he left WTVJ for an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1985.

Bob Weaver*, an early friend of Renick's, joined the staff in 1949 as an intern from the University of Miami and was tasked with a variety of duties. He delivered the station's first weather segment and established himself as “Weaver the Weatherman.” Weaver worked at WTVJ for 54 years until retirement in 2003. Pennsylvanian (but born in Indiana) Chuck Zink* came to WTVJ in 1956 where he became known throughout South Florida as "Skipper Chuck" for the children’s show he headlined for 23 years. He left the station in 1980.

In its TV pioneer days, WTVJ's signal was normally received within a radius of 75 miles. At times during certain atmospheric conditions, television sets as far away as Pennsylvania and New Jersey received WTVJ broadcasts.

Television leaped onto center stage of South Florida living rooms within three years. By 1951 Orange Bowl organizers blamed WTVJ for the decline in football game attendance. Today the station, formerly an CBS affiliate, is known as NBC 6 Miami.

Ralph Renick far left - Florida State Archives

Video:
Check out Florida Memory's Fifteen Years with 4-WTVJ
http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/245398

*Leslie appears to be Renick in top photo. Identification by State of Florida Archives may be a mistake. 

* Wolfson died in 1983 at 82.
* Renick died in 1991 at 62.
* Bob Weaver died in 2006 at 77.
* Chuck Zink died in 2006 at 81.

________
Sources:
Palm Beach Post, Jan. 29, 1983
Miami News, Sept 1, 1978
Miami News, Dec.22, 1951
Miami News, June 11, 1949
WTVJ at:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/on-air/about-us/WTVJ-Station-History.html

---------------

Tags: South Florida history, South Florida TV history, first television station in Miami, Miami history, WTVJ, film researcher

Miami's trolley system challenged by hurricanes, cars and parades 1906-1940

Trolley car in downtown Miami. 1926. 
 State Archives of Florida/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan


Trolley systems had their ups and downs in Miami beginning in 1906. The demise of the trolley in 1940 was linked to hurricanes and an electorate confident in the future of buses. The Orange Bowl committee could not have been more relieved to see voters end the streetcar era.

The first trolley ran along Miami’s streets in 1906 (the city incorporated 1896). It operated for a year and a half until officials determined there weren’t enough riders; the city had fewer than 2,000 residents. A more successful trolley system – battery powered – was launched in 1915 and ran until 1919. It serviced a route from near the latter day Orange Bowl stadium south to downtown and from Northeast Second Avenue north to Thirty-sixth Street.

Miami’s land and population boom – and consistent need for public transport - was just around the corner. By 1922 residents numbered about 45,000.* The first electric trolley with overhead wires began operating in January 1922. The Brill Car Company of Philadelphia constructed the streetcars and painted them a dull grey, “more suitable for [Miami’s] weather than a light color.”

Viability of Miami’s streetcar system continued to be tested. Car ownership was on the rise during the 1920s. Then came the Great Hurricane of 1926 driving many out of the area. The hurricane of 1935 ended service from Coral Gables to downtown Miami. General Motors began lobbying cities throughout the country, including Miami, to consider their combustible engine buses for public transportation. A referendum held in October 1940 spelled the end of the streetcar. Miami’s electorate was swayed to vote for the seemingly more modern buses.

The Orange Bowl Committee was ecstatic about the referendum. The first bowl was held in 1935 and had grown into a huge event by 1940 with scores of moving “stages” bearing tall displays that would exceed the suspended 18-foot streetcar wires. About 5,000 cast members were slated to march in the King Orange jamboree parade along 27 blocks with more than 250,000 expected to line the streets.

“They [floats] are so large and so tall that we were afraid low-hanging trolley lines might interfere …,” said E.E. Seiler, business manager of the Orange Bowl committee. An end to trolley service brought the removal of the overhead wires just in time for that year’s parade.

It’s back to basics today. Miami promotes the use of its Metro Rail, a popular, energy-efficient rapid transit system of light rail throughout the city.

*By 1923 population reached 70,000; it jumped to 117,000 in 1925.

Sources:
Miami News, Nov. 25, 1921

Miami Daily News, Oct. 11, 1940.

Bramson, Seth H. Miami: The Magic City. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing (2007).

Tags: Miami trolley history, Miami history, Orange Bowl history, Orange Bowl, film industry researcher

Fallout Shelters a Miami Growth Biz in the 1960s

Shelter sign in NYC

The Cold War heated up to nearly white hot during the early 1960s. The Soviet Union resumed testing of A-bombs in 1958 and continued into the new decade. They began building the Berlin War in August 1961 to mark their sphere of influence in Europe. 

President John F. Kennedy decided one of the most effective steps the U.S. could take to show that it stood firm in Europe was to immediately develop an air raid shelter program.

Kennedy wanted to convince the Kremlin that the American people (far more cohesive then) were willing to undergo an atomic war if necessary rather than to back away from the Russians in Europe. JFK told Americans it would be possible to organize or build shelters quickly by reinforcing public buildings and constructing safe havens at individual homes.

American entrepreneurs smelled a new opportunity and turned home shelter building into a growth business. By September 1961, 19 manufacturers in Miami were approved by the Dade County Office of Civil Defense to build home fallout shelters.

Newspapers published articles about companies and their offerings and pages were filled with advertising. Shelters ran from $1,195 to $2,495 and could be constructed to protect from six to 12 people in fortifications that ranged in size from 10 feet by 8 feet to 14 by 16 feet.  Some could be installed adjacent to a house or in a garage (there weren’t many basements in South Florida). All qualified for financing under FHA’s Title 1 home improvement program.

Shelter advertisements nearly shouted with:

No down payment!

All forms of financing!

Shelters - use as playrooms or for storage!

Adequate shielding is the only effective means of preventing radiation casualties!

Do it yourself, just send $1 for plans!

Ancillary businesses opened to manufacture appliances for shelters and devices to power ventilation blowers, TVs and lighting.

By the mid - to late 1960s, fears diminished and, as with Dr. Strangelove, Americans learned to stop worrying and to love the bomb. Perhaps some today are used as hurricane shelters but more than likely, most are gone.

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, July, 17, 1961

Miami News, Sept. 24. 1961

Miami News, Nov. 16, 1961

Tags: Miami business in 1960s, Miami during the cold war, Fallout shelter business 

Kalem Company films Miami: "Paradise of the eastern south, the California that is right at home"

Kalem actors circa 1915
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miami attracted a series of filmmakers in its early days (see labels for additional posts on the subject), including D.W Griffith in 1919. 

One of the most prolific in the business was the Kalem Company, which filmed daily life in Miami as early as 1913. 

Kalem's filmmaker, L.A. Darling, came to Miami in March of that year and his activities made front page news of the local newspaper.

He produced 14 films in a matter of days capturing shots of tourists at the Royal Palm hotel, millionaire yachtsmen returning from a day of fishing, the Great Commoner William Jennings Bryan—a new resident of Coconut Grove—and pioneer and large land holder Mary Brickell. He also filmed six Seminoles in traditional dress. It was reported that the “film was to advertise to the continent the Paradise of the eastern south, the California that is right at home.”

Darling’s mission was to film an accurate representation of life in the sub-tropics, including its ocean waters, palm trees and coconuts. One film, aimed at the “lady suffragettes,” showed Mary Brickell “bossing the job” or directing a man as he gathered coconuts. Another shows one of Seminoles at “Indian headquarters, Girtman’s Cash grocery,” who, only after much cajoling, moved around for the camera. The Seminoles were convinced Darling didn’t know what he was doing; they assumed the only pictures were still shots.   

Public Domain, Wikipedia

Political celebrity William Jennings Bryan, who served as congressman for Nebraska, ran for U.S. president three times and later argued for the state in the Scopes trial, came to Coconut Grove to build a home in 1913. Darling caught him on film with his sleeves rolled up directing construction workers on the site.The filmmaker regretted he hadn’t stopped by three weeks earlier when he could have found Bryan hoeing in his radish patch.

Darling also captured shots of a grapefruit packing house, residential neighborhoods and traffic in business areas. His work took a matter of weeks, including the making of negatives to sell to local movie houses. Theater owners needed lots of product to change up programs on a weekly or even daily basis.

Established in New York City in 1907 and operating from 131 West 24th Street, Kalem Company filmed on location throughout the U.S and Ireland. They opened studios in California and Jacksonville and in doing so, became the first company to film year-round. The company made the first Ben-Hur and the first adaptation of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Its legacy includes more than 1,200 films including several about Florida: The Seminole’s Vengeance, A Florida Feud: or, Love in the Everglades, In Old Florida, St. Augustine, Florida, the Celery Industry in Florida, and Cypress Logging in Florida. 

Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Kalem was purchased in 1917 by Vitagraph Studios.

Sources:

Miami Metropolis, March 12, 1913

Miami Metropolis, March 13, 1913

Mast, Gerald. A Short History of the Movies. New York: Pegasus, 1971

Wikipedia

IMDB.org

Florida Memories

Tags: early filmmakers in Florida, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian, Florida movie studios, Kalem Company,Jane Feehan film researcher, Miami history