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.

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Sources:

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

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

https://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/park.aspx?park=10

https://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/OpenParksFacilities.aspx

"Al Capone in 1930" by Wide World Photos, Chicago Bureau (Federal Bureau of Investigation) - http://gottahaveit.com/Al_Capone_Original_1930_s_Wire_Photograph-ITEM14763.aspx. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al_Capone_in_1930.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Al_Capone_in_1930.jpg

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

Frontier Hotel Peacock Inn and the Mother of Coconut Grove

Peacock Inn - Coconut Grove 1880
State Archives of Florida/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Joining the pantheon of South Florida pioneers that includes Julia Tuttle, Henry Flagler and Frank Stranahan are Charles and Isabella Peacock of England. The two were encouraged to come to the area by Charles’ brother Jack, keeper of the House of Refuge near what is now Miami Beach.

The Peacocks, who operated a meat business, left England in 1875 to come to the wilds of Florida with their three boys, Charles, Alfred and Harry. They made their way via New York and Key West to Fort Dallas at the mouth of the Miami River, an outpost that pre-dated the “Magic City.”

“We conducted a trading post and exchanged merchandise and commodities with the Indians who brought in gopher skins, plumes, corn and pumpkins,” recalled Harry Peacock in 1917 (Metropolis, July 27, 1917). “Besides trading, we also manufactured starch from komtie [coontie] selling that in Key West.”

  

After seven years the family built an inn at Jack’s Bight (named for Jack Peacock) in Coconut Grove. Built with “beach combed wood” the hotel opened in 1882 or 1883. The only hotel on the mainland between Key West and Lake Worth then, the Bayview House, as they named it, quickly attracted visitors. At times they were unable to accommodate all who wanted to stay. Rates were $1.50 a day, $7-9 a week or $30-$35 a month.

The inn housed a post office and courthouse and served as focal point of the growing community. According to the Miami News (Jan. 8, 1964), its visitors included President Grover Cleveland, actor Joseph Jefferson, playwright Henry Guy Carlton, author Kirk Munroe and Arthur Haigh of distillery fame who eventually bought Cat Cay. During the 1890s, railroad magnate Henry Flagler stayed there; by that time it was known as the Peacock Inn. There were five houses in the area when the Peacocks opened their hotel. Observing Isabella’s connection with the growing settlement, hotel guest Flagler nicknamed her the “Mother of Coconut Grove.” She served as “doctor, judge, minister and friend to the community.”

Life in the settlement seemed to suit pioneer Isabella. She mastered the art of cooking frontier style, serving stewed venison, boiled Seminole squash, corn pone, turtle fry, roast wild hog and turkey. She helped found the Church of the Union Chapel where Henry Ward Beecher’s nephew once preached and where she held the first Sunday school class in South Florida.

Peacock Park

Aging and infirm, Charles Peacock sold the hotel in 1902 to G.F. Schneider of Philadelphia who converted it into a school.  

Charles Peacock died in 1905, Isabella in 1917. The Peacock Inn was torn down in 1926, its site purchased by the city of Miami in 1934. Established as the Coconut Grove Bayfront Park, the site was renamed in honor of the Peacocks in 1973.  Isabella and Charles picked a beautiful location for their inn; it’s one of the toughest spots in town to get a parking place today. 

Copyright © 2014, 2021 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Metropolis, July 31, 1902

Metropolis, July 27, 1917

Miami News, March 6, 1958

Palm Beach Post, Jan. 8, 1964

Tags: Peacock Inn, Miami history, Isabella Peacock, Charles Peacock, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian, Coconut Grove history

Stiltsville: Poor man's paradise, party central, millionaires' retreat and ...

Photo from Wikipedia 

By Jane Feehan

Stiltsville, a community of fishing shacks in Biscayne Bay that morphed into a millionaire’s retreat, was legendary among those who grew up in Miami during the mid-20^th century as a party destination. But it was more than that.  For others it promised good fishing, solitude without the modern-day intrusion of television and telephone, or a place to reconnect with family.

Fishing shacks on stilts went up as early as 1922 in the shallow blue-green Biscayne Bay tidal flats off Cape Florida. Famed fisherman and lighthouse tender, Eddie “Crawfish” Walker, built a shack that served as center of a growing colony he set mangrove pilings for in the 1930s. Among those shacks was the first social center, the Calvert Club. The Quarterdeck Club, built by Ed Turner in 1940, added to the community’s party reputation.

That reputation catapulted among the “smart set” after Life Magazine (Feb. 10, 1941) featured the Quarterdeck as a celebrity magnet. The club went through a series of owners after it was destroyed by the 1945 hurricane. One owner, Harold Clark, developed the site as an exclusive yacht club and employed a French chef who specialized in local seafood plucked from the waters beneath the building.

Crawfish Eddie’s shack was also swept away by the 1945 storm. He died in 1949 (at his residence on NW 69^th Street) but not before seeing the Biscayne Bay shack colony grow to 20 wooden houses after World War II.

Quarterdeck remained party central but was damaged in a 1950 storm. It reopened in 1951 with 300 guests in attendance. The “amazing club on stilts” offered 20 slips for yachts, several luxury hotel rooms, a swimming pool, a live fish pen and a lounge designed by Chris Jones. Good times, if not good business, lasted at the Quarterdeck until 1961 (owned then by Karl Mongelluzzo) when it burned to the water’s edge.

Stiltsville drew politicians, including Florida Gov. Leroy Collins, lawyers, stag party aficionados, and a host of other pleasure seekers, including bachelor Ted Kennedy, for decades. By the 1960s, the notorious Bikini Club opened on a shipwrecked yacht, Jeff.  Known for serving free drinks to women in bikinis, it was shuttered in 1965 for selling liquor without a license.

Complaints also rolled in about the shacks serving as blight on Biscayne Bay. But Stiltsville became a community of millionaires. Many of them were lawyers and politicians whose weekend retreats built for $20, 000 to $80,000, helped redeem a blighted appearance. But hurricanes continued to take their toll, defining the community’s history. After Hurricane Betsy in 1965, new pilings were to be constructed with concrete.  

The 1980s brought changes as well as national attention to Stiltsville. The water colony (by then 14 houses) served as backdrop to several episodes of TV’s Miami Vice. The community was also featured in a Pittsburgh Paint national ad campaign. Perhaps the most significant event of that decade was the establishment of Biscayne National Park in 1980.  Boundaries of this 173,000-acre park include Stiltsville.

The state transferred the $1000 yearly leases (at one time a dollar) to Biscayne National Park.   Hurricane Andrew (1992) took seven more houses down. Today, seven structures remain but they are not privately owned; they are co-managed by the park and the Stiltsville Trust.

What remains of the historic village can be viewed by private boat or on a tour boat operated by Miami History and narrated by area historian Paul George, PhD (see: www.historymiami.org).

I shall treasure memories of a party or two in Stiltsville; there will never be another place like it in those waters off Miami. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 16, 1949
Miami News, Dec. 8, 1951

Spokesman Review, Aug. 25, 1971

Boca Raton News, Dec. 17, 1989

The News, Aug. 17, 1995
www.stiltsville.org/pages/history.html

Tags: Miami history, film researcher, party places in Miami

Dade County's Public Enemy No. 1 and gambling gambits of the 1940s

Greater Miami 1940
Florida State Archives/Fishbaugh/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Greater Miami during the 1940s was wide open for mobsters who endeavored to get into the gambling business.  One of them, Joseph “Jack” Friedlander, elbowed his way from Newark, NJ into Florida rackets as early as 1940. By 1948, he was declared Public Enemy No. 1 by Daniel P. Sullivan, director of Miami’s Crime Commission.

Sullivan claimed Friedlander brought the New Jersey mob element to Miami through his association with Abner (Longy) Zwillman, kingpin of the numbers, bookmaking and bootlegging business in the Garden State. He was probably right. That association evidently gave Russian-born Friedlander the confidence to ally himself with Harry Russell of the Capone gang and to work his way into the territory of the local SG syndicate by playing one gamer against the other. Friedlander soon became a partner in every gambling house in the Miami area.

Friedlander made life tough for the houses that did not play along with him; he would drop hints to law enforcement who then raided the uncooperative establishments. By the mid- to late 1940s he managed the Blackamoor Hotel in Miami and owned pieces of the famed Island Club, Little Palm, and Club 86. He was the bag man for officials who gladly took money from him to look the other way when they came upon illegal gambling.  Friedlander later admitted that his “Little Syndicate” influenced elections for Dade County sheriff in 1944 and 1948 that set up James “Jimmy” Sullivan (who was later arrested) as the county’s top law enforcer.

In 1949 investigative reporters wrote about a $1.5 million-a-year  numbers racket Friedlander and ex-con David Marcus ran out of two offices. One, operating as Aircraft Equipment Company, was located  at the Aviation Building at 3240 NW 27^th Ave.; the other ran out of 719 NW 2^nd Ave. They employed between 250-300 people to run the numbers racket or bolita. Friedlander was known as the bolita king.

Director Sullivan said Friedlander had no fear of law enforcement. Things changed in 1950. Friedlander was indicted that year for a list of transgressions involving gambling. He testified in 1951 at the Kefauver hearings held in Miami where he admitted to many illicit activities but claimed he might have been Public Enemy No. 999, not No. 1. After the hearings, he, along with other Miami mobsters, were soon out of work. It was the beginning of the end for a $100 million industry that involved operations at 200 hotels and scores of enterprising gangsters.

Friedlander’s descent from glory was rapid. In April of 1952 it was reported that his house on posh Pinetree Drive was ransacked. Friedlander reported $275 in cash and a ring were stolen. The government placed a $14,696 lien on that house a few months after the Kefauver hearings. Friedlander went on to own the Dade Boulevard restaurant but times were tough.  Despondent over his finances, he attempted suicide in 1957 via an overdose of sleeping pills at his Miami Beach apartment on Byron Avenue. His wife, Sally, discovered him unconscious when the telephone rang at 2:30 a.m. and he did not stir.

He survived the suicide attempt (age 56 then) but news accounts of what happened to Jack Friedlander after that and when he died are nonexistent. If you have any information on his death, please post  comment below. Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

 Sources:

Miami News, Apr. 23, 1947

Miami News, Dec. 12, 1948

Miami News, Mar. 13, 1949

Miami News, May 11, 1949

Miami News, Sept. 27, 1950

Miami News, Oct. 22, 1950

Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Feb. 17, 1951

Miami News, June 29, 1951

Miami News, Apr. 7, 1952

Miami News, May 14, 1957

Tags: Gambling in Miami, Jack Friedlander, Abner Zwillman, Miami in the 1940s, film researcher, Miami history

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

By Jane Feehan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Actually it took a bit longer than three days.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cami lives in Oregon today but memories of those sizzling Miami Beach days and the twisting Peppermint Lounge nights loom large. I'll have to ask the next time I speak with him if he ever hums the Chubby Checker song:                         

           Come on, baby, let’s do the twist.

      Take me by my little hand and go like this.

                              We’re gonna twisty …

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

Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 5, 1961

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1961

Miami News, Aug. 17, 1962

Miami News, Nov. 27, 1962

Miami News, Aug. 7, 1963

Miami News, Oct. 8, 1964

Miami News, Sept. 19, 1965

Beaver County Times, Aug. 19, 1964

Lakeland Ledger, Feb. 29,1988

Reading Eagle, May 20, 1965

Rome News-Tribune, Mar. 14, 1972

Richard "Dick Cami" Camillucci, Jr.

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

South Florida’s Christmas past: of mule parties, teacher surprises, film studios and …

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  Poinsettia hedge - Florida 1948
  Florida State Archives
  
  

  
  
• By Jane Feehan 
• 
  
  Christmas in South Florida of decades past was celebrated with parties and special community events much as it is today. But there were different situations, some that may draw a smile or surprise. The following may provide a little of both.
  
  
  1917 - West Palm Beach: Staffers of New Jersey-based World Film Corporation stayed at the Salt Air hotel in Palm Beach in order to attend a Christmas party Dec. 8 in West Palm Beach at Metcalf hall. They were on hand to obtain “natural scenes” at the Hawaiian-themed affair. The hall was decorated as a Hawaiian garden; guests followed suit in appropriate garb. Admission was charged to spectators and participating dancers.
  
  
  1921-Miami: A “unique” Christmas party was held Christmas day for every mule and work horse in Miami. School children in the city played host while Boy Scouts fed carrots, apples, sugar and bread to the “dumb animals” so they would have as enjoyable day as possible.

  

  Christmas caroling Christmas Eve 1935, Miami. 

  A Federal Emergency Recovery project

  State Archives of Florida
  1921-Miami: Teachers at “grammar schools” were given a “real Christmas surprise” … when they received pay checks for the month of December “right on the dot” as a result of a clerical arrangement. Checks were cut without waiting for reports from principals; if they had waited for those reports, checks would have been delayed a few days.
  
  
  1934-Miami: The Kiwanis Club of Coral Gables held a Christmas party atop the Alcazar Hotel for 100 children with one of the outcomes expected to be the establishment of a fund to bring children from “100 communities of the United States to enjoy the benefits of South Florida sunshine.”
  
  
  1944-Florida and the United States: There was no Christmas gift wrapping paper, boxes and other accessories produced because the US Government declared it a non-essential industry during World War II. The one bright spot was the production of greeting cards. Cards were made small and in lighter paper but there was no shortage. Reason? About 15 million people were away from home to work war plant jobs throughout the country; sending Yuletide greetings was critical in shoring up morale of the workforce.
  
  
  1953-Broward County: About 25,000 attended the fifth annual Broward County Community Christmas party and Circus at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale. Broadcast by WIOD, the party featured Santa Claus riding a truck, the South Broward High School band, circus impresario Bob Morton, Gulfstream Park President Jimmy Dean, and the Boy Scouts. Hundreds of disabled children attended as special guests.  Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
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• Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 8, 1917

Miami News, Dec. 24, 1921

Miami News, Dec. 23, 1934

Miami News, Oct. 01, 1944

Miami News, Dec. 20, 1953

Tags: Florida Christmas history, Miami Christmas 1920s, Palm Beach history, Christmas in South Florida history, Miami in 1930s, Miami in 1940s, South Florida history 

Miami in 1904: Nothing that savored of prosperity or future greatness except ...

Miami Bayfront Park 1958 (before the find in the 2000s)
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

In June 1897, the Daily Metropolis extolled the virtues of Miami (see prior post at http://bit.ly/1bU4bUp), a tiny settlement incorporated in 1896. The five-star Royal Palm Hotel was listed as one of the town’s assets and, indeed, it was.

Seven years later the same newspaper reported that Miami and its high-profile hotel, which was known to assign an attendant to each guest, made front page news of the Daily National Hotel Reporter. Its editor (unnamed) had made an East Coast trip during the winter season of 1904 to report on its “magnificent hotels;” Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel was one of them.  

The editor wrote:

 The town of Miami is a revelation. Before the advent of the East Coast Railway, eight years ago, Miami was little more than a wilderness … few inhabitants, no industries and nothing that savored of prosperity or future greatness.

Miami is today one of the prettiest towns in Florida. It has three banks, numerous fine shops, factories, two daily newspapers and a tourist hotel. That hotel, the Royal Palm … is a hotel that appeals to every one who enjoys artistic excellence, home comforts and luxurious appointments. The hotel is under the management of Henry W. Merrill, first manager of the Poinciana in Palm Beach, who was previously connected with the Ormond-on-the-Halifax.

Today the Royal Palm may be too small for the demands that are likely to be made upon it in the future. Visitors are constantly arriving from Nassau, Havana, Key West and Cedar Key and on rail from St. Augustine.

The editor also wrote that he was in Miami when the East Coast Railway [sic] ran its first freight trains on a regular schedule over 22 miles which extended “below Miami. He predicted “that within a few years the output of vegetables—particularly tomatoes— will be of such volume and quality as to astonish the world.”

The Royal Palm Hotel was severely damaged by the 1926 hurricane and was torn down in 1930. Eventually it was paved over with a parking lot near what became the Dupont Plaza Hotel in downtown Miami.

In 2003, in preparation for a $640 million hotel/condo development, a pre-project inspection  excavation gave up ceramic fragments and metal pieces that lay more than two feet beneath the earth. It was the remains of the Royal Palm Hotel (see index for Miami in the 1900s). Further digging yielded even more history: artifacts from a Tequesta settlement 10,000 years old. Development was halted and the Miami Circle, as it is known because of a circle of stones apparently left by the Indians, was declared a National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009. The city established the site as Miami Circle Park, a green space, in 2011. It is part of Bayfront Park at 301 Biscayne Blvd.

Repairing seawall surrounding  the 38 ft
Miami Circle cultural landmark
Florida State Archives

Today Miami has nearly 414,000 residents and is considered a gateway to South American markets. It is also a city where slightly more than half its population was born in another country.  

Henry Flagler, as history has proved, had a knack for picking prime real estate …
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Daily Miami Metropolis, April 6, 1904

Sun-Sentinel, April 21, 2004
Wikipedia

Florida Memories

For more on how the Circle was saved see:

https://www.floridarambler.com/florida-bike-hike-trails/miami-circle-see-history-great-views-by-foot-or-bike/

Tags: Miami history, Henry Flagler, hotel history in Miami, Royal Palm Hotel, Miami in the early 1900s,Royal Palm, Miami Circle, Tequesta Indians

Marvelous Miami of 1897: brick buildings, secret societies and ...

Early Miami
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miamians were excited about their new town in 1897. Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railroad was extended from Palm Beach to the Biscayne Bay area in April the prior year. In July 1896 Miami (named for a nearby river) was incorporated. The new Flagler hotel, the “mammoth” Royal Palm, was open for business. Miami’s population ballooned from 300 before the railroad to more than 1,600 residents in 1897. The fledgling city was poised for continued growth.

Its newspaper, the Miami Metropolis, publicized reasons to move to the area in its June 4, 1897 edition. Among them were:

• A “good back country which is being settled up very rapidly. The local trade from this territory and that which comes from the Florida Keys will support a good town at this point.”

• The Royal Palm Hotel, plus “three other good hotels.”

• The large holdings of Flagler and the amount of money he has already expended in the development of Miami will ensure the growth of manufacturing in the area.

• Miami is warm enough to warrant the planting of citrus trees.

• “Our transportation facilities are excellent.” (In addition to the rail terminus, Flagler also established boat service to the Bahamas.)

• Three secret societies

• A sound bank

• An ice factory

• “Ten brick buildings, one, the Hotel Biscayne with four stores underneath.”

• "Several miles of paved streets"

• “Waterworks and a sewerage system”

As it turned out, "Marvelous Miami" did not need a grand public relations plan to launch its growth. South Florida with its prospects for a new life—and perhaps riches—quickly attracted pioneers from around the country looking for a new frontier. By 1910 there were nearly 5,500 in Miami, by 1920, more than 29,000.

Sources:
Miami Metropolis, June 4, 1897
www.historymiami.org

Tags: Miami history, Miami before 1900, Henry Flagler, Royal Palm, film researcher, historical researcher, Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian

From food stand to drive-in and up in the sky: Hot Shoppes, Big Boy and ...

By Jane Feehan 

In 1963, airline caterer Hot Shoppes employed 550 in Miami. From their operations center at 4101 NW 25 Street, the company made soups, gravies, pastries, butchered meats, and purchased supplies. Hot Shoppes produced 5,000-6,000 meals a day during winter in the Magic City.

Its founder, J. Willard Marriott, opened his first food stand in 1927 in Washington, D.C. The small company, Hot Shoppes, was soon an icon in the capitol area, serving meals in a casual setting. Within a decade, Hot Shoppes entered the national market. 

The company pioneered the airline in-flight catering industry. They provided meals to Eastern, Pan American, TWA, Avianca and delivered to airline hubs from their facilities across the nation The company operated 100 plants throughout Florida in 1963 and had plans to open “in quick succession” seven more, according to Calvin Wienges, then southern regional manager.  

Its development of in-flight food service proved to be a boon, elevating its profile and expanding its business across the nation. The company was renamed Marriott Corporation in 1967. The year it became Marriott Corporation, the company purchased Big Boy, the following year, Roy Rogers restaurants. There were other chain restaurants—and soon a string of hotels. Hot Shoppes closed in 1999. Today, in the Anthem restaurant at the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C., a lunch counter modeled after the original Hot Shoppes restaurants serves Hot Shoppes classic favorites.

So many in South Florida and throughout the nation have been touched in one way or another by what came to be emblematic of world-wide hospitality. And it all started with a food stand.Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Miami News, April 7, 1963

Washington Post, Dec. 20, 2011

Marriott Corp.

Tags: Miami history, South Florida history, food history, film researcher, Jane Feehan Fort Lauderdale historian, Miami historian

Miami tops Los Angeles in cars per capita in 19...

By Jane Feehan

The Automobile Manufacturers Association reported in 1940 that Miami led the nation among major cities in the number of cars per capita. A count of 53,078 cars converted into an impressive 2.8 per capita, or a car for every 2.8 persons. That figure topped the 2.9 number in Los Angeles and 3.0 in Long Beach CA. The Magic City held the lead in the number of cars well into the 1960s.
The national auto per capita (per 1,000) the following decades reveals how impressive Miami’s 1940 statistic was:

1950      .28 per capita

1960      .37         "

1970      .48         "

1980      .62         "

1990      .72         "

1999      .77         "

With a metric that could point to prosperity or a climate well-suited for conspicuous consumption, came grim vehicle-related news a few decades later. In 1962, the Miami area—Dade County—held the distinction of reporting the highest number of vehicular deaths in the nation. It may not come as a surprise to some that in 2009 the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach statistical area ranked among the nation’s top 50 in motor vehicle crash death rates at 11.1 deaths per 100,000. Jacksonville, FL counted 13.3 per 100,000, while Houston, Texas cited 12.9 deaths.

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 30, 1962

Miami News, Nov. 16, 1964
Centers for Disease Control www.cdc.gov
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2007



Tags; Miami history, SOFLA auto ownership history, cars in Miami, auto deaths, vehicular motor crash stats, film researcher, historical researcher

Miami's radio 610, WIOD: Wonderful Isle of Dreams once home to Larry King and ...

WIOD towers 1926 Bicayne Bay
Florida State Archives/Fishbaugh

By Jane Feehan

WIOD launched its first radio broadcast Jan. 19, 1926. The station, tagged with call letters WIOD for “Wonderful Isle of Dreams” by Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher, was built atop one of his man-made islands near the Nautilus Hotel (4300 Alton Road). It operated in one of the first buildings in the U.S. designed primarily for radio broadcast use.

According to author Ann Armbruster (The Life and Times of Miami Beach, Alfred A. Knopf: 1995), Jesse Jay, son of Webb Jay, inventor of the auto vacuum tank, founded WIOD. It was the first 1,000-watt station in Florida.   During its early days WIOD offered about two hours of programming and most of it was orchestra music or church services. By 1928 the station was an NBC affiliate.

WIOD studios moved to downtown Miami in the early 1930s to the News Tower. It was purchased by Metropolis Publishing Company, owner of the Miami News in 1936 and advertised with the slogan, “Your free ticket to the finest radio is at 610 on your radio dial.”

By 1941*, WIOD was operating 18 ½ hours daily from the 79^th Street Causeway.  Programming included entertainers Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, Eddie Cantor, other big names of the era and featured soap opera A Guiding Light five days a week. The station increased to 5,000 watts of power in February that year with great fanfare throughout South Florida; that ramp up in wattage made WIOD the most powerful radio station in the state. The station, deemed by management a “symbol of progress,”  broadcasted with the assistance of two 320-foot steel towers over the waters of Biscayne Bay (salt water is said to improve signal strength).

From 1959 to 1962, the call letters of 610 were changed to WCKR by then-owner Cox-Knight Broadcasting. TV station WSVN also owned 610 later during the 1960s and played rock music, an unsuccessful format in a fiercely competitive market. It transitioned back to call letters WIOD during the 70s and was the venue that helped launch TV personality Larry King’s national career. Other broadcast notables of the 70s and 80s included Big Wilson and Neil Rogers.

In 1981, WIOD’s power was increased with special temporary authority to 10,000 watts to overcome interference by a station in Cuba. Permission to broadcast at that power is renewed each year.

Today, iHeartMedia, Inc. owns WIOD. Its studio operates in Miramar and its transmitter tower lies near Biscayne Bay at North Bay Village. News Talk 610 operates 24/7, a big leap in scheduling from those short days of 1926. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Some facts about radio in the 1940s: More than half the radios in the world were owned by Americans; 85 percent of Americans owned a radio; a nationally syndicated radio show would have as many as 10 million listeners.

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Other Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press, 1995.

Miami News, Feb. 22, 1941.

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami Beach in the 1920s, WIOD, WCKR, Miami radio, historical researcher, film researcher

Riccio's, Miami mobster hangout, money troubles and ...

 

By Jane Feehan 

Miami was a favorite destination of mobsters in the 1930s to the 1960s.

They frequented many restaurants, including Riccio’s, which was among the best--known mob hangouts in the 1950s.

Located at 991 NE 79^th Street, Riccio’s was opened by namesake Joe Riccio in the late 1940s. Like many of its patrons, Riccio had a checkered past. According to the Miami News, the place was raided for gambling in February 1950 by then-Dade County Sheriff Jimmy Sullivan.

Gambling tables and dice were seized in a back room of the restaurant. Police later staked out the gambler’s hangout hoping for a bigger catch but were unsuccessful.  The Miami News reported Joe Riccio had several arrests for gambling but was convicted only once. Other than attracting gamblers and gangsters, Riccio's also drew city notables including a few judges. One judge was arrested for driving while intoxicated; his partying reportedly began at Riccio's.

The restaurant chugged along but a surge in business occurred in 1953, according to news accounts, after Riccio told authorities he would give a job to notorious Jewish mobster Alex (Shondor) Birns of Cleveland.  

Birns was waiting for an extradition hearing back to Hungary but the Immigration Service gave Birns permission to move to Miami when told about the job. (According to a 1988 Plains Dealer series by Christopher Evans, Don King, later known for boxing promotions, ran numbers for Birns in Cleveland during the 1960s and was known as “The Kid.”)

By November of 1956, the Riccio restaurant entered bankruptcy, reportedly, for the third time in six years. The newspaper reported that the business had established a reputation for stiffing creditors. Riccio’s brother, Anthony, was once tapped as head of the company (incorporated as Greater Miami Italian-American Restaurant in December, 1954) but claimed he made only $50 a week.  Joe Riccio’s wife, Ruth, admitted she and her husband actually ran the eatery. The bankruptcies became the target of a federal investigation.

Riccio’s was shuttered in 1956 but the family had plans to reopen the following winter season. A search of news archives and public documents did not reveal fruition of those plans in Florida.

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 4, 1956

The Plain Dealer, 1988 (Ohio)

Tags: Miami mobsters, Cleveland mobsters, Don King, gambling in Miami in 1950s, Miami in the 1950s, historical researcher, film researcher

The big cool down hikes up tourism in Miami Beach

           Ultra Modern Hotels - Miami Beach 1948  Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Air-conditioning, invented by Dr. John Gorrie* of Apalachicola, FL during the 1850s, made its debut in Miami during the 1930s when Hill York Company was founded by Ron Nitzsche and Everett Carroll. Six such companies were listed in the telephone directory by the end of that decade.

Hill York claims their first system was sold to the Roney Plaza Hotel (no year mentioned). The Albion Hotel in 1939 boasted an air-conditioned dining room in its ads. The Leamington and Liberty hotels in 1946 advertised as being fully air-conditioned (not central). Howard Kleinberg, Miami Beach historian and Miami News reporter, wrote that the Martinique Hotel, opened in 1946 at 6423 Collins Avenue, was the first centrally cooled hotel.

Martinique Hotel under construction 1946
Florida State Archives

The 12-story Martinique (today the site of the Mar del Plata condominium) was designed by Roy France, later noted as one of Miami Beach’s Art Deco architects. The $2 million hotel, with 134 rooms, advertised as being centrally and fully air-conditioned. The 160-room Kenilworth Hotel opened its doors later the same year and was also centrally air-cooled.

Whatever hotel was really first, by 1955 nearly all major hotels in Miami Beach were fully and centrally air-conditioned, attracting more visitors. During the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, Miami Beach was one of the most popular resort cities in the U.S., thanks, in part, to air-conditioning. The technology extended the winter tourist season well into summer. It was also a factor in Florida's explosive growth during the 1950s.

Hill York Company moved its headquarters to Fort Lauderdale but maintains a branch office in Miami. 

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

________________ 

* Dr. Gorrie (1803-1855), born on the island of Nevis, moved to Florida where he treated and studied tropical diseases. He thought bad air led to the spread of disease. He put ice in basins and suspended them from ceilings to cool the air. Gorrie stopped practicing medicine to develop a form of refrigeration but died in near obscurity. The idea of air-conditioning lay dormant for 50 years. Apalachicola hosts the John Gorrie Museum.

Wax freize of Gorrie demonstrating
his invention 1899. Fl State Archives

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach: A History. Miami: Centennial Press (1994).

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

Palm Beach Post, Oct. 27, 1946.

Hill York

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami Beach history, history of air-conditioning, Miami Beach hotel history, tourism history, Martinique Hotel, Kenilworth Hotel, Albion Hotel, historical research, film researcher, architects

Walgreens opens in Miami,1936: broilators, coffee vaculators, cigars, malteds and ...

Walgreen's Downtown Miami
Dept. of Commerce 1969
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

The first Walgreens in Miami opened Nov. 7, 1936. Located at Flagler Street and Miami Avenue, the 4,500 square-foot store garnered front-page coverage in the Miami News.

“It will open to reveal one of the largest drug stores in the state,” wrote the reporter. “Completely modern, air-conditioned, modern in every sense … Walgreen’s will become an important addition to Miami as a shopping center.”

Charles R. Walgreen, Sr. opened his first pharmacy in Chicago in 1901. By 1910 he owned two stores. Competition was stiff but he kept ahead of the pack with fast service, a wide selection of products and innovation.

Soda fountains were the rage throughout the United States during the 1890s. They closed during winter months because products—ice cream and cold drinks—were warm-weather oriented. Charles Walgreen opened the first year-round soda fountain serving sandwiches, soup and other meals. Another innovation: Walgreen Co. was the first drugstore chain in the U.S. to advertise on the radio. 

Contributing to a list of Walgreen firsts was employee Ivar “Pop” Coulson. He developed the first malted milk shake by adding two scoops of ice cream to a chocolate malted milk, firmly placing the Walgreen name in the lexicon of American culture.

By 1929 there were 525 Walgreen stores. The one in Miami opened when, like other cities across the country, it needed jobs; those were Depression years.  The new store offered employment to 44 Miami residents.  And these people were lucky, perhaps, in another way: the store was air-conditioned.

The news article about the opening discussed the air-conditioning at great length--at the top of the story, such was its importance. “Air-conditioning is automatically controlled, providing comfortable temperatures for customers and employees year round. A duct system draws a constant supply of fresh air from outside. An arrangement of air ducts circulates air under steady pressure …”

The reporter waxed enthusiastic about its luncheonette décor and equipment. "The all metal soda counter is a striking feature 47 feet long with the soda dispensing section finished in soft green enamel.”  Twenty four “deeply up-holstered [sic] stools with low backs” sat in front of the counter. Seating for 84 more lunch patrons was provided by tables and booths. Deep fryers, salad tables, “broilaters,” “automatic toasters” and glass coffee “vaculators” were part of the dining area equipment inventory.

This modern store, managed by C.A. David, also offered a tobacco “division” near the main entrance with cigarettes and “cigars up to the finest Havanas.” And, there was an electric goods department, “the result of several years of study and research by the company’s experts,”with toasters, radios, electric irons, food mixers, curling irons and flash lights.” 

The store housed a film department with “motion picture cameras” and photo processing. Additionally, Walgreens provided an area with wines and another for glassware sales. Even by today’s standards, this was quite a range of products.

Reminding the reader of the company’s roots the reporter wrote: “The prescription department is resplendent in white woodwork and clear glass symbolizing the Walgreen regard for purity and cleanliness in compounding prescriptions.”

At this writing, Walgreens still resides at Flagler and Miami Avenue. There are more than 8,000 in the U.S.

______

Sources: 

Miami News, Nov. 6, 1936. 

Walgreens at: https://www.walgreens.com/topic/about/history/ourpast.jsp

Tags: Miami history, Miami retail history, Walgreens history, Miami during the 1930s, Florida film researcher, historical research

Sonny Capone in Miami - high school, a wedding and a couple of brushes with the law

By Jane Feehan

Al Capone bought a house on Palm Island in 1927*. After serving eight years in Alcatraz for tax evasion, the mobster who built his notorious reputation in Chicago returned to his Miami home where he kept a low profile. He died at his plush waterfront house  in 1947 at age 48.

There’s more about the Capone name in the chronicles of Miami history.

Al and wife Mae made a rare public appearance at their son’s wedding at St. Patrick’s Church** in Miami Beach, Dec. 30, 1941.  Twenty-two-year-old Albert Francis “Sonny” Capone married his high school sweetheart, Diana Ruth Casey, 21. Three hundred guests attended the mid-morning ceremony.

There was some buzz about the wedding in weeks leading up to the event. Nationally acclaimed syndicated columnist Walter Winchell wrote that friends of “Boogie” Diane Casey were betting that she was already Mrs. Capone. Nothing materialized to justify it as more than a rumor.

St. Patrick's Church 1933
Florida State Archives/Romer

Sonny and Boogie were sweethearts while attending Miami Beach High. After graduation, according to one reporter covering the wedding, young Capone attended Notre Dame for a time but returned to Miami. He then went to the University of Miami where, again, he was Casey’s classmate.  It was also reported that Sonny Capone was part owner of a flower shop in Miami for a brief time before the Dec. 30 nuptials.  The marriage produced four daughters. A few years after the birth of their girls, the two divorced. Capone married twice afterward.

Some biographers claim the younger Capone kept his nose clean of crime but news accounts point to two arrests. While his father was in Alcatraz, 17 year-old Sonny Capone was arrested for reckless driving. According to news accounts, he was trying to pass another car at Washington Avenue and 15^th Street on Miami Beach but crashed into some trees and wound up in St. Francis Hospital with minor injuries. The legal outcome of that incident was not published in newspapers.

In 1965, Sonny had another brush with the law – a pathetic one. He was 45 years old and working at a tire company in Hollywood, FL when he was arrested for shoplifting at a grocery store. He allegedly took a pack of flashlight batteries and a bottle of aspirin totaling $3.50. When asked by the judge why he did it, Sonny said he did not know. The judge said since Capone didn’t have a criminal record, he would sentence him to only two years probation.  Sonny Capone died in Miami in 2004; he was 85. 

* See labels at top right for more Capone history.

**In its website history section, St. Patrick’s Church does not mention the 1941 Capone wedding.

Sources:

St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 19, 1941

Miami News, Dec 30, 1941

Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Dec. 31, 1941

Spartanburg Herald, Jan. 2, 1942

Tags: Miami history, Al Capone in Miami, gangster history, Sonny Capone, Albert Francis Capone, Florida film researcher,  historical researcher

Al Capone comes to Miami for rest ... and more

Capone (R) in Miami
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

“Scarface Al” Capone visited the Miami Police Station when he arrived in town early 1928. He was there he said, to “lay his cards face up on the table.” He told Chief Leslie Quigg and gathering reporters that he was in town for a vacation and a rest. He expected to be joined later that afternoon by his mother, wife and child who were en route by train.

Capone, then about 30 years-old, had recently been ordered out of Chicago by leaders who hoped his absence would bring a “truce between rival factions of machine gunners and bombers.” Capone left for Los Angeles but city officials did not want him there either. Reporters asked why.

“This is the way that happened,” Capone began. “When I got in, a bunch of the boys met me at the train. Some of them must have had guns on their hips and the police didn’t like that, so they thought I was a bad moral influence or something. They had me all wrong there and I’m glad to say my reception here has been quite different.”

Chicago “beer baron” Capone was asked if he would engage in business in Miami. He assured Quigg that he would not but also told reporters he was interested in Miami real estate. He had real estate investments on Florida’s west coast. “I believe now is the time to buy and I’m thinking of going into the market rather heavily.”

Capone in 1928 (LOC)

Capone, “somewhat shy and rather heavyset” dressed in a blue suit, gray fedora and without his walking cane and jewelry, left the station through the back door. He was accompanied by one friend - not his usual team of three body guards. Quigg said Capone should not be treated differently than any other winter tourist.

A month later, Quigg told reporters Capone was doing nothing but “staying in South Florida for his health and for that of his family. He is spending a good deal of money.” (Quigg faced corruption charges in 1928 but was later cleared.)

Capone, considered by many to be the mastermind of the 1929 murders of Chicago rivals - the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre - was at his Miami Beach Palm Island home at the time. He was convicted later in 1929 for owning a weapon and was sent to prison for one year.

In 1931 Capone was convicted of tax evasion and spent nearly a decade incarcerated. He was suspected to have been heavily involved with Miami gambling and illicit race track activities. Capone's Florida affiliation (he died in 1947 at Palm Island) probably contributed to the 1950 Kefauver Senate Committee tapping Miami as one of nine crime centers in the U.S. 

For more about Capone in Miami, see:

http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/homeowners-association-seeks-scarface.html

Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press (1994).

Miami News, Jan. 10, 1928

Miami News, Feb. 21, 1928

Miami News, Jun. 26, 1946

Tags: Miami history, Miami mobsters, Al Capone in Miami, Jane Feehan film researcher,  historical researcher, gangsters