Florida's turnpike opens in 1957 - Miami to Fort Pierce

By Jane Feehan

Governor LeRoy Collins officially open Florida’s turnpike, the Sunshine State Parkway, January 25, 1957. The first leg of the road stretched 110 miles from the Golden Glades in Miami to Fort Pierce.

Before the turnpike, a trip from Fort Pierce to Miami took nearly four hours; after the road opened the same distance could be covered in 108 minutes.

A year later, the Florida turnpike was determined a success.  Records revealed that 3,649,502 vehicles traveled the road carrying approximately 11,000,000 passengers.

Also, there were:

251 accidents

129 injuries

6 deaths or 3.6 deaths per 100,000,000 vehicle miles

And: 

Gross income from tolls: $4,450,000

Approximate costs: $1,280,000

A second section of the Sunshine State Parkway, from Fort Pierce to Wildwood, opened in 1964. The final part connected Miami to Homestead in 1974. Revenues in 2010 reached $596 million, an increase of 1 percent from the preceding year. The contributions the turnpike made to South Florida’s building boom of the 1950s and 1960s … inestimable. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

www.floridasturnpike.com/about_history.cfm

www.floridasturnpike.com/downloads/TEAR/2010/Overview%20Graphs.pdf

Miami News, Jan. 19, 1957

Miami News, Jan 26, 1958

Tags: Florida history, Florida turnpike history, Sunshine State Parkway history, South Florida history, Florida road history, film researcher

Miami Beach hotel wars: Fontainebleau, Eden Roc and the spite wall

Fontainebleau 1956
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach is easily spotted with its iconic signage. It seems to  beckon visitors along the 4000 block of Collins Avenue to appreciate its glamour before considering the Fontainebleau, the area’s flagship hotel next door. Competition between the two is tightly woven into Miami Beach history, and their ups and downs reflect economic recessions and recoveries of years past.

Partners Ben Novack and Harry Mufson built the Sans Souci Hotel in 1949 on Miami Beach with architect Morris Lapidus completing its design. They then collaborated on the Fontainebleau Hotel, constructed on beach front property once owned by the Firestone family.  The partners commissioned Lapidus to design the building and opened the Fontainebleau hotel in 1954 to great fanfare. The hotel was spectacular, drawing national attention and some scorn.

Shortly after, Mufson bought property just north of the Fontainebleau from the Warner estate, which belonged to one of Hollywood's Warner Brothers. He wanted to build his own hotel, the Eden Roc. Novack was not pleased, ending his partnership with Mufson.

Mufson, founder of the Jefferson department store chain, again engaged Lapidus to work his design magic. For ideas, the architect traveled to the elegant Eden Roc in France, a known Kennedy family vacation destination. He returned with Italian Renaissance objets d’ art and blended them with elements of his unique style.

The glamorous $13 million Eden Roc opened its doors in 1956, attracting Hollywood movie stars, including Elizabeth Taylor. Among its regular winter visitors was a young Steve Wynn, future Las Vegas impresario, and his parents. (Wynn today says Mufson is one of his all-time heroes.)

Closely watching his competition next door, Ben Novack decided to take revenge. In 1961 he built a 14-story tower with more than 350 rooms on the north side of the hotel. All rooms faced south; there were no windows on the north side and the wall remained unpainted in stark view of Eden Roc guests. Not only was it an eyesore, Novack’s “spite wall” blocked the afternoon sun from the Eden Roc’s pool deck.  Mufson obtained permits to extend the deck away from the building toward the beach to claim its share of the sun.

Mufson sold the Eden Roc in 1965. The hotel operated through a severe recession during the 1970s under several owners, as did the Fontainebleau, and shut down for about a year in 1975-76. Bob Guccione and his Penthouse Corporation placed a bid on the Eden Roc in 1978 hoping to convert it into a casino but a gambling referendum failed so he withdrew the offer.

The hotel was sold in bankruptcy proceedings for $4.6 million in 1980.  A month later the new owners sold it to Saudi Sheik Wadji Tahlawi for $12.5 million. In 1981, Stephen Muss then Fontainebleau owner (he bought it for $28 million in December, 1977 and later chose Hilton to run it), hoped to acquire the Eden Roc to make it an unattached annex of his  property. The deal fell through.

In 2008, Eden Roc owners constructed the 21-story Ocean Tower, finally defeating Novack’s wall of spite. Today, with 631 rooms, the Eden Roc is owned by Key International, a real estate development and investment company -- and both hotels again claim their place among Miami Beach’s best. 

Sources:

Miami News, Jul. 8, 1981

Eden Roc www.edenrocmiami.com/

Bramson, Seth. Miami Beach. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing (2005)

South Beach Magazine, Jan. 9, 2008

Tags:  Eden Roc Hotel history, Fontainebleau  Hotel history, Miami Beach history, Miami hotel history Ben Novack, Harry Mufson, Morris Lapidus, Miami  Beach during the 1950s, film industry researcher, architects

$100/Plate political fundraisers - a look back at JFK and Florida

1956 Fundraiser

From JFKLibrary.org

https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jfkcamp1960-0932-008#?image_identifier=JFKCAMP1960-0932-008-p0001

By Jane Feehan

With today’s presidential campaign fundraising dinners fetching up to $50,000 a plate (and beyond), a glance at similar events during the 1960s shows the dramatic inflation rate of politics.

President John F. Kennedy flew to Miami Beach March 9, 1962 to help raise funds for Sen. George Smathers who had just announced a bid for a second term

Three thousand of South Florida’s Democratic Party showed up at the main ballroom of the Fontainebleau Hotel and paid $100 a plate to hear JFK. They were so wowed by the young president they did not mind – or notice – that Frank Sinatra bowed out of an appearance because of laryngitis. JFK and Sinatra for $100 - what a bargain that would have been.

Two years earlier, the Democratic Party kickoff for the 1960 campaign drew 2,500 at $100 per person to the nation’s capitol. (Video: http://tinyurl.com/9tzyrnq.)

Plate prices remained the same during Kennedy's presidency. For the anniversary of his second year in office, 5,000 supporters were invited to Washington to see the president for $100 per person. Enough money was generated by the event to retire the Democratic Party’s debt for the first time since 1952.

Dinners continued to command the same ticket price. Kennedy flew to Ohio for Gov. Michael DiSalle’s 54th birthday – a non-presidential Democratic fundraising occasion with $100-a-plate invitations in 1962.

Republicans also held fundraisers for $100 a plate. Rockefeller hosted one such event in Albany, NY in April, 1963, drawing hundreds. So, during the early 1960s, $100-a-plate fundraising dinners were the norm for both parties.

How times have changed ...

For Florida documents, including a program from a 1956 Broward County Democratic Fundraiser at the Beach Club, visit JFK Presidential Library and museum at:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-0932-008.aspx

       

By Robert L. Knudsen - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library,
hwww.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-KN-17134.aspx, Public Domain,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15978282
Richard Nixon (l), Lyndon B. Johnson (r)

                            
Sources:
Miami News, Mar. 11, 1962
Miami News, May 3, 1962
Miami News, Apr. 30, 1963



Tags: Political campaigns 1960s, fundraising dinners 1960s. Florida politics 1960s, Democratic Party 1960, Republican fundraisers 1963

Yankees come to Fort Lauderdale in 1962 until ...

Yankees with Gov. Bryant, 1962 Spring Training FTL
Fl. Dept. of Commerce 

By Jane Feehan

The Yankees ball club had won their fifth consecutive world championship by 1953. In 1961 they had chalked up their 19^th world championship in 39 seasons. Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra were  names known in most American households whether their baseball games were watched or not. In 1962 they moved their spring training camp from St. Petersburg to Fort Lauderdale.  

Fort Lauderdale hotelier George “Bob” Gill encouraged friend Dan Topping, Sr., major owner* of the Yankees, to bring the team to his town. Topping owned homes in Miami and Palm Beach; the move would make sense. A proposal to construct a stadium for $450,000 (with a seating capacity of 8,340) was introduced to the city in 1960. A Yankee spring training presence would bolster the area as a camp site. The Baltimore Orioles were already in Miami; the Los Angeles Dodgers practiced at Vero Beach and the Kansas City A’s were in West Palm. 

The inaugural game March 10, 1962 proved to be a Fort Lauderdale hit. The Yankees played the Baltimore Orioles before 7,584 fans at the new ball park off  NW 55th Street. Cletis Boyer, “of all people,” hit the first ball out of “Little Yankee” stadium. Boyer, batting eighth in the Yankee lineup, hit only .244 the previous season. He popped a Billy Hoeft ball over the left field wall at the 350-foot mark in the second inning.   

But the crowd reserved their biggest cheers that day for Mickey Mantle when he crashed a 400-foot home run with Roger Maris on base, scoring two more runs. The Yanks topped the Orioles 4-1 during that inaugural game.

The Yankees trained at Fort Lauderdale Stadium - and were seen about town - until 1995. Their contribution to the city’s place as a tourist destination – and great place to live – was invaluable.

* Del Webb was also a Yankee club owner at the time.

For more on the Yankees in Fort Lauderdale, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/08/yankee-roger-maris-and-fort-lauderdales.html

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Oct. 18, 1960

Miami News, Mar 11, 1962

Drury, Jack. Fort Lauderdale, Playground of the Stars (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2008).

Yankees: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/history/timeline3.jsp

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Yankees Ball Club history, spring training in Fort Lauderdale, Bob Gill, Dan Topping, Sr., Cletis Boyer, Mickey Mantle, 

Winston Churchill and his Miami Beach vacation

Winston Churchill painting at the
 Miami Beach Surf Club, 1946
State Archives of Florida/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and his wife, Clementine, came to Miami Beach for a six-week vacation in January and February 1946. It was their first extended holiday after World War II and after Churchill was voted out as prime minister (he won that office again in 1951). Not known for taking many vacations together, the famous couple planned a stay at Col. Frank W. Clarke’s Miami Beach home.

They sailed to New York on the Queen Elizabeth II, and then took a train to Miami, arriving Jan. 17. Churchill aimed to "hide on Miami Beach," to have a low key visit. Col. Clarke, a Canadian steamship and wood pulp executive, said the old lion would accept no invitations nor attend many functions. “Newspapermen” were asked to come seldom and stay only as long as necessary.

The modest two-story Clarke home featured six main rooms decorated in grays, pinks and greens and were casually furnished. A veranda next to the main bedroom provided privacy for sunbathing; a den with a fireplace was used by Churchill as an office. A rear garage apartment housed staff that included Churchill’s “man,” Mrs. Churchill’s maid, a secretary, and a Scotland Yard agent.

 Churchill at Hialeah Park opening 1946
State of Florda Archives

Churchill’s name and photo appeared in the Miami News a few times during his stay. A story about his medical checkup conducted by Dr. Robert M. Harris, a Navy lieutenant commander, revealed his health to be excellent after the 4,500-mile journey from England. The doctor gave advice to the 71-year old about how to adjust to the climate of South Florida’s Gold Coast: stay indoors the first few days.

It doesn’t appear Churchill followed the advice too closely. He was photographed a day or two later - cigar in hand - on San Marino Island where “he was having himself a time.” An accomplished artist, he ventured out to paint scenery that day and set up his easel under a huge umbrella. A group of island residents, including children, gathered. The former prime minister obliged them with autographs on scraps of paper. Churchill used oils to paint the northwest side of DiLido Island, where Leon Lowenstein’s estate, the Villa Leglo, stood. The painting included the villa, nearby homes and a vacant lot owned by the president of Churchill Coffee. Coincidentally, the coffee company was named after the popular British notable.

Daughter Sarah Churchill Oliver flew to Miami to join her parents during their vacation. Part of their visit that year included a week’s stay in Cuba at the exclusive Havana Yacht Club. They were hosted by the wife of the Cuban secretary of state, Mrs. Alvarez.

On the day the Churchills left Miami Beach (March 2), a reception was held for the former prime minister, described by reporters as “mildly tanned,” at the Surf and Turf Club. Afterward the family headed to Washington on the Florida East Coast Railway. Churchill met with son Randolph, then traveled with President Harry S. Truman to Missouri where he gave the first of several speeches across the country, including the famous "Iron Curtain" speech March 5, 1946. He returned to England March 21. 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For a newsreel clip of his arrival in Miami, see: http://tinyurl.com/92x5axf
For more on Churchill at Hillsboro Beach in Broward county during WWII, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-titans-meet-in-pompano-beach-1941.html

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/historic-caps-place-gambling-raids.html

Sources:
Miami News, Jan. 11, 1946
Miami News, Jan. 17, 1946
Miami News, Feb. 4, 1946
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Mar. 2, 1946


Tags: Miami Beach history, Winston Churchill, Miami Beach in the 1940s, Florida history, film industry researcher

Historic Cap's Place - Gambling raids, dining and famous customers

Cap’s Place

2765 NE 28^th CT

Lighthouse Point, 954-941-0418

By Jane Feehan

Built in 1928 and originally known as Club Unique, Cap’s Place in Lighthouse Point had a reputation for good food—and wide open gambling during the 1930s and 40s.

Raids on gambling establishments those years were intermittent, with threats to operations dependent on political winds. In February 1949, the state beverage department sent a “flying squad” of five agents in two cars throughout Broward County to clamp down on gambling by looking for liquor sales violations.

They lost their game when they entered Cap’s. Agents, with reporters in tow, saw gambling at the swank spot but were unable to make any arrests. Gambling at Cap’s took place in a building separated from the bar. If gambling and drinking had been co-mingled, they may have been in luck – and the management knew it; they did not bother to close the place during the raid. But there was another catch: the flying squad was unauthorized to make an arrest without a deputy sheriff or constable present. They were sent on their mission without either.

A note on the political climate that year: Gov. Fuller Warren had taken office a month earlier (Jan. 4, 1949). In 1950-51 a U.S. Senate Committee investigating gambling and the corruption of public officials accused Warren of funding his gubernatorial campaign with mob money. Gambling ceased at Cap’s Place in 1951.

Cap’s, once known for quality seafood, green turtle steaks, and turtle egg pancakes, still operates and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The period of its significance is listed as 1929-1949. Cap’s legacy includes a meal delivered to Winston Churchill and his host Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1900 -1949), former lend-lease administrator and later Secretary of State who was vacationing in Pompano Beach. 

The separate building now holds a bar and a trove of historical photos. It’s accessible by boat and auto but most prefer to take Cap’s motor launch from the Lighthouse Point Marina. It’s worth an evening out but the food has its ups and downs.

I can’t think of another significant gambling house of that era that still stands in Broward County, perhaps not in Miami-Dade County, either. If someone knows of such a place, leave a post below.Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan. 

For a newsreel clip of his arrival in Miami, see: http://tinyurl.com/92x5axf
For more on Churchill at Hillsboro Beach in Broward county during WWII, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-titans-meet-in-pompano-beach-1941.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1949

U.S. Senate Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 1950

www.capsplace.com

Tags: Famous South Florida restaurants,  Broward County gambling during 1930s, 1940s, turtle steaks, where Winston Churchill and FDR dined, motor launch to restaurant, restaurant in Intracoastal  in Lighthouse Point, film industry researcher, historical researcher, Lighthouse Point history, Pompano Beach history, Hillsboro Mile, Hillsboro history

Bra Brigade and Southern Bell's missing coins -1950

Southern Bell display 1949
Florida State Archives

 

By Jane Feehan

A Miami group made headlines as the “Brassiere Brigade” in 1950 when they reportedly confessed to embezzling $100,000 from the coin counting room of Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company by stuffing rolls of coins into their bras.

  

According to a news account, police accidentally stumbled upon the crime when a woman called to report a chest of missing coins at her home. Betty Corrigan, identified as a friend of the caller and employee of Southern Bell, happened to drive up to the house at the time. Police searched her car and found nearly $4,000 in coins and $1,000 in paper currency.

Corrigan spilled the story, reporters wrote, and implicated her friends. Most of them continued to sing about their complicity in the embezzlement and revealed how they did it.

When boxes of money were dropped off at the counting room for pay phone revenues, news accounts reported that women grabbed rolls of coins before they were counted and stuffed them into their bras. They dropped the money off in a restroom or somewhere else where an accomplice was waiting, making away with up to $150 a day.

The “Brassiere Brigade,” as newspapers called them (or “Silver Falsies”), made prosecution difficult when they refused to sign statements about their crime. Complicating matters was the company’s failure to figure out exactly how much was taken. Police let them go in September 1950; the brigade then took the opportunity to recant their stories.

The gang of men and women did not get away with the theft, which some estimated could have been much more than $100,000. Several among them bought houses and new cars during their coin caper. Weeks later, Southern Bell officials produced records showing $400 was missing one month – enough to charge several with felony theft.

Eleven were charged - three with theft, eight with receiving stolen property. Three women – all under 30 - were convicted of theft by a six-man jury in 24 minutes. They were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay back about $24,000.

At the time of the publicity about the incident, Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph asked Florida’s State Railroad and Public Utilities Commission for a rate increase. The commission placed the request on hold until the telephone company’s accounting practices were clarified.

PICTURES: www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_brassiere_brigade

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Sept. 26, 1950

Miami News, Sept. 29, 1950

Miami News, Nov. 14, 1950

Tags: Miami history, Southern Bell history, Miami in the 1950s, clinking bras, film industry researcher,  historical researcher