Historic Gateway Theater continues to "reel"

Gateway Theater

1820 E. Sunrise Blvd.

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

954-763-7994

By Jane Feehan

Few living in or visiting Fort Lauderdale fail to drive by the old Gateway Theater (Sunrise and Federal Highway), former site of a lion-breeding pit. The bright lights of its marquee have dimmed only a few times throughout the years. President Kennedy’s assassination was one such occasion; hurricanes knocked out power the others ... and then the longest stretch for the Covid pandemic.

Ground was broken for this 1,600-seat Wometco theater – then one of about 30 in the state - June 30, 1950.  A preview of the event made the Miami News June 25, 1950.

… 500 children will dig for buried treasure on groundbreaking day and a parade and a hillbilly band will be featured as part of the festivities. A parade … will move from formation at King Motors, Inc. and march to the construction site in the new Gateway development. After the ceremonies a “Gateway gold rush” will take place with the youngsters digging for gold coins on the construction site, entitling them to prizes. Master of ceremonies will be T. R. "Bud" Starr and Wometco will be represented by Sonny Shepherd of Miami.

Gateway's collection of opening day memorabilia

Sandra Starr, daughter of Bud Starr was one of the children on hand for the coin search. Early days of the Gateway Theater involved the whole family:

  

I was there with my grandmother for the coin search at the property. My sisters – Jerri and Susie – and I walked to see the movies every Saturday …My grandfather was the janitor of the building and my cousins the ushers. My father, Thurman Robert “Bud” Starr, a transplanted advertising man from Pittsburgh, named the place Gateway after the Gateway Center in Pittsburgh. The Gateway Center, the first commercial center away from downtown, was his project from concept to development. It was his passion bringing about his early death at 42 in 1952.

Bud Starr’s vision, also his passion, led to the successful opening of the theater March 24, 1951. The first film shown was the world premier of Up Front starring David Wayne.

A few months later, the Miami News (Dec. 22, 1951) reported that management of the Gateway Theater could not entice any stars of the film Distant Drums to attend its Fort Lauderdale debut so “they settled for a group of Seminole Indians.”

The Gateway Theater has kept its doors open for most of its 71 years, except for 13 months due to the COVID pandemic. (King Motors closed its Sunrise location during the last decade.) 

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported April 30, 2021 that the theater was to reopen after the 13-month closure. Franzblau Trust Holdings signed an operations contract with the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival to run the theater. About a year later, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (July 8, 2022) reported that the 71-year-old theater was to be managed by Tamarac-based Paradigm Cinemas.

Copyright © 2019, 2020, 2023 

All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, movie theaters of Fort Lauderdale

 

Florida's golf obsession begins in ...

By Jane Feehan

Florida's association with golf began at the close of the 19th century and continues today.

The first golf course in the state of Florida was designed for the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach in 1897 by the “father of American golf,” Alexander H. Findley.  Hotel owner and railway magnate Henry M. Flagler hired the golfer, who was also a close associate, to build only nine holes because he thought golf was just a fad.

The same year, Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway to Miami and established the Royal Palm Hotel, the site of the first course in Miami. It was built by Jack Hagan with sand greens and rough fairways. This early course was a six-hole layout.

In 1898, Henry M. Flagler built the first nine holes of the Miami Country Club at the Miami River and NW 11^th Street.  The club was accessible only by boat or coach and horses (a tally-ho) on a trip that took two hours from the Royal Palm over rough, primitive roads, but players continued to make the trek in pursuit of their sport.

Golf proved to be more than a passing fancy in South Florida; it was wildly popular by 1915. Other courses sprang up, including the Miami-Hialeah Club, which was organized in 1915 and sold three years later to the city of Miami. It became the first municipal golf course in South Florida. Then Fort Lauderdale got into the swing, opening its first club in 1921.

By 1925, golf was firmly woven into the South Florida social scene. The cities of Miami and Miami Beach posted $11,000 for the Miami Open, the Miami Beach Open and the International Four-Ball matches making it the first resort area to put that amount of money into golf tournaments on the winter trail.

By 2012 Florida had about 1,250 golf courses  - more than any other state. So much for that fad ...   

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

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Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 2, 1951

Miami News, Aug. 28, 1927

http://www.stateofflorida.com/portal/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=95

Tags: Golf history, golfing in South Florida, Golf Miami, Fort Lauderdale history, South Florida history, Miami history, Palm Beach history,

Florida leads nation in population growth - 1960 - and about those food prices

Ocean World 1965
Florida State Archives

The Census of 1960 indicated Florida led the nation with the biggest percentage* increase in population during the previous decade. The government counted 4,951,560 persons in the state, an upward change of 78.7 percent. The nation's population by 1960 reached 179,323,175 - an increase of 18.5 percent.

The census also revealed the following 1960 South Florida county statistics:

Broward population: 329,431
Dade population: 917,685
Palm Beach population: 224,537

The three counties made up 50 percent of the state's population growth rate.

Fort Lauderdale counted 81,806 residents in 1960. The population of the city in 2011 was estimated at 165,521; in 2018 177,000 and approaches 190,000 in 2021,

A look at 1960 grocery ads from A&P and Publix markets will generate nostalgia if population stats do not.

Beef ribs - 65 cents a pound
Beef rib roast - 69 cents a pound
Chicken fryer, leg or breast - 29-39 cents a pound
Morton's chicken pot pies - 5 for 99 cents
Eggs - 45 cents a dozen
Bananas - three pounds for 25 cents
Kraft Velveeta Cheese - 2 pound loaf - 85 cents
Bacon - one pound - 49 cents

* California led the nation in the largest numerical gain.

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Sources:
Miami News, Nov. 15, 1960
Ocala Star Banner, June 7, 1960
Palm Beach Post, June 1, 1960


Tags: 1960 Census, Florida Population 1960, Broward population 1960, Palm Beach County population 1960, Dade County population 1960, Fort Lauderdale population 1960, food prices 1960, film researcher

Fort Lauderdale's Hotel Broward, first tourist hotel

Opened in 1919
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale experienced rapid growth after World War I and needed a hotel.  When approached about it, George E. Henry, from Massachusetts, decided to help the fledgling town. He owned suitable property on Andrews Avenue and Las Olas Boulevard. In moving forward with the project, Henry had an architect draw up plans and then put out bids for construction.

When the total price reached $140,000, $40,000 more than Henry agreed to pay, he suggested citizens raise cash for the overage. A citizens committee raised $23,000, but was still thousands short. City Council President  Frank Stranahan stepped in and deeded Stranahan Park for $1 to someone who could sell it to Fort Lauderdale (as council president, Stranahan couldn’t sell land to the city). Fort Lauderdale paid $6,000 for the park and that money was turned over to the hotel building fund.

Lobby Circa 1930
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Still short of the $140,000, Henry went ahead and built the four floor, 100-room Hotel Broward in Fort Lauderdale, the county’s first tourist hotel. It opened for the season in 1919 and counted among its first visitors actress Lillian Gish, filmmaker D. W. Griffith and his troupe of actors in Fort Lauderdale to make the movie, Idol Dancer.

Political will and community spirit merged to bring about the first hotel catering to tourists; it was far from the beach, though a causeway via Las Olas to the beach opened in 1917. A 1919 advertisement for Hotel Broward displays a menu and a $1.50 cover charge for their New Year’s Eve festivities. More highlights from that ad (capitalization of letters theirs):

• Located on the Dixie Highway mid-way between Palm Beach and Miami
• More for Your Money than Any Hotel in the South
• A Place of Elegance yet reasonable
• New Golf Course where Special rates are made to Tourists
• The Last Word in Fishing and Ocean Bathing
• John W. Needham, Leasee and Manager

The hotel deteriorated over the decades; much of it was rented out in later years as office space. A wrecking ball razed the "grand old lady of downtown  Fort Lauderdale" in 1974. 

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Sources:    

  

Miami News, Dec. 30, 1919

Fort Lauderdale Herald, Dec. 30, 1919

Fort Lauderdale News, May , 1974

Weidling, Philip J., and Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

Tags: History of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale hotels, Fort Lauderdale historic hotels

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

Hamilton Disston and an early attempt to drain the Everglades

Disston dredge Saint Cloud Canal circa 1890
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory 

By Jane Feehan

Draining the Everglades, a project often associated with Broward County’s namesake and former Governor Napoleon Broward, was launched by Philadelphia millionaire Hamilton Disston in 1881. Disston, overshadowed by railroad barons Henry Flagler and Henry Plant in Florida history, played a significant role in the development of the state.

The son of the nation’s largest saw manufacturer, Disston first visited Florida in 1877. Florida, as other states in the South, struggled financially after the Civil War.  The Internal Improvement Fund of the State of Florida, holder of 14,000,000 acres, was in receivership. In 1881, 37-year-old Disston bought 4,000,000 acres for 25 cents per acre, making him the nation’s largest individual landowner. He saved the state from insolvency. With the purchase, Disston entered into a contract to drain and reclaim acreage in the Everglades at his own expense. Compensation was to be half the lands he managed to drain.

  

Disston set up headquarters for his work at a small trading post named Allendale. Later named Kissimmee, the site was also used by the new land tycoon to build steamboats for canal travel. The first canals, from three to nine miles long, were dredged off Lake Okeechobee, one to Lake Hicpochee.

The success of the drainage work depended on lowering Lake Okeechobee water levels; ultimately Disston was unable to accomplish this. His drainage operations ended in 1889.  Disston is also credited with establishing the state’s first sugar plantation near Kissimmee, leading to the founding of St. Cloud. 

Disston died suddenly in 1896 at 51. Some say he committed suicide because of financial difficulties; an obituary in The New York Times claimed he died of heart disease. The same obituary also said his $1 million dollar life insurance policy was the second largest on an individual in the nation at the time.

Unsuccessful in draining the Everglades, Disston ignited dreams of those who saw agricultural promise in its mucky earth. Perhaps his attempts to tame Florida encouraged Henry Plant and Henry Flagler to build their Florida railroad empires. 

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Nov. 30, 1919, pg. 4

Miami News, March 10, 1923, pg. 6

Miami News, Oct. 20, 1962, pg. 17

New York Times, May 1, 1896

Tags: Florida history, Everglades drainage, Napoleon Broward, Florida canals, Florida steamboats

Fort Lauderdale counts how many hotels, schools, churches and banks in 1941?

Fort Lauderdale circa 1940
Florida State Archives/Florida Memories

The Fort Lauderdale Daily News (November 24, 1941, a few weeks before Pearl Harbor) printed an ad with the following facts about the city:

Apartments - 210 buildings, 1,100 units
Banks - 3
Churches - 20 representing 16 denominations
Climate - 76.0 degrees yearly mean temperature
Hotels - 34 buildings, 2014 rooms
Office Buildings - 14
Population - Permanent, 17,996; Winter, 45,000
Public Parks - 8
Schools - Public, 6 elementary; 2 junior and senior high schools; 2 private day; 3 parochial; 1 boarding, 1 Black school (public); 2 business colleges; 2 art schools.

In the same issue a story about about local waterways provided the following information:

Two hundred miles of waterways within the city limits, 57 bridges, and 30 big-game charter fishing guide boats tied up in New River. Last winter 600 yachts were tied uBep in snug anchorage in New River, which runs through both business and residential sections of the city.

Before that decade ended, newcomers were confronted with a housing shortage in Fort Lauderdale and throughout South Florida. The word was out about what a great place this was to live. And today? With nearly 200,000 residents, choked roads, sky-high real estate prices and towering condos, the city has lost its charm but serves as refuge for those leaving less desirable places "up North."



Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in 1941, Fort Lauderdale before WWII, Fort Lauderdale at WWII, Florida history, Fort Lauderdale in the 40s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s,