Mackey Airlines, its colorful founder ... and Fort Lauderdale

Mackey 1972 destinations -
 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale’s Mackey Airlines played a leading role in the South Florida aviation scene from 1946 when it was established as Mackey Air Transport, a charter airline, to 1967 when it merged with Eastern Airlines.  

Founder Joseph Creighton Mackey started up four airlines, including Mackey International operating 1969-1981. His life and career resembles a film script.

Convair CV-240 -
one type flown by Mackey Air

Mackey (1909-1982) was known as a circus barnstormer or aerial stuntman before he served in the USAF during World War II, reaching rank of colonel. Before the U.S. entered the fighting, Mackey was recruited as a ferry pilot for the Canadian war effort. In 1941 he was pilot and sole survivor of an air crash in Newfoundland. Three died on their way to England Feb. 21, including 49-year-old Dr. Sir Frederick Grant Banting who co-discovered insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

In 1943, Colonel Mackey served as commander of the First Foreign Transport Group that flew for the Fireball Express, touted then as the world’s longest, fastest air freight line. Mackey and crew operated four-engine giant C-54 transport planes from Miami to India. The  Fireball Express crew told Miami News reporters that they made the 28,000-mile round trip in “as quickly as six days, 10 hours and 15 minutes.” One year after the freight line started, it logged nearly 7,000,000 miles with only two fatalities.

After the war, Mackey returned to Fort Lauderdale where he had lived on Sunset Drive since 1937. He launched Mackey Air Transport in 1946 (it transitioned to Mackey Airlines in 1953) with routes from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach to the Caribbean and Cuba.  His Fort Lauderdale-based air carrier became one of only three in the U.S., including Pan Am, to earn a government certification as an International Airline.

After Eastern Airlines bought Mackey routes in 1967 for $19 million, the colonel started up Mackey International Airlines (1969). Its Fort Lauderdale headquarters was bombed in 1977 by a Cuban exile group who objected to Mackey’s vice president meeting with the Cuban government to re-establish air routes. As a result, the airline withdrew from negotiations. Mackey International Airlines closed its doors in 1981.

Joseph Mackey was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame six months before he died at his Flamingo Road home near Davie in 1982. Copyright © 2014. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For a post about Fort Lauderdale's first aviator, Merle Fogg,  see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/12/merle-fogg-fort-lauderdales-first.html

Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 15, 1982

Miami News, Nov. 12, 1944

Miami News, Feb. 25, 1941

http://www.historynet.com/erroll-boyd-world-war-i-combat-pilot-and-aviation-daredevil.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Arx_Fortis/Mackey#cite_note-0

       

Tags: Fort Lauderdale aviators, Fort Lauderdale history, Florida airlines, Joseph Creighton Mackey, Mackey Airlines, film researcher

Fort Lauderdale and national news stories of 1966 not so different from today's

 

Sunrise Professional Building 1966
State of Florida Archives/Erickson, Roy

Local and national front-page and section news in 1966 was dominated by the Vietnam conflict. Other news of that year often defined what many of us remember of the decade. Stories from the Fort Lauderdale News include a few national topics that draw parallels to those of 2020-2023. If the headline didn’t offer sufficient details, context or additional information was inserted.

* Social Security taxes rise, but cuts in other areas save about a third

* Fashion watchers predict 1966 will be the year of the “Press Up Bosom” in women’s clothing, i.e., spillage (a few Fort Lauderdale Mai Kai staffers will remember using socks to acquire that look).

* Florida Attorney General Earl Faircloth, a Fort Lauderdale resident, to seek re-election

* High grocery costs blamed on the war (Vietnam). Labor shortages and labor costs also a problem. Beef and bacon prices particularly high.

* Denver-based food chain agrees to lower prices after members of Housewives for Lower Prices (HLFP) threaten boycott. Other stores ramp up grocery specials and discounts to avoid boycotts. (Where are they now?)

* Department of Defense defends not calling the Vietnam conflict a war. To declare it a war would add a new psychological element to the international situation since war in this century’s declarations of war have come to imply dedication to the total destruction of the many.

* 18,000 additional troops to be sent to Vietnam in July, bringing total to about 285,000 men.

* Severe cold temperatures to hit Fort Lauderdale; expect a dip into the 30s as “one of the worst winter onslaughts of the century” hits parts of the nation.

* Winn Dixie Kwik Chek reminds people in an advertisement about their “Man in the Red Coat” who is happy to advise on cooking problems (he’s in the meat section).

* Merger of Mackey Airlines and Eastern Airlines approved (Mackey was based at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport at the  time).

* Sing Out 66 comes to War Memorial with a cast of 130. Sponsored by Moral Rearmament (a spiritual group).

* Boy Scout Jamboree brings 1,500 scouts to Holiday Park for two-night sleep over.

* Fort Lauderdale building permits down from previous year

* Developer James S. Hunt, 67, taps Joe Taravella, 44, as new president of his company, Coral Ridge Properties, so Hunt can focus on additional land acquisitions. (Hunt died when he was 74)

* Pool closed at Swimming Hall of Fame “pier” because of permitting issues related to safety

* Traffic backed up from 17^th Street bridge to beach due to electrical problem (bridge switches out)

* Heavy rainstorm (April) causes deluge of traffic accidents; worse around Fiesta Way and E. Las Olas Boulevard where there was a drag race.

* Artificial heart may be ready for use in one month, says surgeon Dr. Michael E. DeBakey from Tulane University in New Orleans.

* Tour plan combining air and see routes to link Port Everglades, New York and Europe.

* Private schools praised; will stay viable if able to rekindle public’s interest

* Broward teacher shortage looms

* Five Florida State Attorney candidates don’t know what the job pays

* Nation’s city riots blamed on wretched life

* Upsurge in U.S. crime puzzles Europeans

* $2 bill to face end alone

* Space chief sees 1968 as year of a moon landing

* National debt reaches nearly $330 billion

* Mickey Rooney takes sixth wife (they lived in Fort Lauderdale for awhile)

* One of largest bookmaking operations ($6000 a day) in Broward shut down in Fort Lauderdale at SW 52 Street.

* Early (Oct 15^th) winter storm brings high winds and flooding to U.S. West and Midwest. Temps in Denver 2 degrees below record.

* Loopholes and the land boom: Florida in its second land boom of the century; evolved since the 1950s (first boom 1910-1926)

* Claude Kirk to campaign in Fort Lauderdale (October)

* Three newspapers endorse Robert High for governor, all critical of Kirk (who later served as governor for one term)

* Beautification group forms to improve run down look of Wilton Manors

* 1966 – 5 – 0 year of the Gator (U of F)  

* Porky’s Hideaway sues (Wilma Baines, wife of Porky, filed the suit)  to restore closing hours to 4 am. Porky’s paid Oakland Park $1000 since its 1957 opening to be able to serve until 4 am.

* Judge Richard M. Sauls replies to Porky’s: “Selling booze is not a right.”

* Old Fort Lauderdale High School property back on the market for $1.95 million

* Plan to build bridge over Middle River in Fort Lauderdale at 19^th and 21^st streets nixed

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, 1966:

Jan. 2, 1966

Jan.30, 1966

Feb. 6, 1966

March 3, 1966

April 10, 1966

April 17, 1966

May 1, 1966

June 12, 1966

July 10, 1966

Aug. 17, 1966

Sept. 11, 1966

Oct. 16, 1966

Nov. 16, 1966

Dec. 15, 1966

Tags: Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale history

Bob Gill's Escape Hotel and his other Fort Lauderdale landmarks ...

Fort Lauderdale Beach 1949
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

News that the long-closed Escape Hotel  opened as the Gale Hotel, later the Kimpton,  sparked memories about the remarkable man who founded a hotel chain that stretched from the Bahamas to Tampa.

Chicago-born George “Bob” Gill came to Fort Lauderdale after World War II. He started out with his father building houses. A post-war dearth of hotel rooms in the growing city probably informed his decision to venture into the hotel business.

It proved to be an endeavor with significant impact on Fort Lauderdale history and one that unleashed Gill’s marketing genius. The Escape Hotel, the first on Fort Lauderdale beach to feature a pool and to remain operating year-round, opened its doors on New Year’s Eve 1949.   

By 1960, Gill had built the Jolly Roger, the iconic Yankee Clipper (with a bar facing the pool interior that features underwater shows today) and the Yankee Trader. Then he bought the historic British Colonial Hotel (built 1901) in Nassau, Bahamas. During spring 1960, the Gill Hotel chain purchased the 400-room Hillsboro Hotel in downtown Tampa. 

Gill had a knack for marketing. He brought travel agents from around the nation to visit his hotels in Fort Lauderdale. He also knew how to court Floridians. Gill hosted a well-publicized junket from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa in June, 1961.  He chartered a Mackey Airlines DC-3 to bring 25 Fort Lauderdale movers and shakers to participate in the debut of the new Gaslight Room at the Hillsboro Hotel. His guest list included Yankee Clipper manager Tom Brown, attorney Bill Leonard, and WFTL sales manager Bob Peggs. On the plane, they were entertained by a guitarist and served a champagne breakfast by seven “modern-day Floradora girls.”  The partiers returned 24 hours later decked out with dark glasses and more baggage under their eyes than they carried in hand.

Bob Gill died at 93 in 2009. His hotels were sold and became properties of Sheraton, the Hilton and other hotel companies. He probably would have been happy to hear that another chapter, though bittersweet, lies ahead for the Escape Hotel. Operating as the Tiffany House, an assisted living facility in the 1980s, the Escape property lay vacant for years under several owners. Some plans included a large condo to replace the historic hotel, but  it was renovated opened as the Gale Hotel, adjacent to the Gale Residences.  It is now a Kimpton property, the Kimpton Shoreland. 

Renovated as the Kimpton Hotel

Copyright © 2013, 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

For more on the Yankee Clipper, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/11/yankee-clipper-hotel-still-sails-in.html

For more on the Jolly Roger, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/trailblazing-jolly-roger-hotel-jaynes.html

--------

Sources:

Ocala Star Banner, April 3, 1960

Miami News, June 25, 1961

Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 26, 2009

Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 22, 2013

Tags: Fort Lauderdale hotels, Fort Lauderdale history, historical researcher, 

Why Fort Lauderdale was the last major city in Florida to get northern air service

By Jane Feehan

Once a nine-hole golf course, then the Merle L. Fogg Air Field in the 1920s and the Naval Air Station in the 1940s, today’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport ranks as one of the top 25 busiest airports in the United States. Its growth parallels that of South Florida from a winter season vacation destination to one of the most desirable places in the country to live and play year round.

Significant commercial activity came to the field after Broward County commissioners leased the airport back from the Navy in a series of temporary agreements commencing in 1948. A ten-year lease was signed between the two parties in 1949 but the county assumed formal ownership in 1953 and operated it as the Broward County Airport (some sources named it Broward County International Airport).

Non-stop flight service from the North to South Florida began in the 1950s, but the routes were to Miami. Routes were denied Broward County Airport because it was considered too close to its sister city.

Travelers took Greyhound limousine service from the Miami airport to Fort Lauderdale and other cities. But the 1,200-acre Broward airport, one third the size of Miami’s, had a lot going for it. It was the only airport adjacent to U.S. Highway 1, a major traffic artery, and it sat four miles south of downtown Fort Lauderdale.* 

Also, it was poised to serve the fastest growing city in the state; the number of Fort Lauderdale residents doubled from 1950 to 1955, which outpaced Miami’s growth. By the late 1950s, this ocean side city was the last major city in Florida to obtain air service from the North.

The first major carrier to fly to Fort Lauderdale was Northeast Airlines. Service began in December, 1958 with one flight a day from Idlewild (now JFK) that left at 10 a.m. and arrived four hours and 35 minutes later. Return service left Fort Lauderdale at 4:30 p.m.  Soon after, flights were scheduled from Washington, D.C., Boston and Philadelphia.

 

Prior to 1958, the airport handled 400 landings and take offs a day but traffic consisted of cubs, Convairs, private and executive planes. To modernize the facility and accommodate northern service with larger aircraft and ancillary traffic, Broward County Airport (renamed Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1959) lengthened its four air strips from 5,000 to about 6,000 feet, and paved taxi ways, aprons and access roads (yes, it was that primitive).  The new $340,000 terminal featured a self-service baggage area, "which eliminated the need for tipping," and a U.S. customs section with a check out station similar to those in supermarkets. Modern indeed.

National, Delta, Eastern, and Northwest Orient airlines followed with service to Fort Lauderdale during the next two years. Also operating were the smaller Mackey International Airlines, Bahamas Airways, and Aerovias Q servicing Cuba and its Isle of Pines.  

Customers lined up for Fort Lauderdale winter hotel packages that started at about $68 per person, double occupancy, for six nights, seven days.  Little wonder air traffic to this city grew 178 percent from 1958 to 1959. Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

  

*At one time in the 1960s, Broward County considered proposals for an airport at U.S. 27 and State Road 84, but that’s another story.

Sources:

Miami News, April 25, 1950

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1959

The New York Times, Nov. 6, 1960

Broward.org

USATravel

Tags: Fort Lauderdale airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida aviation history, Fort Lauderdale history