The UnWelcomed Visitor: Al Capone in Miami
Al Capone quietly purchased a bayfront home on Palm Island through an associate for $40,000, and spent another $100,000 to turn it into a walled-in fortress watchfully guarded … […]
Articles by Joseph Brown
Brett Ratner & Friends at The Forge in Miami Beach
While critics keep asking themselves… “Why do people like Brett Ratner’s movies?”… Miami Beach’s favorite son continues to rake in the cash each time he assumes … […]
Miami Beach High Society / Seventy Years Ago
While it’s easy to assume that Miami Beach society has always been populated by cads, charlatans and reckless party people (which, by the way, is true), every now … […]
Carl Fisher’s Miami Beach Railway
Fisher’s rail line began service on December 14th, 1920 and ran from downtown Miami where it shared tracks with Miami’s trolley system on Flagler Street and NE 1st Avenue … […]
Miami Beach Lifeguard Stands: They Ain’t MiMO No Mo…
Critical Miami speaks of his displeasure with the current lifeguard stands that were built to replaced the original structures damaged when Hurricane Wilma hit in 2006. City officials have explained that their first priority after the […]
Discovering South Beach In the Beginning
Kevin Tomlinson over at South Beach Condo blog has an excellent post about the bohemian Miami Beach he discovered in the early 1990s, where he asks… Does anybody remember the name of the “MiMo” style […]
The Actress and the Airman
Miami Beach has long been a haven for Hollywood stars and assorted high-rollers as evidenced by this photo from 1937 showing 19-year old actress Ida Lupino and 32-year old Howard Hughes together. As close as […]
A Nostalgic Look at the Americana Hotel
The Sheraton Bal Harbour was originally built as the Americana Hotel by Robert and Laurence Tisch of the Tisch Hotel chain, and opened on December 1st, 1956 … […]
A Party at the Roman Pools – 1930’s Style
The Roman Pools were built by Carl Fisher between 22nd and 23rd Street on Collins Avenue where the original Collins Casino once stood. In addition to its oceanfront “bathing pools” …windmill […]
Mansion Nightclub Three Year Anniversary
Miami Beach’s Mansion nightclub celebrated its Three Year Anniversary on Saturday August 4th, with a packed house rocked by a stellar performance from DJ Tiesto. Special guest Ricky Martin hit the scene around midnight and […]
Christina Aguilera at Cameo Nightclub in Miami Beach
Christina Aguilera and a few thousand of her closest Miami friends celebrated at Cameo nightclub in Miami Beach Saturday night, May 5, with a wrap party after the final South Florida performance of the singer’s […]
FotoSho Theatre on East Flagler, Miami, Florida
This is the Fotosho Theatre on East Flagler Street, Miami, Florida, 1921 … […]
Shareef Malnik & The Forge Dynasty
To understand The Forge’s cache requires an understanding of the strong personalities behind it: the man who originally created it—Al Malnik, and now Shareef Malnik … […]
The Latin Quarter Nightclub
Owned by Lou Walters, father of Barbara Walters, the Latin Quarter was a mid-century Mecca for winter crowds of tourists and celebrities arriving in Miami Beach … […]
Travis Fimmel
It’s about 14,000 miles from Opium Garden nightclub in South Beach where this shot was taken, to the farm outside of Echuca, Australia where Travis … […]
All-Night News Boy | The Agony and the Xctacy
The esoteric lure of South Beach nightlife. Sensually inviting, conceptually intriguing. A thin veil of merriment that drapes across the landscape masking a torrential maelstrom of cheap hustles and lustful desires of the flesh churning […]
All-Night News Boy | Can You Smell Me?
On the barren plains of modern nightlife, where the relentless pursuit of sex and small-change notoriety is elevated to an exalted and perfectly hideous art-form, the nightlife voyeur is presented with a dazzling array of […]
All-Night News Boy | Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
You never really thought of yourself as an addict, but one day you come to realize that’s exactly what you are—just another clubland junkie hooked on the sleazy, dime-store thrills of nightlife. An utterly offensive, […]
All-Night News Boy | Tabloid Celebrity Worship
South Beach, as always, remains at the forefront the new American religion—the replacement of society’s true and meaningful values with a twisted form of tabloid celebrity worship. The Grande Dame of Deco never seems to […]
All-Night News Boy | Painted Ladies
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the greatest show on earth—Miami Beach—a town conceived as a fantasy, framed in flamboyance and occasionally touched by the darker urges of humanity. An island paradise where the pure of […]