Most people associate the song ”Babalú” with Desi Arnaz who brought the tune to middle America on the 1950s TV show “I Love Lucy,” but “Babalú” was popular well before it hit television. Valdez and Arnaz both had hits with the song at least a decade before the Lucy show, and Arnaz had been performing “Babalú” in hotels such as the Raleigh and the Park Central along Miami Beach as far back as the early 1940s.

Desi had hit big with the song because of the conga rhythm he applied to it during one of his New York City performances and word spread quickly of the young Cuban band leader from Miami with the hot new sound.

Valdez and Arnaz were good friends and a friendly competition developed between the two over “Babalú.”  Legend has it that they would take turns showing up unannounced at each other’s nightclub performances and wait patiently in the audience for “Babalú” to begin, then launch into a mock-competition over the song with each trying to out-do the other.

After leaving Cuba, Valdez joined Xavier Cugat’s Orchestra in April 1940 when they were the featured performers at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York at the beginning of the Latin music craze which was then sweeping the country.

I don’t know if he was still with Cugat’s band when Cugat hit Hollywood and began appearing in many of MGM’s big-budget technicolor musicals in the late 40s, but he did appear on-screen with Cugat’s Orchestra in the 1942 Columbia movie “You Were Never Lovelier” which starred Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth.

Valdez retired in 1957 and settled in Los Angeles, but in 1963 he recorded the now classic album “Reunion” with the Machito Orchestra which re-kindled his career for a time.

Miguelito Valdez died on November 9th, 1978 in Bogota, Colombia while performing a medley of his hits, one of which was “Babalú.”

The inscription on the back of this photo, apparently from the girl by his side, reads…

Miguelito,
Forever and ever…
Vera

Anyway…it looks like this particular night in 1943 was a good night to be in Miami.

Most of them are.

Nicholas M. Schenck was a Russian immigrant who rose from selling newspapers on the streets of Harlem to become head of arguably the most influential film company in the history of cinema — MGM/Loews Theatres.

At one time, Loews owned or controlled over 200 movie theatres in America and those theatres were kept stocked with at least one new feature-length movie each week — 52 a year on average — by its subsidiary, MGM Studios in Hollywood, and it was Nick Schenck who was largely responsible for deciding what pictures were produced and shown to the public in Loews’ movie theatres.

Hollywood moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg worked for Nick Schenck and referred to him as “The General.” Nothing in Hollywood went forward until it was green-lighted from Schenck’s office in New York. The careers of Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland and thousands of others rose or fell with a simple word from Schenck. His pre-release critique of a movie was often short and to-the-point. He once shot-down the release of a movie that was supposed to have a sentimental theme by simply pointing to his throat and saying “No lumps here,” which was enough to force the movie back into production for further refinement.

With no television or internet available, it’s hard to overstate just how much influence the movies had on American society from 1930 to 1950 when TV finally came on the scene. Movies not only influenced clothing and hair styles, but social values as well.

Patriotic-themed movies helped shape American attitudes during World War II. Attitudes toward the family, immigration, religion — all were influenced by the movies to a much larger degree than today. RKO’s ten minute short film “The House I Live In” where Frank Sinatra publicly opposed anti-Semitism and racial prejudice at the end of World War II is a shining example of film’s blatant influence on public opinion. Nick Schenck was one of only a handful of people who decided what the public saw on America’s movie screens.

After he retired, Schenck divided his time between his 20-acre, 30-room estate at Sands Point, Long Island which included its own movie theater, and his estate here in Miami Beach.

I find it quite interesting that a guy who’d spent his entire life in the midst of Hollywood glamour would choose Miami Beach to live out his remaining days.

Nicholas M. Schenck died in Miami Beach in 1969.

Then one day you come across an actual first-hand account of the disaster in a long-forgotten publication and you realize that things were very different for people
in Miami back in 1926…

THE DEAD –List of Casualties

The following is the official list of the dead taken by morticians at Miami.

Armour, Lawrence.
Ayres, Thomas B., 3260 MacDonald Street, Coconut Grove.
Bain, Ralph; negro.
Baker, Mrs. Edith, 35 Seventy-fifth Street, at north side.
Ballou, Miss Anna, Dayton, O.
Been, Carolyn Ruth, and child, 410 N. E. Nineteenth Street.
Berrien, Drucilla, negro, Hialeah.
Best, Isaac Edward; negro.
Brinson, Mrs. Mattie.
Brookshire, Lydia, 5222 N. W. Fifty-ninth Street.
Bynum, Tullie Hays, 28. 123 S. W. Seventh Street.
Calcutt, Aubrey S., 32, 620 Leon Avenue, Miami Beach.
Carter, Venetian, 7-months-old baby, Hialeah.
Comer, John H., Jr., East Hialeah.
Cracraft, Mrs. Josephine.
Edwards, John H., 77, N. W. Twenty-fourth Avenue and Forty-first Street; wife, Georgia Dunlap Edwards.
Egan, John J.. 65, N. W. Twenty-second Avenue and Sixty-second Street, carpenter; wife, Margaret Egan.
Estey, William W., 60, Miami Shores.
Fisher, Little Doc, 39, 1109 N. W. Twenty-first Street.
George, “Shorty,” negro.
Gill, Thomas, 48, body found on Venetian causeway.
Glover, Ammer, 50; body found at Miami Beach.
Godwin, Mrs. Mary G., N. W. Twenty-third Avenue and Eighty-first Street.
Green, Bill, 26, negro.
Hamilton, Leroy, 17, Hialeah.
Hargraves, Ralph. 40.
Harrison, A. D., White Belt Dairy.
Harrison, Mrs. A. D., same address.
Harrison, Mrs. Ella. 42, same address.
Hopper, Mrs. Mary A., 67, 7336 N. Miami Court.
Hoskins, W. J., Owensboro, Ky.
Houston, Sam, 35, Liberty City, negro.
James, Martin, Hialeah.
Kirby, Dorothy, Little River.
Kusta, Edna, 6, Red Road, Hialeah.
Leet, Georgia Dfae, 34, Hialeah; father, George W. Leet.
Lehman, Tilson K., Fifty-first Street, Palm Avenue, Hialeah; father, A. O. Lehman; mother, Mrs. Ula Mae Heil.
Little, Alton Bush, secretary-treasurer Miami Beach Beacon.
McGinley, Kathleen, 15-months-old baby, Hialeah.
McGinnis, 10 years old, Sigmund Boulevard.
McGinnis, Sr., Mrs. J. W., 26, Sigmund Boulevard. McKenzie, Frank, 32.
McKinney, Arthur and wife, N. W. Twelfth Street and Third Avenue, negroes.
McKinnon, Leon, N. W. Twentieth Street and Third Avenue; husband, Arthur McKinnon, negro.
McLeob, Georgia, 34, Hialeah.
Murphy, John Joseph, 19, Miami Beach, killed at Hialeah.
Neal, Harper, 35, 1821 N. W. Fifth Court, negro.
Norma, Mrs., South Miami.
Petty, John, 18, Coral Gables Terrace.
Rader, Mrs. Mabel, 54, Hialeah.
Raiford, two children, Miami Shores.
Rexford, Louise, Miami Shores.
Rexford, Jr., Miami Shores.
Roberts, Mrs. Tahila A., Fifty-ninth Street and N. E. Second Avenue.
Roberts, Mrs. Victoria, Fifty-ninth Street and N. E. Second Avenue.
Robinson, Meddow, 21, 1967 N. W. Fourth Court, negro.
Rogers, A. G., 36, Hollywood.
Rogers, J. E., 40, Hialeah.
Sawyer, Randolph, about 40.
Schachter, Isadore, Atlanta, Ga.
Schoenback, Jules, 42, 56 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach.
Schwartz, Frank A., 27, 1028 S. W. Twenty-seventh Court.
Schote, , Hialeah.
Shutts, Fred, 1738 S. W. Eighth Street.
Smith, Jennie, 40, Hialeah.
Snow,???, Biscayne Park, at north side.
Sutherland, John, 28, Liberty City, negro.
Tuley, John, 42, Thirty-third Street and Washington, Hialeah.

Additional 23 men, 2 boys, 1 girl and 1 woman unidentified.

KILLED AT HOLLYWOOD
(D is for Dania)

Bjorkland, A. P.
Brown, Gordan, and wife.
Brown, Muslean. Corley, Anie, D., colored.
Crorey, Mrs., D.
Crorey, Marjorie E., D.
Churchill, Edna Allen.
Craft, Mrs. J. H.
Coleman, Roy G.
Dwyer, Tom.
Evans, Henry, colored.
Frost, Mrs. Sheridan, D.
Fross, Mrs. Geo.
Goodrich, Florence.
Head, Mrs. Sarah E.
Helm, Leon. D. Helm,
Lorena, D. Hickman.
Netty, D. Torden, J. J.
Luther, Henry G., D.
Marshall, Geo.
McAllister, John W., D.
McFarland, Andrew, D.
Moore, Mrs. R. W., and baby, D.
McCarrell, Thos.
Poole, L. P., and wife.
Priess, Mrs. R. L.
Rogers, Albert G.
Smith, J. R.
Swift, Arman.
Tenall, James, D.
Unidentified man.
Vighes, Peter.
Yeager, Mrs. Effie D.

KILLED AT CORAL GABLES
Cochraft, Mrs. Josephine.
Little, Alton Bush.
McGinnis, Mrs. J. W., and boy.
FORT LAUDERDALE
Austin, Ivan.
Crowley, R. D., and wife.
Gamble, P. E.
McClure, Ralph.
Telhner, W. A., wife and children.
Thompson, Mrs. Anna, and infant.

KILLED AT LAKEPORT
Beck, Mrs. George, daughter and 2 grand-daughters.
Wilson, George.

KILLED AT MOOREHAVEN
Bowman, Mrs. Vinnie, and 5 children.
Blackwell, Louise.
Barnum, Mrs.
Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. F. C.
Cottrell, Mrs. J. S., and daughter.
Deagrede, Robert.
DeAgrella, Mr. and Mrs. J., and 5 children.
Futch, W. W., and child.
Fisher, M. W.
Grilla, D. F., wife and 5 children.
Goble, A. E.
Govern, Arthur.
Grilla, J. D., and baby.
Howe, Lottie.
Horn, Mrs. W. J.
Henderson, Mrs. D. J., and 3 children.
Irminger, Mrs. Edward.
Jacobsen, Mrs., and daughter.
Kumesig, Mrs. Adolph.
Lundy, Mrs. J. B., and 2 children.
Lee, Mr.
Lee, Susie.
Norris, Mr. and Mrs. R. A., and 5 children.
Riesberg, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, Mr. and Mrs.
Rowes, Mr. and Mrs.
Roams, Mrs. A.
Seely’s child, Joe
Sullivan, T. G.
Shepard, Mrs.
Strum, Joseph, and 2 children.
Smith, Clem.
Smith, E. C.
Sheppard, John.
Williams, Joseph, and 2 children.
Youngblood, Mrs. Clarence, and 5 children.
Unidentified : 1 man, 3 women, 3 children

In this age of weather satellites and NOAA aircraft that track a hurricane’s every move right on our TV screens, it’s easy to overlook what a frightening experience it must have been to endure a Category 5 hurricane eighty years ago when there was no advanced warning of a storm’s intensity. Here’s a first-hand account written shortly after the hurricane by an unknown author who apparently was in Miami at the time. (Note how this writer attributes the second wave of destruction after the eye of the hurricane passed to “it circled and struck again”)

How the HURRICANE Did Its TERRIBLE DAMAGE

Out of the blue expanses of the South Atlantic on Friday and Saturday, September 17th and 18th, a whirling, howling wind-fury swooped mercilessly upon the gayest, brightest playground in all the world-that sixty mile wide strip of Florida’s lower east coast with Palm Beach at one extreme and Miami at the other-and lashed it into a battleground of the elements, strewn with death and ghastly debris.

The fiercest and most inescapable of all elemental disturbances, the West Indian hurricane that destroyed the jewel-like resort communities roared out of the sea and wrought its dreadful havoc under a canopy of storm clouds. Then, when terrified thousands thought its fury spent and were about to begin the work of counting its toll, it circled and struck again with redoubled intensity completing the devastation of its first blow and leaving vaster ruin in its wake.

In the sixty-mile swath it cut on Florida’s seacoast, the hurricane took a toll of 220 dead and 6,328 injured and caused damage that has been variously estimated at from $30,000,000 to $100,000,000 with the most likely approximations hovering close to the last figure.

After smashing the seacoast city of Miami with its adjacent communities of Miami Beach, Hialeah and Coral Gables and the beautiful resort towns of Fort Lauderdale, Pompano, Dania and Hollywood, the hurricane swirled through the Everglades to the northwest.

Its path through the unsettled Everglades country is marked with a great swath of destruction. Millions of trees were uprooted and destroyed and the loss in wild life was heavy. Even bands of Seminole Indians in the fastnesses sought safety in flight.

The blast swept on through unsettled country until it struck the little Everglades towns of Moorehaven and Clewiston on the edge of Lake Okeechobee. There, as in the cities and towns of the lower east coast, it whirled houses crazily to pieces, flattened staunch business buildings and killed 150 persons. The toll of injured in the Everglades towns was 50.

So complete was the ruin wrought in Miami and its sister communities that nearly 24 hours elapsed before the first word of the disaster reached the outside world. The stricken cities began their own feeble attempts at checking the toll and righting the damage before the rest of the world knew their loss.

No clearer evidence of the awful force of the wind and the havoc wrought by the terrific pressure of the 100-mile an hour blast and the towering tidal wave that crashed in from the sea with it can be given.

And in what is truly an amazing story of survival, a young girl lived through this car wreck in the middle of a hurricane, then gave birth to her child on the Causeway.

With the incessant hype we’re all bombarded with these days, there isn’t much that impresses me. But I have to say that from everything I’ve read, the Miami hurricane of 1926 must have been a bitch.

Miami Beach was conceived as a glamorous tropical destination where well-to-do visitors could enjoy the sun and surf unfettered by the masses. But, by the late 1950s the Miami Beach experience had become a commodity — a pre-packaged, vacation-on-a-stick experience that was sold to middle America by legions of hotel hucksters intent on making a fast buck off of the illusion of glamour that others had created.

Local historians often point to the 1970s as the beginning of a decline in tourism that ultimately left Miami Beach disfavored by travelers for almost 20 years, but, the seeds of that decline were sown at least a decade earlier.

In the mid-1950s Miami Beach tourism was booming as visitor counts climbed by double digits year-over-year thanks to the vast number of new hotels built along Collins Avenue after the end of World War II.

The post-war tourism boom in Miami Beach was so good in fact, many hotels built during this period were flipped to new owners time and time again through a system of shell corporations and questionable lease agreements, and for prices that often reached stratospheric levels. With an ever-increasing debt load mounting year after year, management’s ability to cover costs soon became strained and the competition for tourist dollars in Miami Beach reached unprecedented levels.

Toward the end of the decade some of Miami Beach’s top hotels would lapse into bankruptcy after a disastrous 1957-58 season caused by unseasonably frigid temperatures. During one six-month period alone, four major hotels, including the Saxony and the Cadillac, all filed for bankruptcy while another 25 teetered on the verge.

In the midst of this battle for tourist dollars, the “American Plan” was conceived where hotels combined the price of rooms, meals and entertainment together in one low rate with the idea of holding on to every possible source of tourist revenue. The American Plan shares at least some responsibility as a cause of Miami Beach’s decline since it contributed to the downfall of many clubs and restaurants in the area. Shopping along Lincoln Road was also affected as shopping arcades within the larger hotels siphoned more and more dollars away from local merchants.

Often added to this mix was the cost of transportation to and from Miami via air or rail, and it was the battle between the well-established railroads and the ever-expanding airlines where the competition for tourist dollars was most fierce.

The trip between New York and Miami took 29 hours on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, but only a little over four hours on an Eastern Airlines Lockheed Constellation. The price was lower via rail, but the caché of arriving via air was significantly greater, and some guests were even known to arrive in Miami on the train or bus, then take a taxi to the Miami airport where they could board their hotel’s airport shuttle and make their grand arrival at the hotel “from the airport.”

But, the life-or-death struggle between airlines and railroads was of little comfort to the mid-sized Miami Beach hotels which were feeling the greatest sting of price competition. Adding to the pain felt by smaller hotels was the rush of guests to the newer and much larger Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels at mid-beach. Glamour followed the money, and with a guest register that read like a who’s-who of high-rollers — everyone from William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford to Joe DiMaggio and Liberace — the mid-beach hotels created an irresistable vortex that pulled in the best clientele.

Here’s what it cost for a 7 Day / 6 night vacation in a mid-sized Miami Beach in 1958…

Those were the cold, hard numbers that couldn’t be ignored…a week’s vacation at an ocean-front hotel in Miami Beach including meals and entertainment for around $270. With competition such as that, it’s no wonder things began to change for the Beach.

In tough economic times the entertainment schedule is usually first to feel the pinch, but the major Miami Beach hotels maintained strong bookings right through the 1957 season. Here’s a sample of what was on-tap…

Eden Roc Hotel’s Cafe Pompeii
Eye filling Dolores Hawkins, the Epic recording star, is making a new appearance at the smart Cafe Pompeii of the Eden Roc Hotel after a tour of successful engagements around the nation. Sharing the show bill is “Everybody’s Comedian” Gene Baylos and dancers extraordinaire M’Kay and Charles.

Fontainebleau Hotel’s La Ronde
Johnny Desmond, one of the brightest stars on the nation’s horizon of popular singers, has come to town to capture one and all with his undeniably winning charm. A showman of fine talents, Johnny’s songs and words hark to his many radio, television and film assignments, and includes his most successful work from the brightly lit stages of Broadway.

In manner and appearance Johnny is great to see and hear, an artist you will enjoy from the moment of his first appearance ’til he begs off to the shouts for “more.” Sharing the spotlight, comedy by Shecky Greene, an irrepressible funster who has won for himself one of the most enviable followings show business has to offer. Norton and Patricia dance their springily and lively routines to launch a large and rewarding evening of gratifying entertainment. Opening Tuesday, Brooklyn’s Ambassador of Fun, Phil Foster, Leny Eversond, dynamic new singing star, and the dances of Gina and Gerardo. Never a cover, dinner show at 9 p.m., supper show at 12.

The name “Johnny Desmond” probably doesn’t ring a bell now, but 50 years ago he was considered a top booking for a hotel. Desmond had been the lead singer for Glenn Miller’s Army Air Forces Orchestra during World War II, and was even given his own radio show by the BBC for a time.

And of course, no winter season would be complete without the caravan of A-list strippers that made their way into numerous clubs up and down the Beach. Often referred to as “peelers,” exotic dancers such as “Tempest Storm,” “April Flowers,” and “Zorita and Her Famous Snake Dance” would go on to establish Miami Beach as a conventioneer’s dream destination from the mid-1960s on.

While the year 1958 was an omega point for one of the many boom/bust cycles Miami Beach has experienced in its 90-year history, the news wasn’t all bad, and ironically some of the Beach’s brightest moments would occur just before the bust.

The Rat Pack’s arrival in the 1960s put Frank Sinatra and friends in the ballrooms of all the top hotels such as the Fontainebleau, Eden Roc, Deauville and Carillon. Sammy Davis, Jr. and former MGM star Peter Lawford often appeared, as did Dean Martin who also owned Dino’s on 79th in North Bay Village.

Sinatra taped the last of his Timex TV specials at the Fontainebleau Hotel on March 26, 1960. The show featured Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and a fresh-out-of-the-Army Elvis Presley. Elvis was paid $125,000 for his performance — a staggering amount of money at the time. The highlight of the show was a Sinatra/Presley duet of Love Me Tender and Witchcraft, where each star sang the other’s hit song.

Jackie Gleason brought his American Scene Magazine TV show to the Beach in 1964 broadcasting from what is now the “Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason” at 17th and Washington. (During this time, “the Great One” as he was known, lived up on Alton Road across the street from the Miami Beach Golf Club.) And one of the longest-running shows in TV history, the Ed Sullivan Show broadcasted live from the Deauville Hotel when it featured the Beatles’ first American performance in 1964.

Miami Beach was the number one tourist destination in all of America and the ”big room” hotels such as the Fontainebleau, Eden Roc, Deauville and Carillon were collectively a supernova of glamour that shown brightest for a brief moment in the early sixties before burning out. The world was now being overtaken by the beat generation which shunned Miami Beach’s high-style persona.

By the middle sixties when the drug culture — led by the great San Francisco acid wave — was ushering in a total re-evaluation of all that was America, Miami Beach was stuck in eternal re-runs of a by-gone era, still fretting over fur coats and Cadillacs. Long hair and hippie threads were sweeping across the country, while the women at the Fontainebleau pool still wore pantyhose underneath their bikinis.

The concept of Miami Beach had become ingrained in the psyche of an entire generation. It’s name was a metaphor for sunny days, sexy nights and abstract aspirations of the good life that lingered just beyond reach. And now it was dissolving into simply another broke-dick beach town living off of past glories. The people still came…just not the right people.

By 1972 the average age of the Beach’s year-round population was 66. A mere decade later, much of Miami Beach south of 23rd Street was in ruins. Crime was rampant against South Beach’s elderly residents who wanted only to live out their remaining days in peace — a request the muggers and drug dealers refused to grant. The once-glamorous Lincoln Road was now something to be avoided, if you were smart.

But, in the late 1980s in the midst of near total disintegration of Miami Beach caché, a spark of creativity would re-ignite a nightlife scene that still burns to this day, and people such as Bruce Weber, Michael Mann and legions of fashionistas would begin to re-discovered what had been there all along — the inherent lure of Miami Beach.

Fueled by cocaine and savage sex appeal, the nightclubs came in waves: Club Z; Warsaw; The Spot; Semper’s; Club Nu; Club Ovo; Hombre; Beirut; The Island Club; Les Bains; Torpedo; Chaos; Le Loft; Scratch; Woody’s; The Whiskey; La Voile Rouge, Velvet, GrooveJet…on and on. It was the genesis of the Beach’s modern nightlife era, a twenty-five year run that has made Miami Beach the world’s top nightlife destination.

Epilogue:

Opinions vary as to the true cause of this particular decline in the fortunes of Miami Beach.

Some people blame the American Plan, while others point to the aging Miami Beach fan-base that simply grew too old to continue coming here year after year. Some say it was the rezoning of large tracts of beach property north of 46th Street into residential use which allowed visitors to rent apartments for an entire season and bypass the grand hotels altogether.

Still others blame the advent of jet travel which gave a new generation of travelers access to a wider range of exotic destinations. But then, maybe the new generation just needed to find a place they could think of as their own.

My opinion? I simply write it off as another ride on the roller-coaster fortunes of Carl Fisher’s “wonderful isle of dreams” — Miami Beach.

(opening photo: Dancers from Jackie Gleason’s American Scene Magazine – CBS)

MIAMI KLANSMEN WRECK A NIGHT CLUB
MIAMI, FLA. WHITE-ROBED AND HOODED SENTRIES INSPECT A MEMBER’S CREDENTIALS AT THE GATE OF MOORE PARK, WHICH WAS RENTED FROM THE CITY, BEFORE ADMITTING HIM TO THE CEREMONIES INITIATING 125 NEW MEMBERS ON THE NIGHT OF NOV. 15th. AFTER THE CEREMONY A PICKED GROUP OF KLANSMEN RAIDED THE NIGHT CLUB LA PALOMA ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY, PADDLED SEVERAL ENTERTAINERS, AND CHASED OUT THE CUSTOMERS. ONE KLANSMAN SAID “THE VISIT CAME BECAUSE NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENTS WERE AFRAID OF YOUST (THE OWNER) AND DID NOT WANT TO APPEAR AGAINST HIM ON A COURT COMPLAINT.”  11/17/37

A couple of interesting notes about the Klan…

● The first branch of the Ku Klux Klan was established in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866.

● Five years later Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871) as a vehicle to stop rampant violence against blacks and carpetbaggers during Reconstruction. The problem was that it was virtually impossible for the government to obtain criminal convictions against Klan members because jurors either shared the same philosophy as the Klan or were afraid to convict them. So, under this 1871 Act President Ulysses S. Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine counties in South Carolina which allowed the government to keep certain problematic U.S. citizens locked-up indefinitely. (and you thought it was George Bush’s idea…)

● Today the Klan has only around 8,000 members, however at its peak in the mid-1920s the Klan’s membership totaled 15% of the nation’s “eligible” population, or approximately 4.5 million people.

When I was in college, I had a couple of dates with a girl from Alabama who was an absolute sweetheart of a person. Years later when I was catching up on old times with friends from college, I found out that her father had been the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Funny how some things never come up in conversation.

Very sweet girl, though.

Answer: Anything is possible in Miami and actually, they’re both correct—sort of…

The Miami Playboy CLUB opened in the spring of 1961 and was located at 7701 Biscayne Boulevard over in Miami. By all accounts it was on the cutting edge of what would later become known as the “Swinging Sixties,” as both an entertainment and pseudo-alternative lifestyle venue. (Alright pop!)

The Playboy Plaza HOTEL, on the other hand, opened in December, 1970 at 5445 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach and within the hotel there was an area known as the “Penthouse Showroom” which seated 700 people and was sometimes referred to by keyholders as “the club,” but of course it wasn’t officially a Playboy “club” at all.

So, it looks like your father wins this round, but whatever you do, don’t tell the boys that the Miami Playboy Club is now an auto parts store — it might break their hearts.

The theater was built in 1924 from a design by architect August Geiger who also designed the Federal Saving and Loan building (where Banana Republic is today) at 1100 Lincoln Road.

As a sheer guess, we’d say the photo above was taken in approximately 1938. We tried scanning the photo at ultra-high resolution to see if we could make out the movie title on the marquee to give us a clue, but the pixels just weren’t there. The sign above the ticket window says “[???] Firefly,” but it doesn’t appear to be a movie poster or lobby card. (Although, there was a 1937 film adaptation of an operetta titled “The Firefly.”)

The Gap’s Kids store currently occupies this location, but the building facade looks much different now, so it appears the owners made significant changes once the theater was closed down.

]]> 194 https://www.southbeachmagazine.com/the-unwelcomed-visitor-al-capone-in-miami/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:15:04 +0000 http://www.southbeach-usa.com/news/pop-culture-history/2007/08/13/the-un-welcomed-visitor-al-capone-in-miami/ [...]]]>

Two years after the hurricane of 1926 and while Miami was still reeling from the collapse of the great Florida land boom,  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 by his ever-present security team of seven stalwart Sicilians.

After masterminding a wave of crime ranging from prostitution and bootlegging to a string of alleged murders too numerous to mention, you’d think Al would fit right in to our sordid little metropolis here in Miami, but such was not the case.

You see, even though bootlegging had been a fact of life in Miami since its earliest days, the act of serving up booze to wealthy socialites with a wink and a nod was something altogether different from what Al Capone was bringing to the party, and the last thing Jazz Age Miamians wanted to see in their town was a gang of brutal Chicago street thugs delivering sudden death to anyone standing in the way of their lawless endeavors.

The Miami Daily News and publisher James Cox led the fight against Capone with full-page editorials railing against his arrival. The public’s backlash became so great that at one point Florida Governor Doyle Carlton issued a standing order allowing sheriffs to arrest Capone “on sight.” Of course, that lasted about as long as it took Capone’s lawyers to reach the Dade County courthouse. Time Magazine reported on the heated injunction hearing…

State’s Attorney N. Vernon Hawthorne in Circuit Court sought an order to padlock the Capone estate on the ground that the place was “a public nuisance and a source of annoyance to the community as a harbor for all classes of criminals and desperate characters.” Capone, with his wife, son, lawyers, bodyguards, entered a crowded courtroom to defend himself. Exclaimed Fritz Gordon, Capone attorney: “The whole thing is a political scheme hatched up by State’s Attorney Hawthorne and James Cox, publisher of the Miami Daily News, in a campaign for Hawthorne’s re-election.”

Indicating Capone who looked fat, sleek, self-satisfied, State’s Attorney Hawthorne told the court: “It’s no crime to let a rattlesnake live but if you allow one to roam loose in your backyard where it may bite children, any court in the world will declare it a nuisance and authorize its abatement.” Insisted Capone’s counsel: “No matter how bad Capone may be, he has a perfect right to reside in this community as long as he is law-abiding.” Judge Paul D. Barns took the padlock petition under advisement.

Next Capone heard the Dade County grand jury refer to him as follows: “We endorse, commend and urge all legitimate efforts to exterminate from this community . . . a cancerous growth. The efforts of State’s Attorney Hawthorne toward what is nationally recognized as a menace, a public impostor and an enemy to organized government are of paramount importance. . . . We urge all law-abiding citizens to give their unstinted cooperation to the end that ‘Scarface Al’ Capone, his accomplices and their sinister influences shall not continue to be inflicted upon…Florida.

The government made a valiant effort to boot Scarface out of Florida to be sure, but at the last moment the court derailed the plan…

Judge Ritter thereupon made permanent his injunction protecting Capone from State molestation, [and] gave him some fatherly advice: “Inasmuch as the law’s protecting arm is about you, you should appreciate your citizenship and aid officials in enforcing the law.

Yeah, fat chance, judge. After all, Capone was the guy who used the fact that he was being questioned by the Dade County Solicitor here in Miami on unrelated murder charges as his alibi for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

With the injunction in place, Capone was temporarily free to enjoy his time in Miami, (albeit wearing a bulletproof vest and riding in his seven-ton armored car), and soon spread his tentacles throughout Miami Beach nightlife by gaining ownership interests in nightclubs such as the Palm Island Club, the South Beach Dog Track and the gambling room of the Floridian Hotel on West Avenue.

But, Capone’s problems with the Feds continued to kept his lawyers busy. At one point, upon receiving a subpoena to appear before the Grand Jury in Chicago, Capone’s attorneys submitted an affidavit from his physician stating Capone was suffering from bronchial pneumonia and was confined to bed for ten days, and therefore it would be dangerous to his health to travel to Chicago. In fact, Big Al had spent the bulk of those ten days watching the ponies run at Hialeah.

The law became increasingly unwilling to put up with Capone’s activities and slowly began turning up the heat, as evidenced by an incident in Philadelphia later in 1929 where Capone and one of his bodyguards were arrested for carrying concealed weapons. Within 16 hours they had both been sentenced to a year in jail. Capone was released nine months later for good behavior in March of 1930.

Ultimately, after his conviction on tax evasions charges in 1931 which resulted in an eleven year sentence, Capone was released from prison for the last time in 1939 due to his deteriorating health brought on by late-stage syphilis, and returned to his home on Palm Island to finish out his life.

Shortly before his death from stroke and pneumonia, both his physician and an attending psychiatrist estimated that syphilis had reduced Capone’s mental capacity to that of a 12-year-old child. He spent his final days fishing on Biscayne Bay and issuing phantom orders to a fantasy gang that had long since vanished.

Al Capone died at home on Palm Island in 1947, and with his passing Miamians breathed a collective sigh of relief and bid a less-than-fond farewell to a most unwelcomed visitor.

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 and then one discovers that maybe things were once a little more refined here in the Magic City. I recently came across a publication from 1936 called…

Social Index: Winter Residents & Visitors
to Palm Beach & Miami Beach

The book’s preamble says…

‘HONOR brings responsibility.’

To those who have inherited an honorable name and value it; to those who through their own honest effort have made a good name, and to the abounding glory of the good name of beautiful Palm Beach and Florida, whose sunshine, loveliness and gracious hospitality is shed upon all alike, this book is dedicated.

The SOCIAL INDEX ASSOCIATION will issue each season an index of the winter residents and visitors expected at Palm Beach, Miami Leach, and other Florida Resorts who have recognized social standing in their home communities, giving their Florida address and telephone number, their permanent addresses, and the names of their colleges, clubs and yachts.

The Association is sponsored by an Advisory Committee of prominent winter residents, who are also owners of homes in Palm Beach. New members may be proposed by members, and their names will be passed upon by the Committee and accepted after receipt of letters of endorsement from other members.

It’s an interesting perspective on how the Gold Coast’s social world was structured seventy years ago. It appears that yachts were the item of choice for conspicuous consumption, as evidenced by the numerous references to yacht names in many of the entries…

FIRESTONE, MR. & MRS. HARVEY SAMUEL, SR.  (Idabelle Smith)
4400 Collins Avenue “Harbel Villa,”  Miami Beach Tel. 5-3721

Permanent Address: “Harbel Manor,” Medina Road, Akron, Ohio

Clubs: Committee of One Hundred, Miami Beach Polo, Cocolobo Cay, Bath, Indian Creek Golf, Surf (M. B.), University, Portage Country, Society Automotive Engineers, City, Fairlawn Country (Akron), Mayfield Country, Union (Cleveland), Athletic, Kirkland Country, Chagrin Valley Hunt (Detroit), Congressional Country (D. C.)

Yacht: “Harbel” (power)

Adults: Mr. and Mrs. Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Russell Allen Firestone, Miss Elizabeth Idabelle Firestone, Mr. Roger Stanley Firestone, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Christy Firestone, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Kimball Firestone

FISHER, MR. & MRS. CARL GRAHAM (Margaret E. Collier)
5812 Alton Road, Miami Beach
Tel. 5-3326

Summer Address: Montauk, Long Island, N. Y.

Clubs: Surf, Committee of One Hundred, Cocolobo Cay, La Gorce Golf, Miami Beach Polo

Yacht: “Shadow, M.” (power)

VANDERBILT, MR. & MRS. WILLIAM KISSAM
(Warburton-Rosamond Lancaster)
“Ara” Base, Terminal Island, Miami Beach

Permanent Address: 651 Park Avenue, New York City, and “Eagle’s Nest,” Northport, L. I.

Yachts: “Ara” and “Alva” (power)

Clubs: Gulf Stream Golf (P. B.), Indian Creek Golf, Bath (M. B.), Knickerbocker, Union, Brook, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, Racquet, Army and Navy, National Golf Links, Foreign Wars, St. Nicholas Society, New York Yacht, Circumnavigators, Deepdale, Columbia Yacht

College: Harvard, ’01

Junior: Miss Rosemary Warburton

Child: Barclay H. Warburton, III

I don’t know who currently lives at 46 Star Island Drive, but in 1936 it was…

GREEN, COLONEL & MRS. EDWARD HOWLAND R. (Mabel E. Harlow)
46 Star Island, Miami Beach
Tel. 5-3139

Permanent Address: Round Hill House. South Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Yacht: “Mabel G” (speed cruiser)

Clubs: Bath Club, Surf, Committee of One Hundred (Miami
Beach), Columbia Yacht, Union (N. Y.), Indian Harbor
Yacht (Greenwich, Conn.), New Bedford Yacht

College: Fordham, ’88

(Little did Colonel Green know that 49 years later his house would be used to film an episode of Miami Vice.)

And here’s one from Palm Beach that might ring a bell…

ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT & MRS. FRANKLIN D. (A. Eleanor Roosevelt) Care of The Vincent Astor Yacht, “Nourmahal,” or Whitehall, Palm Beach

Permanent Address: The White House, Washington, D. C.,
and “Springwood,” Hyde Park, New York

Clubs: Knickerbocker, Authors, Army and Navy, Century, Turf and Field, New York Yacht, Downtown, Holland Society, Colony (N. Y.), University, Cosmos (Washington), National Society of Colonial Dames

College: Harvard, ’04

Adult: Mrs. Roosevelt Dahl

Juniors: Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (at Harvard), Mr. John A. Roosevelt (at Groton)

Didn’t see anyone from my family listed…probably an oversight.

But then, Al Capone didn’t make the cut, either…

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, across the County Causeway and looped around the section of Miami Beach south of 47th Street.

The problem Fisher was attempting to solve was: How funnel winter visitors arriving at the Florida East Coast Railroad terminal in Miami to the grand resort hotels in Miami Beach Fisher envisioned 5 miles away on the other side of Biscayne Bay.

Rail lines between the Beach and the mainland initially consisted of a single track on the south side of the Causeway, but became double track down the center lane when the Causeway was widened in 1926.

At its peak, the Miami Beach Railway had two major corridors. One ran up the east side of the island on Washington Avenue/Pine Tree Drive to just north of 47th Street, while the Alton Road line ran between Biscayne Street and 45th Street. The lines were connected across Dade Boulevard and the system contained several smaller loops in the busy area at the southern tip of South Beach. Maintenance shops and overnight parking facilities were located on Terminal Island where the Fisher Island Ferry docks today.

With the catastrophic events that occurred during the late 20s/early 30s, such as the collapse of the Florida land boom after the hurricane of 1926 which sent Miami land speculators packing, and then the Great Depression, service on the Miami Beach Railway system began to decline and the company closed more and more of its lines.

In 1933 the line that ran along side Alton Road from Biscayne Street up to 45th Street was closed, and a few years later service was relegated to only a small loop around the southern-most end of South Beach from Alton, to Biscayne Street to Ocean Drive, then 1st Street, and back across the Causeway to Miami.

While all rail service was terminated between Miami Beach/Miami on October 17, 1939, the Miami Beach Railway company continued to operate local lines on the mainland for the City of Miami under a previous operating agreement, but Miami soon switch to buses for public transportation, and the company ceased all rail service on November 16, 1940.

The brief 20-year run of Miami Beach’s rail system is an excellent example of the sort of future vision that has existed here since the Beach’s earliest days, and we can only hope that vision will again prevail during the years to come.

Does anybody remember the name of the “MiMo” style hotel that he bought and demolished to create the pool area for “Casa Casuarina“? I think it was the Revere.

He’s correct, it was the Revere Hotel that Gianni Versace demolished. The Revere was built in 1950 by architect A. H. Mathes who also designed the Parisian and the Geneva, both of which were initially “apartment hotels.” When I first arrived in Miami Beach in 1986 the Revere was already boarded-up, as were many of the other hotels along Ocean Drive, especially in SoFI.

As for the South Beach party scene Kevin speaks so glowingly of, here’s another glimpse of how the scene looked during the summer of 1992.

Before there was Ocean Drive Magazine, there was a publication called Night, which counted among its employees Glenn Albin, currently Editor-in-Chief of Ocean Drive, and Eric Newill, now Managing Editor of Ocean Drive.

And here’s what Night was recommending as the hot tickets during the summer of 1992…

People often refer to certain points in time when describing the emergence of South Beach as the world’s nightlife nirvana, for example…1992 when New York magazine published the article “Soho in the Sun,” or 1986 when Club Nu opened, or 1984 with the first season of Miami Vice.

But the truth is, Miami Beach has been a charismatic party town for the better part of the last century. Take for example the nightlife history of just one location, 323 23rd Street….

I’m sure there’s more to that location’s nightlife history, but anyone who could remember that far back is either dead or has been in rehab for the last 75 years.

What is it about Miami Beach that sets it apart from lots of other no-name, no-fame beach towns up and down the coast? Hard to define, really, but a clue might be found in the words people use to describe their first impressions of Miami Beach. Whether they arrived in 1992, 1986 or 1925, I’ve noticed that words like “magical” and “charisma” keep surfacing again and again. And I have to say Miami Beach struck me the very same way.

Finally, speaking of the South Beach phenomenon in general, Kevin says….

Pundits say that it is all going to end but, hey, they’ve been saying that for twenty years.

To the “pundits,” I offer up a quote from Time Magazine in 1957…

The descending horde, pointing to a record 1,750,000 visitors v. 1,500,000 last year, soothed the doubt nagging at every Miami Beach hotelkeeper: had the Beach overbuilt? The answer: not yet…

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 we can determine, this photo was taken on the promenade behind the Roney Plaza Hotel on 23rd and Collins.

Lupino had just finished starring in “The Gay Desparado” with Nino Martini and Leo Carrillo, and would go on to become one of Hollywood’s first female movie directors with RKO Studios.

In the years that followed this photo, Hughes would set the world speed record for around-the-world flights and gain control of not only Trans World Airlines, but RKO Studios as well.

With the Sheraton Bal Harbour set to become the über-ritzy St. Regis Resort & Residences, it might be interesting to take a brief look back at the hotel’s history.

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. The 475-room Americana cost $17 million to build and on its opening day commanded the unheard of rate of $32 per day. As business boomed, the hotel soon expanded to 720 rooms.

The Americana had four restaurants where the wait-staff wore uniforms ranging from waitresses in costumes reminiscent of Jeanette MacDonald’s “Rose Marie” operetta, to waiters in Argentine cowboy pants in the Gaucho Steak House. By 1968, scantily clad French show girls were performing the “Toujours Paris Revue” in the Americana’s Carioca Lounge.

The hotel was designed by famed Miami Beach architect Morris Lapidus who had just completed the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels and the interior of the Sans Souci, all further down Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.

The Americana was built at a time when the sleepy village of Bal Harbour didn’t offer much in the way of excitement other than pristine beaches and one other hotel, the Kenilworth, where TV personality Arthur Godfrey broadcast his shows to America.

As usual, Lapidus was criticized by his contemporaries for various contrived transgressions, among which were that he had built “a monument to vulgarity.” It’s interesting to note, however, that while his accusers are mostly forgotten in the pages of history, the name Morris Lapidus has remained synonymous with innovative ground-breaking design for more than half a century.

In true Lapidus form, the Americana’s design included a large glass-enclosed terrarium in the center of the lobby filled with orchids and rare fungi which angled up into a ceiling filled with “cheese-holes” which Lapidus had also used so successfully in the Fontainebleau’s design. It’s said that Lapidus wanted to stock live monkeys in the terrarium, but modified his plans when owners frowned on the idea. The terrarium functioned as a miniature rain forest complete with periodic rain showers and artificial moonlight.

Here’s how the Americana described its Bal Masque Supper Club…

 The BAL MASQUE SUPPER CLUB is one of Florida’s most fabulous nightclubs, daringly original, tremendous in scope! This is the setting for spectacular shows, featuring the top entertainers of the world, and leading orchestras. Six three-dimensional murals -shown on facing page depict the celebrated carnival scenes of the Americas . . . each mural authentic as to the costumes and musical instruments of the country it represents! Fashioned by famous Anton Refregier of wood veneer, and welded steel and bronze rods, these murals are detached from the walls; the figures actually float in space, and glow when the room is darkened for a show. The spectacular BAL MASQUE ROOM and the MEDALLION ROOM together, when the soundproof wall is removed, become the GRAND BALLROOM of the AMERICANA…scene of the most exciting events of the season!

The Bal Harbour Shops would be built in 1965 by the Whitman family and begin the village’s transition to a world-class shopping destination. The Americana benefited immensely from its location right across the street from the Shops, and in 1980 the hotel became the Sheraton Bal Harbour.

The Americana was the last major hotel built in the area until the Loews Miami Beach Hotel opened in 1998. On the day the Loews Miami Beach opened, the CEO of Loews Hotels was Jonathan Tisch, son of Robert Tisch who had opened the Americana 32 years earlier.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The effort that went into the Americana Hotel is best displayed by a look at the many artists that contributed to the hotel’s design…

MORRIS LAPIDUS of Miami and New York is among the world’s outstanding architects. Not content with working just with an exterior shell, Mr. Lapidus plans the interior decoration also to insure continuity of his original concept of the hotel, and frequently becomes artist to achieve what he has in mind. In addition to the huge stabile screen in the lobby, Mr. Lapidus designed the hotel’s carpeting and much of the furnishings.

MARIANNA VON ALLESCH was born in Bavaria, the daughter of a baroness and an officer of the Imperial Army. She defied parental wishes to devote her time to the arts and crafts, studying under European masters. Her first exhibition of blown glass in 1922 won her immediate fame. Within a few years, her glass figurines made in Thuringen became so popular that she had 6,000 glass blowers in her employ. Deflation in Europe caused her to move to America in 1928 and, from her New York studios, she turned her talents to ceramic lamps and accessories. Her work is displayed in museums throughout the country. In the Americana, Miss Von Allesch did the room and lobby lamps, and the door escutcheons.

WILLIAM BOWIE, a native of Ohio, moved to New York to seek artistic acclaim, but soon became dissatisfied with conventional artistic media. Always on the lookout for new media, Bowie’s early mosaics were constructed of leather scraps, but he soon discovered cellulose sponges in a dime store and used them to form his pattern after dyeing them various colors. One evening on his way home from work, Bowie stopped for a visit at the National Serigraph Gallery in New York. He had one of his sponge mosaics with him, and Doris Meltzer, head of the gallery, insisted on hanging it in the exhibit. So many persons were enchanted with the new art form that they placed orders, and his works have been in great demand ever since. His sponge mosaics can be found in the Americana lobby and in the Lanai suites.

HERMAN BROCKDORF was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, came to the United States in 1929, and has exhibited throughout the nation, winning numerous national awards. Two of his paintings were selected for the O.W.I. show in the National Gallery, London, and Glasgow Museum of Art. His art has found wide acceptance and he is recognized as one of Florida’s outstanding artists. The stone columns in the Americana lobby are his work.

ROBERT COOK was born in Boston in 1921, and studied sculpture there under George Demetrios. After serving in a model-making section of the army during World War II, he attended the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris. He received grants by the Tiffany Foundation, the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters as well as a Fullbright Commission. For the past five years, Mr. Cook has been working in Rome. His work has been shown often in major European and American exhibits of contemporary art. Using a fluid and open style of his own devising, Cook’s sculpture is modeled in a heavy beeswax which he molds directly with a hot soldering iron. In his hands, this results in a delicacy not available through other techniques. Others of his works are in wood, or in bronze, such as “Rodeo”, the Americana’s showpiece.

AUDREY CORWIN is a Florida artist known for her over-life-size monument portraits for the University of Miami, and for the bust of George Washington Carver in the State National Park in Diamond, Missouri. A student of the Art Institute of Chicago, Miss Corwin’s work can be found in numerous public buildings throughout Florida, and her work is in major private collections and museums throughout the nation. The miniature mountain in the terrarium was originally sculpted in model size by Miss Corwin.

ELMO GIDEON is a native of Kansas who studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited in major shows both here and abroad. Awards in the American Artist Professional League include: 1st prize, 1951; best over-all award, 1955; and grand national finalist, 1956. The Caribbean suite figures, and guest room oil paintings are his work.

CHARLES R. JACOBSON was born in Chicago and received his education and art training in that city. One of the nation’s non-objective painters, he has been a resident of Miami since 1944, and has spent much of his time in the Caribbean areas and Mexico, accumulating hundreds of sketches which have been adapted in many of his compositions shown throughout the nation. The copper column panels in the lobby are the work of Mr. Jacobson.

MIRA JEDWABNIK was born in Poland, and came to the United States in 1939, where she became a citizen, married, and settled in Cambridge, Mass. Devoted to painting, she formed her own business in vitreous enamel in 1949, and later merged with the firm of Kinigstein, forming Jedwabnik and Kinigstein Associates. Her enamel renderings can be found aboard the SS United States, on the facade of public buildings in Puerto Rico, and in fine homes and apartments throughout the nation. Mira Jedwabnik decorated the Americana’s elevator interiors.

JOSEPH JOSEPHU is a native of Vienna, where he spent his early life under masters in the Vienna Academy of Art. Two of his works have been dedicated by High Catholic Church prelates, and his art is in museums of 4 continents. Josephu resides in New York, where he is a member of the National Sculpture Society of America, and teaches art classes in his studio.

DOROTHY LIEBES has combined art with textile weaving for the past 15 years, and is one of the outstanding authorities in this field. A native Californian, she has studied abroad, and has taught at Columbia University, New York City. She has participated in 25 museum and gallery shows, amassing 15 awards. The shades on the hanging lamps in the lobby, and the lobby sunscreens are her contribution to the Americana art.

JANE PADWEE was born in New York, and resides there with her husband, who is a physician. Educated at Columbia University Teacher’s College and the Art Workshop of New York, she has been a partner in the firm with Mrs. Jedwabnik since 1954. Jane Padwee assisted Mira Jedwabnik in decorating the elevator interiors.

ANTON REFREGIER, one of America’s best known contemporary artists, is a New Yorker whose paintings are in collections from coast to coast. His work has been exhibited in all the principal national shows, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards. A lecturer and author in addition to his artistic talents, Refregier has also taught art in many schools throughout the nation. His principal medium has been ceramic tile murals. At the Americana, Mr. Refregier did the theme mosaic figures in the lobby, and the Bal Masque carnival murals.

JAMES SEEMAN, muralist and engineering designer, came to the United States in 1938 from his native Vienna and opened his first studio in New York at the war’s end. Organizing his studio along engineering lines, he creates murals on wallpaper and canvas, does research in painting, printing, and hand-screening techniques, and produces hand-cast stone and tile mosaics. Mr. Seeman did the Americana’s original wallpapers, tile panels, elevator foyer tile hangings, Carioca Room decorations, and the grand stairway wall decor.

“A Night on the High Seas” fits perfectly with the nautical theme that would soon begin surfacing in late-1930s Miami Beach architecture, with hotels such as the Albion, Sherbrooke and Cardozo taking on a design reminiscent of the great ocean liners of the day.

An interesting note under the “Featuring” section of this advertisement is the description of Ethel Merman as “Song Star of Talkies.”

 Photos courtesy of Florida Photographic Collection / William A. Fishbaugh, photographer.