Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Ad for the Miami Marriott on LeJeune Road -1973
From the Miami News, Oct. 26, 1973.
Ad for the Marriott on LeJeune Road.
Ad for the Marriott on LeJeune Road.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Alton Road, Miami Beach - 1941
Alton Road, Miami Beach. Looking south from 17th Street. (1941)
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| Click to enlarge. |
Friday, July 27, 2012
July 27, 2005 - Arthur Teele kills himself in Miami Herald lobby
Seven years ago today, former Miami Commissioner Arthur E. Teele shocked South Florida by taking his life in the lobby of the Miami Herald building.
From The New York Times:
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| Research by Miami Noir: The Arthur E. Teele Story |
EX-COMMISSIONER KILLS HIMSELF IN HERALD LOBBY
Thursday, July 28, 2005
By LUISA YANEZ, CAROL ROSENBERG, MATTHEW I. PINZUR AND SCOTT HIAASEN
Former Miami commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr., under indictment for taking bribes while in office, walked into the lobby of the Miami Herald building Wednesday evening and shot himself in the head. He died less than two hours later at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Wearing a dark suit, a light-blue shirt and a crimson tie, Teele , once one of Miami-Dade's most powerful politicians, entered The Herald lobby at about 6 p.m., and within minutes pulled a gun from a green canvas bag.
Felix Nazco, 35, the security guard, said before pulling the gun Teele told him: ``Tell DeFede to tell my wife I love her,'' referring to Herald columnist Jim DeFede.
Teele then stood with the gun to his head and gazed out at the street through the lobby's glass doors. As police arrived, he shot himself, security guard Eduardo Pavon said. Teele fell on his back. The pistol clattered across the terrazzo floor.
Miami fire-rescue workers arrived seven minutes after a security guard called 911. A Miami fire-rescue spokesman said Teele had two bullet holes in the back of his head, and Miami police told The Herald he was declared dead at 7:50 p.m. at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. He was 59 years old.
From The New York Times:
Miami Paper Fires Columnist, Adding Own Twist to Tale of Sex, Politics and Suicide
MIAMI, July 28 - It seemed like a throwback to "Miami Vice": an eccentric politician, recently accused of money laundering and soliciting male prostitutes, fatally shoots himself in the lobby of The Miami Herald after an anguished phone conversation with a star columnist.
But the storyline grew even stranger on Thursday as employees of the newspaper reacted with outrage after learning that the columnist, Jim DeFede, had been fired for secretly taping his conversation with the distraught man - a possible violation of state law.
Mr. DeFede, who chronicles the surreal politics of South Florida, said his conversation with the man, Arthur Teele Jr., a former city commissioner recently indicted on federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, was so disturbing that he quietly began recording it "out of concern" for Mr. Teele.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
'Budweiser is back' - May, 1933
Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Budweiser published an ad in the Miami Daily News on May 16, 1933 proclaiming, "Something More than Beer is back."
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Trocadero Restaurant on Miami Beach -1946
The Trocadero Restaurant at Liberty Ave and 23rd Street, Miami Beach - 1946.
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| Trocadero Restaurant - 1946. (Click images to enlarge) |
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| Present day. |
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Vintage Miami Beach postcard
Vintage Miami Beach postcard, circa. 1940s.
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| "Air View Showing Hotels Along Ocean Front and Lake Pancoast at Miami Beach, Florida" (Click to enlarge) |
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
From "Millionaire's Row" to Hotel Row
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| James H. Snowden residence, 1922. |
A few years before the start of WWI, Oklahoma oil millionaire James Snowden built a luxurious 15-bedroom mansion on a desolate stretch of sand on Miami Beach near what is now Collins Ave. and 44th Street.
Snowden's home afforded him a fabulous view of the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1923, Snowden sold the residence for $250,000 to Harvey S. Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
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| Firestone estate in 1923. |
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| Harvey Firestone entertains inventor Thomas A. Edison at his Miami Beach home, April, 1928. |
In 1928, The Miami Daily News reported the 34 homes along four-miles of oceanfront from "14th st. north to the exclusive Miami Beach Bath Club" - dubbed "Millionaire's Row" - were worth an estimated $7,645,000.
Firestone died in 1938 at age 70. His passing made the front page of The Miami Daily News.
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| The Miami Daily News, Feb. 7, 1938. (Click to enlarge) |
In 1952, hotelier Ben Novack purchased the Firestone estate and announced plans to build a 554-room, $14,000,000 hotel on the site.
Construction started on the Fontainebleau in January, 1954.
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| Miami Daily News, Jan. 17, 1954. |
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| Fontainebleau Hotel under construction in 1954. Firestone estate in center of the photo was used as a construction office. (Click to enlarge) |
By 1957, what remained of Millionaire's Row had become a "blighted, broken down area, with dilapidated buildings, many rats and rust, old seaweed and a lover's lane."
In 1958, some wanted to turn the area north of the Eden Roc Hotel into a public park. Others thought more hotels should be built.
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| Fontainebleau Hotel, 1960s. |
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| Looking south from 48th Street and Collins Avenue - 1963. |
Friday, July 13, 2012
Vintage Miami postcard - 1940s
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| Downtown Miami with Bayfront Park Auditorium in foreground, circa 1940s. (Click to enlarge) |
