Northrop Bombers over Miami, 1939.

Northrop BT-1 Bombers over Miami, 1939.

Downtown Miami Burdines Christmas display - (circa 1950s)

Spectators watch the 'World's Largest Santa,' 65 feet in height, and a 70-foot 
Christmas tree during the formal lighting ceremony in Miami on
Thanksgiving night, Nov. 23, 1950.
Synchronized to music, the display is lighted by more than a mile 
of multi-colored neon tubes. The tribute to the forthcoming Holiday, 
erected on the pedestrian bridge over Miami Avenue, was witnessed 
by a crowd estimated at 10,000.

Miami Avenue, 1954.

Police crack down on gangster 'invasion' of Miami - 1935

From the Miami Daily News, Nov. 1, 1935.

Navy recruits marching on Biscayne Boulevard - 1942

Click image to enlarge.

Ralph Renick anchors the news on Aug. 7, 1957

wtvj, ralph renick, tv miami 1950s

1981...A record number of murders in Dade County

From the Miami News 35 years ago.

On Nov. 30, 1981, with a month still to go before the end of the year, Dade County was well on its way to breaking 1980's record of 579 murders.

November's final weekend was particularly bloody.

From the Miami News story by Verne Williams:

The weekend toll was grim:

A man was stabbed to death this morning in a Miami drug store parking lot. A suspected burglar was shot to death last night by a Miami businessman. Six people were found bound and slain - two women shot, four men suffocated - inside a house in Southwest Dade Saturday afternoon. A woman who was shot Nov. 18 died in a Hialeah hospital when a life-support machine was turned off. She had been in a coma since being shot in the head when two robbers invaded her home.

Burdines in Downtown Miami

1926

1941

1950

Bettie Page at Funland Amusement Park - 1954

Pin-up model Bettie Page at Funland Amusement Park on N.W. 27th Ave. in 1954. Photographed by Bunny Yeager.