Entertainment

Boating

South Florida has a long and rich maritime history. It’s ports have reached global prominence in trade, commerce and the cruise industry. The area has also been at the top of the recreational boating industry. It has hosted the The Miami International Boat show for over 70 years and held numerous boat races and Regattas that […]

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Bowling

South Florida was an international bowling hub from 1960 until midway through the 1990s.The 1967 ABC Tournament in the Miami Beach Convention Center drew about 40,000 bowlers from across the country. Bird Bowl, which opened in 1956, was the home of some of the best bowling leagues in the South, including a scratch women’s league […]

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Movie Theaters

The first proper movie theater in Miami was Kelly’s Theater in 1906, which sat on the south side of Flagler near the old Burdines.  Kelly’s gave way to the more palatial theaters with sloping floors, roomy seats, and chandeliers. The 1950s and 1960s saw the birth of the Riviera in Coral Gables, Suniland in what […]

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Miami Beach Symphony

The Miami Beach Symphony — originally called Miami Civic Orchestra, an outgrowth of the Miami Beach Symphonette — was founded in 1955. The symphony gave full seasons of concerts, including summer “pops” series,  in the Miami Beach Convention Hall, better known as the Jackie Gleason Theater, until 1983 when it was renamed  the Greater Miami Symphony.

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Miami Vice

Miami Vice ran on NBC from 1984-1989, and was one of the highest-rated television programs of the decade. The show’s plot followed two Miami police detectives working undercover, Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson, in this 1984 photo by Miami Herald photographer Donna Natale Planas) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), in their attempts to fight the […]

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Filming in Miami

The movie industry’s infatuation with South Florida’s exotic tropical landscapes and year-round sun started in the 1940’s with classics like Moon Over Miami and Key Largo. In the ’60s, Florida’s fun-in-the- sun image brought in movies like Where the Boys Are. During this time, the the Jackie Gleason Show was filmed in Miami Beach until […]

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2 Live Crew

South Florida made the world news as Liberty City-born Luther Campbell and two members of his band, the 2 Live Crew, are acquitted on obscenity charges. Broward Sheriff’s deputies had arrested them at a concert in June 1990 at Hollywood’s Club Futura. But when prosecutors played nearly unintelligible tapes of the vulgarity-filled concert, jurors mostly […]

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Miami Skaters

Over the years, from the ’60s through today, skateboarders in Miami have made impromptu ramps out of stairs, railings and Miami Marine Stadium.

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Record Stores

Not long ago, 45-inch singles and 12-inch LPs sporting beautiful artwork and superb liner notes were the norm. South Florida music fans would faithfully visit their favorite record stores to discover the next Pink Floyd and find rare, out-of-print treasures. South Florida still houses a few audiophile havens including Sweat Records, Yesterday and Today Records, […]

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Elvis in Miami

Thousands of screaming, weeping teenagers mobbed the downtown Miami FEC station to welcome back the singer-turned-sergeant-turned civilian.

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