Gianni Versace, the world-famous designer who created the Miami Vice look, had elegant homes around the world. But the multi-million-dollar mansion called Casa Casuarina on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach was his favorite. At 8:44 a.m. Tuesday, July 15, 1997, serial killer Andrew Cunanan, 27, shot and killed Gianni Versace, 50, on the steps of […]
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1969 marked the most monumental science and technology project in history – a bold crusade inspired by President Kennedy, fueled by $25 billion and joined by 390,000 American workers – climaxed with the first landing on the moon. The Miami Herald, in anticipation of this historic moment, ran a special section detailing every aspect of […]
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In 1568, Brother Francisco Villareal, a Jesuit missionary to the Tequesta settlement on the Miami River, penned what is perhaps the first postcard from South Florida: “I and the others have constantly remained healthy, glory be to God, which helps us endure with little difficulty some of the burdens of the land that otherwise would […]
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Books & Books, which opened in March 1982, hadn’t been operating for more than a few months when several of South Florida’s wandering poetic souls found harbor there. When Mitchell Kaplan and his uncle, Julius Kaplan, opened the tiny bookshop on Aragon Avenue, they wanted to do more than sell books; they also hoped to […]
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In the late 60’s long-haired, beaded, and tie-dyed flower children brought their drugs, incense, guitars and peace symbols to the South Florida surf. The Hippie movement had finally reached Miami. Coconut Grove, known for its laid-back attitude, became the gathering place for the counterculture. On any given day one could find Hippies smoking pot in Bayfront Park, […]
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Miami City Ballet’s inaugural opening was at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in October 1986. The sold-out audience delighted in two works of George Balanchine, ”Allegro Brillante” and the ”Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux”, as well as two world premieres, ”El Amor Brujo” and “Transtango”. Philanthropist Toby Ansin and NYC ballet superstar Edward Villella […]
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The yearly grind of hurricane season for South Floridians has given way to many interesting and at times strange methods of dealing with mother nature. Take a look at hurricane seasons of years past.
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Biscayne Bay became known as a party place in the early 1940s after Commodore Edward Turner built the Quarterdeck Club on a barge a mile south of Cape Florida, near an area eventually known as Stiltsville. The club, which had a bar, a dining room, a game room and charter members with vice-commodore titles, was featured […]
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Free spirits looking for an aquatic lifestyle and spectacular views created laid-back waterfront communities that have been a staple of South Florida life. The floating homes were popularized in the 1960s by Travis McGee, the rough and romantic detective who lived on a houseboat and also by a popular TV series called Surfside Six, based […]
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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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