On New Year’s Eve, 1958,Havana witnessed a startling series of events that was to lead to the mass migration of 750,000 Cubans to the U.S. On December 1975, Tropic Magazine published the inside story of the night that changed Cuba -and Miami- forever. This is part two. Click here for part one.
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We were there….with Hitchcock By CARY WETTERAU Miami Herald Staff Writer Egg-shaped and affable Alfred Hitchcock, genius of the spine-chilling thrill; and his British wife Alma are in Miami for the first time since 1939. The film and TV producer-director arrived Friday for a weekend at the Carillon Hotel. (Then they go to New York […]
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Building your own bomb shelter was a Cold War-era survival tactic for thousands of families nationwide and in South Florida. Welcome to the late ’50s and early ’60s, when nuclear nervousness gave urgency to a trend that made headlines in 1961. Everyone was building a shelter — or should have been, according to the experts […]
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The Miami Herald reported in 1952 on the burgeoning number of local drive-in restaurants staffed by scantily clad young women. “There seems to be a race going on among Miami drive-in restaurant owners to see who can clothe curvaceous curb cuties in the tightest sweaters and the briefest shorts,” a Herald story by reporter Pat […]
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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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South Beach, with its sexy, high-octane mix of leggy models, hot sun and neon lights, has seen its fortunes surge and recede over the years. While many of the notable Art Deco buildings that give the area its charm were constructed in the 1930s, the beach had a second heyday in the 1950s and ’60s, […]
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The smell of the plastic mask. The chills of the haunted house. The thrill of pretending to be someone — or something — else. From the spaceman suit to the two-person giraffe — and some costumes we’re still trying to figure out — take a look at the Miami Herald’s vintage Halloween photos, South Florida […]
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In 1923, Coral Gables’ founders had a problem: an unsightly rock pit in the middle of the fast-growing community. The Venetian Pool — one of the first public pools in South Florida — was born in 1924. Founder George Merrick got the idea to turn the coral rock pit — where much of the rock […]
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From Seminole War battleground to Bahamian pioneer outpost to groovy hippie haven, Coconut Grove has had several incarnations. Originally spelled Cocoanut Grove – its residents decided to drop the “a” after its incorporation as a city in 1919- the village has attracted sailors, academics, artists, explorers, drop-outs and scientists. It was the place where northern […]
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The Hialeah Park Race Track, which opened Jan. 25, 1925, and was closed for two years during World War II, was the site of many racing firsts. It was the first track in this country to feature a turf course and the first major track at which a female jockey, Diane Crump in 1969, was […]
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