Nazi U-boats brought World War II home to South Florida, sinking ships just off the coastline and landing saboteurs. But the real invasion came as waves of servicemen and women arrived to learn how to fight. The Miami Beach training center for soldiers opened in February 1942 and it was one of the largest centers and […]
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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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Lincoln Road, stretching from Collins Avenue to Bay Road, was paved during the 1920s and within a decade the shopping district became known as the Fifth Avenue of the South.During its heyday, such exclusive stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bonwit Teller, the Cadillac Salon and Elizabeth Arden all prospered on Lincoln Road between Washington Avenue […]
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Built in 1957 to draw more business to Miami Beach, the convention center has served as the backdrop for some major moments in South Florida history, from political conventions and Miss Universe beauty pageants to a Billy Graham religious crusade and the 1964 fight between Cassius Clay (before he became Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston […]
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In 1960 Harold Glasser brought the Miss USA pageant to Miami Beach from Long Beach, Calif., where it was born. Miss Universe, a spin-off of the original pageant, came along. In 1971 the Miss USA and Miss Universe shows left Miami Beach after 11 straight years. While pageants have come and gone since then, for […]
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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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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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With roots in Europe as far back as the 1880s, Art Deco rejected the ornate excesses of Victorian architecture. It had burst on the American scene after the 1925 Exposition International Des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. The style arrived in South Florida at a time when Miami Beach was a blank slate […]
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In South Florida, summer’s for the locals. The snowbirds have flown back north, the kids are out of school and long days are briefly interrupted by crashing storms. Yes, our seasonal change might be so subtle that it barely registers for some — this is the Sunshine State, after all, 365 days a year — […]
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While a Miami Beach photographer shot pictures, the girls lolled on the sand in their swimsuits, smiled, decorated the lifeguard boat, smiled, read big black headlines in the New York papers about “Bitter Cold In Storm’s Wake” and “Deep Freeze Hangs On,” smiled and acted warm. Then they confessed. Said Adrienne Bourbeau: “Not that I’m […]
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