Miami Beach of the 1960s and 70s were the best time to live and play on the Beach and go to Licoln Road and rent a hotel room in South Beach! Thanks for the memories.
I grew up on Miami Beach in the 1950s and 60s. I left for college in 1971. Miami Beach during those decades was a safe and magical place. After school, you could walk a few blocks and be on the beach til dinner time. The winter months brought millions of snowbirds but during the summer, "The Beach" went back to being a more sleepy small town with mostly locals and of course lots of retirees. Miami Beach had only one high school with around 2,000 students. My parents always had season tickets for the Coconut Grove Playhouse. I was in high school when I saw the musical "Hair.". The Fountainbleau hotel was the epitome of cool and the Eden Roc was pure elegance. I was an usher at The Jackie Gleason Show which was filmed "live from Miami Beach." I have fond memories of Wolfie's 21 and the bucket of pickles on the tables. The best hamburgers in the world were from Ollies. I remember the houseboat where they filmed "Surfside 6" right across the street from the Fountainbleau where the stars would hang out in the Boom Boom Room and the Poodle Lounge. The hotel had an indoor ice skating rink! Those were the days. I went back to "The Beach" recently and was saddened to see what it has turned into. To be fair... all was not "magic" for certain groups. I remember our cleaning lady had to be on the bus by dark as Miami Beach was still a sundown town into the early 50s although that hung around into the 1960s.
I only lived there for less than half a decade but have a huge amount of memories and experiences from those years. I worked a Jefferson Super Stores on NE 167th St., the 163rd St. shopping center and Southern Bell Telephone Co. I also remember a restaurant called Latta's on NW 7th Ave. that had a mirror set at a 45-degree angle above the kitchen. Their slogan was "Cooked in sight, must be right". I believe there were a few other locations for this restaurant as well.
Awesome video, It really brings me back, I wish you would have included photos of The Jockey Club or Marcellas Italian Restaurant...Dang those rolls are still etched into my brain! Great Video!
Wondering why there are no photos of the South Beach dog track or the pier that got washed away during a hurricane. This had to be the seventies or was it eighties? II remember as a 12 year old spending many nights watching the fishing off that pier. One time it was about 9:30 pm this one fellow who was in his twenties and was a regular caught a shark. I never will forget watching him real in this smaller shark maybe four or five feet.Those times were magical experiencing them then! Would love to see some more photos from those times.
