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1964. "Collins Avenue, Miami Beach." With the Ocean Spray Hotel representing the Art Deco old guard and the curvy Fontainebleau the new. Medium format slide snatched from the jaws of eBay and scanned by Shorpy. View full size.
I'm more interested in what happened to the trunk lid on the car parked at the curb.
[There's no trunk - it's a 1960 Ford station wagon with the tailgate lowered and the liftgate - the upper part with the window - not raised, but slightly ajar. -tterrace]
Down the street at the Fontainebleau in 1964, wasn't James Bond keeping an eye on Auric Goldfinger and enjoying a romp with Jill Masterson? Although I think I read somewhere that they didn't actually shoot those scenes on location.
[Correct. The scenes with the principals were shot on soundstages at Pinewood Studios in England and edited together with footage shot at the hotel. -tterrace]
In February 1956 I went to South Beach (although it wasn't called that then) and stayed at a hotel called the Peter Miller. It may still be there for all I know. As a young 20-something waiting to be drafted, I had a memorable vacation. However, the Fontainebleau could not be seen from there.
I've never been to the area (though I did have a change-over at the Miami airport once). Upon seeing this, my first thought was the old Allan Sherman spoof, "Streets of Miami", sung to the tune of "Streets of Laredo"...
As I wandered out on the streets of Miami,
I said to mine self, 'Dis is some fency town!"
I called up mine partner and said "Hello Sammy,"
Go pack up your satchel and mosey on down.
I got me a bunk in the old Roney Plaza,
With breakfast and dinner included of course.
I caught forty winks on mine private piazza,
Then I rented a Pinto from Hertz Rent-a-Horse...
Thankfully, a great job has been done saving the Art Deco heritage of Miami Beach. So many of the "old guard" buildings have been saved and are better than new. Even the lobby furniture in these old beauties is proper period design. This structure and many others by the architect Martin Hampton are on the National Register of Historic Places. This hotel is not in the "hot" South Beach part of town.
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