1674-2 Polly Lux THE MIAMI HERALD
Copyright (c) 1983, The Miami Herald
DATE: Thursday, June 2, 1983 EDITION: NEIGHBORS
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 10 LENGTH: 69 lines
ILLUSTRATION: photo: Polly deHirsch Meyer
SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: LAURA MISCH Herald Staff Writer
MEMO: COVER STORY / LIFESTYLES
POLLY DEHIRSCH MEYER: SELF-MADE CINDERELLA WANTED TO GET TO
THE TOP; ONCE THERE, SHE COOSES CHARITIES CAREFULLY.
A self-made Cinderella, Polly deHirsch Meyer always played with the big
boys -- and won. She was making deals and earning big money in the macho
construction business in the 1930s -- an era when most women looked no further
than their kitchens.
"I couldn't see any future in being a showgirl, " she said. She was right.
Polly deHirsch Meyer, widow of banker and businessman Baron deHirsch
Meyer, one of the wealthiest women on Miami Beach, is a doyenne of so many
charities she has trouble remembering them all.
She never went beyond the sixth grade in school.
DeHirsch Meyer lives rather modestly in a two-bedroom Miami Beach
high-rise apartment, no fancier than many others, although some of the jade
objets d'art she collects and displays are priceless. Her silver, white and
blue living room is enormous. She lives alone.
"My ambition was always to be a businesswoman, " she said. "I always
expected to make money. And I wanted to get to the top."
Polly Lux from Pittsburgh came from a family without money. She went to
New York as a teenager and was pretty enough to model, eventually becoming a
Ziegfeld showgirl. She saved her money but was almost wiped out in the stock
market crash of 1929. She arrived in Miami Beach in 1936 with her mother,
brother and $5,000 cash.
She leased the Trianon Apartment House two months before the start of the
winter season. Using second-hand tools, she refurbished the place, making the
drapes herself. She rented out the apartments to her show-business friends. It
wasn't much, but it was a beginning.
Within a few years, the entrepreneurial Ms. Lux was buying and selling
properties. Then, wanting more control over her assets, she formed the Lux
Construction Co. and began to build her own buildings. Polly Lux was the first
woman in Florida to have a contractor's license.
During one of her visits to a real estate office on a business deal, she
met Baron deHirsch Meyer, a wealthy businessman.
Their courtship lasted 16 years. They couldn't marry
because his father was against it. She was a Catholic and he was a Jew.
"I did have him, he was my fella," she said. "But I lived with my mother."
Her eyes fill with tears nine years after Baron's death. He will always be,
she says, her only love.
One day, on a whim, Polly went to visit Baron's mother, whom she had never
met. When the older woman opened the door, Polly asked, "Do you know who I
am?" Mrs. deHirsch Meyer looked at her and replied, "Yes, I do. I've been
wanting to meet you."
Later Polly and Baron did finally marry -- after Baron's father died.
She didn't retire from business after the wedding. She stayed active,
opening up a jewelry boutique and buying the 17- story Capital Bank Building
in 1972. She sold it last year.
"I made a very good deal on that one," she said.
She has lived in mansions in Beverly Hills, Calif. , and Star Island. She
prefers the apartment because it is easy to take care of.
She keeps extremely busy with her charities: She has given more than a
million dollars each to Juvenile Diabetes and Mount Sinai Medical Center; she
supports the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and the Women's Cancer
League; she and her husband gave money to help build the University of Miami
Law School.
"I 'm very careful where I donate, " she said. "You get a lot of
fly-by-night charities. "
Now she spends as much time as possible at her horse- breeding farm near
Ocala. Her favorite horse is a three-year- old thoroughbred named Banker
Baron.