1607-1675 1 Howard Kleinberg Fonds PUBLISHING
Book
to feature history• •
of M 1
1
aml. Beach
hotels
•The Greater Miami&the _.. SMART the Greater Miami Hotel and
Beaches Hotel Association BOX Motel Association to boost
has commissioned a book the hospitality industry's
about the history of Miami i influence in South Florida.
Beach hotels. ; DONATING PICTURES Kleinberg has already
BY DALE K.DUPONT Anyone who would like done a great deal of research
BY DALEpont K.Dald.com to donate photos of old because of his book about
Miami Beach hotels may Miami Beach itself, but
Miami Beach's history is call Stu Blumberg at there's a lot more to do, he
bound up in its lodgings,from 305-531-3553,e-mail said.
the simplicity of Brown's i hotelier(iilmsn.com or He'll cover everything
Hotel to the curvy splendor write to him at the from the very first hotel —
of the Fontainebleau Hilton. association:407 Lincoln Brown's, a two-story clap-
Stu Blumberg thinks it's Rd., Miami Beach,FL board building at 112 Ocean
time someone told the story 33139.Anyone who Dr.that was built in 1916—to
of these buildings and all the would like a copy of the the lodgings being built
personalities and quirks that ; book can get in touch today. The territory runs
go with them.So,the head of with Blumberg after it is from Government Cut to the
the Greater Miami & the printed. Sheraton Bal Harbour.
Beaches Hotel Association Kleinberg notes the con-
has commissioned a book on
the history of Miami Beach iscept of condo/hotels today
hotels to be published in the that contributed to the pro- apartment house hotels.t that far from the arlier
fall of 2005. ject will get a set number of Miami Beach also has gone
The author will be How- books to deal with as they through building cycles.
and Kleinberg, historian and wish,Blumberg said. For example, 19 smaller
former editor of the Miami "It's a reference book," hotels were built in 1939 and
News, who wrote Miami said Blumberg, who's spent 1940,Kleinberg said.Among
Beach -A History,published nearly 50 years in the busi- them were The Marlin, The
in 1994. ness."The story needed to be St. Moritz and The National
Blumberg said he's raised told about the history of on Collins Avenue and The
about$74,000 from 17 hotels, hotels in Miami Beach." Albion on Lincoln Road.
his association, the Greater Blumberg's own history in That was an unusual num-
Miami Convention&Visitors the industry goes back to ber considering World War II
Bureau and others to cover 1956,when he worked his way was getting started.
the cost of the project. through college as a bellhop Then came the post-war
About 10,000 copies of the at the Americana.In 1967,he boom that lasted into the'60s.
book will be printed. The got his first hotel general The next great growth
book will not be sold in book- manager's job. In 1991, he spurt was ushered in with the
stores. Blumberg will give became president of the Loews,which opened in late
copies to Miami-Dade Miami Beach Resort Hotel 1998, the first major hotel
schools and libraries — if Association. Three years built in Miami Beach in 30
they want them. And hotels later the group merged with years.