History: The History of Sunny Isles Beach
It is interesting that while Miami Beach is part of Miami, Miami Beach, with eight suburbs, is never referred to as “Greater Miami Beach.” Yet going back to the days when Mel Richard was a Miami Beach politician, efforts were being made to separate Miami Beach and it’s adjoining communities on the east side of Biscayne Bay from Dade (now Miami-Dade) County. The most prominent name that was bandied about for the new county during the secession campaigns was “Atlantic County.”
There were—and are—numerous legitimate (and few less than legitimate) reasons for the east side of Biscayne Bay’s villages, towns and cities to form their own county, but politics are not the thrust of this column; rather, as we have overwhelmingly learned from the readers of the Sun Post, there is an unending interest in the history of not only Miami Beach but it’s adjoining and adjacent smaller neighbors, including Fisher Island, North Bay Village, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Indian Creek Village, Surfside, Sunny Isles Beach and Golden Beach.
As noted in this column’s headline, Sunny Isles Beach, formerly known as “Motel Row” or Sunny Isles, was, for many years, the place to come to for great times, great food (Rascal House, Dagwood’s, Junior’s, Lime House, the Lagoon, Victor Bidone’s and numerous others, including The Sultan’s Tent in the Marco Polo Hotel, the Pub Restaurant in the Newport, Grandma’s Kitchen,and, for a short time, a branch of the fabled Picciolo’s) and terrific entertainment, which included names of the past such as Tubby Boots, Zorita, Ike and Tina Turner, The Mob, Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons and so many more. In addition to the food and entertainment, shopping, whether for beach wear or more formal attire, was “a breeze,” with strip shopping centers catering to every taste up and down Collins Avenue and on 163rd Street (167th Street on the beach side).
Most of the larger motels had night clubs with the Marco Polo, the Newport’s Seven Seas Lounge and the Castaways’ Wreck Bar being the biggest draws, fielding the biggest names, but almost every one of the sizable motels, including the Sahara, Desert Inn, Golden Gate, Pan American, Last Frontier, Suez and Thunderbird had lounges and show rooms that brought in the crowds. Additionally, many of the smaller motels had bars and cocktail lounges with their own followings and many of the locals (and vacationers) swore on “their own” spot as being the best.
Recreation abounded, with a bowling alley, miniature golf course, the famed Sunny Isles fishing pier and the Loew’s 170th Street theater, at the time it opened the newest and most beautiful movie theater in northeast Dade County. However, Sunny Isles was simply “the place” for families and honeymooners and the deals and offers were legendary. For the local young swains, though, “cruising” Collins Avenue in the evening and stopping to talk to the young women tourists was something that no few of the fellows from North Miami, North Miami Beach and Miami Beach occupied themselves with, particularly in the summer and during spring break and Christmas vacation. Sunny Isles (today, with the surname “Beach” added, a beautiful incorporated city) was, as a place and as a memory, a very special moment in time.
Next week a look at the beginnings of what today is truly a great city. Though only thirteen years old, the wonderful history of Sunny Isles Beach reads like a storybook.
Category: HISTORY
