Second Act

 1985

Miami Beach was in physical, social, and economic decline when producers of a new police drama chose the island as a set.

“Miami Vice” — The trend-setting television show is often credited with helping Miami out of a 1970s malaise, into a cocaine-financed race through the 1980s, and fuel the 1990s Miami Beach Renaissance.

• OCEAN DRIVE’s DARKEST DAY

Starting with the 2-hour pilot at [FRI.10PM] there will be a number of other episodes featured in The Art Deco Lounge, where you’ll be made to understand the value of pink and blue, no socks and shoulder pads.
see the cop show that set the 1980s MUSIC & FASHION standard.

“The Birdcage”
[1996] — The already-legendary Carlyle Hotel
served as the primary set for director by MIKE NICHOLS’ romantic comedy.
MAC’s CLUB DEUCE w/2AM [Candy, Laura, Pier, Vincent, Steve, Nancy, Mike …]
between the bar and pay phone (1992).
An entertaining and popular remake of the 1978 Franco-Italian film, La Cage aux Folles, by Jean Poiret and Francis Veber.
Written by ELAINE MAY, The Birdcage stars
ROBIN WILLIAMS
GENE HACKMAN
NATHAN LANE
DIANNE WIEST
Dan Futterman
Calista Flockhart
Hank Azaria
and Christine Baranski appear in supporting roles.

we are fam-il-y
“The Birdcage”/ Official Trailer

“( Vice ) Miami”

b/ Original Sugar Hill Rhythm Section
w/ Melle Mel & The Furious Five

While standing on Ocean Drive, in front of the Carlyle Hotel, Sonny Crockett introduced America to Miami (and its vice).

Making Miami”Cool”Again
by DAVE BARRY
(Miami Herald)
Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry’s humorous view of cocaine and murder making Miami “popular” again.
GO TO STORY >>>

When Vice was Cool …

[Sept. 28, 1984] — After the introducing credits, the first image seen by a viewer of the Miami Vice pilot was the Carlyle Hotel’s neon sign, panning down to Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett, smoking a cigarette, and being annoyed by a group of break-dancing B-Boys, accompanied by a noticeably loud, ’80s-ready boom box.

• CLICK HERE FOR A 10-MINUTE MIAMI VICE DOCUMENTARY

cocaine city
(November 23, 1981) — Time Magazine describing Miami as a city awash in cocaine, and noting its ranking as “The Murder Capital of the World,” was the biggest blow to South Florida’s most important tourism industry.

• “Cocaine Cowboys” is a (2006) documentary film, telling the story of a city addicted to, and nearly destroyed by, the Colombian white powder and the shooting war between the Colombian and Cuban gangs fighting for control of Miami.

This is the real-life story that inspired “Miami Vice” and “Scarface.”

“Voices”

b/ Russ Ballard

“Voices” (above) As Don Johnson pilots his Chris Craft Stinger 390X

1980s Soundtrack
A selection of memorable Miami Vice songs and scenes.
• “Miami Vice Theme” (opening credits by Jan Hammer)
• “In the Air Tonight” (Phil Collins’ closed the 1984 pilot)
• “Brothers In Arms” (Dire Straits “Edgar Allan Poe”)
• “Smuggler’s Blues” (Glenn Frey “Smuggler’s Blues”)
• “You Belong to The City” (Glenn Frey “Prodigal Son”)

Making Miami”Cool”Again

by DAVE BARRY
(Miami Herald)
I came to Miami in the early ’80s, when the Cocaine Cowboy era was still going strong and Miami’s image — not without reason — was horrible. Time magazine had published its now-famous cover story Paradise Lost, encapsulated by this cheerful sentence: “An epidemic of violent crime, a plague of illicit drugs and a tidal wave of refugees have slammed into South Florida with the destructive power of a hurricane.”
Which was, more or less, true. The bad publicity took its toll: Tourism suffered because people were afraid to visit Miami. I wrote an essay about this for the Herald’s Sunday magazine, Tropic. To promote it, we gave out bumper stickers that said “Come Back To Miami”
Readers loved those bumper stickers. But not everybody down here thought it was funny. Miami’s civic leaders — the politicians, the tourism people, the Chamber of Commerce — hated the jokes and the bad publicity. They were openly jealous of Orlando, with its Mouse-tastic attractions and safe, antiseptic, family-friendly image. Our leaders wanted Miami to be more like that. But Miami wasn’t Orlando, not even close. Bad things kept happening down here.
Then, in 1984, Miami Vice happened. Theoretically, this should have been our civic leaders’ worst nightmare: People were avoiding Miami because they thought it was infested with violent drug criminals, and then along came a hugely popular TV show that presented Miami as a place that was … infested with violent drug criminals!
But here’s the thing: Miami Vice made Miami look cool. Yes, many drug busts went down on the show, and many fatal shots were fired. But they were fired by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas! Who were hot! And who wore designer jackets! Over pastel designer T-shirts! And designer linen pants! And designer Italian loafers WITHOUT SOCKS!
The premise was ridiculous, of course — “undercover” Miami police officers Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, looking nothing like any undercover police officers anywhere ever, driving around in flashy, insanely expensive cars and boats, emitting melodramatic dialogue and inevitably ending each episode taking down a drug kingpin — in Miami Vice, three out of every four Miami residents were drug kingpins — in a hail of bullets, accompanied by a hip (for the ’80s) music soundtrack.
And guess what? Everybody loved it. Including Miami. Especially Miami. For one thing, the city looked pretty good, in a seedy, tropical, lush, degenerate, Eurotrash supermodel way. It looked cool.
It also looked exciting. Miamians began to see the fact that we weren’t Orlando as a good thing. Orlando was a place where you went to stand in line in the heat with your whining kids for 73 minutes to ride around in spinning teacups for 73 seconds. Miami was a place you went without your kids (maybe even without your spouse) to drink mojitos and smoke cigars (or maybe something else) and stay up all night and have an adventure. If it felt foreign, disorganized, a little out of control, even a little dangerous … hey, that was cool. That was Miami.
At least that was the image. It’s still the essence of our image, 30 years later. Which is why I think Miami owes a debt of gratitude to Miami Vice. There should be a street named after it. And the street signs should be pastel. And somewhere on the street there should be a statue of Rico and Sonny, aiming guns at a kingpin only they can see.
And the Sonny statue should have stubble.

— Dave Barry /Miami Herald Columnist

“Some Like It Hot”
Two Struggling musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and are now on the run from the Mob. Jerry and Joe cross-dress into an all female band in which Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) is the lead singer.
In addition to running (to Florida) for their lives, Tony and Jack have more hilarious problems in their love lives. Marilyn confides in lustful Tony, but he can’t reveal he’s a man, and Jack has a wealthy gentleman suitor who won’t take “No,” for an answer.

the best of situation comedies
[1959] — Billy Wilder’s classic, starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (in drag) and Marilyn Monroe (at her hottest), has stood the test of Hollywood time, and easily ranks as one of the finest comedies ever made.

dave hogerty
fort lauderdale, florida
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