Just ;ossibl;America’s ;inestFurniture
Available through fine retail stores and to the trade
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bluestocking
After sweeping readers into his inner circle of
personality and posh, what follows are 11 chapters of
historical saga and irreverently humorous anecdotes,
written with the entertaining bluster of a traveler’s
recollection rather than a historian’s punctual
objectivity. Leddick’s story begins with the millions
of self-made Midwesterner Carl Fisher, who lured the
American gentry with the Lincoln Highway and the
infamous Flamingo Hotel, paving the way for what
would become a mecca of diversity, beauty and fame.
Admirably, the book defies the convention of letting
the visuals merely illustrate and support the text; here
they have a life of their own, and brief captions coyly
suggest there may be more than meets the eye. His
mélange of pictures has the delightful disorder of a lost
treasure chest. Archives from Ocean Drive and Inside
Out are juxtaposed with maps and movie stills; Italian
magazine illustrations from 1926 sit proudly next to a
monotone shot of Collins Bridge from 1912; and artistic
overhead shots make even the most populated beaches
beautiful in this once transient space between sandbar
and sky. Meanwhile architectural photos of the sleek
optimism of art deco hotels reveal intimate details
and grandiose facades that drifted into permanent
slumber, like the Nautilus, or stayed for the party, like
the Delano. Gleason, Sinatra and even the Beatles
embraced the “half-window-dressing, half-movie-set
style” of Fontainebleau architect Morris Lapidus. But a
Sean Connery still from Goldfinger and a provocatively
posed Jayne Mansfield tell us more than any mere
celebrity guest list.
Leddick refuses to dwell on the negative, briefly
mentioning the violence of the late ’60s and ’70s
that caused the mirage to fade. Instead, he is quick
to attribute Miami’s renaissance to “the strength and
depth of superficiality.” Leddick’s city thrives because
the only criteria for an invitation to the party are “How
do you look?” and “Are you fun?” Those accepting:
Philippe Starck, Versace, Beyonce, Madonna and the
requisite MTV brigade. With beauty—or at least the
ability to recognize and worship it—anyone can play.
And it’s precisely this appreciation that would blossom
into what Leddick deems “The Great Leap Forward
… that legitimized what the rest of the country saw
as a feckless seaside resort” c Joanne Molina In the
Spirit of Miami Beach, David Leddick, 160 pages, $40/
hardcover, Assouline
