(first posted 2/12/2017) I recently scanned some more of my father’s Kodachromes, including these shots taken during a much calmer – and much less female – Spring Break in 1953. So, no beach-babe-filled pickup beds, but still a feast for the eyes. Sun, sand, mid-century style, and as you will see, plenty of CCs.
First up, here’s downtown Fort Lauderdale, with a range of early 50s iron on display. What can you spot here?
Meanwhile, along the beach front, a surprisingly sober set of sedans makes a quite a contrast to the brilliant white of the Horizon Motel. I can only imagine what this place looked like around 1975.
Again, the Lauderdale Biltmore’s crisp lines and airy windows seem years ahead of the cars on the road, but a ’57 Plymouth would fit right in. It’s interesting that in the decades before WWII, car design was arguably more advanced than mainstream building design, only to see those trends reverse before meeting up in the early 1960s.
At least things are a bit snappier next door, giving the coeds crowding the Biltmore’s fish-mural’d pool deck something to look at. And finally, convertibles. That lime-green Ford coupe coming up to the beach is quite nice, too.
No cars here, except for the two-tone job speeding by at the front, but the Esquire Hotel more than holds its own. Flat roofs, pipe railings, textured brick, freestanding sign letters, giant picture windows. Every mid-century trope beautifully on display.
And it looks great at night, too.
Of course, all play and no work has its limits, so let’s pay a quick visit to the University of Miami in Coral Gables to study parking lot demographics. Fun fact: This administration building was begun as a much taller, Spanish Mission Revival structure in the 1920s, abandoned as a partial steel frame during the Depression and WWII, and finally finished as we see here in the late forties.
Like much of Florida, the University of Miami experienced exponential postwar growth, with new buildings – and shapely coeds – popping up everywhere.
Same campus, different lot. And some serious pastel shades on display. There’s something about Kodachrome and deep outdoor shots like this – it almost looks like a model.
Speaking of tropical pastels, even the Masons got into the act, palm tree included. That medium-blue Fleetwood Sixty Special is a stunner. Which begs another question: Which of the cars on the streets here would you want to own today?
On this trip, the classics my dad captured weren’t limited to the roads. Just have a look at this stunning Chris-Craft cabin crusier, shot on the Intracoastal Waterway.
Or how about this pair, with a classic motor yacht on the left, and a fine sailing ketch on the right. Personally, I’d rather be on either of these than the overwrought monsters favored by the rich and famous these days.
Perhaps you’d prefer a sport fisher, visible from the picture window in your contemporary home.
According to the slide caption, this was a “$150,000 home under construction.” If only that were the case today.
Time to bid Florida, and 1953 adieu. But not before we stop into HoJos for fried clams and ice cream, of course. And special thanks to my dad, Bill Swartz, who took the time to record all of this 64 years ago.
What stunning pictures. I love the colour and your father had an eye for composition.
I haven’t yet gone to digital photography, just because there really is nothing like colour film photography. You are more selective with shots and they end up being printed and put in a photo album versus digital pictures, which end up going nowhere or dying when the device they are stored on dies. I know you CAN print them out but no one ever does.
+1. You are so right.
+2 – Robert, this post was a real treat.
Those Kodak Kodachrome images of Florida from 1953 are great! Thanks to Kodachrome (and your father’s good photography), the image resolution and color were spectacular, and even today these pictures are beautiful. Perhaps your dad had an Argus C3, a fine-quality camera or a Kodak Retina; on the other hand, he may have had a Leica III or Zeiss Ikon, Whatever the case, the images were fantastic.
There were several beautiful old cars shown; in particular, the black, four-door Series 50 1949 Buick sedan along side the late-forties white Dodge sedan.
Pictures from from a quieter, friendlier era!
The White MoPar is actually a DeSoto. My bad.
These were all taken with a Kodak Signet 35 rangefinder. Which he still has, but like me, he’s gone digital.
The Signet 35 was considered one of the best US-made cameras during that period. Excellent lens and mechanism; that, coupled with Kodachrome reversal film, gave professional results every time.
We also have the Retina II my mom received as a high school graduation present in 1952. No car- even though her mom owned half a dealership!
I have, but no longer use my favorite of my dad’s cameras – a 1968 Zeiss Ikon Super Contaflex. Early electronic light metering, removable 35mm film backs, and the focus and aperture controls fixed to the bodies, with a precise locking mechanism you attach the lenses to. Standard lenses, such as a 50mm, look like a filter. Heavy as a brick, too, which I like for stability.
I have one of those in my collection but have never used it. Back in the day that was Kodak’s top of the line camera and it cost $95. Good lens using the Tessar design and very well built. Some believe, given the cost and robust build, that the Signet 35 was made for the military.
I have a Signet 35, beautiful streamlined rangefinder that feels like a brick. Completely manual, you get some great pictures (if you remember to cock the shutter). Itty-bitty rangefinder is tough for my 58 year old eyes to use though.
I believe I read somewhere that the Signet’s lens glass had radioactive properties.
Ha, an Argus “brick”! I haven’t thought of those in years… I inherited an Argus setup from some I-laws, and there was a roll of K25 in one of them… I sent it off to a place that dealt with “outdated process” film (I had 1960’s Kodachrome and they used different chemistry to process it by the late 80’s when I had it) The roll turned out to be of a family trip to Hawaii in the mid/late 60’s, the colors were still nice despite sitting in a closet for 20 years… The family was extremely happy to get those images, let me tell you!
Great photos; I wonder if any of these buildings still exist?
I think the beige sail boat in 13th picture is a ketch; sloops have one mast and yawls have a second lower master behind the rudder post. If the second mast is equal to or taller than the first, it is a schooner rig.
The sport fisher in photo 14 is a mid-fifties 42 foot Matthews, one of my all time favorites. It seems to not have a flying bridge which is odd considering the outriggers indicate that they [may] really have used it for fishing. IMO all 42 foot Matthews sport fishers should have a flying bridge; they isolate you from the noise of the twin engines and give you 360 degrees of visibility, especially what’s happening in the cockpit when someone hooks a big one.
The Chris Craft is also a beauty; that design is called a DCFB (double cabin fly bridge). They were available in sizes from 38 feet up to yacht-ish. This one looks to be 50 feet or more. I would call that yacht-ish.
With snow and ice falling outside today, looking at 1950s wooden boats in Florida is a welcome diversion. Thank you.
Good catch on the ketch! fixed that. I really love large sailboats and motorboats from this era. While there are some fine contemporary designs, too many boats today, especially yachts, just look ridiculous. to say nothing of cruise ships!
I think the Chris Craft is a Conqueror which based on the year should be a 53 footer. I think the motor yacht is a Ted Geary design which were built in the pacific northwest. I’ve been on examples of both, a restored Chris craft in Maine (with triple engines) and Principia a Geary designed 96′.
These pictures are fabulous. So much to see and reflect upon. My eye is immediately drawn to the cars, of course, and the colors. They seem more vibrant and varied than what you typically see on the road today (silver, white, beige). Beautiful shots from a glamorous time and place.
At first glance the first picture lookes like the Dezerland Hotel on 8701 Collins Avenue, North Miami Beach.
My picture is from 2002, when I last stayed there.
The building can have been modified between 1953 and 2002.
If it is, the sad story is that this particular hotel was taken down a few years ago, which is sad for car lovers. The lobby and reastaurant area was all filled with cars, modified so you would sit in cars whilst being served. All hotel rooms each had a different car name.
Two things caught my eye. First, there’s a Servi-Car in the middle of the second photo. It seems as if every municipality had at least one of these (usually Harleys).
Then, the 4th photo catches a Hudson hardtop seeming to float above the tarmac. That’s probably my choice in the autos on display in these great shots.
All the photos my Dad took in 1954 were with an Argus. They were incredibly popular cameras. I still have his.
Wow, great stuff. Everything seems so clean. Wish Carmine was around to give us a running update. Thanks Bill and Robert.
That Esquire Hotel is a thing of beauty, day or night. I tried to do a quick Google search to see what it looks like today, but evidently it is long gone.
Wonderful Kodachrome photos of a bygone time! The Hudson Hardtop in motion, the high number of convertibles in general including a red 1952-’53 Lincoln and the blue 1946-’47 Cadillac 60 Special sedan stand out. “White Top Cab” used Plymouths then.
Having been the victim of tempermental electronic devices, I print most of my digital photos.
It’s interesting to see the absence of any foreign cars. I guess by ’53, one could see a few rolling around the big cities like Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
I like Mid-Century Modern. Too bad so much of it has been demolished and replaced by ’70s / ’80s/ ’90s Tacky.
Happy Motoring, Mark
When I left Florida about ten years ago, you could still find some of this architecture on the old US highways-US 98 down from Tallahassee toward Tampa, US 1 from Jacksonville toward Orlando. A few old family-run hotels that were still in business. Anything beach side had long been replaced by mega-high rises, discount shopping malls and upscale eateries. Better go see the north coast, from about St. Marks to Ft Walton, before it is all gone. And have some boiled shrimp and grilled grouper while you are there! As for car, I would gladly take that maroon (or brown?) 51 or 52 Chevrolet convertible parked on campus. Just the thing for tooling down for some bird watching at the wildlife refuge.
My father’s slides begin around the same time, and are holding up well. Not enough streetscape cars in them, or important locales, to post, I suppose.
It’s a treat to see these, Robert S. I do believe Paul and I share 1953 as our birth year, while at the same time about half of present-day Americans weren’t yet born by about 1980. Time marches on!
I got curious about the Esquire—not too much online, though this postcard (1950s, surely) gives a sense of its location.
These photos are a reminder of what a breakthrough the 1955 Chevys and Fords were—-if you don’t see even one in a photo, you just know it’s pre-Fall-1954.
Any chance you are related to the Sublettes who lived in Upper St. Clair, PA in the late 70s – early 80s?
Robert – many thanks for these wonderful photos and your commentary. So right about the architecture being ahead of automotive design at that point. I do love the view of that Lincoln convertible peeking out in the eighth photo. These photos are particularly evocative for me because I was four when my parents took me on our first winter vacation to Florida in 1953. IIRC we had an old Brownie camera and no money for color film/developing (pricier in those days) but I do have albums full of BW photos of the trip. Not sure where this one of my Dad and me was taken but I think it was an amusement park in Silver Springs.
More memories: you included Howard Johnson’s. Somehow my parents saved their Menu for Children from that trip, cover:
And menu:
Thanks, CA Guy. I’m a few years younger than you, but have a sense that the HJ menu I’d have seen on the PA Turnpike a few years later would have looked the same. Your post gave me an odd sense of deja vu, like seeing an old school texbook again after 50+ years……thanks for posting!///BTW, I went to eBay and searched “Silver Springs” “Florida”—–all kinds of vintage postcards and snapshots; they sure seem to match up to yours as the right “look.”
I know what you mean. Growing up in Pittsburgh with grandparents in Harrisburg in the late 60’s through the mid 70’s, I spent an inordinate amount of time in PA Turnpike HoJos, usually Midway or Sideling Hill after it opened. Frankforts – as they called them – or fried clams. Finished with a dish of ice cream with that cone-shaped cookie.
Amazing that we would stop for a meal on what was less than a four-hour trip, but that’s what 3 kids will do to you.
I aged myself a bit☺- I was a couple months past age three in that photo. Yes, I’m pretty sure it was Silver Springs – I could verify if I got out more photo albums from Florida trips (of which there were many).
We constantly ate in HoJo’s on road trips. One of my favorite items was the conically-shaped chicken croquettes with a white sauce. Just seeing those classic logo colors could make one hungry for that food.
I remember the HoJo kids’ menus quite well, though it must have been a later version than this one because my favorite, the Fearless Fido hot dog/fries/drink combo, isn’t on it. I recall the overall look being similar thouigh.
Although there are still several Howard Johnson’s hotels, there is only one restaurant left.
Great pictures, shots like this are what Paul Simon was singing about!
“I’ve got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away…”
I so miss Kodakchrome and its amazing archival properties. Old Kodachromes maintain their rich colors, never fading into the aquamarine-tinged hues common with other color prints and slides from the 1950s and ’60s. The extremely complex developing process was its sore point and now the film and any place to process it are gone. Wonder if any prints made today, film or digital, will hold up as well. I’m guessing most of the JPGs of today will be lost or sitting uncatorized on old hard drives, SD cards, or long-obsolete iPhones.
Kodachrome was such a wonderful film, and while Kodak said it would “last for 50 years,” or something to that effect, most transparencies have lasted much, much longer without degradation. Check this Kodachrome image from 1942, professional photography, North American Aviation (I think Pratt & Whitney R2800s in the picture), and the color is excellent to this day!
Those skin tones are spot-on. New to me are the ‘china girls’ used at the headers of celluloid motion pictures:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-forgotten-china-girls-hidden-at-the-beginning-of-old-films
Wow!
Gorgeous pics. Never been to Florida – is it really that bright and sunny all the time?
Most of the time, unless you are having a hurricane (“herrican” if your family has lived there a long time). Florida’s climate is subtropical, so, from Spring through Fall, the mornings are clear like this, then around lunch time it starts to cloud over. Between two and four o’clock you get a rain shower, with lightning and thunder (more people are killed by lightning in Florida every year than in any other state), and then the sun comes out again. Till it sets, and you get the most lovely twilight in the world, the air so soft and the light so diffused by the humidity that the Earth seems to glow a little. I miss the twilight there more than anything. But, bring your light clothing, sunglasses, sunscreen and a decent hat. The light is blindingly bright and if you are not close enough to the coast to get the sea breeze it can be unbearably hot and humid. There is a reason why the explosive post-war growth of the Florida population correlated with the general availability of air conditioning.
Nice shots. I have some (much more recent) Kodachromes of my own to scan, and it’s good to know that Kodachromes maintain their great color for decades. It’s a shame they don’t make it anymore.
fantastic pictures! I was there in 2009 but I have to say these pics show a very classy florida.
not something I would have called it during my time there.
To answer your question, Robert…
I’ll take the blue Fleetwood Sixty Special and the lime green Ford Custom coupe.
Wouldn’t change a thing about em, maybe a set of baby moons for each, as a spare cruising set.
Awesome Kodachromes, and thanks for sharing them with everyone. 😉
Yes, the colors! Cars came in muted pastel or grayish shades back then, I guess that is the best that DuPont could produce that would not fade excessively, or pigments that didnt cost more than than the Big Three were willing to pay. I’m sorry, black was as boring then as now, but even less practical with no air conditioning.
One thing that impresses me about Kodachrome is the rich blue sky. Dad and I shot hundreds of feet of 8mm Kodachrome 25 with a Yashica movie camera in the 1960s, which I still have.
I’m surprised to see as many dark-colored cars in these pics as there are, I suspect that pastels were favored to minimize solar gain in a climate like Florida before A/C in cars was at all common.
I suspect that the reason for the dark-colored cars might be that many people have driven to Florida from the northeast to visit during the winter or early spring, and that many of these cars don’t belong to Floridians.
Is that one of those swinging bridges over the porch at the Mason’s Hall?
Wonderful pictures! I’ve never been to Florida, and this is the way I always hoped it might be.
In the fifth picture, there’s a sweet baby blue ’53 Ford convertible parked in front of the Biltmore. That’s the one I’d drive home.
Wow – those pictures are breathtaking! They could easily be mistaken for today. The only thing that gives them away are the cars and the way people are dressed (such a classier time back then for sure). This was a refreshing write-up considering the last few days in New England have been nothing but ice and snow! Thanks!
Was there ever a better place in the world to be than Miami in the ’50’s? An exotic place for many in the country. Great pics, and from an iconic Kodak camera. Have a Kodak Pony 135 from 1955 or so that was passed down to me. Still takes great pictures if you can find film.
A nostalgic piece, as my parents always reminisce about the trip to Florida they took from Maryland in 1953 in their new Pontiac Cheiftain Deluxe.
Great photos! The Esquire and a few of the other buildings are great examples of the beginnings of mid-century modern, early examples of what was then a brave new style.
The first photo of the downtown, though shows the good and the bad of the architecture of the period. The Burdine’s/Sears building is attractive in an era-specific way, but the smaller buildings down the street seem to be older ones that have had their classic facades covered with monolithic metal or plaster facades. It was a regrettably common way of “updating” the look of the building without actually building something new, but it resulted in tall windowless and featureless expanses above the first floor. By the 80’s and 90’s these covered buildings tended to look pretty grim indeed. Thankfully many of those buildings that have managed to survive to the present day are being “uncovered” and restored to their original architectural glory.
Thanks for posting these. I was looking for a photograph of the Esquire Hotel and the images photographed by your father are perfect. I stayed there in 1954 and again 1956. Thanks again!
Beautiful, just beautiful! Love the 1950s!