Posted on 01/12/2025 8:17:03 AM PST by PJ-Comix
Here is news anchorman Ralph Renick presenting a special report about a "crime wave" in Miami during the 1950s. Apparently the crimes involved were considered so dire that the State Attorney even issued a stern warning about the dangers such crimes posed.
PING!
And little did we know that by not cracking down on minors playing pin ball or girlie show marquees, in say Indiana, that the downfall of society could have been avoided. Miami was leading the fight then as it does now...Say No to Girlie Show Marquees and Minors hanging out in PinBall Halls 🤪
Hmm…what changed since the ‘50s?
Ralph Renick also led a series of PSA crusades against Bolito games.
For those who didn't watch the video, the crime wave consisted of minors (defined as kids under 17) playing pinball machines and street advertisements for "girly show" cabarets being insufficiently covered during the daytime.
If they only knew what what coming...
They got a good taste during the Cuban Mariel invasion and the 70s and 80s drug wars.
What happened is that during the 50s and much of the 60s Miami still lived in an age of relative innocence with very little violent crime. I remember Ralph Renick going into a fury every so often about the illegal sale of Bolitos (non-government lottery tickets) but that was about it. Things changed swiftly after the Mariel boatlift in 1980. You can see some of that in Scarface where blissful Miami Beach went into a steep violent crime wave. Also most of the retirees living there reached the end of their natural lifespans with few to replace them.
Anyway, the Mariel boatlift people were eventually mostly gone (Read Elmore Leonard for a sense of what was going on during that era). And the TV show "Miami Vice" brought back a lot of tourism (especially from Europe) that was lost before. Now when you go to the hotels in Miami Beach, most of the visitors are from South America.
In many ways, Miami has been revitalized so that is a positive. However, that age of 1950s innocence in which slot machines and risque "Girly Show" signs were at the forefront of a "crime wave" is Gone With The Wind. Check out "Surfside 6" shows to get a bit of a feel of old innocent Miami.
Posting this from Wynwood. It feels like Mexico here and nobody speaks English.
Wynwood section of Miami? That used to be the center of the garment district which was very prominent in Miami. I remember they had a great deli type sandwich shop there where the locals would go to shmooze. I also remember a funny incident. There used to be yearly fashion show in which dress manufacturers would have models display the latest styles of dresses. Anyway, when I was about 7 years old they had a show which I think took place on Dinner Key or maybe somewhere else in Miami. My parents knew one of the women modeling the dresses so they took her (and me) to the fashion show.
Long story short. The model and her dress didn't win at the show. I can't remember anything much about that show EXCEPT after the award ceremonies there was a dance and a bleach blonde model who was dancing with a dress manufacturer whose dress she wore started kicking him and screaming at him because apparently she was guaranteed she would win. The dress manufacturer was completely embarrassed by the blonde model who didn't let up and she eventually started punching him and they had to pull her away to save the poor guy (and that is when she revealed she was guaranteed in advance to win by that same dress manufacturer.) My mom couldn't stop talking about that incident on the way home.
A very very Miami memory from that era.
“Posting this from Wynwood. It feels like Mexico here and nobody speaks English.”
.
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Mexicans keep the volume ‘way down, while a Cuban discussions of the weather sounds like a fight is about to break out...
“They got a good taste during the Cuban Mariel invasion and the 70s and 80s drug wars.”
.
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I was living in Miami from 1960 through 1999.
From 1972, I was in CSI. Later moved to “ballistics” (Now known as “Forensic Ballistics”).
Drug/murder crime drove our lab from three examiners in 1978 to ten by 1990.
The County’s original name (Dade County Sheriff’s Office) changed a few times, to where it is now known as the “Miami-Dade Police Department”.
Assisted NEW State Attorney Janet Reno (appointed by (D) Governor Bob Graham) in her first case, known as the “Round Table Restaurant Police Shootout”. She failed to get a Grand Jury indictment against the Coral Gables officer (who was hired from Egypt, btw).
In retirement now, spending leisure time six hours north (and six hours south) of Miami.
Draw a line across from Sarasota to Stuart, and you’ll find English is in a severe decline throughout South Florida.
:(
‘Forgot to mention that, in 1960, the railroad ran straight down the main road of US Highway #1.
For a few days, I could have lunch while watching U.S.Army tanks, other military wheel/tracked hardware and land-based missiles streaming south to where they’d be installed 90 miles from Havana.
(!)
“If they only knew what what coming... “
They did. They warned all who would listen during the fifties and sixties. The magazine’s Newspapers and TV news loved quoting them making their damning predictions of our likely future in contrast with interviews with younger people. I was a kid. I thought they were uncool geezers who should put their OTHER foot into their grave and lie down and stfu. Somewhere along the line I realized that the world they warned about was here.
Ralph Renick, now that’s a name from the past.
Wynwood, I live in Hollywood. I built a lot of buildings in that neighborhood.
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