Jack Penrod owned a bar in Ft. Lauderdale bearing the family name. During the Spring Break, when hundreds of thousands of vacationing students came to town, Penrod's barely closed. There were something like 17 bars in the building, and they were all open to the partying students. Then the city of Ft. Lauderdale decided to end the 600,000+ students who came to the city during Spring Break, and to focus instead on a 'family atmosphere.' The line in the sand was drawn, right between the students sleeping on the beach, drinking on the beach, and yes, doing
that on the beach, if they could do it and get-away with it. No more drinking alcohol on the beach. No more sitting on the trunk of a slowly-moving car going down A1A, the gridlocked beach road, trying to make contact with the opposite sex.
Jack Penrod decided it was time to cash-out. He sold his popular business and headed south, to Miami Beach.
At the time, Miami Beach was full of aged pensioners living in cheap, small high-rises and garden terrace apartments (remember the Columbian drug ripoff in
Scarface, the notorious bathtub chainsaw scene, not shown in its entirety in the USA), recent immigrants, lured by the cheap rents, and not much was going-on. Developers decided the pickings were good, and began buying-up the buildings, and either remodeling them or demolishing them to build anew. The tenants the developers would be courting weren't the old people living on fixed incomes, it would be the rich people who could afford a vacation condo on the Atlantic Ocean, next to Miami, in rapidly-changing Miami Beach.
Into all of this stepped Jack Penrod. He bought a large area at the south end of Miami Beach, called (of-course) South Beach. Here he built a huge new hotel, and he named the beach club after his beloved daughter Nikki.
At the same time the redevelopment was beginning, the world's greatest free advertisement began. A second-tier young handsome actor accepted a lead role in a cop drama, and the plot included a black actor as his partner. The series was to be about life among the criminals in Miami Florida. It would include plots pulled from the news headlines of the day, such-as drugs, drug dealers, and illegal activity of all kinds: escorts, counterfeiting, public corruption, car racing, boat racing, fixed pari-mutuel races and other betting (bolita, jai-alai, dog racing, thoroughbred horseracing), illegal arms shipments, smuggling of all kinds. The two young male cops would be undercover, and have access to fast boats, fast cars, planes, jets, and whatever they needed to entice the law-breakers. It was called
Miami Vice, and was done in a style of cinematography by a director named Michael Mann, known for his fast-paced shooting, beautiful locations, gritty streetscapes, and use of a rock & roll background soundtrack which in Miami would be augmented by the
reggae music of Jamaica. Even the graphics for the show set a style, simple block letters set-onto pastel-colored geometric shapes, still used today.
The actors wore hip clothes, pastel colors were big, as were unlined white linen sportcoats with the sleeves pushed-up, collarless silk pastel undershirts, no socks, and expensive Italian loafers. The women would be in designer dresses, sporting couturier accessories, and fashion just got a big shot in the arm from the show.
Jack Penrod was in the right place at the right time. Penrod's South Beach and Nikki Beach became one of the hot-spots to see and be seen.
To populate the hotel and beach club, Penrod chose beautiful young men and women. And yes, the women wore matching costumes and bathing suits.
Penrod's continues to be one of the most-successful businesses hosting tourists on Miami Beach, and Miami Vice is just a memory, a TV program that drew many stars to its shows, including lots of popular actors and actresses, and music stars. "Smuggler's Blues" became one of Glenn Frey's signature tunes, and provided background music for one of Miami Vice's most-popular shows. Phil Collins, while "In the Air Tonight" played, would be involved in an illegal deal gone bad. Jan Hammer introduced the viewing public to the opening show every week as helicopters raced across Biscayne Bay, deep-V speedboats ran across the Atlantic Ocean towards the entry to the Port of Miami, where so-many illegal goods made the same trip. Indeed, one of the shows was about an open ocean boat racing team that used their racing as a cover for their drug-smuggling. They were back in the news last week as the last member was caught in Orlando FL after jumping bail 26 years before. Be sure to read this story, fascinating, and true:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/r...n-was-caught-this-week-after-26-years-9278568
Even Frank Zappa made a guest appearance as a drug dealer, and he certainly looked the part, latin-looking, small-of frame, dark long hair, facial hair, and just the right anti-social vibe, as you would expect of someone accused of pedaling
weasel dust! He jumped overboard in the Atlantic Ocean to avoid capture by Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs.
Watch the episode:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...D21AD1A1D4E0AC3FDF16D21AD1A1D4E0AC3&FORM=VIRE
So when you see this type of picture:
yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he spends his vacation after December 25 at Penrod's On The Beach (Miami Beach) and at Nikki Beach, where the women are beautiful, and they may wear the same bathing suit.
Satisfied customers at Penrod's on South Beach/Miami Beach, Florida.
