Unfortunately, the Miami historic community is rife with jealousy and several nasty and vicious for no reason people who will not be honored by having their names appear in this column who are at the top of the hall of shame list. In any case, and as reported in the previous column, the “you’re gonna’ hear from my lawyer because you are using two words that I have in my title” nonsense popped up again, several years ago. Different person, same ignorant foolishness.
I put out, on several lists including Growing up on Miami Beach and others that one of the books that I was working on was going to be titled Training the Troops in Sun and Sand: Greater Miami During World War II following which I received an email from a woman who told me that two of those words were in her title, that her title was copyrighted and that I had better change my title. I wrote back quite cordially to tell her that for a PhD she really didn’t know very much and that one cannot copyright a title. Your work is copyrighted, but you can’t copyright a song, music, play or book title.
She emailed back, falsely accusing me of being nasty and telling me that I was going to hear from her attorney.
I emailed the foolish lady back, as follows: “As I told you, you cannot copyright a song, music or book title, so please be aware that invoking your attorney’s name does not intimidate me in the least, especially since my beloved stepson, my grandson and my daughter are all members of the Florida Bar, as is our former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice, whose biography—the first ever biography of a Florida judge or Supreme Court Justice—I am the author of.” And guess what? I haven’t heard a word from her since. (As the great line from “Casablanca” goes, “shocked! I’m shocked!” <NOT>) Guess her attorney straightened her out, yuh think?!!
Now, back to the topic at hand. As I wrote, I received a call from Arcadia Publishing and in short order produced four books for them, all of which were happily excellent sellers. I then spoke to the acquisitions editor and told him that I was ready to propose another four or more and was told that since authors seem to lose interest in promoting their books after several have come out, they wanted me to “take a hiatus.”
My rejoinder was, “are you kidding me?!! I get more fervent about pushing them with every book, and look at how well the four are doing.”
“Even so,” he told me, “we are giving you a time out.” I was steaming, especially since I met with the late Richard C. Schulman, administrative aide to the Sunny Isles Beach mayor and commission and the mayor himself, a wonderful man by the name of Norman Edelcup shortly thereafter. It was at that meeting that I was told that they wanted me to write the city’s twentieth anniversary history.
I accepted, although, for the moment, without a publisher and then, less than a week later, another phone call, that from The History Press, asking me if I would like to write for them, and, incredibly, that would begin a lengthy and very rewarding for both parties partnership. The Sunny Isles Beach history is now one of my six and one-half histories of Miami Beach and the northern suburbs, those books including the three Miami Beach histories as well as 33154: The Story of Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Indian Creek Village and Surfside and the separate Surfside book in Arcadia’s “Images of America” series. The “half” book is L’Chaim! The History of the Jewish Community of Greater Miami, the first-ever history of the Jewish people in Dade County, that book being approximately half Miami Beach and half the rest of the county.
Following From Sandbar to Sophistication we (The History Press and I) moved on to Sunshine, Stone Crabs and Cheesecake: The Story of Miami Beach, then Boulevard of Dreams: A Pictorial History of El Portal, Biscayne Park, Miami Shores and North Miami and finally The Curtiss—Bright Cities: Hialeah, Miami Springs and Opa Locka. It was sometime during that period that Turner Publishing, of Nashville, contacted me to write Historic Photographs of Greater Miami and Historic Photographs of Palm Beach County, the latter book now available and on sale in every room in the famous Breakers Hotel on Palm Beach. Each of those two books, incidentally, has three different versions and they are also available in various outlets, including amazon.com.
At about that same time, the Centennial of the F E C Railway’s Key West Extension was coming quickly and the Key West Art and Historical Society determined that not only did they want to publish a book featuring the single greatest railroad engineering and construction project in U. S.—and, possibly, world—history but that Seth Bramson, the F E C’s Company Historian, should author it. I did, and we’ll keep you in suspense regarding that book and what followed until next time. As always, all, be—and stay—well and we’ll be back with you shortly.
