1951 Honeymoon in Miami

In commemoration for what would have been my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary, I have compiled the complete footage from their honeymoon and posted here a complete, high-res version of the two previous uploads from the trip I made back in 2008 and 2009.

My grandparents were married on March 18, 1951 in Philadelphia. After journeying down to Miami, they checked in to the San Souci Hotel, which was located between 31st and 32nd streets in Miami Beach. The "The 31" sign you see at 1:24 likely refers to an establishment on 31st street. The scenes from the San Souci are mostly on the pool deck, complete with footage of a deep pool as well as a high diving board that you will seldom find today in our sue-happy society. Other scenes include the front entrance as well as the inside of their room.

The other half of this video shows their departure from their honeymoon at Miami International Airport. At the time of this video the airport was no more than an open terminal and one small building that was built in the 1920s. The aircraft that they board is an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Constellation with registration number N105A. The flight number is 614 and the airplane is bound for Newark and then Boston. In doing research of that registration number, I have learned that the plane was delivered to Eastern in 1947 and then sold off in the 1960s to various other companies such as Pacific Air Transport. Its story actually has a rather ominous ending - apparently in 1980 it attempted a takeoff with only three engines for a smuggling run and was later written off - after bullet holes were found in it. Read more information at: http://www.conniesurvivors.com/HI-332.htm.

Note that though this video has HD 720p viewing options, you will be best viewing in 480p, as that feature is the result of how I compiled this footage. The footage was shot with Super-8mm film, and converted to VHS tapes in 1986. During that conversion, the music you hear was added, and because of how well it conveys the material, I chose not to alter it for the digital age as I did by using a VHS-DVD recorder, and then ultimately through my computer's video converting software, and then to YouTube.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• history
• historical
• florida
• tropic
• tropical
• vacation
• vacations
• 1950s

[parsecsam]

I lived on Miami Beach from the late forties to the early sixties. i was an acrobat/clown diver, working in most hotels on Miami Beach including the San Souci. There is a diver in this video; I could swear it was me. I always bounced on the board to warm up and I would always "seat drop" it was one of my bits in the clown routines. The swan dive looked like me, There is a photo on my site of me posing with Miss Universe 1960, wearing that swimsuit. Thanks for the memories!

[dadsoldtapes]

@parsecsam Oh wow, I get a lot of people who claim they are actually in my videos! This was back in the good ol' days when our laws didn't care about having a deep pool with a diving board (you may have heard they were banned in South Florida after a 1993 accident). Also you see "The 31" - that must have been on 31st street near the water. I wonder what happened to the Sans Souci...

[robertwmartens]

Thanks, you did a wonderful job with the restoration. This certainly is a great document of a bygone era. And I must say, those one-piece swimsuits were pretty sexy in their own way! I'm sure that somewhere up there, your grandparents are smiling.

[dadsoldtapes]

@robertwmartens Bikinis, you mean. Yeah, a vacation resort in those days would involve a high diving board, a deep swimming pool, and whatever the types of behaviour that today's sue-happy America no longer permits. Pools at hotels today are barely even deep enough to jump into... then again there are so many more attractions than there were back in the 50s, but you get the idea. Speaking of which, a fatality on a diving board in 1993 in Florida outlawed diving boards there.

[jeffreyalman]

very beautiful - ran across it looking for old Miami Beach stuff - well done!

[Designandrew]

i love in how old home videos it was such a novelty that they 'acted' if you like, sort of set up shots etc. Great video!

[rxpro19]

very cool......