Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground - Softcover

Moruzzi, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1423603672 ISBN 13: 9781423603672

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 2008

Synopsis

Through vintage and contemporary photographs, brochures, postcards, and artifacts evocative of time and place, Havana Before Castro tells the story of the city that was the most popular exotic destination for Americans during the forty years between World War I and Castro's revolution.

See how Havana evolved from America's Prohibition haven and rich man's playground to a heady blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all-night bars, and backstreet brothels.

Visit Havana's seamy Shanghai Theatre as well as its glamorous Tropicana, Montmartre, and Sans Souci nightclubs.
Linger at La Floridita -- the cradle of the daiquiri cocktail (one of Hemingway's favorite watering holes) -- rub elbows with Frank Sinatra at Sloppy Joe's Bar, and learn why Cuban cigars remain the world's most highly prized.

Follow the parade of corrupt presidents who, along with American mobsters such a Meyer Lansky, welcomed the mass tourism that led to Havana becoming a tropical Vegas swirling in a haze of rum and cigars, backed by a conga beat.

About this title

About the Author

An architectural historian by profession, Peter Moruzzi is an acknowledged expert on midcentury Modern architecture and design. He is the founder of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, an internationally recognized historic preservation organization, and the writer/director of Desert Holiday, a documentary film chronicling the history of Palm Springs as seen through vintage postcards. He resides in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles and in Palm Springs.

From the Inside Flap

Through vintage and contemporary photographs, brochures, and artifacts evocative of time and place, Havana Before Castro tells the story of the city that was the most popular exotic destination for Americans during the forty years between World War I and Castro's revolution.
See how Havana evolved from Prohibition haven and rich man's playground to a heady blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all-night bars, and backstreet brothels.
Visit Havana's seamy Shanghai Theatre as well as its glamorous Tropicana, roam the stately Hotel Sevilla-Biltmore and ultramodern Habana Hilton.
Savor a daiquiri at La Floridita (one of Hemingway's favorite watering holes), rub elbows with movie stars at Sloppy Joe's bar, and learn why Cuban cigars remain the world's most highly prized.
Celebrate the influence of Cuban music on American popular culture-the rumba, mambo, cha-cha-chá, and salsa-from its earliest stars such as Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz to modern acts like the Buena Vista Social Club.
Celebrate the city's architectural heritage, a Havana Modernism unique to Cuba's topography and climate.
Follow the parade of corrupt presidents who, along with American mobsters such as Meyer Lansky, welcomed the mass tourism that led to Havana becoming a tropical Vegas swirling in a haze of rum and cigars, backed by a conga beat.
Born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1961 and raised in Hawaii, Peter Moruzzi graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and later attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. An architectural historian by profession, Moruzzi is an acknowledged expert on mid-century Modern architecture and design. He resides in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles and in Palm Springs, California. He has been obsessed with the history of Cuba since 1987.
www.HavanaBeforeCastro.com

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The discovery of Havana in the 1920s by America's wealthy led to it becoming their winter playground with the establishment of country clubs and racetracks, a national casino, yacht clubs, golf courses, and suburban mansions. At the same time, other Americans arrived in Havana simply to escape Prohibition and enjoy a cocktail at Sloppy Joe's Bar with impunity and, at the same time, experience the city's romantic foreignness or, perhaps, its notorious reputation as a "goddess of delights."

Edition details

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1423603672
• ISBN 13: 9781423603672
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256