THE FORGE
A blacksmith’s forge on west 41st St. provides shoes for horses, the main form of transportation to and from The Beach, since the turn of the century. After Henry Flagler builds the railroad from Jacksonville to The Keys, the first wealthy land owners begin moving south from New York and Boston, building vast estates in the Miami area to winter in Florida. Ye Olde Forge begins crafting iron works to furnish the grand homes of developers, such as Carl Fisher and George Merrick. The intricate wrought iron is forged into exorbitant gates and railings, the first glimpse of riches as you enter the vast properties throughout the county.
The proprietor, Clarence Calahan, a shrewd business man modifies Ye Olde Forge as the automobile replaces the horse and cart, adapting to the flourishing real estate boom, as fewer and fewer horseshoes are shod, and construction materials become the mainstay. The South is still susceptible to slavery, and The Klu Klux Clan active and lynching’s still common in Florida. African-Americans are banned from Miami Beach, except for laborers with a police issued “pass”. “Gentiles” only permitted north of 5th St. No Jews Allowed. The hurricanes of 1926, & 1928, destroy properties throughout Miami that are not built with the expertise and expense of the richest estates, leaving a classist cleansing in their tumultuous wake. Calahan begins a subsequent business venture, reforming the rear of his Forge into a Speakeasy. Selling jacked up bootlegged liquor, and offering illegal gambling.
After the crash of the stock market in 1929, the Great Depression suffuses the country, and the requirement for costly building materials. Calahan seizes the opportunity to equip the armed forces moving south.
As the 1930’s legalizes gambling, and air-conditioning becomes affordable, Miami Beach becomes an increasingly popular year-round playground for tourists and locals alike.
In 1936 Calahan’s Forge is bought out by Al Capone confidante “Jack McQuire” who refurbishes The Forge into an infamous speakeasy jazz club. The notorious mobster transactions are propagated behind the closed doors of the exclusive Forge. Murders, money laundering, prostitution. The property on W 41st Street becomes a hedonistic, debaucherous venue for the Who’s Who of The original Rich & Famous.
By the 1940’s Miami Beach was fast becoming The Place to follow the American Dream. The estates more extravagant, the lifestyle more desirous. In 1952, The world famous, most opulent and magnificent Fountainebleau Hotel is built just minutes from The Forge. Auto tire magnate Harvey Firestone sells his mansion to hotelier, Bill Novak, for an exorbitant $2.3 million. He erects the most luxurious hotel in Florida on Millionaire’s Row. Celebrities and entertainers, ranging from Elvis Presley and Bob Hope to Lucille Ball and Judy Garland made the hotel so popular that Novack is forced to post armed guards to bar non-guests from entering. It was in this flourishing, decadent time that powerful attorney, self-made millionaire, Al Malnik purchases Ye Olde Forge, and builds a 35,000 sq foot upscale steakhouse, unlike Florida has ever seen.
Avant garde Malnik conducts powerful business meetings over extravagant dinners, in the open air courtyard, that once was the stable and forgery. His guests include Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack, The Kennedy’s, Marylin Monroe.
The underworld established in The Forge continues through the fifties into the 1960’s. Exorbitant deals are made under the newly installed roof, of the supper club; art, business, entertainment, politics, with Al Malnik becoming the most powerful and controversial attorney in the United States. Malnik & his beautiful wife Debbie, entertain a plethora of celebrity couples at The Forge, becoming close with Debbie Reynolds and gambling millionaire, Harry Karl. Al and Debbie Malnik have a son, Mark and daughter, Andee. They adopt Alison and as their marriage ends Suzy is born. The children are reared at The Forge, indulging in a glamorous, entitled up-bringing surrounded by riches and the high life, socializing with Hollywood children, traveling each year to the French Riviera, yachting with celebrities all summer. After their divorce, Malnik builds the palatial Cricket Club on The Beach, starting a veritable real estate trend, and he moves into the Penthouse. By the early 1970’s, Studio 54 has nothing on the capers that unfold on W 41st St. World famous guests shuttled back and forth from The Fountainbleau and Cricket Club into the exclusive doors of this extravagant steakhouse, to sit with Malnik at table #5. Anything available on and off the menu, a feast for those who can afford to indulge their every whim. Mark is exposed to the starlets that his father entertains, and is initiated into this exclusive Bunny Club on his 13th birthday, moments after reciting the Torah, at his Bar mitzvah.
The party scene along with its unlawful corruption has by now taken its toll on Miami Beach. Landlords and hoteliers are forced to rent their properties to retirees, drug dealers and criminals, who can’t quite afford plummy Palm Beach.
Malnik uses this lull to renovate The Forge to embrace a flourishing future. His son, Mark marries his second wife, a Saudi princess and changes his name and religion. 1980’s an impoverished South Beach is filled with Cocaine Cowboys,
Jewish geriatrics and gay men diagnosed with the mysterious and deadly HIV virus. And then comes the TV show, Miami Vice..