DESI ARNAZ

FLORIDA HISTORIC MARKER PROJECT

A fan-funded effort to honor an incredible American.

THIS INITIATIVE APPROVED BY THE ARNAZ FAMILY.

DESI ARNAZ DEDICATION DAY
Tuesday October 15, 2024 • 4 p.m.
Collins Park - Miami Beach

THE TIME HAS COME!

Smithsonian magazine feature announces Desi project to America

With Miami Beach selecting the date for the dedication of the Desi Arnaz Historic Marker, momentum, enthusiasm, and media attention around this fan-based effort is beginning to build. While the City coordinates its activities, local fans are working to make the dedication -- in whatever form it takes -- a sincere and genuine tribute to the life and career of Desi.

As word spreads through social media sites, media outlets and organizations such as the National Comedy Center, home of the Lucy Desi Museum, are becoming aware of the event and Smithsonian magazine was the first to bring the story to America through a 2,000-word feature written by Miami writer (and Desi fan) Raj Tawney.

Things will begin moving faster now, and details for the dedication will be taking shape as the City and local citizens plan the event. Continue watching this page for the latest news and details.

While growing up, Raj Tawney was well aware the impact 'I Love Lucy' and, especially, Desi Arnaz was making on him...

"The character of Ricky Ricardo helped me appreciate my own father, who is Indian American, as both men had a thick accent and weren’t shy about being humorous and loud. As a boy, I’d sometimes don a bow tie while the show was playing and pretend I was Little Ricky. In my family, “I Love Lucy” was never just a TV show—it was an heirloom passed down to me."

Now an author whose memoir Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience will be released on October 28 to coincide with National Immigrants Day, the Miami-based writer also contributes to prominent publications. Tawney's feature story in Smithsonian magazine is the first to bring the story of the Desi Arnaz historic marker to the nation.

The story details the impetus of the project, features comments from Miami Beach Mayor Steve Meiner and Vice-Mayor Alex Fernandez, encapsulates Desi's life in Miami Beach, and pays a sincere tribute to his contributions to entertainment...

And America.

Desi Arnaz

The Desi Arnaz Story

Honoring Desi Arnaz with a historical marker will be a significant and long overdue tribute to one of America's most famous adopted sons. The determination, talent, and perseverance this teenage refugee first demonstrated here would ultimately change the course of television entertainment.

He was born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha on March 2, 1917 in Santiago, Cuba. His father was a prominent physician, a wealthy landowner, and a popular senator. But Batista's Cuban Revolution forced Desi and his dad to flee to Miami (his mother would arrive later) where the penniless 17-year-old arrived unable to truly speak, read, or understand English. Remarkably, despite their reversal of fortune, neither he nor his father ever gave up hope. Their mantra "There has to be a way..." assured them they could overcome any obstacle.

For Desi, that meant cleaning canary cages for 25 cents each, helping his dad lay tile in Miami Beach homes, and struggling to save money by sleeping not in a home or in a boarding house, but on cots shoved in the back of a warehouse on SW Third Avenue. Arnaz never forgot sleeping with a club to protect himself and his father from the rats that infested the building.

A family friend and fellow refugee helped Desi enroll at St. Patrick Catholic School. Over time, he improved his English, learned guitar and the conga drum, and assimilated into his adopted home. Following graduation, he played a few gigs at the Roney Plaza Hotel where bandleader Xavier Cugat spotted the teenager's potential and took him on tour.

Returning to Miami in 1937, Arnaz met Bobby Kelly, son of entrepreneurial restaurateur 'Mother' Kelly, who was then opening a 200-seat nightclub as an addition to the brand new Park Avenue restaurant. Promising Kelly an orchestra and pitching himself as Cugat's star performer, Desi was hired for a two-week engagement. Unfortunately at the nightclub's December 30, 1937 premiere, it was obvious the 20-year-old had been so desperate for work he didn't reveal his "orchestra" was really just a handful of hired musicians who couldn't play the Latin rhythms Arnaz had promised. That's when his maxim -- "There has to be a way..." -- kicked in. Remembering his childhood in Santiago where a hypnotic rhythm was played at city-wide parties that stretched from dusk to dawn, Arnaz quickly taught the musicians to play a cadence of 'One-two-three-KICK!' Arnaz beat his conga drum in time, shouted to the audience to follow him, and above this primal rhythm he proceeded to dance everyone around the bar, out the doors, and through the surrounding streets before snaking the enraptured audience back into the nightclub.

What Arnaz called his 'Dance of Desperation' launched 'The Conga Craze' in America. Even more significantly, the ensuing publicity raised his profile and led him first to Broadway and then to Hollywood where he met the love of his life, Lucille Ball with the two becoming the proud parents of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., to his own (actual) orchestra, the production and ownership of 'I Love Lucy' and, most incredibly, the couples' purchase of RKO Studios. Along the way, his development of technical innovations such as shooting programs on three cameras, on film, and before a live studio audience would transform television and American entertainment.

And it all started on the streets of Miami Beach.

What a Difference an Art Deco Weekend Made!

At Art Deco Weekend 2024 I presented my lecture 'Desi Arnaz: Achieving the American Dream'.

Although the venue was small, the room was filled with people who were introduced to a hero they didn't know they had. As I concluded my talk which was filled with stories of Desi's teen years in Miami Beach and how he later created a television empire, I added a 'Wish List' for the event I'd like to see. I shared with the audience I would appreciate any advice or assistance from citizens, such as the City of Miami Beach naming the dedication day 'Desi Arnaz Day' and inviting the Cuban-American community to become involved through sponsorships and promotions. Say, why not ask dancers from the Miami City Ballet (whose home now sits where Desi once excited audiences at the La Conga nightclub) to lead a conga line through Collins Park where the marker will be placed?

To my amazement, several members of the audience approached me after the talk and offered to carry the ball over the goal line. In conjunction with members of the Miami Beach city council led by Alex Fernandez, will make this a true civic project.

 

Desi Deco 1

From a Cuban Revolution to a Miami Beach Resolution:
City Approves Desi Arnaz Historic Marker!

Nearly a year after a statewide board approved a historical marker honoring Desi Arnaz, on March 27, 2023 the City of Miami Beach followed suit with a unanimous vote and the passage of this resolution. With few honors recognizing the many contributions of Desi Arnaz, we hope this tribute will inspire future generations to learn about -- and learn from -- this extraordinary man.

Desi Resoultion Page 1
Desi Resolution Page 2

The Florida
Historic Marker
Program

As part of Florida's Division of Historical Resources, Florida Historical Markers are one of the most popular and visible historical awareness programs in the state. Designed to raise public awareness of Florida’s rich cultural history, these markers help tell the stories of the places and people who contributed to the state's unique cultural identity.

Mounted on a pole, the signs are 30" high by 42" across. There are nearly 1,000 historic markers in Florida, yet only four of the 72 signs in Miami-Dade County are dedicated to people: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Ameila Earhart, Judy Nelson Drucker, and Barbara Baer Capitman.

Desi Arnaz will be the first man honored as an individual.

Florida Historic Markers

The Park Avenue...

Located at the corner of Park Avenue and 22nd Street, the Park Avenue brought new life to a quiet area of Miami Beach the locals had long dismissed as 'Rum Row'. When Arnaz ignited the district with the adrenaline of the conga, owner Bobby Kelly suggested they rename the club 'Desi's Place'. Arnaz had a better idea.

"Let's call it 'La Conga'."

Today the Miami City Ballet occupies the former site of the Park Avenue and shares the neighborhood with the adjacent Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach Regional Library, Collins Park, and 21st Street beach -- all of which create a sanctuary of recreation and cultural activities.

As city officials determine the exact placement of the marker, it may be suitable that it be featured at Liberty Avenue by the intersection of 22nd Street -- a nod to the incredible American journey of Desi Arnaz.

Park Avenue Postcard 2
Desi 1938
Desi 1538
Desi 1838

DESI ARNAZ

Florida Historic Marker Project

Before there was Elvis,
there was Desi.

Watch this clip from the 1940 film 'Too Many Girls' and you'll literally feel the power and energy Desi was generating more than a decade before Elvis got all shook up. From these few minutes alone you can sense the 23-year-old 'King of the Conga' was destined for greatness. Also notable is a brief glimpse of Lucille Ball and the combustible dancing of the incomparable Ann Miller.

The Story Behind the Project

In August 2022, Florida Frontiers correspondent Holly Baker produced this entertaining and educational segment which details exactly why you should pitch in and make this a reality. The feature, which focuses on Desi's arrival in America and the extraordinary event that propelled him on his first brush with fame, aired on NPR stations across the state.

Click the picture and take a listen.