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Over the years, many well-known, if not famous people
have made Coconut Grove their home. Most came to the Grove for a visit
at first, fell in love with the place and moved here as soon as
possible. Some of them have made the Grove their special place, either
temporarily or permanently.
Dr. John Lilly was one. He worked with dolphins in the
old bank building on Main Highway, diligently seeking the elusive
inner-species communication link.
Tennessee Williams was another. He lived on the water
at the end of Bay Homes Drive in south Grove. There, he wrote his
plays to the tune of ocean breezes. He was seen around the Grove
sometimes, but not often.
Don Martin, the cartoonist who drew those
silly-looking, flat-footed characters for Mad Magazine, also lived in
south Grove. We used to drop by to see him and sometimes when we
approached his studio in back of the main house we would hear him
laughing. He would be drawing his Mad assignment and he told us that
if it was funny to him then he figured it would be funny to the
readers.
Author Philip Wylie, who penned such classics as Essay
on Morals, Generation of Vipers and The Adventures of Crunch and Des,
actually lived in South Miami, but he loved the Grove. He spent any
free time he had hanging out in the Grove and never told anyone that
he didn't live here.
Actor Jose Fere had a home for many years in south
Grove. He championed the Coconut Grove Playhouse and was involved in
numerous local theatre projects.
David Crosby, the infamous rock star, has lived in
Coconut Grove several times over the years. He met a relatively
unknown Joni Mitchell while she was performing at the old Gaslight
Coffeehouse, took her to California, introduced her around and the
rest, as they say, is history.
Our ole buddy Jimmy Buffet used to hang out with us in
the Grove. He'd play new tunes for us and tell funny, funny stories.
But we guess he's got a Key West image to maintain. And, too, he's got
his hands full trying to save what few manatees that are left.
Robert Frost lived in South Miami. He was good friends
with Arthur Gulliver, who founded Gulliver Academy and originally
located it at St. Gaudens and Main Highway. They sometimes bonefished
together. He would come and read his poetry for the students on a
soft, cool evening. The word would spread around the Grove that Frost
was going to be there and Grove residents would come and join the
students to listen to him read his poetry under the stars.
The Beatles also liked the Grove. They lived at the
old Trading Post on Ingraham Highway in south Grove with our friend
Rocky Williams. They basically hung out and worked on their music
while they were here, and wrote a tune about their host, one that
became a classic and a favorite of Beatles fans entitled Rocky
Raccoon.
Albert Grossman, the manager of Bob Dylan, The Band,
Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul and Mary, among others, lived in the Grove
for a number of years. He had a recording studio in Woodstock, New
York and divided his time between here and there.
Jorma Kakounan, lead guitar player for Jefferson
Airplane and Hot Tuna, lived in the Grove. He liked the place so much
that it was difficult to get him to go on the road with the band when
he was supposed to.
Neil Young and Stephen Stills were introduced to the
Grove by David Crosby and spent a great deal of time here.
Then, John Sebastian wrote a hit tune called Coconut
Grove when he lived here in the early 70's and the floodgates began to
open to waves of new Grove residents.
Bernie Higgins popularized another tune with the
refrain, "Split the difference, go to Coconut Grove," and a
lot more people did.
Fred Neil had originally written the Midnight Cowboy
theme Everybody's Talking with lines like, "I'm going where the
sun keeps shining through the pouring rain, I'm going where the
weather suits my clothes. Banking off a northeast wind, sailing on a
summer breeze..." and although he never actually named the place
in the song, everyone soon figured out where he was talking about.
There was only one place that could fit that description -- Coconut
Grove, Florida!
Neil and some of us used to have coffee at Angela's
Cafe in the Grove in the mornings. He would look at all the people and
traffic, shake his head and remark grimly, "I should never have
written that damn tune."
And none of us would immediately disagree with
him. Jerry Jeff Walker, the Texas songster, lived in the Grove
for about a year. We drank a lot of Wild Turkey with him while he was
here.
He told us a good story one afternoon when we were all
a little bombed. He said he got put in jail in New Orleans and while
he was there wrote his big hit Mister Bojangles, which became an
instant success as soon as he recorded it. He said that shortly
thereafter he went home to see his mother and the first thing she said
was, "Jerry Jeff, I heard your song on the radio. That's a real
pretty song."
"Yes Ma'am," he said, "I wrote that in
jail in New Orleans." She looked at him over her glasses
and said disapprovingly, "You were in jail?" And refused to
ever listen to it again.
Guitarist Ry Cooder came all the way from California
to record with the Dixie Flyers, Criteria Studios' house band, and
quickly discovered the Grove. After the album was done he stayed
around the Grove for a couple of months. He was the most gentle soul
you could ever hope to meet.
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, author of River of Grass
and champion of helping save the remainder of the Everglades, had a
wonderful little house in south Grove. But, not even with her
endearing smile and sparkling eyes could she save the Grove. She
discovered quickly, most probably, that a shoot-the-wounded-and-ride
attitude prevailed here.
David Fairchild, the expert on plant introduction and
author of The World is My Garden, lived at the Kampong, as was the
name of his estate in south Grove, which the property still carries
today. He brought species of fruits and other plants from all over the
world to south Florida. As well, he introduced Durham wheat -- from
which our fine macaroni flour is derived -- brought Japanese rice to
the lower Mississippi River Valley, and introduced Sudan grass,
fereith sorghum and hairy alfalfa, crops that have added billions to
our farm economy.
Next door to him lived the inventor, Alexander Graham
Bell, Fairchild's father-in-law. Aside from the telephone, he invented
a method of distilling fresh water from salt water using solar energy.
He designed a hydrofoil boat in 1919 that traveled more than 70 miles
an hour. He also developed the aileron for the airplane, worked with
Edison in perfecting the phonograph and produced dozens of other
inventions that are commonplace today.
When he moved here, the Miami Telephone Company came
out with great fanfare to install a telephone for him. Bell, a shy man
by nature, thanked them, but declined the telephone stating that he
seldom used the instrument as it intruded upon the privacy of others.
Dr. Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, Bell's other son-in-law,
was another of Coconut Grove's giants. He was president of the
National Geographic Society for 50 years and had many close friends
who visited him in the Grove -- Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover,
Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Admiral Byrd, Charles Lindberg
and Amelia Earhart, among them.
Howard Hughes had an estate on Main Highway just south
of the Taurus Restaurant. He and his pilot would sometimes stop here a
few days on their way to or from the Bahamas.
David Hill, owner of the Taurus, said he would get a
telephone call from Hughes and he would say, "My pilot and I
would like to come down and dine. Clear out the back room,
please."
Hill would hurry and get the room ready and soon they
would come in the back door and be seated. Hughes always insisted that
only Hill wait on them and that he personally oversee the preparation
of the food exactly as Hughes had ordered it. No one else was allowed
to enter the room while they were there. When they finished dining,
the pilot would pay, of course leaving a healthy tip, and they would
depart by the back way. The ironic thing about Hughes was that as rich
as he was he never carried money or even touched it; just another of
his many quirks.
In the annals of Coconut Grove there has been no one
to quite match William Jennings Bryan. He conducted the world's
largest Bible class at Miami's Bayfront Park every Sunday and was
Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. He was paid $100,000 a year
-- half in cash and half in Coral Gables property for speaking to
prospective buyers of Coral Gables land. The great pride of his life
was the planning and building of Bryan Methodist Church on Main
Highway.
But, Bryan is most famous for his part in the Scopes
Monkey Trial, which was held in a sweltering small town in Tennessee.
It was religion vs. Darwinism and the entire country followed each
day's episode breathlessly awaiting the outcome. Bryan and Clarence
Darrow debated for days and Darrow used his facts and skills very much
as a surgeon uses a scalpel. Bryan left the courtroom apparently
defeated and died a few hours later.
Like so many famous Grovites, Bryan's greatness was
reflected in his offspring. His daughter, Ruth Bryan Owen,
congresswoman and ambassador to Denmark, sponsored the bill that
created Everglades National Park.
The Gaslight Coffeehouse closed one night in 1968
about 1:30 and there were a number of us Grovies that had hung around
for the third set, since it was Fred Neil and Vince Martin performing
together. Jose Feliciano, the blind Puerto Rican entertainer, was
there with his wife Hilda, who helped him get around.
After the music ended, we all went outside and stood
around, talking. It was a cool South Florida night, with the
tantalizing fragrance of jasmine in the air. There was almost no
traffic at night in the Grove in those days, so some of us started
throwing a Frisbee out in the street under the light. In them days,
dear heart, even the traffic light went off duty at midnight, blinking
yellow until dawn.
Suddenly, down the street came Feliciano on a bicycle
that he had borrowed from somebody, his arms spread out, yelling,
"Look, Ma, no hands!"
Of course, we all grabbed him before he killed his
durn fool self. But we laughed and laughed, and hugged him. God, we
were so happy for a little while.
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