Love at first sight

[Tom]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

I looked around Northern Dade for the daytime crime scene.   Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.

This is a huge mystery as it is also a "convenience location" that is 100% close to other locations in this episode or en route between them. The pink pedestrian walkways and the street lamp style says clearly Miami Beach, but there ain´t anything anywhere. I can´t even find the apartment complex with the round wall in front of it, let alone a place where the other things around fit. That building with round corner wall in front of it should be easy to spot from above one would think. But nada (and I used historic aerials massively on this).

But overall we have been massively successful. 76 locations found in 50 episodes since last May that makes more than one per week and only 20 left in all seasons (maybe I missed a few small snippets). See my updated list at the end of the Group Detective thread.  

Edited May 22, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

Foxy Boxers - new hints pointing at the Boulevard Theater

I speculated above earlier that the Boulevard Theater at 7770 Biscayne could have been the location of the Foxy Boxers site. Now I found new evidence supporting this assumption. 

In the episode, I just recently found a very long second floor gallery with viewers watching the foxy boxers and making pictures with flashlight cameras! The gallery and several flashes taken by viewers are clearly visible throughout the scenes in Carol´s background. See my episode still analysis plus two current pics taken from that gallery below. 

More info about the club interior now and the second level ("VIP Level 2") inside: https://goldrushcabaret.com/about/

This is a breakthrough and means:

• 1. the Club Nu is excluded as a location. Club Nu (I was there myself) did not have a second floor gallery inside at all. The elevated seating area we see in this episode was a VIP area that was elevated from the floor, but not a full fledged second floor with a gallery alongside the whole width of the building. Also the type of chairs used in the Foxy Boxers scene is completely different than in the Club Nu scene in Like a hurricane. And Nu had no big wallside mirrors as seen behind Carol in this episode.
• 2. The number of potential locations is therefore greatly reduced, as nearly no big disco or club at that time had such a second floor gallery. I lived in Miami and I have no recollection to any such big interior with gallery in normal clubs.
• 3. The Boulevard Theater was once a major 990+ seats theater with modern lights/AC/seating areas and of course also had such a second floor gallery! Of course the theater has been remodeled since then, but the Gold Rush club that was there until 2020 when it closed still had that gallery as proven by some Facebook interior pics of that place (see last two pics below).

Bottom line: still no 100% proof, but the unique gallery, the nature and layout of the Boulevard (it was a kinky club in the 80s and a porn movie place in the 70s) and the proximity to the North Bay Village location are very strong indications. I would say 90% that the Boulevard was the location we look for. 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

On @C Glides website this small scene during the Ward Brothers song where Caitlin talks to Angie and looks towards the window is marked with location unknown. Of course, this was filmed onsite, inside Crockett´s house at 10900 SW 83 Court in Kendall Luckily, despite hardly any pictures of that house we have one interior picture of exactly that room. See comparison below.

Click to enlarge.

 

[Tom]

LAST UNKNOWN LOCATION: DAYLIGHT CRIME SCENE

@daytona365

The surface resembles Bill Proverbs house (torn down). No art deco. This unknown 5 story structure with a rather run down commercial elevator and iron gates seems to be a commercial building, but most likely no hotel.

The search goes on...

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

This is the original opening invite for Club Nu on 18 April 1987. Great club, great memories (I was there myself, but did not take any pics as my small student budget camera at that time had no good flash...)

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Tom

[Tom]

aerial of South Pointe on the right (used in this episode, but also in Vote of Confidence and The Savage). Smith&Wollensky restaurant with brownish roof can be seen clearly, it was built in 1986/87 while the latter episode was filmed. Also seen: Government cut, Fisher Island, Port Island, Mac Arthur causeway and downtown.

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Tom

[Tom]

Finally found great pictures of one of my favorite VICE villas (smartly used as villa of Carol and Tracy). Even the piano is at the same place as in 1987 (house still owned by the same person as in 1987 when it was built). ENJOY!

 

[Tom]

and the full-size set of pics - wonderful design.

P.S. pictures were taken in 1987 at the time of filming (as proven by the same height of the palms in these pics and the episode - today the Royal Palms are much higher and grown up.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Tom

[pahonu]

35 minutes ago, Tom said:

and the full-size set of pics - wonderful design.

Love the architectural pics.  Thanks Tom!

[Tom]

LAST LOCATION: DAY CRIME SCENE @daytona365

a very close match at 94 Street & Collins Ave, Surfside

I thought I had it. Everything seemed to fit on the 1986 aerial and match with the episode and the sketch I have made for myself with the relative location of all buildings around:

• the same colored house with the low wall in front and the appendages on the top of the right roof side
• the house left of it set back a bit
• the visible main powerline running north-south
• the parking lot with the same lamp type we had discussed earlier
• the pink walkway
• the location logistics (vicinity to studio via Broad Causeway)
• the strange fence could belong to the garage-like building at 94 Street & Harding Ave (building torn down&replaced before 2008).

BUT: two key things do not fit=knock outs. The house (most likely apartment bdg) vis a vis on the 2008 street view is the same as 1986 but it looks totally different. See proof below.

and: the house where the camera would have been located to film, looks different, with no 4 stories and no iron gate and the house is not on the right place, as the camera would have been in the middle of the Collins Ave intersection to reproduce the TV angle, i.e. the apartment bdg was not at the street corner of a big N-S running Ave, but at least one block away at an inner block, with the iron gated camera building directly across the street.

See my evidence below. I can´t believe that so many details fit and it ain´t the place, with no other suspects available after 2 years of search!

P.S. click to enlarge+mind the street view date, most of the Google Street views are from 2008-2010 to prove the earlier state.

Edited April 10, 2022 by Tom

[Tom]

BTW: the colorful house with the white wall in the background when Crockett pulls up was indeed an apartment building.

See Seabrook Apartments on an old pic below (it was located at 9400 Collins, which is just across Collins Ave at the seaside. We see the same layout and look, just double windows (D-WW-WW-Door pattern repeating), on TV we see 3-windows in a row (D-WWW-WWW-D) which is very rare.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Tom

[Tom]

Lois´ Blythe home from this episode at 8505 SW 53 Ave is new on the market for sale at 8.75m. It is advertised as Miami Vice home. Was remodelled strongly though outside and inside since the series filmed there (last pic with house number partly visible behind the bush in the middle).

https://robbreport.com/shelter/homes-for-sale/miami-vice-house-1234756733/

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Tom

[Tom]

1987 vs. 2022

[Tom]

rare pic of Club Nu entrance

[Tom]

Still hunting down the last 10 unknown locations. This is one of them and I have new clues. There are 3 barriers visible that I have never realized before and that look like barriers for parking garages or closed facilities like police stations. Also a concrete median for the entry lane in front of the building that Crockett enters. Thus this is a public building with several barriers and entry lanes where the iron gate can be flexibly opened to let vehicles in. That together with the load elevator and the 5 story clue must lead us somewhere. I already checked hospitals, but could that be a school or ...? The mysterious wall in the background is still unsolved, looks like a noise protection wall for residents.

I made a rough sketch that could help spark ideas about the building purpose. The pink pedestrian walkway in front of the apartment building with the significant wall in front still cries Miami Beach but I haven´t found anything on historic aerials so far. 

[Tom]

First pic below is a ca 1981 pic of the Pink Pussycat (one of the names the Boulevard Theater at 7770 BIscayne Bvd had over the years after it was turned from a theater once starring Bing Crosby to a sex/porn place in 1970). As intel below indicates the foxy boxing (female performers) and the theater/2-story layout perfectly fits what we see on TV (filmed inside November 1987).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard_Theater_(Miami)

http://pussycattheaterhistory2.blogspot.com/2014/07/pussycat-theaters-inside-story-chapter_12.html

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Leroy_Griffith

• "Purchased by Griffith for $165,000 in 1970 and renamed the Pussycat, he created three different theaters within: the Pussycat, the center theater, was a 900-seat theater that showed adult films including Deep Throat; the Kitty Cat featured female performers; and the Tomcat featured male performers.[3]
• "Over the decades, the theater has also been known variously as Black Gold, Club Madonna II, Pussycat II, Shadows, and Wonderland." 
• In April 1987, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office filed a ten-page complaint demanding that the Pussycat be shut down. This time the charge was brought under the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. Because the Pussycat had been raided 18 times in eleven years, prosecutors contended, it must be an ongoing criminal enterprise. "That's not what the RICO Act was put in for," Griffith retorted. A judge agreed and dismissed the complaint

Last pic is from the "Goldrush" name period and shows how large the whole theater actually is behind the street front.

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Tom

[Matt5]

I will be visiting 400 South Pointe Drive in a few weeks and will have unlimited access — so if anybody has any requests let me know. 
Obviously top of my list is the Lobby and ground floor hallway we see in a couple of scenes in “Love at First Sight”  filmed in the fall of 1987 just after this building was completed.

There has been some renovation in 2019 to the rear  pool area so I am not sure how much of what we see a few episodes later in “Vote of Confidence” is still recognizable.

I will get a higher floor shot of Smith and Wollensky, South Pointe Park and Fisher Island from the condo which we see in “VoC”.

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Matt5

[TylerDurden389]

How did it go?

[Tom]

NEW LOCATION FOUND: FOXY BOXERS was Million Dollar Baby at 215 22nd Street Miami Beach 

Thanks again to a friend another episode, one of my favorites, is available in parts as location sheets. My hunch that Foxy Boxers was the Boulevard Theater was a great guess, but as always with interior-only scenes a high risk of uncertainty. The first day of filming for this great episodes (Tue 17 November 1987, directed by DJ) shows that they filmed the whole day at the Club Nu block to cover 3+ locations of the script - a phenomenal location clustering! 

First scene was Million Dollar Baby where Crockett met Carol at Foxy Boxers. We clearly see the "Million Dollar Baby" on the boxing ring, but as this is a very generic term it did not ring a bell with me. The corporate register shows that MDB was incorporated in June 1987 and closed in November 1988, one year after the episode. We even see the $M Baby location behind Crockett when he and Tubbs chase Choo Choo (the "Baby" is readable on the wall and the entrance canopy visible) but nobody of us paid attention to it. CASE CLOSED.

Then they filmed chasing Choo Choo in the alley next to Million Dollar baby and then all interior scenes at Club Nu next door, including a second scene with Terry giving hints to Gina, but this scene was cut from the final product. On second day (Wed 18 Nov) they planned to film the whole day at Crockett´s/Caitlin´s new house and on Thu 19 Nov they planned (see advance at bottom of first day) to film at the FBI office and then move to Lois home for the rest of the day. On Tue 24 Nov (day 6 of 7) they filmed the Baypoint apartment teaser on location, then moved to studio and then to Bayside marina for exterior shots, on the last day Wed 25 Nov they filmed in studio only. 

@daytona365Unfortunately, the two daily sheets of 7 filming days do NOT reveal the location of the only location missing, the day crime scene in the house with the iron gates and the elevator. After analysis of the days and advance plans we know from the two sheets, this scene must have been filmed on Fri 20 Nov or Mon 23 Nov and the only scenes left to film on these days when compared to the final product were the South Pointe area and the villa of Carol/Tracy at 7777 SW 127 Street. I searched again around these two areas, but nothing yet.

What else do we know from these sheets:

• all scenes where Lois is looking at tapes and Crockett made his tape were studio scenes (no big news, but still marked as unknown on CGlide´s site)
• All Tubbs alone and with Russell scenes within the FBI office were really filmed within the FBI office, no studio sets (no big news, but marked as unknown on CGlide´s site)
• All interior scenes on the boat were studio sets This is no big news as we know that they started to film the Crockett boat interior on a studio set beginning with Shadow in the dark. One can easily see as the boat internally looks very big and the materials look a bit cheaper than on a real boat (CGlide mentions this with Shadow in the dark on his site)
• Some scene were filmed, but cut: an exterior aftermath scene at the end on the boat with Crockett, Tubbs and Russel and Lois arriving on the boat as exterior shot in the marina, for example. Also a second Terry hint scene in Club Nu.
• Filming for this episode was briefly interrupted on the last day to film the pick up scenes for "Rising sun of death" in the car with Crockett and Caitlin looking for their new house. As indicated in my episode guide long time ago, Sheena Easton was not even contracted at the time RSOD was filmed in early October 1987, long before the marriage episode. So, they filmed the car and new house arrival scene during this episode and cut it into RSOD and changed the airing order to extend Caitlin´s presence to another (4th episode late 1987, another one was to come in March 88).

Edited June 23, 2023 by Tom

[Paul Veres]

Some observations for the elusive day murder scene. I really like the pink sidewalk in that while buildings get demolished, design features like sidewalk color might be more permanent. And indeed we think Miami Beach (+Surfside) immediately. Which I believe you guys have gone through with fine-tooth comb, and through North Bay Village, and got nothing so let's suppose it's not there.

Now I think of two other places. Maybe the location is not there, but these might be good new stimulants to revisit this.

NORMANDY ISLES/SHORES (unless you meant it as part of North Bay Village)

What I like - it's another neighborhood with pink sidewalks! And plenty of similar old multiunit buildings. Both of these features are present in this street view, for example:

What I also like - there is a location with a "fence" and a multiunit building to the right of it:

The "fence" here is the rails of the JFK Causeway. The building is the International Inn. I couldn't find out yet in which year it was built, but given the design it was probably already there in 1988s. Of course it's not the location for a number of reasons, but to me is a good indicator that this area has potential.

What I don't like about it - there are no 5-story buildings with garage gates.

CORAL GABLES

What I don't like - it is quite far from the cluster of other locations. But there are again two things to like.

It has pink sidewalks!

The paving style is somewhat different from Miami Beach, but it's really hard to see in the episode what the concrete pavers configuration was anyway.

When I saw garage columns with groove-separated segments in the episode, I immediately thought of the City Beautiful - it has a lot of these in the downtown area. 

136 Andalusia Ave:

144 Aragon Ave:

264 Alhambra Circle:

248 Giralda Ave:

2332 Galiano St:

Of course none of these example work for the location, but it's a good indicator for the area's potential. We are looking for certain dimensions and colors - sizing against Crockett, it has 4 equal pink segments, and then an unknown number of white segments, at least the first one being about 60% longer than the pink segments.

Is there a garage building in Coral Gables with this exact pattern? I couldn't find it yet... But their tendency for this kind of design along with pink sidewalks make me think the area is a candidate. Yes, a lot of these buildings were built after 1988. But a nice (well, "nice") thing about CG downtown is that whenever it's growing it's consuming old residential housing in a way which gives these development "borders", like the below, where there is an old multiunit on one side of the road and a large building with a garage on the other side:

So maybe in the 80s there was a similar combo there just like what we're looking for.

@Tom maybe these two areas are worth checking in your aerials. I'd do it myself, but I don't know where to access them.

Of note, both Normandy and Coral Gables have plenty of mature trees we see behind the multiunit building in the episode.

Finally, something caught my eye which I didn't see brought up before about the mystery "fence", and you guys tell me if I'm hallucinating, but I think one of its between-column segments is of different color/material - while the whole thing is beige, that segment is grey and maybe made of metal. Here is a collage of several frames (not consecutive frames, but still in order of appearance as the camera pans to the left):

I'm gonna start calling it a "door" in the "fence"...  So what the hell can that door be? Can it get us closer to figuring out what this "fence" really is?

[Paul Veres]

New development on day crime scene. 

Looking at Seabrook Apartments, 515 16th St, and our target building I thought they are similar enough to be done by the same designer.

Especially if you look at the metal thin columns with little ornate elements between bars, and the simple window/door design. Sure, they are nothing spectacular, but somebody must have been building these non-spectacular generic apartments too, and what if it was the same guy. So if we find out who he was, we might be able to get addresses of all of his work and scan through.

I called my "usual friends" from other location searches - Dade Heritage Trust, Miami Design Preservation League, main office of Miami-Dade Public Library System... no knowledge. I finally decided to try city halls - the building departments, should be pretty intuitive! 

Oh, as a side note, 515 16th St is currently being redeveloped, along with its adjacent 511 16th street building. You can find a render of the future property pair here. Looks like nothing to be mad about and they are preserving everything - good stuff. I actually called and sent an email to the redeveloping Berenblum Busch Architects too, but got no response. One thing to note in these blueprints is that 515 16th St is designated "historical building" - good news for us, more hope that the similar target building is still standing somewhere. Well, unlike Seabrook Apartments I guess.

Anyway, Miami Beach city hall person knew nothing, but they sent me to their public request system, which helped me greatly in the past. I input my request and got a response an hour later - exactly what I needed:

Quote

The original architect according to the original Building Card is Gerard Pitt under Arkin Construction Co. Inc.

They even sent me the building card itself too.

So turns out this Gerard Pitt gentleman was a prolific fella. I found him mentioned in many publications, including this:

Given the number of buildings he designed, and the geography, I now have little doubt he is behind our target building. In fact look, Normandy Isles I was looking at is there too! However, this kinds of rules out Coral Gables...

So now just to find a list of all the buildings he built! I haven't been able to do it so far, but found shorter lists. And by the way, remember that last one small apartment building standing in Brickell we lamented recently here? That was his too.

As I was looking for his buildings in these 2008 Flamingo Park expansion plans, no property worked, but one really drew my attention, "Tropical Gardens" at 1600 Collins Ave. It is actually just one block away from his 515 16th St building.

The site is currently occupied by Hyatt Centric hotel. It looked to me like it was built recently, and indeed it opened in 2015. Sadly I couldn't find a single article mentioning and showing what was sitting on the site before it. But what a great coincidence - in front of it is a 5-story garage building!

I was certain that all I need was to find an image of Tropical Gardens apartments. I still haven't been able to do that. 

But at least I could check the aerials to confirm the overall configuration. After all, the garage does look suspiciously new, and the columns lack our target look. I hoped that maybe it was just refurbished since the 1980s which would be an explanation. 

Alas, this area on the aerials doesn't look like what we need. There was no 16th street even in this particular block at the time, it was all one huge surface parking lot...

So this is a dud. Fine. But I think pursuing Gerard Pitt's buildings is a great clear direction of effort. I'll continue looking for a richer list of his work to scan for our target building. @Tom let me know if you pursue this avenue also, so we don't duplicate.

As a side note, while I was looking for info on Pitt, I stumbled upon a couple of wonderful publications. Haven't really looked over them much, but at first glance look like some great material on Miami history:

2018 North Shore Historic District Designation Report with a few very nice photos 

1992 From Metropolis to Global City which is RICH

Check out this quote from the latter, said in 1904!

Quote

But Miami is not a town. She is a city so young that she has little history of the past, but a glorious future no doubt, and bears the unique distinction of becoming a full-fledged city without having first been a town.

[Tom]

@Paul Veres i think the Pitt angle is a lead worth going after (please proceed). I agree that there were certainly not many architects planning these buildings that ended up looking very similar. That is no coincidence. 

I am not sure the 5 story building was a garage, because the pink/peach colored facade does not look garage-like. I still think the easiest cliue is the rounded wall in front of the apartment block and the street pattern, i.e. the apartment block is diagonally opposite of the garage building.

[Tom]

Sorry @Paul Veres but no way that this "wall" is part of a garage. See my close ups below for reference.

1. (Metal) Hand Guiderail on top!
2. At the far left the "wall" is concrete, then it changes to Brown segments with vertical (metal?) dividers. There seems to be a crane and/or power mast behind it or standing on it 
3. below the "wall" is a very long "foundation" of concrete, between 5 and 15 meters long (vertically) that keeps its height along the very long -somewhat ascending - stretch we see in the background, so the short wall with guiderail on top goes on like forever with a huge concrete foundation below.
4. At one point on the far left there are mysterious short parallel lines. Between is what it looked like a logo at first, but at second sight looks rather like some twigs of that tree next to it.

WTH is that? This can´t be a garage.

Even a causeway (could fit with the massive concrete fundament and the long ascending shape) would not have hand guiderails on top of a wall that looks like a noise reduction wall near motorways???

I am stumped.

Edited January 12 by Tom

[Paul Veres]

5 hours ago, Tom said:

Sorry @Paul Veres but no way that this "wall" is part of a garage. See my close ups below for reference.

1. (Metal) Hand Guiderail on top!
2. At the far left the "wall" is concrete, then it changes to Brown segments with vertical (metal?) dividers. There seems to be a crane and/or power mast behind it or standing on it 
3. below the "wall" is a very long "foundation" of concrete, between 5 and 15 meters long (vertically) that keeps its height along the very long -somewhat ascending - stretch we see in the background, so the short wall with guiderail on top goes on like forever with a huge concrete foundation below.
4. At one point on the far left there are mysterious short parallel lines. Between is what it looked like a logo at first, but at second sight looks rather like some twigs of that tree next to it.

WTH is that? This can´t be a garage.

Even a causeway (could fit with the massive concrete fundament and the long ascending shape) would not have hand guiderails on top of a wall that looks like a noise reduction wall near motorways???

I am stumped.

Wait I never said the "fence/wall" was part of a garage. I was only saying that Crockett is walking into a garage.

Yeah the wall is a mystery.

[TylerDurden389]

There's a movie theater on Aragon Ave. that I used to visit all the time. I've gone a few times since moving up to WPB but it's such a long drive now (still waiting on my job transfer to get back to Doral).