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| Hey,
it looks like the Coppertone girl might fit here! |
By Margaret Griffis
Special to BT
Everyone has enjoyed the sense of accomplishment
when the final piece of a difficult jigsaw puzzle falls into
place — everyone,
that is, who perseveres to the end. Much of the real world
can seem like a puzzle, too — so many little pieces need
to be united before the final image can be revealed. It’s
often a daunting task that only the stubborn can complete.
The ultimate picture of one particular
community puzzle happens to include the Coppertone Girl,
an icon Miamians instantly recognize as part of their history
and mythology. A symbol of fun and sun, she’s the little girl known to millions
worldwide thanks to her revealed baby’s bottom, courtesy
of a rascally dog, and, of course, those tan lines. The individual
pieces of this puzzle are varied in shape and size, but they
may be starting to fit.
Last summer the MiMo Biscayne Association,
a nonprofit citizen’s
group devoted to promoting the Miami Modern/Biscayne Boulevard
Historic District, hatched a plan to refurbish and relocate
the vintage Coppertone sign that has hung over W. Flagler Street
in downtown Miami for about 15 years. It’s the second
home to the gigantic sign. For more than three decades it had
originally overlooked the bay from Biscayne Boulevard at NE
6th Street. The sign was not only beloved by the merchants,
who parlayed its popularity into sales of suntan oil, but also
by the public and even connoisseurs of art and architecture.
She was a pop-art diamond formed in the fomenting dawn of the
1960s.
In 1991 the demolition of the sign’s former home — the
13-story Parkleigh Building — meant that the girl would
have to find a new sunning location. Schering-Plough, owners
of the Coppertone trademark, donated the sign to the citizens
of Miami and placed it in the care of the Dade Heritage Trust,
a nonprofit preservation organization. The Trust has taken
loving care of its adopted daughter ever since. After refurbishing
the critical parts that could be salvaged then — light
boxes containing the girl, her dog, and the letters that spell
out Coppertone — the group ceremoniously placed the sign
on the east side of the Concord Building at 66 W. Flagler St.,
not too far from her old home. Sadly, now this second locale
is no longer able to host the popular image.
Miami is a town of drastic changes, and the kinetic landscape
has never been particularly hospitable to relics a half-century
old. According to Becky Matkov, the executive director of Dade
Heritage Trust, a couple of oversize problems have cropped
up. First, the sign was severely damaged during the 2005 hurricane
season. Not only does the Trust lack the funds to repair it,
its insurance company canceled the commercial liability coverage
on the sign. Until the damage is repaired, the policy cannot
be reinstated.
Second, the new owners of the neighboring property have been
infected by the current Miami miasma to supersize, and are
planning to build a towering structure that will completely
obscure the sign. No matter what happens next, the Coppertone
Girl has to come down. Now.
The perfect solution was to entrust the
sign to the MiMo Biscayne Association. The group was verbally
promised the sign last November and has been just as diligent
as the Trust in pursuing any option that will save it for
a second time. “This
is a good opportunity to get it restored and back up somewhere,” says
Matkov. Fortunately Schering-Plough has offered $2000 for the
removal and inspection of the landmark, so this one part of
the puzzle should be completed soon. According to a spokesperson,
Schering-Plough expects the sign to come down sometime in April
at the latest, and then all parties involved will determine
the next steps for the Coppertone tyke.
With that financial portion of the puzzle
seemingly solved, Chico Goldsmith, a Trust member and former
owner of the Concord, has been coordinating with 66 West
Flagler Limited, the partnership that now owns the building,
on the physical plans to remove the sign as soon as possible.
When asked about the status, attorney Julio Ayala, a partner
in the Concord, said the “[partnership
likes] the sign because of its historical significance” and
he’s going to miss it when it comes down.
As for our girl’s new home, MiMo Biscayne would like
to see her returned to the Boulevard in the recently hatched
MiMo Historic District on the Upper Eastside. Sources say that
local historian Antolín Carbonell is producing a study
that examines possible locations, and has narrowed it down
to a few choices. He did not respond to a phone call, but a
quick drive up the Boulevard reveals few opportunities among
the low-rise buildings. One place previously mentioned is the
classic MiMo building at 56th Street, designed by Robert Law
Weed and now housing Andiamo Pizza.
However, it may be too soon to even start
the guessing game. “It
just seems senseless to be knocking on people’s doors,
talking about the sign, when we don’t know if it can
be restored, if we’re going to find the money, or if
we’re even going to [physically] get it,” says
Fran Rollason, president of the MiMo Biscayne Association.
In other words, the puzzle is still far
from complete. Before the Coppertone girl coyly shows Miami
her bum, funding for the restoration and permission from
the city to hang the sign will have to be secured. A company
involved from the beginning, which was working directly with
Coppertone inventor Benjamin Green, will have a look at her
and determine whether she’s
even salvageable, and if so, how much a restoration would cost.
But with luck the Coppertone Girl will remain a Miami reality
and not a Miami memory. Or maybe, with a little more time and
concentration from the jigsaw masters, a completed picture of
the past and the present.
Feedback: letters@biscaynetimes.com
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