Hurricane Katrina may be the deadliest hurricane in recent memory, but, here
in Florida, the unnamed storm
of 1928 was far deadlier. With no early warning system in place, most of
South Florida’s 50,000 residents had no idea that a category 4 hurricane
was headed their way. So when it hit on the evening of Sunday, September 16th,
1928, thousands of unsuspecting Floridians were literally washed away. New
Florida remembers this terrible
storm and the victims it claimed.
During the turmoil of the civil rights movement in the United States, a group
of African-American landscape painters from Ft. Pierce braved the back roads
of central Florida to sell their canvases. In so doing, they unknowingly created
a unique style of folk art. New Florida traces these “Highwaymen” from
their humble beginnings in the late 50’s to their induction
into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame in 2004.
Rumor has it that Russell Crowe and Liza Minnelli are difficult to work with,
but they’ve got nothing on the actors Tim Williams directs. In fact,
his actors can really bite his head off if they’re unhappy. (Of course,
they’ll work for chicken scratch, so it’s not all bad.) Who are
these guys? They’re the alligators at Gatorland in Orlando, one of the
largest & busiest soundstages in Florida. New Florida takes a
tour of the Gatorland “set” and
gets up close and personal with its “talent.”
Some of South Beach’s best-known art deco buildings have stood for more
than 70 years. But many of its more extraordinary edifices have stood for only
a month … a week … or even for only a single night. These are the
remarkable creations of Victor
Leong, a sandcastle builder and self-described “independent artist
sailing the sea of sand.” New Florida met up with this “Sandman” to
learn a few tricks of the sandcastle-making trade.
It was a tall order: find Florida’s biggest trees. But our own Frank Eberling
did it. He found the tallest tree – a cypress known as the “Senator” – in
Longwood, north of Orlando, and the widest tree – the “Fairchild
Oak” – in Ormond Beach, north of Daytona. Of course, as New Florida found
out, you really have to see these trees to believe them.
