Word: keys
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Writers, literary groupies and celebrities are lured by the island's romantic image. Wrote Alice Turner in New York magazine: "Key West is our winter Hamptons, the place we go to continue the conversation we started at Elaine's." But the resort is more laid back than the Hamptons, less frantic than other resorts. Says Author Nancy Friday: "There is none of the relentless chic. There are no competitive lunch baskets from Bloomingdale's." Luminaries such as Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Spender, Calvin Klein, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Ralph Ellison and Thomas McGuane can be found avoiding...
Hemingway bought a house in Key West in 1931 and lived there nine years. While he was away covering the Spanish Civil War, his second wife Pauline built a $20,000 swimming pool in the garden fed by saltwater wells. Upon hearing the price, he took a penny from his pocket and had it embedded in the concrete, saying, "Here, you might as well have my last cent." Also in the yard is a birdbath made out of a urinal from nearby Sloppy Joe's bar. The story is that Hemingway deserved it because he had peed away...
Over the years, the Conchs of Key West have seen their island roller-coaster through a series of spectacular booms and busts. Organized development began in the 1830s and the lucrative business of salvaging wrecked ships soon made the town the wealthiest per capita...
...Key West's salad days, as Florida's largest (18,000 inhabitants) and wealthiest city, were just before the turn of the 20th century. It had the largest port in the Gulf of Mexico, its cigar industry employed 10,000 workers, and almost all of the country's sponges were caught by its fleet. Then came a spectacular decline. The U.S. naval station closed, the cigar industry was lured to Tampa, blight wiped out the sponge beds, the city went bankrupt, and a 1935 hurricane ruined the railway from the mainland. Except for a momentary revival during...
...leftover hippies who founded sunset watching on the dock as a communal mystical experience a decade ago. The easy movers are now more likely to spend the twilight hours at Captain Tony's bar, where Tony Tarracino holds court for his hirsute flock. The more elite swig Key lime daiquiris on the deck of the Beach Club bar at the nearby Pier House hotel. Down the street, at the Monster, the classy gay hangout, purple-shirted young men drink amid the rooftop's tropical foliage...