By Seth H. Bramson As we discussed in my last column, I left New York, the Gaslight Club and all the joyousness of “the City” in February of 1978 to come back to the big orange in order to join the late, great Lloyd Apple as partners with the Thal Brothers and Catering Directors at […]
Archive for the ‘COLUMNS BY SETH H. BRAMSON’ Category
I Chased Her For Three Years Until She Caught Me & Comic Legend Alan King Remembers—Part III


I Chased Her For 3 Years Until She Caught Me (Henny Youngman & Alan King Story) —Part II


By Seth H. Bramson We closed the last column with a note regarding fidelity and honorable behavior in a marriage and that has been the hallmark of mine and Myrna’s, our love being shared with Myrna’s children, Ben and Sara, my beloved brother and his daughter, my niece, Dara, and, of course, my two grandsons, […]
I Chased Her for Three Years Until She Caught Me – And Speedway to Sunshine Was Published in 1984


By Seth H. Bramson As we noted in my last column, I met the truly great love of my life in 1973, while I was managing Lloyd’s of the Maison Grande, unquestionably and absolutely the most magnificent restaurant this town, even with all the nouveau dreck and Americanized continental phony Italian places opening, has ever […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger & Larger Part VI


By Seth H. Bramson Before we continue, a few (or more) words to express my aggravation of and from the last several days. Suddenly, last Thursday morning August 30th, we were fresh out of computer…and telephone…and television. Myrna had already left for work and I had to leave for school so figured I would handle […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger & Larger Part V


By Seth H. Bramson We will certainly continue from where we left off last time in a moment, but before we do I have to give a “Tip of the Hatlo Hat” (you have to be in my age area to remember the great one-panel comic which appeared in what was once a great newspaper […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger & Larger Part IV


By Seth H. Bramson It was, indeed, an exciting time for the Bramson brothers, with me leaving for Cornell early in September of ’66, Bennett preparing for his last year at Nautilus and me in love with “a nice Italian girl from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn” who turned out not to be so nice. Leaving Miami […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger and Larger Part III


By Seth H. Bramson The collection kept growing, the material flowing in as I made a number of trips during the FEC strike up and down the east coast of Florida, visiting the company’s general offices in St. Augustine fairly regularly. Eventually the railroad’s executive vice president, R. W. Wyckoff, issued an order that I […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger and Larger Part II


By Seth H. Bramson We concluded the last column with a look at the activities going on from the time I left 1/2SU to return to Miami and my activities following including my job at the Fontainebleau, attending UM, and continuing to collect rail and trolleyana and Miami memorabilia unabatedly. Unhappily, though, I really disliked […]
The Bramson Archive Gets Larger and Larger


By Seth H. Bramson As we wrote about last time, the collecting continued unabated throughout high school and eventually the collection took over our former back porch in the house on Cecil Street, that becoming “the railroad room.” More on that later. Finishing Miami Beach High I elected, unlike so many of my classmates, to […]
The Bramson Archive: How and When It All Began Part V


By Seth H. Bramson Hopefully our readers will remember that we concluded the previous column on the day that I walked into the Florida East Coast Railway’s Miami City Ticket Office in the Ingraham Building and asked for timetables. But the collecting would not be fulfilled just with FEC and other railroad stuff because there […]
The Bramson Archive: What It Is and How It Came To Be – Part IV


By Seth H. Bramson In our previous column we enjoyed the walk together from Sears at 15th Street and Biscayne Blvd. down to Flagler Street and then to Richard’s on Northeast 1st Street and First Avenue, but also made mention of the two great hobby shops in downtown Miami, Abbott’s Hobbies in the DuPont Building […]
The Bramson Archive: What It Is and How It Came To Be – Part III


By Seth H. Bramson We concluded our previous column by hopefully conveying the excitement of a little boy who loved trains as the FEC’s famous streamliner roared through North Miami enroute to Jacksonville and, eventually, New York, his joy at seeing that train go by every Saturday morning palpable as he traveled in the car […]
The Bramson Archive: What It Is and How It Came To Be Part II


By Seth H. Bramson In the last column we took a brief look at how, when and where “it” (the craze for trains and local historic memorabilia) all started and closed with the Bramson family’s arrival in Miami Beach in August of 1946, moving on to the wonderful and happy every Sunday morning routine which […]
A (Very) Brief Look At the Bramson Archive


By Seth H. Bramson Our readers might have noted the reference, on several occasions in previous columns to “The Bramson Archive” and it might be propitious, at this moment in time, to explain about and elaborate on, that entity. In brief, The Bramson Archive is the largest collection of Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway and […]
A Very Special Moment In Time – Debunking the Orange Blossom Myth Part IV


By Seth H. Bramson As was noted in our last several columns, the orange blossom myth is and always has been a fable and a fairy tale, a story told by those seeking to attract new travelers, farmers and residents to the shores of Biscayne Bay. While it always had a certain allure, it was […]
Debunking the Orange Blossom Myth Part III


By Seth H. Bramson As was noted in our previous column, the orange blossom myth is and always has been a fable and a fairy tale, a story told by those seeking to attract new travelers, farmers and residents to the shores of Biscayne Bay. While it always had a certain allure, it was easy […]
A Special Moment In Time: Debunking The Orange Blossom Myth Part II


By Seth H. Bramson As was noted in this column last week, the Mother of Miami, Julia Tuttle, had implored Henry Bradley Plant, he the famed developer of central and west coast Florida, to extend his railroad across the then-trackless Everglades almost 160 miles to a tiny settlement on the lower southeast coast of the […]
A Special Moment in Time: Miami’s Crucible Year Part II


By Seth H. Bramson As noted in our previous column, 1896 was the single most important year in the history of the tiny unincorporated village on the shores of Biscayne Bay as it transitioned to becoming a city without the intermediate steps of village or township. The previous article introduced the first two events that […]
A Special Moment in Time (1896): Miami’s Most Crucial Year!


By Seth H. Bramson There are certain years in certain cities that can be defined as “crucible” years, meaning that those years were either the single most important in and to the history of that particular town or city or one of several that fit that definition. Chicago, for example, will always be defined by […]