Sinatra Welcomed Elvis Home at the Fontainebleau. Seventeen Years Later, a Judge Sold It

The Fontainebleau made Miami Beach feel like a movie. How did the hotel that outshone Collins Avenue end up in bankruptcy court? Ben Novack arrived with $1,800. In 1952, he and Harry Mufson paid $2.3 million for Harvey Firestone's oceanfront estate. Soon, a sweeping hotel designed by Morris Lapidus stood where the tire king's house had been. Inside, families dressed for dinner, stars filled the ballroom, and a staircase to nowhere gave ordinary guests a grand entrance of their own. From Frank Sinatra welcoming Elvis home to the Fontainebleau's appearance in Goldfinger, this film returns to the winter weeks that made Collins Avenue famous. Behind the glamour lay a short season, year-round bills, and a rivalry with the Eden Roc that went to court over afternoon sunshine. As new destinations competed for the same families, how much would it cost to keep the show going? Drawing on biographical accounts, architectural research, archival collection records, contemporary reporting and court decisions, we follow the people who built this world and those who bore the cost of its changes. Hotel owners, workers, guests and longtime residents all have a place in the story; the conclusions are yours to draw. 0:00 Sold by the Court 2:35 Eighteen Hundred Dollars 9:01 Building a Dream Palace 13:44 A Week as a Star 17:39 Fifty Bucks a Day 21:42 Who Owns the Sunshine? 25:33 Welcome Home, Elvis 30:10 Goldfinger Comes to Miami 33:48 The Jet Flies Farther 36:49 From Ballroom to Headquarters 39:19 The Guests Who Stayed 42:19 Over His Objections 48:36 A Construction Man 51:40 The Casino Gamble 54:50 The Builder and the Architect 56:52 The Small Hotels Come Back 1:01:34 The Wall in the Shade Selected sources John Glatt — The Prince of Paradise (2013; summarized in Wikipedia). Alice T. Friedman — The Luxury of Lapidus (Harvard Design Magazine, n.d.). Syracuse University Libraries — Morris Lapidus Papers, finding aid and acquisition announcement (2011). Fontainebleau Miami Beach — History Walk (n.d.). Florida Third District Court of Appeal — Fontainebleau Hotel Corp. v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc., 114 So. 2d 357 (1959; Case Cub summary). U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit — In re Bleaufontaine, Inc., 634 F.2d 1383; Novack v. Gardner, 639 F.2d 1274 (1981). Time — Business: Ebb Tide at Miami Beach (1977). The New York Times / WLRN — Stephen Muss, developer who helped revive Miami Beach, dies at 97 (2025). Hyperallergic — Miami Told Through Old Photographs and Lost Stories (2018). This documentary is for historical information and is not financial advice. Some scenes are illustrated with reconstructions. #Fontainebleau #MiamiBeachHistory #BusinessHistory About this film: some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions, used only where no original footage or photographs exist, and they are marked on screen as reconstructions. The narration is an AI voice. The script is researched and fact-checked against the sources listed above.