Dona Zemo formed an attachment to Miami Beach as a child, visiting most winters since she was 4 years old. She loved the swaying palm trees, the beach, the people dressed up in glamorous clothes for a night out on the town. Miami Beach, in her eyes, was high style. In 1981, she left her settled life in Connecticut, enticed by the renaissance of the Art Deco district started by Barbara Capitman, and went to work for Andrew Capitman, marketing South Beach's restored Deco hotels to Broadway producers, actors, performers, artists, and design-conscious entrepreneurs. She coined the term "SoBe," after SoHo in New York City, thinking it sounded more hip than South Beach. And it stuck. Dona talked to us about the exciting rebirth of South Beach in the early 80's and Barbara Capitman's vision of a cafe society by the sea.
This video was produced as part of the Miami Beach Visual Memoirs Project, a collaboration of Close-Up Productions and the Miami Design Preservation League underwritten by the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority.
