Habana Me!

While we're thinking about Mid-Century Modern...

Many years ago, my high school put on a production of Guys and Dolls; if you don't know, it's a fabulous musical that even heterosexual men can appreciate. (Of course, the movie version starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra helps with this.) There is a scene where the original player Sky Masterson convinces Sargent Sarah Brown to come to Havana with him. Actually, they struck a deal: if he provides a roomful of "sinners" for her prayer meeting, then she has to come to dinner with him at his favorite restaurant, which happens to be in Havana. Of course this was really a ruse to get her drunk on Bacardi so she'd fall in love with him. Sigh...gamblers are tricky.

I remember at the time, many years ago in high school, that I asked my Dad... "Why Havana?" Incredulous at my innocent ignorance, he answered me: "Well, in the 1950s, Havana was the hot spot. Nightclubs, restaurants, entertainment - and from New York it was only a few hours away. You know it's only 90 miles from Florida..." Sheesh, well duh - geography I knew, but I knew nothing of the mambo.

I remember many years later seeing the documentary of the Buena Vista Social Club, recognizing that Cuba is the place where time stood still. All of those hot American cars that drove people to the Habana Hilton are still there - a little rusty from the sea spray, but gorgeously tattered and still perfect in their aged elegance. It's a postcard of lost things and inherent traditions: the household saints married to Communism, cigars with rum, music with discipline, run-down ornate colonial buildings next to the mid-20th Century streamlined details. Nothing has changed much since New Year's Day, 1958.

To celebrate this time capsule, a new book has come out entitled Havana Before Castro. The author, Peter Moruzzi, has gathered beautiful archived images from the 1950s and before, and sets them next to his own photographs taken in 2007. I saw the mention today on Boing Boing, but following the links I panned through the gorgeous images and I know I have to get a copy of this one! Then, when I finally get to Havana, I'll know what I'm looking at...

Check it out here on Havana Before Castro.