Licorice Pizza: The “Miami Incident”

11/11/2007

The “Miami Incident”

There have been a few infamous moments in Miami history that have little to do with the drug trade or various voting fiascos. These are moments in pop culture that the city seems to want to forget.

For example, “Deep Throat” was filmed in North Miami, somewhere near where I used to live. The Voyager Inn, no doubt just another of the seedy motels along that stretch of Biscayne Blvd, is long gone. I read somewhere that it is a nursing home now.

461 Ocean Blvd., the title of Eric Clapton’s 1974 solo album, is also the address of the house on Golden Beach where Clapton was living at the time. Golden Beach is a gated community, on the far end of the county, so I don’t know if it’s still there or not. Or if it is there, if it looks the same as it did on the cover of the album.

The setting for the Sun Ray Apartments, from the scene in “Scarface” where Tony Montana’s brother is dismembered by chainsaw, has been turned into a Johnny Rocket’s.

And the scene of what was for a long time one of Miami’s most scandalous events has been turned into, no pun intended, an exhibition hall. The Dinner Key Auditorium, in Coconut Grove, was the site of the Doors’ infamous 1969 concert where Jim Morrison may or may not have exposed himself. The building still stands, now known as the Coconut Grove Exhibition Center.

The alleged flashing incident has been well documented over the years. If you need a refresher, the full story is here. Morrison was eventually convicted of two misdemeanors; open profanity and indecent exposure. Judge Murray Goodman handed down the maximum sentence of 60 days hard labor for profanity and six months for the indecent exposure. The convictions were in the process of appeal when Morrison finished the L.A. Woman album and left for Paris in March of 1970.

Jim is quoted in “No One Here Gets Out Alive” as telling Circus magazine, “I think I was just fed up with the image that had been created around me, which I sometimes consciously, most of the time unconsciously, cooperated with. It was just too much for me to really stomach and so I just put an end to it in one glorious evening. I guess what it boiled down to was that I told the audience that they were a bunch of fucking idiots to be members of an audience. What were they doing there anyway? The basic message was to realize that you’re not really here to listen to a bunch of songs by some good musicians. You’re here for something else. Why not admit it and do something about it?”