1969-70 season in Miami Beach at the beautiful Eden Roc Hotel next to the Fountainbleau Hotel. Our neighbor Joe Shapiro was the hotel Cabana Manager …. he was desperate, his beach lifeguard and cabana boy just quit on him … no one to save hotel swimmers and no one to service the 28 cabanas in the beach section. He knew I was a pool lifeguard at school and asked my parents if I could work the weekend until he could get a real adult lifeguard. What a great job … tons of tips $$$ plenty of bikinis … I got to met plenty of celebrities and famous mob men. The Eden Roc was owned by Morris Lansburgh and Harry Mufson … same owner from Flamingo Las Vegas.. I waited on Meyer Lansky, Edger Bronfman ( Seagrams 7) … Sid Luckman (Bears QB)… Sinatra, Dino, Shecky Green, and many other nice famous guest … except for Barbara Streisand.

The Eden Roc promoted gambling at their new Grand Lucayan Casino Resort and would pay for guest to visit… even I was comped for one night.

I am not trying to name drop or brag, I have been so lucky being in the hospitality business and blessed with good fortune and friends .. enjoy some of the photographs. Thanks for reading this post… Rich Burgel

before they were Caesars Palace. There was a beautiful Eden Roc hotel

in this photograph, the Eden rock and my beach is on the far right side

in this photograph of the beach in the rear of the hotel you’ll see the 28th cabanas in the beachfront that I had a patrol every day and make sure nobody was drowning on my watch

some of my tiny treasures. I have saved over the years from when I worked there

Here are some of the famous entertainers that performed at the Eden Roc hotel

They say the designer and architect of the hotel wanted the roof to look like a giant cruise ship smokestack in motion,. One day I took the elevator to the roof and I was totally embarrassed. They have a nu

adult Sun bathing area and massage outdoors nothing worse than seeing old people,
with no clothes on

remember, they built these big hotels in Miami Beach because Cuba was out of business and they were sure gambling would come to Miami Beach, but it never did