Miami Beach: Photographs of an American Dream

Miami Beach runs west from the oceanside Fontainebleau on Collins Avenue to Mount Sinai Hospital on Biscayne Bay, and north from South Point to opulent Bal Harbour. The Miami Beach of Jackie Gleason and Rodney Dangerfield rubs elbows with the Miami Beach of pullmanettes and free lunch programs. Along Washington Avenue, white sand, broad-leafed sea grapes, and banyans give way to open-air produce markets, kosher hot dog stands, and thrift shops. Although in recent years paint and plaster have restored and gentrified parts of the South Beach scene, Davie Scheinbaum's 1970s photographs capture the essence of "The Beach" as it was - the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, a small tight community bounded by two social perimeters - ethnic ties and old age.