The Sabra Hotel Story

The Sabra Hotel Story

1962

My mother’s adventure on Miami Beach

    This story is for anyone researching the Lazaroff or Yasgar family history

Written 2010 and Re-written 05/13/2016

Howard Yasgar

In 1961, my father Jack Yasgar unexpectedly passed away, and my mother felt that she needed to do something to change her life.

Mom was a registered nurse, and she had worked as the head floor nurse at Grace New Haven hospital, and later as a private duty nurse.

After Dad’s death Mom  was very depressed and she felt that perhaps a trip overseas was what she needed.

She had just read that there was a nursing shortage in Israel and she thought that it might be a good idea to go there and apply for a job.

Mom felt that with her extensive nursing background she would be welcomed.

The next thing I knew, she had booked passage to Israel on a ship leaving from New York City.

The New York Port was about a 70 miles from our house in Westville Connecticut so I drove her there, Mom’s sister Lillian joined us for the trip.

At the port, surprisingly they allowed us on board to see her cabin.

We were very surprised to see that the cabin was really very small, with bunk beds.

I knew my mother wanted to try new things, but I never thought she would book a passage sleeping on an upper bunk.

Mom was 50 years old at the time and had never done anything like that before.

She said that once she  arrived in Israel, she applied for work at a large hospital.

Mom was very surprised to find out, that you couldn’t work there if you didn’t speak Hebrew.

So now she had to make a difficult decision, either to stay there in Israel and learn a new language, or return back to her home in Connecticut.

While in Israel one of her new friends introduced her to a fellow who was the publisher of the French newspaper in Tel Aviv.

But mom said it was so soon after the death of my father, and she became very uncomfortable with his constant attention.

So after a few weeks, she booked passage on a return ship to the United States.

Now, while mom was on her return voyage, she was befriended by a women who was a real estate broker from Miami Beach.

On the return voyage, Mom and the broker became friends.

Then the broker told my mother about a small 24 room hotel that was available for lease on Miami Beach, it was called the Hotel Norman.

She said that the hotel was located right on Collins Avenue, near 70th Street. She said it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

The broker said, the hotel was right across the Street from some very famous hotels,  the Deauville, the Sterling Hotel, and the Carillon.

According to the broker the Norman hotel handled all the overflow coming from all the bigger hotels across the street.

The broker said that it was very common for the big hotels to overbook or have customers overstay, and all of the overflow was sent to the Norman hotel.

She said that one of the Norman hotels biggest clients was the Kosher Sterling hotel that was right across the street.

My Mother couldn’t resist leasing the Norman Hotel for two years for only $8,000.00 a year.

So, in late 1962, Mom called me from Miami Beach to inform me that she was now in the hotel business.

Naturally I was very concerned for her, and I thought that she might be making a big mistake.

I knew that my mother was a very intelligent woman, but she had no experience running a hotel.

So now, in 1962, my mother was now going to be a hotel operator on Miami Beach.     In November of 1963, I had just gotten married.

That’s when good friend named Lou Gladstein asked me to go to Miami and run an auto wrecking yard that he was leasing in NW Miami.

At the time, I had just resigned from a company in Stamford Connecticut and I was  looking for something interesting to do.

I told my wife to pack up we were going on a  honeymoon to Miami Beach, Florida. Then I called my Mom and told her we were coming.

Mom said she had a room waiting for us.

So on a cold December morning in 1963, we headed from Westville Connecticut to Miami Beach, Florida.

We found Moms Norman Hotel, it was not exactly what we had expected

It really was across the street from the big hotels, but it was on the second floor of a commercial building.

On the ground floor was a single glass door with an awning over the sidewalk that said Hotel Norman, if you didn’t spot that awning you would never find the place.

Underneath the hotel was an auction gallery, with several glass sliding glass doors that opened on to the sidewalk.

Inside there were 40 or 50 folding chairs, and every evening the auction gallery opened the sliding glass doors and people walked in off the street to sit and listen to the auctioneer.

When we arrived we entered the Norman Hotel’s small glass door, and found a tiled hallway about 10 feet wide. On the right was a staircase leading to the second floor and the hotel.

Once we were upstairs, the hotel had 24 rooms, 12 on the left and 12 on the right.

The first door on the left had a sign saying office. The door was open and there sat my Mother.

She was sitting at a small desk by a front window.

Her bed and dresser were on the right side of the room.

As we entered the room, piled up against the left side wall were about 8 or 10 knap sacks.

Mom was so happy to see us, and we were happy to see her.

She was so proud of being a hotel operator, she wanted to show us everything.

She said the first room was hers, and she used it as an office.

She said that a few of the rooms on the right side of the hallway were rented to seasonal visitors as well as a couple of retired people, that rented by the year.

Mom said that the Sterling Hotel across the Street did send her Customers, but as the because the Sterling Hotel was a Kosher Hotel, all the people they sent over were orthodox Jews, and orthodox Jews can’t do anything mechanical after sundown on Friday night.

This required my mother to go to their room every night and shut off the light switches for them, so they could go to sleep.

Mom said that as far as the downstairs auction house was concerned, it brought in people from all over the world, she said that some of them being diamond and jewelry dealers, and many of them stayed at her hotel.

She said it wasn’t bad,” as all the people dealing with the auction house were constantly inviting her out to the best restaurants as well as the horse and dog tracks.

I asked her what the knapsacks were for, and she said the Norman hotel attracted a lot of Hippies, and they just walked in off the street. However most had no money, so mom always gave them a place to sleep and they left their knapsacks as collateral, of course they never came back for them.

It appears my Mom was a soft touch.

Mom said that the name of the hotel was the Norman but she had already ordered a new awning as she wanted to change the name to the Sabra, it was a word she had learned in Israel, it meant a native born Israeli. Mom said she just liked the word.

Then she gave us one of her best rooms, to use. It had  a big double bed and a television. So it really was just like being on a honeymoon vacation.

Every morning we walked a few hundred feet to the corner where famous  Pumperniks deli and restaurant was, it was where they gave you a big basket of  pastries and rolls for free with your breakfast.

One morning I went downstairs to wait for my wife, and when she came down, I saw a police car stop on Collins Avenue and motion for her to come to them.

Seeing this, I walked over and asked if I could help.

They asked me who I was, and I told them I was her husband.

Then they asked if I could prove it, and I asked why, I told them my mother ran the Hotel Norman.

The police laughed and said the Hotel Norman had quite a reputation on Miami Beach and they thought my wife was one of the working girls. When I told my mom she said that she wasn’t surprised.

A couple of weeks later, I was downstairs standing on the sidewalk when I saw a black stretch limo pull up across the street in front of the Deauville Hotel.

As I watched several fellows in black suits got out and went into the hotel. It was the Beatles making their first U.S. Debut.    

Every evening, lots of people strolled up and down Collins Avenue, many were coming to the auction house below the hotel.

So mom rented her small hallway to a chalk painting artist from Brazil, and he would do beautiful chalk portraits of  the tourists for $15.00 ea.

Mom told us that she was having a wonderful time running the hotel, but she said that she never made a penny profit from it.

Between the cost of the lease and maintenance and the laundry bill, it cost her about  $2000.00 extra every month.

So to try and make up the difference mom said she ran an ad in the local Miami Beach newspaper, asking if anyone needed the assistance of a nurse.

She said she received lots of calls, but they all wanted colonic irrigations, or enemas.

When Mom asked them if they had a doctor’s prescription, they all said no, it was for sexual gratification, so mom removed her ad.

Finding out that mom wasn’t making any money with the hotel, made us feel bad as she wasn’t charging us for our room.

Also my driving every day from Miami Beach to run the  wrecking yard was wearing me out.

So my wife found a $20.00 a week rental trailer in a trailer park on 79th street in Miami and we moved there.

Mom eventually did change the hotel awning to say Sabra. And she continued running the hotel until she completed her lease.

She said losing money running the hotel was alright with her as she felt that she was the Queen of Miami Beach for two years.

Once the lease was up She then returned to our home in Westville Connecticut.

I remained in Florida and we always continued passing by the little Norman Hotel every time we were on Miami Beach.

Eventually the awning was changed from Sabra back to The Norman Hotel.

The Auction house closed down and the Norman Restaurant opened up.

It has been 50 years, since mom had run the hotel, so we stop by the Norman restaurant every so often for a hamburger and Mohito.

I still have a chalk drawing the Brazilian artist did of my mom as she stood on the hall stairway to the Norman.

For two years, my Mom Betty, truly was the queen of Miami Beach.

          

    

    

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