I visited Havana, hoping to capture the special atmosphere of the fifties, when people like Frank Sinatra and Ernest Hemingway frequented the city and was not disappointed.
If he were still alive, Frank Sinatra would be 91 hours in his heyday, was the slogan: "And 'the world of Frank, we just live in it." This world certainly include Cuba, visited Frank in 1947. I just wanted to see the world of Frank in Havana, where I hoped it would be memorabilia from the fiftiesaccessible.
In Havana Jose Marti International airp ¬ uerto immigration formalities were, as in the fifties, more complicated, when visas were required to go anywhere. It took me an hour to clear the line on immigration. In my case, police officers spent a little 'more care than a minute in comparison with the photo of my face in my passport. Then it took an hour to get my luggage and change my money in "convertible pesos" or CUC. I'm sure that Sinatra had it easier.
There was a lotpoints out, Sinatra on the taxi into town. The radio was playing songs with a Cuban rhythm, Frank would have wanted. As I trav ¬ elled from Havana city center, past murals and graffiti cheered Castro and Che Guevara, we shared the road with Chevrolet and a few vintage Model T and Dodge - Cars, the time before Castro's rule and must be on Road and Frank were at the time.
The next day at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, with its Gothic facade, fell to SinatraNostalgia. The lobby has some nice mahogany fixtures today, which still reflect the splendor of the day Sinatra. In the bar there is a niche with a poster with the personalities who have visited the hotel in several decades. The section provides Fifty Frank profile with photos of gangsters Meyer Lansky and Santo as Tarfficante.
It 'was the first trip to Cuba by Frank, suspended in February 1947 that his relationship with the Mafia. An FBI surveillance photo showed SinatraNacional with an arm around 'Lucky' Luciano Charles on the balcony of the hotel. Luciano was deported from the United States in Italy in 1946, had come to Havana for a meeting with other mob bosses.
According to many, Sinatra had no idea what exactly has booked when Joe Fischetti, a gangster in New York, owned by the crowds talent to clubs across the country, have hit a 4-day trip to Havana. Joe easily convinced to Sinatra, and his two brothers accompany him to Havana to meet some of"Boys".
Sinatra probably do not realize how many "kids" would meet. The Mafia was a conference in Havana attended by Mafia leaders, including heavyweights such as Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, Albert "The Executioner" Anastasia, Joe Bonanno, Joe Adonis, Chicago Chief Tony Accardo, Florida Chief Santo Trafficante and Meyer Lansky, among many others.
It was Meyer Lansky, the close friendship with Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, the Mafia boss as activatedSanto Trafficante, a lucrative piece of the action operating casinos in places like the Nacional. Without the casino operation, so much money that the top rated singers like Frank Sinatra, Eartha Kitt would be to fly to Havana shows star on your floor.
Even in Cuba, Fidel Castro, the National or a cabaret show. After a buffet dinner in the hall, which once housed the casino, I went to the disco. Packed with diners and drinkers, have captured the mood of theyesteryears. Even the tissue, breasts modestly covered, calls the social mores of the Fifties. A Cuban singer, accompanied by a big band, a traditional song belt. It was pure nostalgia. In his place I would almost imagine Frank wowing the wives of high-rollers with its interpretation of "All of me".
Besides visiting its casino, Frank also celebrated his 1951 honeymoon with Ava Gardner in Havana.
They honeymoon in Rome, 225 beneficiaries of Nacional, near the salt 211-213Mob. The hotel, built on a rock cliff overlooking the bay towards the Morro, the ancient fortress guarding the entrance to the port of Havana. Ava and Frank must have enjoyed the view, while taking in the sunset cocktails on the terrace overlooking the sea. While Frank's favorite Cutty Sark Scotch, I had my best daiquiris always on the same terrace. The proportions of powdered lime, sugar and rum just fine mix with crushed ice in the bottom of the stem of the glass cord. Nacional had the 'has not lost its class. Consideration of the hotel gardens overlooking the Malecon, Havana waterfront along the bay, I felt like I had become, was a member of Frank, Dean and Sammy.
During their honeymoon, Frank has not shown too much and remember a waiter, Jorge Jorge, bottles of vodka and whiskey delivered to his room. Even if they had a favorite restaurant meal of Ernest Hemingway, not the famous author who lived in Havana. Ava admired ErnestSince he got his first starring role in Robert Siodmak from 1947 movie "The Killers", a story about Hemingway. She was recently selected for a role in the film adaptation of Hemingway's 1936 short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". Hemingway was probably held in the city of Ava could easily be a meeting between two American icons: the husband, singer and writer, she "Papa."
The two men, but they lived in different worlds in Havana.
Frank was in the worldHavana Centro, just west of the Malecon, where the crowd ran casinos in luxury hotels like the Capri and Nacional Hotels. In his novel Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene described the first part of the city of Castro, has taken the following words: "In the West, steel skyscrapers of the new city rose like beacons in the clear sky above."
Hemingway World, east of the Malecón in La Habana Vieja (Old Havana), did not have skyscrapers, its beautiful historical buildings - somethe 15 Century. Old Havana begins the Prado, the beautiful avenue lined with a wide central pedestrian area, which extends from the Malecon in Central Park Square. The first time he came to Havana with his future wife Martha Gellhorn third, remained near the Prado, in the charming Hotel Sevilla Biltmore. From there it is a short walk through the old town with its narrow streets, wide enough for a car that is in port. When I went to Calle Obispo (Obispo Road) in hotelAmbos Mundos, it seemed that something has changed since the days of Hemingway.
The Ambos Mundos Hotel was a second home of Hemingway. While living with Martha in the Biltmore Hotel in Seville, has used the hotel as his fall-mail. It did not take his second wife, Pauline fooled again live in Key West. The hotel is within walking distance of the favorite watering holes of his wife, once said that "it was a good place to write." In mid-February 1939, he spent a month in room 511 to sign up at the end of "For Whom the Bell TollsGreat. "Even after taking the Finca Vigia, an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of Havana, has maintained his favorite room 511 at Ambos Mundos.
The old and slow elevator to the Ambos Mundos, presumably from the time of Hemingway, I brought only the fourth floor, and I had a flight of stairs to the fifth floor. Room 511 is now a small museum, where some letters and Hemingway to view Royal typewriter. I looked at the prospect of the two corner windows. A window provided insightthe old cathedral, the entrance to the harbor and the sea. It had everything to inspire Hemingway to write a book with a Spanish environment.
The elevator man had recommended that I see the view from the terrace. This view was excellent as I could see the harbor and the skyline of Havana. There was a bar and ordered a mojito, the Cuban national cocktail made with rum, lime and mint. Enjoy the cool breeze, I was wondering if there was this bar in Hemingway's time. If so then it iscould not get much work done on Ambos Mundos have.
In 1940, after he moved to Finca Vigia, Hemingway would be late morning of the Ambos Mundos, to check his mail to be dropped. Later he used a few doors went up to the American consulate, and then lunch at El Floridita, consular and friends, perhaps ending his tour with a walk in the international library. This local appropriately grouped - all on Obispo Street - were its baseOperations.
For drinks and fresh fish, the Floridita, Hemingway favors the corner of Obispo and Monserrate. When the metal shutters up, eleven doors were open to the bustling street life. In coffee, turned the ceiling fans and large mirrors behind the bar, the room under observation from base of Hemingway in the left corner of the bar, the Floridita, the voice went around to have the first floor and a brothel prostitutes as regulars LeopoldinaARoster could always count on a handout from Daddy.
It was time for cocktails and waved El Floridita flashing me with Vegas-style neon lighting. Now in an efficient air-conditioning, bar and dining room closed from the outside world. The waiters wore red coats with white trousers, to synchronize with the striking red and gold interior. Billed as the "Cradle of the Daiquiri," I ordered a daiquiri classic, but the feeling that the sugar and rum lemon overwhelmed. Perhaps they areshould have ordered Hemingway favorite "stand-Dad 'by any rum sugar, double and grapefruit instead of lemon.
The bar will now appear as Papa Museum with the bust and a portrait of Hemingway and photographs on the walls of the pre ¬ revolutionary days. Despite Hemingway memorabilia, I was thinking about Frank and Ava, the thrust of Florida during their honeymoon. It had to do with music. At that time, Octavio Sanchez Oñaguirre level Dino(Cotán), sang the Cuban troubadour, Frank and Ava. Now there was a gang of four, with a female vocalist and violinist. Against the background of a complex Afro-Cuban rhythms, the singer and violinist, is that alternate without missing a beat. Frank was his joy.
Ava would back the Floridita, but without Frank. In August 1954 he visited Hemingway in Havana. Hemingway and his fourth wife, Mary, took Ava to dinner, the Floridita. Heads turn, and even Hemingwayknowledge nodding once enchanted confidante meet the Senorita, the group also invites you to attend a coffee or liquor. Ava was friendly, but has shown little interest in these native Cuban sugar producers for the most wealthy businessmen and bulbous.
It 'was a miracle that Ava does not blow up in the Floridita. Hemingway once described the two-sided personality Ava to a friend: "He could be tender, charming, witty and fun, they also had a sharp tongue and you might.. absolute hell "revered Hemingway and Ava has inherited from his love for bullfighting and bullfighters -. After the collapse of her marriage to Frank, Ava would have spent 10 years of his life in Spain.
I hired a taxi to Finca Vigia visit Hemingway - now converted into a museum - to imagine how it must have been to Ava in 1954 living in Havana.
The villa is being renovated, and we could only white space from the outside. One room had a window in the backwhere the sun sets behind the profile of Havana in the distance. They have this vision for the guests, like Ava was the promise of an exciting night in Havana is available.
During the day, unless another place, even a better view. Beside the villa there is a small tower with four floors. Mary Hemingway had designed the tower and the upper room with four windows, was an oasis, where Hemingway could write in peace. How are the rooms at the Ambos Mundos, provided that Hemingway, with the aim ofSea - quite reasonable when he wrote "The Old Man and the Sea '.
For herself, Mary had designed a sun deck, where he could have the sun in the buff.
Maria preferably naked swim in her pool, a little 'out of the house and completely covered with trees and foliage. Ava Maria apparently followed as if they were their guests to Finca Vigia. I went to the pool, a painted blue, but empty. In my mind, I asked myself in a dressing gown at the AvaSwimming pool, dropped clothes on the edge and then jump into the water elegant. Hemingway had many guests, but Ava was the most beautiful woman swimming in the pool.
On my last evening I decided to try another Hemingway favorite places, La Bodeguita del Medio bars and restaurants ¬ rant.
Just a block away from Plaza de la Catedral, one of five places in Old Havana, La Bodeguita is literally a "hole in the wall" with a lot of blocking the doorbars.
Once inside, I found myself in a crowd away from the bar three deep, which could only accommodate five people. On the wall, was his portrayal of Hemingway quote: "Daiquiri in El Floridita, mojitos at La Bodeguita del Medio".
I had to shout my order for a mojito at the expense of other Barflies, all foreign tourists. Most had a single mojito. To cope with the orders, the bartender had deployed 20 glasses for the entire length of the bar and prepared on a mojitoAssembly constant. He began gently crushing mint in each glass, poured some 'lime, by placing ice cubes in white, and then fill with some Havana Club rum for a mass market product, has good taste, even though it was almost twice more expensive than elsewhere.
Even against the wall, a group of five girls and started an organization drummer boy next to me their instruments and the place is even more cramped.
The band started with "Chan Chan ', a CubanPreferred. Dressed in white blouses and microskirts, the girls had skin shades from white to black. His next song was a sop to the foreigners: "Autumn Leaves", a Cuban rhythm played. The black singer now she played clarinet, producing a series of soulful sounds. I thought of Frank Sinatra and his interpretation of this song. He did feel that way when his marriage to Ava Gardner broke?
The bongo player accelerates the rhythm of the beat and the girls held withrhythmic movements step. I was watching and listening. There was vitality in the music that has something to do with the Cuban mentality. The whole night was to insist La Bodeguita del Medio, these sounds are Cuban. Sinatra was his great joy, because music is essential for life in Havana.
The music never stops in Havana. That night when I went to Old Havana, we had music streaming from every bar and restaurant. Old American cars with sound systems fitted in better condition than theirEngines pumped out rhythms for the pleasure this past. Locals sit on the doorsteps, their living rooms had their television music blasting at full strength. The rhythms were put on my adrenaline running high.
My best moment was when only a live band, specializing in Afro-Cuban rhythms. The band leader, saxophonist, has begun a favorite Sinatra "My Way". He himself removed from his saxophone and did the same song in every Sinatra. Then beattransferred to a complex rhythm and sounds of his saxophone sounds off. It 'was a great performance and Old Blue Eyes would have liked.
Even if he does not have it with Hemingway, Cuba share - at least for now - is still part of the world of Frank.
