The Coppertone girl sign is a landmark in Miami Beach, Florida, known for being the last operating example of a series of mechanical billboards that were constructed by the Coppertone company to advertise its tanning oil products across the United States. The sign features a young girl and a cocker spaniel puppy who is attempting to steal her swimsuit bottom; the motorized dog and swimsuit bottom rock up and down, exposing the child's tan line.
The original plastic, metal and neon sign was designed and constructed in 1958 by Tropicalites, a sign company owned by Morris "Moe" Bengis. Before producing the sign, Bengis met with Coppertone inventor Benjamin Green and Abe Plough, the founder of Schering-Plough, which bought Coppertone in 1957. Jerry Bengis, Moe's son, stated in a blog post in 2008 that "[t]he Coppertone account became huge and we must have had 500 signs all over the east coast [sic] but none more prominent than the 'original' on the Parkleigh House". [1]
The sign was originally installed on the Parkleigh House at 5th Street and Biscayne Boulevard in 1959. That building was damaged in Hurricane Andrew and demolished in 1992, but the sign was rescued by Dade Heritage Trust and moved to the Concord Building. It was eventually donated to the MiMo Biscayne Association, but by this time it was in severe disrepair, with girl's face and most of her torso missing or faded by decades in the weather. [2] [3]
The sign was moved again in December 2008 to its current location at 7300 Biscayne Boulevard, close to its original location and only a few blocks from the site of the Tropicalites shop where it was originally constructed 50 years earlier. Schering-Plough donated approximately $100,000 for the sign's restoration and installation and Tropical Signs of Miami handled the reconstruction. [1] [2]
As of late 2011, MiMo Biscayne Association stated they could not afford to continue paying for the sign's insurance and maintenance. Merck, the parent company of Coppertone, agreed to pay US$1800 yearly for insurance and upkeep for the next five years. [4]
After Schering-Plough bought Coppertone in 1957, the original designs for the Coppertone Girl were lost in a fire. In 1959, Joyce Ballantyne Brand recreated the now iconic Coppertone Girl artwork with very minor changes using her daughter Cheri as the model. [5]
A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by girls and women that features one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering the intergluteal cleft and a little, some, or all of the buttocks. The size of the top and bottom can vary, from bikinis that offer full coverage of the breasts, pelvis, and buttocks, to more revealing designs with a thong or G-string bottom that covers only the mons pubis, but exposes the buttocks, and a top that covers only the areolae. Bikini bottoms covering about half the buttocks may be described as "Brazilian-cut".
Miami, officially the City of Miami, is a coastal metropolis in the U.S. state of Florida and the seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida. With a population of 442,241 as of the 2020 census, it is the second-most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville. It is the core of the much larger Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast after Atlanta, and the ninth-largest in the United States. Miami has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises, 58 of which exceed 491 ft (150 m).
Aventura is a planned suburban city in northeastern Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, 15 miles (24 km) north of Miami and part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The city is especially known for Aventura Mall, the third largest mall in the United States by total square feet of retail space and the largest mall in Florida.
Key Biscayne is an island village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 14,809 at the 2020 census, up from 12,344 in 2010.
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which separates the Beach from the mainland city of Miami. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising the southernmost 2.5 sq mi (6.5 km2) of Miami Beach, along with Downtown Miami and the PortMiami, collectively form the commercial center of South Florida. Miami Beach's population is 82,890 according to the 2020 census. It has been one of America's preeminent beach resorts since the early 20th century.
North Miami is a suburban city located in northeast Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Miami. The city lies on Biscayne Bay and hosts the Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University.. Originally the town of "Arch Creek", the area was incorporated as the "Town of Miami Shores", which was renamed the "Town of North Miami" in 1931. It was reincorporated as a city in 1953. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida.
Biscayne National Park is an American national park located south of Miami, Florida in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres and includes Elliott Key, the park's largest island and northernmost of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef. The islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.
Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it became an independent company. In 1971, the Schering Corporation merged with Plough, Inc. to form Schering-Plough. On November 4, 2009 Merck & Co. merged with Schering-Plough with the new company taking the name of Merck & Co.
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is largely undeveloped with a large portion of the lagoon included in Biscayne National Park.
The Miami Herald is an American daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties.
Rachel Hunter is a New Zealand model, actress, and host of Imagination Television's Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty. She has appeared on several magazine covers, including Vogue, Elle, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and Harper's Bazaar. She has been on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue twice: in 1994 and in 2006.
Miami Modernist architecture, or MiMo, is a regional style of architecture that developed in South Florida during the post-war period. The style was internationally recognized as a regionalist response to the International Style. It can be seen in most of the larger Miami and Miami Beach resorts built after the Great Depression. Because MiMo styling was not just a response to international architectural movements but also to client demands, themes of glamour, fun, and material excess were added to otherwise stark, minimalist, and efficient styles of the era. The style can be most observed today in Middle and Upper Miami Beach along Collins Avenue, as well as along the Biscayne Boulevard corridor starting from around Midtown, through the Design District and into the Upper Eastside.
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Joyce Ballantyne was a painter of pin-up art. She is best known as the designer of the Coppertone girl, whose swimming costume is being pulled down by a dog.
The Upper Eastside is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida. It is north of Edgewater, east of Little Haiti, south of the village of Miami Shores, and sits on Biscayne Bay. In geographical order from south to north and east to west, it contains the subdivisions of Magnolia Park, Bay Point, Morningside, Bayside, Belle Meade, Shorecrest, and Palm Grove. The MiMo District along Biscayne Boulevard in the area is host to many art galleries, shops and restaurants.
The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Museum Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Center for the Fine Arts, it became known as the Miami Art Museum from 1996 until it was renamed in 2013 upon the opening of its new building designed by Herzog & de Meuron at 1103 Biscayne Boulevard. PAMM, along with the $275 million Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science and a city park which are being built in the area with completion in 2017, is part of the 20-acre Museum Park.
The Port of Miami Tunnel is a 4,200-foot (1,300 m) bored, undersea tunnel in Miami, Florida. It consists of two parallel tunnels that travel beneath Biscayne Bay, connecting the MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island with PortMiami on Dodge Island. It was built in a public–private partnership between three government entities—the Florida Department of Transportation, Miami-Dade County, and the City of Miami—and the private entity MAT Concessionaire LLC, which was in charge of designing, building, and financing the project and holds a 30-year concession to operate the tunnel.
Edgewater is a neighborhood in Miami, Florida, located north of Downtown and the Arts & Entertainment District, and south of Midtown and the Upper Eastside. It is roughly bound by North 17th Street to the south, North 37th Street to the north, the Florida East Coast Railway and East First Avenue to the west and Biscayne Bay to the east.
Coppertone is the brand name for an American sunscreen. Coppertone uses a variety of branding, including the Coppertone girl logo and a distinctive fragrance.
The Bacardi Buildings are a landmark of Midtown Miami and served as the former headquarters of Bacardi USA. The site, located at 2100 Biscayne Boulevard, consists of the Bacardi Imports Tower and the Bacardi Imports Administration Annex, also known as "The Jewel Box". The tower and the annex were constructed in 1963 and 1973, respectively, and in 2018 they were added to the National Register of Historic Places.