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Open Books & Records was founded by Ted Gottfried and Leslie Wimmer. The original store opened its door in October 1979 in Deerfield Beach, Florida, United States. [1] The store's location changed several times finally ending up in North Miami Beach, Florida.
Open Books & Records closed its doors in March, 1994. [2]
Open Books and Records played an important role in the South Florida underground scene. The original store was located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. According to Walter CZ, "without Leslie, without Ted Gottfried putting together Open Records, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now, because everybody that’s here saw these little ads in the magazine for this weird little record store in Deerfield Beach that had the records we were looking for. Oh my god, ya know, and sure enough by going up there, you were immediately in touch with all these other people and it just became the hub. It was the core." [3] According to Richard Shelter, "They promoted so many shows, I mean without Open Records…it was my channel to get everybody to know..." [3]
Open Books and Records moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1981. In early 1982, Wimmer and Gottfried decided to start making record albums and Open Records came into being. According to Greg Baker, "On two nights in January 1982 they recorded Charlie Pickett and the Eggs Live at the Button on Fort Lauderdale Beach." [4] At the same time "Open compiled an album featuring fifteen bands from Florida, including the Eat, the Bobs, the Essentials, Spanish Dogs, the Front, Larry Joe Miller, and Charlie Pickett and the Eggs. The result was a remarkable piece of vinyl that stands up to this day. It didn't sell diddley." [4]
Open Books and Records was more than a record store. They had a record label, they put on shows, and they had a hotline called "Song and Dance."
Open Records was a label created by Ted Gottfried and Leslie Wimmer owners of Open Records & Books. Gottfried and Wimmer released several Charlie Pickett singles as well as a compilation album titled The Land That Time Forgot. According to Bob Suren, "This 1982 LP is truly a regional sampler, with bands of all styles from all over the state represented, including the Eat, the Bobs, the Essentials, the Front, the Spanish Dogs and many more." [5]
Broward County is a county located in Southeast Florida. It is the second-most populous county in the state of Florida and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 million inhabitants as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Fort Lauderdale, which had over 180,000 people in 2020.
Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County line. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,859. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which is home to 6,166,488 inhabitants as of 2020.
Lighthouse Point is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale located in Broward County, Florida, United States. The suburb was named for the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, which is located in nearby Hillsboro Beach. As of the 2010 census, the population of Lighthouse Point was 10,344. Lighthouse Point is a part of the Miami metropolitan area, home to 6,166,488 people at the 2020 census.
Pompano Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 112,046. Located 35 miles (56 km) north of Miami, it is a principal city in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,158,824 people in 2017.
Wilton Manors is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 11,426. Wilton Manors is part of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6,166,488 people at the 2020 census.
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s.
"Land of a Thousand Dances" is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A version by Thee Midniters reached #27 in Canada on March 22, 1965.
The Broward County Library is a public library system in Broward County, Florida, in the United States. The system contains 38 branch locations and circulates over 10.5 million items annually. The system includes the Main Library in Fort Lauderdale, five regional libraries, and various branches.
Brian Edward Gottfried is a retired American tennis player who won 25 singles titles and 54 doubles titles during his professional career. He was the runner-up in singles at the 1977 French Open, won the 1975 and 1977 French Open Doubles as well as the 1976 Wimbledon Doubles. He achieved a career-high singles ranking on the ATP tour on June 19, 1977, when he became world No. 3, and a career-high doubles ranking on December 12, 1976, when he became No. 2.
The Miami Fury is a football team in the Women's Football Alliance. Based in Miami, Florida, the Fury plays its home games at Carter Park.
Scott W. Rothstein is a disbarred lawyer, convicted felon, and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He funded an extravagant lifestyle with a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, one of the largest such in history. On December 1, 2009, Rothstein turned himself in to authorities and was subsequently arrested on charges related to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Although his arraignment plea was not guilty, Rothstein reversed his plea to guilty of five federal crimes on January 27, 2010. Rothstein was denied bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who ruled that due to his ability to forge documents, he was considered a flight risk. He was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.
Bob Norman is a journalist in South Florida who joined WPLG-Channel 10 in 2011 as an on-air investigative reporter. Previously he worked for several years as a weekly newspaper and online columnist. He broke the corruption story of $1 billion Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein's October 27, 2009 flight to Morocco under suspicious circumstances. Rothstein, who returned to face inquiries, is a former Fort Lauderdale attorney investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and arrested on 1 December 2009. In 2008 Bob Norman reported an unusual circumstance following the murder of Melissa Britt Lewis, employee of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler (RRA) law firm, wherein the prosecuting attorney in the Lewis murder case came to work with RRA two months after the murder. Rothstein has not been connected to the murder, however murder victim Ms. Lewis had been close to Debra Villegas, RRA Chief Operating Officer, whose husband Tony Villegas was identified as the murderer by the City of Plantation Police represented by Scott Rothstein.
Jeterboy Records was an American record label of the 1980s and 1990s, based in Broward County, Florida. It was part of the South Florida Punk and Hardcore scene, and released music by The Eat, Larry Joe Miller, D.T. Martyrs, Johnny Tonite, Stan Still Dance Band, Spanish Dogs, and other bands.
Safety Net Records was founded by Miami Herald music critic Bill Ashton, and is co-owned by Jimmy Johnson. Safety Net released South Florida classics such as The Essentials' "Fast Music in a Slow Town" EP and The Chant's "Two Car Mirage." In 1988, Safety Net released "The Wilderness", an album by Charlie Pickett & the MC3.
Robert Dennis "Woody" Woodbury is an American comedian, actor, television personality and talk show host. He is known for his best-selling comedy albums of risqué stories, most of which were released in the early 1960s. He was among the first standup comedians to receive a gold record.
James A. Dallas Sr. was an American educator, entrepreneur, musical patron and civic leader from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was the first African-American man to have a street in downtown Fort Lauderdale named in his honor.
Patricia Murphy (1905–1979) was a restaurateur who operated nine Patricia Murphy Candlelight restaurants in New York and Florida over the course of half a century. Shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, she invested her last $60 in a small Brooklyn restaurant. Soon she was one of the most successful restaurant owners in the New York area, serving a million meals a year in 1956. Her signature item was the popover, a hot bread dispensed from baskets by costumed servers known as popover girls.
Charlie Pickett is an American singer and guitarist, known as frontman for rock bands from Florida, most notably in the 1980s. In Rolling Stone, David Fricke described Pickett's music as "a brawling-roots mix of Johnny Thunders, Sun Records and trailer park Lou Reed in Florida bars."
Johnny Salton was a rock guitarist for bands from Florida from the late 1970s until his death in 2010. He is best known for his work with Charlie Pickett. According to Salton's friend and fellow guitarist, Peter Buck of R.E.M., "when he played really well, he just floated above everyone else."
Chaz Stevens is a Florida political activist, artist, software developer, and entrepreneur. He is active in local politics in Broward County, and has gained national notoriety for his colorful statewide and national advocacy for the separation of church and state.
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