Grenald, Selma Interview

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/MBVM000002/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Oral histories -- Miami Beach (Fla.)
Actors -- Actresses -- United States
Genre:: Video Recordings
Spatial Coverage:: North and Central America -- United States -- Florida -- Miami Dade -- Miami Beach
Coordinates:: 25.68887 x -80.2899

Scope and Content:: Ms. Grenald was born on Miami Beach in 1929, attended Beach schools and graduated from Beach High in 1942. She talks about growing up on the Beach, hanging out on Ocean and 14th Street with her high school friends and meeting her future husband there, who invited her across the street to a hot dog stand for their first “date.” She tells about all the children of snowbirds who increased the population of their school in winter and having a crush on a boy who only came down for a few months a year. In the days before air-conditioning, when it was hot people liked to go to the movies or to restaurants at night to be in the air-conditioning. She talks about her profession as a local reporter and writer for The Sun Report, later called the Citizen News. She also wrote for Showcase and hosted a local television show for many years. She did a lot of travel writing, including an early piece on Disney World after it first opened. They had apparently gotten some negative reviews. Ms. Grenald's review was glowing and helped business. Disney was so grateful they named a street after her there. She was also an actor, doing several production in the Actor's Playhouse in Coconut Grove. She acted in films, most notably with Frank Sinatra in A Hole in the Head. She tells about what is was like to work with him and it is not a flattering account.