South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 21

Sun-Sentinel nor, 1 Friday, Nov. 25, 1933 Banyan tree shadows airport project DcGroot Columnist eons. Aulyn Harcourt Brook put a covenant in the property deed, making his heirs promise 'they will riot destroy or molest the banyan tree on this That may cause problems the airport expansion. Brook By Patricia Sullivan Suff Writer A giant banyan tree, the centerpiece of a 1920s tourist-attraction, may be axed because it sits squarely where Federal Highway will be rerouted. At least, officials think it's the famous tree that's in the way.

The banyan has fallen into such obscurity that nobody can say for sure it's the one that opened a tropical garden 60 years ago. State and county officials working on the expansion of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the road-rerouting project reluctantly acknowledge that the once-towering banyan probably will be cut down, whether It's historically significant or not "I don't think there's any way a tree that size can be relocated, and the cost to go around it would be prohibitive," said Tim.O'Brien, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation's right-of-way division. "It looks like it's right in the middle of the road." i Once billed as "The $2 Million Tree, Vampire of the Forest," the banyan sits virtually unnoticed now in front of a Chinese restaurant a few yards from Federal Highway. Its canopy, which cast 5,000 square feet of shade in the 1920s, was cut back dramatically three years ago when the Federal: Aviation Administration rule? it was blocking pilots' views of an airport runway. The tropical garden the banyan ruled over, dubbed "Wylde-wood," has been overgrown for decades, and old tires are now city.

"It was largely due to him that Fort Lauderdale became a tourist destination during the land boom of the 1920s," Rodney Dillon of the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society said. The tree got its name when two visiting multimillionaires admiring the park noticed the banyan. One reportedly remarked, "Why, I'd give a million dollars if that tree could be moved to my estate!" "Why, man! I'd give (2 million!" the second replied. Within days, Brooks was advertising his banyan as "The $2 Million Tree." It isn't on any historical registry, local urban foresters said, so it may not be the biggest banyan in Broward, and it may not be the oldest. But it may be the county's oldest tourist attraction.

Brook, who died in 1947 after he stood on his head to celebrate his 80th birthday and ruptured a neck artery, had big plans for his never-fully-completed garden. Wild turkeys, pheasants and ducks were to run free among arboretum topped with gargoyles, totem poles painted in bizarre colors, fountains, an artificial lake, and a cavern. Another tree, called the alligator tree, resembled that reptile with 26 legs and a 50-foot tail, the park's promotional brochure said. The 1926 hurricane destroyed much of the park, but Brook's affection for the banyan never wavered. He put a covenant in the property deed, making his heirs promise "they will not Please see BANYAN, 4B stored in part of the lush growth.

"Three years ago, people came to take photos," said May Agon, part of the family who owns the land and operates the Hong Kong Gallery and August Moon restaurant behind the tree. "Sometimes, people come to look for it. Not too many and not too often." Commodore Aulyn Harcourt Brook, after whom the 17th Street Causeway bridge is named, owned the property in the Roaring '20s. He's the man who dubbed Fort Lauderdale the "Venice of America" and the promoter credited with starting the tradition of college students spending Easter break in the Family finally nmmm.mim.MI i l. A- ivy feasts together Area celebrates 4B Free dinners served SB By Michael Romano Staff Writer Inside a modest North Lauderdale townhouse, around a 15-foot-long table overflowing with food, the true spirit of the season was evoked when a once-broken family fulfilled its own Thanksgiving dream.

For the first time, Vietnam veteran Gerry Lamberg enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal with all of his young children including Gary, 14, Harry, 10 and Sherry, 8, the three he was forced to leave behind when he fled a crumbling Saigon in April, 1975. "This is it This is like my very first Thanksgiving," Lamberg, 52, said while slicing a 23-pound turkey and serving 18 family members and friends gathered around a sectioned table. "I'm as proud as can be." His wife, Donna, said the feast was truly special this year, the ultimate thanks for the tearful, prayerful reunion last July between Lamberg and his three Vietnamese-born children. "This is so beautiful," cried Mrs. Lamberg, 42.

"We're thrilled they're all here, that they have food in their mouths, clothes on their backs and a roof over their heads. That was the biggest worry when they were in Vietnam. We just never knew." When he fled Saigon on one of the last U.S. Army transport planes, Lamberg's Vietnamese wife, Gia, allowed him custody of only three of their children Mary, now 13, Terry, 11, and Barry, 9. She refused to part with the con- i I All thai jazz, all those years It was 20 years ago that Andy Bartha came to Fort Lauderdale with that sweet golden cornet horn of his.

He'd spent the previous 10 years traveling with Pee Wee Hunt's old band going from one roadhouse gig to the next, home little more than a series of hotels and post office boxes. He was a fine horn player with a top band. But at 45, it was time for Andy to settle down. So he settled in Fort Lauderdale, liking the weather and figuring there would be plenty of work in the sun-drenched resort city. "Andy bad to live in Fort Lauderdale for six months before he could get a job playing," piano man Bob Warren recalls.

"It's a musician un-, ion rule." So Andy spent his six months working for the old Gar Wood boat company. "Probably the only time in his life Andy ever worked while the sun was. up," Bob Warren says. And then Andy organized a Dixieland band with the usual piano, drums, clarinet, trombone and Andy on cornet. First job they booked was at a rough joint on the beach.

Clients used to joke about watching the Friday Night Fights at the joint even though the bar didn't have a TV. One time this drunk walked up to the stage where Andy and the guys were playing. Stopped the band right in the middle of St. James Infirmary, which was one of Andy's favorites. "Where's the restroom?" the drunk shouts.

"You're standing In the middle of it," Andy shouts back. "It kind of place," War-, ren remembering. Most everybody who's lived on the Gold Coast for a few years has heard of Andy Bartha and his Deep South Dixieland Jazz Band. Band played more joints than a convention of chiropractors. Always pure Dixieland that down home, happy, toe-tapping music of the horn-wailing, drum-rolling New Orleans kind.

"That's what suited Andy best," Bob Warren notes. "He started out on the violin as a kid. But later he switched to cornet" Seemed like a horn that could ramble and soar suited Andy's brusque and gravely ways. Making music is the easy part of playing clubs in a resort town. Most club musicians call it a rare night indeed when they can get the drunks slowed down enough to listen.

But the hundreds of clubs in Fort Lauderdale are the last best hope for most jazz musicians. "Not too many other places left where a jazzman can earn a living," Bob Warren admits. Not that the living is all that great "Getting by is what most of us are doing," Bob says. "Getting by so we can play together which is all a lot of us live for." It was a year ago this fall that they found the spots In Andy Bartha's lungs lung cancer. Andy's too weak to play now.

Played his last gig with the guys in July. Couldn't make the next one. Couldn't stand up to play. "It's tough," Bob says. "The guy's about wiped out." Weakened from chemotherapy and the ravages of cancer spreading through his body, Andy's selling off his musical equipment trying to get by.

Medical insurance is a luxury most jazz musicians can't afford. "Put It in the newspaper that a bunch of us will be playing a benefit for Andy Bartha this coming Monday," Bob Warren says. "At BJ's. It's a private club on Oakland Park Boulevard." Andy Bartha must have set a million toes tapping with his golden Dixieland horn during his 20 years performing in Fort Lauderdale. "We're just hoping a few of those people will remember Andy and come to our benefit for him," his planoman says.

"You can buy tickets all over town or at the door." I by JO ANN VITEUJ Donna and Gerry Lamberg carve up a turkey to serve large gathering of their newly rennited family and friends. pie's other three children, and it took Lamberg eight years before he was able to win their release July 11. The three newest arrivals, who understand little English and speak even less, are enrolled In special langauge courses at Nova Middle School and Eisenhower Elementary. government benefits. Lamberg said.

Hopefully, he noted, his situation will improve before Christmas, when the children will expect toys and other gifts under a tree. "It's been hard," he said. "I think it'll get better in fact I know it will. We've been through this before." Harry, the most animated of the trio, giggled and smiled ear-to-ear while a stepsister filled his plate with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and dressing. "Yum, yum I like!" he chortled between forkfuls of food.

Despite the outward glee from the children, the reality of a trou blesome financial situation for the family registered in the weary, somewhat sad eyes of Lamberg, unemployed since losing bis part-time job as a security guard Nov. The family, which includes three other children living in the two-story townhouse, is able to get by on food stamps and other Sheriff slashes special arrest program Fort Lauderdale police chief decries action 'fx t. By Ott Cefkia Surr Writer Citing problems of liability, abuses and lack of control, Broward County Sheriff George Brescher has slashed a program that allowed 340 municipal policemen in the county to make arrests outside their city limits. Most police chiefs said the cutback affecting about 170 officers would have minimal effect on their operations. But in Fort Lauderdale, the county's largest police agency, police administrators reacted angrily.

They termed the action a "step backward" for law enforcement and said Brescher was taking the arrest powers from officers who needed it most. Brescher, however, said the cutback would not hamper law enforcement efforts in the county. He said he did not see the need for deputizing so many municipal officers. 1 "I can delegate the power, but not the responsibility," Brescher said. "There were an awful lot of problems and I thought the program was getting out of hand.

"The reins will be much tighter now," he added, "And after all, as sheriff, I am personally responsible for all who are Under the reduction program, Brescher will deputize only high-ranking police officers and no one below the supervisory rank of sergeant As a result Fort Lauderdale is losing more than half its 130 deputized officers. Detectives, special unit operatives and organized crime division agents will now have to have a deputized supervisor with them to make an arrest outside the city. Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Ron Cochran said he appreciated Brescher's concerns about liability and improper use of the arrest powers, but questioned cuts that would eliminate vital personnel while leaving department brass who have no need of arrest powers. "The sheriff," he said, "has graciously offered to deputize myself and my staff and we thank him for the honor, but if he wants to reduce the number of officers in the program, he can start with us. We don't make arrests." In a letter to Brescher last week, Cochran asked the sheriff to delete the names of his 13 staff members, including himself and a sergeant assigned to administrative duties, from the list of officers to be deputized.

"Our past experience with the municipal deputy program has indicated," the letter read, "that it is most beneficial when applied to officers below the rank of sergeant, especially those involved in tactical, vice narcotics and Intelligence activities. "While I understand your concern regarding the liability involved, I believe our experience has shown that the authority has been used in a prudent and professional matter. Please see SHERIFF, 4B it I would hope that in the future you Brescher would reconsider your present restrictions and restore the program to its original level." Ron Cochran it The reins will be much tighter now. And after all, as sheriff, i personally responsible for all who are deputized." George Drescher Asbestos cleanup ends Classic music in classrooms Students will return to their school Orchestra seeks to keep children in tunc "Page S3 6-t Page 313.