The Prince of Paradise

by John Glatt

  “It was very exciting,” Costaldo recalled. “Ben was ill and in a wheelchair at the time, but all these people from the Fontainebleau were there. It was a very unique place. There would be alarms constantly going off, like someone was escaping. It was different.”

  * * *

  While his father was devoting himself to Alcatraz, Ben Novack Jr.’s convention business was going from strength to strength. He had now renamed his company Convention Concepts Unlimited, and was starting to make big money. His training at the Fontainebleau hotel had proved invaluable, and he was now using every trick in the book he had learned from his father.

  In late 1984, Mark Gatley, who ran the Niagara Falls Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, received a phone call from Ben Novack Jr. out of the blue. “He said he had an Amway program for us,” Gatley recalled. “Do we have dates and space to do a meeting in the Niagara Falls Convention Center?”

  The meeting was a success, and over the next few years Gatley would host many Amway conventions for Ben Novack Jr., getting to know him well.

  “Well, Ben was a very difficult, tough businessman,” Gatley said. “He argued about the price … and got what he wanted. But he was a gentleman who paid his bill on time.”

  The president of Convention Concepts Unlimited often demanded that a preconvention meeting be held on Thanksgiving or other major holidays, with little thought for anyone’s family obligations.

  “That was unusual,” Gatley explained, “and I think he did it because he wanted to make a deliberate entrance into a community. It was very unorthodox from an industry standpoint, and would unfortunately set a tone in many cases.”

  Ben Novack Jr. soon gained a bad reputation in the tightly knit convention industry as being difficult to please.

  “[Everyone] found his character interesting,” said Gatley, “because he would be complimentary, and then he would add that ‘but’ in the second sentence, and there would be something wrong.”

  Ben Jr. also played up his Fontainebleau heritage, using it to reprimand any convention center that failed to measure up to his demanding standards.

  “He was extremely hands-on,” said Gatley. “And you look at his history. We knew he grew up in the hotel business.”

  One particular trick Ben Jr. had learned from his father was especially exasperating to the industry. He always refused to sign any contracts requiring payments up front, which gave him an escape clause to back out at any time without having to pay a cent.

  TWENTY

  “A DREAMER AND A CREATOR”

  After Club Alcatraz predictably bombed, Ben Novack Sr. scaled things down. He took over the concessions for the City of Hollywood public golf course, paying the city $84,000 to run the clubhouse restaurant and bar. Within a few months this, too, tanked, with Novack’s company going out of business.

  “Terrible,” said his former Fontainebleau manager Lenore Toby. “It was mortifying. Horrible.”

  On the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Fontainebleau, Ben Novack Sr. was now living in exile in the Boynton Beach neighborhood of Ocean Ridge. Although the former Miss Uruguay Juana Rodríguez Muñoz, now thirty, was his constant companion, his ex-wife Bernice visited daily, ensuring that he took his medication and ate properly.

  “They couldn’t live with each other,” explained Maxine Fiel, “and they couldn’t live without each other. Bernice would go and see Ben with Miss Uruguay there, to see that he was okay and that he had his soup. It was the strangest thing.”

  Maxine believes her sister still carried a torch for her ex-husband, and wished they had stayed together. “Toward the end,” said Maxine, “Bernice said, ‘I never should have divorced him.’”

  To mark the hotel’s thirtieth anniversary, Ben Sr. granted an interview to Miami Herald writer Mike Capuzzo, revealing that he had never returned to the hotel since losing it six years earlier.

  Published on Sunday, February 19, 1984, the story, carrying the headline “The Sand Castle,” painted a sad portrait of a beaten old man still fighting for his just credit for designing the Fontainebleau.

  “I entertained kings and queens and presidents all over the world,” Novack told Capuzzo. “The glory I got being Mr. Fontainebleau will go on forever … but there was no glory in building a failure. Miami Beach went from being one of the most gorgeous places in America to the dumps … including the Fontainebleau.”

  The article wryly noted that “old friends” were becoming concerned about Novack’s often erratic thinking. “[He] says he’s a millionaire in one breath,” read the article, “a pauper in the next. On its 30th anniversary, Novack sometimes wishes he had never built the hotel.”

  In the article, Novack again bitterly attacked Morris Lapidus for daring to take any credit for the Fontainebleau’s iconic design. “It was my idea to have the curved building,” he declared. “It was my idea to decorate it. It was my idea to build it. It was my idea to pay for it. He helped. He was part-and-parcel of me. We worked together. He did a lot of the décor. He’s a very clever man. But Ben Novack designed that building.”

  For balance, Morris Lapidus was also interviewed for the article:

  “This is an illiterate man who thinks he designed the Fontainebleau,” said the now-world-famous architect. “He has grand delusions. He had no more to do with it than a man sweeping a street. He’s the greatest egotist in the world. He’s a man I once tried to kill and almost succeeded.”

  Ben Novack Sr. lashed out: “He’s full of crap. The idea came to me in a bathroom. When I thought of the Fontainebleau I was in the john and sitting on it. My wife was witness to it.”

  At the end of the article, Novack attempted to articulate his life achievements:

  “They say Ben Novack built Miami Beach,” he said. “I don’t know. I gave it all I had. Everything I’ve ever done was on a grand scale, and it was all successful. My heroes are the famous people of the world. I always loved winners. Those are the heroes—winners. When you lose, you’re not a winner. I did my duty. They can never destroy the Fontainebleau.”

  * * *

  In October 1984, Ben Novack Sr. signed over his power of attorney to his twenty-nine-year-old son before being admitted to a nursing home after leg surgery. Two months later, Ben Jr. filed a suit seeking the return of money and jewelry from his father’s young girlfriend, Juana Rodríguez Muñoz, including a $100,000 loan, a $15,000 ring, a gold bracelet, and a money clip. He also sought an injunction barring her from communicating with his father.

  In the suit, Ben Jr. claimed that his father had paid her for “companionship.”

  Three months later, Ben Jr. asked a Dade County Circuit Court judge to declare his father mentally incompetent, and appoint him and Bernice Novack as Ben Sr.’s legal guardians.

  Ben Jr. would later reveal that his elderly father spent the final eighteen months of his life hovering in and out of sanity.

  “He would never want the world to know how he spent his last days,” said Ben Jr.

  * * *

  On Saturday, March 30, 1985, Ben Novack Sr. suffered a major stroke and was admitted to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Five days later, as her seventy-eight-year-old boyfriend fought for his life in intensive care, Juana Rodríguez Muñoz’s attorney filed papers to stop Ben Jr. and his mother from being appointed Ben Sr.’s guardians. Her motion pointed out that as Ben Jr. “may stand to inherit substantially all” of his father’s estate, appointing him guardian would be a “conflict of interest.”

  She called for “a totally disinterested third party” to be made guardian, and a full investigation into how the elderly Novack had been kept “over-sedated,” and “held virtually incommunicado from his friends.”

  Rodríguez Muñoz’s motion blamed Ben Sr.’s treatment for causing the stroke, alleging that his son had improperly obtained power of attorney and was now using it to “harass” her.

  She claimed to have lived with Ben Novack Sr. on and off for the last five years, calling their relations
hip “a labor of love” motivated by “genuine care and concern.”

  * * *

  On Thursday, April 4, Ben Novack Sr. rallied and was taken out of intensive care, and listed as in good condition.

  “Novack Improving, But Fight for Fortune Takes Turn for Worse,” read the headline in that morning’s Miami Herald.

  Then, on Friday morning, he suffered a relapse, and at 10:38 P.M., Ben Novack Sr. died, after his heart and lungs finally gave out.

  * * *

  Ben Jr. handled the funeral, arranging to have his father’s body brought back to Miami Beach for a Saturday night viewing.

  The next day, The Miami Herald carried a front-page obituary for the man who had changed the face of Miami Beach forever.

  “I’ll only be stopped by God,” it quoted the hotelier as saying at his darkest moment, nearly eight years earlier, after losing his dream.

  Further inside the paper was a death notice, paid for by Ben Novack Jr.

  “Ben, 78,” it read, “debonair Hotelier and Entrepreneur, came to Miami Beach in 1940. A Dreamer and Creator, he owned and built six hotels, including the San Souci and Miami Beach Flagship Resort, the Fontainebleau, which he owned and ran for twenty-four years.

  “His greatest love was Miami Beach. He is survived by his loving son Ben Jr. and sisters Miriam Spier and Lillian Brezner.”

  That Monday, a service was held at the Riverside Chapel.

  “It was a whole big thing,” said Guy Costaldo, who went with Bernice. “A lot of people from the hotel were there. It was a mob scene.”

  Later, Ben Novack Sr. made his final journey back to New York, to be buried in the Novack-Spier family mausoleum at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens.

  * * *

  A month later, Juana Rodríguez Muñoz filed a $500,000 slander suit against Ben Jr. for claiming she had provided paid companionship for his father.

  “It could turn into a contest for the will,” speculated attorney Richard Marx, who now represented Ben Jr. “It’s a very sad situation.”

  In April 1987, Rodríguez Muñoz abruptly dropped the suit, after both sides came to an undisclosed agreement.

  Exactly how much money Ben Sr. squirreled away in offshore accounts or other hideaways may never be known. His will left Bernice $2,500 a month for the rest of her life, and set up a $60,000-a-year trust fund for Ben Jr. Maxine Fiel estimates that Ben Sr. left his son around $1 million and all his possessions. His sister Lillian was also well taken care of.

  Ronald Novack, Ben Sr.’s long-forgotten adoptive son with his first wife, Bella, who was now suffering from mental illness and virtually homeless, received just one dollar under a codicil. This ensured that Ronald could never contest his will.

  TWENTY-ONE

  “THE MEETING PLANNER FROM HELL”

  In the wake of his father’s death, Ben Novack Jr. was now a wealthy man in his own right, no longer having to rely on his mother for money. As the personal representative of his father’s estate, Ben Jr. had agreed to pay Bernice the $2,500 a month for the rest of her life. But now he was no longer reliant on her; he could do whatever he wanted.

  Charlie Seraydar says Ben Sr.’s death had a profound effect on his son, who had always struggled to be recognized in his own right. He now also started adopting some of his father’s character traits.

  “It was a very tumultuous time in Benji’s life,” his good friend explained. “He had stepped into taking over his father’s character and he was obnoxious.”

  He also decided to finally do something about his debilitating stutter, enrolling at a special speech therapy school in New York.

  “He pretty much overcame it and found a way to control it,” said Seraydar. “He used to tell me it had to do with thinking about what to say first and putting the sentences in your head, so you know what words to say.”

  In the summer of 1987 Ben Novack Jr. bought a luxurious fifty-foot Cary boat, using $524,000 from his inheritance. He christened her White Lightning, and moored her right outside his Pompano Beach home. The powerful boat had four 625-horsepower engines and could reach sixty knots.

  “He loved it,” said Seraydar, “and that was an extension of him. He used to come up to my house in it, and we would always go out on the boat. He would never venture out more than ten miles.”

  The new boat owner especially delighted in having his well-endowed new girlfriend Narcy pose on deck as his human figurehead.

  “After Narcy’s boob job,” said Seraydar, “he used to put her on the bow of his boat and ride up-and-down the Inter-Coastal … so people would see her.”

  He also held top-level Amway business seminars on board White Lightning, writing them off as business expenses. Often he would be joined by Miami Dolphins star football player Tim Foley, who also worked for Amway and was a close friend.

  That summer, Ben Novack Jr. was so busy running Amway conventions that he missed some shifts at the Miami Beach Police Department. On September 26 he wrote a memo to his department superior, Sergeant John Tighe, explaining the situation and making sure he received the proper credit.

  I have had an emergency business situation in Columbus, Ohio, for the months of August and September, and therefore have been unable to fulfill the normal hour input requirement. I did return to Miami last week for the main purpose of not missing the range qualification with my service revolver and in fact should be credited with ten hours for September 21, 1985. (Left home at 7:15 A.M. and returned at 5 P.M.) I qualified with a 271 on the PPC and 1098 overall (“Expert”).

  I believe that my business situation will resolve itself to where I will be back on schedule and fully able to comply with my monthly hour input during the month of October and from that point forward.

  Once again, many thanks for your understanding and the Department’s working with me during this time.

  Respectfully submitted, Ofc. Ben Novack Jr.

  * * *

  After her ex-husband’s death, Bernice Novack, now sixty-five, decided to sell off some of her jewelry, including the diamond earrings she had been given by Frank Sinatra. She took them to a small jewelry store in Fort Lauderdale, but the owner suggested she go to a bigger one, in Bal Harbour, as the earrings were out of his class.

  While there, she struck up a conversation with the saleslady, Estelle Fernandez, finding immediate rapport. “We became friends instantly,” recalled Estelle. “I mean we were like sisters.”

  A few days later, Bernice returned to the store, telling Fernandez that she’d sold the jewelry for a good price. “One of the jewelry stores bought it from her,” said Fernandez. “I guess she needed money at the time, as I don’t think Ben left her anything.”

  Over the next few months, the two women began meeting regularly for Chinese dinners, soon becoming confidantes.

  “Bernice was very private,” said Estelle, “but she told me stuff she wouldn’t tell anybody else. She did not want anybody to know she was a foster child [or] know her age.”

  In late 1987, Bernice was devastated when her close friend and hairstylist Manny Buccola was diagnosed with AIDS. They had remained close since the Fontainebleau days, and each week he visited her home to do her hair.

  Bernice began taking care of him, and started working with various AIDS charities, raising money and awareness for the disease.

  “I got her involved,” explained Guy Costaldo. “When my lover was ill, a priest here was opening a second-hand store called the Poverello Center, selling used furniture for money to buy food for people with AIDS.” Bernice started donating furniture and clothes to the center, joining the committee so she could be more actively involved.

  “She supported them in every way she could,” said Barbara Lunde. “This was early on, when no one was mentioning [AIDS]. She gave a lot of stuff to that store and she used to go there all the time.”

  The Reverend Temple Hayes, who had first met Bernice at the Science of Mind Center in Boca Raton, said Bernice made AIDS her personal cause long before it was
fashionable to do so. “Bernice was an old soul,” said Temple. “She volunteered at an AIDS place and was very open-minded. She had some friends that were gay back then when unfortunately AIDS hit. She really helped support that organization and took it to heart.”

  As Buccola’s conditioned worsened, Bernice visited him daily to nurse him and keep his spirits up.

  “When Manny was ill,” said Costaldo, “I went to work, and she’d stop by every day to see him. We became friends through his illness.”

  During their evenings together, Bernice regaled the couple with stories of her glamorous time at the Fontainebleau, and all the stars she had known. She loved to show them her personal scrapbooks with candid photographs of her posing with presidents and movie stars.

  “She was a very exciting woman,” said Costaldo,” and owning the Fontainebleau hotel, she would tell stories. Manny knew a lot of them, because he worked there. All about the heyday of the Mafia and very interesting stories if she got talking. We always bugged her to write a book.”

  During Manny’s final days, Bernice encouraged the couple to be blessed by a priest.

  “It wasn’t a marriage,” explained Costaldo. “Manny wanted to do it, and he was ill. It made him happy. Bernice was there. We had Mass said in the living room, and she was here for the party.”

  A few weeks later, in July 1988, Manny Buccola died. Bernice attended the funeral with Estelle Fernandez.

  “She loved him dearly,” said Fernandez. “I don’t usually like that kind of thing, but I went because of her.”

  * * *

  From the very first time Bernice Novack set eyes on Narcy Veliz, she detested her. Although she may have disapproved of Ben Jr.’s ex-wife, Jill, the former Ecuadorian stripper posed a far greater threat. But Bernice was powerless to do anything, as she no longer exerted any financial control over her son. So she kept quiet and bided her time.

  Her sister, Maxine, met Narcy soon after she moved in with Ben Jr.