Key West History: Dec. 21, 1975 - Key West Aloe Opened It's New Store and Factory - a podcast by 43 Keys Media

While vacationing in Key West in the 1960’s with his partner, Joe Lizska, Frank Romano made the terrible mistake of falling asleep on the beach. It’s a mistake many tourists to Key West make, not realizing how much closer Key West is to the equator than the mainland, and how much faster you get sunburned at this latitude. By the time Frank woke up, he could barely move without terrible pain.

  His entire chest was completely burned and he could barely move, let alone put on a shirt. Another local beachgoer happened to see Frank struggling in pain when he woke up, and told him he had just the remedy for his sunburn.   Frank and his new friend made their way back to the local’s home and the man promptly went out to the garden and cut 2 stalks of his aloe plant and promptly filleted them and rubbed the aloe juice all over Frank’s chest. By the next morning, there was no sign of Frank’s sunburn and he was flabbergasted. He couldn’t believe that a plant could perform such a miracle on his skin, and set his wheels in motion. If this plant could do that to his damaged skin, what could it do for healthy skin.    Later Frank and Joe moved to Key West and started the Key West Fragrance and Cosmetic factory. They used aloe in all of their products and for years, Frank was the chief chemist and could be see in the shop window mixing and measuring potions on Front St.   Frank and Joe adjusted well to life on the island. They grew their business and their circle of friends. One October day, Joe came home and told Frank he needed to show him something. Frank went along as Joe took him down to Duval St. Standing on one end of Duval St. Joe asked Frank what he saw.    Frank really wasn’t sure what he was supposed to see. He saw some boarded up shops and that was about it. Joe asked him, “do you see any people walking?” Frank said no. “Do you see any cars driving up the street?” Again, Frank said no. At this point Joe began to paint a picture. Here they were in Paradise where the weather was still warm, but once the summer vacation tourists left the island, not much happened until the snowbirds returned for the winter.   Because of this lull in tourists, it caused the island to go into a shutdown mode. Many businesses closed up and found business in other parts of the country where they still had customers. May employees of the businesses were laid off and had no work during this time.   Joe had realized that they needed some sort of festival or event that could be put on to bring tourists to the island during this low season.They gathered their friends, Bill Conkle and Tony Falcone, who owned Fast Buck Freddie’s and they put a plan into motion. The next October, the first Fantasy Fest was held and they had a parade with 12 floats that had been beautifully decorated. Some 5000 tourists came to the island that year for Fantasy Fest. The event has continued each year and grown into an international event, with people flying in from all over to enjoy the adult themed celebration.   It was today, December 20, 1975 1975: Key West Fragrance and Cosmetic celebrated its fourth anniversary by opening their new store and factory at Greene and Simonton streets. In four years, the company had grown from two employees, Frank Romano and Joe Liska, to two stores and 36 employees in Key West plus nine other shops in Florida and one in Haiti.   If you visit Key West today, you can still visit this company, now renamed Key West Aloe by stopping by their store on Duval St at Duval Square.   And that’s what happened today in Key West History.    Today in Key West History is brought to you by 43 Keys Media. To learn more about our beautiful Florida Keys, visit http://43keys.com.   you can also get this program as an Alexa Flash briefing. Just tell Alexa to play Today in Key West history as your Flash Briefing.  

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