- Music
Roberta Sherwood
Roberta Sherwood was a singer, who was born into show business. She began performing at age 11 with a vaudeville group led by her father, Robert Sherwood. In 1938, she married Broadway actor, Don Lanning. They both decided to leave show business and settle in the Biscayne Park neighborhood of Miami. The couple opened a small nightclub and Sherwood continued to perform for small audiences for some time. In 1956, Sherwood’s career climbed to new heights. A chance meeting with a Murray Franklin, Miami Beach club owner in 1955, led to bigger singing gigs throughout the city and eventually to a recording label with Decca Records. Her signature style included a sweater and glasses. As she described her fashion sense was born out of practicality: “I started wearing a sweater because of the air-conditioning . . . I wear the glasses when I’m walking through the audience because I can’t see without them, and I don’t want to walk into somebody’s shrimp cocktail.” Her albums include “Introducing Roberta Sherwood” (1956), “I Gotta Right to Sing” (1957), and “This Good Life” (1971).
Digital Archive
Roberta Sherwood performing in a ballroom at the Eden Roc Hotel - Miami Beach, Florida
Source: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, C026536
1958
Roberta Sherwood performing in the ballroom in the Eden Roc Hotel - Miami Beach, Florida
Source: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, C026538
1958
Image Source (Top): - State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, C026536 - 1958
