NORTH MIAMI, Fla. -- The Voyager motel, where Linda Lovelace's sexual antics were filmed for the 1972 movie 'Deep Throat,' is being converted to a senior citizen's home, complete with shuffleboard courts.
In real life, the North Miami motel was a haven for pimps and hookers, police said. But in three weeks, when the last residents leave its $29-a-night rooms, construction workers will begin $600,000 in improvements to turn the building into Villa Biscaya, advertised as a home that provides 'a caring life style' for up to 180 retirees, The Miami Herald reported Friday.
Workers already have removed the 30-foot orange arches and parabolic dome that topped the motel's office.
In the fall, retirees are expected to begin moving into the 104-room motel, paying up to $1,750 per month for lodging, meals, 24-hour nursing service, an exercise therapist, shuffleboard courts and haircuts.
The Voyager opened Dec. 22, 1957, and was designed by Morris Lapidus, the architect who designed Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel.
The motel 'wasn't always a rough spot,' said Murray Franklin, who has owned the Voyager's bar for 20 years. 'It was a pretty nice spot at one time. We were always filled up with nice, classy people.'
But police said the Voyager's reputation was already assured in 1959 when state beverage officials suspended its liquor license for allowing a bellboy and manager to act as pimps.
Police say it has been a haven for the seamy side of sex for the past 10 years.
'During its heyday, there were anywhere from 10 to 20 hookers in that hotel at any one time,' said Frank Irvine, an undercover detective who arrested about 100 prostitutes there.
'We've had everything there -- transsexuals, tranvestites, homosexuals, you name it,' said Irvine's partner, detective Sgt. Barry Komie.
George Rubin, then the owner, 'didn't know they were going to film dirty pictures' when he allowed a film crew to use his motel in 1972, Franklin said.
'He yelled like mad' when he found out, Franklin recalled.
The motel is not the only 'Deep Throat' star to undergo a change. Lovelace is a Long Island housewife, mother and crusader against pornography.
