Monday, Apr. 21, 1958

Heavenly Haven

Marcos Perez Jimenez, the chubby dictator who was booted out of Venezuela in January, picked out a comfortable spot last week in which to languish in exile--a modern mansion at 4609 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach. Seller: Ray E. Dodge, onetime Olympic 800-meter runner (Paris, 1924), now a manufacturer of loving cups and other trophies. Estimated price: around $400,000.

On the Biscayne Bay side of Miami Beach's island, the Perez Jimenez retreat comes equipped with the standard swimming pool and cabanas; a lush lawn dotted with royal palms, hibiscus and ixora slopes down to the bay. New Orleans-style grillwork flanks the entrance. Low and relatively compact, the two-story white stucco house is built around a patio. Downstairs is a foyer lit with a mammoth bronze lantern, a drawing room paved with black and white Spanish tiles, a spacious living room with bleached mahogany walls stained silver-grey, a bar and a Formica-walled kitchen with built-in rotisserie. Upstairs are another living room and eight bedrooms--including a 900-sq.-ft. master bedroom with twin dressing rooms. The place came furnished.

As neighbors, the ex-dictator, his wife and four daughters will have Mark Honeywell of the Minneapolis Honeywells to the south; to the north will be Frank Katzentine, owner of Radio Station WKAT, whose turned-down application for Miami's TV Channel Ten raised a storm during the House investigation of the Federal Communications Commission. Up the street are S. S. Kresge (5 & 10-c- stores) and Paul Hexter (son-in-law of car-rental Tycoon John Hertz). The Dodges knew little of the new owner; Mrs. Dodge said she met him once and found him "charming." When she heard he had been run out of Venezuela at gunpoint she was somewhat taken aback. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "He isn't a bad man, is he? Like Peron? He seemed so nice!"

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