Friday, February 13, 2015

Webb's City - Amended



In our garage (my workshop too), taking up valuable potential machine space, are some of the "treasures" left over from years of hoarding by both sides of my family.  Until riding season reappears and possibly even beyond when I'll be able to post things m/c related, I'm going to post a few of the more unusual discoveries that I'm making while sorting through all of this brick-a-brac.

Today's Feature will visit something I'd never heard of before.  As a youngster, I remember hearing about dad's folks heading to Florida for a few winters.  There were letters and photos that made "St. Pete" a household name and place.  My memories are of flowers, parrots, fishing and sunshine.  Besides all of the other items deeply stored in multiple boxes, this brochure caught my eye.

This $.25 booklet, all 14 pages, tell the story of James Earl "Doc" Webb and his business acumen.  Born in 1899, he was a marketeer extraordinaire.  His story is available on numerous websites, from his business beginnings in Nashville with his "17' x 28' Drugstore in 1925....." to what you see below in St. Pete.









I held my tongue on the "Poster Girls" but I will comment on the Dancing Chicken.  I can't imagine why more current retail outlets don't feature a dancing chicken??


Karen easily saw what I neglected to......what Doc's old property, between 2nd Ave. S and 4th Ave. S bounded by 7th St. S and 10th St. S.

The tall building just outside of the top left corner is the Ted Williams Museum.

Looked like in 1994 .......



In 2013........


7 comments:

  1. Wow, great find in those boxes. You don't see info booklets like this anymore. I bet that place was quite the tourist destination.

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    1. There are some real interesting things, at least I think so but you can help be the judge of that. :)

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    2. It would be interesting to see what's there now wouldn't it?

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    3. I had not even thought of that!

      I will.

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  2. Gee, I wonder if he exaggerated on the 60,000 customers daily?

    Anyway, wow! It would have been something to see!

    I would have liked to ride my scooter over there and hung out all day...

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    1. Deb, I've got a feeling that exaggeration played very well into building Doc's enterprises. Now I wish that I'd have listened to the report from my grandparents. I'll bet they were amazed at what they saw; a very different shopping experience than they were used to in rural northern Wisconsin.

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  3. We had a (very cold) machine delivered today; the machine from Florida, the 18-wheelin' trucker too. In fact, he had family that lived just a few blocks from the site of Doc's Emporium.

    Not a bad time of year to be thinking about and rubbing shoulders with anything Florida.......

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