Sunland Tribune

Volume 24 Article 5

1998

The Summer of '47

Gary R. Mormino

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Recommended Citation Mormino, Gary R. (1998) "The Summer of '47," Sunland Tribune: Vol. 24 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/sunlandtribune/vol24/iss1/5

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sunland Tribune by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SUMMER OF ‘47

Gary R. Mormino That summer, a surging economy ignited by pent-up consumer demand and cold It was the summer of our discontent, a war anxieties buoyed the spirits of seedtime of change. In Washington, an Floridians. An optimism borne of victory embattled Democratic president blamed and postwar prosperity swept Tampa a "do nothing" Republican Congress for Bay. But the demons of the southern the nation's woes, while a resurgent GOP SDVW VHJUHJDWLRQ SRYHUW\ DQG pledged to return America to family QDWXUH FODVKHG ZLWK GUHDPHUV  YLVLRQV values and limited government. A prying of a new Tampa. press greatly annoyed the President and First Lady, who attempted to protect In 1947, the ghosts of World War II still their only daughter from publicity. In lingered. Following the conflict, Hollywood, a handsome actor testified Congress had drastically slashed the that the movie industry was controlled military, shutting down most of Florida's by subversives holding un-American military bases. But for some crisscrossed views; critics charged that the fading runways, Henderson Field, located in movie star was more interested in sparsely-settled northeast Hillsborough Washington than Hollywood. In the County, became a memory. In Middle East, Palestinians and Jews peacetime, Henderson Field's 2,000 battled in the streets, while in England, acres served new purposes. The federal royalty blazed anew as the public fell in government deeded the scrubland to love with a young princess. Hillsborough County. Within a decade the area served as home to two breweries In far-away Florida, summer ushered in and the University of South Florida. a season of controversies. Red tide and overflowing sewers lapped the shores of Fortune also favored Tampa when the U. Tampa Bay, while overhead, military S. government decommissioned Drew aircraft sprayed chemicals to combat Army Air Field. Emblematic of World new and old pests. When students War II's galvanic impact upon the returned to classrooms, they discovered region, Dale Mabry Highway was built "portables," visible symbols of to connect MacDill and Drew Fields. In overcrowding. In Tallahassee, the summer of '47, Drew Field named lawmakers faced angry taxpayers and after businessman John H. Drew faded frustrated educators. A combative "He into history, when officials renamed the Coon" governor announced plans to facility Tampa International Airport. The improve Florida's educational system. city inherited a $20 million windfall.1 Tampans squared off in an ugly debate over the "big league" image of its MacDill Army Air Field alone survived football stadium. It was the summer of the postwar blues. In September 1947, 1947. the Army Air Corps officially became the United States Air Force, a move which strengthened MacDill's profile. Cold War tensions in Latin America and Technology seemed to hold out a daz- the Caribbean assured MaeDill's survival zling future to residents of the Tampa in the 1940s and 50s. Indeed, the mood Bay area. In August 1947, thousands of in Congress swung dramatically from shoppers flocked to the Maas Brothers' isolationism to containment in 1947, Franklin Street showcase to gaze and with the declaration and passage of the ponder the meaning of a brand new Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine. The medium: television. The department Cold War and the Military Industrial store sponsored an exhibition of the Complex funneled millions of dollars latest technology; shoppers watched with into the Tampa Bay economy. fascination as images of local singers and talking heads magically appeared on World War II wrought a technological a six-inch screen.3 Alas, since Tampa revolution, and the war's weapons and Bay had no television station in 1947, experiments reappeared in the skies and residents could not watch the magical stores of 1947 Tampa. Jet planes roared November wedding of Great Britain's overhead, eventually cracking the speed Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip of sound that year, while DC-3s whisked Mountbatten. passengers from New York and Havana to Tampa. C-47s and other military The year 1947 introduced another new transports also circled the skies, PHGLXP )0 UDGLR :'$( RZQHG E\ dumping copious amounts of DDT along the Tampa Daily Times SURPLVHG WKH Tampa Bay bayous and backyards. The area's 5,000 radio listeners who owned enemy was the omnipresent and FM receiving sets static-free reception. omnivorous mosquito. Developed to Twenty-five years earlier, WDAE had combat the native predators of the South become Florida's very first licensed AM Pacific jungles, DDT quickly became a radio station.4 panacea for Florida's other insect scourges. Floridians rushed to apply the The bewitching new witches brew, but some began to WHFKQRORJLHV ''7 WHOHYLVLRQ DQG )0 question the new cure. A lethal dose of UDGLR SURPLVHGDEHWWHUGD\IRU7DPSD red tide, however, reminded residents of Bay. Technology also lured visitors to nature's revenge.2 Florida with the modern comforts of air travel, sleek postwar automobiles, and Two years after Hiroshima and air conditioning. The future seemed Nagasaki, atomic technology continued now. to preoccupy Tampa residents. Hurricanes also haunted residents, thus Historically, tourism serves as an accu- on June 24, 1947, The Tampa Tribune rate barometer of public confidence and asked Courthouse Square strollers the the state's fiscal health. In 1947, tourism following question: "Would you like to reinforced America's love affair with see a scientific test made to discover Florida, but profound changes in the whether 'baby hurricanes' could be killed marketing and nature of tourism were by [atomic] bombs?" Strollers endorsed occurring amidst the honky-tonk of old the idea. Florida. In 1947, bulldozers cleared a site on U.S. Highway 19 between the isolated settlements of Homosassa Springs and Spring Hill. Newton Perry, a and that slum areas "beggared a Mexican former Navy frogman, called the new Peon village."8 attraction Weeki Wachee, named for the glorious springs. Weeki Wachee's pro- In Tampa, old economies and new real- motion of "live mermaids" anticipated ities collided in 1947. "Cigar City" the marketing strategies used by future struggled to redefine itself. Thousands of theme parks.5 cigarmakers, many of them pioneers from the handrolled heyday of Ybor City Older tourist attractions SULVWLQH as the capital of premium cigars, beaches, bass-filled lakes, and alligator remained unemployed. The Great IDUPV OXUHG UHFRUG QXPEHUV RI ZLQWHU Depression and the popularity of cheap visitors in 1947. The sheer number of cigarettes during the war D WRQLF IRU visitors so impressed local and state ZDU QHUYHV KDG VHULRXVO\ HURGHG WKH officials that economists predicted with market for Tampa's finest. Most notably, giddy optimism that tourism would fashionable men no longer smoked someday become a twelve-month a year cigars.9 industry.6 Air conditioning, still rare in 1947, eventually helped fulfill the Still, the moniker "Cigar City" lingered. tourism-in-August prophecy. In 1947, Tampa was becoming a city though famous for cigars, more The economic boom was driving the important for phosphate and shipping, price of Tampa Bay beachfront property construction and services, military higher and higher. From Pass-a-Grille to defense and organized crime. Old firms Clearwater Beach, a postwar prosperity and first families held power and drove the price of gulf property threefold controlled civic affairs, but a new in just a few years. In a decade the generation of businessmen and leaders Pinellas beachfront population had emerged after the war, typified by Jim grown 700 percent. In Tampa, city Walter, Sam Gibbons, Tony Pizzo, and officials bemoaning Hillsborough Julian Lane. County's paucity of sandy beaches, began to convert land along Ben T. In an earlier era, a local bromide held Davis Causeway (now Courtney that when Ybor City caught a cold, Campbell Parkway) into a municipal Tampa contracted pneumonia. The beach. 7 1940's Tampa economy, however, depended upon the comparative health Reinventing a city's image proved even of military defense spending, small-scale more difficult than creating public manufacturing, retail service spending, beaches. In tourism, image is everything. agricultural products, and the Thus, when editors of the influential housing-construction business.10 Holiday magazine came to Tampa, boosters rejoiced. Quickly, jubilation If homebuilding supplied the oxygen for turned to lamentation. Holiday released Tampa's postwar boom, the G.I. Bill pro- an advance copy, bluntly commenting vided the fire. The sounds of hammers that Tampa smelled, that its Gasparilla and saws disrupted the peaceful summer Festival smacked of "slapstick comedy," of '47, as homes went up in new developments and old neighborhoods. An older bungalow in Hyde Park or a overcrowded conditions. Everyone Mediterranean Revival in Suburb seemed aghast at the state of education Beautiful could be purchased for less in Tampa, but the roots of the crisis than $10,000, but most buyers preferred required little research. Hillsborough a new home, a ranch style with large lot County, for reasons of austerity and in the fast-growing suburbs. depression, had failed to build a single Unincorporated Hillsborough County new school since 1927. The portents of boomed. Brandon, famous for its future crises were everywhere, as serenity and strawberries, took off in the pregnant mothers carried with them late 1940s. thousands of prospective students, the fabled Baby Boom. One solution, Dynamic new developments occurred unveiled in 1947, involved the use of around the South Dale Mabry area. In temporary army barracks (a.k.a. "porta- 1947, Dale Mabry had not yet celebrated bles"). Citizens expressed alarm at such its tenth birthday, but clearly the road stopgap solutions. The Tampa Daily formerly called Vera Avenue pointed Times declared temporary barracks a toward the future. Realtors gasped when "step backward DFRQFHVVLRQWRDSDWK\ a developer paid $13,500 for a corner lot and indifference."13 at the future traffic nightmare of Dale Mabry, Morrison, and Henderson The debate over the future of education Avenues. A scant seven years earlier the took on ominous overtones during the lot was worth only a hundred dollars.11 legislative session in Tallahassee. Florida faced a staggering deficit, as the Tampa was experiencing significant bills for decades of neglect came due internal shifts in population. Ybor City, after the war. Governor Millard once the social and cultural center for Caldwell, an aristocratic looking man Spanish, Cuban, and Italian immigrants, who operated Harwood, an 800 acre failed to hold its magic for the children plantation near Tallahassee, desperately of those immigrants. In 1947, Ybor City pleaded for new revenues and an was losing population, as young accounting. The Legislature passed a couples PDQ\ RI WKHP  PLOOLRQ DSSURSULDWLRQ D EXGJHW YHWHUDQV PRYHG IURP WKH EHORYHG EXW twice as large as ever approved in dilapidated ethnic quarters. Many Latin )ORULGD VWLWFKLQJ D FUD]\TXLOW SDFNDJH families moved to West Tampa, taking of sin taxes and managing to delay a advantage of the G. I. Bill to build a new dreaded sales tax for two years.14 home and share the camaraderie of West Tampa's ambience.12 Hillsborough The 1947 legislative session has been County's population surged dramatically described as one of the most historic in during the 1940s, growing from 180,000 Florida history. Legislators helped create in 1940 to 250,000 a decade later. the Everglades National Park, an event punctuated by the publication of Marjory Growth posed new problems for Stoneman Douglas's River of Grass. Hillsborough County's beleaguered school system. When the county's But it was education which preoccupied 30,000 children returned to school in and dominated the debate. The September 1947, they encountered Governor, supported by a young Tallahassee legislator, LeRoy Collins, solutions are understandable. The worked steadfastly to modernize reforms, moreover, may have been Florida's antiquated educational system. enacted because of the prospects of Gross inequities marked the system, federal courts monitoring segregated characterized by gaps between rich and education in the South. poor counties, and even disparities within counties. Caldwell and Collins College underscored the promise of proposed the Minimum Foundation Bill. postwar life. Florida's institutions of The ambitious program promised a higher education struggled to minimum floor beneath which no county accommodate the waves of new students could fall. More importantly, for the first flooding dormitories and classrooms. In time the state contributed to funding 1943, enrollment at the University of school construction and paid for Florida had plummeted to fewer than a operating expenses. The bill further thousand students. In 1947, inspired by mandated nine-month school terms, the the dreamscape of postwar possibilities requirement that county superintendents and subsidized by the G.I. Bill, a new possess a college degree, and for the student body emerged at Gainesville, consolidation of school systems within composed of traditional young men, but counties. The legislature now also married couples, veterans, and overwhelmingly passed the landmark women. Married veterans attending educational bill.15 college received $90 a month plus full benefits for books and tuition. If the Minimum Foundation Bill served Overwhelmed by appliFDWLRQV WKH as the most significant achievement of admissions office expected 9,000 the 1947 legislature, the most sensitive VWXGHQWV LQ 6HSWHPEHU WKH 8QLYHUVLW\ bill concerned co-education. In 1947, of Florida asked admitted students to legislation transformed the Florida State consider enrolling in February.17 College for Women into Florida State University. The event brought male Hardened veterans, pimply freshmen students to the rarefied campus, while (including one Leland Hawes of Tampa), the legislation also allowed females to and co-eds rushed pell-mell to the red- attend the male bastion at the University bricked campuses at Gainesville and of Florida. President Doak Campbell Tallahassee. Administrators encountered announced that Florida State was problems rarely seen in earlier classes. launching a football program, hoping to So many students drove automobiles that schedule games with Stetson, Alabama the Florida Highway Patrol assigned State Teachers College, and the officers to control traffic in Gainesville. University of Havana.16 More alarming, at least to the deans, was the dramatic number of new fathers How does one explain this sudden out- enrolled in school. The University of break of liberalism, the passage of the Florida erected special housing for Minimum Foundation Program and the PDUULHG VWXGHQWV )OD9HW 9LOODJH  breaking down of single-sex barriers at richly earning the nickname the "Fertile Florida's universities? For a state Crescent." In spite of freshman ratcaps, desperate to attract new business and hopeless overcrowding, and wretched tourists and obsessed with image, the football teams, most alumni remember crusade, but the university fell short of 1947 with special fondness.18 its goal.20

Higher education in 1947 reflected In the first assembly of the fall term, Florida's historic distrust of big cities, a President Nance warned students that malapportioned state legislature, and a communist-front organizations would be failure to recognize urban needs. barred from the University of Tampa, Tallahassee, 20 miles from the Georgia "until Joe Stalin allows democratic border but 500 miles from Miami, organizations to meet in Moscow and boasted two public institutions of higher promote the ideals of the American way education, while Miami claimed none. In of life." In an interview with a reporter, 1947, the state of Florida had not even President Nance confessed that as a invested in a medical school. young student he had joined a communist-front organization. In Hillsborough County, administrators Communist witch hunts attracted and students struggled to support and increasing attention in 1947. In keep afloat two private colleges: The :DVKLQJWRQ 5RQDOG 5HDJDQ WKHQ D University of Tampa and Florida KHPRSKLOLDF 'HPRFUDW WHVWLILHG Christian College. Florida Christian before the House Committee on Un- College, which opened its doors in 1946, American Activities that communists had taken over the abandoned buildings had.21 of the Temple Terrace Country Club, located on the Hillsborough River. The If any single person symbolized the school enrolled 175 students. The spirit and buoyancy of postwar Tampa, University of Tampa, founded in 1933, Paul Straub merits the distinction. A had already survived the Scylla and former football player at the University Charybdis of the Great Depression and of Tampa, Straub had enlisted in the World War II.19 Marine Corps during World War II, only to lose both legs at Guadalcanal. Friends The G.I. Bill probably saved the raised $8,000 to help with rehabilitation. University of Tampa. In 1945, In 1946, when the University of Tampa enrollment had plunged to 210. When announced the limited return of the students registered in September 1947, football Spartans, Paul Straub became the registrar announced that veterans head coach. In 1947 the Spartans hoped constituted more than half of the to raise $25,000 to put a team on the university's 1,200 enrollment. field.22 Enrollment did not guarantee the University of Tampa success or serenity. In many respects, the Tampa sports New crises appeared in 1947. The scene of fifty years ago is more university needed accreditation, but recognizable than the American athletic accrediting officials demanded that the arena. In 1947, professional basketball school raise half a million dollars toward dribbled toward its second full season. a threadbare endowment. Throughout Lineups, featuring white players from that summer, President Ellwood C. then-powerhouses City College of New Nance cajoled and pleaded with York, New York University, and Holy businesses and clubs to enlist in the civic Cross, reflected basketball's popularity in the Jewish and Irish neighborhoods of Furman University. Tampa enjoyed a the urban northeast. The Baron Adolf symbiotic relationship with the Rupp was beginning a dynasty at the university; ten Tampans played on the University of Kentucky. Professional 1947 team, most notably Marcellino football struggled for league stability Huerta, Julian Schamberg, Hal Griffin, and national visibility. Hockey, wildly and Fletcher Groves. A Tampan, then a popular in the northlands, held no appeal sophomore at Jefferson High, Rick on the frozen ponds of Tampa Bay. In Casares would become one of the 1947, baseball was America's game. In greatest athletes at Florida. Tampa, the beloved Smokers, led by manager Tony Cuccinello, reinforced the The November contest between Florida love affair between sport and and Furman drew 14,000 fans at community. Tampa's Phillips Field. Commentary over the suitability of Phillips Field as a If Tampans enjoyed the minor-league first class facility drew more interest exploits of the Tampa Smokers and the than the game itself. A legacy of a abundant semi-pro and amateur teams, $72,000 New Deal grant, Phillips Field they adored football at the high school had served as the region's largest and college level. Football meant, stadium since its construction in 1937 among many things, the end of the long, adjacent to the University of Tampa. hot summer and the revival of local turf Until the construction of soon-to-be wars. And of course, there was always demolished Tampa Stadium in 1967 (the the possibility that this might be the year first edition), Phillips Field entertained the Gators won it all. large crowds, most notably the annual Plant-Hillsborough High School The war had disrupted, even discon- Thanksgiving day game.24 tinued college football, but peace brought little hope to a University of But in 1947, critics depicted Phillips Florida football team that had not won a Field as minor league, which matched single victory since 1945. Coach Ray Tampa's image. Wilbur Kinley of the "Bear" Wolf pleaded patience. The Tampa Daily Times pointed out "the drought ended in mid-October when the crying need of a larger and better Gators vanquished North Carolina State, football stadium in Tampa," a facility 7-6, before "a howling [home] crowd of which at best, seated 17,000; at worst, 17,000." The Tribune headline reported, served as an embarrassing venue for the "Gainesville Goes Wild After Florida Cigar Bowl, Tampa's recent effort to Grid Win." The 1947 season also become a major player in the New introduced the school's first cheerlead- Year's bowl games.25 ers. A fashion correspondent noted, "The girls wore uniforms of white sweaters The debate over a new stadium persisted and blue skirts with orange lining ... and longer than the Cigar Bowl. George will be a permanent addition to the new Blaine Howell, shipbuilder, banker, and co-educational school.23 civic leader, answered critics. Howell, who had helped erect the old stadium in In November, the University of Florida 1937, asked the relevance of a new football team came to Tampa to play stadium, since the 17,000 seat Phillips FieOG KDGDOPRVWQHYHUEHHQILOOHG QRW In 1947, bolita had reached its apogee. even for the Florida-Furman game. The In the 1940s, bolita exercised a dream and debate endure.26 tremendous influence in Tampa's political and economic affairs. Danny In 1947, the most interesting games in Alvarez, an ex-police officer, bag man, town, infinitely more dramatic and com- and aide-de-camp for Mayor Curtis pelling than Gator football or Smokers Hixon in the 1940s, has described how baseball, were gambling and politics. In he collected huge sums of money from truth, organized gambling and Tampa gamblers, the price of doing business in politics became so intertwined, so Tampa.27 interdependent, that they qualify as a single entity, a serious blood sport By the 1930s, the harmony which appreciated by insiders and spectators. characterized the "golden" era of organized crime, disintegrated. Flash The Floridian and Tampa Terrace Hotels points and fault lines appeared in hotly and the Citizens Bank Building defined contested mayoral races and power Tampa's urban skyline, but with little struggles between the offices of county doubt, the most important "industry" in sheriff and state's attorney. Casualties in 1947 was bolita. Begun by Cuban immi- the bolita wars mounted. Whereas grants in the late nineteenth century, Charlie Wall solicited and enjoyed the boliWD DQ LOOHJDO QXPEHUV JDPH KDG support of Cubans, Anglos, and Italians, evolved into a dynamic enterprise, no single leader after 1940 could control employing hundreds, influencing the various factions. The election of elections, and handsomely rewarding Hugh Culbreath as Hillsborough County many. Boliteros (bolita peddlers) Sheriff upset the balance of power.28 mentioned schedules, taking bets at City Hall, the Scrub, and restaurants. In 1947, The Tampa Tribune launched a holy crusade against bolita. For decades Highly romanticized, Tampa's organized the Tribune and Daily Times had winked gambling network can be understood by at organized crime, running occasional patching together oral reminiscences and editorials but offering little opposition. written accounts. Roughly understood, On October 5th, the Tribune began a bolita had originally been controlled by twelve-part jeremiad, "Gambling Cubans and limited to Ybor City and Interests Rated No. 1 Power in Tampa's West Tampa. The ascendancy of Charlie Politics." J. A. "Jock" Murray, perhaps Wall, a scion of Tampa's leading Anglo the Tribune's greatest investigative families, assured the protection of reporter, named names, scolding and gambling and the penetration of bolita embarrassing public officials. Murray into non-Latin areas. The Volstead Act began with a shocker: "Gamblers hold (1919) opened new sources of vice, and the balance of power in Tampa today ... Italians capitalized on the possibilities of organized politics are run by the rackets bootlegging. Necessarily, bolita and in this county." The previous year, bootlegging enjoyed the protection of Murray had charged the windmills of city and county police. public education, and his series had been highly effective in mobilizing action. While the Tribune's exposé angered SROLWLFLDQV 0D\RU +L[RQ 7DPpa contractor and member of the Board of Police Chief Eddings, and County Representatives (now the City Council), Sheriff Culbreath all denied the very and Don V. Giunta, a schoolteacher. In existence of illegal gambling. Bolita an ugly election Taylor, "A Builder continued to flourish until 1950 when that's Building Minded," pounded away Senator Estes Kefauver subpoenaed at Hixon's failings to run a safe and Tampa gamblers and politicians to well-maintained city as seasonal testify in a dramatic televised hearing.29 floodings, the result of record rainfall, inundated city streets. Giunta advocated If reforming bolita was more difficult new sources of support for the than the Tribune figured, bringing University of Tampa. But in the end, together Tampa and its fiercely Tampans overwhelmingly returned independent suburbs proved impossible. Hixon to the mayor's office, where he Urged on by a barrage of editorials and remained until his death in 1956. A stories by the Tribune and the Daily young dairy farmer and former football Times, leaders scrambled to secure an captain at the University of Florida, annexation plan and put it on the ballot. Julian Lane, was also elected to public RIILFH WKH VFKRRO ERDUG IRU WKH ILUVW In 1947, the city of Tampa comprised a time in 1947.31 scant 19 square miles. Compared to Miami or St. Petersburg, Tampa was The elections of 1947 mark a political geographically much smaller. In fact, St. crossroads in Tampa. Profound changes Petersburg was about three times the size shook the very framework of local of Tampa in 1947. Reformers hoped to politics. The source of change came add 17 additional square miles to the from as far away as the United States city, by persuading voters in Supreme Court and as close as the unincorporated areas to see the uplifting neighborhood soapbox. For forty years, advantages of annexation. Historically, Tampa politics had been governed by the the residents of Palma Ceia, Ballast White Municipal Party. A nonpartisan Point, the Interbay and Sulphur Springs party designed to eliminate African had expressed little interest in political -American voters, the White Municipal alignment with Tampa. Taking a page Party had been the law of Tampa since from the Republican Party, which in its enactment in 1909, when Mayor D. 1884 accused the Democrats of rum, B. McKay vowed to "eliminate the romanism, and rebellion, opponents of Negro vote in Tampa."32 annexation saw the specter of bolita, taxes, and corruption. Voters But in 1944, the Supreme Court's land- resoundingly defeated the measure. It mark decision, Smith v. Allwright, was not until 1953 that the annexation declared the White Primary measure finally succeeded.30 unconstitutional. Southern leaders resisted the implementation of the Smith In addition to the controversial annex- decision, delaying the registration of ation issue in 1947, Tampans also went African-American voters, but the Court to the polls to select the mayor. ruled again in 1947 that blacks could not Candidates included incumbent Mayor be denied the ballot in the all important Curtis Hixon, George T. Taylor, a primary. The Daily Times and the Tribune realized that the White Municipal Party had become an Tampa Daily Times (hereafter cited as Daily Times), July 22 and August 2, 1947; Louis anachronism. The Daily Times Rotunda, Into the Unknown: The X-1 Story editorialized in August 1947, "The (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994). White Party has never served anything 3 "Maas Bros.. Demonstration Brings Television except a prejudiced purpose . . . why not to Tampa," Tribune, August 1, 1947. junk all the tomfoolery and put city 4 primaries on the normal Democratic and "WDAE To Begin FM Broadcasts," Daily 33 Times, November 15, 1947; Hampton Dunn, Republican basis?" WDAE: Florida's Pioneer Radio Station (Tampa, 1972), 63. African-Americans, who had dreamt of 5 this for decades, besieged the voter "Mermaid Memories", St. Petersburg Times, UHJLVWUDWLRQ RIILFH ZDLWLQJ in separate September 30, 1997. OLQHV WRHQUROOLQWKH'HPRFUDWLF3DUW\ 6 "Florida Brims Over In Summer Tourists Year On August 2, 1947, C. Blythe Andrews, 'Round Resorts," Daily Times, August 20, 1947. the editor of the black newspaper Florida Sentinel, wrote, "For the first 7 "Population of Pinellas Beaches Up 700 Per time in many years, Negroes will cent," Tribune, July 20, 1947; "Planes, Cars Take participate in Tampa city primaries." Crowds to Jam Pinellas Beaches," Tribune, April 28, 1947; "Big Tourist Season Ends," Tribune, He warned, "Negroes don't need our St. Petersburg Times, April 2, 1947. white friends to tell us who to vote for ... We wish to do our own thinking, our 8 "Magazine Article Takes Slap at Tampa," Daily own planning, our own campaigning. "34 Times, November 7, 1947; "Tampa," Holiday (January 1948). Events that summer of '47 connect to 9 "1772 Cigar Workers Without Jobless Pay some far-reaching themes in the history From State," and "3000 Jobless Cigar Workers 10 of Tampa and America. The seeds of Create Problems For Tampa," Tribune, July 1 the 1950s and 1960s D FLYLO ULJKWV and April 30, 1947. In 1947 the Tribune featured movement, the Cold War, the growth of a column, "Tribune Talkies," which asked the suburbia at the expense of downtown, question to citizens: "What would you DQG WKH GHFOLQH RI LQGXVWULHV ZHUH recommend for Tampa's cigar industry?" April 8, 1947. sown in the 1940s. 10 "Tampa Grows As Business Center; Has 9,000 ENDNOTES More Jobs," Tribune, July 20, 1947; "Thousands In U.S. See Tampa As Goal For Better Living," 1 "Drew Field's Name Changed to International Tribune, July 6, 1947. Airport," "City To Get Formal Deed To Drew Field," and "Pioneer's Son Protests New Airport 11 "New Building Tops Millions In Suburbs," Name," Tampa Morning Tribune (hereafter cited "Dale Mabry Highway Starts New Business as Tribune), October 16, June 29, October 19, Developments," August 17 and August 10, 1947. 1947. 12 Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta, The 2 "MacDill Will Open War on Mosquito With Immigrant World of Ybor City (Urbana: DDT," Tribune, July 11, 1946; "Army Bows to University of Illinois Press, 1987), 297-300. Opposition on DDT Spraying," Tribune, July 16, 1947; "Fish Litter Indian Rocks Beach as Tide 13 "Tampa's Schools Will Be Overcrowded This Hits Pinellas," Tribune, August 2, 1947; "Fish Season," "Army Barracks Suggested To Help Are 'Smothered' Tampa Scientist Says," and Crowded Schools," and "Army Barracks Not "Pinellas Cleans up Fish-Littered Beaches,"

Answer To School Building Needs," August 24 20 James W. Covington and C. Herbert Laub, The and September 19, 1947, Tribune, and Daily Story of the University of Tampa (University of Times, editorially September 24, 1947; Tampa Press, 1955), 35-67; "University of "Enrollment in Schools To Hit New High Here," Tampa To Admit 200 More Students," Tampa U. Daily Times, September r8, 1947; "44 Schools Sees Big Enrollment," "Vets Predominate On Over-Crowded On Opening Day," Tribune, Tampa "U" Roll," Daily Times, September 6, 8 September 9, 1947. and 9, 1947; " U. of Tampa Progress Told By Dr. Nance," Tribune, July 20, 1947; "Tampa U. May 14 Education and the Future of Florida Have To Turn Away 200 More Applicants," (Tallahassee, 1947); "Informality Makes Tribune, September 9, 1947; "Nance Hopes For Harwood Plantation Home of Millard Caldwell College Recognition," Daily Times, November Family," Tallahassee Daily Democrat, April 16, 29, 1947. 1944; "Caldwell Sees State Deficit of 21 $15,300,000," Palm Beach Post, May 9, 1947; "Tampa U. Puts Ban Against Red Activities," "Education Bill Wins Senate Approval," Palm Tribune, September 12, 1947; "Tampa U. Bars Beach Post, May 3, 1947; "Greatest AVC Chapter From Campus," St. Petersburg Appropriations Act Clears Legislature," Times, September 28, 1947; "Stars Testify Tallahassee Daily Democrat, May 23, 1947; Communists In Hollywood Are Noisy," Tribune, "1947 Law Brings Better Schools," St. October 24, 1947. Petersburg Times, September 16, 1947. 22 Covington and Laub, 60, 64; "Legless G.I. 15 Tom R. Wagy, Governor LeRoy Collins of Back To Seek Grid Fame," Miami Herald, Florida (University of Alabama Press, 1985), August 8, 1946; Wilbur Kinley, "Football a 31-32; David R. Colburn and Richard K. Scher, Headache for Tampa U.," Daily Times, Florida's Gubernatorial Politics in the Twentieth November 24, 1947. Century (University Presses of Florida, 1980), 244-47; "New County-Wide School District 23 "Florida President Defines Status of Football," Exists Tomorrow," Daily Times, December 31, editorial, Daily Times, September 15, 1947; 1947. "Florida U. Girls Lead Cheers At Grid Game," Tribune, October 4, 1947; "Gainesville Goes 16 Robin Jeanne Sellers, Femina Perfecta: The Wild After Florida Grid Win," Tribune, October Genesis of Florida State University (Florida 20, 1947; "Gators Should End Their Losing State University Foundation, 1995); Miami Streak," Daily Times, October 4, 1947. Herald, October 7, 1947; "Florida State U. Will Play Football: Won't Meet Gators," Tribune, 24 "Florida-Furman Tied 7-7 At Halftime in September 7, 1947. Game Here," Daily Times, November 1, 1947; Covington and Laub, 11, 22, 26, 105. 17 "Florida U. Asks Students To Wait Until February," Tribune, August 20, 1946; "Florida 25 Wilbur Kinley, "Larger Stadium's Need Up U. Rushes Building, Expects 9,000 in Again," Daily Times, November 1, 1947; Wilbur September," Tribune, July 6, 1947. Kinley, "Howell Says Stadium Is Large Enough," Daily Times, November 20, 1947; 18 "Cars So Thick At Florida U. State Police "Most Cigar Bowl Tickets Gone," Tribune, Patrol Campus," Tribune, September 6, 1947; October 5, 1947. "Florida Colleges Spend Over $21,000,000 For Expanding Facilities," Tribune, August 24, 1947; 26 Ibid. Samuel Proctor, Gator History (South Star Publishing Co., 1986). 27 Danny Alvarez, interview with author, July 16, 1982; Mormino and Pozzetta, 280-86, 301-02; 19 "More Student Expected At College Here," "Political Careers Rested on Votes Tied to Tribune, September 3, 1947. Gamblers," Tribune, May 9, 1978.

28 Ibid.

29 J.A. Murray, "Gambling Interests Rated No.1 Power In Tampa's Politics," Tribune, October 5, 1947; J.A. Murray, "Ybor City Syndicate Operates Gambling Racket in Tampa," Tribune, October 6, 1947; "Sheriff Culbreath Denies Tampa Has Organized Gambling," Tribune, October 16, 1947; "Multi-Million Bolita Racket Said To Spend $100,000 on Election," Tribune, October 7, 1947; "Gambling Operators Tried to Grab Off County Attorney Job," Tribune, October 14, 1947.

30 "Tax Howls of Most Suburbanites Are Without Support," Daily Times, July 15, 1947; "City Grew To Present Size On Five Annexations In Past," July 10, 1947; "National Guides Show City Hurt By Its Limits," Daily Times, July 24, 1947; "Vote 'Yes' Today For Greater Tampa," Daily Times, August 2, 1947; "Suburbs Defeat Annexation," Tribune, August 6, 1947; "Tampa Stays Same Size After Merger Fails," Daily Times, August 6, 1947.

31 Don V. Giunta Qualifies In Mayor's Race," Tribune, August 2, 1947; "Home Lives of Candidates Far Removed From Politics," Tribune, August 31, 1947; "Hixon Sounds Keynote For Reelection," Tribune, August 12, 1947; "Giunta Opens With Plea For University," Tribune, August 14, 1947; "Taylor Says Tampa Needs Leadership," Tribune, August 15, 1947; "Hixon Is Reelected Tampa Mayor," September 3, 1947; "Lane Outspoken For Consolidation In School System," Daily Times, November 13, 1947.

32 Tribune, November 19, 1909; Compilation of Charter Legislation of City of Tampa, Florida (1939), Chapter 155 33, Sect. 19, 20, 231.

33"South Carolina Voting 'Club' Gets Setback," ed., Daily Times, July 18, 1947; "White Party Can Be Junked After September," Daily Times, August 19, 1947.

34 Florida Sentinel, August 2, 1947.