SPOTLIGHT
Webb’s City The Musical
A Nostalgic Celebration of St. Pete’s Eclectic History Returns
Webb’s City: The Musical Friday, Sept. 21 8 pm Saturday, Sept. 22 8 pm Sunday, Sept. 23 3 pm The Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Avenue N., St. Petersburg Tickets $29, $39 mypalladium.org or (727) 822-3590
Five Decades of the American Dream in The Story of One Man BY CINDY STOVALL
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Dancing chickens? Mermaids swimming in a tank by the gift shop? Maybe you’d like a haircut and a shoeshine while having your prescriptions filled and new tires put on your car. Oh, and don’t forget the toothpaste and some socks. Sounds like the ultimate retail/entertainment fever dream, but as Dorothy would say about Oz, “It was a really truly live place.”
forerunner of the megastore shopping center. Desperate to attract customers during the Great Depression, Doc Webb incorporated the popular Florida tourist attraction vibe to go along with the meat market, hardware store, beauty salon, travel agency, cafeteria, clothing store, and of course, pharmacy. And that just scratches the surface!
St. Pete natives of a “certain age” have direct knowledge of this bizarre retail reality and they remember Webb’s City with fond nostalgia and the inevitable chuckle. The brainchild of medicine man turned entrepreneur, James Earl “Doc” Webb, Webb’s City became the
Doc’s prevailing philosophy was, “stack it high and sell it cheap.” He was a loveable huckster, known as the “P.T. Barnum of retail,” and he was a driven man, bent on success at any cost. To attract the coveted tourist trade, beside the chickens and mermaids, there were also chimps,
StPeteLifeMag.com
September/October 2018
baseball playing ducks, zucchinis shot from cannons in the parking lot, citrus shipping, and an Arthur Murray dance studio on the roof. And it worked! At the height of its success in the 1940’s, Webb City encompassed 10 city blocks with some 77 different stores and grossed $4 million dollars per year. Thousands came from near and far to see the wonder that was Webb’s City. It was known as the ‘World’s Most Unusual Drug Store” and is even credited with the invention of the “10 items or less” express lane. But all good dreams must come to an end. With the advent of widely available