St Petersburg, Florida (1962)

Here is a portion of an old 8mm movie I made back in the early 1960s. Back in those days, my family would travel South to Florida every Summer for a vacation. My Kodak movie camera was still new to me, but I wouldn't miss an opportunity to shoot something new.
We mostly traveled to St. Petersburg, which is on the West coast of Florida. My Dad loved the area and there were a lot of interesting places to film. You'll see a lot of the old sites including The St Petersburg Pier and downtown St Pete along Pasadena and Central Avenues. Also shown is Webbs City - World's Most Unusual Drug Store. Some of the residential areas are shown that bordered Pasadena.
St Petersburg By Night includes many of the same areas as seen by the neon lights. Also included is a rare shot of McDonalds advertising their 15c hamburgers!
Finally are a few scenes of Treasure Island (by night) along Gulf Blvd.
The city has grown and expanded over the years but here's a look back to the way it was over 46 years ago.
Filmed: August 1961-1962

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• 1962
• 8mm
• Blvd
• Brownie
• Central
• City
• Decker
• FL
• Florida
• home
• Kerry
• Kodak
• McDonalds
• Pasadena
• Pete
• Petersburg
• Pier
• St
• Webb's

[Clacci34]

This is nice...that is my home!!!

born and raised...

The Webb City's talking mermaid..do you remember her??

[KKD1247]

Yes, I sure do remember the talking mermaids at Webb's City. I was expecting the type like Weechi Wachi...but no. Only fake mermaids with some ladies hidden from view talking to the crowds thru a microphone. To me, a rip-off but it was all in fun back then.

[8ipk]

who did the soundtrack? very nice

[KKD1247]

A great Mac program called Sonic Pro. You can arrange different types of generic songs to fit your needs. I took out the melody line and used the backup track only. Then typed in 8:03-mins and it created it so it would fit perfectly. Didnt have to Fade Out at the end.

[pianodon]

OK, I have to ask...what did you use for the transfer to video? I have several choice vintage super8 films to transfer. And I want to do it without the ole video-roll on the picture.

[KKD1247]

Thanks for asking. A very simple setup. An 8mm projector throwing the image onto an 8x11" white cardboard. And I used a Canon GL1 camera.

Most projectors work - I used a Kodak. Keep your image relatively small so the light remains bright. On the camera, I take it Off Auto and set shutter manually...no higher than 1/60th sec. Thats the secret to no flicker! Take camera off Auto Focus too. The projected image was put on DV tape & edited with iMovie6 on my iMac.

[SixFive175]

I expect to hear "The Weather Chick" on WLCY, plus an ad for Eckerd's "Real Veal Meal", and then an ad for Fremac's ("Crazy bunch of tailors"). On Great Tampa Bay.

[0BleuFever0]

Thanks so much for posting! I was born and still live here now!

[johnnyvitale]

Would it be possible to use any of this footage in a short film I am doing for school in St. Petersburg?

[Tomsouthrock]

THE VERY GOOD OLD DAYS  WHAT HAPPEN

[NamasteSuz]

VERY cool. I Googled Webb's City and this vid popped up. I live south of St. Pete in Sarasota and get up to the 'Burg fairly often. St,.Pete beach hasn't changed all that much since then... very retro and kinda cheesy in a cool way. Thanks for posting this and stirring up some memories from my childhood...

[robertgift]

Great job holding that camer steadily!

I visited Webb's City as small child.

The mermaids were mechanical, correct?

I recall that I found a woman behind and above who could hear us and answer questions wither voice coming from a loudspeaker at mermaid as though the mermaid were speaking.

In downtown St. Pete. not far from the Pier, I also turned on the railroad crossing signals (when no traffic was approaching). There was a wooden knob on or near the grade crossing signal.

[PinkPosey126]

I was born in St. Pete in 1942. Thank you so much for this video; it was wonderful remembering how the city looked when I was going to SPJC (now St. Petersburg College).

[briarpatch18]

This was great and brought back a lot of memories from my childhood, having been born and raised in St. Pete. Thanks for posting it.

[angelaMarie1968]

HI i AM FROM sT.pETE,i REMEMBER THE TALKING MERMAIDS VEY WELL,i SPENT MANY A DAY AT WEBBS,JUST HAVING FUN.tHANKS FOR LOADING THIS.

[raymel1]

Thanks for the Video, especially nice was seeing Webbs City light up again. I grew up in St Pete in the late 60's and early 70's. I remember the Talking Mermaids, the dancing chickens, the chicken that played Tic Tac Toe, the Bunny that played the piano, I seem to remember a tight rope walking chicken or something like that, also at Webbs City. I even remember the Reindeer in the Palm tree's in Webbs City Parking lot. Going to the beach on Christmas Morning was great. hope to find more vids