Tampa Bay Pride Band And Tampa Bay Symphonic Winds
Let’s give a huge congratulations to our new Assistant Artistic Directors, Revae Douglas Ross and Luke Savage! We’re also thrilled to welcome Aman Parek as our new Chamber Ensemble Coordinator https://www.facebook.com/TampaPrideBand
Hillsborough County LGBTQ Democratic Caucus is with David Jolly at 1920 Ybor City.
Trump says he’d consider banning LGBTQ+ Pride flags in alarming Oval Office exchange
President Donald Trump said Monday in the Oval Office that he would have “no problem” with removing LGBTQ+ Progress Pride flags from Washington, D.C. streets, telling reporters that the banners could even be treated as symbols of domestic terrorism.
Bobby Smith was a trail blazer in the early Tampa LGBT community. After graduating from Tampa’s Jefferson High School in 1942, Bobby delivered war-time telegrams for the US Post Office because he liked the uniform. The Tampa Tribune called Bobby “Tampa’s First Girl Messenger.”
Assigned female at birth, Bobby dressed as a man throughout his adult life—today he might embrace a trans identity. He seemed to have been well accepted in his community–we have photos of Bobby with his mother, coworkers, and even the fire chief.
During the day he worked at Southern Photo & News, but at night he frequented local gay and drag bars, becoming the community’s unofficial photographer. He met his life partner Kay Thompson at Jimmie White’s Tavern in 1959, and they were together nearly fifty years.
Bobby and “Miss Kay” were founding members of MCC-Tampa in 1971–they even put a mortgage on their house to help pay for the church’s first sanctuary. The couple renewed their unofficial wedding vows there and at the 1993 March on Washington. As long-time lovers often do, they passed away within months of each other in 2008/2009.
Bobby’s photos inside bars and private parties in the 1950s and 1960s are the crown jewel of USF’s LGBT archives.
For more on Bobby Smith, see Connor Lasseter’s USF M.A. thesis: “The Sun Shines on Us, Too: Bobby Smith and Tampa’s Early LGBT Community” https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10726/
COMING SOON? A developer announced plans to bring a giant observation wheel to Tampa’s Channel District neighborhood. https://bit.ly/3VXwahW
On a foot note. Bobbie & Kay were both very good friends of Mark n Carrie.
Gallery of Dwellings of Ybor City from the Anthony P. “Tony” Pizzo collection and their contemporary counterparts captured by Tampan Photographer Chip Weiner.
Darryl Shaw will be presenting his schematic plans for the Sheriff’s Dept Property and areas south and east of there. We’ll meet at Casa Marti’s common room (off the main lobby) – please plan to arrive a few minutes ahead of 6pm to allow for an on-time start. Light refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome! https://www.facebook.com/events/1988656988567558
#1 Karaoke in Ybor City
Whistle Pig Cocktail Competition
Alright guys Disco Pony is hosting the Whistle Pig Cocktail Competition Monday November 10 in Ybor. Stipulations are that your bar must order a case or more of the 10yr Whistle Pig Bourbon or Rye from SWS to be featured the whole month October at your establishment. Signup are for the first 20 people and orders will be checked with SWS. Contest rules and signup please email me at ChouChouG@SouthernNights.com
Tampa in the 1920s was called the “Manhattan of the South.”
With booming cigar factories in Ybor and West Tampa, the city was one of the fastest-growing economies in America. Landmarks like the Tampa Theatre and Hotel Floridan were built during this era, attracting some of the biggest names to visit and invest. But when the Great Depression hit and the cigar industry collapsed, so did Tampa’s momentum, leaving behind a history of what could have been.
Episode 147 is available on all major podcast platforms.
