After WWII, Tampa boosters worked to attract tourists to their city, which was best known for its cigar factories, phosphate operations and political corruption. Dr. Brad Massey leads this presentation about the fight to transform Ybor City into a tourist mecca, the development of Busch Gardens, and other tourism initiatives of the 1950s and 1960s.

Florida Conversations is free and open to the public. It is underwritten by the Tampa Bay History Center endowment fund at USF, with media support by WUSF Public Media. The series is co-sponsored by the USF Libraries Florida Studies Center and the History Center. All presentations take place at the Tampa Bay History Center. For more information, call the History Center at 813-228-0097.