Just as Professor Harold Hill rode into River City, Iowa and hoodwinked the locals into bankrolling his nonexistent “boys’ band,” so Pinellas County fell under the spell of snake-oil salesmen in the 1950s, promising a financial windfall if an outdoor amphitheater was constructed in leafy Philippe Park.
When the dust settled, Budget Board Chairman Thomas L. Smith declared the $65,000 project “the biggest bill of goods ever sold in the county.”
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