Roy Crane, the cartoonist for to once-wildly popular comic strips, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer, moved to Florida sometime before 1960. My old friend, Jim Ivey had many a tale of Crane and his living not all that far from[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for Florida Arts
This ad is from ‘Florida Tickets’ from 1986. At the time, quite a slate. For us Floridians, the real star was the late, great Gamble Rogers. Gamble had his programs based in his fictitious Ocklawaha County and a series of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy’s Tuesday Ads: The Great Masterpiece, Polk County
I was speaking to a lady from New York (who is very proud of that location) at an event in Maitland this past weekend and we started speaking about old Florida. The very first location she started talking about were[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy’s Florida Postcards – Monument of States in Kissimmee, circa 1950.
Here’s a postcard from around 1950 of the Monument of States in Kissimmee, that is still there today along the shore of Lake Tohopekaliga. Charles Pettis conjured the idea of a statue of rocks of each state as a monument[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The courtyard of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach in 1965. You can visit the Norton Museum of Art. Plan a trip by noting the address and telephone number: Address: 1451 S Olive Ave, West Palm Beach, […]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy’s Florida Historic Photos: Downtown Tampa, 1926.
Here’s Franklin Street in Tampa in 1926. Prominent is the Tampa Theatre, which still thrives today! This photo is from The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 23, page 211. You can purchase a copy for yourself by clicking here[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s an unpostmarked post card that must be from the mid-60s. This is back when the Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival was on the sidewalks along Park Avenue. Now whole sections of streets and parks are closed to accommodate the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy’s Postcard Thursday: The Burt Reynolds Theater, Jupiter.
Actor, Burt Reynolds built this theater in Jupiter and opened in 1979. It was just north of Riviera Beach where he grew up and his father was a municipal police officer. The theater was very successful at first and Reynolds[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s a photo from a 1957 Florida Vacation Guide that shows shoppers in a “smart shop”. The location isn’t mentioned. If you recognize where this is, or was, in our state please leave a comment below. The Florida Vacation Guide[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s a #Florida cartoon by the great Charles Addams. A view of St. Petersburg that has changed little over the decades. 😀 It was a cartoon for the New Yorker from around 1940 and part of the book collection[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s my newest painting – ‘Playing along the Oklawaha at Fort McCoy’. The setting is the Oklawaha River from a photograph I took. Eventually to be available as a print. Here’s where some prints are available to purchase now:[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This Key West Deluxe Souvenir book with incredible cover artwork by Swampy’s friend Brett Sauce. I marveled at his ability to capture the entirety of Key West. Just look at the detail! You can see more of Miami Beach’s Brett[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…