Trivia
In 1964, one of the last episodes of the TV series Route 66 was filmed on Oak and Turner streets near the present-day Pinellas County Courthouse.
In 1965, the cast of the TV series Flipper came to the Lagoon Hotel on Clearwater Beach to film an episode.
In 1965, the Rolling Stones played to an audience of 3000 fans at Jack Russell Baseball Stadium. The opening act was a singer, little-known at the time, by the name of Glen Campbell.
In 1996, a 60-foot-tall, oily image resembling the Virgin Mary appeared on the side of a glass office building in Clearwater. The site has drawn a steady audience of believers and onlookers ever since its discovery. The building was formerly a bank but is now used as a shrine after the building's purchase by the Shepherds of Christ ministry. On March 1, 2004, a vandal used a slingshot to destroy the uppermost three glass panels that made up the image. Driven by guilt, 18-year old Kyle Maskell confessed to the vandalism and was jailed for 10 days and ordered to pay the ministry $1,200 for the damage. (This was not the first act of vandalism on the image: Previously, someone had thrown acid on the windows, but the image re-appeared.) See Marian apparitions.
The original Hooters Restaurant was begun on October 4, 1983 in Clearwater. It now has over 350 franchises.
Tech Data was founded in Clearwater in 1974. Tech Data Corporation is a leading distributor of IT products, with more than 90,000 customers in over 100 countries.
Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies hold spring training in Clearwater and play exhibition games at Clearwater's Bright House Networks Field. [6]
The town is home to the Clearwater Threshers baseball club of the Florida State League.
The Eckerd drugstore (now owned by Jean Coutu) chain headquarters were located in Pinellas Park, Florida, founded by Jack Eckerd a long-time resident of Clearwater, now deceased. Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater was named to thank the Eckerds for their donations, which were used to build the facility in 1983.
The Belleview Biltmore Hotel (now in adjoining Belleair) built in 1897, is one of the largest wooden hotel structures in the United States. Once a posh resort for movie stars and socialites during the early and mid-1900s, as of 2006, the hotel is in disrepair and will be demolished for condominiums unless "Save the Biltmore" a local preservation group can find a sponsor and funds to bring it back to its full glory. This task is still underway.
NASCAR driver Michael Dokken is from the city.
The very first Saturn automobile was sold by Saturn of Clearwater. The blue 1991 SL sedan is currently displayed in their showroom.
Clearwater, Florida and Nagano, Japan have enjoyed a Sister City relationship since 1959, when the Mayor of Nagano, Itaru Kurashima, came to the U.S. in search of a Sister City with a similar economic and community situation.
Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, spent most of his childhood in Clearwater.
Former motocross racer, Ricky Carmichael was born here in 1979, and is now breaking into the sport of NASCAR.
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