St. Petersburg, Florida $10 million investment plan which helped build the St. Petersburg City Hall. By the 1940s the city received a large population growth due to World War II. St. Petersburg was a training ground area for the U.S. Coast Guard who had a training base and used the city's Bayboro Harbor, and for the Army Air Force who was selected by the War Department to use the city as their technical service training station. With both stations occupying the city, more than 100,000 troops occupied all hotels in St. Petersburg. After the war, most troops who were stationed in St. Petersburg
20th Century Fox was not much else to Fox, which had been reeling since the founder William Fox lost control of the company in 1930. The studio's biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn and Spencer Tracy had been dropped because of heavy drinking. At first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called "Fox-20th Century", even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides