- January 2, 2026
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Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa. In that role, the 61-year-old tourism executive is charged with helping draw visitors to the region and working with local groups to market the city both as place to do business and for tourism.
Collector of Kiss memorabilia. Corrada discovered the New York band in the 1970s. Like many teenagers of the day he was drawn in by the spectacle and the music, a combination that’s made the rock band a mainstay in popular culture for 50 years. The first of the band’s albums he owned was Alive II. He still has it. Not a copy, the original double album — complete with inserts — sits on a shelf of his home. He also has the ticket stub from the first of about a dozen times he saw them live — Sunday, June 17, 1979 in Hollywood, Florida. It is among the tens of thousands of pieces of Kiss merchandise that fills — closets, drawers, the backs of doors — three bedrooms of his six-bedroom house. “I’ve never counted every single piece, but I estimate over 100,000 items,” Corrada says in a text. And it’s still growing. There are new pieces of memorabilia currently on the way to his house.
Hunt and gather: “It's getting less for me to hunt, because I have just about everything,” says Corrada. Walking through the three "Kiss" bedrooms in the house is like walking through a museum, maybe a bit more cramped. One’s eyes are drawn to dozens of objects packed onto shelves, tables and display cases. A short list includes action figures; lunch boxes; plastic guitars and record players; figurines; every official book, magazine and comic book written about Kiss; costumes; a set of motorcycle helmets; a Christmas themed train set; children’s Halloween costumes from the 1970s. For the majority of these items, there are variations: different sizes, different countries of origins. There is even a set of Kiss Mr. Potato Head figures. Then there are the albums, videos and DVDs, and one room with two Kiss pinball machines and three game machines, including a pachinko machine from Japan. It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey and do justice to the vastness of collection. Or its coolness.
Finite not infinite: The collection started simply enough when Corrada was a teenager. First there were vinyl albums. After buying Alive II he began collecting the earlier records, most of which he still has. And then he started picking up magazines and from there it has grown over the years. The governing philosophy for amassing the collection has been simple, though. “You buy what you can afford,” he says, quoting the maxim: The fine line between being eccentric and insane is money. “You know, you start with what you can afford, and then you're able to afford more and more and more. And as things become available, you start picking them up.” Corrada is practical about choosing what to pursue. He looks for items that have a finite number of pieces — tour books, porcelain statues or figurines and pieces that were discontinued. Other pieces, like clothing, are infinite and are just too difficult to collect.
Shock me: Most of what Corrada finds is on eBay though he’ll occasionally visit other auction websites. Sometimes, luck is involved. A few years back, he and his daughter were at the Oldsmar Flea Market in Pinellas County when she spotted Kiss salt and pepper shakers still in the box. It was an item that was tough to find in that condition “and I picked it up for a couple of bucks.” He has also made finds at vintage shops and record stores.
Got to choose: There is a drawback to having such a vast collection. Sometimes, Corrada says, he finds an item only to buy it and back home realize that he’s already got four of them. “But I'd rather have it, than not have it and say 'I passed up on it' and not see it again.”
Tears are falling: Fandom is about more than collecting items. Corrada was in New York City for Kiss’ final live performance Dec. 2, 2023, at Madison Square Garden. He’s met band members several times, and grows visibly sad when talking about Ace Frehley, the founding Kiss guitarist who died in October. His favorite song is 1989’s Forever because he and his wife Shana danced to it at their wedding.
The next life: As with most collections, the question that must inevitably be asked is what happens to it when one dies. Shana is adamant that at some point there needs to be a storefront museum, says Corrada. As for him, it doesn’t matter what happens. “A lot of the fans that are our age are not out there buying this stuff anymore, because we're not around,” he says. “At a certain point in time, there aren't that many of us anymore that (are saying) ‘I'm missing the tour book from 1982, I’ve got to get that tour book.’” While that may sound pessimistic, Corrada is far from that. He loves his collection. And he loves his favorite rock and roll band. All you need to prove it is the smile on his face when he turns on one of the pinball machines and from the pair of speakers mounted at the front blasts the classic opening riff of Detroit Rock City.
