PeriscopeFilm | “ AQUA FEST ” 1964 AMERICA TV SHOW WEEKI WACHEE SPRINGS & CYPRESS GARDENS FLORIDA XD60744 @PeriscopeFilm | Uploaded September 2024 | Updated October 2024, 14 hours ago.
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This 1964 episode of “America!,” a series of travel films about American sites hosted by Jack Douglas, explores several Florida water attractions: 1) Weeki Wachee Springs aka Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, a Florida attraction north of Tampa known for its mermaid shows with the nickname “America’s Shrine of the Mermaids,” and 2) Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida. The film begins with a blonde woman in a mermaid tail diving into the spring (1:50); more mermaids, typically 18-25-year-old women, walk on a path. The auditorium for the mermaid shows is shown, which extends 16 feet underground with clear windows (2:14). Mermaids in bathing suits wait in a locker room, then enter the show pool by diving through a chute. (2:28). They use air hoses to breathe. Calamity Jane, a giant clam (3:17) opens to reveal Professor Bubble Trouble, an actor in the show. Mermaids do underwater backflips (4:04). Weeki Wachee was man-made and the depth of the spring is unknown. Mermaids balance on a high wire (5:08). A side paddle wheeler boat, the Congo Belle, floats on the Week Wachee River (5:52) past a shack called Trader’s Landing. White egrets and cypress trees line the river (6:57). The riverboat captain throws slices of bread to raccoons (7:16). Wild boar eat apples. Visitors view black bears and a Florida puma. Back in the auditorium, a mermaid plays a violin underwater (8:54). Mermaids swim by a fiberglass conch shell used as an air chamber or for costume changes (10:05). A mermaid rides atop a mechanical dolphin (10:13). One of the mermaids says the secret to drinking underwater is to exhale all your air into the bottle, which forces the drink into your mouth. Another interviewed mermaid says the water is drying to her hair (11:49). In Cypress Gardens, visitors ride a rowboat through a canal while women in antebellum costumes wave (13:08). Spectators watch a show with precision boat maneuvers (13:49), a swan ballet performed on water skis by Judy Scott (14:00), a trio of water skiers with pink lady Brenda Reed (14:56), water skiers going off jumps (15:28), clowns portraying escaped convicts (17:11), the Amphicar, a hybrid land-water vehicle made in West Germany (18:10), aqua-maids on synchronized water skis (18:26), the “Pyramid of Nine,” composed of three men and six women waterskiing in a human pyramid (19:05), a water skier skiing without skis (19:37), the “flying kite man” (a hang glider on water skis) (21:40), and water skiers performing “crazy eight” acrobatic moves (22:37). The sunset over Lake Eloise (23:28). Produced and photographed by Tom McHugh, Film Supervisor Bill Reddish, Music Supervisor W. Lloyd Young, Associate Producer Joe Tiffenbach, America! Theme by Irving Gertz. Technical staff Dennis Payne, Dan Luciani, Millie Moore, Evelyn Elliott, Color Printing Consolidated Film Industries, Sound Recording Ryder Sound Services. Advisory Board Roger Janis, Roderick Tichenor, Fred Fredericks.
Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit PeriscopeFilm.com
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join
Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm
Visit our website PeriscopeFilm.com
This 1964 episode of “America!,” a series of travel films about American sites hosted by Jack Douglas, explores several Florida water attractions: 1) Weeki Wachee Springs aka Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, a Florida attraction north of Tampa known for its mermaid shows with the nickname “America’s Shrine of the Mermaids,” and 2) Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida. The film begins with a blonde woman in a mermaid tail diving into the spring (1:50); more mermaids, typically 18-25-year-old women, walk on a path. The auditorium for the mermaid shows is shown, which extends 16 feet underground with clear windows (2:14). Mermaids in bathing suits wait in a locker room, then enter the show pool by diving through a chute. (2:28). They use air hoses to breathe. Calamity Jane, a giant clam (3:17) opens to reveal Professor Bubble Trouble, an actor in the show. Mermaids do underwater backflips (4:04). Weeki Wachee was man-made and the depth of the spring is unknown. Mermaids balance on a high wire (5:08). A side paddle wheeler boat, the Congo Belle, floats on the Week Wachee River (5:52) past a shack called Trader’s Landing. White egrets and cypress trees line the river (6:57). The riverboat captain throws slices of bread to raccoons (7:16). Wild boar eat apples. Visitors view black bears and a Florida puma. Back in the auditorium, a mermaid plays a violin underwater (8:54). Mermaids swim by a fiberglass conch shell used as an air chamber or for costume changes (10:05). A mermaid rides atop a mechanical dolphin (10:13). One of the mermaids says the secret to drinking underwater is to exhale all your air into the bottle, which forces the drink into your mouth. Another interviewed mermaid says the water is drying to her hair (11:49). In Cypress Gardens, visitors ride a rowboat through a canal while women in antebellum costumes wave (13:08). Spectators watch a show with precision boat maneuvers (13:49), a swan ballet performed on water skis by Judy Scott (14:00), a trio of water skiers with pink lady Brenda Reed (14:56), water skiers going off jumps (15:28), clowns portraying escaped convicts (17:11), the Amphicar, a hybrid land-water vehicle made in West Germany (18:10), aqua-maids on synchronized water skis (18:26), the “Pyramid of Nine,” composed of three men and six women waterskiing in a human pyramid (19:05), a water skier skiing without skis (19:37), the “flying kite man” (a hang glider on water skis) (21:40), and water skiers performing “crazy eight” acrobatic moves (22:37). The sunset over Lake Eloise (23:28). Produced and photographed by Tom McHugh, Film Supervisor Bill Reddish, Music Supervisor W. Lloyd Young, Associate Producer Joe Tiffenbach, America! Theme by Irving Gertz. Technical staff Dennis Payne, Dan Luciani, Millie Moore, Evelyn Elliott, Color Printing Consolidated Film Industries, Sound Recording Ryder Sound Services. Advisory Board Roger Janis, Roderick Tichenor, Fred Fredericks.
Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit PeriscopeFilm.com
