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Synopsis
By the late 1940s, long before Disney dreamed of building a magic kingdom in central Florida, the state had more botanical gardens, jungles, monkeys, parrots, and glass-bottomed boats than a tourist could shake a camera at. But only one place had banana-eating mermaids, and that was Weeki Wachee.
Located about forty-five miles north of Tampa, and still in existence today, Weeki Wachee has been featured in major motion pictures and visited by astronauts, movie stars, and Elvis Presley. Like everyone else, they came to see the famous mermaids—in actuality, highly trained swimmers and divers.
Weeki Wachee Mermaids features rare, never-before-published vintage photographs, postcards, and publicity shots taken over a thirty year period, starting with the first performance in 1947 and ending with the extravagant “underwater Broadway” shows created by the corporate owners of ABC-TV. The water was so clear, and the scenarios so cleverly straightforward that audiences initially doubted that the show was really underwater, and newspaper editors across the country suspected the photographs might be fake.
Lu Vickers’s accompanying text retraces the origins of the attraction, particularly the ways that entrepreneur and underwater photography pioneer Newt Perry set Weeki Wachee apart from all the other springs in Florida. Coauthor Bonnie Georgiadis, who was in junior high when the park opened, eventually worked thirty-seven years at the park, first as a mermaid, later as a choreographer, and eventually as a falconer.
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About the Author
Lu Vickers is the author of Breathing Underwater; Weeki Wachee, City of Mermaids; and Cypress Gardens, America’s Tropical Wodnerland. Bonnie Georgiadis is a former Weeki Wachee mermaid who lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUniversity Press of Florida
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 0813044308
- ISBN 13 9780813044309
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages144
- Rating
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids.
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University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: very good. 4t0, dark cloth, 139 pp. Photographs. Light edge wear on cover and dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 14355
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids: Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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University Press of Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids : Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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University Press of Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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WEEKI WACHEE MERMAIDS Format: HC - HARDCOVER
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids : Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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University Press of Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids : Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
Published by
University Press of Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids: Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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University Press of Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
ISBN 13: 9780813044309
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids (Hardcover)
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University Press of Florida, Florida, 2012
ISBN 10: 0813044308
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Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. In the postwar explosion of domestic tourism, Weeki Wachee spring offered the quintessential vacation fantasy, a city of colourful mermaids in a natural crystal spring right off the West Coast highway in a sparsely inhabited Florida. In those early days, the mermaids had to stand alongside the highway to flag travellers down, but once word of their charms got out, travellers headed south to playgrounds in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Tampa found Weeki Wachee a tantalising detour from the gruelling two-lane road connecting vacationland with the work-a-day world to the north. Vickers shows how that local novelty became a stellar international attraction. Founded in 1947 by Walton Hall Smith and Newt Perry, Weeki Wachee and its featured attraction, mermaids, combined the allure of pinup girls with the wholesome talents of variety entertainers to create a daily schedule of underwater acts ranging from eating bananas and performing ballet to staging underwater musicals. For nearly 60 years, these mermaids with their underwater talents have attracted crowds of vacationers, film crews, and celebrities. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as interviews with dozens of mermaids and other park employees, Vickers traces the park's rise to prominence. Brilliantly illustrated with 250 stunning photos, the resulting work shows what it was like to be a mermaid at Weeki Wachee in its heyday. Weeki Wachee Mermaids also explores the enduring appeal of the attraction. Once people get past Weeki Wachee's once crumbling, recently restored exterior, they continue to be just as genuinely awed by the mermaids as Elvis was. A focus on the photography and photographers that made Weeki Wachee Springs an iconic tourist destination of Florida. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780813044309
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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Weeki Wachee Mermaids - Thirty Years of Underwater Photography
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