Reminisce Extra – July 2018

38 REMINISCE.COM * JULY 2018

PREVIOUS PAGE, BALLET: WEEKI WACHEE SPRINGS STATE PARK; WATER THROUGHOUT: LISKAM/SHUTTERSTOCK; VINTAGE PAPER THROUGHOUT: JAKUB KRECHOWICZ/SHUTTERSTOCK

A Dream Ripples Through Time

LEFT A DEEP IMPRESSION

A SHOWMAN’S INNOVATION

DELEE PERRY • OCALA, FL

Central Florida in the 1950 s and ’ 60 s had many
roadside attractions, including Marineland,

Silver Springs and Cypress Gardens, but my
favorite was Weeki Wachee, a theme park built

around a freshwater spring in Hernando County.
Seated in the auditorium, with its large picture

windows that lo ked into the depths 16 feet
below the surface, I was mesmerized by women

dressed as mermaids performing underwater
ballets. While submerged, the mermaids could

eat a banana and drink from a soda bottle.
For weeks after our visits, I’d practice the

mermaids’ moves in our pool at home. I even
learned to eat and drink underwater, too.

I didn’t have to go far for help mastering the
tricks. My father was Newton A. “Newt” Perry,

who founded Weeki Wachee in 1947.
Newt was an innovator and performer. He

got into show business in the 1920 s doing short
documentaries with Grantland Rice, a popular

sportswriter whose Sportlight Film shorts would

run in movie theaters before the feature.

Newt went on to be technical adviser on the

Tarzan movies and a stunt double for actor

Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930 s. And in World

War II, he trained frogmen, members of the

Navy unit that grew into the SEAL program.

But my father’s dream was to build an

underwater attraction. When he opened Weeki

Wachee, he did the shows with a few local

women he recruited to be mermaids. He taught

them to breathe using air hoses hidden around

the underwater sets, a technique that allowed

them to remain submerged for up to 45 minutes

and which is still used at the park.

It’s remarkable that Newt’s dream continues

more than 70 years later. Now a state park,

Weeki Wachee still has the power to mesmerize

anyone lucky enough to visit there.

NEWT PERRY before and after

Weeki Wachee: setting up a unique

picnic for a 1942 short film (above);

with Tarzan Finds a Son actors Johnny

Weissmuller and John Sheffield in

1939 (right); and with daughter Delee

and wife Dorothy in 1970 (left).