Swimming at Silver Springs

The desire to jump into a pristine Florida spring can be overwhelming, especially in the dastardly days of summer. But states' most famous array of springs, Silver Springs, started out as a natural wonder worthy of awe and contemplation, long before it became a recreational resource for swimming. One of the first written accounts of Silver Springs, penned by an officer of the U.S. Army in 1826, described it as a "magical theatre of nature" where one would ponder in "our inward thought the marvelous works of the divine Maker of heaven and earth."

It is likely the hordes of Gilded Age visitors who arrived at Silver Springs by steamboats initially were just there for sightseeing. Attitudes towards swimming transformed later in the 19th century, as the exercise was looked at through distinctions of class. "Prior to the 1850s, middling and well-to-do Americans rarely lunged into natural waters for recreation or amusement" notes writer Jeff Wiltse in his book, "Contested Waters." That changed by the early 20th century as attitudes towards exercise and spending time outdoors were seen as healthy pursuits. But the presence of safety lines stretched across springs or extending into the surf in Gilded Age photographs seem to indicate that there were many during that time period who did not yet swim well.

At some point, however, swimming at Silver Springs became a popular attraction, and those who desired a plunge into the crystal clear waters found a way to whet their appetites. Perhaps the earliest evidence can be found in photographs showing a bathhouse at the spring. By the mid-twentieth century, swimmers competed with glass bottom boats and photo subs for space in the springs' main basin, which had a floating platform and a diving tower.

I have vague memories of visiting Silver Springs as a young child in the early 1970s, but no memories of swimming – only glass-bottom boats, the statue of Osceola, and the twisted horseshoe palm. I'm not sure when people stopped recreational swimming at Silver Springs – perhaps it was when the adjacent Wild Waters Water Park opened in 1978 – reflecting the public's emerging preference for a more sanitized swimming experience.

Decades passed between my visits to the park. As an adult at Silver Springs, I experienced a Johnny Cash performance during a thunderstorm while standing in several inches of water.  My wife and I witnessed the tail end of the theme park era when there were unhappy animals pacing in captivity. And later I returned to take pictures with my underwater point-and-shoot camera, canoeing up the Silver River, and avoiding alligators who seemed to want to eat my point-and-shoot camera. I've also reveled in the Old Florida experience of a glass-bottom boat ride.

Yesterday,  September 4, 2020, the Florida State Park system announced that in about eighteen months swimming will return to Silver Springs. On one hand, it would be a thrill to actually swim in Florida's most legendary springs, whose amazing waters made Harriett Beecher Stowe claim that there was nothing comparable to on the earth.  But I am nervous about the alligators, who have had the run of the place for quite a long time now. And I am concerned about the impact swimmers might have on the fragile ecosystem of the spring. Perhaps, it will open up the State Park to a whole new group of people – people who will become advocates for protecting the spring and restoring it to a pristine condition. That could be a good thing.

Update: According to this article in the Ocala Star Banner,  swimming at Silver Springs stopped in the 1950s because of liability issues. It returned briefly, however, in the summer of 1998.

It's likely most early visitors to Silver Springs entertained themselves simply looking into the "mysterious depths." Photo by the Detroit Publishing Company via the Library of Congress. 

Image from the State Archives of Florida titled "Silver Spings Florida bathhouse, 1916."

Real photo postcard with the caption "Glass Bottom Boats
on Mammoth Spring – Bathhouse – Silver Spring, Florida."

By the Jazz Age, Victorian modesty was forgotten and postcards
such as this showed the acceptability of public swimming.

Note this postcard uses the term "bathing" rather than swimming. 

There can be no doubt that underwater photography showing the clarity
of the springs had a sizeable role in encouraging public swimming.
This shows underwater pioneer Newt Perry swimming underwater
for Grantland Rice's first underwater film in 1924. 

With an assist from Newt Perry, Silver Springs served as the backdrop
for underwater photography for the "Life Saving & Water Safety" guide
created by the Red Cross that was first published in 1937.

An early underwater real photo postcard.

Photographer Bruce Mozert's surreal underwater images were published
in newspapers across the country, taking advantage of the water's amazing clarity.
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

I used this underwater beauty in the photomontage
for the cover of my first book "Finding the Fountain of Youth."

The water clarity was ideal for motion pictures as well.
Here's Newt Perry with Johnny Weissmuller and Johnny Sheffield
 during the filming of "Tarzan Finds a Son" in 1939.
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

Esther Williams jokes around during the filming of "Jupiter's Darling"
in 1954 at Silver Springs.
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

Howard Hughes 1955 film "Underwater" took advantage of the water clarity
with the world's first underwater premiere of a motion picture.
Jane Russell, however, was upstaged by Jayne Mansfield's "wardrobe malfunction."
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

"Revenge of the Creature" was also filmed at Silver Springs in 1954.
Image from the State Archives of Florida.

Frequent Mozert underwater model and Esther Williams double, Ginger Stanley Hollowell,
 set a record for swimming the entire seven-mile length of the Silver River.
Read more about Ginger here. Image from the State Archives of Florida.

During segregation, a separate attraction for African Americans
called Paradise Park was operated by Silver Springs' owners.
It was located east of the Silver Springs attraction.
Image from the Gainesville Sun.

This rendering shows the bathhouse, swim shop, and bathing area just above the legend.

An early postcard shows the swimming amenities at the spring. 

This postcard from the State Archives almost looks more like a swimming pool. 

A more contemporary postcard view. 

Five photos illustrating swimming at Silver Springs
from the Mozert Collection at the State Archives of Florida.

Silver Springs 2013. 

Silver Springs from a 2009 visit.

To learn more about early tourists to Florida's Gilded Age watering spots, check out my new book, "Florida's Healing Waters."

Newt Perry, Mermaids, and Glen Springs?

"One whole day at Glen Springs cost a dime and for that dime we were given a wire basket for our sandwich and shoes. Then with the number of your basket pinned to the front of your bathing suit and having waded through a shallow foot bath of bleach, we would fly out into the sunshine and into the cold waters of Glen Springs. Glen Springs is a natural spring of crystal clear water that abundantly fed three large swimming pools all located in an oak hammock. Each pool accommodated a different age group, the "baby" pool, the "middle" or halfway pool, you know, the awkward age, somewhere between a baby and a teenager, and then the "teenyboppers" pool. Under the sidewalks that separated each pool were passageways that allowed the water to flow evenly. We would take a breath, duck and disappear through these tunnels and into the next pool. It was magic. I was nine so I was halfway and never brave enough to cross that sacred line and into the big pool for the "cool" teenagers. My sister, Rodney, was in this group and she said it was a hang out. One day Nanan, my Grandmother, picked me up for the Sunday afternoon water show at Glen Springs. Rodney said Mother and Daddy never went. We sat on temporary stands across from a huge glass underwater exhibition tank. Then here they came, pairs of long legs, choreographed and with pointed toes, the synchronized swimmers appeared. They were magnificent all in white bathing suits. If you were a synchronized swimmer, you got a free Jansen bathing suit. They peeled off, one at a time, diving, circling, and seemingly effortless, sticking a leg high up in the air and with toes still pointed and always with a smile, vanished slowly beneath the water.

What a show! Nanan said nothing. Next came the big event I had been waiting for, Rodney dove into the glass tank, sat gracefully on a stool, sucked a little air from a long hose, and ate a banana and drank an RC cola. Now, you talk about a show. Nanan then asked, "Is that Rodney? What is she doing? and Why?" She just didn't get it. Nanan didn't understand. Rodney was a star, Queen of Glen Spring for a day and I was her little sister. This was about as good as it got and all for a dime."

- Wayne Bishop Jamieson

This was an oral history that artist and activist Margaret Tolbert posted on Facebook. I was surprised to hear of the aquatic show at Gainesville's Glen Springs – it seemed like a strange juxtaposition. Today's Glen Springs is a series of aging pools amid a thickly wooded area flanked by the Elks Lodge on one side and a condo on the other. It's not easy to visualize the spring as a public swimming hole where Gainesvillians in great numbers came to swim, socialize and see underwater mermaids!

Photo from UF Digital Collections

But I found more evidence in a book by Tim Hollis called "Glass Bottom Boats & Mermaid Tails: Florida's Tourist Springs." In a chapter about Weeki Wachee, Hollis describes what the legendary Newt Perry did after creating the mermaid show at the aforementioned spring:

"Perry was always looking for the next big thing, and the tank in which Nancy Tribble had cavorted in had given hm a new idea.

He had an even larger tank constructed: twenty-two feet long, eight feet wide, and deep enough to install an underwater kitchen. Then he loaded this contraption onto a flatbed truck and took it on the road to state fairs, shopping center openings, and other such venues, basically re-creating his established underwater stunts for the masses.

'Breakfast with the Neptune's' eventually left the nomadic life and settled at Florida's Glen(n) Springs, where the audience was seated on one side of the springs and the giant tank was set up on the opposite bank so tourists could watch the performance."

Newt Perry carrying Nancy Tribble wearing her tail to the tank in Tampa

The tank used for the promotion of "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid"
may have been the inspiration for the underwater show
that visited Glen Springs

So is it possible that the mermaid tank at Glen Springs was Perry's traveling aquatic show? I asked Tim Hollis and he didn't recall where that information had come from, as "Mermaid Tails" was published in 2006. I could find nothing online to connect the two, but I did find an image in the Florida State Archives of "Newt Perry's Aquatic Theatre" outside the Matanzas Theater in St. Augustine. Is it possible a similar tank was used at the Gainesville spring?

This 1951 image shows Newt Perry's Aquatic Theatre at the St. Augustine
premier of Distant Drums, a movie filmed in Florida

Newt Perry was an icon in underwater performing in Florida. Perry started his aquatic career teaching swimming at Silver Springs in Ocala. According to Lu Vickers in "Weeki Wachee: City of Mermaids", it was Perry who invited a young Ross Allen to move to Ocala and start his reptile Institute at Silver Springs. While at Silver Springs, Perry perfected the art of the underwater photo op. By re-creating everyday scenes while underwater, such as eating bananas, he soon caught the attention of filmmaker Grantland Rice. Soon Silver Springs became known as a mecca for underwater photography and it became the location for several Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weismuller. Perry and Allen often acted as stunt doubles for Weissmuller.

16-year old Newt Perry swimming underwater for Grantland Rice's
first underwater film at Silver Springs
Newt Perry, Johnny Sheffield, and Johnny Weissmuller
during filming of "Tarzan Finds a Son" at Silver Springs

Ross Allen wrestles an alligator at Silver Springs

From Silver Springs Perry went to Wakulla Springs near Tallahasee, which was then owned by Ed Ball, one of the most powerful men in Florida at the time. At Wakulla, Perry honed his underwater performance techniques, including using a breathing hose to stay submerged for longer periods of time.

Next Perry teamed with Walton Hall Smith and leased the property surrounding an obscure spring in Hernando County from the City of St. Petersburg. Building an underwater seating area that looked directly into the deepest part of the spring, Newton trained synchronized swimmers from St. Petersburg to be his performers. Those performers eventually became the legendary mermaids of Weeki Wachee.

Perry fishing from an underwater air trap at Wakulla Springs

Perry with mermaids in training at Weeki Wachee

Mermaids perform the underwater banana-eating trick made famous by Perry

Perry coaching Ann Blyth during the filming of "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" at Weeki Wachee

Mermaids at Aquarena Springs in Texas from aquarenaandralph.com

After the traveling "Breakfast with the Neptunes" Perry created an underwater show at a spring-based attraction called Aquarena in Texas. In 1951 he returned to Florida where he resumed his original occupation as a swimming instructor. Perry, a member of the Florida Hall of Fame, died in Ocala in 1987 at the age of 79.



For me, Perry was a pioneer who helped create the fascinating tourist landscape of Florida in the mid-twentieth century. His influence continues to this day at Weeki Wachee where employees of what is now a state park, carry on the tradition of underwater performance. The possibility that his traveling aquatic show may have stopped in my hometown at the little spring near where I went to high school, is extremely exciting to me. Was there greatness at Glen Springs? Perhaps...

UPDATED 2/18/20
I found these articles describing the "Breakfast with the Neptunes" show at the Florida State Fair, as well as an article that conclusively links Newt Perry to Glen Springs. All from 1953.

Bathing beauty from the creature feature

State Archives of Florida

I recently had the honor of chatting with Ginger Stanley Hallowell, a lovely lady who had a front row seat for much of Florida's entertainment history in the 1950s and '60s. As a young beauty queen in Ocala, Ginger was recruited to be a mermaid by Newt Perry. Perry, the innovator of underwater entertainment and promotion at first Wakulla Springs and then Weeki Wachee, admired Ginger's "mermaid-like" blonde hair. It was at Weeki Wachee where Ginger met Ricou Browning, the man who would become a science fiction legend by playing the "Creature from the Black Lagoon". So when they need stunt double to do the swimming for actress Julie Adams, Ricou suggested Ginger.

Newt Perry's underwater bubble at Wakulla Springs
State Archives of Florida

Ricou Browning as the Creature

State Archives of Florida

Ginger told me about how the movie's producers asked her to dye her hair to match Adams' brunette locks and when they tried to dye it back to blonde after the movie's conclusion they could only accomplish an auburn tint. She mesmerized me with stories about how difficult it was for Browning to swim in the costume and how his signal for needing air was to simply "go limp" in the water.

Ginger also starred in the sequel, "Revenge of the Creature" filmed almost entirely at Marine Studios at Marineland. She remembers being placed in the large saltwater tanks with sharks and moray eels swimming about. To ensure her safety, the sharks were fed unusually large amounts of food prior to shooting with hopes they would be too full to notice Ginger! I asked her about an unknown actor in appearing making his first film appearance in "Revenge". "He was tall and good looking and very clean cut; his role was small as a scientist in a lab coat," she said of the then unknown Clint Eastwood.

She also posed for holiday pictures at Marineland with an underwater Christmas tree and dolphins trained to bring her ornaments to place on the tree.

Film production at Marine Studios (Marineland)
Courtesy of Marineland

Ginger also talked about appearing as the underwater weather girl with Dick Van Dyke in New York City. They built a tank in the studio with heavily chlorinated "city water" that ended up turning her hair green. Van Dyke would give the forecast and Ginger would draw on a glass map of the US with white make-up pencil to match the weather patterns.

Courtesy of Ginger Stanley Hallowell

The young beauty was also the "primary model" for Bruce Mozert's underwater images shot at Silver Springs, according to Gary Monroe in his book Silver Springs: the Underwater Photography of Bruce Mozart. One of the best stories she told us about her Silver Springs days, was when Howard Hughes premiered his film "Underwater" by showing the motion picture, underwater at Ocala attraction. Movie stars from Hollywood were flown in by Hughes for the promotion, but they were all upstaged by an unknown in a scandalous red bikini named Jayne Mansfield, (the Internet Movie Database reports that Mansfield was hired to perform in an underwater skit and intentionally "lost" her bikini top to attract attention.)

Ginger at Silver Springs

State Archives of Florida

More Mozert magic
Courtesy of Ginger Stanley Hallowell

It was a thrill for me to meet Ginger and she actually lives a short distance from Studio Hourglass. She was warm, witty and had a wonderful laugh. Her stories are amazing and colorful and I am eagerly anticipating hearing her again when she speaks at the Orange County Regional History Center in March.

Ginger did the underwater sequences for Esther Williams
in Jupiter's Darling
(Esther Williams top left, Ginger top right) Courtesy of Ginger Stanley Hallowell