On Sunday afternoon July 30, 1961, Elvis visited the park Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida, on the west coast.
Elvis was nearby filming "Follow that Dream" and wanted to see the Weeki Wachee Mermaids for himself.
Announcement in a local newspaper:
About Weeki Wachee Springs:
Source: http://www.weekiwachee.com/index.php/about-us/history-of-weeki-wachee-springsWeeki Wachee’s heyday began in 1959, when the spring was purchased by the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC) and was heavily promoted. ABC built the current theater, which seats 500 and is embedded in the side of the spring 16 feet below the surface. ABC also developed themes for the underwater shows, with elaborate props, lifts, music, and story lines such as Underwater Circus, the Mermaids and the Pirates, and Underwater Follies. The mermaids performed Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and Peter Pan.
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Posted on YT by FloridaMemory
In the 1960s, girls came from as far away as Tokyo to try out for the privilege of becoming a mermaid. The glamorous mermaids performed eight shows a day to sold out crowds -- as many as half a million people a year came to see the Weeki Wachee mermaids. Weeki Wachee Springs employed 35 mermaids, who took turns swimming in the shows and captivating the crowds by playing football and having picnics underwater. Some of the mermaids lived in the mermaid cottages out behind the attraction. The mermaids wore one-piece suits and were treated like royalty wherever they went in Florida.
All sorts of people stopped to see the mermaids, even Elvis. Don Knotts, Esther Williams, and Arthur Godfrey all came to Weeki Wachee.
More info on Weeki Wachee Springs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeki_Wachee_Springs
A related blog:
From: http://springhillcourier.com/2014/05/31/new-elvis-biography-claims-king-took-home-syphilis-from-weeki-wachee-visit/New Elvis biography claims King took home syphilis from Weeki Wachee visit
BY FRANK FENCIL · MAY 31, 2014
The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll may have said some kind words after his visit to Weeki Wachee, but a new biography shows Elvis Presley was anything but fond of the historic tourist attraction.
In fact, Presley’s three-hour-long 1961 visit to the park was a sort of wham-bam-thank-you-mer-ma’am affair that left him with a lifelong reminder of his trip, according to the new book’s author.
“I found a journal Elvis kept at the time of his visit, and he maintained extensive notes on the women he bedded,” said author and Presley researcher Michael Starke, whose new book ‘The Real Elvis: What The King Hid From His Kingdom’ comes out Tuesday. “And let’s just say that, according to his journal entry for that day, he made it upstream to spawn with every last mermaid on the staff at the time.”
Yet the pleasant afternoon fin-on-skin session left him with nasty reminder of his encounter with the denizens of the deep. Doctors records and more journal entries cited in Starke’s book detail Presley’s lifelong battle with a case of syphilis he attributed to one of the nine mermaids he claimed to have been with that day.
“Elvis was certain he caught that case of syphilis at Weeki Wachee, and he held a grudge about it the rest of his life,” Starke said. “Until the day he died, he wrote very regularly about the place — often calling it ‘Leaki Crotchi’ — and there is even some evidence that he tried to purchase the park with the intention of shuttering it.”
These new revalations have drawn mixed reactions from other Presley historians, Graceland and Weeki Wachee officials. In the case of the park, representatives said Starke’s new book “does not accurately portray the mermaid lifestyle” but they were prohibited from commenting further.
And at least one Weeki Wachee native and the self-proclaimed park historian said Starke’s allegations are downright offensive to those familiar with Weeki Wachee.
“Think about how little sense it all makes,” said Timothy Wells, a lifelong Weeki Wachee resident who has written three books about the park. “These mermaids had it all. They ruled an underseas kingdom. What would they even see in a mortal man?”
(Frank Fencil is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades' experience. He has uncovered government corruption, toppled dirty police forces and covered two foreign wars as an international correspondent. He chose to return to his native Spring Hill in hopes of giving his hometown the quality watchdog journalism it deserves.)
Fan Footage in terrible quality. Does anyone have this in better quality?
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the photos:
(c) Pål Granlund - Follow That Dream Records (2013)
(c) Pål Granlund - Follow That Dream Records (2013)
(c) Pål Granlund - Follow That Dream Records (2013)
(c) Pål Granlund - Follow That Dream Records (2013)
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.135210406755.134739.73143551755
https://www.youtube.com/user/weekiwacheesprings
http://cs617528.vk.me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCNO-NE4-Vk
https://photobank.nbcuni.com/sales/home.php
http://springhillcourier.com
http://fromwayuphigh.com/weeki-wachee-springs-blows-up/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeki_Wachee_Springs
https://aquariumworks.org/tag/elvis/
And:
http://www.memphisflash.de/2013/06/elvis-presley-summer-of-61-follow-that-dream/
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