Billy Rose's Aquacade
Billy Rose's Aquacade was a music, dance and swimming show produced by Billy Rose at the Great Lakes Exposition in 1937.
Later Aquacade moved to the 1939 New York World's Fair where it was the most successful production of the fair. The Art Deco 11,000 seat amphitheatre was designed by architects Sloan & Robertson. Shows were staged by John Murray Anderson. The pool and the 300 by 200 foot stage could be hidden behind a lighted 40 foot high curtain of water.
The show starred Olympian Eleanor Holm Jarrett. Rose married Holm after divorcing his first wife, comedian Fanny Brice. Future MGM star Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller, the star of the movie Tarzan were Aquacade stars too.
For the New York Aquacade, Rose interviewed 5,000 applicants and chose 500 dancer, actors and swimmers. Gertrude Ederle, a Flushing, Queens resident was the first woman to swim the English Channel was an Aquacade star. Queens Borough President Donald R. Manes dedicated the pool to her in 1978.
In 1940, Aquacade also opened in San Francisco at the Golden Gate International Exposition.
The New York State Marine Amphitheatre was torn down in 1996 because of local opposition to renovating the asbestos-contaminated structure as a concert venue.
One of the most memorable happenings on Treasure Island, was Billy Rose's fabulous aquacade. Synchronized human bodies formed spectacular patterns and arrangements while others performed breath-taking feats as they soared from on high, down to the water below. These tour de force water displays featured the young Esther Williams (see picture at right). Promoted as "Aquabelle Number One," Williams was the symbol of the ideal American woman - healthy, alert, vibrant, cultured and intelligent. Williams later went on to a successful Hollywood career.
Sources
- Art Deco New York; D. Lowe; 2004; Watson-Guptill
- So Long at the Fair; New York Times; Jun 11, 1995
- Love in the Ruins; Preservationists Fight to Save Crumbling Queens Aquacade; L. Holloway. New York Times; Jun 6, 1995
- 1939: The Lost World of the Fair; David Gelernter; Free Press, 1995
- aqua-; Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2d Ed.
- THE ROSE ON THE WATER; Being a Brief Description of What Cleveland Will See in 'Aquacade'; New York Times; Feb 28, 1937
- A Woman's New York: 4,000 Applicants Turn Up... Alice Hughes The Washington Post (1877-1954); Feb 28, 1939;
- The Water Show; Wall Street Journal; May 6, 1939
- Eleanor Holm Jarrett Breaks With Band Leader-Husband; The Washington Post; Jul 21, 1937
- Hard Times, High Visions: Golden Gate International Exposition; Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
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