''Billy Rose's Aquacade'' was a music, dance and swimming show produced by

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman, lyricist and columnist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainm ...

at the Great Lakes Exposition in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

during its second year, in 1937. The show featured

Olympians Olympian or Olympians may refer to: Religion * Twelve Olympians, the principal gods and goddesses in ancient Greek religion * Olympian spirits, spirits mentioned in books of ceremonial magic Fiction * ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'', fiction ...

Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller ( ; born Johann Peter Weißmüller, ; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Hungarian-born German American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive-swimming records o ...

, Eleanor Holm Jarret, Dick Degener, and other performers in a 5,000-seat amphitheater that could seat 2,000 diners. There was a 128 foot wide floating stage constructed on barges that could be moved to shore electrically for use as a dance floor. Dance bands such as

Wayne King Harold Wayne King (February 16, 1901 – July 16, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader with a long association with both NBC and CBS. He was referred to as "the Waltz King" because much of his most popular music involved w ...

Shep Fields Shep Fields (born Saul Feldman, September 12, 1910 – February 23, 1981) was an American bandleader who led the Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm orchestra during the 1930s. His distinctive Rippling Rhythm sound was featured on big band remo ...

, and

Glen Gray Glenn Gray Knoblauch (June 7, 1900 – August 23, 1963), known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.'' The Mississippi Rag'', "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra," George A. ...

and his Casa Loma Orchestra performed there. 2-Billy-Rose-Aquacade-Worlds-Fair-1939

Later ''Aquacade'' moved to the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...

, where it was the most successful production of the fair (Lowe). The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

11,000 seat amphitheatre at the north end of Meadow Lake was designed by architects Sloan & Robertson. Shows were staged by

John Murray Anderson John Murray Anderson (September 20, 1886 – January 30, 1954) was a Canadian theatre director and theatre producer, producer, songwriter, actor, screenwriter, dancer and lighting designer, who made his career in the United States, primarily in ...

to the orchestrations of

Ted Royal Ted Royal ewar'' (6 September 1904, Skedee, Oklahoma - 27 March (?) 1981) was an American orchestrator, conductor and composer for Broadway theatre. He was most active in the 1940s and 1950s, being associated with the very successful original p ...

. The pool and the 300 by stage could be hidden behind a lighted high curtain of water. In addition to Weissmuller and Holm, Gertrude Ederle, a

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

resident and the first woman to swim the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

, appeared in the Aquacade in 1939.

Morton Downey John Morton Downey (November 14, 1901 – October 25, 1985), also known as Morton Downey, was an American singer and entertainer popular in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, enjoying his greatest success in the late 1920s ...

, Frances Williams, and

Bill Robinson Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20 ...

appeared on stage. In late 1939, Rose married Holm after Holm had divorced singer

Art Jarrett Arthur L. Jarrett Jr. (July 20, 1907 – July 23, 1987) was an American singer, bandleader and actor during the 1930s and 1940s. He was the son of stage actor and playwright Arthur L. Jarrett Sr. (1884–1960). Early career Near the end of th ...

and he had divorced his first wife, comedian

Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedian, Illustrated Songs, illustrated song model, singer, and actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. Sh ...

Buster Crabbe Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983) was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimming event, which launched his c ...

replaced Weissmuller in 1940, for the second year of the Fair. In 1940, ''Aquacade'' also opened in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

at the

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) was a World's Fair held at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California, U.S. The exposition operated from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, ...

where

Esther Williams Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Ol ...

and Virginia Hopkins joined the show.

References

{{Reflist

Sources

* Cohen, Mark (2018). ''Not Bad for Delancey Street: The Rise of Billy Rose, America's Great Jewish Impresario.'' Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press. *''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 David Hillel Gelernter (born March 5, 1955) is an American computer scientist, artist, and writer. He is a professor of computer science at Yale University. Gelernter is known for contributions to parallel computation in the 1980s, and for book ...

; 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''; February 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''; July 21, 1937
''Hard Times, High Visions: Golden Gate International Exposition''
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley *Official Souvenir Guide; Great Lakes Exposition, 1937 *"Expo Has Rivals for Water Show"; ''The Cleveland Plain Dealer;'' April 18, 1937, p. 2 *"Billy Rose, Eleanor Hope for Marriage"; ''The Cleveland Plain Dealer;'' November 13, 1937, p. 14 *"Eleanor and Billy Take the Plunge"; The Cleveland Plain Dealer; November 15, 1939, p. 7 *Official Souvenir Guide; Golden Gate International Exhibition, 1940 *Wolfert, Ira. ''Carnival Men at Fair Must Be High-Pressure Salesmen;'' The Cleveland Plain Dealer; August 6, 1939. p. 37

External links

Aquacade
(original scores of music used in productions, now in the Music & Recorded Sound Division of the

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

) Swimming in the United States 1939 New York World's Fair Entertainment events in the United States

See also

References

Sources

External links