Weeki Wachee Mermaid Show Slide
This Kodachrome slide was taken during a 1965 performance of the famous Weeki Wachee mermaid show in Florida.
The slide was shot by an amateur photographer during the heyday of Weeki Wachee, one of Florida's most famous and enduring roadside attractions
According to the Weeki Wachee website, the attraction, which opened in 1959, featured a 500-seat theater embedded in the side of a spring 16 feet below ground. Weeki Wachee shows were filled with elaborate props, lifts, music, and story lines.
And they featured real-life mermaids! 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 them perform. Some of the mermaids lived in cottages behind the attraction. They wore one-piece suits and were treated like royalty wherever they went in Florida.
This slide and others in the same lot were sold to an author of travel-related books.
All sorts of people stopped to see the show, including Elvis Presley
