MONSTER FROM THE OCEANARIUM FLOOR more details: Gregg Mitman service, and no supply of fresh or writes that the impetus for drinkable water. “holding sea life in captivity The Shooting of at Marineland to make its filming feasible” Once a few of these challenges were met, was Merian C. Cooper’s film a variety of new ones were involved in the By Tom Weaver Chang (1927), photographed in actual building of the place, which began in the Thailand jungles and fea- May 1937. Sally Baskin continues, June 23, 2013, was the 75th turing an elephant stampede anniversary of Marine Studios “shot within a stockade large They ran into a lot of prob- (now Marineland of Florida), enough not to impede the ani- lems, including an engineering one of Florida’s first marine mals’ actual movements and problem: They had to build tanks mammal parks. Constructed behaviors, yet small enough to that would be able to hold a large between the Atlantic Ocean allow camera operators to take capacity of water, which meant and the Intracoastal Waterway action shots with relative ease. that the walls were going to be too in north Flagler County, it was a [Burden and Tolstoy] decided thick for people to see through the unique attraction on its opening that a similar approach could glass portholes. So they developed day in 1938, and the word ocean- be used to obtain underwater a webbing system of steel rods arium was coined to describe it. action shots of marine life.” and so on; that way, the walls To mark the anniversary, The only child raised at Marineland, Sally Baskin was 12 when The marine mammal didn’t have to be as thick and there will be celebratory events the Revenge crew came calling. One day during the making of park’s founders’ search for a the movie, a woman makeup artist told her, “This is your make- at the sea-zoo throughout the up day. I’m going to make you up!”—and she did. The result is practical location led them to year and archived memora- pictured here. (Courtesy of Sally Baskin) the Sunshine State, as Corne- bilia and footage shared with lius Vanderbilt “Sonny” Whit- visitors. Monsters from the rine Studios, located on the Atlantic Ocean ney wrote in his 1977 memoir High Peaks: Vault joins in the festivities by shore in north Flagler County, and received running this excerpt from the a promise of cooperation with shooting the Florida, with the Gulf Stream upcoming Tom Weaver-David new Creature movie there. (In Revenge, the offshore and a good year-round Schecter-Steve Kronenberg seaquarium is called Ocean Harbor.) At that climate, seemed to us the best book The Creature Chronicles: time, this deep-sea zoo was one of the state’s place to start exploration. …Ilya Exploring the Black Lagoon top tourist destinations, drawing as many as Tolstoy was dispatched to locate Trilogy, describing the month 500,000 visitors annually. a site. I started, in the summer in the summer of 1954 when Throughout the 1950s, Marineland was of 1936, catching large sharks Universal shot their second home to Sally Baskin, daughter of Tom and off Montauk Point in the eastern Gill Man movie, Revenge of the Mildred Baskin, who operated its motel, the tip of Long Island [New York], Creature, on that site. Marine Village Court, which was a few hun- penning them up and studying Check out www.marine- dred feet south of Marine Studios on Ocean their behavior to see whether land.net for more information Boulevard. The Marine Village Court was the they would survive in captivity. about their anniversary activi- Creature troupe’s headquarters during their Douglas Burden worked with the ties, and also consider visiting Marineland shooting. “I was the only child Museum of Natural History to other Florida sites where the raised at Marineland—I was there from 1947 devise a type of harpoon with sy- Creature movies were shot, until 1960,” says Sally, who was 12 years old ringe and drug which could tran- with the help of the Official Gill Man Guide KAY: Do you suppose [the Crea- Alland’s (that the Gill Man be captured and when the Gill Man came a-calling. quilize any large creature from the to the Sunshine State (see pages 36 and 37). ture] remembers Mark’s attack transported to civilization, where it escapes “Marine Studios was begun by several sea long enough to transport it to and—and seeks revenge? and terrorizes the area). Location shooting at men,” Sally told me: shore and then to the projected Revenge of the Creature: Joe (John Bromfield) MARK: I welcome it! Marine Studios in Marineland, Florida, “The giant oceanariums we visualized. and Johnson (Robert B. Williams) of Ocean —Dialogue from Creature World’s First Oceanarium,” was obviously There was Cornelius Vander- By late summer Tolstoy returned Harbor, a Florida deep-sea zoo, go to the from the Black Lagoon under consideration right from the start, be- bilt Whitney, there was his cousin with the great news that he had Black Lagoon and use dynamite to stun cause that is where much of Berkeley’s March W. Douglas Burden, there was found a practical site for the type and capture the Gill Man. Comatose, he is In Universal’s Creature from the Black 19, 1954, treatment (and his eventual script Ilya Tolstoy [grandson of novelist of operation we envisioned [near brought to Ocean Harbor and “walked” Lagoon (1954), the Gill Man did get a measure and the ensuing movie) is set. Apparently Leo Tolstoy] and there was Sher- St. Augustine], at a spot where the in a receiving tank until he revives, and of revenge against the humans who arrived Berkeley, or someone connected with the proj- man Pratt. What had happened inland waterways came within then he is put on public exhibit in their uninvited in his Edenic Black Lagoon and ect, even researched the layout of the place, was, they’d been in the jungles of several hundred yards of the At- oceanarium. Animal behaviorist Clete (John disrupted his solitary but satisfactory exis- because in the treatment a scene description somewhere-or-other and visited a lantic Ocean. ...Fish caught in the Agar) and ichthyologist Helen (Lori Nelson) tence. And he was just getting warmed up... of a plane arriving at Marineland is followed friend who was making a wildlife sea or inland waterways could be regularly descend into the oceanarium and Producer , who hatched by the note that a river “wide enough for movie, and this person had built a transported by boat with mini- try to condition the Gill Man to respond to the idea to make Black Lagoon, knew from the landing of a plane, is at the back door of compound and kept the animals mum delay to the site... spoken commands. The Gill Man eventually Day One that the web-footed wonder might Marineland, some 200 feet away.”1 in it while he filmed ’em. Whitney The problems, however, escapes, killing Joe in the process, and later be sequel-worthy, and he and Universal pro- On May 17, Alland, director Jack and the others wondered, “Would were: a one-lane sand road from finds and abducts Helen, with whom he is ceeded on that assumption: In late February Arnold, and unit production manager Ed- this work with marine animals?” St. Augustine south, no great smitten. Clete, the police, and search party 1954, around the time of Black Lagoon’s first ward Dodds departed for Florida to scout centers of population nearby, the members rescue Helen, and the Gill Man is play dates, it was decided to hire Martin locations. Within days, they had completed From the 1999 book Reel Nature—America’s site was presently flooded with shot and apparently killed. Berkeley to write a sequel based on an idea of arrangements with representatives of Ma- Romance with Wildlife on Film, we get a few brackish sea water, no telephone

26 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 27 they could put the portholes in. up all the way to Crescent Beach, about ten stream of scientists, writers, artists, celebri- scenes”—and Tom Hennesy (hired ture in those scenes was Hennesy. In the They also had to come up with a miles north. They were bumper to bumper, ties, and members of the media. For the first to play the on-land Gill Man) told afternoon, after work moved back to the certain cement and a certain paint Model Ts, Model As and whatever else kind time, showmanship was added to the display me in 1994 that in the scenes fea- oceanarium, retakes were done of the shots that would withstand the salt wa- of cars they had! Once the owners realized of marine life, thanks to daring deep-sea div- turing the bound-in-a-net Gill Man of three divers bringing the netted-up Gill ter, and a filtration system where they were ‘onto’ something here, they built ers and friendly sailor-clad dolphin trainers.” (shot on Days One and Two), the Man to the bottom of the oceanarium and they could bring the water out of a restaurant and also a motel [the Marine In 1953, the first unit and second unit Gill Man was Browning. securing the ankle chain, plus shots of the the ocean and get the seaweed and Village Court] which looked like a castle out scenes of Black Lagoon had been shot si- Yes, I know, this is all very net being removed and the Gill Man doing sand out. This must sound like of Disneyworld. It even had a tower room, multaneously; worked on the complicated and confusing, and his first bit of oceanarium swimming. As a pretty big task, but they did it former at Universal while second unit I promise we will get past it as mentioned above, according to the Daily Pro- all within one year, which was director James Havens and camera- quickly as possible. duction Reports the Gill Man casting switch amazing. All these engineers and man “Scotty” Welbourne handled the Day Two, a Saturday, went (from Lamb to Browning) was not made workers were brought in and they latter in Wakulla Springs, Florida. On a lot better than the first, with a until Monday, so it should still be Lamb on put Marine Studios together. Revenge, Arnold was the director of crew call of 7:30, a first shot at Saturday. But Hennesy, who played one of both units. The second unit work came 9:08, and only minor problems the three divers, told me, Marine Studios was originally con- first: Arnold and members of the key (repairs to the camera and to the ceived as a way to provide a “window crew departed on the morning of June Gill Man suit). The morning was I remember the sequence to the ocean” and constructed so that 18 for St. Augustine to confirm all the spent in the receiving tank getting where Ricou played the Creature movie companies and still photogra- location arrangements. The schedule underwater shots of the kayoed in a cargo net, being transported phers could go into enclosed corridors, called for preproduction shooting to Gill Man being “walked” by Joe, into the Marine Studios oceanari- running at different elevations around begin on June 25 and continue for ten landed the Gill Man role in the original Black reviving and swimming around, um. They had an air hose in there Lagoon at age 23. The accomplished swimmer-diver was each oceanarium’s perimeter, and days without sound, lights, or cast. named after his maternal grandfather Ransom Ren “R.R.” and fighting with Joe. The Crea- for him so that he could get air shoot underwater locales by aiming In the days leading up to the sched- Ricou (pronounced Rico; 1867-1925), a commercial fisherman their cameras through any one of the uled start of production, the balance whose company became the South’s largest wholesale fish Universal’s new rubber-suited webfoot: college footballer-turned-stuntman Tom dealer. (MFTV Photo Archive) Hennesy, who found the job “very difficult, very exhausting—one of the toughest corridors’ 200 tempered glass portholes. which was the honeymoon suite.” of Arnold’s second unit crew arrived, and things that I’ve done.” (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) Construction was finished at a cost of Marineland quickly became Florida’s shooting began right on schedule on June 25. in the first movie) were present bright and $500,000, and on June 23, 1938, it opened most successful and popular tourist attrac- According to that day’s production report, early on each of three days. The paperwork to the general public. On the day of the tion; according to a 1939 Life magazine article, and those of the 26th and the 28th, John Lamb does not specifically say what theydid on the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the narrow A1A it drew more than 200,000 visitors in its first (who had been signed to play the underwater 25th and the 26th, just that both of ’em were highway resembled a parking lot in both year. Cheryl Messinger and Terran McGin- Creature and had had a Creature suit made there. Remember that for a page or so. directions, as Baskin describes: “Thirty nis wrote in their 2011 book Marineland, “Its for him at Universal) and Ricou Browning Right away, the movie troupe ran into thousand people came! The cars were lined special allure attracted a seemingly nonstop (who had played the underwater Creature hard luck: As they tried to get some of their first underwater shots in the oceanarium, they twice had to contend with a camera The rectangular oceanarium at the left was for sharks, barracuda, a Gill in need of repair, plus park personnel who Man, etc., and the round one on the right for dolphins. The small pool regularly made them leave the water while between them is the receiving tank where the unconscious Creature was “walked.” This photo was taken pre-Revenge; by the time the Gill Man the fish were being fed. Many of the crew got there, Porpoise Stadium had been built on the lower left. Above: A members had arrived by 7:30 a.m. that June vintage 1950s postcard from Marineland. (Courtesy of Sally Baskin) 25, but no filming was done until more than eight hours later, at 3:35 p.m. Not much foot- age was exposed that day, just part of the scene in which the bound-in-a-net Gill Man is brought into the oceanarium by divers and chained by the ankle to the floor. (The 30-foot chain and shackle were made of aluminum.) Who played the Creature on that first day (and on the second and on the start of the third)? Lamb was hired to play the monster underwater, and a Creature suit was made for him; however, as many fans know, his “performance” failed to impress director Arnold, who then had Browning assume the role. But Lamb had to have played the Gill Man at some early stage of production in order for Arnold to be unimpressed—yes? On Day Three of second unit work (June 28), the Daily Production Report includes the notation “LAMB COULD NOT DO SCENE—PUT RICKY [Ricou Browning] INTO SUIT,” which to me indicates that in all Gill Man footage shot prior to that Day Three substitution, Lamb is in the suit. But Brown- ing flatly insists, “I did all the underwater

28 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 29 According to Browning, cameraman Welbourne would some- times need someone to hold him (as pictured) because moving then the camera had to be brought I got a call from Jack Arnold a camera underwater is “like being in outer space”: When you me. “But that head was so much the first time that day: It clouded up at 3:25 up and reloaded, because it was ac- asking me, “How would you like try to pan, water resistance pushes the body in the opposite bigger than the original [Black and began raining ten minutes later, and it cidentally running throughout that to work on a new Creature film?” direction. In this Revenge shot, Welbourne is steadied and bal- Lagoon] head, so much looser on was still raining when they called it quits at anced by expert swimmer Charles McNabb on the bottom of entire process! Lamb was in the Gill I said sure and asked, “You want Silver Springs. (Courtesy of Photofest) me, that it held a lot more air.” 4:25. It did not pay to get out of bed on the Man suit that morning; the produc- me to come to L.A. and get fitted With Browning now in 29th, a day when practically nothing got on tion paperwork unmistakably says it for the costume?” He said, “No, Lamb’s clothing, shooting re- film because of heavily overcast skies, Ma- was him: In the first shot of the day, a we are already shooting at Marine sumed with the scene of Joe rine Studios’ regular fish-feedings, multiple bit after 9:30, he swam around in the Studios in Florida and we need bringing the Gill Man a mesh camera jams, Jack Arnold’s need to meet oceanarium, trying to convey anger. you to come down and work as the cage full of fish and the Gill with the oceanarium manager, etc. And at 10:30, script supervisor Dixie Creature. Can you get down here Man sitting on the bottom-of- On June 30 and July 1, a different loca- McCoy made the abovementioned as soon as possible?” I said, “Okay, the-oceanarium anchor eating tion, Silver Springs (approximately 85 miles Production Report notation “Lamb I can leave tonight,” and I did—I them. In the afternoon, $200-a- from Marineland), was used; there they shot could not do scene—put Ricky into drove down to Marine Studios. week underwater swimmers Revenge’s underwater scenes of the Black La- suit.” In another part of that report, Once I arrived, [makeup artist] Genevieve “Ginger” Stanley goon, of the Gill Man voyeuristically watch- someone else (different hand- and Robert Lee Tinney joined ing swimmers Helen and Clete in the Florida writing) wrote, “50 minute the underwater cast of players: river, etc. Between light conditions, rain, delay due to John Lamb being Stanley played Helen and Tin- camera malfunctions, and other problems, The underwater Gill Man in Creature from the Black La- unable to do required underwa- ney played Clete in the scene in the company was beginning to fall behind. goon, Ricou Browning, reprised the role in Revenge of ter swimming—necessitating which they begin to teach the Back at Marine Studios, the troupe put the Creature—but, surprisingly, he was not Universal’s changing to Ricou Browning.” Gill Man the meaning of “Stop!” in a long, productive day on Saturday the first choice. Ricou’s on-land counterpart in this stanza of the Creature trilogy was stuntman Tom Hennesy. Now you know how the Florida rain became a prob- 3rd, getting lots of underwater oceanarium (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) surviving production paper- lem for the Revenge troupe for footage of Clete and Helen working with the work...very sloppily handwrit- when needed; they incorporated ten, some of it indecipher- it into the scene in such a way that able...describes the initial shooting of it looked like a line. John Lamb, Gill Man scenes on Friday the 25th, nately for John, they decided to terminate myself and one or two underwa- Saturday the 26th, and the morning his employment [as the Creature].” ter attendants [played the men of Monday the 28th. According to Sally Baskin remembers being told at The scientists (left) prepare to dope the Gill who] introduced the Creature the paperwork, Lamb and Brown- Browning with Robert Lee Tinney and Ginger Stan- the time that “the Hollywood stuntman” into the oceanarium. Man (below) to conduct yet more tests on him. ing both were there on those three ley, the underwater doubles for and Lori (Lamb) had to be replaced by Browning. Unlike Black Lagoon and The Creature Walks days, and on Day Three Browning Nelson. Tinney and Stanley were returnees from Keep in mind that these are second-hand Among Us, Revenge has no human villain. But Black Lagoon: Stanley had underwater-doubled since practically every character in Revenge, Monday the 28th began comically, took over from Lamb. But Browning Julie Adams, and Tinney was one of Browning’s stories relayed to me by someone who although surely no one there at the time has an unshakable memory of play- was 12 when she heard them: Sally told even Helen, takes part in the Creature’s cap- safety divers. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) ture, or his cruel “shock treatment” taming, was amused: First thing in the morning, ing the Gill Man right from the very me, “[Lamb] was there playing the Gill or his destruction, perhaps everybody in the a loaded camera went down into the first moment he set foot on the Marineland Jack Kevan started cutting the John Man, but then the next thing I knew, it was picture is a villain! (Courtesy of Photofest) oceanarium and a shot was lined up...and location. He told me, Lamb suits down to fit me so that I Ricou Browning. I asked why, and they could begin to work immediately. said that the first guy finally said, ‘I can’t do this!’ The suit made him real nervous, There is a natural inclination to place claustrophobic, and he didn’t like the more trust in original production paperwork sharks and other big fish all around.” than on someone’s (Browning’s) memory of Is John Lamb seen in the movie, even 59-year-old events...but when he is as em- in a single shot, as the Creature? I do not phatic as Browning is, and when Hennesy know. backs him up (saying that it was Brown- While Lamb did remain with the ing as the Creature in a scene shot on Day unit, from that morning on only Browning One and/or Day Two), that “trust” in the played the Gill Man in underwater shots. paperwork begins to waver. There must be But the switch created an annoying dis- a simple explanation that would make both traction for fans: Browning’s suits in Black the production paperwork and Browning’s Lagoon, made specifically for him, were memory correct, but probably too many years form-fitting, whereas the Lamb suits that have passed to figure out what it is. he had to wear in Revenge were big on him. “John Lamb was a ‘water man,’ and they Browning said they were cut down a little had hired him to do part of the [Creature to make them fit better, but apparently swimming scenes],” Hennesy told me. “They there was not much they could do about did makeup tests and built a suit for John; the too-big head. Consequently, as the he spent quite a bit of time in the [makeup submerged Browning did his between- department] before he went to Florida. But he takes breathing, air would collect inside ended up doing very little. I guess they shot it—and, as the cameras rolled, it escaped a couple of things with John as the Creature, through the foam rubber top via a stream and the director became disenchanted with of bubbles. “Just before I’d do a shot, I’d “Say cheezit!”: Planning his oceanarium escape, the Gill Man the way that John looked in the water; he said push down on the top of my head, trying (Browning) glowers for the 3-D cameras. (Courtesy of Photofest) he looked like a man in a suit! So, unfortu- to get some of the air out,” Browning told

30 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 31 Revenge was John Agar’s first movie as a Uni- versal contract player, and Lori Nelson’s last: Right after production, she got a pink slip, and oceanarium acting; in fact, they were still at by big sea turtles (plural). Director Arnold lotte Kaye, the Little Theater’s leading lights. not the kind you wear. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) in California, thousands of miles away, kept turtle singular and made it sound like “It was like the circus coming to town!” when Tinney and Stanley played Clete Browning’s suit was constantly having Judeena Blackmer excitedly recalled for me; and Helen in all of those scenes. (Perhaps chunks bitten out of it; Browning’s memory she was five and a half when she played the at some point, both Agar and Nelson did is that the turtle (singular) bit him only once. child who trips and falls in the path of the swim in the oceanarium, either for fun or Shooting on the 7th went well, other Gill Man. “When the Revenge people arrived for still photography publicity purposes than the fact that one of Browning’s “safety and made it known that they needed extras, or both, and years later they remembered people,” his sister Shirley Woolery, “became it was a big deal for the people there, and doing more oceanarium work in the movie ill from water infection from tank,” accord- I think everybody in St. Augustine showed than they really did.) “I was told by the ing to the Production Report. Thursday, July up [laughs]! I’m serious! I know all my mom’s people who ran Marine Studios that those 8, was the 12th and last day of second unit friends went, and all their kids went. I wish sharks were really not dangerous,” Agar work (which was supposed to take only 10 you could talk to my mom, she’s gone, but told me in 1986. “I had a tiger shark, an days). The morning began with irritation and she always told of the story of how, when the eight-footer, swim right over my head and a lost hour as Flippy the “Educated” Porpoise Creature escaped from the oceanarium and it didn’t pay any attention to me.” refused to perform for the moviemakers, who everybody ran, the people literally mowed Browning told me that a loggerhead had set up cameras at his pool. Retreating in down one of the chain-link fences. When turtle gave him the most trouble: defeat, the filmmakers moved to the area near they ran, they ran [laughs]!” the Marine Studios box office—where, unlike Working for the first time with the St. I had gone in the [ocean- Flippy, residents of St. Augustine were ready, Augustine locals, Arnold & Co. got the shot Gill Man. Following the Fourth of July, they arium] and I was sitting down on willing, and eager to perform. in which the camera focuses on a life-sized made up for Saturday’s success with a lousy a big anchor. They had the chain “A movie studio coming to our area cutout of the Gill Man, then pulls back to day on Monday the 5th: The scene of the Gill around my ankle in that scene, to make a movie? Sure, there was a feeling show a pretty girl getting her picture taken Man dragging Joe to the oceanarium bottom but I could get standing next to it. On the left is the box was all they had “in the can” by 10 a.m., out of it any time office, which is doing a brisk business. The when the light got bad and stayed bad. When I wanted. Any- movie camera then pans right to follow a rainstorm set in at 3:30 p.m., they called it way, I was sitting the girl and her photographer and, beyond a day. By now they were two days behind there and I felt them, we see the oceanarium. Ocean Harbor’s Gill Man standee is a blown-up shot of Ben Chapman as the Creature from the schedule and $5000 over budget. The 6th got something tug on The filmmakers then got the adrena- first movie, not the rather different-looking Creature seen in this one. In one draft of theRevenge off to a bad start light-wise, but once things my foot. I looked line of the extras going by getting various script, the Creature interrupts his Ocean Harbor escape to eyeball the standee, then “backs away, half in fright, half in wonderment, bellows angrily, leaps for the cardboard figure. The cutout improved they got back into the oceanarium down and, glory, shots of folks fleeing the wrath of the Gill topples to the ground.” (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) and shot more Clete-Helen-Gill Man byplay it was a big turtle, Man. Seventy-three people earned $10 a plus the monster’s fight with Clete. and he had taken head that day, before rain put an falls toward the cameras. Julian Universal cranked out a number of a big hunk out end to all activity in the mid-after- Fant, a 23-year-old St. Augustinian press items about Agar and Nelson doing of the heel of the noon. In one memorable moment, when Revenge was made, told me, their own Aqua Lung diving in the ocean- Creature’s foot especially for fans seeing a tridi- arium scenes. In my first interviews with and he was swim- Flippy, captured and secretly trained at Marine mensional print, a pair of young A lot of my classmates Studios, made a big media splash in 1951 prior to them, during my young-and-uninformed ming off with it. becoming the star of his own exhibition (much of it men vault over a railing near the were in the panic scene and, days, they talked about the experience and Luckily, he didn’t seen in Revenge). (MFTV Photo Archive) box office, the second one bump- watching the movie, I can rec- I swallowed it hook, line, and sinker; the get me, he got the ing the Creature cutout, which ognize a number of those kids. yarns they spun appeared in my maga- foam rubber, and One of them was a neighbor who The extras playing Ocean Harbor patrons got $10 each a day for their work. Well, after deductions, zine articles and earliest books. But Agar he was trying to eat it. I realized of excitement!” says John Carcaba, a Uni- more like $7.80, as Sally Baskin’s check stub (above) reveals. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) grew up with me from boyhood, and Nelson did not do any underwater that this was my last pair of versity of Florida student when he played by the name of Dick Watson. He flippers—I wore the other ones one of the panicky-looking Marine Studios later became involved with the For years, John Agar and Lori Nelson merrily told Revenge fans of the fun they had in the Marine out, ‘cause the way you swim and evacuees during the Creature-on-the-loose University of Florida football Studios oceanarium during production. We were hit things, you tear ‘em up pretty scene. He told me, “St. Augustine’s a small team—he was quite an athlete— being (harmlessly) fooled: no one but doubles much. That was the last pair, so I town, and you gotta remember, the movie and then after he graduated, Robert Lee Tinney and Ginger Stanley played 2 those underwater roles. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) got out of the chain, swam up fast industry hadn’t come there yet. So yes, he became a circuit judge in St. as I could and I was yelling to Jack there was excitement. Everybody was like, Augustine for quite a few years. Kevan, but he couldn’t under- ‘Hey! Somethin’ new!’ and a few of my bud- He was the kid who jumped over stand me. So I finally swam over dies were doin’ it, so I decided, ‘This sounds the rail near the Marine Studios there and he finally understood exciting. Let’s have at it!’ It was a novel front entrance and knocked over me: “The turtle’s got the heel of experience for us.” Sally Baskin says with a the cutout of the Creature. the foot!” so everybody dove in laugh, “When they put the call out that they the water and they went after needed extras, they came a-running!” Watson died in 2011, a few years after the the turtle [laughs]! They did get According to Universal publicity, during courthouse complex on Lewis Speedway the piece back, and then I had to the moviemakers’ several weeks at Marine- in St. Augustine was named the Richard O. come out and they had to rinse it land, they used 300 extras, all townsfolk of St. Watson Judicial Center in honor of the well- in fresh water and glue it back on. Augustine, the sleepy Florida city of approxi- respected senior jurist. mately 14,000 located 18 miles away. Many Extra Gloria Selph said that even though In a publicity blurb about this occurrence, of them were members of the St. Augustine no sound equipment was there, “every- Universal said that the turtle was 350 pounds. Little Theater...not surprising, since the extras body—everybody ran and waved their arms John Agar told me that Browning was nipped casting was done by Maude Hecht and Char- and acted like terrified people, andscreamed .

32 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 33 John Bromfield, ready for action. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) lock it. Move, countermove: Nelson locked One of first unit production, Florida weather the door herself, then asked her hairdresser being what it is, they had to play everything Lillian Burkhart to double-up with her, “toss- by ear: At 8:45 a.m., when they were ready to ing cold water on Jack Arnold’s little plan,” shoot outdoors, the sky was not ready (insuf- as Lori put it. Arnold, undeterred, persisted ficient light), so they decided to move inside in visiting the women’s room, offering neck and shoot the first scene of Clete and Helen and foot massages; Lori and Lillian would (now played by Agar and Nelson) in the cor- let him stick around and chat, but massages ridor around the oceanarium, watching the were a no-no. At Nelson’s request, Burkhart Gill Man through two of its many portholes. stayed by her side so closely that Tom Hen- But even this interior scene was affected by nesy, and probably others, assumed they the weather: as the actors rehearsed, a bad were mother and daughter (“Her mother storm broke out and the oceanarium inte- was there constantly!” Hennesy said with a rior became so dark that little could be seen laugh during our interview). Arnold finally through the portholes! A change in the camera gave up. When I asked Nelson if I could use setup enabled Arnold to shoot close-ups of the this anecdote in print, she said that since two actors delivering their dialogue with their Arnold never worried about his reputation viewing window less prominently featured. while he was alive, she was not going to The rain stopped at 12:20, but the heavy storm 20-year-old Lori Nelson. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) worry about it while he was dead. clouds lingered and continued to put a crimp Re-watching the movie the other day, I did “He was a dreadful man, a goddamn ter- few years something that people in the activities. In the mid-afternoon, the not see my son—a little boy at that time— rible sexual harasser,” William Alland told me. do something about. Today Jack For a Revenge lab scene, Ricou (right) shed his foam rubber epidermis to play a lab-smocked cameras went back into the oceanarium for assistant, using a hypodermic needle to draw blood from a dead shark. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) running beside me, but he did and he had would be arrested, he was sick in inside-looking-out panning shots of the faces a wonderful time yelling, ’cause he had to Well, you know, sexual ha- the head that way. At Universal, of gawkers (including Agar and Nelson) at be so quiet other times.” rassment only became in the last the secretaries always came from the secretarial pool, and when from the incarnation of sexual the portholes. Since the light conditions had Like many Hollywood movies, Revenge Jack worked for me, we’d give depravity (Jack Arnold, lest you been extremely poor all day (July 9) and might was planned with the precision of troop him an office with a secretary. Je- missed it and how could you?). be just as bad the next day, Arnold and a few movements: Overlapping with the comple- sus, they had one hell of a job get- And the honorable producer of crew members adjourned to Marine Studios’ tion of the second unit work was the ar- ting secretaries for him, nobody Gilligan’s Island and horror films research laboratory and discussed the possibil- rival (from California) of cast members plus wanted to work for him. So many put the moves on the grandmoth- ity of having to spend July 10 shooting in there. behind-the-scenes folks (makeup, wardrobe, secretaries complained about his er! I saw him pull the top of her Sure enough, no sun was in that part sound, electricians, etc.) whose services had behavior, you wouldn’t believe it. blouse away and look down at her of the Sunshine State on Saturday the 10th, not been needed during all the no-actors, no- Awful! I think the studio finally breasts. As is the case in situations so into the laboratory Agar, Nelson, and the lights, no-sound shooting done to date. The stopped supplying him with sec- so appalling, we were all speech- crew went, getting lots of shots of Agar put- Revenge troupe’s sleeping accommodations retaries. Secretaries just blanched less. And there was more. ting a crab in a small fish tank and putting (61 beds) were provided by the Marine Vil- at the idea of having to go to work drops in a beaker, Nelson using a microscope lage Court. Sally Baskin thought that having for him. Just a terrible man. On July 9, the words “Start of Principal and handling test tubes, etc. (Some of these all these movie people at the motel managed Photography” were written across the front shots are not in the movie.) Ricou Brown- by her parents was “pretty neat”: By the 1960s, Arnold was working of the Daily Production Report. And on Day ing even makes a cameo appearance here. mostly in TV, directing and producing, with With a nurse shark in the foreground, I was then 12 years old, and Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Terrific among the the Gill Man (Browning) and Helen (Nel- of course when I found out that series to his credit (or discredit—you make son) give each other the once-over. The John Agar had been married to the call!). Decades after Mr. Terrific’s short glass in Marine Studios’ viewing windows Shirley Temple, he had stars in his run, the blood pressure of its star Stephen withstood pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) crown. John Bromfield was flex- Strimpell still would soar at the mention of ing the muscles constantly and Arnold’s name. He wrote to me in 2002 about walking around in his little Spee- what he called “Jack’s satyriasis”: do, and I wasn’t too impressed by that. But Lori Nelson—I fell in Once, at a script conference, I love with her. She was so nice, so advised him that he should go to sweet. And everybody else, too, a whorehouse every day before they were very kind to me. shooting and get it off since his “This Is Spinal SNAP”: Nelson and Gill Man Hennesy in a posed publicity behavior was reprehensible, and, Twenty-year-old Nelson came onto the shot. (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) furthermore, reflected on me movie unaware of Jack Arnold’s reputation as since my name was all over the one of Universal’s resident wolves—and not thing [the Mr. Terrific series]. The just when the autumn moon was bright. Nel- advice was clearly not taken, and son told me that while settling into her motel a silence fell o’er the room like an room, she was surprised to find the connect- Old Testament plague. ing door to the adjoining room unlocked. There was one time when a With one phone call to the front desk she had young actress actually brought her explanation: The next room was Arnold’s, her grandmother with her onto and he had instructed motel staffers to un- the [Mr. Terrific] set to protect her

34 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 35 The Official Gill Man Guide Shooting Locations Legend Be the envy of...well, probably no one of any to the Sunshine State consequence...by being the first to go on a Creature excursion, hitting all the Florida spots where the three movies were filmed:

1. Wakulla Springs in what is now Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. Shot there for Crea- ture from the Black Lagoon: the scene of Dr. Reed diving in Morajo Bay; the underwater parts of the Black Lagoon scenes; and topside river Atlantic and jungle footage. Shot there for The Creature Walks Among Us: Florida-set underwater scenes Ocean of the divers and the Gill Man, and the location- unspecified underwater scene of the burned Creature after he jumps off Dr. Barton’s yacht.

2. Jacksonville, site of the Lobster House res- taurant on the edge of the St. Johns River (also St. Johns River marked) seen in Revenge of the Creature. Also shot on the St. Johns River: topside parts of the scene of Clete and Helen cruising aboard the Porpoise III and going for their swim.

3. Palatka, where the topside exterior parts of Revenge’s Black Lagoon scenes were shot.

4. Marineland, home of Marine Studios (now Gulf of Marineland of Florida), where Revenge’s Ocean Harbor scenes were filmed, plus the scene of Mexico the Gill Man walking into the Atlantic Ocean (also marked).

5. Silver Springs in Ocala, where they shot the underwater parts of Revenge’s Black Lagoon section, plus the underwater half of the Florida- set scene where the Gill Man follows Clete and Caloosahatchee River Everglades Helen during their Porpoise III cruise and swim. 6. (Fort Myers) and 7. (La Belle): On the Ca- loosahatchee River between these two cities, most of Creature Walks’ topside footage of Dr. Florida Map by Mary Runser Barton’s yacht was shot. Also seen in the movie are Fort Myers’ Edison Bridge and Fort Myers Creature Heads by Kerry Gammill Yacht Basin. It’s safe to assume that when we Legend Text by Tom Weaver see the yacht against a sea horizon, the yacht is in the Gulf of Mexico (also marked). In one of the Caloosahatchee inlets, footage of the Creature hunters in their dinghy, supposedly in the Everglades, was shot.

36 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 37 was shot. At the day’s end, rather than simply dismissing the corridor’s many extras, the moviemakers instructed them to run out screaming—a shot that could eventually be added to the Gill Man’s Ocean Harbor rampage scene! A day of rest (Sunday the 11th) and then back in the oceanarium on Monday for shots of the Gill Man looking out a porthole at Helen; then back to the corridor for shots of Helen looking in the porthole at the Gill Man. In Arnold’s (1953) and Black Lagoon, a character (and audiences) jumped when a hand reached into the shot and touched him from behind, and here for the first ofthree times in Revenge, Arnold used this scare tactic: Nelson is at the porthole, tensely staring into the face of Browning’s Gill Man inches away, when Agar suddenly reaches in and touches her. But surprise-wise This was one of just three interiors shot in it is a complete bust, because Agar’s station- scenes in and around the Marine Studios Florida, the other locations being a Marine ary shadow is clearly visible on the wall receiving tank were shot: the stretcher bear- Studios oceanarium porthole corridor and beside her throughout the buildup. ing the Gill Man (Hennesy) descending Jacksonville’s Lobster House. After lunch, Newly arrived in Florida, actors Gran- into the tank, Joe “walking” the Gill Man, all equipment was moved back to the port- don Rhodes, Dave Willock, and Robert B. and onlooker Helen being interviewed by hole corridor and more of that first scene Williams did their first work on July 13 as a microphone-wielding radio announcer

Fishin’ Accomplished: The captured and kayoed Gill Man (Hennesy) arrives at Ocean Harbor as the PA announcer calls this action “the Creature’s official entry into the 20th century.” In the shots above, he’s “airlifted” by stretcher hoist and lowered into the Ocean Harbor flume, where Joe (John Bromfield) waits to “walk” him back to consciousness. (All Photos Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters)

Gawkers ring the Marine Studios flume as director Jack Arnold lines up a shot of the Creature (Hennesy) and his capturer (Bromfield). (Courtesy ofTom Weaver)

(played by James Fisher, in real life a radio arriving at Ocean Harbor, “[w]e will use to be walked, to get their gill announcer on WFOY, the oldest radio station the identical methods employed at Marine systems working. The dolphins in St. Augustine). Hennesy remembered the Studios for the transference and handling would be walked, too, but it was stretcher hoist well in our interview: of large fish, since they are colorful and ex- pretty much to calm them down. tremely visual.” And Sally Baskin confirms Smaller fish—barracudas and When they first brought the that they did just that: all—would be put directly into the Creature into the small receiving oceanarium, but the sharks and tank, I did that part of it. …[T] The Gill Man arrives on the dolphins had to be walked before he operator of the hoist said that boat Porpoise III, which was an they could be let loose. it was very ancient and rickety actual Marine Studios boat that and noisy, and he said that he would go out and capture por- On the oceanarium promenade watch- hoped that it worked better than poise, dolphin, shark, whatever ing the “walking” of the Creature are dozens it did the last time. When asked [which would then be kept in a of St. Augustine locals-cum-movie extras, what he meant by that, he said “live well” inside the boat]. The some of them well-known in the community. that they had been hoisting a boat would come in to the dock, The impatient reporter in the light-colored shark or a porpoise into the just as you see in the movie, and fedora (“How long has he been walkin’ this tank and the thing unwound they would take the porpoise, thing?”) was played by Steve Wehking, who and collapsed, and the fish was dolphin, shark, whatever, out with his wife Bonnie ran the concession stand dropped onto the pavement be- through the side hatchway and on the St. Augustine Beach Pier, local kids’ low, and killed, evidently. onto that canvas stretcher and favorite summer hangout. And the man bring it to the receiving tank— with the camera who answers his question Early in Revenge’s planning, it was the whole procedure you see in (“About two hours!”) is Jere Beery Sr., one decided that for the scene of the Gill Man the movie. Then the sharks had of the city’s commercial photographers.

38 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 39 The cousin of Hollywood actors Wallace my father, they were with some actors’ area” with John Agar and and Noah Beery, he was at the time the only guy who was, like, the assistant Lori Nelson and John Bromfield, professional photographer taking pictures of director or some prop man or because at that particular time, tourists enjoying the city’s famous horse and gaffer playing the part of the briefly, I was “an actor”! It wasn’t carriage rides. He also owned and operated monster. He struck me as funny, until years later that I realized a photography studio on Aviles Street. His and I started laughin’, and when the magnitude of my blunder. If son Jere Beery Jr. told me: you’re six years old and you get I hadn’t started giggling, it would to gigglin’, you can’t quit it. Ev- have been a Beery family hat trick, At the time [the summer of ery time I would lie down on the three of us in one picture. 1954], I was six years old and my ground and this assistant direc- dad and mom and my sister Patsy tor (or whoever he was) would Jere Jr.’s Web site tells the story of his fam- and I were starring in a production pretend like he was the Creature, ily’s brushes with show biz and he sells cop- of The Great Big Doorstep at the St. I would crack up! ies of the marvelous photographs his dad Augustine Little Theater took in and around the receiv- on Artillery Lane. Evi- ing tank on that memorable dently one of Universal’s July 13, including some with scouts, or somebody, came the Creature in action. Go to to the theater and saw the Google and input “Jere Beery acting ability of my fam- Revenge of the Creature” to ily and told Daddy, “Get find the site. And he has one your family together and more colorful memory of his come down and interview time on the Revenge set: for some parts.” The part Jere Beery Jr. (at the side of lovely Lori Nelson, above) is the that he interviewed for One other thing son of Jere Beery Sr. (1911-1976; above left), a well-known was that of a reporter- that’s stayed with me St. Augustine photographer. In Revenge, Sr. had a bit part as a photographer on the Marine Studios flume promenade photographer. And it just is that, there at Marine and, with his own camera in hand throughout the day, natu- so happens that my dad Studios that day there rally took many shots of various goings-on. A sampling of his was a professional pho- was a small trailer, and shots fills this page. (All Photos Courtesy ofJere Beery Jr.) tographer, and he had inside the trailer there Learn how to get your own top-quality copies from Jere Jr. his own equipment; that were maybe a dozen or himself by visiting: was kind of a bonus for more Creature suits, dif- them, they didn’t have to ferent colors and dif- jerebeery.com/Revenge%20of%20the%20Creature.htm provide him with props. ferent sizes—evidently My sister Patsy was hired Ricou Browning was to play in another scene. shorter than Tom Hen- nesy. They were all basi- Jere Jr. was up for the Re- cally the same color but venge role of a child who, flee- some were lighter, some ing from the Gill Man at Ocean were darker. I wish that Harbor, trips and falls onto a my dad had gotten a cargo net and then cowers as the picture of that, because Gill Man looms above him. He that’s really a behind- auditioned for the job at home: the-scenes type sight that a lot of fans would have I can’t tell you if it enjoyed. That stuck in Six-year-old Jere Beery Jr. landed a small role in Revenge, was the director, assistant but he got the giggles at the eleventh hour and had to be my mind to the extent director, producer or who replaced. He did get to hang around and meet John Agar that I’ve never forgotten: it was, but some guy came (pictured) and others. (Courtesy Jere Beery Jr.) There I was, six years and auditioned me on the old, standing at the trail- floor of our kitchen: I laid down They tried it three or four er door and lookin’ at like a dozen on the floor and my dad pre- times and I was getting no better, monsters hanging up in a trailer. tended like he was the Creature and evidently it wasn’t a comedy I’ll never forget that! and I acted scared and cried and [laughs], so I was “out.” That’s all that. And I got the part. When how I shot myself in the foot. At On July 14, the receiving tank battle we got to Marineland where my the time, I was not that disap- between the Gill Man and his captors was scene was going to be shot, they pointed about losing out on the filmed. Except for a few mid-afternoon wanted to do some rehearsals part. I was just there for the fun minutes spent waiting for the light to im- right on the spot where the scene of it. I got to be at Marine Stu- prove, the weather apparently cooperated, was going to be shot—they had dios all day long—didn’t have to making it a good day for the still-behind- the cargo net on the ground there have a ticket [laughs]—and I got schedule, still-over-budget production. But and everything. But the rehears- to see everything that was goin’ it was not a good day for the beleaguered als weren’t with the monster or on and I got to hang out in “the Gill Man Hennesy, who told me:

40 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 41 A seagull’s eye view of the Marine Studios flume with They were very more takes of the abovementioned battle, plus tank, set up a camera and filmed part of the rolled the cameras, filming in progress. In the background is the round cheap with me, they the memorable shot of the Gill Man rocket- “Educated” Porpoise’s regular 9:30 perfor- and I thought, “What oceanarium for dolphins, into which the Revenge crew didn’t want to pay ing head-first out of the tank and toward the mance (Flippy jumping through the sus- kind of people want descended for shots of dolphins being fed. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) any stunt adjust- downward-pointing tridimensional cameras. pended paper hoop). They then headed back to kiss while there’s ments, they just want- For that shot, it was Browning in the suit, be- to the beach and shot the romantic scene with 20 people watchin’ ed to pay the contract- ing pulled up and out of the water by a wire. Agar, Nelson, and Chris the dog. The dog ’em?” To me, kiss- agreed price, which is On the morning of the 17th, after the ruined nearly a dozen takes, so you might ing was a very loving not normal practice company got a shot of Agar and Nelson wonder who Jack Arnold was more eager to thing! Well, John and for stunt work. The lowering a loudspeaker into the oceanarium strangle, the dog or Flippy. Then it was back Lori got through the whole portrayal of the (“Testing, one, two, three, four!”), work at to Porpoise Stadium to photograph two more scene and they got up Creature was not just that location was finally finished. They then regularly scheduled Flippy performances. and walked separate an acting job, it was a moved to Porpoise Stadium for footage of An unhappy Arnold had to burn up a lot of ways, and I thought, stunt job, a difficult Agar, Nelson, and Bromfield in the audience film photographing most or all of the shows “Huh? What’s this stunt job. In order to of a Flippy performance. They were joined newsreel-style because he did not know what about?” [Laughs] It be fair, they should there by the newest member of the cast, a Flippy would do next or when he would do it: was not anything like have made adjust- six-year-old male German shepherd playing He went through over 6680 feet of raw stock what I expected! ments for a number Chris, Helen’s “one true love and favorite boy- that day, 2460 of it wasted. of things. I asked for friend.” Universal paid $75 to insure the dog Also unhappy that day was little Sally Agar and Nelson, the some adjustments for full mortality; it was valued at $2500 and Baskin, who was sorely disappointed at what only two actors to work on various occasions attended by its owner Henry East, a veteran did and did not happen during the filming that Sunday, got the next and was refused, and Hollywood animal trainer. After lunch, op- of Agar and Nelson’s romantic beach scene: two days off as the rest they acted as though erations moved to the Marineland wharf and of the Revenge company Joe (Bromfield) looks like he’s getting tough with the Gill I’d be terminated if I the scene of the Porpoise III arriving with its When I was told they were trekked to Palatka, Florida, Man (Hennesy), but no Creatures were harmed during the asked again. Creature cargo. As noted earlier, the Porpoise going to do a kissing scene, boy, to shoot the topside Black making of this movie: the Universal prop shop made boat hooks out of balsa and rubber, with rubber tips. (Courtesy III was the actual “collection boat” or “catch being 12 years old, I wanted to Lagoon scenes. Shooting of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) When Hennesy told me boat” on which Marine Studios’ specimen check into that! There was a rock in Palatka’s Rice Creek was the story about the receiv- hunters went out to sea to get new recruits wall, to hold back the sand dunes, an awful experience; the I was fighting at least three ing tank attendants getting carried away, he for exhibition at the marine mammal park. and I sat up on that, and I watched sun was fierce and the atmosphere stifling, Creek, but she saw them when they returned: people there, Bromfield and two could have been talking about his fight with Perhaps because the filmmakers were as about 20 people stood all with a bit player and the script clerk both local Florida stuntmen. It was them on this date, July 14, or the fight he had now behind schedule and $12,500 over bud- around [Agar and Nelson] lying passing out because of the jungle-like heat. They were transported back very difficult, and I had to fight to on the 23rd when he returned to the tank get, the Florida shooting schedule became on a towel. The dresser was trying It was even worse for the people who had to and forth by bus, and I’d be keep from being drowned. They for over an hour to do many fight retakes. seven days a week. The first Sunday of work to make sure that her bathing suit go into the water: Ricou Browning says they around when they returned to weren’t accomplished Hollywood Worst-case scenario: he was talking about (July 18) began back in Porpoise Stadium was just right and that his shorts were about a mile from a paper mill, and the Marineland and I can remember stuntmen, any of ’em, so I had both fights! with Flippy again failing to do his tricks for were just right, and a makeup stench was overpowering! “The paper mill, how bad they smelled. Rice Creek a hell of a fight with all three of On July 15, Hennesy’s Creature was back the cameras. Thinking on their feet, the film- person was making sure their hair just down the way, discharged their waste was very smelly, very odorous, them. I got frustrated, ’cause these in the oceanarium, struggling to climb out past makers moved their equipment to the beach was just right, and I was thinkin’, water in Rice Creek,” he ruefully recalls. very slimy, and when they would guys were choking me, and if they a boat hook-wielding John Bromfield. The in preparation for the shooting of Clete and “When are they gonna get to this “It was like swimming in your toilet.” Sally come out of the water there, they’d had gotten me underwater, they accent remained on action on the 16th with Helen’s love scene, then returned to Flippy’s kissing scene?” Well, then they Baskin did not accompany the troupe to Rice have slime coming off of their would have held me down and suits and off of their bodies. When drowned me! I could tell imme- While escaping from Ocean Harbor, the Creature (Hennesy) they got back to Marineland, the looms over a little girl (Judeena Blackmer) who has tripped diately that this was no game— and fallen. After Judeena grew up and became a mother, one first place they headed was to the maybe these guys thought I was of her kids looked at this photograph and asked, “What’s the beach. Nobody went straight to a creature! Maybe they thought Creature doin’ coming out from behind a shower curtain?” their rooms, they went straight (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) they were fighting for their lives, to the beach and jumped into the but I felt that I was fighting for ocean, clothes and all, trying to mine. So I finally said, “The heck get that smell off of ’em. There’s with it,” it was do or die, so I did no other smell like a paper mill! what I had to do, and it became a knock-down, drag-out brawl! July 21 was a never-to-be-forgotten day for many St. Augustinians as Arnold & Co. Even though a good bit of what the resumed shooting at Marine Studios with towering (6’5”) Hennesy did in the movie more shots of the stampede that follows as “Gill Man #2” would seem to fall into the the Gill Man’s escape. Seventy-three extras category of stunt work, he got only $300 a got $10 each for joining in this mass exodus. week. That is less than half of what John First they shot, twice, the vignette in which Bromfield got per week, three-tenths of what a mother and her little girl run from the Nestor Paiva got per week, half of what Gill Man, the latter falling onto a cargo net Dave Willock got per week. Even some of the while the mother unknowingly continues on Floridian butchers, bakers, and candlestick alone. Five-year-old Judeena Blackmer—a makers recruited to play tiny one-day roles relative of stage and movie actor Sidney for $70 paychecks made more in a day than Ocean Harbor attendants gang up to lay the smackdown on the park’s newest Blackmer—played the girl, having replaced Hennesy did! He told me, attraction. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) giggler Jere Beery Jr. in the role. Judeena

42 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 43 everybody else in St. Au- ing one of the young men putting distance There’s one part of the main the Pontiac sedan, cables ran from the vehicle thereby giving us a glimpse, in the distant gustine!” Judeena watches between himself and the Creature, told me, tank that had a kind of rock to a tow truck, which pulled it over. (“A tow background, of a building marked Marine for her mom every time she “Working in Revenge of the Creature goes back formation just below the sur- truck” was Hennesy’s memory; onlooker Studios Biological Station. This shot, plus sees the movie but has never a few years, but I still look back on it fondly. face. During the scene where the Sally Baskin remembers men on the beach another shot in which a sabal palm partially been able to spot her in the It was a very interesting experience. And I’ll Creature escapes—grabs Johnny pulling the cables on the car, which she says hides a Marine Studios sign on a building panoramic shots of running add as a side note that, when I moved to my Bromfield, pulls him in the water was “stripped until all it was was a shell.”) All wall (approximately 30:50 on the DVD), are extras. She adds, “My kids, present home, I began gettin’ rid of a whole and kills him—I was standing at the Marine Studios extras who had just been the only two “plugs” that Marine Studios they watch the movie and bunch of stuff, and I found my Universal Stu- the far end of the tank. Why I did chased by the Gill Man out the gate onto the gets in Revenge. Otherwise, all Marine Studios their attitude is, ‘Oh, come dios metal badge that I pinned on every day this I will never know [laughs], roadway stuck around, naturally, and formed signs were avoided by Universal’s cameras, on. That’s not scary.’ And I when we were on the set. That identified you but I dove back into the tank a large off-camera audience as the action was or perhaps removed, and Ocean Harbor say, ‘Yeah, but it was back as part of ‘the cast.’ We were supposed to turn at that point, not realizing how shot twice: once with the camera shooting up signs substituted: We see the words Ocean then.’” In his Revenge review, the badges back in, I think, but I never did.” close to the surface of the water from the beach at the car and Creature (with Harbor on a wall when the Gill Man is ar- Albert D. Ricketts of Pacific After shooting Judeena’s scene, the film- those rocks were. If I hadn’t flat- Marine Studios in the background), the other riving via stretcher hoist, and in two spots Stars & Stripes pointed out makers moved their cameras back to the top tened my dive at the last second, time shooting the car and Creature with the on a billboard during Flippy’s performance. that when the Gill Man “gal- deck of the oceanarium and photographed I would’ve hit it flush. This is just Atlantic in the background. Both times, Hen- Ocean Harbor is also written atop Flippy’s lantly” bypassed the mother Gill Man Tom Hennesy clambering out over speculation, but if I had hit there nesy was a bit concerned: “It was a dangerous suspended paper hoop. In addition, John and child, he proved “be- the wall, with hysteria breaking out all about hard and maybe gotten a bloody thing for people working around there,” he Bromfield’s Joe Hayes, many attendants, and yond a doubt that chivalry him. Watch in the distant background, on the nose or something, it might have said in our interview, “because if that cable the Porpoise III sailor have Ocean Harbor on was in bloom in the days of right, as Agar dives into the oceanarium and been a different kind of story, ac- had broken and whipped back, it could have their shirtfronts throughout the movie. dinosaurs and pterodactyls.” into a situation that he admits “could have cording to what I’ve heard about killed everyone.” (In an early script, it is not On the morning of Thursday, July 22, John Carcaba, play- been a little disastrous.” Agar told me, sharks and the way they smell an empty car but a stalled car filled with Agar and Nelson bid farewell to Marine- blood out in water. sightseers that gets overturned.) land…on film, anyway. That was the day Two shots of Joe (Bromfield) battling the Creature. The script called The first take was used even though they went to the wharf and shot the scene of for the Creature to recognize and remember Joe from one encounter More escape scene footage was shot in the rolling car very noticeably clips the Clete and Helen leaving on the Porpoise III, to another and develop a deep hatred; the movie does not get this idea across. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) the afternoon. For Gill Man Hennesy to flip camera, making it pan to the left a bit—and with Johnson on hand to see them off. Then vividly recalled for me that in a rehearsal, The Gill Man flips a parked car after escaping Ocean Harbor. A simple stunt by today’s standards, this was quite dangerous in the 1950s, according to Tom Hennesy. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) The monster was going to come around the corner of a build- ing, and I was supposed to see him and scream and run. Then when he came around the corner, the guy was in the rubber suit but he didn’t have the head on. Well, that was not scary, and I guess I was not very good at fakin’ an “I’m scared” scream. We did it a couple of times, and I just wasn’t afraid. But I’ll never forget, they did a take, and he came around the corner, and he had the head on. It scared the absolute stew out of me! I ran, and I was supposed to fall on top of the net. I ran…and I ran… [Laughs] I did not fall, I just ran, it scared me so bad! So then we did it again, and that’s the one little split-second that I was in the picture. By the way, I recently learned that Clint East- wood is also in that movie, in a small part. He got “discovered,” and I didn’t [laughs]! And I think I was cuter than he was!

The woman playing the mother in the scene was paid $70 rather than the $10 that the other extras got. She was not Judeena’s mother—although Judeena’s mother Mary was part of the frenzied-looking crowd. As Judeena puts it, “Yeah, she was there—with

44 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 45 Nineteen-year-old St. Augustinian Patsy Beery Powers had a double Crea- ture connection: a bit part in Revenge and—as pictured here—the starring the filmmakers loaded at least two boats with gustinians joined the role in The Return of the Creature, an 8mm spoof made by several Marine “The convertible had a rather loud exhaust, With the shooting of the motel exteriors, natural environment. [It serves] as a link equipment and proceeded upriver to shoot cast: Pat Powers and Studios announcers while Revenge was in production at their park. Ed and the first time we drove off, the sound the Marineland area work was done; the next between the public and the sea world, pro- Clete and Helen’s romantic cruise. Julian Fant as love- Doyle played her monstrous admirer. (Courtesy of Jere Beery Jr.) was too loud, necessitating a retake. Another day, July 24, the crew and what remained of moting awareness of the fragile marine and The last day of Marineland photogra- birds in a Ford con- retake was required because I braked too soon the cast (Agar, Nelson, Creatures Browning coastal environments and inspiring everyone phy, July 23, began late because the company vertible on their way and flashed brake lights. We were there until and Hennesy, Nelson’s water double Ginger to protect these precious resources.” planned to shoot night-for-night scenes well to “paradise by the the wee hours of the morning.” It took until Stanley) made the 1-hour, 45-minute trip No animals doing tricks? No Gill Man? past the witching hour. The first stop was the dashboard light.” Re- 3:05 a.m. to shoot the entire scene, plus a shot north to Jacksonville, where the balance No screaming mass evacuation? Mom, can’t receiving tank to shoot retakes of the fight al-life newlywed Pow- of Gill Man Hennesy wading up out of the of the Florida shooting would take place, we go to Wet ’n Wild in Orlando instead?! (the Gill Man vs. Joe and the Ocean Harbor ers was the daughter river. According to Fant, “Patsy, Bill Young, most of it at the river’s-edge Lobster House attendants). There was a crew call for one of St. Augustine pho- and I each got $70 for the evening, and it restaurant. On July 28, their Florida work 1 Marineland, Marine Studios—why is there night, but because of poor light and off-and- tographer Jere Beery was welcome in my case: Millie and I were complete, cast and crew headed back to Cali- so much alternating between the two when on rain, nothing was shot until 3:20—and Sr., who had already married in 1951, had a son one year later, and fornia aboard American Airlines Flight 907. people talk about it? Well, simply because it even then, they were shooting in the rain. appeared in a Revenge a daughter one year after that!” For Pat Pow- A Universal publicity item pointed out that is confusing. In a nutshell: The marine attrac- This was the last scene, and the last day on scene at the Marine ers’ brother Jere Beery Jr., watching Revenge cast and crew had worked a month in Florida, tion itself was named Marine Studios, and on the movie, for actors Bromfield and Williams. Studios receiving tank. today is a special experience: He told me, “To where it was sweltering hot not only by day the land adjacent to it was built the “town” A few minutes were then spent trying Nineteen years old, see on the screen relatives of yours that have but also at night—and then returned to Cali- of Marineland—“town” in quotes because in to get a close-up shot of an Ocean Harbor she was then work- passed away, and they look so alive and you fornia, where during some of the nighttime the early days, it had a single-digit popula- announcer (no doubt played by a local) de- ing as a tour guide at remember ’em that way and all that…it still outdoor work, chilly cast members swathed tion. So many people mistakenly called the scribing some action, probably Flippy-related. Potter’s Wax Museum moves me to see Daddy and Patsy.” themselves in coats, wraps, and blankets as attraction Marineland instead of Marine After 22 minutes, script clerk Dixie McCoy (America’s first wax In addition to playing this uncredited soon as the camera stopped grinding. Studios that by 1961 it was obvious that it was wrote in her notes, “Actor could not do it,” museum) in down- bit in Revenge, Pat Powers was the star of the * * * * * better to switch than fight, and the place was and they moved their equipment to the motel town St. Augustine. amateur production The Return of the Creature, According to the Web site florida- renamed Marineland of Florida. location. After dinner and some rehearsals, Fant, 23, was a a 21-minute spoof of Revenge of the Creature, themeparks.com, Marineland today “is not 2 Yes they had, but who can fault him for not they shot the night scene of Clete and Helen radio announcer at St. simultaneously made by several Marine Stu- a theme park in the usual sense… There are knowing? Back in the 1910s, a number of looking for Helen’s dog, unaware that the Gill Augustine’s local CBS affiliate WFOY, a job sitting on the dock at the end of dios announcer-guides. The full story of The no shows to watch the animals do tricks, but features were shot in St. Augustine—includ- Man has killed it and is watching them from he had held since junior high school days our “lover’s lane” with John Agar Return of the Creature appears in the current rather it is a park that shows visitors how ing 1915’s Life Without Soul, one of the earliest hiding. Eleven days earlier in the shooting, (he was there a total of ten years). Fant told and Lori Nelson and some of the issue (#19) of magazine. marine life learns, hunts and lives in their movie versions of Frankenstein. in a porthole corridor scene, director Arnold me, “At that time I was involved with the film crew. It grew cool and John, pulled the old “hand on the shoulder” gag out St. Augustine Little Theater, and I think it suave star that he was, offered to GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF TWO LONG-RUNNING FAN FAVORITES NOW! of his bag of fright tricks and had Clete scare was Maude Hecht [one of the Little Theater go up to the motel and get Lori’s Helen; at the motel, Helen returns the favor, mucky-mucks] who recommended me for sweater, and a shirt of his for unexpectedly coming up behind Clete dur- the part in Revenge.” He continued, Millie. He let her keep the shirt, ing their search for the dog. Agar and Nelson and she gave it to me. I wore it a finished the scene and were dismissed at 11:42. Earlier in the evening, while few times before donating it to At that point, on that same location (near Patsy and I were being coached my high school for a fund raiser. the water’s edge by the motel), more St. Au- for our scene, my wife Millie was In the convertible scene, Arnold uses the hand-on-the-shoulder trick yet again: as we watch the boy (driver’s seat) and girl (passen- ger seat) kissing, a hand enters the shot from camera left and touches the girl, who lets out a horrified cry. But it is not the Gill Man, it is a policeman (played by local cop Bill Young), who tells the kids to break it up and go home. The hand-on-shoulder gag worked well in It Came from Outer Space and Black Lagoon, but not one of the three in Revenge (Clete to Helen, Helen to Clete, policeman to smooching girl) is effective at all. And yet there would be more in Arnold’s sci-fi future, inTarantula, , and . After shooting of the lovebirds’ scene began at 11:30, “Patsy and I had to do about 13 retakes before we got it right,” Fant re- calls. “And her husband was present for the filming, as was my wife Millie. But Patsy seemed to enjoy the repeats [the kissing part] as much as I did! One of the takes was Following his Ocean Harbor escape, the Gill Man demonstrates a miraculous ability to show up everywhere Helen does: the boat on which she takes a rejected because they detected a breath mint SCARY MONSTERS #88 ($11.00 POSTAGE PAID) LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #30 ($12.95 POSTAGE PAID) river cruise, her motel, and the Lobster House restaurant. The Los Angeles in my mouth [laughs]!” A supper break com- FOREIGN ORDERS CHECK THE WEB SITE BELOW FOR SHIPPING INFO FOREIGN ORDERS CHECK THE WEB SITE BELOW FOR SHIPPING INFO Times reviewer nailed it when he mentioned that the Creature trails Helen menced at 12:45 a.m., and then at 1:15 work Dennis Druktenis Publishing, 348 Jocelyn Place, Highwood, IL 60040 Richard Klemensen, 3213 48th Place, Des Moines, Iowa 50310-2606 “like his terrestrial counterpart, Sam Spade.” (Courtesy of Tom Weaver) resumed—and so did the retakes. Fant says, WWW.SCARYMONSTERSMAGAZINE.COM WWW.LITTLESHOPPEOFHORRORS.COM

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