Introduction to subseries “Sea World superheroes show” (including list of interviewees).
Skiers, part 1 of 10—the training.
SWSH = Sea World superheroes
THE CHARACTERS
Which character(s) did you portray?
Al Kelley: Mostly Robin; also played Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, some super villains (Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Captain Cold). [NOTE: I haven’t seen Mr. Freeze in any photos; Al may be confusing him with Captain Cold.]
Bill Peterson: Because I was 5’5” I could not play characters such as Batman, so I would be Robin. Also the Red Flash, Green Lantern, and the Penguin.
Bill Schwartz: Due to my small size, I tended to play Robin quite a bit. It didn’t look good to have a smaller Batman or Superman.
Carl Lipsit: Superman, Perry White, thugs, Batman—probably others but it seems a looooong time ago.
Dave Madeline: I was a boat driver. If a skier got injured, they’d put a driver into a costume until the skier got better. For myself it was a rare occurrence; [at least once] I was a Penguin. You’re more valuable as a driver.
Greg Galloway: All the male parts. If Batman was a big guy, I could play Robin. If Robin was a small guy, I could play Batman.

Jeff Parnell: Robin, Flash, Green Hornet [he later confirmed he meant Green Lantern], Penguin, Riddler. I was very young and felt silly when I played Superman.
Kerry Lloyd: Everybody but Batman. I’m only five foot four. But I had three Batman costumes for $1,500 apiece. The money they spent on costumes was remarkable. They’re stored somewhere [by Sea World]. I bet they’re in California. Everybody had three of every costume of every character!
Margie LaPoint (Bates): I can’t remember all of the superhero names but I did most all of the acts on a regular basis (except the green costume) [Mera], which was the doubles act, as I was on the big side. I did do that only a few times, but loved it all the same.
Mark Gutleben: I played Aquaman mostly because they had me do the back barefoot all the time. I fell only 11 times out of 250-300 shows. I also played Superman, Robin, Lex Luthor [NOTE: I haven’t seen him in any of the photos], Flash, Penguin.
Paula Nelson (Bloemer): Let’s see, Mera (I think you have a picture of me winking),Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Catwoman, Supergirl, and Lois Lane.

There was one skier, Randy Jones, who was as good a Batman figure as any on the big screen.
Aquaman and Superman were in the jump act. I was the first skier to perform a gainer off the jump (skiing forward and performing a back flip). My wife Robbi (just dating back then) says she was first attracted to me when I did gainers as Superman.
A tall, skinny, red-headed skier named John Gaffey wanted so much to be Superman. His skiing skills were inconsistent but his comedic timing flawless. He was Superman once and fell in the shallow surf coming in on parade—the show opener when all the heroes were introduced. When he arose, the cape was wrapped around him, he held the black wig, his tights were down to his knees, and he was covered in sand. With a straight face, the announcer presented the Man of Steel to a dismayed crowd of kids.
Superman also played Perry White in comedy doubles. A girl jumped on your back as you skied by a dock. (The girl was often one of the trainees because it didn’t require skiing skills and in the end the girl was tossed into the water.) Girls hated seeing Lois Lane by their name on the show schedule.
No one liked doing the Flash because of the shoe ski act which never garnered much respect from other skiers even if you were good at it, and most of us weren’t and there were often falls and the following act would be coming in so if you fell you had to swim like crazy to get out of the way.

Green Arrow was a high diver (literally, when it was [name redacted, but not Dan Poor!]). He dove from 70 feet into fire. The diver would walk in a few minutes before the show, do his one dive, then leave. We kind of envied his schedule and some skiers attempted to learn to dive.
Penguin wore a padded stomach and rubber nose. Wonder Woman would catch you and the challenge was to make Wonder Woman lose her composure as she was delivering her serious lines about her magic lasso. Many unusual comments were whispered as Penguin kneeled beside Wonder Woman.

Steve Fontaine: In the very first show in Ohio, I was the first water ski act, portraying the paperboy. I skied by the audience screaming “Extra, extra, read all about it!” And that began the superhero show! My next act was Superman! Then at various times I played Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and thugs.
Which characters did you prefer to portray and why?
Al Kelley: Robin was fun but I liked to play Penguin so I could do the beach barefoot. [This was] water skiing on your bare feet—[meaning] without skis.
Andy Hansen: Aquaman. He got to do the more difficult water ski tricks. Although Batman was the most fun because the audience’s, especially the kids’, eyeballs would pop out of their heads during the post-show autograph sessions. In my opinion, Batman had the most authentic-looking costume. Superman’s was also great, but I did not have black hair. I had to wear a dumb wig.

Bubby Snow: I enjoyed playing Superman, even though it did not require the more difficult water skiing stunts. I liked playing Aquaman because it was the more challenging water skiing stunts.
Carl Lipsit: Batman/Perry White. In those roles, you worked in a harness and/or performed lifts and other acts with a partner.
Cindy Barhoff (Clasen): I preferred Supergirl because I got to slalom and ski around the boat. I also liked Lois Lane because it was a comedy act. I was terribly shy in high school and I surprised myself when I was in that costume. New outfit…new personality!
Diane Smith: I thoroughly enjoyed being Supergirl because she seemed to best fit my size and exemplify my personality.


Gary Thompson (who was also a show manager): I liked the Flash for the costume, the character, and the acts in the show that he did.

Jeff Parnell: Green Hornet [he later confirmed he meant Green Lantern]. It was a cool costume and you got to do cool acts like boat jumping and ski jumping.

Linda Knapp (Moffett): There were quite a few that were outstanding, but for different reasons. Catwoman was fun because it was a dry act and she came in from the side of the stadium giving you a chance to stop and visit Sunja (the elephant) and check out the crowd before going on stage. Her costume was very cool with the mask, boots, and whip. It was also fun disappearing on stage—a real crowd pleaser!

the other is a heads-turned shot, but in color
row 1: Tom Weber, Andy Hansen, Linda Knapp (Moffett), Tom Freeburn, Karen Weber,
Sharkey Schwartz, Dave Madeline
row 2: Penguin—Mark Gutleben, Joker—Ken McCabe, Catwoman—Shirley Duke,
Riddler—Kerry Lloyd, Gary Thompson, Dave Blasko (elephant trainer)
row 3: Reyna Blasko, Wonder Woman—Kaci Whittenton (Hedstrum), Annette Botti (Hoffman),
Aquaman—Bob “Bullet” Borth, Mary Marvel—Sherry Wickstrom, Captain Marvel—Randy Jones,
Supergirl—Valaree Morris, Superman—Steve Fontaine, Flash—John Macqueen,
Black Canary—Debbie Blake, Batman—Roger Hansen, Batgirl—Sheri McNary, Robin—Al Kelley,
Green Arrow—Brad Whitmore
row 4: elephant—Sunja, Tarzan—?
Supergirl was fun because you landed on the beach and talked with the announcer. The year we had the wet bike [NOTE: described as cross between motorcycle and jet ski], most of the time you landed on the beach was a real challenge. The wet bike was big and heavy and hard for the girls to handle. If you landed it on the beach too far up, you couldn’t push it back into the water—which was embarrassing because, after all, you were Supergirl. If you landed it too deep, you had to drag yourself up through deep water with a dripping wet cape.
Mera was fun because I liked doing doubles and her costume didn’t have an annoying cape. Wonder Woman was the crowd favorite and was the star of the show. She was awesome.
Margie LaPoint (Bates): I loved being Wonder Woman and did it sometimes but not always because Wonder Woman climbed to the top of the pyramid and I was considered big for that. I went through a starvation period in my life and got down to 110 pounds, which was the cutoff for doing both of those acts, which was why I was able to do them at all! (I do not recommend it to any young girls.)
Mary McMurtrie: Wonder Woman…I think you actually felt the power in that costume.
Paula Nelson (Bloemer): Each of the roles had their advantages and disadvantages. Mera and Batgirl had to be chopped in half—which involved lying in a cramped box on stage in the blistering summer heat while changing (actually putting on an additional costume half). At least Mera didn’t have a face mask and cape. Wonder Woman got to jump the boat through the set and save the day and also had a sort of ski solo on swivel. She was fun to play if everything went well. It certainly was a rush jumping boats. Prior to that summer, the only boats I navigated were canoes! Sometimes it was fun to play the villain, Catwoman—that is, once you got the hang of cracking a real 10’ or so leather bullwhip without zapping the audience, Blue [sic] Canary, or yourself in the face.


Suzanne Schwartz: I liked being Supergirl because the costume was cute and I liked the acts she was involved with—performing the doubles, as an example. I also like being Catwoman because the costume was slinky and sexy.
Which characters, if any, were more in demand among the performers to portray?
Al Kelley: Aquaman for the backwards barefoot and Flash who flew the kite.

Bill Peterson: I would say the characters that did star doubles. [NOTE: Star doubles was when an accomplished male and female skier performed a doubles routine together. The boy did lifts with the girl. Only the strongest boys got to do it. It was an honor to get this position.] It took strength, good skiing skills, and balance.

Carl Lipsit: I don’t remember competition for particular roles among the men. Some had height restrictions. I was too tall to play the Penguin or Robin.
Dave Madeline: Batman, Superman. Kids were going nuts. After the shows there were kids hanging all over the place looking for the superheroes. After a while Sea World realized this was a great op to get the PR they were looking for so they had skiers go out and rub flesh, meet the kids after the show. Now it means something. Back then we were just kids.
Doby Buesse: The acts were set up by difficulty 1-8 (1 being the hardest). Aquaman was the “1”—backward barefoot and star doubles. The Riddler was “8”—I don’t think he even got wet. The girls had difficulty scale, too, but I don’t remember it.
The scale, as Doby remembers:
1 Aquaman
2 Flash
3 Green Lantern
4 Superman
5 Batman
6 Robin
7 Penguin
8 Riddler
Gary Thompson: The stars, of course, were Wonder Woman and I suppose Batman and Robin. Superman and Supergirl were cool, and so was Aquaman and Mera, and the Joker was the best villain, along with the Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler.
Janalee Zimmerman (Addleman): I think Wonder Woman was the most prestigious character to play. First of all, she was gorgeous and also she skied alone as a feature in the show. She used the swivel ski and it was impressive! I did not ever play that part. The swivel ski was the same and I never did master that feat! Also, I wasn’t built tall and thin like the girl who played her was! I think her first name was Kaci. She was fabulous.



Steve Fontaine: The crowd loved Batman and Robin. They also loved Aquaman, Flash, and Green Arrow.


Did you portray any characters that you hadn’t heard of before?
[Most who answered said Black Canary, Mera, or both.]
Next: skiers, part 3 of 10—the costumes.
6 comments:
Great interviews with all! Interesting hearing the behind the scenes info. And those pics are gold!
Thanks CJ! I agree on all counts (I just let them speak for themselves). It's got a wonderful "Summer of '42"/"Summer of '69"/any summer sense of wistfulness, plus it's a crash course in water skiing basics!
Good lord, are these photos--and the whole series of posts--amazing. That shot of a winking Mera will haunt mt dreams.
Ah, Rob, I hear ya. BTW, is Mt. Dreams underwater? ;)
Sorry, had to. I tried not to, but I had to.
Knew you'd know which pic I meant, Rob.
As a child I remember coming to the show and the Joker character scaring the living daylights out of my Aunt Millie. My cousin Ronnie and I got our picture taken with quite a few of the cast.
Post a Comment