One of the major attractions during the first year of the Great Lakes Exposition was the Marine Theater, a performance which took place in Lake Erie and showcased swimming and diving acts. The following year, Broadway producer and showman Billy Rose came to town and turned the Marine Theater into something even more spectacular: The Aquacade.
Rose invested $500,000 in his Aquacade show and built an elaborate moving set and seats for 5,000 spectators. Grander and more ambitious than the Marine Theater, the Aquacade featured a cast of hundreds of swimmers, divers, and showgirls who performed to live musical accompaniment. Dinner was served during evening performances of the four-act show, and tickets could cost as much as $1.50 -- quite an expense at the time. The show proved to be a great success, with sold out performances being the norm and seasoned New York critics claiming that Billy Rose had "brought Broadway to Lake Erie." Even the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly, and Moe -- came to see the show when they had a night off from performing at the Palace Theater.
Some of the most spectacular drama surrounding the Aquacade (drama that in fact only helped promote the show further) happened off-stage, however. Johnny Weismuller (best known for his movie role as Tarzan) performed at the Aquacade, and his equally famous wife Lupe Velez (a Mexican actress) would sometimes fly into Cleveland unexpectedly. Velez would fight and argue with Weismuller in public, creating plenty of fodder for the papers. Olympic swimming star Eleanor Holm Jarrett performed in the show, too. Jarrett made headlines by giving up her amateur standing to perform the starring role in the Aquacade, but she had already been suspended from the Olympic team for drinking (itself a hot news item), and may not have been reinstated anyway. Rumors of a romantic affair between Jarrett and Rose (who were both married at the time) also fueled much speculation. The two later divorced their spouses and married in 1939
The Aquacade ended its run in Cleveland when the Great Lakes Exposition came to an end in September 1937. Rose took his show to the 1939 New York World's Fair, with Holm and Weismuller reprising their starring roles, and it again drew rave reviews and large crowds.
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Date: 1937
