An exhibition of creative photography takes viewers on a time-travel trip to Florida’s “golden age of roadside attractions” 1960-1970. Framed images are 30″ X 40″ or 24″ X 30″. The show includes (6) original 24″ Dioramas including vintage scale model die-cast cars that illustrate how the images were shot on location at the actual Florida locations. Framed production images explain the photographic technique called “Forced Perspective”. A high-quality table top book includes the images together with Bob Gibson’s entertaining memoir about discovering “Old Florida” as a child in the early 1960’s.
Thanks to Awesome Diecast, Boca Raton for great selection of classic, vintage and muscle car scale models. https://www.awesomediecast.com
The Photography Show
Excerpts from the book
U.S. Highway One was packed with cars like ours: chrome and winged land yachts. Family wagons boasted rocket shaped fins reflecting our optimism of the New Frontier and coming Space Age.
Our favorite TV show, Bonanza began with a singing commercial,
“See the U.S.A. in a Chevrolet.” School was out and it and time to see Florida during the hottest time of the year, from a car without air conditioning!
I was in charge of spotting scenic attractions. What we saw instead were an awful lot of cows.
“Everybody simmer down,” Dad warned. He found a Howard Johnson’s and we piled into a booth with an orange mica table, orange vinyl bench seats and a Wall-O-Matic Jukebox for Pete and I to abuse. We punched in the numbers for Elvis Presley and then a joke song by an Australian who sang,
“Tie Me Kangaroo Down Mate” a hilarious ditty about surviving the dangerous Australian outback. How hard could that be after Florida?
Mr. Howard Johnson was a genius. The hot dog buns were grilled with tons of butter. The placemats had the map of Florida we needed most: roads and every major attraction colorfully illustrated so families could plan their holiday. Glass Bottom Boats. Leaping Porpoises. A pyramid of women in bathing suits riding water skis, A mermaid swimming in a spring?
Florida was a state of amazing options! This was going to turn out like “Hoss Cartwright” said on TV, “The Best Vacation Ever”!
Six Gun Territory
The billboard read, “Ride The Train or Sky Ride!”
The Sky Ride was our unanimous favorite.
We squeezed into a gondola attached to a precariously frayed cable . My younger brother and I slid under the rusted safety bar that would keep us from falling hundreds of feet below into the Ocala National Forest.
The truth is, the ride was boring…until we approached the elevated wood tower that would be our point of departure.
“Welcome Partners!”
A fully dressed cowboy grabbed the coach and flipped up the safety bar so we could climb down to a real cowboy town.
But then, an angry face-painted warrior jumped onto the platform to
kill us and take our crew-cut scalps.
The cowboy spun , pulled a long handled six shooter and
blasted the red devil with a deafening blast.
His target staggered and flipped off the platform into a pile of hay.
Hoss Cartwright was right, we had come to the right place for fun!
At the concession stand, Pete and I each got a Mini Spy Camera. This amazing device, made in Japan, disappeared into the palm of your hand and came with tiny canisters of film nearly impossible to load. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking at my future. Not a spy. A travel photographer!
At Six Gun Territory, I recorded it all: Can Can Dancers flirting with Dad. The Sheriff who came into the saloon and
asked Pete if he was old enough to drink that Root Beer. A lot of dead Indians that were shot and fell from the balconies into the dusty street.
I wasn’t fooled by the well -placed hay piles that softened their fall so they could repeat the feat every hour on the hour. I was no average tourist.
Two Silver Springs?
The entrance at Silver Springs, had two signs. One said “Welcome”
The other said “One mile ahead to Paradise Cove exclusively for colored folks”
My brother and I changed into our speedos in the Silver Springs parking lot. No need for modesty. We already had on our snorkels and masks.
We ran to the water and dove in. Screams of pain followed.
The sparkling turquoise pool was as cold as a frost covered refrigerator ice tray.
Because Tarzan and Mike Nelson (star of TV show Sea Hunt) swam here without complaint, we stroked a wind-milling Australian crawl against the current to the main spring vent. Here, a gusher of ice water blasted forth from deep within the earth.
We dove down through rays of sunlight, grabbed onto the rocky vent to hold our place, and peered over the edge. Hundreds of small fish defied the currents and schooled on the floor of this cathedral-like space. With each dive down to the bottom, we touched paradise on earth. Nothing other experience on land compared with swimming with fish in a spring.
The glass bottomed boat ride was better appreciated by grown ups and land lubbers that didn’t think to bring their masks and snorkels.
I was bored and antsy. The captain gave commentary on the fish we already saw underwater. The boat cruised downriver, where the banks were muddy and alligators slept in the sun. As the captain attempted to create a dramatic story about the sleeping gators, I turned to notice a crowd of kids my age swimming near a small beach and picnic area. The captain finally concluded his narration and asked, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Children See Everything
“I do”
“Yes, young man, what is your question.”
I pointed to the kids my age swimming by the muddy beach.
“Why are there two Silver Springs?”
Suddenly, the captain had no words.
I felt embarrassed for asking a question no one wanted to hear.
My mother broke the silence.
“Children see everything, you know”