:23:01
Also in the back of Universal's mind
was the fact that
:23:03
his participation would practically
ensure a layout on the movie in Life,
:23:07
and Universal would get lots of stills
of the underwater sequences for their use.
:23:11
I don't know if Stackpole
turned them down,
:23:14
but the guy Universal hired to direct the
underwater shots was James C Havens,
:23:19
and that's a funny story
that I'll save for later.
:23:29
The underwater scenes of Creature
were shot at Wakulla Spring, Florida.
:23:33
Movies had been shot there in the past,
:23:35
Tarzan pictures, like Tarzan's Secret
Treasure from the old Weissmuller days.
:23:39
The place was managed by
a fella named Newton Perry.
:23:43
Our first look at Ricou Browning
as the creature.
:23:45
Newton Perry was also involved with
Florida water shows and things like that.
:23:49
He was known in Hollywood,
:23:51
because when Universal decided to
shoot there, he was the man they called.
:23:55
They asked Perry
if he knew of any swimmers,
:23:58
and also if he knew any locations
where they might find something
:24:01
that looked like the Black Lagoon.
Perry said he'd show 'em around.
:24:04
But when the time came, he was in Miami,
and all of a sudden he wasn't available.
:24:08
Perry called his friend, Ricou Browning,
:24:11
to ask him to pick the Universal people up
at the airport and show them the spring.
:24:15
Ricou was 23 years old at the time,
and attending Florida State.
:24:19
He'd worked for Perry before, producing
water shows at Weeki Wachee Springs.
:24:23
Ricou went to the airport to pick up
Jack Arnold and Scotty Welbourne,
:24:27
who was going to be
photographing the underwater scenes.
:24:29
They all went out to the spring,
and Arnold and Welbourne liked it.
:24:33
Wakulla Spring is in
the middle of nowhere.
:24:35
In 1953, and even right now,
if you go there,
:24:37
it would be like going to Florida
with Ponce de León when he landed.
:24:41
It's been that well protected.
The bowl of the spring is about five acres.
:24:44
It's the largest spring in Florida,
and it has the largest water flow.
:24:48
Ricou Browning was also a cave diver,
:24:51
so he was hired at times to go down into
underwater caves to map them out.
:24:55
The bottom of Wakulla Spring slopes
down inside a cave, and just keeps going.
:24:59
Ricou doesn't know if anybody's gone
the distance as to how far you could go.