Splash From The Past -- For Seafair's 50th, Here Come The Aqua Follies, Classic Summer Shtick That Once Mesmerized Seattle

Years before the Kingdome, Enchanted Parks or Seattle Center ever beckoned Puget Sounders looking for summertime fun, thousands would flock to Green Lake's Aqua Theater for the summer's leading entertainment event.

The Aqua Follies held court on the lake's southwest shore for about two weeks each summer from 1950 to 1965. Billed as a "swim-musical review," the follies were a slapstick medley of divers, dancers and synchronized swimmers performing a vaudeville-style lineup of skits and aquatic feats.

"Here it was - swimming, diving, all that stuff, right out here in a natural setting," said Dick Montgomery, 64, who had a close-up view of the follies as a stagehand for the Aqua Theater's summer musicals.

The follies' shtick, Montgomery said, was "corny stuff - really corny. But crowd-pleasing. People liked to laugh at the same old jokes."

This year, the follies are returning to Green Lake as part of Seafair's 50th anniversary celebration. The Aqua Follies will run from July 9 to 11, accommodating about 1,200 spectators for each show in the remaining grandstand section of the theater, most of which was demolished in 1979.

The revival will feature vaudeville acts, a diving team from Washington, D.C., and a local group of synchronized swimmers. The complete lineup of performers will be announced June 11.

In their heyday, the follies drew sellout crowds of 5,000-plus, even for "Moonlight Matinees" that started at 11:30 p.m.

That such folksy, lowbrow comedy was once so wildly popular in Seattle may seem a bit befuddling in an era when large-draw events tend to be mostly sports events, concerts or theatrical productions with slick special effects.

But for 15 summers, the Aqua Follies' unique blend of water and humor mesmerized Seattleites.

"It was a big part of summer in Seattle before we were a pro-sports town or a major-league city," said Seafair spokesman Eric Radovich.

The follies of yesteryear, emceed by celebrities such as Bob Hope and Bert Parks, featured the comic routines of ex-Olympic divers, who peppered their acts with high dives from a pair of towers bookending the floating theater.

The Aqua Dears, a group of about 30 college-age women, performed synchronized swimming ballets, while their stage counterparts, the Aqua Darlings, presented dance numbers.

"Laugh your sides off at the antics of Aqua Follies' own Diving Maniacs!" urged one 1962 advertisement.

"This will be the most spectacular and breathtaking water spectacle ever held!" another ad breathlessly promised in 1952.

Most of the performers were from the Aqua Follies' home city of Minneapolis, where they were recruited by flamboyant producer/director Al Sheehan.

But in 1958, a pair of young sisters from Seattle broke into the follies' lineup, becoming the first local talent featured in the event. Gail and Diann Smith, then just 7 and 6 years old, dazzled the crowd with a synchronized-swimming routine choreographed by Helene Madison, the girls' coach and a former Olympic swimming champion.

Gail, whose last name is now Brennen, is now 48 and lives in Mill Creek. She recalls a charged atmosphere at the Aqua Theater night after night as she and her sister performed a three-minute routine set to waltz music in front of packed grandstands.

"It was really exciting to us that Bob Hope was there in the stands watching," said Brennen, who went on to become a swimming coach. (She and her sister tutored Olympic synchronized swimmer Candy Costie.)

Fond as her memories of the Aqua Follies may be, Brennen isn't itching to plunge back into Green Lake anytime soon.

Now a frigid 65 degrees, the water should reach the 70s by mid-summer, but that's still a bit nippy for Brennen's tastes. Not to mention the algae - or the 34 years' worth of duck droppings that have accumulated since Seattle's last Aqua Follies in 1965.

"I wouldn't do it now," Brennen said. "It was cold water. I probably shouldn't say that, because there are people who are going to swim in it. But no, I wouldn't want to do it."

Jake Batsell's phone message number is 206-464-2595. His e-mail address is jbatsell@seattletimes.com

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Want tickets? Program your speed dial: With just 1,200 tickets available for each show, demand could be strong for the nostalgia-soaked event. Tickets start at $20 and are available through Ticketmaster, 206-628-0888.