Undersea World

The first big project of 1989 was "The Undersea World." This was a monstrously entertaining and huge production. In addition to giving us a shipload of stuff to build for it, Caputo had his purchasing department buy thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Who knew you could buy fake kelp that could be hung from the ceiling twenty feet up, terminating eight feet from the floor, out of reach of drunken partygoers (notorious for trying to destroy or steal our sets and props.) We built the Nautilus to hang from the ceiling, two diving bell bars, four reef screen surrounds for reef scenes to be shone on the rear projection screening, and a "decompression chamber" entranceway with a deep sea diving suit hanging inside the door, big valves and dials and pipes everywhere, and a couple of windows for looking out at the undersea world as you transitioned from the lobby to the ballroom. This show was really cool once the fluorescent lights were turned off and the theatrical lighting - complete with sparkling and wave motion - was turned on. There were strings of bubbles hanging with the kelp. There were dozens of sharks hanging here and there. In my spare time I carved and painted four moray eel heads (When an eel bites your heel and it's making you squeal...That's a moray) to poke into crannies of the reefs.

A bunch of the purchased sharks were unpainted. I called my dad in Vero Beach and asked him if he'd be interested in painting sharks, and also whether I should also propose that he carve some sea life for the show. The next time I saw Caputo, I asked him if my dad could make some stuff. "What is he, a fish carver?" he asked. "Sure," I said. But purchasing had already ordered a couple crateloads of fish, lobsters, crabs, starfish and desert tortoises (evidently sea turtles were unavailable.) But my dad did come over to Orlando for a few days to paint the blue sharks...blue.

There was also a tabletop killer whale with a flat area on its curved-up belly. When we all went out to the Stouffer Hotel to join Jeff Bates, the production manager, and his advance crew, we found that he, in his immense wisdom, had drilled holes in the tabletop whale and hung her from the ceiling with the sharks. This, of course, meant taking her down, Bondoing the holes and touching her up as best we could. Anything to make it more difficult. This did nothing to increase anybody's respect for Master Bates.

Very soon after this horrendously expensive party, one of the recessions hit, and the term "downsizing" gained household word status.It would be a year before there would be another great show to compare with this one.