FUN, SUN, SAND AND SEA

America the people the places the names faces this is America [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jack Douglas aboard the rocket jet to Florida we're only funny of course but then our entire half-hour is in fun tonight's armchair vacation takes us to Florida to see 15 of the most unusual and entertaining outdoor attractions to be found anywhere in America these are just brief glimpses of what we have in store for you in that vacation land the features fun sun sand and sea [Music] it's only natural that a fun tour of Florida should start in st. Augustine founded in the year 1513 by the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon for it was DeLeon's search for the Fountain of Youth a search that history incidentally considers a fable but triggered Florida's passion for colorful tourist attractions the ruins of the old fort guarding the harbor are well worth visiting but here is the big attraction the sight of the so-called Fountain of Youth the water has a slightly sulfuric taste but just listening to the sweet talk that goes with it this is the Fountain of Youth water it's always a pleasure to give my fellow countrymen a boost but in this case I feel rather ashamed of myself and doing so mean that you already look so young I think it's a shame to give you this but I rather give it to you if you take a little bit at a time the man will be flattering phrases is Jimmy Ponce who says that he traces his ancestry back to the great Explorer Silver Springs just six miles from Ocala it doesn't go back as far in history as the Fountain of Youth but its attractions are numerous it has sandy beaches for sun worshippers and crystal clear water for people who don't mind getting wet now there are 14 Springs and all one of them the largest in the world but the big deal here at Silver Springs are these electrically operated flat bottom glass bottom boats the water is so clear the visibility is just about perfect even in Springs 80 feet deep [Music] the springs are loaded with fish mostly perch and you can actually hand feed them if you don't mind risking a few scratches [Music] finally just for pure relaxation drop on scenic jungle cruises along the different streams [Music] but now let's leave Silver Springs and the mainland and drive over to the Gulf side of Florida our destination is tarpon springs and here tarpon when the sponge fleet and the shrimp fleets are in the slips and docks look like gaily painted picture postcards [Music] sponge fishing at Tarpon Springs today isn't what it used to be synthetic sponges have sharply reduced the demand for natural sponges but sponge fishing hasn't died out completely a few divers still probe the ocean floor aboard these specially built sponge boats the sponges brought up by the divers are washed and rinsed then dried and sent to market and you might ask well who buys natural sponges nowadays well mostly people who believe and perhaps rightly solve the natural sponge will clean up grease better than the synthetic product that's what they told us at Tarpon Springs but today shrimp is king at Tarpon Springs the succulent world-famous gulf shrimp well shrimp for sponge or what have you the big deal of Tarpon Springs from the tourist point of view are the nostalgic memories of yesteryear the helmeted divers who risk and sometimes lost their lives to reap a harvest from the sea the fleet's in and that fry is enough to send anyone to tarpon springs drive due south from Tarpon Springs and the long drive it is and then ask for directions to Chokoloskee Island until the causeway from the mainland was built in 1958 Chokoloskee was just another of the primitive and relatively inaccessible islands but dot florida's two coastlines the magnet that draws us to chuckle oski is this old country store Smallwood's now if you were raised in a small town as I was you'll have the eerie feeling that you've been here before and that's because Smallwood's is a throwback to country stores we used to know stars that were musty and dusty and rich in the wonderful smells of nutmeg and spice captain Ted who came to Tchaikovsky in 1896 is gone now but the store continues under the management of his daughter Thelma small Woods is also the post office for Chokoloskee Island and we asked Belma Smallwood to tell us what mail delivery was like in the old days well the mail used to come by sailboat in the late 1890s and when it came in the captain would announce arrival by blowing the conch horn even aside from the mail a lot of yesterday's are here a sawfish saw with a hand-painted picture old-style ivory key chains flower barrel and scoop you name it they have it at Smallwood's on Chokoloskee where the past refuses to surrender to the present and while we're still on the subject of yesterday's let's continue south began just a few miles to Sarasota Florida and the attraction known as horns cars of yesterday's now if you're a car buff this is the place for you for here still in perfect operating condition are some of the most elegant cars of years gone by this is the J model Duesenberg and even in those days it cost about $19,000 the 1911 stay per the only one of its kind made the 1912 Flanders and this magnificent fire engine red job is the Pope Toledo the first car guaranteed to travel a mile a minute it was originally advertised as the quiet mile-a-minute car there's a fascinating sideshow exhibit here at horns the music box arcade and there are numerous antique music boxes such as these doll in working condition but this jukebox is the jewel of the collection now listen this is the first automatic jukebox it was introduced at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 there are 12 metal discs and it plays two Tunes for a nickel [Music] [Applause] [Music] the entire lower section of Florida looks like this where this is the Everglades country a sea of grass and swamps decaying Cypress and wildlife galore you can take week-long Cruises of the Everglades aboard shanty boats such as this boats that carry up to 16 passengers serve excellent meals and really explore the Everglades or for just a few pennies you can take brief airboat tours such as this one operated by Ray whoo [Applause] the people who live and work in the Everglades will tell you that the swamp buggy is the most versatile of all vehicles for exploring the glades this particular buggy was built by Paul Frank the driver and his dad way back in 1949 swamp buggies like these are used primarily here in the Florida Everglades for hunting and exploration in our exploration of the Florida Everglades we find Indian mounds of the Colusa and many of the camps of the Seminole Indians which have been abandoned some 70 and 80 years ago and in these camps we find various types of relics that have been left by these people and we find various coins and pieces of money that the Indians used in the early days we found coins back as far as 1842 half dimes and things of that nature the Everglades teams with alligators tens of thousands of Gators and believe it or not Gators can sink or at least they try and for proof we're going to make our way to the Everglades Wonder Gardens just a few miles north of the Everglades region the gardens are owned by the piper brothers lesson Bill and here les is setting up special amplifiers so that we can hear his singing alligators now listen [Music] [Music] supposedly music has charms to soothe the savage beast but not these crocodiles in a nearby pool incidentally Crocs and Gators don't mix the ferocious crocodile would chase the Gators clear out of the county if you think that singing alligators are unusual wait until you see part two of tonight's fun tour of Florida will prove that Florida is rapidly becoming the kingdom of Animalia capers first this brief intermission [Music] Tommi Bartlet's deer farm at Silver Springs is an absolute must if you have children in your family we've arrived the chowtime signaled by a loud Bell and the Stampede is on you'll notice that there are several South American llamas among the herd as you can see all of these creatures are gentle and harmless [Music] goofy the llama is a glutton he never stops eating [Music] there are other interesting attractions the deer ranch for example Desmond the drumming duck and a romantic rabbit known as the kissing bunny and here's the showstopper at the D ranch the goat that lives in a tree house seven miles south of Miami the startled motorist is inclined to slam on the brakes when he approaches the serpentarium a long low building featuring this massive concrete head of the king cobra bill Haast the director of the serpentarium says that he's the only human in the world to survive the bite of the king cobra and the only man who has immunized himself against its venom just the same he's mighty cautious in handling this 14 footer now here's what we really came to see the largest Galapagos tortoise in captivity his name is Gus and a pretty young writer is Naiya hast Bill's daughter Galapagus Gus is 43 years old and weighs 500 pounds but here this his life expectancy is 200 years and he may eventually weigh in at a tidy 1,000 pounds gus is strictly a vegetarian and for a snack he loves hibiscus flowers the other tortoise George is a different species and is indigenous to a group of islands in the Indian Ocean the monkey jungle also a few miles outside Miami is mad mad mad and delightfully so the mood of the crowds is always cheerful the customers seem to sense that they're in for a barrel of monkeys Shane's and no pun intended and these months and chimps are clever they play the drums work out on the trampoline run a tightrope blindfolded and backwards when they feel like showing off and they'll even imitate certain well-known recording stars [Music] they've added an Amazon rainforest of the monkey jungle and they've imported rare species of monks and chimps from South America to live in this natural habitat this is the unusual red-faced were Carrie [Music] Jenai voice thought monkeys to slight water if there are Java monkeys swimming underwater something that I at least have never seen before [Applause] well wouldn't you know it they do have a gimmick at the monkey jungle they cage the people and let the monkeys run loose on a tamer but equally colorful note do take the family to the parrot jungle just a few miles away from the place where they cage the customers you know there was a time when parrots and cockatoos were known mainly for their ability to mimic phrases such as Polly wants a cracker or 23 skidoo but how times have changed now they're taught to roller skate ride a bicycle on a high wire run chariot races in which neither bird can possibly lose and reward the appreciative crowd with a peck and the kiss watch the reactions now very quickly here are brief highlights from the rest of the show [Music] [Applause] you've seen the old shell game and apparently so has this Paris the show finale is a tribute to a space-age [Music] after the parrot show a heart of magnificent pink flamingos race to and fro well between the flamingos and the entertaining parrots and cockatoos you'll spend the better part of the afternoon here at parrot jungle and you won't be disappointed the Caribbean gardens in Naples Florida came into being some years ago through the efforts of the well-known botanist Henri knurling the gardens are famous for the variety of tropical flora and fauna for example this magnificent white peacock shown here in the mating ritual of displaying its tail feathers incidentally this white peacock is a mutation now in recent years Caribbean Gardens has become best known for of all things a duck vaudeville show the whistle blows and the ducks and geese scamper away to shoot the shoot and formally open the show here they come notice how gracefully and willingly say wait a minute this wasn't in the script let's do it again the ducks and geese are trained for the acts that we will see at a special animal behavior school in Hot Springs Arkansas by rewarding them constantly with food they're taught simple stunts occurs such as going round and round a small bush gradually more and more skill is demanded by the trainer's diving for food on command [Music] retrieving coloured rings and bring them to the trainer and operating the duck mobile here the trainer is planting red and white flowers now on command the fowl must pick only the red flower and bring each one back to the trainer [Music] for a change of pace the show offers a gaily colored to con but rides the ferry and then perches on the shoulder of the nearest member of the audience back in the main arena it's time to pick a mate the ducks and geese are expected to match with the right picture you got the wrong girl fella oh that's better [Music] well a highlight of this unusual duck vaudeville show presents Arturo the piano virtuoso and Daisy a female mallard he plays and she dances inside the ring when she feels like it the Caribbean gardens in Naples Florida a must on the list of stops you'll want to make if you're interested in fauna flora and just plain fun when we first flew over Naples we couldn't help noticing a large residence that seemed to have two huge swimming pools we learned later that this was the plush home of mr. Jones Slater now the small freshwater pool is for swimming but the large pool has saltwater from the Gulf and this pool has become a sanctuary for what mrs. Slater jokingly calls Slater's circus here we saw a whole variety of sea creatures Humboldt penguins sea lions harbor seals porpoise a sea cow and turtles now let me repeat that this is a private residence not a public attraction let me also say that John Slater is neither eccentric nor an exhibitionist he is simply a man who loves these creatures of nature and sees nothing wrong in spending his money to protect the hunted from the hunters mrs. Slater Heidi doesn't like water too much but taking after her husband she's on her way to starting a menagerie of her own with her pet African cheetah papa while we left the Slater home feeling as you would feel had you been with us but it was an inspiring high note on which to end our whirlwind vacation in Florida the land of fun sun sand and sea I'm sure you realize ladies and gentlemen but it's not possible in 30 minutes or even in 30 hours to show all that's worth saying of Florida's hundreds of colorful attractions but as the months and years go by we'll try to fill in the gaps on our America series now this is jack douglass saying I hope we'll meet again next week somewhere in America until then thank you so much and good night [Music] [Applause] [Music]