Let's Look At Florida, 1950

[Music] Let's look at Florida, that most southern projection of the USA, which has been variously known as the Peninsula State, the Sunshine State, and even the mermaid state. For the uninitiated, the mere mention of the word Florida calls up a kaleidoscopic mental picture of flamingos and alligators, boating, bathing beauties, and bottles of suntan oil, citrus fruit and palm trees, and always an azure sky. Unlike some visions of Elorado, the Florida dream is not too far removed from the realm of reality. Come see now for yourself. First major city you come upon driving south along the east coast is Jacksonville, gateway to Florida and its principal port. Looks like Main Street anywhere, but the lucky inhabitants here have not only a famous beach around the corner, but are also within short driving distance of dozens of Florida's scenic and historic landmarks. Many a shivering northerner has driven happily over the St. John's River Bridge in Jacksonville on route southward to some favorite spot in the sun. Florida has the honor of containing the oldest European settlement in the continental United States. Augustine, founded by the Spaniards almost half a century before the English were successful up north in Jamestown. Some of the original Spanish flavor has been carefully preserved, and tourists are delighted to renew their acquaintance with American history in such a painless way. The old 17th century fort of San Marco here successfully withstood repeated English, French, and Indian assaults back in the bloodier days of Florida's history. There's more than one way to take in the sights of St. Augustine. Take your pick of horsepower, mechanized, or the original article. [Music] Both amateur and professional zoologologists and ornithologists find plenty of opportunities in Florida to study unusual creatures of the land, sea, and air. Near St. Augustine is a huge ostrich and alligator farm where there's a fascinating collection of gators, crocodiles, snakes, and rare birds. Some of them imported from distant continents, others indigenous to Florida. [Music] At Marineland, the world's only oceanarium, a variety of ocean life may be studied just as it exists in the open sea. The playful porpuses often steal the show from the more bashful denisens of Neptune's domain. Air breathing, warm-blooded mammals, closely related to whales, porpuses are believed to be the fastest swimming creatures of the ocean and perhaps the smartest, too. Here they rush to the feeding platform when they hear the toll of the dinner bell. Built with the needs of underwater photographers in mind, Marineland offers a ringside seat at a unique and colorful show. Sightseers, scientists, and cameramen make constant use of the 200 observation port holes placed in strategic position in the sides and bottom of the oceanarium. [Music] Meet Flippy, the porpus with a high IQ, whose trainer here puts him through part of his repertoire. Mr. Frone, who had previously had a wealth of animal training, was at first dubious about teaching a fish, but Flippy respect admirably to his careful instruction and now is a veteran performer who enjoys showing off to an ever astonished audience. Heat. Heat. [Music] Welcome to Daytona Beach, yearround vacation playground boasting the world's most famous beach. A geographic phenomenon has resulted in a spectacular beach, so smooth and compact that automobiles can safely drive along the surf's edge. So hard and flat, in fact, the daredevil racers have attained speeds as high as 276 m an hour in the exciting annual stock car and motorcycle races here. But for all that, the beach's main attractions remain the same as good beaches everywhere. Sun, surf, and fun for all. Florida resort hotels and towns almost invariably provide swimming pools, too. Even though the whole wide ocean is just a step away, these are the pools provided for transient residents of Elellanar Village, a unique family vacation resort at Orman Beach. Boating, fishing, and swimming, golf, tennis, riding, Florida's famous vacation towns provide them all. [Music] Royal Palm Way leads to the center of Palm Beach, the Newport of the South, which society long ago established as its winter capital. Palm Beach, fabulously endowed by nature, has all the usuals of Florida resorts, plus an aura of elegant charm and tasteful luxury which appeals to even the most sophisticated international traveler. [Music] Lakew Worth separates Palm Beach from her more casual sister city, West Palm Beach. One of Florida's fastest growing towns and a sunny haven for vacationists and residents alike. The climate in these parts is the sort that makes chambers of commerce grow lyrical in their literature. Never cold and seldom too hot, the pleasant temperature influenced by the kindly trade winds from the Caribbean. While the waters of the Atlantic are delightful for bathing throughout the year, thanks to the constant flow of the obliging Gulf Stream. [Music] There's no such thing as typical Florida architecture. Here and there. The old Spanish flavor is evident, but modern Flidians who lean toward casual comfort and outdoor living favor the sprawling ranchstyle home. And all of them go in for color. Florida is the only place where you can paint your house sky blue pink if you're so inclined and it won't look a bit out of place in the semi-ropical settings. [Music] These lovely homes are found in Fort Lauderdale, another fast growing resort town which is just as popular as a place to live year round. Florida's permanent population has grown tremendously in the last 15 years. Less than 2 million in 1940 and now nearing 4 million. Many of the so-called natives are people who once made a vacation visit to the sunshine state and just never went back home. Florida is their home now, and they're as proud of it as if they'd invented it themselves. And why not? With a beach at their very doorstep. [Music] [Music] Lincoln Road is the fifth avenue of famous Miami beach. Part of America's only tropical metropolis. Miami boasts that the city is equipped to meet the varied vacation requirements of everybody any month in the year. No idol boasts this one as millions of satisfied tourists can testify. Much of the fun is free. Sun, sand, surf, and palm sheltered parks to lull you into blissful relaxation. [Music] Looking across Biscane Bay from the beach to Miami proper, the skyline is a reminder that this is a big business city as well as a play town. Miami has grown so rapidly in popularity that there's been a greater home and office construction boom here than in any other American metropolitan area. [Music] Main Street, USA, but with one big difference. The whole year round, Miami shoppers are clad in gay cotton and cool sports shirts, thanks to a median temperature of around 75°. [Music] It's only a matter of minutes or hours to reach foreign lands from Miami's international airport. The West Indies, Cuba, all of Latin America are just beyond the horizon when you make Miami your headquarters. Especially from November through March, the airport hums with a happy activity of depositing sunhungry northerners upon the tropical wonderland of Miami. [Music] Proof that air travel is taking precedence over every other means of loion in and around Miami. Here, auto traffic is halted so that a plane may cross the street. [Music] Miami offers an embarrassment of recreational riches, including tournaments, festivals, races, regatas, and every conceivable kind of spectator and participation sport, except those requiring snow and ice. But who cares about old man winter? There are so many tantalizing things to do and see around here that the choice is bewildering. Everyone wants to visit the parrot jungle where a colorful collection of tropical birds flies about free in surroundings identical to their natural habitat. Parrots, macaw, feeasants, cockatos and flamingos to name a few. The fine feathered macaus pose patiently for photographers. Parrots, macaw, and cockatos respond to gentle training and soon discover the head turning rewards of applause. Audience reaction to these shows. Delighted, say the critics. And don't forget your camera. [Applause] Florida is not only the winter training grounds for many big league ball players, but also the offseason home and rehearsal stage of that greatest show on earth known as the circus. In Sarasota on the west coast, the Ringling Museum and its gardens attract those thousands of tourists who prefer the beautiful Gulf of Mexico resorts in this mermaid state. [Music] No one has yet discovered Ponet Deleon's fountain of youth worst luck, but happy pensioners flock to Florida annually by the train and carload. Here they settle down happily to a life of leisure, hobbies, and gentle sports. Florida, they claim, is the next best thing to complete rejuvenation. Although St. Petersburg is the second largest resort center of the south, it leads the large cities of Florida in percentage of home ownership. Many of these homes are enjoyed by retired people who consider St. Petersburg the pensioners paradise. The city fathers here seem to think of everything, even to parking places for weary shoppers under the beneficent sun. [Music] The first settlers who came only 65 years ago to what is now St. Petersburg were searching for a better place to live. Their dreams were more than realized when they came upon a beautiful expanse of land almost surrounded by the turquoise waters of Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Better living is still the motto of its earnest citizens who have guarded well the obvious advantages of the town despite its incredibly rapid growth. With a resident population of more than 100,000, St. Petersburg is host each year to a quarter million visitors from all over the world. [Music] St. Petersburg has 33 mi of waterfront and of course the beach is the main attraction for sun worshippers. A modern city founded and built on climate, St. Petersburg is blessed with sun that shines at least part of the time during 360 days a year. [Music] Tarpon Springs, an industrial town without smoke stacks, owes its economic stability only, incidentally, to the tourist trade. Sponges are big business here. A million-doll industry, in fact, and picturesque, too. The colorful sponge fleet is a proud array of boats from which divers search the waters for sponges. Those marine animals which look like plants and are awfully handy in the bathtub. [Music] Tampa is the business, shopping, and distribution center for Florida's richest, most heavily populated trade area. Located in one of Florida's leading agricultural counties, Tampa is also the nearest US deep water port to the Panama Canal, right next door to expanding Latin and South American markets. Tampa Boosters claim that in business, industry, and commerce, opportunities are still virtually unlimited. All this and that famous Gulf Coast climate, too. [Music] [Applause] [Music] If you visit the south without seeing Silver Springs, it's like touring the east without a stop at Niagara Falls. Located at the head of Silver River in central Florida, Silver Springs is an underwater fairyland of unique beauty. Actually, a subterranean river with sources deep in limestone. The springs which feed this river produce water so crystal clear that you can see through it as plainly as through a sheet of glass. Every fine day of the year, glass bottom boats tour the springs, delighting passengers with underwater scenery, introducing them to a new world of flora and fauna they've never had access to before. [Music] Then there's the jungle. cruise, a 50-minute speedboat ride 5 m down Silver River through scenery varying from dense tropical jungle to handsomely decorated parkways bordering the edges of the spring. [Music] There's a tribe of wild monkeys here which many years ago was let loose in the Florida jungle as an experiment. If this jungle land looks faintly familiar, perhaps you've seen it in Tarzan Movies. It's a favorite location for movie producers seeking an exotic setting. When the Spaniards visited Florida in the 1500s, they were struck with the eerie beauty of the cypress trees growing in and around Lake Eloise and the surrounding swampland. Ever since then, cypress gardens have been a must for those who seek the unusual. Today, not only indigenous flowers and trees grow here in profusion, but to them have been added rare tropical plants from other jungle homes. South America, Mexico, East and West Indies, Australia, Egypt, and the South Sea Islands. Now, these gardens offer the pleasantest way possible to study a living catalog of tropical flora. [Music] Four water ski shows are presented daily at Cypress Gardens by a team of expert aquamades and champions. Once a little known sport, water skiing has been developed into a complicated but graceful acrobatic art thanks to the mermen and mermaids of Florida. Na. [Music] Florida is a way of life and Florida to many is synonymous with fun. But let's not forget as we look at the sunshine state that her most extensive industry is agriculture and her most famous export, citrus fruit, backbone of her economy, however well bolstered by the huge business of dispensing fun and suntan to tourists. Florida's history is romantic. Her geography unique in these United States. Florida is young, exuberant, still growing, and bursting with the vitamins of optimism and fresh ideas. Florida, orange blossom of the South. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]