So sporty and presentable was Kumin that at age 18, she was offered a job as a swimmer in a touring production of Billy Rose's
Aquacade. Her participation was nixed by her father, the prosperous pawnbroker of her book's title.
Out of a casting call of more than 100 hopefuls, Rose tapped her to star opposite Johnny Weissmuller in his San Francisco
Aquacade Review.
She swam in Billy Rose's
Aquacade in the 1940 World's Fair in San Francisco and worked as a cook at Territorial School from 1963 to 1980.
We spent a few days visiting the fair, where we jumped and jived to the music of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman and visited the Cavalcade of History and the
Aquacade with Esther Williams.
"The size of the distributor doesn't matter when it comes to the deals they offer," says Skip Vevante, vice president of
Aquacade Swimming Pool Inc., in Hicksville, N.Y.
Shortly after the 1940 Olympics were cancelled, Williams was cast opposite Olympic swimmer and screen star Johnny Weismuller for an on-stage swimming musical, "
Aquacade."
Another major attraction on The Great White Way, as the Amusement Zone was renamed in 1940, indeed the first thing you saw when you walked over Empire Bridge in the direction of Fountain Lake, was Billy Rose's
Aquacade, starring Eleanor Holm, the beautiful Olympic swimmer who had been kicked off the u.s.
INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY 173 (1989) (describing how "in accordance with standard security practice," the National Reconnaissance Office changed the code name of the RHYOLITE satellite to
AQUACADE when it was learned that two contractors working on the satellite sold details of the program to the KGB).
But the lure of showbiz was irresistible--there was an open audition in San Francisco for "Billy Rose's
Aquacade," an extravaganza starring Olympic athlete Johnny Weismuller (the current Tarzan) and swimming star Esther Williams.
What Williams didn't know was that showman Billy Rose was scouting for a performer to star in his San Francisco
Aquacade. He noticed the young athlete's picture in the local newspaper and invited her to try out.
Esther Williams swam in its
aquacade, and Pan American China Clippers (trans-Pacific "flying boats") arrived and departed from docks jutting into San Francisco Bay.
She swam in Billy Rose's
Aquacade in the 1940 World's Fair in New York and worked as a cook at Territorial School from 1963 to 1980.