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Monday, September 10, 2007

Aquaman at Sea World - 1977

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These unusual(to say the least) photos were from an article in
The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 on Sea World's "Salute to the DC Superheroes" show that ran in the late 1970s.

During the forty-five minute show, fans got to see(top to bottom, left to right) Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Black Canary(!), Mera(!!), Robin, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and Flash take on the Joker and the Penguin.

How they do that, exactly, the article doesn't say, but this photo struck me like a thunderbolt when I first came across it because it scored an "11" on the Goofy Meter.

I guess this actor(uncredited) is techincally the first ever live-action Aquaman, beating Alan Ritchson by a few decades, and we also get the first(and so far, ever) live-action Mera! Aquaman history was made in Florida...who knew?

And just as a side note...man, that all-black Batgirl costume must have been uncomfortable as hell to wear in the Florida heat.

17 comments:

Rick L. Phillips said...

I know they gave the prime spots to Superman and Wonder Woman since they are more popular but since it is on water they really should have gone to Aquaman and Mera. I love it when I see old photos like this.

Anonymous said...

It's kind of hard to tell, but Canary looks a bit...mannish. Check out those wide-patterned fisnets! It's an Alex Toth BC costume!

Poor Garth. Mera gets in, but he gets left out.

I would have loved to have seen this as a kid. Closest thing to this now is the DC heroes at the Six Flags parks.

Chris

chunky B said...

Is that Super Girl or Power Girl to Canary's right? I imagine this would have been an awesome show to see as a kid, I would have loved to seen it!

rob! said...

its def Super Girl. its amazing to me that Black Canary--assuredly unknown to almost all of the people who came to see the show--was part of this, but i guess they were short on heroines.

i wish this same company had done a show for the Planetarium or something, with Adam Strange, Space Ranger, Hawkman, and Ultraa the Multi Alien.

Anonymous said...

Rob-

I actually SAW that show, at SeaWorld of Ohio, in Aurora.

(In fact, I think there's some Super 8 footage of it around somewhere...)

Yeah, the suits were a little gooney (and probably, pretty damn hot for an Ohio August!) but man, the performers really were good at what they did!

Best,
-Craig W.

Scurvy said...

yar... pretty goofy, but still must've been cool.

rob! said...

>>but still must've been cool.<<

oh, absolutely. if i had seen this as a kid my head would've exploded from the sheer excitement of watching a live action JLA right in front of me!

o lucky man, Craig!

Plaidstallions said...

My neighbour went to Florida every year and used to regail me with tales of this show. He claims he met Samurai there as well, his mother backed him up, I was insanely jealous.

Doug said...

As Craig siad, they also did this show at he Sea World in Ohio back in the day. Before people questioned why Ohio would have a Sea World and it became a Six Flags.

Anonymous said...

Hey - (Sea World wasn't on one, but) check out the Great Lakes sometime...

Them are some big mama jamba hunks of water!

(Ex-Buckeye) Craig

Anonymous said...

I also saw the show in Ohio. I recall some old photographs somewhere at my parents house. I'll try to dig 'em out some day. As I recall, Aquaman was featured quite prominently. I imagine Black Canary was included because they needed a heroine, and this was probably also around the time of the goofy "Super Hero Roast" that she was on. I also remember my parents buying me a nice DC Treasury Edition comic. Didn't have Aquaman in it, but it was cool all the same.

Wil

Erick said...

I also saw this at SeaWorld of Ohio. My dad filmed the show with his Super 8 camera. I have it in the attic somewhere. Maybe Craig and I could put together a highlight reel :)

rob! said...

ooh, i'd kill to see that!

Anonymous said...

this show in ohio also had riddler,catwoman & captain cold as the villains in addition to the joker & penquin(at least when i saw it with my family).i had seen the sea world ohio ad on the back of a comic book way back when.it has supes,bats,robin & ww on it but no aman or mera which i thought was bad marketing at the time.

Anonymous said...

i would imagine the captain cold outfit as the hottest thing to wear during the summer(batgirl had a walk in the park outfit compared to that guy). i wanted sinestro and some other villains from the legion of doom to be in it but i guess having some evildoers present is better than having none at all.i also thought it was strange that they had only 5 foes but 2 or 3 times as many heroes.can anyone say super friend smackdown?

Anonymous said...

i'm not the anonymous from above but i wrote the past 2 anonymous comments.i also seem to remember green lantern,green arrow & captain marvel as some of the heroic guys.it's possible isis or some other heroine was there in addition to the other women that were previously mentioned.both aman & mera showed up to do their part to fight the baddies.i don't remember the villains being out on the water with the heroes during ny part of the show.i seem to recall the 5 foes were fighting some but not all of the heroes down in front of the audience on a small stage area.i think this gave the remaining heroes time to get in place for their next performance.it's also possible that the character line up changed due to someone being ill(like a fill in position) or maybe they just kept adding characters.i think a friend of mine mentioned that she saw the original cheetah present but i'm not 100% sure of that.i hope this helps answer some of the questions that have been raised. anonymous #2 for this article.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Interviews with nearly 40 of the skiers from that show, plus rare candid photos of all the heroes: http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2011/08/super-70s-and-80s-sea-world-superheroes.html!