:24:01
that looked like the Black Lagoon.
Perry said he'd show 'em around.
:24:04
But when the time came, he was in Miami,
and all of a sudden he wasn't available.
:24:08
Perry called his friend, Ricou Browning,
:24:11
to ask him to pick the Universal people up
at the airport and show them the spring.
:24:15
Ricou was 23 years old at the time,
and attending Florida State.
:24:19
He'd worked for Perry before, producing
water shows at Weeki Wachee Springs.
:24:23
Ricou went to the airport to pick up
Jack Arnold and Scotty Welbourne,
:24:27
who was going to be
photographing the underwater scenes.
:24:29
They all went out to the spring,
and Arnold and Welbourne liked it.
:24:33
Wakulla Spring is in
the middle of nowhere.
:24:35
In 1953, and even right now,
if you go there,
:24:37
it would be like going to Florida
with Ponce de León when he landed.
:24:41
It's been that well protected.
The bowl of the spring is about five acres.
:24:44
It's the largest spring in Florida,
and it has the largest water flow.
:24:48
Ricou Browning was also a cave diver,
:24:51
so he was hired at times to go down into
underwater caves to map them out.
:24:55
The bottom of Wakulla Spring slopes
down inside a cave, and just keeps going.
:24:59
Ricou doesn't know if anybody's gone
the distance as to how far you could go.
:25:03
The deepest that Ricou and the divers
he worked with went with air hoses was,
:25:07
he says, 100, at the most 110, 120 feet.
:25:10
Of course, they didn't have the equipment
or the helium mixes divers have now,
:25:14
so naturally they couldn't
go as deeply as divers today.
:25:17
Much more recently, divers equipped with
this new gear and the new mixed gases
:25:21
have gone 200-300 feet
down into Wakulla Spring.
:25:23
But, as Ricou said, "They still
may not have found the bottom."
:25:27
Anyway, Scotty Welbourne had a movie
camera with him, and he said to Ricou
:25:31
"Would you swim in front of the camera
so we can get some perspective
:25:35
of the size of the logs or the fish
or whatever with a human body?"
:25:39
Ricou said "Sure",
and he did swim for Welbourne.
:25:41
Arnold and Welbourne liked the spring.
Ricou took 'em to the airport and they left.
:25:45
And a few weeks later, Ricou
got a call from Jack Arnold, who said
:25:49
"We saw the footage, we love the spring
and we love the way you swim."
:25:52
"I like your style. Would you be
the Creature of the Black Lagoon?"
:25:55
Ricou said "Fine. Let's have at it."
:25:58
Arnold said they'd send tickets
so he could come to Universal,