1:03:00
he was able to stay underwater
in the spring for long periods of time,
1:03:03
even though he was the only person
down there with no scuba gear.
1:03:07
If he got in trouble, if he ran
out of air with no one nearby,
1:03:10
what he'd do was just stop
what he was doing and go limp.
1:03:13
That was his way of signalling his safety
men to swim over and give him a hose.
1:03:17
Ricou tells a story about being out in the
spring and needing to go to the bathroom.
1:03:22
Somebody offered to take him ashore
in a boat, but he said he'd swim ashore.
1:03:26
He swam underwater,
1:03:28
because he said it was sometimes
easier than swimming on the surface,
1:03:31
and he got to a ladder that was
on the dock next to shore.
1:03:33
He climbs up the ladder,
still dressed as the gill-man,
1:03:37
and all of a sudden, in front of him,
was some lady and her little girl.
1:03:40
And the little girl started
screaming. Rico said
1:03:42
"She screamed and ran.
The mother went after her,
1:03:45
and I went after both of 'em,
trying to say 'Hey, it's OK."'
1:03:48
"But me saying 'lt's OK' didn't do a thing.
They took off and that's the last I saw."
1:03:53
"But I never went out of my way
to try and scare anybody."
1:03:56
"From then on, I made sure I kept
the head off whenever I came ashore."
1:03:59
Ben Chapman, on the other hand,
liked to occasionally scare people.
1:04:03
He says a lot of folks used to visit
the sets and watch them shoot,
1:04:06
including guests of people
who worked at Universal.
1:04:08
When he knew people were coming,
he'd swim to the middle of Park Lake
1:04:12
and float there, with just the top of
a helmet and the eyes showing.
1:04:16
He'd stay like that until
he saw the people arrive,
1:04:18
and then he'd swim under the water
and come bursting up like a porpoise,
1:04:22
and then go under again. He'd make
it hard for them to really see him.
1:04:26
"Then I would swim in towards them
with just the eyes showing."
1:04:29
"I'd swim in this way, getting
as close to shore as I could."
1:04:32
"Of course, it's becoming shallower."
1:04:34
"I'd swim in to where it was a foot and
a half deep, and then I'd stand up and..."
1:04:38
Ben let out a roar. Ben said some of the
guests would just about wet their pants.
1:04:46
Audiences loved the underwater scenes.
Bob Burns saw Creature when it was new,
1:04:50
and says that in the underwater scenes
the water seemed to disappear,
1:04:53
and it looked like the gill-man
was floating in midair in the theatre.
1:04:56
He said it was just amazing.
There was a preview of Creature
1:04:59
at the United Artists' Theatre
in Los Angeles on January 7, 1954,