Stunning Vintage Photos of Cypress Gardens, Florida's first Theme Park from the 1930s to 1970s

On January 2, 1936, Dick Pope Sr. and his wife Julie Downing Pope opened Cypress Gardens on the shores of Lake Eloise in Winter Haven, Florida. What started as a botanical showcase quickly became the state’s first true theme park — and one of the most photographed places in America. For four decades, the park drew visitors from across the country with its exotic gardens, daring water ski shows, speedboat races, and a rotating cast of celebrities. These vintage photos capture that golden era in vivid detail, from the earliest aquatic parades of the 1930s to the polished championship performances of the 1970s.

The park’s botanical gardens were the original draw. Sprawling across manicured grounds, they featured over 30 varieties of palm trees, ten kinds of banana trees, 15 types of azaleas, and ten varieties of camellias — all kept in immaculate condition year-round. Spanish moss draped from towering cypress trees along the waterways, creating a setting that photographers and filmmakers could not resist. National magazines ran spreads on the gardens regularly throughout the 1940s and 1950s, cementing Cypress Gardens as an iconic Florida landmark.

Water skiing was the park’s signature spectacle. Dick Pope Sr. was a relentless promoter, and he understood that dramatic aquatic stunts would keep audiences coming back. By the 1940s, Cypress Gardens had earned the title of the “Waterski Capital of the World,” a reputation it held through 2003. Skiers launched off ramps, balanced on one another’s shoulders, performed backward maneuvers, and staged elaborate themed productions — all on the open water of Lake Eloise.

The park was a favorite stop for U.S. military personnel during and after World War II. Soldiers on leave paddled the winding canals leading into Lake Eloise, and outdoor entertainment events regularly drew hundreds of servicemen to the grounds. Captain Ben Wax, a paratrooper, was among those who spent lazy hours on the lake with his wife Polly — a scene that was widely photographed and published.

Hollywood discovered Cypress Gardens early. Esther Williams, the MGM swimming star known for her aquatic musicals, filmed scenes for multiple pictures at the park. The 1953 Technicolor musical “Easy to Love” used Lake Eloise as its central backdrop, with Williams starring alongside Van Johnson, Tony Martin, and John Bromfield. Musical sequences were choreographed by Busby Berkeley. A famous still from that production shows Williams perched on Bromfield’s shoulders, both of them on water skis.

The 1953 production season left behind one of the richest photographic records of the park at its peak. Southern belle models in wide hoop skirts posed among cypress trees and beside palm-lined paths, while acrobatic ski teams ran through their choreographed shows on the water. These models became a signature element of the Cypress Gardens identity — greeting visitors, posing for press photographs, and appearing in national advertising campaigns throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

World champions trained and competed at Cypress Gardens throughout the 1950s. Alfredo Mendoza, the park’s resident world water ski champion, regularly tuned up at Lake Eloise before international tournaments, including the Mexican Water Ski Tournament in Acapulco. Martha Mitchell, Florida’s state champion, and Katy Turner, a former national jumping titleholder, both used the park as their competition training ground. Jumping Joe Cash, captain of the U.S. team, won the men’s overall championship at a world tournament held at the park after a decisive final jump off the ramp.

The park’s shows were never straightforward exhibitions — they were theatrical productions. Teams skied in formation, dressed in costumes ranging from bearskin hats to witch outfits for Halloween. The Cowgirl Water Posse debuted a full western-themed show called “Tough, Mighty Tough in the West” in 1965, with five performers armed with six-shooters skiing in choreographed sequences. During the holidays, Santa Claus arrived by surfboard, helpers decorated underwater Christmas trees, and skiers carried seasonal banners across the lake.

Speedboat racing added another layer of excitement to the park’s program during the mid-1950s. The Cypress Gardens racecourse pushed boats over water ramps at high speeds, and photographers went to extraordinary lengths to capture the action — one photographer lay flat in the bottom of his boat to shoot a speedboat flying directly overhead. Dick Pope Jr. competed in these events himself, racing under names like “Mercury Kid” during the aquatic steeplechase held on January 17, 1951.

Celebrities and foreign heads of state made Cypress Gardens a regular stop from the late 1940s onward. The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, visited the park and piloted a jump boat called “Hot Cha” through the water at speed. King Hussein Ibn Talal of Jordan received a curtsied welcome during his visit. Peter Lawford took his first water skiing lesson at the park and declared it a thrilling sport. Miss America titleholders including Donna Axum (1964) and Debra Barnes (1967) both appeared at the park for public appearances.

The Cypress Gardens Aquamaids were a group of female performers and models who appeared in water shows, press photographs, and national publications throughout the 1950s. Names like Nancie Cooper, Shirley Deas, Joan Faye Brown, and Sharon Boyle appeared regularly in photo captions sent to wire services across the country. Cooper, from Milwaukee, was a standout — she performed the backward swan and balanced on two skiers simultaneously during the park’s Topside Tandem Act alongside world champion Alfredo Mendoza. Barbara Cooper Clack set a women’s world ski jumping record of 102 feet at the park.

The park’s promotional team knew how to generate a story. Rhoda Pickett of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, was photographed gliding through festoons of Spanish moss on a surfboard, threading between cypress trees in a scene that looked more like a painting than a sports event. Joan Brown and Betty Bland tested a transparent hammock made from a plastic called krene — only 10/1000 of an inch thick — stretched between two points over the beach, and the image ran in newspapers nationwide. Creativity was the park’s constant currency.

Holiday-themed stunts at Cypress Gardens ran all year long. For Valentine’s Day, performers dressed as cupids and skied backward while aiming toy arrows at the crowd. May Louise Khoury posed on the water in 1958 in a Valentine’s-themed photo shoot. For the Fourth of July, Aquamaids skied in parade formation across the lake. At Halloween, two skiers traded broomsticks for “broomskiis” and performed in full witch costumes.

The 1956 hula hoop craze reached Cypress Gardens in predictable fashion. One of the park’s Aquamaids performed her water ski routine while using a hula hoop simultaneously, the photo distributed by wire services with the caption noting that the hula hoop had “practically everybody in the United States wriggling.” The park also offered visitors a “Mut-tel” — a dedicated kennel where guests could check in their dogs before touring the grounds, complete with individual accommodations for each animal.

Championship skiing at the park pushed into increasingly technical territory during the 1960s. Mike Osborn demonstrated water skiing on the ball of one foot. Dick Pope Jr. and Jean Mason performed a transfer from four skis down to a single ski while at full speed across the course. Champion Buster MacCalla carried his wife Betty Howard MacCalla in his arms while skiing on a single ski in July 1965. Two-person catamaran ski vehicles and a single surfboard called a “Sitz-Ski” made their debut at the park in 1967.

By the early 1970s, television had come to Cypress Gardens in a big way. Ed McMahon, the Tonight Show announcer and television personality, visited in 1972 — photographed at the helm of a motorboat, dressed in a Superman costume, and fishing from a rowboat with comedian Bob Newhart. American water ski champion Victor Palomo competed at the park that same year. Barbara Clack skied on human water skis — using champion skiers Joker Osborn and Ken White as her platform — in 1973.

The family at the center of Cypress Gardens ran it for nearly 50 years. Dick Pope Sr. retired in the early 1980s and handed operations to his son Dick Jr., who had grown up skiing and racing on Lake Eloise. In June 1985, the Pope family sold the park to publishing conglomerate Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In September 2009, Merlin Entertainment purchased Cypress Gardens, its water park Splash Island, and the adjacent botanical gardens. The park reopened in 2011 as Legoland Florida, with portions of the original botanical gardens preserved on the grounds.