Cypress Gardens
Winter Haven FL
1963
by JoAnne

Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try ~Dennis DeYoung

QUOTE: CHANGE the World

picture from our parents, John and JoAnne Lynch, honeymoon trip

https://www.fox13news.com/news/the-history-of-cypress-gardens-floridas-first-theme-park

https://visitcentralflorida.org/blog/cypress-gardens-was-floridas-first-tourist-attraction/

While Cypress Gardens might not have been the biggest theme park in Central Florida, it certainly was one of the splashiest. This is how it happened.

The Idea Behind Cypress Gardens Theme Park

In the latter part of 1932, Dick Pope, Sr. and his wife Julie decided to move back to Florida after living in New York for some time. Julie had read an article in Good Housekeeping about a banker in Charleston who had opened his private estate to the public, and charged admission and had taken in $36,000 cash in one year — a big sum in those days. After sharing the article with her husband, Mr. Pope declared, “someday we’ll build a Garden and attract visitors to Winter Haven!
Initially the couple planned to beautify and rebuild the canals and chain of lakes in Winter Haven. They started on that, and then planned on adding a hanging garden on Lake Eloise – and that’s what later became Cypress Gardens.

Water Ski Show

The world famous water ski show had the same sort of beginning. In 1943, while Mr. Pope was serving in World War II, one of the photos in a local newspaper featured water skiers being pulled by a boat at Cypress Gardens. Several soldiers in the area came to see the “water show,” even though none existed. But Julie, the consummate business woman, rounded up her children and their friends to stage the park’s first water ski show. The next weekend, 800 soldiers showed up, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Cypress Gardens was soon dubbed the “water ski capital of the world,” a distinction Winter Haven, FL still enjoys today.

Hollywood Visits Cypress Gardens

Celebrities and Hollywood movie producers discovered Cypress Gardens in the late ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, including Elvis Presley, Esther Williams and Johnny Carson. Full-length features including “On an Island With You,” “Easy to Love,” parts of “Moon Over Miami,” “This is Cinerama,” and hundreds of short features flooded movie theaters all over the country, building the tremendous recognition of the gardens.

Cypress Gardens Water Ski Team Show

On the 3rd Saturday of each month, residents and visitors alike head to Lake Silver in Winter Haven to watch the water ski show that started at Cypress Gardens in 1943. The current Cypress Gardens Water Ski Team was started by former Cypress Gardens water skiers wanting to pass on their show skiing legacy to the next generation. During Daylight Savings Time (March – October), the monthly ski show begins at 6:00 p.m. From November through February, the show begins at 4:30 p.m.

Cypress Gardens officially closed for good in 2009, and the property was bought by Merlin Entertainment.