It was also on a back lot at Universal Studios, we were shooting a scene from "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid". Also on the next lot at Universal Studios there were shutting "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Annie in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.
In the fall 1946 a film crew had been sent down to see an underwater theatre north of Tampa on U.S. Highway 19. Perry had started out in north Florida, working with the strong-lunged young swimmers of Florida State University's Tarpon Club. He developed air hoses that let them stay submerged for extraordinary lengths of time and techniques for performing dry-land activities -- making coffee, dancing, playing the trombone -- on the spring pool floor. Florida girls who'd grown up in the water learned to do "ballet" (as Perry liked to call it) while wearing a constricting lame tail that zipped up the side. By 1948, Weeki Wachee was one of Florida's premier roadside attractions, drawing tourists from all over the US.
"Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" (Universal-International, 1948) this was another opportunity to work with one of my favourite screen stars of all time and a true movie legend Ann Blyth. William Powell. Unfortunately, Mr. Powell was very ill during the production, but "you would never have known it." He was a consummate actor and professional at all times. Filming was to start the summer of 1947, but ended up being delayed until February of '48. The cast and crew endured rainy weather, unusually cold temperatures and even pneumonia from some of its principal cast while they managed to "pretend" to be happily secluded on a South Sea island.
The plot revolves around Mr. Peabody (Powell), a "mature" gentleman on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. When he and his beautiful wife (Irene Hervey) escape to a Caribbean seaside retreat for the occasion, the magical "fish story" begins. Powell encounters a mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blyth), and everyone including his wife believes her to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination -- A fantasy manifested out of anxiety over his lost youth.
Andrea King’s scenes had to be filmed inside a giant heated water tank, still located on the Universal back lot. Andrea and Ann Blyth were both accomplished swimmers, so they rose to the challenge of doing their own underwater stunts, including a complicated sequence where Andrea catfights with the jealous mermaid. She recalls that particular day with a laugh. They attempted to film without heat in the middle of winter. "The tank's water heater was malfunctioning, they told us. So we tried anyway for about half hour, but Annie and Andrea King just went numb! I think Annie got terribly sick after that."
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