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“The Mighty Bosco” Patterson (in front of the flag) supports a rope ladder of four boys, while framed by “three Jacks and a Jill," above the hot salt water Plunge. (Santa Cruz Seaside Company)

“The Mighty Bosco” Patterson forms a ring with two boys, while a third “threads the needle.” (Santa Cruz Seaside Company).

The Santa Cruz Venetian Water Carnivals were a week-long festival on the San Lorenzo River in 1895, 1896, 1912, 1914, and 1928.  They combined street parades, fancy boat promenades, stage shows, concerts, costume balls, fireworks spectacles, and sports such as boating, cycling and swimming. Few could swim at the turn-of-the-century, mostly coming to wade in heavy wool bathing suits, or splash around in a heated indoor pools. So the Water Carnival swimming and diving exhibitions were quite influential.

One performer was 18-year-old Santa Cruz High School student Clyde Hawthorne, who in 1896 broke the Pacific Coast 100-yard record, then a month later attended the American Amateur Swimming Competition at Sutro Baths, and broke another record by 4 seconds. This was more remarkable wearing a neck-to-knee wool bathing suit that added 20 pounds when wet. Only three months after the Water Carnival, Charles Cavill became the first to swim across the Golden Gate Strait on Sept. 21, 1896 in 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Despite the huge success of the 1895 and 1896 Water Carnivals, a dispute led to the fairgrounds being sold, so the Miller-Leibbrandt indoor hot salt water plunge at the Main Beach hosted the Plunge diving show for 1898, with trapeze acts included. Back in Australia, Arthur Cavill became the 220 yard champion in 1898, then developed the “Australian Crawl” to speed through the water.  His brother Dick Cavill was the first to win a championship using the Australian Crawl in 1899. Clyde Hawthorne was 21 when he beat Arthur Cavill’s 100-yard record in 1901, only topped by Dick Cavill in 1902 as first to swim 100-yards in under a minute.

The Boardwalk Casino was built next to the Plunge in 1904, but it burned along with the Plunge in 1906.  So in 1907, a grander Casino and Plunge were built, which included a Plunge balcony seating 1,500. Arthur Cavill became a swim instructor at the Santa Cruz Plunge along with his daily ocean swims, while his brother Sydney taught at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, both being influential leaders in the science of swimming.

The 1907 “Plunge Water Carnival” featured Arthur Cavill, police chief Frank Hannah and his brother Jack, George Birkenseer, and others. Local baseball champ Ernest “Dodo” Dabadie stunned the crowd with a series of aerial stunts that concluded with setting himself on fire and diving into the water. It was actually the fuel-soaked outer layer of his woolen suit that burned, but misjudging the burn rate could be quite dangerous. That year Santa Cruz’s Arthur Cavill swam Golden Gate Strait in 1 hour 18 minutes, with buffeting tides making him travel a longer route.  Having chosen only the smallest swim trunks, he emerged blue and hypothermic from the cold water.

On July 23, 1911, Sydney Cavill helped Olympic Club members Walter Pomeroy and Jack Bond, beat these Golden Gate crossing records, in 24 minutes and 28 minutes respectively.  The Boardwalk hosted two Venetian Water Carnivals in 1912 and 1914. Arthur Cavill attempted to swim across Seattle Sound in 1914, but he died of hypothermia. In 1913 and 1920, the World’s Champion Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku of Hawaii, performed at the Boardwalk to sold-out crowds, and declared the Plunge his favorite swimming pool.

In 1928, local swimming champ Warren “Skip” Littlefield became the Boardwalk’s first lifeguard, and manager of the Plunge. He held the Pacific Coast Breaststroke record, and the American record for swimming 440 yards. Littlefield sought to emulate Boardwalk founder Fred Swanton for his P.T. Barnum-style of showmanship.

For the 1928 Venetian Water Carnival, Littlefield mounted a Plunge show featuring the Olympic champion who’d beaten Kahanamoku’s record, a boy with a house in Ben Lomond. This was Johnny Weissmuiller, still four years from becoming the screen’s definitive Tarzan, and at the time was known for winning practically every race he entered. However, “Willie Apple of Tasmania” (Ernie Kiff), offered $1,000 to anyone who could beat Apple.

Apple didn’t inspire much confidence as he dog paddled around the pool, so Weissmuiller accepted the challenge. Weissmuiller “the Human Motorboat” was swimming in exceptional form, but every time he glanced at Apple, he was dead even. Soon Apple was pulling ahead, and the crowd was going wild. Weissmuiller was astonished when Apple beat him by 20 yards for a new World’s Record. But when Apple got out of the water, he removed a cable from his belt which had towed him to victory! Weissmuiller couldn’t stop laughing.

The following year, the Stock Market crashed, and the Venetian Water Carnivals came to an end.  There was little money for anything, But Littlefield was just getting started, and built his Plunge Water Carnivals into a spectacle that inspired imitation.

He drew on his lifeguards for talent. One of the new members of his show was Don “Bosco” Patterson, a muscular Sentinel pressman. He turned out to be quite a versatile performer, just as talented at difficult stunts, as at comedy.

On the lighter side, Patterson played the 1890s “Man on the Flying Trapeze,” wearing slicked-down hair a handlebar mustache, and a suit with built-in muscles. His fellow comic divers were Big Joe “Fraidy Cat” Gleason, Wild Bill “Brains” Hickok, Hugh “Phew” Leonard, and “Silent Ray” Hedgepeth. But they called Count Hanley of San Francisco’s Olympic Club, the World’s Best comic diver.  One routine had Hanley flying gracefully from trapeze to trapeze, until he grabbed one made of rubber, which dropped him to the surface of the water, then snapped him up again into the rafters.

Patterson was a remarkable high diver, so every week Littlefield would entice the audience back again to see Patterson jump from a higher and higher level. At last he said Patterson would jump from the ceiling girders, more than 65-feet high. After the show, Patterson told Littlefield, “Well, at least you can’t go any higher, unless you cut a hole in the roof.” A couple days later, Littlefield said to Patterson, “Well, there’s your hole!” It would be called the Stratosphere Dive. Then, ultimately, Patterson did it at night with the lights out, while on fire.

Duke Kahanamoku returned for a Plunge show in 1938, then went surfing on the west edge of Main Beach. He drew teens and lifeguards who regarded him as the Father of Modern Surfing.

The only way to surf was to make your own hollow surfboard, usually in shop class at Santa Cruz High School. Based on Kahanamoku saving eight people with a surfboard in 1925, Santa Cruz became the third city in America to adopt the surfboard as a Red Cross-approved rescue craft.

The Water Carnival always included a “Human Submarine,” and Littlefield would invite audiences to try to hold their breath as long as the performer was underwater. Human Subs included Dido Scettrini (unofficial 1928 world’s record for underwater swimming), and Don McNair.  Then in 1938, Ruth Kahl filled viewers with concern as she swam underwater for nearly two lengths of the pool, not breathing for 2 minutes! Her world’s record 303-foot Santa Cruz swim became news around the world. Duke Kahanamoku said she was “the greatest underwater swimmer I have ever witnessed,” and she was featured in Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not.”

The Plunge was the chief school for new swimmers, thrilled to be learning from accomplished performers, and eager to learn diving and trapeze stunts. Soon, kids were getting parts in the Plunge shows. In one stunt, Patterson would hang upside down on a trapeze, catch two children, who would then form a loop through which a third child would jump.

The outdoor “Slide for Life,” had a trapeze hanging from a tram, running down a 755 foot cable stretching from the Casino Dome to the end of the Pleasure Pier. Patterson would ride the tram upside down, holding 11-year-old Harry Murray as he struck three poses over the beach, then the two dove into deep water before the tram crashed into the wharf. To add to the thrill, Patterson did it alone at night, while on fire.

Meanwhile Golden Gate Strait was bridged, and Treasure Island built nearby to celebrate with a 1939-1940 world’s fair. It featured Billy Rose’s Aquacade, an aquatic show starring past Plunge Water Carnival performer Johnny Weissmuiller.

Littlefield anticipated upgrading the Plunge for similar type shows, but the start of World War II in 1941 not only ended all non-military construction, but depleted the cast as they departed for war.  In the end, the show consisted almost entirely of teenagers, doing highly skilled and professional stunts.

The Boardwalk’s hotel was turned into a Naval Convalescent Hospital, and during the week, the hot salt water Plunge was used by convalescing military patients. Concern over dangers for child performers, the Plunge shows ended late in the war.

Yet the legacy of the Plunge Water Carnivals were the advancement of swimming, diving, surfing, and life-saving skills.

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