Tiki Central / General Tiki / The Jungle-style Thread - Pop Culture Iconography of the Dark Continent
Post #584151 by TikiTomD on Sat, Apr 9, 2011 2:52 PM
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TikiTomD
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Sat, Apr 9, 2011 2:52 PM
As unlikely as it seems, the jungle icon of my youth, Johnny Weissmuller (aka Tarzan of the Apes, Jungle Jim), once lived and roamed the Space Coast of Florida in of all places, Titusville. The echoes of his jungle call still reverberate in the minds of those who were here at the time, especially his neighbors around the former home on Knox-McRae Drive... It started with a failed amusement park called Florida Wonderland that opened in the 1960s across from the Indian River on US Hwy 1 just south of the intersection with SR 50 (Cheney Highway)... Florida Today April 30, 1968 In April of 1971, the makeover of Florida Wonderland, now known as Tropical Wonderland was complete, minus a few features... Florida Today April 16, 1971 Florida Today July 4, 1971
Florida Today July 27, 1971 Then, in less than a year, things soured between Johnny and the other business principals for good reason... Florida Today April 21, 1972 The Space Coast fondly remembered Mr. Weissmuller and followed the rest of his life’s trajectory... Florida Today June 2, 1979 Florida Today May 22, 1980 The end came in January 1984... Florida Today January 22, 1984 There are a couple of related photos and documents posted at the Historical Society of North Brevard’s flickr site... http://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_kindle/2367470367/in/photostream/ The main entry building at Florida Wonderland (aka Tropical Wonderland) still stands today, though it has gone largely abandoned through the years...
BTW, exotic animals periodically escaped from Florida Wonderland, and troops of escaped monkeys reportedly wandered the Live Oak and Sabal Palm hammocks of Titusville for decades... -Tom |
