In 1921, at the newly opened swimming pool at Washington University, St. Louis, a crowd of 2,500 gathered across two nights to witness America’s first water pageant. A portly man dressed as Father Neptune, with a long gray beard and trident, emerged from the water as a bugler heralded his arrival. Standing on the pool deck, the foil-gilded king of the sea looked around quizzically and, addressing the people seated in the bleachers, demanded to know the purpose of this strange, rectangular body of water. A master of ceremonies joined Neptune and explained that the pool was built for four noble reasons: health, safety, sport, and fun. The four-act spectacle that followed, “Showing Father Neptune,” illustrated each of these, with marching drills in the pool; demonstrations of water rescues and resuscitation methods; relay races and diving displays; water clowns and pajama races.
Thousands of these water pageants—plays performed in lakes, rivers, oceans, or pools—were produced across the United States in the first half of the 20th century. This genre of aquatic theater was the brainchild of Wilbert E. Longfellow, who wanted to do something about the nation’s abysmally high drowning rates—10,000 Americans died in the water each year—at a time when most people in this country couldn’t swim. Longfellow, whose motto was to “educate them gently while entertaining them hugely,” believed that the best way to interest the public in swimming was to put on a good show. His water pageants merged the theatrical elements of dialogue, costumes, and colorful set designs with aquatics, featuring demonstrations of various strokes, aquatic stunts, and lifesaving techniques as well as take-home messages about the importance of water safety. Not only did generations of Americans learn how to swim, but the pageants also helped popularize the then-nascent sport of synchronized swimming—one that I have practiced for years. And even though artistic swimming, as the Olympic event is now called, has long since abandoned the trappings of aquatic theater, water pageants provided the sport its earliest platform, leading to its widespread popularity.
As a young man, Wilbert Longfellow worked as a marine journalist on the Rhode Island waterfront. After covering more than his share of watery deaths and being saved twice from drowning himself, he began to develop a passion for swimming and lifesaving. He joined the United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps, the first lifesaving organization dedicated to protecting the American public (as opposed to sailors and seamen). Longfellow quickly rose to a position of leadership—receiving the title of Commodore in 1905—and drowning rates in Rhode Island and New York fell dramatically. Eager to expand his work beyond the Northeast, he persuaded the American Red Cross in 1914 to establish the first nationwide program dedicated to lifesaving and water safety. Serving as national field director for the new Red Cross Life Saving Corps, Longfellow chartered 61 corps across the country in his first three years.