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IT WOULD BE HARD TO SAY HOW EXACTLY THIS "ENGRISH" SPECIMEN RELATES to the following item from the AP, via Yahoo News:

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Cypress Gardens, which reigned as Florida's grandest theme park in the days before Disney, has shut down while its owners try to sell the attraction.

The 73-year-old park, known for water-skiing shows, lush flower gardens and Southern belles in hoop dresses, was shuttered Wednesday after years of sagging attendance and ownership changes.

The current owner, Land South Adventures, said the park was no longer financially viable. The company said in a statement it "has explored numerous management frameworks and exhausted every possible approach to keep the park running in its traditional form."

The company said it was negotiating with several potential buyers.

Cypress Gardens, once a must-see for Florida visitors, was opened in 1936 by Dick and Julie Pope, and the family sold it in 1985. The property has been bought and sold several times since.

It was closed in 2003, then changed hands under a complicated deal that involved help from state and local government and a nonprofit conservation group. In 2004, it was hit by three hurricanes, and the owners were unable to reach a settlement with an insurance company to cover damages. The current owners bought it in October 2007 for $16.8 million.

The park, in the small town of Winter Haven southwest of Orlando, was closed again in November 2008 for renovations and opened in March, featuring its traditional botanical gardens, water park, water ski shows and concerts, but without the animal attractions and rides.

Cypress Gardens had about 100 employees when it closed Wednesday, down from 700 to 800 in its heyday.

But then again, it is worth noting that the Cypress Gardens waterski show, created as a joke back in 1943 to keep the troops amused during World War II, indirectly gave birth to the Tommy Bartlett Ski, Sky and Stage Show down Wisconsin Dells way: Bartlett, in those days a popular radio and TV host out of Chicago (Welcome Travelers was perhaps his best-known and best-remembered show), saw a performance of the Cypress Gardens troupe on Lake Michigan as part of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad's "Florida in Chicago" exhibit @ the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 ... and was thereby motivated to launch his own traveling waterski troupe, which he called "Tommy Bartlett's Florida Water Ski Show," as toured the Midwestern states for several years.

Until the 1952 season saw them in Wisconsin Dells, where Bartlett's company performed an extended run of shows @ the Drinker's Landing docks for the Upper Dells Boat Tours, attracting tourists by the score and prompting local businessmen to suggest that Mr. Bartlett make the Dells his troupe's permanent home--on Lake Delton, as it turned out, just south of Wisconsin Dells.

Which he did starting in 1953 with six rows of plank seats and blanket space on the hillock above, no electricity or running water, and the admission being 75¢ for adults, 25¢ for children for one of four performances then on offer. By one estimate, the first season's take was slightly less than what the Tommy Bartlett organisation now collects in just one day in the heighth of its season from Memorial Day weekend to Labour Day.

And from then on, the Tommy Bartlett Show grew from strength to strength:

• 1956: The "Dancing Waters" spectacular was introduced @ the evening performance, as was the Michael Kirby "Holidells on Ice" show--an outdoor ice show performed during the summer months on real ice, even with 100-degree+ temperatures on several occasions.
• 1957: A rotating selection of stars from the Grand Ole Opry appear as part of the stage portion of the show in Act II. Two years later, stars from The Lawrence Welk Show make weekly appearences in the same manner.
• 1959: Inspired by a Polynesian drum-dance show Tommy Bartlett views in Hawai'i, Doug Alii's Hinohino Tahitian Drum Dancers begin making appearences @ "The Show." By 1970, the knife-throwing part of the act was dropped after @ least one audience member got scared.
• 1963: During a particularly tight Chicago mayoral election, Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko suggests that, based on the number of bumper stickers, Tommy Bartlett would win the mayoral election. Thus, "the bumper sticker" becomes a Midwestern pop-culture icon.
  
• 1966: An all-new seating area, with covered grandstands, goes into service. Since then, only 13 performances were cancelled because of bad weather.
• 1975: Wes Harrison, "Mr. Sound Effects," makes the first of several appearences @ "The Show."
• 1980's: Dieter Tasso ("You like it, I do it again!") and The Nerveless Nocks begin making regular appearences during "The Show."
• 1984: To mark his 70th birthday, Tommy Bartlett goes waterskiing for his first and only time. Photos of the attempt are widely circulated to newspapers the world over.
  
• 1987: A new laser-light and water show replaces the long-running "Dancing Waters." And in response to complaints, staff discontinue placing "the bumper sticker" on cars in the parking lot during the performances.
• 1998: Tommy Bartlett "himself" dies on the Labour Day weekend @ 84 years of age from kidney failure.
• 2002: "The Show" marks its 50th anniversary as a Wisconsin Dells entertainment icon.
• 2008: Following the sudden drainage of Lake Delton during unusually heavy rains on June 9th, a modified version of "The Show," featuring mostly stage acts, is put on to save same. Audiences turn away, even with employers giving away free tickets to their employees.
• 2009: With the return of Lake Delton, "The Show" makes a triumphal comeback onto Tommy Bartlett Bay in spite of an unusually cool summer across the Midwestern states and general socioeconomic deterioration.

G-d willing, the Tommy Bartlett Show will see its 60th Anniversary Season in 2012 ... but in any event, a humble waterski show born out of inspiration from Cypress Gardens would become a Midwestern summer entertainment icon, eventually encompassing not just "The Show," but also Tommy Bartlett's Exploratory (home to some 80 "hands-on" scientific experiments, as well as the original display versions of the Russian MIR Space Station and the Friendship 7 capsule as carried John Glenn into space orbit in 1962) ... the Copa Cabana Resort Hotel and Suites, one of the Dells' waterpark resorts ... and the Passport to Savings ticket scheme, offering discounts of up to 35% in season on admissions to top Wisconsin Dells-area distractions.

So what would the future hold for the Tommy Bartlett franchise--an IMAX or OMNIMAX theatre, perhaps?

  

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