South Florida bar has only underwater burlesque show in US

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The feeding frenzy begins before the mermaids swim into view.

Cocktails flow like the outgoing tide around the darkened Wreck Bar, designed to look like a Spanish galleon resting on the ocean floor. Fish circle in brightly lit aquariums on the perimeter. Platters of ceviche, calamari and tiradito are served. Also, more drinks!

A DJ leads a rowdy crowd in a game of Name That Tune that turns into a singalong of “Summer Nights” from “Grease,” women belting out their best Olivia Newton-John, men doing that “well-a well-a well-a well” chorus that has been stuck in everyone’s head for 40 years, even if they weren’t born when that movie came out.

By the time the mermaids hit the pool for the only underwater burlesque show in the U.S. and slowly strip down to their pasties and G strings, the bar is vibrating with so much life, energy and good will the performers can hear it through the glass.

As South Florida entertainment grows ever more slick and generic, overflowing with New York imports and clubstaurants with Instagram walls for the influencers and bottle service for the crypto princes, the mermaid shows at the B Ocean Resort in Fort Lauderdale are a glorious throwback, a divine spark from the golden age of Florida tourism. In the 1950s and 1960s, Fort Lauderdale was where the boys were. The Mai-Kai Restaurant and Polynesian Show showcased tiki culture and the iconic ship-shaped Yankee Clipper Hotel, the original name of the B Ocean Resort, drew such luminaries as Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

Though the classic Lauderdale dive bar Elbo Room still stands — it opened in 1938 and remains a monument to the joys of cheap beer — this rich history has mostly slipped away. But the Wreck Bar is determined to keep it alive.

“The places with the...