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“Swimming and Diving Aces” is a black-and-white documentary short made by Castle Films as part of “The Sport Parade“ series. The film takes a look at the sport of swimming and diving in the 1930s and features footage of many of the Olympic stars of the era at some of the iconic pools of the day - the Coral Casino in Santa Barbara, the Venetian Pool in Miami, and the Fort Lauderdale Casino Pool. Diving made its Olympic debut in 1904, however, it wasn’t until 1928 that Olympic organizers finally allowed women to use twists and somersaults in their dives. The United States went on to dominate this Olympic competition from 1920 through the early 1990s. Title page: text overlaid illustration of two female divers in 1940s style bikinis (0:07). POV footage from bottom of diving platform/ diving tower; montage of divers jumping into water (0:10). Side view of divers simultaneously jumping from various heights of diving platform (0:16). Close-up male diver doing handstand on platform edge about to perform arm stand cut through dive (0:24). Children divers in training, group of five elementary aged children stand on diving board, do drills with coach in pool of El Mirador Hotel, Palm Springs, California (0:31). Slow motion footage as girl does backwards dive (0:57). Montage scenes of father holding daughter on his back as he executes various dives from the Venetian Pool in Miami, Florida designed to resemble rocky cliff in tropical jungle (1:09). Spectators sit and observe women’s backstroke race from stands around outdoor pool (1:45). Open water swim competition: women, men in swim caps and 1930s swimming costumes run into water from coastline in front of art deco style building; spectators look on from boardwalk (2:07). Two girls speed down water slide into lake (2:42). Scenes cut between underwater and aerial POV shots of teenage girls in 1930s-style one pieces doing synchronized swimming routine (2:57). Larger synchronized swimming group performs various formations resembling blooming flowers on water’s surface (3:31). Female diver gracefully jumps from high diving platform, climbs up narrow and tall ladder to small diving block, dive replay in slow motion with commentary (3:48). Footage of male and female divers doing compulsory dives at championship competition: full twisting forward one and one-half somersault, one and a half gainer (4:16). More footage of professional divers in competition at the Coral Casino Pool of The Biltmore Hotel, Santa Barbara - footage slowed down as narrator analyzes dive style, form (5:34). Timing exhibitions at Fort Lauderdale Casino Pool: partners jump from diving platform in synch (6:18). Comedic diver puts on show for spectators, slides across diving platform before swan diving into pool below (6:49). Two men put on show of performative fighting on diving board before falling into pool and wrestling on pool floor (7:35). Footage of winning female and male divers from competition - each contestant’s dive in slow motion (8:15). We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit
