Some-fin in the way she moves: The Wreck Bar mermaid show of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The cruise ship-shaped B Ocean Resort Hotel, home of the Wreck Bar

Yo, ho, ho

Those windows behind the bar look out onto the hotel's pool...I mean lagoon.

The crowd watches, enthralled.

You can meet and greet the gals afterwards on dry land.

 Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal filmed a scene for "Analyze This" here.

We've already blogged about Weeki Wachee, the spectacular retro mermaid attraction on the gulf coast of Florida, but hold on to your dorsal fin. There's another old-timey live sea nymph show on the east coast of the sunshine state. Every Friday and Saturday, Fort Lauderdale's Wreck Bar inside the B Ocean Resort, a hotel once known as the Yankee Clipper and shaped like a giant cruise ship, puts on a retro-tastic mermaid performance. The Wreck, fashioned after a pirate ship interior, looks out through windows behind the bar at the hotel's pool. It's not uncommon to see hotel guests frolicking and, er,  adjusting themselves in the chlorinated paradise during the non-showtime hours. That all changes at 6:30 on Fridays and Saturdays during the hippest, splashiest happy hour this side of Atlantis. The fabulous Marina Duran-Anderson, or MeduSirena as she's better known, and her pod of Aquaticats, lively gorgeous gals dressed as mermaids, put on a thrilling aquatic performance that would make Esther Williams proud. It takes a lot more than just holding your breath to put on a great 30-minute mermaid performance. MeduSirena and her school of 'maids have to keep in top physical condition and must suffer both sore muscles and the burn of chlorine-drenched eyes (Goggles? On these gals? Not on your nelly). Let's hope they're getting paid more than scale. And the beauty of all of this: the show is free. That's right... not one clam, sand-dollar, fin, doubloon, coconut, fish, (s)quid, piece-of-eight, or frogskin (I've got an internet slang thesaurus and I know how to use it). So if you're in Fort Lauderdale, harken back to a time (the 1950s and 60s) when there was no better way to spend an early weekend evening than by downing a couple of mai tais while watching an alluring mermaid show in a cozy wrecked ship-themed watering hole. It's mer-vana.

Eight days a Weeki, I love you: Florida's Weeki Wachee Springs

Mermaid shows? River cruise? Gift shop? Stop the car!

13 clams gets you admission to the mermaid show, a river cruise, a water park and the lush grounds.

Real live mermaids!

Okay, so they suck on airhoses. You would too.

Lots of photo ops (and yes, it's a little pervy if a grown man does this).

The grounds are beautiful...

...and so is the spring.

 Like I said, lots of photo ops.

In 1946, a Mr. Newton Perry, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL trainer, spotted a location with a natural spring near Florida's central Gulf coast and had an idea. Why not invent an underwater breathing method using a hose instead of a tank and get a bunch of gals to dress up like mermaids and put on aquatic shows for the tourists? He built an 18-seat theater submerged six feet below the surface of the Weeki Wachee (that's Seminole for "little spring"), recruited local young ladies, started doing shows in October of 1947, and the place has been a Florida institution ever since. By the 1950s, Weeki Wachee had become a very popular tourist destination and in 1959, it was sold to the ABC TV network, who expanded the theater to 16-feet below and 500 seats. The '60s were Weeki Wachi's hey-day and many famous people (Elvis! Esther Williams! Don Knotts!) visited. The city of Weeki Wachee was incorporated in 1966 and today it boasts a population of between four and twelve, depending on who you ask (the mayor is a former mermaid). By the early '70s, Disney World became the 3000-pound shark in the mermaid tank and older attractions like Weeki Wachee saw their attendance drop dramatically. Things got pretty bleak until 2008, when the state took over and made Weeki Wachee a state park, forever saving it from becoming one of those neglected tourist attractions of yesteryear.

And on behalf of eccentric roadside attraction fans everywhere, I'd like to say WAY TO GO, FLORIDA! Thank you for preserving a true sample of Old Florida roadside culture. It's nice to know a place some would call kitschy is actually a beloved state institution and worth protecting. Okay, so maybe the state was more interested in preserving the beautiful grounds, wildlife and natural spring (it's so deep, the bottom has never been found!), but as long as lovely young Floridians are donning those crazy finned costumes, I'm happy as clam.