Oddly enough, it wasn’t dolphins that inspired filmmaker Oliver Anderson Franklin’s journey back in time. It was whales.
Growing up in Wisconsin, he’d always wondered why there weren’t whales in the Great Lakes. He’d read a book about a whale bone found in Michigan, which archeologists later dismissed as a trophy – or perhaps a souvenir — of Native traders returning from the East Coast.
That whale bone was the first crack in Oliver’s solid understanding of Midwest marine life, and a hint that something wild and unnatural might have once existed here. Over the years, that hint led him to a forgotten Milwaukee fever dream: The Public Natatorium (1979-1985.)
The Public Natatorium (1646 S. 4 th St.) was never supposed to be a dolphin dinner theater. It was a decaying 85-year-old public bathhouse, designed to serve South Side residents with public hygiene and recreation not available at home. After Natatorium services ended in 1977, bombastic businessman John J. Garlic purchased the relic for $4,000 and transformed it slowly and carefully into a never-before-seen concept for Milwaukee…