Starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, Operation Petticoat tells the tale of a disabled submarine trying to make it safely to Australia from the Philippines in the opening weeks of WWII. Soon the sub takes aboard five stranded nurses, and, as Hollywood writers were wont to say, hilarity ensued. The film was marketed with the tag line "20,000 Laughs Under the Sea."

Operation Petticoat was the hit movie of 1959. After filming in Hollywood and Key West, it was quickly edited by director Blake Edwards and released in time to be the toast of the Christmas season. As befitting a studio film of its stature, the movie was part of the big Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, complete with the Rockettes and the Nativity tableaux, and played through the entire month of December.

Filming had taken place in Key West during the previous February, because when you need a location to substitute for the Philippines and Australia, you sure think Key West, Florida. The cast and crew moved into the Key Wester and Blue Marlin motels and stayed for about a month. With carte blanche from the U.S. Navy, filming was done primarily on the Key West Navy Base property and out to sea.

The Naval submarine USS Balao appeared as the destined-to-become-pink Sea Tiger. Naval personnel in Key West were encouraged to offer every assistance to the film company, even allowing the planes carrying the cast, crew and equipment to land three islands up at Boca Chica­ the Naval Air Station.

(Left) With Wisteria Island (also known as Christmas Tree Island) in the background, Cary Grant performs a scene from the movie, Operation Petticoat which was being filmed in the Key West harbor. If ever there was an Oscar awarded for "best performance by a friendly US harbor pretending to be in the South Pacific during WWII," Key West would surely beat out all other nominees.

(Left) In this early 1960's aerial photo we can see the lower end of Duval Street. During filming the sub was tied up to the solid horizontal pier now known as Sunset Pier, which is part of todays Ocean Key Resort & Spa (where you see the oil tanks are on the left edge of the photo.) To the left of the pier, at the end of the pilings, note the round end cap.

(Right) In a scene from Operation Petticoat, Dina Merrill climbs up the side of the submarine, the Sea Tiger, with Tony Curtis behind her in the water. The sub is tied up to Sunset Pier for filming, and the same end cap can be seen in the background just off the end of the pier.

With Wisteria Island in the background, this contemporary photo shows todays Sunset Pier and a cast of daily sunset revelers who don't know they're celebrating the end of a perfect Key West day on a Cary Grant movie set.

(Left) The U.S.S. Balao moored at the Outer Mole in Key West. Today, cruise ships dock here. The red Custom House can be seen in the background. (Right) Janet Leigh closely observes her husband's casting ability off the deck of a submarine in the Key West harbor.

During their weeks in Key West, Curtis spent his spare time with wife Janet Leigh (daughter Jamie Lee had just been born the previous November­ whether she or her sister Kelly accompanied their parents to town isn't known.) Grant, on the other hand, roamed the island in search of whatever he could find. One of his discoveries was the artwork of Mario Sanchez. Enamored of Sanchez's work, Grant purchased several. (One is now back in Key West and on display at the Custom House.) Grant also persuaded director Delbert Mann to hang them as part of a set in the 1962 film, That Touch of Mink, where they can easily be spotted in the background during one scene.

And, of course, there were parties. Key West hosts and hostesses were clamoring to welcome Hollywood stars into their homes (see issue #14.)

Operation Petticoat was, by any measure, a huge hit. The movie was the biggest moneymaker Universal Pictures had ever seen. And Cary Grant, who had a piece of the back-end, took home a $3 million paycheck. (That's in 1959. In today's money, that's the equivalent of $81,965,850.77.) Plus it was a hit for the city of Key West, as it brought huge sums of money to the town. The Navy didn't do too poorly with all the publicity, either­ scores of young men probably chose to don the Navy whites at the prospect of meeting beautiful stranded nurses.

The saga of the pink sub has also proven to have very long legs. The movie pops up on cable constantly and is on the "special interest" shelf for rental out at Blockbuster on the boulevard.

(Above) Movie magic in action. Tony Curtis and Dina Merrill relax while waiting to film­ notice the camera. And notice the concrete floor directly below the "sandy" beach. (Below) The shot as it looked in the movie.

"Watermelon 15 cents," the Mario Sanchez work purchased by Grant that later appeared in That Touch of Mink. The artwork can be seen at the Key West Museum of Art and History at the Custom House on Front Street. An extensive collection of Sanchez's work can be seen both there and at East Martello Tower.

Studio publicity referred to the subject of this shot as "a little Cuban girl who came on the set to entertain Grant between takes." The suave star looks totally smitten.

February, 1959: On location, Grant greets a local school class­ possibly from Sigsbee Elementary, the school on the base then in its first year of operation. These students look around ten years old, so they're all turning sixty next year.

Special thanks for his assistance in the preparation of this article go to Norman Aberle, Key West Art & Historical Society curator. Mr. Aberle was also of great assistance with the Carib Gold story.