Nowadays, visitors to the Zoro Garden in Balboa Park would likely be looking for butterflies. Eighty years ago, though, the main attraction was a nudist colony.

During the California International Pacific Exposition, a fair-like event that took over the park in 1935 and 1936, patrons could pay 25 cents to observe a group of naked or mostly naked men and women.

The paid nudists, led by their “queen,” would lounge in the sun, play volleyball, eat vegetables and perform in a 20-minute skit dubbed the “Sacrifice to the Sun God.”

On Sunday, guests to the gardens were able to imagine what a visit to the colony may have been like with help from a four-act play that recreated the intriguing and mysterious pastime. Attendees could purchase tickets, still for just a quarter, and actors and actresses wandered about in nude body suits as narrator Todd Blakesley recounted the rise and fall of the exhibit to the crowd.


“An entire nudist colony, open for inspection 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” Blakesley said. “First such show in history, we understand. And the last one, so far.”

Members of the nudist colony at Zoro Gardens in Balboa Park in 1935-36 sat around reading, played volleyball and entertained onlookers. ( / -- David Marshall Collection)

The production is part of Parkeology, a five-part series curated by artist Kate Clark, that explores the lesser-known origins of some of Balboa Park’s quirkiest spots.

Welton Jones, a dramatist and former San Diego Union-Tribune critic, is credited with piecing together the garden’s elusive details. He also wrote the play, which was presented in 40-minute acts at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. The audience was free to wander in and out during the performances, much like visitors to the original garden would have been able to do.


“To me, it was the fact that it was not only a forgotten story – there’s a lot of those around – but it was a maligned story,” he said of his enduring interest.

Jones started researching the garden in the 1990s. He uncovered tales of Yvonne Stacey, who was hired by the show’s promoters to be Queen Zorine, the garden’s leading lady. The stately 22-year-old took her role as a nudist seriously, although it’s difficult to tell if that stemmed from a commitment to the lifestyle or from a script she was handed, Jones said.

She ultimately resigned, and 19-year-old Florence Cubitts, who went by Tanya, took the throne. Jones said the approachable teen was adored by the press, and even gave interviews in the nude.

The show wasn’t without controversy, and critics demanded it be shuttered. Organizers pledged to clean up some of the racier acts in the exposition’s second year, but Zoro Gardens, which was one of the parks most profitable exhibits, remained. When the chief of police was asked to pay the show a visit, he found no wrongdoing, Jones said. The colony remained until the exposition ended.


“I think (the police chief) knew what would happen if he shut it down,” Jones said. “This is purely a guess, but I think among the people who ran the town, there was a weighing - ‘How much (are critics) going to complain, and how much money can we make on this thing.’ ”

There are still many questions. Was there an age restriction for the show? Were their security guards? Did the nudists ever have to fend off advances from drunken sailors? Many who visited the attraction are long gone, Jones said, so we may never know. He insisted on setting the record straight on at least one matter.

“At times, they really were naked,” he said, citing photographs housed at the San Diego Art Institute that showcase garden dwellers in the buff.

Although Sunday’s production presented plenty of historical tidbits, its primary purpose wasn’t meant to be commemorative, said Clark. She hoped the installation would encourage visitors to explore and rethink their communal spaces.


“My hope is that (the play) injects this element of weirdness into the space that people pass by every day, and then it creates this memory that then they have every time they walk by it.”