ZIMMY THE HUMAN FISH
How one extraordinary showman spun disability into opportunity
In the annals of very long swims, there have been some extraordinary events catalogued. But some of the most incredible were logged by a singular, American character, the legless Charles Zibelman of Chicago.
Zimmy told a tale of having lost his legs in a tragic streetcar accident at age nine, but according to a World Open Water Swimming Association blog post, after extensve research, International Swimming Hall of Fame historian Bruce Wigo concluded that Zimmy actually had caudal regression syndrome, a disorder that affects the development of the lower part of the spine that caused him to be born without legs.
Either way, by the late 1920s, Zimmy’s various long distance swimming feats, diving stunts, and other attention-grabbing endeavours on Chicago’s swimming and diving exhibition circuit became a regular subject of broadsheet coverage around the world.
In 1927, he took part in Wrigley’s Ocean Marathon Swim across the Catalina Channel, but he was disqualified after a crew member touched him about six hours into the swim. He told reporters that while he hadn’t expected to win the race, “by golly I know I could have gone across” if “some bozo” hadn’t grabbed his hand.
Nevertheless, he spun that aborted swim into PR gold; in a May 1927 feature in the Oakland Post Enquirer, reporter Al Santoro noted that the “human submarine” held the record for under-water swimming and was an accomplished diver. “He’s no duck, but you should see his swan dive,” Santoro quipped.
Zimmy straddled the line between circus sideshow, athletic showman, and prolific vaudeville performer, carving out a niche for himself in stunt swimming by capitalising on his ability to float like a cork on the water’s surface. His lack of legs meant his robust lungs encompassed such a large percentage of his body that he could happily float on the water while engaging in various activities from reading the newspaper and taking a nap to smoking as many cigars as he wanted. This unique capacity to stay in the water when others couldn’t allowed him to engage in some extraordinarily long feats of endurance and set some incredible records.
“I believe legs are a hindrance to a man in the water. They are the heaviest part of the body, and the leg exercise taxes the heart more than the exercise of any other part of the body”
His first such event came in 1931 when he swam and bobbed for 100 consecutive hours – that’s more than four days in total – in a pool in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Zimmy also wanted to secure a place in English Channel swimming history, making no fewer than three attempts. His stated wish was to actually complete an unpreceded double crossing of the storied waterway.
Zimmy felt he was in a unique position to pull off such a feat not in spite of his lack of legs but precisely because of their omission. A 1932 Universal Service article reporting on Zimmy’s quest to swim the English Channel quoted him as saying “I believe legs are a hindrance to a man in the water. They are the heaviest part of the body, and the leg exercise taxes the heart more than the exercise of any other part of the body. Then also the legs are the first part of the body to get cold while swimming. As the blood has a shorter circuit to travel without legs I keep warmer in the water.”
As it turned out Zimmy didn’t manage to complete even a one-way crossing of the English Channel. He was forced to abandon his 1932 attempt after some 18 hours. Subsequent attempts in August and September 1933 also fell short after nearly 11 hours and just over 13 hours.
While English Channel success eluded him, fame in the wake of other superhuman feats of endurance did not. The swim that netted him the most attention was a 233km swim down the Hudson River in 1937 that took an eye-watering 148 hours, or six days and four hours. Zimmy reportedly never left the water from when he entered at a dock in Albany, New York, at 6pm on 23 August until he reached the George Washington Bridge at 9pm on 29 August.
LIFE magazine reported that in the process of the nearly week-long event, Zimmy “used 45 pounds of grease, smoked 150 cigars, munched sugar cubes soaked in brandy, lost 26 pounds, and grew a beard,” all while setting a distance and endurance record and swimming right into “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” syndicated cartoon.
When Zimmy clambered onto the pier at the finish, he told the waiting throngs of spectators “I feel kind of funny being out of the water.” He was promptly taken to hospital where he “pondered stage and radio offers, (and) said his next big swim would be from Key West to Havana,” LIFE reported.