Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent. Director: Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

a list of 35 titles created 07 Aug 2012 a list of 42 titles created 14 Feb 2014 a list of 46 titles created 02 Jun 2014 a list of 31 titles created 11 months ago a list of 43 titles created 4 months ago Title: Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) 6.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination. See more awards » Photos A swimsuit fashion designer is determined to protect her scatterbrained sister from a South American heart-breaker, but a case of mistaken identity complicates matters. Director: Edward Buzzell A contrived misunderstanding leads to the breakup of a songwriter and his fiancée. She returns to work as a gym teacher at an all-girls school, but a legal loophole allows the man to enroll as one of her students. Director: George Sidney A swim teacher and a wealthy businessman are married after a brief courtship.

A charming war hero falls in love with this newly-married woman, after her husband abandons her on their honeymoon for the sake of a business meeting. Director: Richard Thorpe An Aquatic performer tries to attract the man she loves. Director: Charles Walters While shooting on location in the South Pacific, a movie star is pursued by a handsome Naval officer who is convinced she is the girl for him. Director: Richard Thorpe A young woman enters a contest to be the first to swim the English Channel. Director: Charles Walters A man from Ohio inherits a coconut plantation and falls in love with a half-American, half-Tahitian beauty. Song-and-swim musical ensues in the tropical paradise. Director: Robert Alton The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. ... See full summary » Director: Busby Berkeley When a matador leaves town to focus on his music, his twin sister takes on his identity in the bullfighting ring.

Director: Richard Thorpe A Scottish knight in France to facilitate a marriage between a rich and beautiful countess and his aging uncle becomes involved in court intrigue. Director: Richard Thorpe A multimillionaire decides to boycott "filthy" forms of entertainment such as Broadway shows. Directors: Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley Stars: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler Screwball comedy has wealthy mystery writer Paula Bradford using her doctor ex-husband's non-payment of alimony to coerce him into a reconciliation. Director: Stephen Roberts Edit Storyline Million Dollar Mermaid tells the story of Australian swimming sensation Annette Kellerman, who overcame childhood polio to go on and achieve fame as a professional swimmer and film star in the early decades of the 20th century. At the same time, she scandalized the world by wearing a one-piece bathing suit on public beaches long before the style was accepted in polite company, and made waves in other ways as well. The story was a perfect vehicle decades later to showcase the star quality of Esther Williams in the 1950s, and Kellerman's moniker was picked up by Life Magazine when it named Ms. Williams the "Million Dollar Mermaid" herself.

Written by Tedosan Inspired by the true story of bathing beauties! (Million Dollar Mermaid) See more » Genres: 13 March 1953 (Australia) See more » Also Known As: A Rainha do Mar See more » Filming Locations: Considered by many to be one of the best examples of Technicolor cinematography. See more » Goofs Annette Kellerman (Esther Williams) tells the judge that her swimsuit "will cover the entire body except the *forearms* and the head." However, the swimsuit she exhibits in court and which she wears in the following scenes does not cover *any part of her arms*. See more » Connections (United States) – See all my reviews as has been stated, this movie definitely is not a good biography, but this is Hollywood. in truth Annette really was put on trial for her scandalous suit, though i wouldn't say she did it to be sexy. she did to be practical. and can you blame her?

still, the water ballets are lovely, and they are especially special since the actress was a real synchronized swimmer who did it all herself, like how johnny Weissmuller does all of Tarzan's's water stuff(and everything else). parts are humorous, others not, but if you are looking for a classic this is a classic that most people don't know about. it is worth it to see a new classic, with that old charm. and, as has been said, the swimming scenes were fabulous. and the beginning, when Annette is a little girl, can just make you practically cry. when you come across stories such as these, it can be rather hard to pass them by. 8 of 12 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Esther Williams, queen of Hollywood gossip: the movie star's life in her own words - Telegraph Culture Esther Williams, queen of Hollywood gossip: the movie star's life in her own words Esther Williams, the 'million dollar mermaid' of classic Hollywood who has died aged 91, was also a talented disher of dirt. In these highlights from her memoir, she offers revelations about Marlene Dietrich, Lana Turner and a merry-go-round of glamorous lovers.

Esther Williams in 'Dangerous When Wet' 1953 Photo: REX By Esther Williams 3:27PM BST 07 Jun 2013 Esther Williams may have been known as a swimmer first and a movie star second, but if there were an Oscar for Hollywood gossip, that would be her real achievement. Her 1999 memoir, The Million Dollar Mermaid, dishes the dirt as few others have. Williams could be shameless, and shamelessly funny. She became an actress when MGM studio chief Louis B Mayer set out to find the next big thing after the ice skater Sonie Henie had made a fortune for 20th Century Fox. “Melt the ice, get a swimmer, make it pretty!”, he cried, and thus began the movie career of the girl Clark Gable called a “mermaid”. Films with titles such as Dangerous When Wet and Skirts Ahoy! ensued. Elaborate aquatic sets were built for her – “never had plumbing been put to a more glamorous use,” she wrote – and her 1944 picture Bathing Beauty grossed more in its time than any other movie except Gone With the Wind.

Williams’s fame, and scant clothing, led her to see the machinery of Hollywood sharply – the lust, the greed, the vanity… and the prehistoric facelifts. Here are some edited highlights. On being groped by Tarzan: Johnny Weissmuller didn’t just play Tarzan. He thought he was Tarzan. He had this magnificent physique and he was very strong – six feet four inches, with muscles that rippled and flexed as he moved. Heaven knows, he was handsome. He had a classic profile and he loved to pose. He thought he was God’s gift to women. The holder of many US and world swimming records, he had been the gold medalist in the 100-meter freestyle, at the Paris Olympics in 1924, and again in Amsterdam in 1928. In 1932 he donned a loincloth for the first time as Tarzan the Ape Man, a role he repeated many times in his career on and off the screen.

Related Articles Fight night for Frank and Ava 27 Mar 2006 Later on Weissmuller also played a character named Jungle Jim, who was really nothing more than Tarzan with his clothes on – not that he wanted to keep his clothes on. He had remarkable genitalia that he loved to exhibit and was constantly stripping his clothes to his swimsuit and beyond so that everyone could appreciate his extraordinary male attributes. It was his way of saying, “Look at me. I was made perfect. God gave me everything a man could dream of having.” In the show, I performed the solo number first, and then Johnny and I swam the duet. At the end of our duet, we had to exit by swimming under the stage to a set of stairs that came up out of the water backstage. Under the stage it was pitch black and when we made this exit, there was no one in the water except the two of us. Under the stage, he’d whip off his trunks so I could see that he was beautifully equipped and if he caught me, he’d try to get my suit off.

If he grabbed me at the platform before the stairs, he would hold me and grope me and let me know that he had this lovely erection. I would swim for those steps as though I was swimming for my life. Chasing me totally in the nude, he would splash and grunt like a lion. I think maybe he took that jungle character a little too seriously. On-screen it may have been attractive to the ten-year-olds who filled the theaters. Underwater, it was a menace. There was no one else ever in that tunnel-like passageway under the stage. It was an Alfred Hitchcock erotic nightmare! He was always right behind me, that big smile on his face, those groping hands – three shows a day (four on Saturday and Sunday), six days a week. On Marlene Dietrich's dressing room habits: The day Marlene Dietrich came in was the most memorable. She went straight to the designer floor and demanded a private showing. Because I was as tall as she, I was asked to model the dresses she selected. I put on the first selection and knocked on her dressing room door.

This deep voice said, “Some in, dahlingh.” As I opened the door, I saw Dietrich, the world’s most celebrated sex symbol, lounging on a chaise longue, totally nude. The rumors that Dietrich was an exhibitionist were obviously true – she loved the look of shock on my face and coolly proceeded to instruct me as to how I should model the dress. I was so taken aback by her apparent immodesty that I couldn’t find my way out of the room. I kept walking into the multimirrored reflection of the door as she sat laughing seductively at my confusion.” On William Powell's facelift: “One of the first scenes in The Hoodlum Saint called for me to slap William Powell after he kissed me without my consent. The director, Norman Taurog, had told me I was really supposed to let him have it. By this time Bill was in his mid-fifties, and when you’re just twenty-two, that strikes you as quite ancient – frail even. I didn’t want to slap that “old man” because I was afraid I was going to hurt him. Swimming develops broad shoulders.

I never needed shoulder pads in my dresses, because I had my own built right in; and the same powerful armstroke that helped me in the water gave me quite a wallop on dry land. Norman kept telling me that there was no way to fake it – I had to really connect with Bill’s face in order to make that distinctive hollow thwack of palm against cheek. As the scene began, I had my back to the camera. Bill came up behind me and planted that big kiss. As directed, I put a look of righteous indignation on my face and hauled off and smacked him in the cheek – hard. Then I watched in horror as one side of his face collapsed. The other side still looked normal. “Oh, my God!” I shrieked. I thought Powell was having a seizure or a stroke. “Cut! Cut-cut-cut!” screamed Norman. “Makeup!” “What do you mean, ‘Makeup’? Normie, get this man a doctor!” Taurog glared at me the way a veteran shortstop might regard the team’s greenest rookie, which in a way, I was. I turned to my costar to apologize. “Oh, Mr. Powell, I’m so sorry.

What have I done? I broke your face!” Bill waved me off with a tolerant but lopsided smile. I tried not to stare at his face – half of him looked thirtysomething; the other half looked like the picture of Dorian Gray. “I’ll be fine in a few minutes, Esther: We can un-break my face.” The makeup people came right onto the set and began working on him. To my astonishment I saw an intricate network of rubber bands all around his face, all running into a knot at the top of his head. There was one by the eye, another right below the eye, another along the jawline. I had hit him so hard that I’d broken the bands on one side of his face. Then the makeup men were finished, it looked as if somebody had pulled all of his face up toward the top of his head. It was an instant face-lift, which is what they did for older actors instead of plastic surgery back then. On Lana Turner's Latin lover: During the making of The Merry Widow, Fernando Lamas and Lana Turner had begun a hot – very hot – affair. On the surface, at least, it looked like a great matchup.

Fernando was very much a ladies’ man, and Lana certainly liked men. Lamas had taken just one look at the blond-and-creamy Lana, liked what he saw, and started showing up at rehearsals wearing a skin-tight brown dancer’s leotard, which made no secret of his masculine charms. Lana was obviously impressed – and Lana had been impressed by the best, including seven husbands and a legion of lovers, among them Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Victor Mature, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, and Robert Taylor. Fernando was now about to join those distinguished ranks. The first delicate hint I had of their affair came one afternoon as Fernando was on his way to the makeup department, situated next to the stars’ dressing rooms. I heard Lana shout from her dressing room window – and I mean shout – “Fernando Lamas! Get your Argentinean ass in here!” Fernando, who was always accompanied by an entourage of adoring sycophants, needed no further encouragement. With the grace of a Latin cavalier, he bowed to his gentlemen friends and scooted into Lana’s dressing room, which was situated right next to mine.

Like the dressing rooms of most MGM stars, mine was furnished with a couch, a table, and a couple of chairs. Lana, however, had demanded – and got – a huge bed with pink satin sheets and pillows, plus there were mirrors everywhere. From the sounds coming through the wall between Lana’s dressing room and mine, I could tell that she and Fernando weren’t going over lines. I’m afraid that I was a bit curious, but then, how could I resist? I placed an empty glass against the wall between our rooms and pressed my ear to it. The sound I heard, magnified by the water glass, was rather like listening to a symphony. The first movement began with gentle strings and sighing woodwinds. The second movement, which started with mounting rhythm, brought in the whole brass section, with trumpets and tubas blowing like crazy. The third movement was filled with pounding kettledrums and marimbas (the Latin touch), with reached a wild and ecstatic crescendo. What followed was diminuendo – back to the sighing woodwinds. “Oh, Fernando, oh, Fernando,” Lana moaned. Oh well, I thought to myself. At least she remembers his name.

Many years later; after Fernando and I were married, I hesitantly confessed to him that I had eavesdropped on his matinee with Lana. “My dear,” he said with a grin, “I am flattered.” On marital musical chairs: Towards the end of the summer, one of the biggest parties of the year was given by Marion Davies. Her long time paramour, William Randolph Hearst, had died the year before, and Marion had since married Horace Brown. It was quite a bash. Davies had turned her huge Beverly Hills mansion into five nightclubs with five different orchestras – there was a Stork Club, and El Morocco, a Coconut Grove. Everybody in town was there. People were dancing and drinking and having a great time. Ben and I were already seated when Fernando arrived. He made quite an entrance. Dressed in an impeccably tailored tuxedo, he arrived with Lana Turner on one arm, and Ava Gardner on the other. Everything in the room came to a halt when they walked in; people stopped in mid-sentence just to stare at this ravishing trio – beauty personified. Fernando seated Lana and Ava at the table with Ben and me.

Arlene Dahl and her husband, Lex Barker (the Hollywood Tarzan of the early 1950s), were there, too. This grouping may still hold Hollywood’s all-time record for marital musical chairs and tangled libidos. Fernando’s two decorative ladies had each been married to bandleader Artie Shaw. Ava and Lana were pals, and Ava at this time was in the midst of her stormy marriage to Frank Sinatra. About six years earlier, however, Lana had been labeled a “homewrecker” over her involvement with Frank, when he was still married to his first wife, Nancy. Both Lana and Ava had been ardently pursued by Howard Hughes, and Lana had had a brief affair with Victor Mature. That was just the back story; it got a lot more confusing from then on as the various couples at the table later played mix and match. Lana and Fernando broke up and she married Lex Barker; after he divorced Arlene Dahl. Following his affair with Lana and Arlene’s divorce from Lex, Fernando married Arlene, who became the mother of his son, Lorenzo. Eventually they divorced and Fernando and I were married. In this group, only Ben was the odd man out.

Extracted from 'The Million Dollar Mermaid' by Esther Williams with Digby Diehl, published by Simon and Schuster Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) – The Blonde at the Film • ( 21 Comments ) Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) This is my contribution to the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Fabulous Films of the 50s Blogathon which runs May 22-26. I’m thrilled to be participating, and it’s been great to read all the wonderful entries! Check them out here . My fabulous film of the 50s is Million Dollar Mermaid starring Esther Williams as real-life Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman. Million Dollar Mermaid has a very interesting production history and some of the most spectacular swimming numbers you’ll see in any of Williams’ films. It’s extra-fascinating because it’s a biopic of a woman who essentially paved the way for the existence of “Esther Williams’ movies.” via: Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own. As an added bonus, Williams’ daughter, Susan, was kind enough to talk to me about this movie.

She gave me great insights into Dangerous When Wet , so it was a pleasure to get her take on this film, too! Be sure to check out the official Esther Williams website ! Now for a bit of background. Annette Kellerman was born in 1886 to musician parents. Little Annette had a weakness in her legs which necessitated the use of metal braces. Her mom and dad made the fateful decision to enroll Annette in swimming classes to help strengthen her legs; this exercise helped so much that her limbs were “normal” by age thirteen. But swimming became more than just physical therapy. By age fifteen, Annette was swimming competitively and giving diving exhibitions. At sixteen, Annette got serious. She set records in the 100 yard and mile swims, and turned her talents to entertainment. She started performing “mermaid” acts swimming in tanks, and wowed crowds with high diving displays. She continued her competitive swimming and became famous for long-distance feats.

Soon she was an international star performing water ballets (and basically inventing synchronized swimming), at the New York Hippodrome with its huge glass tank, challenging swimsuit norms in her “one-piece suit” when women still wore bloomers and long-sleeve dresses, and appearing in films in the teens and twenties. Very few of her movies still exist, unfortunately, but you can watch clips here and here . Like most biopics from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Million Dollar Mermaid is, well, quite liberal with the facts of Kellerman’s life, but it gets the essentials right. Usually. Who could play Kellerman in a movie? No one but Esther Williams, of course! Williams was thrilled to make this movie. She wrote in her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid that “For once, swimming was really part of the story and didn’t have to be shoehorned into the rest of the plot. I loved the idea of playing Annette Kellerman, a real person, rather than a superficial character created to give me an excuse to swim” (213). Fun fact: Annette Kellerman visited the set of this film and met with Esther Williams.

Williams asked Kellerman what she thought about Williams playing her in the movie, and Kellerman’s only answer was that she wished that Williams was Australian. Williams answered, “I’m the only swimmer in the movies, Miss Kellerman. I’m all you’ve got.” (The Million Dollar Mermaid 214). And it was very true! Victor Mature (perhaps best known for his “loincloth” roles in Biblical epics of the 1950s) plays Kellerman’s manager, American Jimmy Sullivan, and Walter Pidgeon is Kellerman’s father. Mervyn LeRoy directs, and Busby Berkeley was in charge of the water ballets (he also directed the water extravaganzas in Easy to Love ). To the film! We open with young Annette ( Donna Corcoran , who plays Williams’ youngest sister in Dangerous When Wet ) watching a ballet class on the grounds of her father’s conservatory in Sydney. (For some reason, this movie completely erases Annette’s mother from the story. Also, no one even attempts an Australian accent.

Pidgeon and Williams sound exactly as they always do.) The camera pulls back to reveal stout steel braces on Annette’s legs, and her wistful gaze at the other little girls frolicking on the lawn becomes more poignant. But Annette has a secret: she’s taught herself to swim! Her father finds her at the pond. I suppose it is more exciting for Annette to learn to swim in secret and “accidentally” heal her legs rather than the truth, which is that her parents sent her to swimming class for that very reason…The lesson here is don’t watch this movie to get the real story about Annette Kellerman. Watch it to get MGM’s unapologetically altered version. Mr. Kellerman wants to forbid Annette from swimming, but she convinces him that she’s getting stronger, and that she loves being in the water. So he relents. Little Annette gets very good and her legs get all the way better! Soon she is winning races in that cute red swimming cap. Through a brief montage, we see Annette grow up into Esther Williams. The trophies have gotten bigger, too, but that red cap is still in use!

Here is Esther Williams in an uncharacteristically frumpy but accurate bathing suit between takes for this scene. via: Annette returns home from her big victory to learn that the Kellerman Conservatory is closing. There’s a financial crisis in Australia, so people have cut back on things like music and dance lessons. Her father tells her that his friend has offered him a job at a music school in London. Annette handles this momentous news pretty well. In fact, it’s almost amusing how quickly this scene goes from dismay to excitement! Exposition must move quickly; after all, we’ve got Busby Berkeley waiting with smoke cannons! Next thing we know, the Kellermans are sailing from Australia to England. Their quiet stroll on deck is interrupted when a boxing kangaroo comes bouncing along, chased by his trainer, Doc (Jesse White, who was in just about every TV show ever, including Seinfeld!) and his owner/promoter Jimmy Sullivan ( Victor Mature ). The kangaroo’s name is Sydney, and Jimmy is hoping that he will take London by storm. Jimmy is always hoping that something will be his golden ticket.

He meets the Kellermans, and he seems very intrigued when he learns how many thousands of people came to watch her swim… I’m intrigued by the blatant coordination between Williams’ and Mature’s costumes. Pops of red, anyone? Nice foreshadowing, Mr. Plunkett. It’s rather like what you see in Summer Stock and My Sister Eileen where costumes coordinate/clash and signal the couples before they are even formed. Walter Plunkett designed the costumes for this film, though Helen Rose designed Williams’ sparkly swimsuits. Plunkett was a prolific designer with special brilliance for historical films (he designed Gone with the Wind (1939)), and Rose worked with Williams on several of her films, including Easy to Love , Duchess of Idaho , and Dangerous When Wet. Anyway, later on, Jimmy joins Annette on the moonlit deck. She is looking lovely in her white dress with pink bows and diaphanous wrap. She assumes he has come to romance her, when in fact he has another kind of proposal in mind. He wants to manage her.

I like watching her face in this scene when Jimmy starts elaborating on her potential as a swimming attraction: Annette’s father steps in, assuring Jimmy that Annette is not a trained seal who will swim around for an audience’s amusement. She plans to study ballet and music in London, and that’s that! (This is another of MGM’s little twists. Remember that Annette Kellerman began performing as a teenager while still in Australia!) The Kellermans arrive in London only to find that the music school is closed–there is no job for Mr. Kellerman. Annette pawns her trophies, one by one, while her father gives music lessons, but it’s not going well. So when Jimmy and Doc show up at the Kellerman apartment one evening, Annette is very willing to hear their plan. They want to stage a five or six mile swim in the Thames to drum up publicity for Sydney, the kangaroo.

(I’m not sure how Annette swimming the Thames would make people care about a boxing kangaroo, but they seem to think it’s a grand idea!) Annette’s only qualm is that Doc and Jimmy aren’t thinking big enough: The real Annette Kellerman was a long-distance champion, so this idea is less farfetched than it sounds. Fun fact: Kellerman did actually swim the Thames as a publicity stunt. She also attempted to swim the English Channel three times, each unsuccessful, and she swam in races and other free swims in the Seine and Danube, among many others. So, without telling Mr. Kellerman, Annette, Jimmy, and Doc embark on the Thames swim. The plan is to swim down the river to Greenwich, where Sydney is performing in a carnival. It’s a lot like Dangerous When Wet ‘s Channel swim sequences. (I’m glad that Annette’s red swim cap made the journey to England.) Jimmy is dismayed when the press doesn’t show up as they begin the swim, but eventually they attract attention. These boatmen are stunned to meet a young woman swimming to Greenwich!

Soon the news spreads and Annette’s father finds out: He rushes to the Thames in time to see his daughter swim by Parliament. The current is with them and Annette is feeling good, just hungry. They don’t have the cool wire food baskets we see in Dangerous When Wet , though. Then the current shifts, and it’s been hours and hours, and miles and miles… Jimmy is about to pull Annette into the boat when Greenwich appears through the fog. She makes it! The swim is a success, but not for Sydney. As anyone might have guessed, the reporters are far more interested in the pretty young swimmer than in the random boxing kangaroo. The next morning, Jimmy fields several job offers for Miss Kellerman, everything from stunt swims to lectures and personal appearances. But he has an idea for an show! Now that he invented synchronized swimming, Jimmy suggests they go to New York and try to get Annette booked at the Hippodrome. He sells Sydney and off to America they go! The Hippodrome producer Alfred Harper (David Brian) likes the idea but turns them down. The Hippodrome was currently staging massive dramas, as you can see from the marquee.

Harper doesn’t want to risk staging a “water ballet” with an unknown star and no story. He doesn’t mention Annette’s Easter-on-steroids bonnet, but it’s hard for me to see anything else. Jimmy and Annette are disappointed, but they quickly (as in just a few steps outside of the Hippodrome) come up with another idea. Why not stage another stunt swim and use the publicity to start their own show? Jimmy has a friend at Revere Beach in Boston, so they decide to start the swim there. No one tells Annette that her one-piece bathing suit is not appropriate in proper old Boston! She steps on the beach and it’s mayhem. Scandalized ladies and creepy gentlemen stare at her exposed limbs in shock! Annette just wants to start her swim and get away from the gasps and horrified gazes. Her bathing suit certainly is a departure from those old-fashioned bathing costumes with their petticoats, stockings, long sleeves, and drawers! But before Annette can dive into the surf, a policeman arrests for indecent exposure! The shame! Backed by Jimmy and her father, Annette decides to fight the charge. The case becomes a nationwide phenomenon and a feminist cause.

Annette gets her day in court and doesn’t back down in the face of an obnoxious prosecutor. She even presents a modified suit, her trusty one-piece with stockings sewn on to cover her legs, and asks if it would be allowed under the current law. The judge sides with Annette and drops the charges! Fun fact: Most of this did happen to the real Annette Kellerman. She was arrested at Revere Beach in 1908, acquitted on all charges, and became famous as the “One-Piece Suit Girl.” Riding Annette’s notoriety, Jimmy, Doc, and Annette open their own water show. (Mr. Kellerman provides the music.) The show is a popular attraction with diving, swimming, and of course the infamous bathing suit: Here’s the real Annette Kellerman in the suit she made famous: via: #!O5625 Although it seems so silly now, the one-piece bathing suit was very controversial at the time, and Kellerman paved the way for bathing suits as we know them.

As Esther Williams’ daughter pointed out, when you watch Williams doing her thing in a gorgeous suit, remember to give credit to the original One-Piece Bathing Suit Girl! Susan found this great photo of her mother and Annette Kellerman on the set. Without Kellerman, Williams might not have been able to wear suits like that! Annette draws in the audiences with swimming and diving displays: Jimmy watches, thrilled with the box office and with Annette. Who can blame him? She’s pretty thrilled with him, too. They are in love! And it’s not just acting. In Esther Williams’ autobiography, she confesses to enjoying an affair with her handsome leading man during the making of this film. She’d never fallen for a leading man before, and both she and Mature were married to other people, but they went for it anyway. She wrote : “Fictional desire and real desire blended during the making of Million Dollar Mermaid, and it’s obvious, to me at least, in every scene of that film…we were shameless and happy” (213). Their affair didn’t last past the making of this movie, and she didn’t think it would, but she claimed not to regret even a moment.

“Romances with beautiful leading men don’t last forever, but don’t knock it until you’ve had one,” she wrote (222). Back to the fictional world. Jimmy is sure that Annette is the girl for him. He even buys an engagement ring! But just as he’s about to propose, Annette drops by the carnival with a classy lecture promoter who wants her to give a series of talks about health and the body with perhaps some tasteful ballet thrown in. Jimmy can hardly contain his laughter. He’s clearly threatened at the idea of Annette moving on to bigger and classier things without him, so he cuts her down to size by reminding her that she’s just a pretty swimmer doing a tank act. Both Annette and the man are offended, naturally. The man insults Jimmy’s current show: So Jimmy almost throws him into the tank. But Annette stops him. Later, Jimmy comes back to Annette’s dressing room, ostensibly to apologize. But when she brings up the lecture idea again, he just makes things worse with this gem: Annette heads home, quite upset.

But a happy telegram awaits her: She hurries back to the carnival to tell Jimmy the wonderful news, but he’s already moved on with a new act, a flyer in a rickety plane. He has left for Florida without a word to Annette. He works quickly, that Jimmy! Annette is devastated, but fortunately she has a fantastic job waiting for her at the Hippodrome. She might be billed last, but she’s with Pavlova, Marceline the clown, and Sousa, in the world’s largest theater! Ready for some Busby Berkeley madness, executed as only Esther Williams and MGM could? This first number proved to be one of the most notable in Williams’ career. We start with a view of the Hippodrome before a spotlight picks out Annette in a sparkling gold bodysuit and crown atop the hydraulic lift. (MGM got its money’s worth out of its giant tank with its 50 foot hydraulic lift, geysers, pyrotechnics, and other special effects on this film.

For more on the tank, read my post on Esther Williams .) Annette executes a lovely, shallow dive and off she goes, diving like a dolphin and paddling gracefully amidst fountains: After swimming around for a while, she emerges from the churning water and rises on the hydraulic lift. Up, up, up! She was supposed to do a swan dive into the tank below. She writes in The Million Dollar Mermaid that when the lift shuddered to a stop, she felt a sudden onslaught of vertigo. Her ear drums had been ruptured so many times from all of her underwater exploits that her equilibrium was gone. Fifty feet in the air, perched on a tiny Lucite disk attached to the lift, she suddenly couldn’t tell if she was leaning or straight. She froze. Berkeley yelled: “We’re waiting, Esther! Jump!” (219). She “forced a smile for the camera” (219) and dove. On her way down, she realized that something horrible was about to happen. The crown on top of her head was made of aluminum–no big deal when doing shallow dives and frolicking in the water, but incredibly dangerous on a stunt like this.

When her head hit the water, the crown snapped her head back, she heard something pop in her neck, and she knew she was in bad shape. But they’d gotten the shot, so the director called for the lunch break and the crew skedaddled. No one thought to check on Williams–why would they? She was practically SuperWoman! So Williams was left in the pool, in tremendous pain and unable to move her upper body , frantically treading water with her legs to keep from sinking. She remembers imagining the headline: “Esther Williams Drowns in MGM Studio Pool,” and crying for her wardrobe lady, Flossie, the only crew member left on set (The Million Dollar Mermaid 220). At first, Flossie thought that Williams was joking when she said that she couldn’t get out of the pool, but she finally believed that Williams was in trouble. She ran to get help. Some men lifted a crying Williams out of the pool and called for an ambulance. While they waited, Flossie carefully removed the gold-sequined bodysuit. Williams wrote later that the 50,000 gold sequins being rolled off her body felt like tiny knives.

Since it was Flossie’s job to keep the costumes in good repair, it never even occurred to her to just cut the damn thing off! (220) Turns out that Williams broke three vertebrae in her neck, getting about as close to “snapping [her] spinal cord and becoming a paraplegic as you could without actually succeeding” (220). She was encased in a body cast from her neck to her knees, for SIX MONTHS. Williams eventually recovered, but according to her daughter, she suffered from neck pain, headaches and a smaller range of motion for the rest of her life. But she also knew how fortunate she was to escape with those relatively minor issues, especially after Christopher Reeve’s accident (221). Filming stopped on Million Dollar Mermaid until Williams healed. They’d already shot too much of the movie to call it off, or to replace Williams; besides, there was no one who could replace her! It was pretty common practice to shuffle actors around if they were sick, pregnant, troublesome, whatever, but there was no replacement for Esther Williams.

Williams wrote: “The fact that they had to wait for me was, in its way, quite a compliment as well as a comfort” (221). What’s odd is to watch the fateful dive, knowing that she broke her neck, and then see Williams rise from the water a moment later as part of a shimmering tableau for the finale…Movie magic! But it gives me the creeps. Williams saw this experience as an incredibly awful reminder that she couldn’t count on anyone else to look out for her. She didn’t blame Plunkett and Rose for the metal crown–how would they know it was so dangerous? Her director, Berkeley, and the rest of the crew also would not have known the danger, either. Williams was the only one who might have caught it, but she didn’t think about it until it was too late. She took this lesson into her next films, especially Easy to Love with its Berkeley-directed water-skiing insanities. As I mention in my review of that movie, everyone just assumed that Williams could do anything, and her safety seemed very far down the list of priorities. Susan, Williams’ daughter, says that her mom used to joke about how the filmmakers were always trying to kill her!

Williams had to look out for herself, because no one else was. via: #tcmarcp-140842-140833 Anyway, Annette becomes a star at the Hippodrome. There’s a beautiful ballet interlude featuring Maria Tallchief as Pavlova performing Swan Lake. Annette watches from the wings, utterly entranced, and meets the ballerina backstage. She tells Pavlova how she’s always wanted to dance like that, but Pavlova tells her that what Kellerman does is just as special! It’s a pleasing high-art validation of the new water ballet phenomenon, and it’s lovely to see Tallchief dance, too. She was one of the first major American ballerinas, plus the first Native American prima ballerina. She danced in Europe before Balanchine invited her to be his prima ballerina in his newly founded company, New York City Ballet, in 1946. We get to see her dance “The Dying Swan” solo. It’s a fun bonus in this film. Next, we get a montage showing just how famous and fabulous Annette Kellerman has become.

In an intertextual twist, alternating with images of Kellerman’s increasing billing at the Hippodrome are moments from Esther Williams’ previous films’ water ballets, including Bathing Beauty (1944) and This Time for Keeps (1947). You can watch the original Bathing Beauty clip here . I suppose it was a lot cheaper and easier to raid MGM’s library of water spectaculars than to film new ones! But we do get some new ones, too, like this next ballet inspired number with garishly colored borders. Annette dances in front of a mirror in her pearly tutu while her father, who was hired as maestro of the orchestra, conducts. Fortunately, we get some shots without the bright red crystal border: Then Annette loses the tutu and shoots over to a giant clamshell. It’s all gorgeous pearls and underwater frolics until we get a shot of Mr. Kellerman collapsing as he conducts. He dies, but Annette doesn’t know so she keeps swimming. It rather puts a damper on the rest of the water ballet, though. The red border turns green, and the shell closes with Annette inside.

It’s enough to give you claustrophobia and make you gratefully suck in oxygen as you watch. Fun fact: It was during this shell sequence that Williams almost died, again! Here is what happened: Each underwater shot was carefully storyboarded and timed. During the actual shot, someone would hold up cards showing Williams how long she needed to stay underwater. Most shots were about 45 seconds long, but that was 45 seconds of actual filming, so it didn’t count the time it took Williams to get underwater, hit her mark, and wait for “Action!” She was therefore underwater for much longer than 45 seconds at a time. Williams’ lungs would expand as she worked, so “whatever I could do at 9:00 in the morning, I could do double that by 4:00 in the afternoon” ( The Million Dollar Mermaid 216). She would string two 45-second shots together to save production time and avoid the necessity of a cut, which is why sometimes it seems as though she has grown gills!

Anyway, she must have been pushing herself during this giant pearl sequence, because suddenly she started experiencing something like “the rapture,” that weird, trancelike state that scuba divers can get. It happens when there is too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen, and it can make you want to fall asleep even as you’re running out of air. Williams, in the grip of the rapture, sat on the shell and rested her head on the pearl…and stayed there. The director, Mervyn LeRoy, didn’t know about the rapture or that Williams was about to drown, but he knew that the storyboard did not include Annette Kellerman taking an underwater nap! He began yelling through the underwater speaker, “Get your head off that pearl! It’s just been painted and the paint may come off!” (217) Williams was confused but LeRoy’s nagging shouts brought her out of the trance and she managed to swim to the surface. Yet another life-threatening moment on the set of this movie! Poor Annette finishes the pearl number and finds out that her father passed away. But the movie can’t linger on this. It uses Mr.

Kellerman’s death to reunite us with Jimmy and Doc: Doc reads of Mr. Kellerman’s death as Jimmy works on his airplane. Jimmy is no longer managing flyers, now he is doing the flying himself! Cut back to the Hippodrome where LeRoy employs the same newspaper trick. Annette and the Hippodrome producer Alfred (they’re good pals) arrive at the theater and read about an airplane contest. It doesn’t mean much to Annette until she sees Doc waiting backstage. He has come to tell her that Jimmy is one of the twelve aviators attempting the almost absurdly dangerous flight. He begs her to stop him, somehow. She promises to try, but first she has a show to do. Smoke cannons, go! In Tony Thomas and Jim Terry’s The Busby Berkeley Book, Berkeley described this number : ” [I] used one hundred boy and girl swimmers and for the background I had nothing but red and yellow smoke streams shooting up fifty feet. The effect was made by four hundred electrically controlled smoke pots.

On each side of the pool, I had forty-foot-high ramps, from which the swimmers slid down at a terrific pace, standing up and carrying yellow lighted torches as they entered the water.” Are you ready? Girls slide face-first through the legs of red diaper-clad men and into the pool as yellow, hopefully not sulfurous, smoke chokes the air. Then, in a sequence that reminds me of the Neptune’s Daughter finale with its slipping swimmers and streamers, the flag toting men slide down this tilted slip-n-slide, somehow managing to keep their feet until they dive into the pool at the very last moment. Eventually, Annette emerges from thick smoke in a flame-suit and headdress. She pauses at the top of a blue chute before sliding down into the water. I’m pretty sure it’s not Williams doing the slide, though. It looks more like Williams’ double, diver Edith Motridge. But it’s definitely Williams who emerges from the deep and gets pulled forward by an underwater line. Soon Annette is joined by yellow-clad ladies and gentlemen, and everyone gets pulled along. A synchronized forward flip with lovely pointed toes: And it’s off to the air!

Berkeley remembered that for this sequence “I also had twelve long swings that swung down from high in the air through the smoke, and from which twelve girls and boys simultaneously dived into the water. Esther was also the center of attention in this number. I dropped her from fifty feet into the mass of swimmers below, which exploded into a Ferris wheel effect on the water.” This part actually makes me a little dizzy. Swimmers swing back and forth through opaque smoke on these huge trapeze swings before diving into the pool quite a ways below them. Yikes! Then it’s Annette’s turn. She swings forward out of impenetrable smoke, smiling broadly. Fun fact: In truth this was a very unpleasant stunt. The smoke was so thick that it was disorienting and difficult to see where one was; especially nasty conditions in which to swing and then dive! Williams actually broke a toe from clutching the swing so hard with her feet! To add extra tension, Berkeley shot a pistol to signal when each swing should be released and when each group should dive! Williams (or is it her double?) dives into the pool: But the number isn’t over yet!

Williams still has to rise from the water above Busby Berkeley’s favorite human kaleidoscope designs. And then she lets go, hoping she’ll fall right in that dark, deep circle and not land on one of the swimmers! Yikes! Fortunately, a broken toe was the most severe injury sustained during the filming of this water ballet. Just like the gold one before it, this one ends with a slowly rising tableau. But this one was played back in reverse so that the sparklers light as they rise from the water! It’s a neat effect. After some smiles and posing, the whole thing sinks back beneath the water, but not before Annette blows us a kiss. You can watch the whole water ballet here . Here’s the suit worn by Edith Motridge for this water ballet: via: Unfortunately, this is the last big spectacle in the movie. To me, this film’s trajectory slopes up to these crazy Busby Berkeley/Esther Williams extravaganzas, before swiftly sliding back down into pseudo-biopic territory. How can Jimmy and Annette’s seemingly doomed romance compete with floating kaleidoscopes, breathtaking dives, and 50,000 sequins? But we’ll continue, anyway.

Annette keeps her promise to Doc and goes to the airfield to try to stop Jimmy from flying off into almost certain death. He doesn’t listen, and even her legal attempt to stop him (something about missing money from the carnival days: he used it to buy the engagement ring, which he then hands to Annette unceremoniously) fails. She watches him fly off in a rickety plane. She looks very sophisticated and wealthy in that dark purple suit with attached capelet! Some time passes and Annette learns that Jimmy has crashed. She tries not to care too much, especially since she is engaged to Alfred! But she calls the hospital and learns that Jimmy will be fine. On their way to Hollywood to make a movie, Annette and Alfred run into Doc and Jimmy on the train. Jimmy is hawking Indian blankets, and Doc is his “brave.” It is embarrassing for everybody, for many reasons. Jimmy is also managing a dog named Rin Tin Tin…(a complete fabrication; the real Sullivan had nothing to do with Rin Tin Tin.) We get a fun look at MGM’s version of early Hollywood when Annette arrives to make Neptune’s Daughter.

Fun fact: Kellerman did make a movie of that name in 1914. You can watch a clip here (skip to the two-minute mark for diving.) And Esther Williams also made a movie called Neptune’s Daughter in 1949! via: There is only one more scene to shoot. The tank is all ready, the mermaid back-up swimmers are in position, and Annette is excited to finish the film and marry Alfred. She climbs up a really tall ladder and gets ready to dive. Action! And we’re off! There’s a clichéd director in riding boots with a megaphone, and “mood music” just out of frame! It’s going great, but we’re wary because a crew member mentioned that the tank is only built to hold a certain amount of water, and the glass won’t withstand much more… Just as we feared, the glass begins to crack. The alarm is sounded, and it’s very scary with screaming mermaids and panicking crew members. Annette isn’t sure what’s going on, but she sees everyone running around and screaming. By the time she realizes she needs to get out, it’s too late.

The tank shatters and she’s pushed out in a great wave. Fun fact: The tank did break during the filming of Kellerman’s Neptune’s Daughter. According to an eyewitness : “We saw them [Kellerman and Herbert Brenon] take a deep breath and once more go under the water. Hardly had they disappeared when there was a ‘Boom!’ like the echo of a firing cannon and immediately the canvas passage was swept away and tons of water rushed through the smashing glass. Their bodies lay motionless among the wreckage. They were shockingly cut and bleeding and we thought them surely dead.” They were badly cut, but fortunately both Kellerman and Brenon recovered and were able to finish the movie. Cut to the hospital. Jimmy and Alfred are there and talk with the doctor. We find out that the doctor is cautiously optimistic, but there is a chance that Annette won’t ever walk again. As I just mentioned regarding the Neptune’s Daughter accident, the real Kellerman did not suffer a spine injury, just bad cuts. I don’t know if that major change from real life to this movie plot was inspired by Williams’ injury during the making of this movie? I’d like to see some scripts.

What happens next is a given, even though I’ve always liked sweet Alfred and distrusted Jimmy. We don’t know if Annette will recover or not, but the movie ends on a positive note. Fun fact: Million Dollar Mermaid premiered in December 1952, and in January Esther Williams was voted the number one female movie star in fifty countries by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the Golden Globe people.) Williams was the million dollar mermaid, a nickname that stuck with her and that she chose as the title of her autobiography. Williams was aware even as she was making this movie that she owed a lot to Annette Kellerman: “Here was a woman whose career foreshadowed my own, who started out as a champion swimmer but ended up in the movies…” ( The Million Dollar Mermaid 211). It was a thrill for Williams to get to bring Kellerman’s (altered) story to the screen, and to swim in the one-piece bathing suit of the legendary Australian mermaid! Esther Williams and Annette Kellerman on the set of Million Dollar Mermaid. Image scanned from The Million Dollar Mermaid Here’s the trailer –enjoy!

For more, visit my tumblr , pinterest , Twitter , Instagram , and Facebook ! Thank you to Esther Williams’s daughter Susan for talking with me about this film! You can buy this spectacular movie here . As always, thanks for reading! 1000+ images about Esther Williams on Pinterest | And so it goes, Actresses and Million dollar mermaid Forward Esther Williams, a 1940's movie star who was a champion swimmer. Consequently, all of her movies feature her swimming. She has several of her own businesses, including her own fabulous swimwear line, and she even inspired the olympics to add synchronized swimming! I admire this woman. See More Esther Williams - the Million Dollar Mermaid. ⋆ Historian Alan Royle Posted on April 2, 2016 by Alan Royle in Did You Know? , Uncategorized // 0 Comments If World war Two had not intervened and caused the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics, Esther Williams would have, in all probability, represented the USA as a swimmer in both meets.

In 1940 she was just 18 years old and already the holder of three National Swimming Championships, having won the 100 metre freestyle and set a record in the 100 metre breaststroke. Bitterly disappointed, she was working as a salesgirl when producer Billy Rose signed her for Aquacade, his swimming and diving show located in San Francisco. Her co-star would be none other than Johnny Weissmuller, the former Olympic swimming champion, now even more famous as the movie industry’s Tarzan. As Esther would write in her autobiography, however, Johnny was also hopelessly infatuated with his own body. He had a nasty habit of showing ‘my magnificent equipment’ to his leading ladies whenever he managed to get them alone. Actress Maureen O’Sullivan (Mia Farrow’s future mother) played Jane opposite Weissmuller’s Tarzan, and was forever trying to escape his clutches on the sets of their movies. When Esther asked her what she did when Johnny offered to expose himself to her, she replied, ‘I let him show me.’ Esther was not so obliging. ‘I’m swimming backstroke and he’s swimming crawl’, she complained.

‘And he’s coming at me.’ He was forever dropping his swimsuit backstage in front of her. Before long she left the show. Swimming with Weissmuller at the Aquacade Johnny and Maureen O’Sullivan as Tarzan & Jane Esther’s tell-all book titled The Million Dollar Mermaid caused a furore when it was published in 1999, especially among the friends and acquaintances of her former fiancée Jeff Chandler, after she wrote about his private penchant for dressing in women’s clothing. The couple had met and fallen in love on the set of Raw Wind in Eden in 1956. One evening Jeff decided his fiancee should know he was a cross-dresser, and had been since childhood. ‘Here was my lover’, she wrote, ‘a strong, manly figure by anyone’s estimate – who had just been standing before me in high heels and a dress. This was no joke. He enjoyed that kind of thing. He was a cross-dresser.’ Chandler died in 1961 and was, therefore, unable to contest her accusations, but his friends soon rallied on his behalf. Jane Russell, in particular, was incensed.

She and Chandler met and became friends when she played opposite him in the 1955 melodrama Foxfire. ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing’, she retorted. ‘Cross-dressing is the last thing I would expect of Jeff. He was a sweet guy, definitely all man’. Esther and fiancee Jeff Chandler Marsha Hunt’s reaction (she co-starred with Chandler in The Plunderers in 1960) was one of astonishment and disbelief. ‘It made my jaw drop’, she said. ‘I never heard a word or whisper that intimated that about Jeff.’ Another acquaintance, actor Fess Parker, also disbelieved Esther’s version of things. ‘I was shocked and surprised to read something like that’, the affable Texan commented. ‘I can tell you that there was no conversation, joking or otherwise, about that kind of thing on the set.’ He and Jeff made the 1959 western The Jayhawkers together. I all sincerity, the chances of Chandler chatting or joking about such a personal issue would have been infinitely small at best.

Russell also dismissed Esther’s accusation on the grounds that (back in 1960) ‘If there was anything going on [with cross-dressing] she would have told me then. She didn’t.’ Esther scoffed at that. ‘Why in the world would I tell Jane Russell about a personal problem as intimate as that?’ Esther and Jeff called off their engagement after he surprised her one evening decked out in a frock and high heels. ‘Jeff’, she said, ‘you’re too old for polka dots.’ And that was that. Esther’s autobiography pulls no punches whatsoever when it comes to her personal life, which makes one wonder why she would go to the trouble of telling lies about others. Her brother Stanton was nine years her senior and landed a couple of parts in two 1920 silent pictures, so Esther’s parents moved the family to Hollywood to enhance his career. Sadly, the boy died from a ruptured colon at 16, so the family took in an orphaned boy named Buddy McClure when Esther was 14. He raped her repeatedly for two years until he was found out. To Esther’s dismay her parents sympathized with him, so Esther herself threw him out of the house!

Esther’s screen debut as Mickey Rooney’s girl When MGM came knocking at her door it was 19 year-old Esther who usually called the shots, even when dealing with studio head LB Mayer who was known to throw tantrums in his office if he had trouble getting his way. ‘The tantrums were really spectacular’, she remembered. ‘I always wondered what he’d put in his mouth so he could foam at the mouth, like an Alka Seltzer or something. He would throw himself on the floor. How are you going to be frightened of a fella that throws himself on the floor and kicks his feet in the air?’ Even so, Mayer was forever chasing her for sex – unsuccessfully. Still, it was Mayer who put her into her first feature, one of the Andy Hardy series starring Mickey Rooney. She played Andy’s love interest in Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942), and audiences liked what they saw. So did Mickey, who pursued her relentlessly (as he did with just about every pretty girl he saw), but missed out. Esther was not the promiscuous type.

Nevertheless, plenty of others did their damndest to bed her, among them Howard Hughes and Lucille Ball’s husband, notorious womanizer Desi Arnaz. Victor mature, however, was luckier than most. He and Esther met when they made Million Dollar Mermaid together in 1952 when her marriage to Ben Gage was encountering heavy weather. She was highly vulnerable at the time. ‘That first night we made love over and over and into exhaustion’, she wrote of their first encounter in her dressing room. The one man I never had to teach anything to’, she added. ‘Not even how to swim.’ Their affair ended (as so many Hollywood affairs did) when filming ended and everyone moved on to other projects. Mature and Esther in Million Dollar Mermaid Some sources have claimed (now that Esther herself has passed on) that parts of her biography are pure fiction; that she admitted as much to them when she was alive. It was all done to enhance sales, her detractors say. But the lady ran a highly successful swimwear business. Money was never a problem. Neither was fame. She had plenty of both.

Her claims, they say, that her future husband Fernando Lamas would drive her around wearing nothing below his waist, were nothing but ploys to boost sales. When she described Weissmuller’s genitalia (she saw it often enough); using phrases such as ‘extraordinary male attributes’, ‘beautifully equipped’ and ‘remarkable genitalia’, the same critic suggested she was ‘writing for a gay fan base I didn’t know Williams had.’ Well, that makes two of us. For what it is worth, I found her book fascinating. I also felt it had the ring of truth about it despite what Jane Russell and others had to say. Husband #3 of four – Fernando Lamas I just finished watching one of her movies on Foxtel, a bit of fluff called This Time For Keeps, that was made in 1947, the year I was born. The picture itself was lousy, but Esther exuded star quality by the bucket load. The camera and Technicolor truly loved her. So did I. Wow!

Esther Williams dead at 91 | Variety June 6, 2013 | 10:13AM PT Actress was known for roles in such aquatic spectaculars as 'Bathing Beauty,' 'Million Dollar Mermaids' Esther Williams , the swim champion turned actress who was known for roles in MGM aquatic spectaculars such as “ Bathing Beauty ” and “ Million Dollar Mermaid ,” died Thursday in Beverly Hills. She was 91. Williams died “peacefully in her sleep,” according to family rep Harlan Boll. Popular in the 1940s and ’50s for her easy, amiable manner and aquatic abilities, Williams was a shrewd businesswoman who made a series of wise investments for the days after her decade or so of fame had ended, lending her name to swimming pools and bathing suits. Except for occasional commentary at swimming events like the Olympics or instructional video tapes, Williams largely retired after the mid-’60s. But while she was on top, she was one of MGM’s most colorful stars, appearing in hit films including 1945’s “Thrill of Romance” and “Easy to Wed,” two of several outings with co-star Van Johnson.

By the late-’40s she was one of the top 10 moneymakers in Hollywood. She frequently swam in her films, echoing the famous Fanny Brice remark “Wet she is a star. Dry, she ain’t.” And Williams admitted she could not act, sing or dance. But her easy California looks, winning smile and aquatic abilities were enough for post-war American audiences. Many of her films were profitable for MGM, and she was a cover girl on countless magazines. A Los Angeles native, Williams grew up swimming and surfing. Her first job at the age of eight was counting towels at a Inglewood public pool. She began competing in local swim events and by the age of 14 was winning regional events. At age 16, she repped the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team and earned three national championships for the breaststroke and freestyle. But her hopes of becoming an Olympic medalist were dashed when the 1940 Tokyo Summer Olympics were cancelled in the shadow of WWII. The media coverage she received for her swim triumphs brought the tall, leggy Williams to the attention of showman Bill Rose .

Out of a casting call of more than 100 hopefuls, Rose tapped her to star opposite Johnny Weismuller in his “San Francisco Aquacade Review.” MGM execs eventually offered her a screen test, and she was signed to a contract by Louis B. Mayer in October 1941. She made her screen debut alongside Mickey Rooney in “Andy Hardy’s Double Life,” in which she planted the first kiss on Rooney’s All-American hero. At MGM, Williams showed off her swimming skills in a series of water spectaculars including “Bathing Beauty,” “Neptune’s Daughter,” and “Million Dollar Mermaid.” A special 90-foot square, 20-foot deep pool was built at Stage 30 on the MGM lot, complete with hydraulic lifts, hidden air hoses and special camera cranes for overhead shots for Williams’ unique brand of aqua-musicals. Busby Berkley designed some of her pics’ lavish production numbers. She ultimately starred in 25 pics for the Lion. “No one had ever done a swimming movie before,” Williams said, “so we just made it up as we went along.

I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.” Williams’ first above-the-title billing came in the musical “Fiesta” opposite Ricardo Montalban. She was still in the swim through the end of the decade in such films as “This Time for Keeps,” “On an Island With You,” “ Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” “Duchess of Idaho” and “Pagan Love Song.” Efforts to take her out of the water in “Texas Carnival” and “Skirts Ahoy” didn’t work, so in 1952, she starred in the biographical film “Million Dollar Mermaid” as Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman. It was followed by “Dangerous When Wet,” “Easy to Love” and 1955’s “Jupiter’s Darling,” the last of her MGM films. Williams starred with Jeff Chandler in the drama “Raw Wind in Eden” in 1958 and then with Cliff Robertson in 1961’s “The Big Show.” Her last film, “The Magic Fountain,” was directed by her future third husband, Fernando Lamas, whom she married in 1969.

She settled into domestic life and charity work for the rest of her years, with an occasional break for interviews in documentaries such as “That’s Entertainment III” and “Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof.” Williams also had a big influence on the swimwear biz through her signature Esther Williams Swimsuit Collection. Working with her noted costume designer, Irene, on the wardrobe for 1944’s “Bathing Beauty,” Williams pushed for stretchy latex fabric to be used in her suit instead of the heavy woven fabrics used at the time. Williams continued her involvement with designing swimwear in all of her subsequent films. Williams was marrried four times. Her third marriage to thesp Fernando Lamas lasted from 1969 until his death in 1982. She wed Edward Bell in 1994. In addition to Bell, her survivors include two children and three grandchildren. The family requests that donations be made to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

(Carmel Dagan contributed to this report.) Esther Williams — The Movie Database (TMDb) Report Biography Esther Jane Williams (born August 8, 1921, although some sources cite 1922) is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star. Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, Williams joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. There, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller. It was at the Aquacade that Williams caught the attention of MGM scouts. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronized swimming and diving.

From 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film listed among the 20 highest grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which would go on to become her nickname while at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida. Since her retirement from film in the 1960s, Williams has become a businesswoman, lending her name to a line of swimming pools and retro swimwear, instructional swimming videos for children, and serving as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. As of 2011 Williams lives with her fourth husband, Edward Bell, in Beverly Hills. Description above from the Wikipedia article Esther Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Question: Which film star was known as the million dollar mermaid
Answer: Esther Williams