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Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she 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. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and 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 synchronised swimming and diving.
Every year from 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film 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 went on to become her nickname while she was at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed network television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.
Williams was also a successful businesswoman. Before retiring from acting, she invested in a "service station, a metal products plant, a manufacturer of bathing suits, various properties and a successful restaurant chain known as Trails." She lent her name to a line of swimming pools, retro swimwear, and instructional swimming videos for children, and served as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The two lived on neighboring farms in Kansas and carried on a nine-year courtship until June 1, 1908, when they eloped and set off for California. However, they ran out of money in Salt Lake City, Utah, and settled there. Esther's brother, Stanton (September 4, 1912 – March 3, 1929) was discovered by actress Marjorie Rambeau, which led to the family (including sisters Maurine and June, and brother David) moving to the Los Angeles area to be near the studios. Louis Williams purchased a small piece of land in the southwest area of town and had a small house built there. Esther was born in the living room, which was also where the family slept until Louis Williams was able to add bedrooms. In 1929, Stanton Williams died after his colon burst. He was 16 years old.
In 1935, Bula Myrtle Williams invited 16-year-old Buddy McClure to live with her family. McClure had recently lost his mother and Bula was still grieving over the death of her son, Stanton. Esther recounted in her autobiography that one night, when the rest of the family was visiting relatives in Alhambra, McClure raped her. She was terrified to tell anyone about the incident and waited two years before finally revealing the truth to her parents. Williams' mother seemed unsure about her story, claiming McClure was "sensitive" and felt sympathetic toward him when he admitted his guilt. However, Bula Williams then banished him from her home. McClure joined the United States Coast Guard, and Williams never saw him again.
Her medley team set the record for the 300-yard relay at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1939, and was also national AAU champion in the 100 meter freestyle, with a record-breaking time of 1 minute 9.0 seconds. By age 16, Williams had won three US national championships in breaststroke and freestyle swimming.
Williams graduated from Washington High School (now known as Washington Preparatory High School) in Los Angeles in 1939, where she served as class vice president, and later president. However, Williams never trained in swimming while there.
During her senior year of high school, Williams received a D in her algebra course, preventing her from getting a scholarship to the University of Southern California. Williams stated in her autobiography that her family could not afford to send her to USC, and that she did not get a scholarship to the school. In a 1984 interview with The Los Angeles Times, it reports she spent a year there. She enrolled in Los Angeles City College to retake the course. In 1939, Williams expressed interest in pursuing a degree in physical education in order to teach it one day. To earn money for tuition, Williams worked as a stock girl at the I. Magnin department store, where she also modeled clothing for customers and appeared in newspaper advertisements.
While Williams was working at I. Magnin, she was contacted by Billy Rose's assistant and asked to audition as a replacement for Eleanor Holm in his Aquacade show. Williams impressed Rose and she got the role. The Aquacade was part of the Golden Gate International Exposition, and Williams was partnered with Olympic Games swimmer and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller, who, Williams wrote in her autobiography, repeatedly tried to seduce her. Despite this, Williams remained with the show until it closed on September 29, 1940. Williams had planned to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Sometime in the mid to late 1950s, NBC built a large studio with a huge swimming pool on Avenue M between E 14th and E 15th St. in Brooklyn, New York. The intent was, according to local rumors, that Esther Williams was going to have a show from the studio. It never occurred. The building remained empty until 1959/1960, when the “Steve Allen Show” was brought to the studios and televised live on Sunday evenings.
In her contract were two clauses: the first being that she receive a guest pass to The Beverly Hills Hotel where she could swim in the pool every day, and the second that she would not appear on camera for nine months to allow for acting, singing, dancing, and diction lessons. Williams wrote in her autobiography, "If it took nine months for a baby to be born, I figured my 'birth' from Esther Williams the swimmer to Esther Williams the movie actress would not be much different." While top stars at the studios such as Judy Garland, Betty Grable, and Shirley Temple took part in War bond during the war, Williams was asked to take in hospital tours. At this point, Williams had achieved pin-up status because of the number of photographs of her in bathing suits. To prepare, Williams and her publicity assistant would listen to Bob Hope and Jack Benny's radio programs, retelling the funniest jokes while at the hospitals. Williams also invited GIs to dance with her on stage and take part in mock screen tests. The men would receive a card telling them their lines, and they would act out the scene in front of the other soldiers. These tests were always romantic scenes to which the men were required to refuse multiple times. When the men said the final, "No", Williams would pull at her tear-away skirt and sweater leaving nothing but a gold lamé swimsuit. The scenes would always end with the men giving in and kissing her after that stunt. Her hospital tours continued into the 1950s. A (forged) signed, waterproof portrait of Williams was circulated among men in the United States Navy for a "capture the Esther" competition. This competition continues to this day in the Royal Australian Navy, which holds in its archives an "original" forged signed portrait while maintaining a "capturable" image for use in the fleet.
Bathing Beauty, previously titled Mr. Coed, starred Red Skelton as a man who enrolls in a women's college to win back his swimming instructor fiancée, played by Williams. This was her first Technicolor musical. The studio changed the title of the film to showcase Williams. Almost all of the film's posters featured Williams in a bathing suit, though the swimming sequences make up a small portion of the film. Her date to the premiere at the Astor Theater in New York City was future husband Ben Gage. For the event, MGM publicity set up a six-story-tall billboard of Williams diving into Times Square with a large sign that said "Come on in! The story's fine!"
Williams appeared in the film Ziegfeld Follies as herself. This was followed by the musical Thrill of a Romance. Van Johnson co-starred as a decorated war veteran who falls in love with Williams while on her honeymoon. Thrill of a Romance was the 8th highest-grossing film of 1945. Williams had to help Johnson swim, and she placed her hand under his back to keep him afloat. The studio's publicity department tried to put the two together in public as much as possible in the hopes of encouraging a romance, even though Williams was involved with Gage at the time. When asked why they didn't date, Johnson replied, "because I'm afraid she can't get her webbed feet into a pair of evening sandals."Ronald L. Davis Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy, Jackson, Mississippi: University of Mississippi Press, 2001, pg. 88
Williams tried a more serious role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946), with William Powell and Angela Lansbury. Audiences expected Powell's Nick Charles persona and rejected the idea of a romance between Williams and Powell onscreen due to their age difference. She also appeared in Easy to Wed, a remake of 1936's Libeled Lady, with Johnson and Lucille Ball. It was the first singing part in a film for Williams, who had Harriet Lee as her voice teacher. Fiesta (originally called Fiesta Brava) April 19, 1945 The Deseret News. starred Williams as Ricardo Montalbán's twin sister, Maria, who pretends to be her bullfighting brother in hopes of luring him back home. Audiences, and Williams, thought the film was silly, as Williams and Montalbán had vastly different accents. Montalbán was born in Mexico and was a native Spanish speaker while Williams had a mid-western accent picked up from her Kansas-born parents. Production was difficult with a multitude of problems. By 1947, Gage and Williams were married. Gage had traveled to Mexico for the making of the film. He got into a fight with an employee of the cast's hotel, was arrested, and subsequently thrown out of the country. The director of photography, Sidney Wagner, and one other crew member died of cholera from eating contaminated street food. Many of the film's stuntmen were sent to the hospital after being gored by bulls. Director Richard Thorpe hadn't wanted the bulls killed (as they usually were at the end of a bullfight) because he believed them to be too expensive to replace.
After filming was completed on Fiesta, Williams appeared in the romance This Time for Keeps (1947) with singer Johnnie Johnston. In 1948, Williams signed a contract with swimwear company Cole of California to appear as their spokesperson, and Williams and the other swimmers in her films wore Cole swimsuits. Since the aqua-musicals were an entirely new genre, the studio's costume designers had little experience creating practical swimsuits. William's plaid flannel swimsuit for This Time for Keeps was so heavy that she was dragged to the bottom of the pool, and had to unzip the suit, swimming naked to the edge of the pool to avoid drowning. Cole swimsuits used latex, which meant zippers were no longer necessary. While filming Skirts Ahoy! (1952), Williams discovered that members of the WAVES program received thin, cotton, shapeless swimsuits as part of their uniforms. Williams modeled a Cole swimsuit for the Secretary of the Navy and explained that the new swimsuits helped support women's figures. The United States Navy ordered 50,000 suits immediately.
Filming Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) was, according to Williams in her autobiography, an experience of "pure misery." A period musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, the two male leads' characters were players in a baseball team owned by K.C. Higgins, Williams's role. She claimed that Kelly and co-writer Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and went out of their way to make jokes at her expense. The film was well-received critically and became a major commercial success, raking in $3.4 million in rentals and becoming the 11th highest-earning film of the year. Williams made Neptune's Daughter (also 1949) around the same time with co-stars Ricardo Montalbán, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett, who had also been in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In the film, Williams sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Montalbán. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22nd Academy Awards. Williams and Montalbán were originally slated to sing "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", but studio censors thought the song was too sexual (interpreting the word "get" as "have") and instead gave them "Baby, It's Cold Outside."Purdum, Todd S. (September 2, 1999). "At Home With: Esther Williams; Swimming Upstream". The New York Times. Neptune's Daughter became the 10th highest-grossing film of 1949.
In Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Williams portrayed Annette Kellermann, a real-life Australian swimming and diving star. Williams co-starred with Victor Mature, who played Kellermann's husband and manager, James Sullivan. The two engaged in a passionate affair during filming. Williams often called this her favorite film and named her autobiography after it. Williams also won the Henrietta Award at the 1952 Golden Globes, for World Film Favorite – Female. Easy to Love (1953), also with Van Johnson, was filmed on location in Cypress Gardens, where a swimming pool in the shape of the state of Florida had been built specifically for the film. Williams was pregnant during shooting, but still performed all her own waterskiing stunts.
In Dangerous When Wet (also 1953), Williams worked with three important male co-stars – Tom and Jerry and her future husband Fernando Lamas. During casting, Lamas told Williams he did not want to star in the film with her because he only wanted to be involved in "important pictures". His part had to be rewritten to persuade him to take part in the film.
In 1953, Williams had been on maternity leave for three months while pregnant with her daughter Susan, and assumed she would go straight to work on the film Athena when she returned. However, production started without her, and the studio cast Jane Powell in the lead role, rewriting much of the premise that Williams and writers Leo Pogostin and Charles Walters had come up with. The studio moved her to Jupiter's Darling. Two more films were planned, Bermuda Encounter and Olympic Venus, about the first Olympic swimmers; however, these were never made. The Toledo Blade, May 19, 1953. Box Office Barometer, November 15, 1947 "This states Olympic Venus as incomplete."
Many of her MGM films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter's Darling, contained elaborately staged synchronized swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams. She broke her neck filming a 115 ft dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the film Million Dollar Mermaid and was in a body cast for seven months. She subsequently recovered, although she continued to suffer headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged in a studio tank resulted in ruptured numerous times. She also nearly drowned after not being able to find the trapdoor in the ceiling of a tank. The walls and ceiling were painted black and the trapdoor blended in. Williams was pulled out only because a member of the crew realized the door was not opening.
In 1956, she moved to Universal International and appeared in a non-musical dramatic film, The Unguarded Moment (1956). After that, her film career slowly wound down. She later admitted that husband Fernando Lamas preferred her not to continue in films. She would, however, make occasional appearances on television, including mystery guest appearances for What's My Line?, The Donna Reed Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and two aqua-specials, The Esther Williams Aqua Spectacle held in London at The Empire Pool Wembley in 1956 and Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens which was telecast on August 8, 1960. (Fredericksburg, Virginia) Free-Lane Star, August 9, 1960. More than half of all television sets in use in the United States were tuned in to watch the Cypress Gardens special. In 1966, Williams was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
She continued to lend her name to a line of retro women's swimwear. Williams said, "Women worldwide are fighting a thing called gravity ... I say to women when I talk to them, 'You girls of 18 have until about 25, 30 at the most, and then you have to report to me. My suits are quality fabric. She went on: "I put you in a suit that contains you and you will swim in. I don't want you to be in two Dixie cups and a fish line." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 1997 article.
She was also the namesake of a company that manufactures and swimming pool accessories. She came out with a line of Swim, Baby, Swim videos, which helped parents teach their children how to swim. She also appeared as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Williams met her fourth husband as a result of his calling her to coordinate her appearance. She co-wrote her autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), with popular media critic and author Digby Diehl. In 1994 she made her first new big-screen appearance in 31 years as one of the hosts of the retrospective That's Entertainment! III.
In a 2007 interview with Diane Sawyer, Williams admitted that she had recently suffered a stroke. "I opened my eyes and I could see, but I couldn't remember anything from the past", she said. GMA interview with Diane Sawyer in 2007 . In June 2008, Williams was able to attend Cyd Charisse's funeral, albeit in a wheelchair.
In April 2010, Williams appeared at the first Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California, alongside two-time co-star Betty Garrett. Their film, Neptune's Daughter (1949), was screened at the pool of the Roosevelt Hotel, along with a performance of the Williams-inspired synchronized swimming troupe, The Waterlilies. South Beach Miami's 2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swim, a showcase of designer swimwear, included a Williams suit, complete with a beach summer theme and sand palette with aqua accents.
In 2000, an account of Williams's life and career appeared in the Swedish book Esther Williams — Skenbiografin ( Esther Williams: The Fake Biography) written by Jane Magnusson,Jane Magnusson. Esther Williams – skenbiografin. Stockholm, Sweden: Bokförlaget DN, 2000. in which the author shares with readers her own fascination for art swimming as a genre and, here, in particular, Williams as—to the author—both a bewildering and mesmerizing front figure and icon in this field. Esther Williams – skenbiografin; Forum Bokförlag (Swedish)
She married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25, 1945; November 17, 1945 Ellensburg, Washington Daily Record. they had three children, Benjamin Stanton (born August 6, 1949), Actress Esther Williams of MGM and her husband, Ben Gage, with their 2-month-old son, Benjamin Stanton, and first family portrait. Kimball Austin (October 30, 1950 – May 6, 2008) Esther Williams with her new son, Kimball Austin Gage, born October 30. The swimming star is also the mother of Benjamin Gage, born August 6, 1949. and Susan Tenney (born October 1, 1953). Williams holds daughter, Susan, 5 months, at baptism rites for her three children. Sons Kimmie and Benjie stand in front. Helping hold Susan is Gov. Kohler of Wisconsin. At left is Esther's husband, Ben Gage. In her autobiography, she portrayed Gage as an alcoholism parasite who squandered $10 million of her earnings. Gage and Williams separated in 1952, and divorced in April 1959. "Esther Williams Wins Divorce From Ben Gage", April 9, 1958, Los Angeles Times .
During the filming of Pagan Love Song in Hawaii, Williams learned she was pregnant with her third child, and notified the studio in California. Gage had met a man at the hotel who owned a ham radio and persuaded the man to let them use it to call California. What they failed to realize at the time, though, was that anyone could be listening in on their conversation, and news of her pregnancy was broadcast to the entire West Coast.
She disclosed in her autobiography that she had an affair with actor Victor Mature while they were working on Million Dollar Mermaid, citing that at the time her marriage was in trouble and, feeling lonely, she turned to Mature for love and affection, and he gave her all she wanted. The affair stopped while Williams was recovering from her fall during the shooting of Million Dollar Mermaid. She was romantically linked with Jeff Chandler. She claims in her autobiography that Chandler was a transvestite and that she broke off the relationship. According to the Los Angeles Times, many friends and colleagues of Chandler's rebutted Williams' claims. Jane Russell commented, "I've never heard of such a thing. Cross-dressing is the last thing I would expect of Jeff. He was a sweet guy, definitely all man."
She married her former lover, Argentine actor/director, Fernando Lamas on December 31, 1969. She later claimed that for 13 years she lived in total submission to him. She had to stop being "Esther Williams" and could not have her children live with her. In return, he would be faithful. Nonetheless, they remained married until Lamas's death from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 1982.
She resided in Beverly Hills with actor husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994.
On her death, CNN quoted her International Swimming Hall of Fame biography, saying, "Her movie career played a major role in the promotion of swimming, making it attractive to the public, contributing to the growth of the sport as a public recreation for health, exercise, water safety – and just plain fun." Her stepson Lorenzo Lamas tweeted she was "The best swim teacher and soul mom." Actress Annabeth Gish tweeted a tribute, writing that Esther Williams was an "elegant, gracious movie star, legend and neighbor". Film historian Leonard Maltin called her "a major, major star, a tremendous box office attraction."
For her contribution to the motion-picture industry, Williams has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. She left her hand and footprints in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 1, 1944.
Williams was mentioned in the "Court Charades" sketch in the 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus episode "The Spanish Inquisition" where Eric Idle mentions her to which Graham Chapman responds "How can you find the defendant 'Not Esther Williams'?"
Scarlett Johansson's character DeeAnna Moran in the 2016 Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! shares several similarities with Williams, most notably being an aquamusical star who becomes pregnant during production.
| + Film | ||||
| 1942 | Andy Hardy's Double Life | Sheila Brooks | ||
| Personalities | Sheila Brooks (Screen test footage) | Short subject | ||
| Inflation | Mrs. Smith | Short film | ||
| 1943 | Ellen Bright | |||
| 1944 | Bathing Beauty | Caroline Brooks | ||
| 1945 | Thrill of a Romance | Cynthia Glenn | ||
| Ziegfeld Follies | Herself | ('A Water Ballet') | ||
| 1946 | Kay Lorrison | |||
| Easy to Wed | Connie Allenbury Chandler | |||
| Till the Clouds Roll By | Herself | Uncredited | ||
| 1947 | Fiesta | Maria Morales | ||
| This Time for Keeps | Leonora 'Nora' Cambaretti | |||
| 1948 | On an Island with You | Rosalind Reynolds | ||
| 1949 | Take Me Out to the Ball Game | K.C. Higgins | ||
| Neptune's Daughter | Eve Barrett | |||
| 1950 | Duchess of Idaho | Christine Riverton Duncan | ||
| Pagan Love Song | Mimi Bennett | |||
| 1951 | Texas Carnival | Debbie Telford | ||
| Callaway Went Thataway | Herself | Uncredited | ||
| 1952 | Skirts Ahoy! | Whitney Young | ||
| Million Dollar Mermaid | Annette Kellerman | |||
| 1953 | Dangerous When Wet | Katie Higgins | ||
| Easy to Love | Julie Hallerton | |||
| 1954 | Athena | Screenwriter Uncredited | ||
| 1955 | Jupiter's Darling | Amytis | ||
| 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration | Herself | Short subject | ||
| 1956 | The Unguarded Moment | Lois Conway | ||
| Screen Snapshots: Hollywood, City of Stars | Herself | Short subject | ||
| 1958 | Raw Wind in Eden | Laura | ||
| 1961 | The Big Show | Hillary Allen | ||
| 1963 | Magic Fountain | Hyacinth Tower | ||
| 1994 | That's Entertainment! III | Herself |
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