Esther Williams
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via: http://slimpaley.com/2012/06/18/swim/ Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own.
- You may have noticed by now that I’m a big fan of Esther Williams. I’ve written about eight of her films: Bathing Beauty, Thrill of a Romance, Easy to Wed, Neptune’s Daughter, Duchess of Idaho, Million Dollar Mermaid, Easy to Love, and Dangerous When Wet, with many more to come!
Instead of writing about one Esther film, here’s an entire Esther Williams post, dedicated to that incredible million dollar mermaid.
I think Williams is absolutely incredible: gorgeous, strong, immensely and uniquely talented, independent, funny…I could go on.
I adore her movies, I am obsessed with her fabulous autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid
This is my Esther. Like her namesake she’s a good swimmer, and she loves to paddle board with me, hence the life jacket. So far we haven’t tried water ballet, but she’s only three-years-old.
This is Esther Williams in a golden suit leading a troupe of synchronized swimmers in an underwater ballet in Neptune’s Daughter (1949). Wild, right?
Neptune’s Daughter
I first saw her movies when I was just a little kid rapidly exhausting the Classic Movie section at my local Action Video. I was captivated.
Not many of her films were available on home video until TCM released these wonderful box sets
Neptune’s Daughter
I was (and still am) enthralled by Williams’ “aqua musicals” with their elaborately choreographed synchronized swimming numbers and Busby Berkeley overhead shots, like this one from Million Dollar Mermaid. (Although Esther Williams didn’t invent synchronized swimming, she did popularize it and take it to new heights…)
Million Dollar Mermaid
Then I stumbled upon her autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid
But I still devoured them, until I turned the page of a Marilyn Monroe biography and found myself staring at a picture of Monroe’s dead face. They took a photo of her the day after she died, and someone decided to include it in the book.
That book went back to the library very quickly, and I took a hiatus. I think I was eleven or twelve, and I was not ready for cadaver portraits. (That’s why I’m not nearly as obsessive about Monroe as most people assume I am, though of course I have a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes poster. Publishing a picture of her cadaver is so over the line, and so endemic of how she was and is treated. So I give her some space in an effort to be respectful.)
The point of that digression is to say that it was with some hesitation that I picked up Esther Williams’ autobiography. But once I did read it…it was all over. My sister Sally, of SallyCooks.com, gave me a copy of the book for my 15th birthday: her inscription reads “Cam: Instead of checking this book out of the library for the the fifth time, I thought you’d like to add it to your collection. This book is so you.”
Esther with Esther
I highly recommend The Million Dollar Mermaid
Dangerous When Wet: about to swim the channel
But back to Esther Williams. I was interested in writing a dissertation on her (and Sonja Henie, the ice-skating star) because I find that phenomenon of movies built around athletes, particularly female ones, completely fascinating. Can you imagine Shawn Johnson, Michael Phelps, or even LeBron James starring in not just one but many movies, that are written and tweaked just to showcase their particular skill set?
one of my fan magazines
That’s what happened for Esther and Sonja, and it’s so of that moment (the Old Hollywood studio era), and so completely absurd yet wildly successful…Sonja was one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood during her career. You can read about one of her movies, It’s a Pleasure (1945), here.
Esther’s films were consistently among the years’ top grossing films, and she was one of the most popular stars. I won’t argue that her movies are cinematic masterpieces or that the plots are unique and creative (sometimes the same actors are thrown together with only a slightly different plot and maybe a new setting), but I will argue that they are entertaining, special, and important.
So, how did Esther Williams get to be MGM’s mermaid? The Williams family lived in Salt Lake City, but after Marjorie Rambeau (Primrose Path), a well-known actress, “discovered” Esther’s older brother Stanton in 1919, her family moved to Los Angeles, hoping to get Stanton into the movies. Esther was born after the move to California in 1921. Stanton was the star of the family, and it was devastating when he passed away after his colon burst in 1929. Esther never had much interest in showbusiness–Stanton had been the child star. She spent her time at the pool, instead.
Esther was a fantastic swimmer who had won three national championships by the time she was sixteen. She set national records and qualified for the Olympics, but it was 1940…
In Neptune’s Daughter, Williams’ character is a champion swimmer
She got a job at an upscale department store, I. Magnin, as a salesgirl who also modeled. These were the days when customers would come in and get a live fashion show of the clothes. Here she is modeling a $250,000 pearl dress in 1940:
Williams married a medical student and hoped to become a buyer for the store. But show business kept trying to drag her away from that life. She was asked to audition for the Aquacade, a synchronized swimming live show. The story goes that when she swam for Billy Rose, the impresario behind the Aquacade, she raced across the pool swimming as fast as she could.
He told her that he didn’t want “fast,” he wanted “pretty.” And she said that if you aren’t strong enough to swim fast, you probably can’t swim pretty, either. She got the job. She swam in this water show for several months, where she learned to swim “pretty” (head and shoulders above the water so the audience can see her smiling face!)
Thrill of a Romance
MGM scouts spotted her at the Aquacade, and asked her to make a screen test. She kept turning them down, though! She hadn’t enjoyed the Aquacade with its seedy backstage life, and she didn’t believe MGM could make her into a star. Who’d ever heard of a swimming movie star?
But eventually she agreed to give the movie thing a try. She was in an Andy Hardy movie Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942), and A Guy Named Joe (1943), before her first starring role in Bathing Beauty in 1944. This is the first “Esther Williams’ movie” showcasing her talents and MGM’s commitment to a swimming musical.
MGM made a massive investment in Esther Williams. They built her a $250,000 (in 1943 money!) tank that was ninety by ninety feet, 25 feet deep, equipped with fountains, fireworks, and a pedestal on a hydraulic lift, with windows below the water-line so they could film her underwater “ballets.”
They taught a bunch of dancers to swim, after realizing that it was easier to teach dancers to swim than to teach swimmers to dance!
Scriptwriters kept coming up with ways to get her in the water, which usually included a tame strip tease, and I’m still in awe of how the cinematography, costume, hair, set, and make-up departments pioneered new technologies to produce these shimmering movies.
Easy to Love
Bathing Beauty was a hit, so the MGM machine went into action. The public wanted to see Esther swim, and to see her in greater and wilder stunts, so the studio worked to make it happen even though no one had made movies like this before. (There were “water spectaculars” like the Aquacade, where Williams swam alongside Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), and also fended off his daily advances, but it had not been done on film.)
If you subscribe to the problem-solution theory of artistic change, look no further than Esther Williams and her films. Esther’s hair needs to look picture-perfect for twelve hours of shooting in the pool? No problem: after much experimentation, Sidney Guilaroff and his crew in the hair department created a mixture of Vaseline and baby oil which kept Esther’s hair (with fake braids attached to a metal bar pinned to her scalp) looking gorgeous and contained even underwater.
Need to film underwater? No problem: soon there was a special unit of cameramen with experience scuba diving who enjoyed filming in the MGM tank.
Want to make it look as though Esther and her swimming chorus girls are underwater for an impossible amount of time? Why, a strategically placed column/plant/pole will hide that cut very nicely! Or even get Esther to swim with cartoons? Done. (Animators drew in the bubbles after a preview audience said they didn’t believe Esther was actually underwater in the sequence…)
Dangerous When Wet
To promote Esther’s first aqua musical, Bathing Beauty, MGM put a six story tall billboard of Esther in a bathing suit in Times Square with the tagline, “Come on in, the water’s fine!” And a star was born!
The pink and green is from the finale of Bathing Beauty, the gold is from Million Dollar Mermaid (1952).
Million Dollar Mermaid
Fun Fact: It was in that gold bodysuit that Esther dove fifty feet off of the hydraulic lift in the tank and broke her neck. See that tiny gold crown on her head? It was made of metal, and when she hit the water the impact snapped three vertebrae. To add insult to horrific injury, she almost drowned when the crew didn’t realize she was hurt and couldn’t get out of the pool. The costume department did not make that mistake twice.
Easy to Love
Esther was usually paired with tall manly men like our old friend Howard Keel or Van Johnson, and there was usually a swimming-scene-of-love akin to a Fred and Ginger dance–they swim/dance together and you know they’re a couple.
Thrill of a Romance
But unlike Ginger who danced with the best of the best, Esther’s co-stars were usually very poor swimmers, and it’s amusing to watch them. Howard Keel looks a little panicked as he tries to stay afloat, and Peter Lawford loses the rhythm of the strokes entirely as he thrashes about. Sometimes Esther had to hold her romantic lead up by surreptitiously sliding a hand or foot under their back or tummy as they swam beside her.
But in Dangerous When Wet her co-star was Fernando Lamas, Argentinean swimming champion, and her future husband. She said it was a delight swimming with a great swimmer for a change!
Dangerous When Wet
When you watch Esther swim with these men, you realize how amazingly easy she makes it look. Compared to their inept attempts to stay afloat, and even to her swimming chorus girls, Esther looks like a real mermaid. She swims effortlessly, powerfully, smoothly. When she’s frolicking under the surface, it’s easy to forget that she is underwater. She seems so comfortable, so entirely at ease.
Dangerous When Wet
Unfortunately for Esther, she was both star and guinea pig/stunt double. No one had done these types of things before, and often Esther’s safety seemed very far down the list of the filmmakers’ priorities.
in the underwater room with a ceiling and hidden trap door…via: http://hoodoothatvoodoo.tumblr.com/post/10971770612
She had to look out for herself, because Busby Berkeley and other directors sure didn’t.
She ruptured her ear drums multiple times from being underwater so much, broke a toe from clenching a swing with her feet as she swung fifty feet above the tank, and almost drowned in a scary wave when filming in Hawaii.
One particularly close call came when she was filming an underwater dream sequence taking place in a hotel room for Texas Carnival (1951). MGM built a room in the tank, and someone decided to put a ceiling on it.
The walls and ceiling were painted black, and after Esther had completed her underwater, forty-five second take, she couldn’t find the trapdoor in the ceiling. At first, the crew didn’t realize she was trapped underwater, but finally someone noticed and opened the door…she almost drowned on a movie set, surrounded by dozens of people.
It’s astounding to think about, especially when you hear how there are stunt and body doubles to do the smallest, simplest things in movies now. Filmmakers don’t mess around with valuable stars, but with Esther Williams everyone seemed to have had a “let’s see what happens!” attitude. There was also the problem that she was the only swimmer capable of most of the stunts, and that she was able to handle everything the studio threw at her…
Neptune’s Daughter
Easy to Love (1953), another of my favorites, was set and filmed in Cypress Gardens, FL. Instead of being limited to the tank on the soundstage, MGM had the ocean to play with. So they told Esther she needed to learn to water ski because Busby Berkeley had a big finale in mind and had hired 68 champion water skiers. So she learned. And she is amazing at it:
Easy to Love
But she did put her foot down on diving from a helicopter into the midst of dozens of water-skiers, and of skiing off a huge jump over a stage and into the water…because she was pregnant. A diver friend of Esther’s performed the dive, and another skier did the jump, but Esther did everything else…
Easy to Love
She didn’t just swim/dive/waterski, either. She has a nice voice and sings in some of her movies. Esther, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Garrett, and Red Skelton sang “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in 1949’s Neptune’s Daughter, and the song won the Oscar for Best Original Song! I don’t know why it became a Christmas standard, but that’s for another post.
She looks great in the tailored 1940s and 1950s styles:
She dances well:
Neptune’s Daughter
Oh, and she wears bathing suits quite nicely, too!
Easy to Love
Million Dollar Mermaid
Bathing Beauty
She’s sensational playing independent, confident, successful women. She’s often a swimming instructor/swimming star (it’s easy to justify big water ballets that way!)/swimming businesswoman/model/or performer of some kind. She’s less believable as a toreador (seriously, in Fiesta (1947)). But she’s delightful no matter how strained the plot may be.
I wrote my senior thesis in college on “sister comedies,” and one part of the paper was about how lots of classic movies are about two sisters, one independent and successful, the other immature and floundering. Well, Esther was in a lot of sister comedies, but she never played the latter.
When the studio system began to crumble, Esther realized she couldn’t go on making “Esther Williams’ movies.” But before she left MGM she did something pretty gracious: she knew that Grace Kelly was next-in-line for a “star” dressing room.
Without telling anyone why, Esther asked the studio if she could re-decorate her dressing room. The studio agreed, and Esther replaced her tired, beat-up red, white, and blue chintz with soft tones of sea foam and green, just perfect for a cool blonde.
After the room was finished, she announced her departure from the studio, and turned her dressing room, now decorated to suit Grace, over to Miss Kelly. Isn’t that lovely? Rather than leave new-star Grace at the mercy of MGM, established, powerful-star Esther made sure she had a beautiful new dressing room to move into!
Esther did a few more movies at other studios, but her era of aqua musicals was over. But life does not end when the movies stop! In the 1940s she had worked with a swimsuit company, Cole of California, to create a better bathing suit, and even convinced the Navy to order 50,000 to replace the sad cotton swimsuits that had been part of the uniform.
She played a swimsuit designer in Neptune’s Daughter, and she started a business in real life, too:
Esther Williams Swimwear still sells beautiful vintage-inspired suits, as well as aboveground pools.
Esther Williams did several extremely popular television specials, and she worked as a commentator in the 1984 Olympic synchronized swimming competition. She passed away at the age of 91 on June 6, 2013. The world lost a magnificent woman!
Well, if you’d like more, read her book. And watch this lovely overview of her career from That’s Entertainment, including a montage of some of her most spectacular spectaculars, and definitely check out The Million Dollar Mermaid
The Blonde at the Film 
I agree she is beautiful and her films are wonderful! If you ever need a rare film of hers just drop me a line,I have a huge collection. I am making my way through the box sets now. Esther and Van had some magic.
Thanks, John!
Thanks for this lovely, heartfelt tribute to Esther Williams!
I must confess that her films are a complete gap in my otherwise fairly prolific old-Hollywood viewing… probably due to my being a bit of an aqua-phobe, who finds watching underwater scenes uncomfortable! But you have convinced me to give it a try, and check out Esther onscreen.
There sure was some grand cinematic creativity in that era – nice to be reminded of it! 🙂
Thank you! I hope you give Esther a try! Some of her movies, like Thrill of a Romance, have no underwater scenes–so hopefully you’ll enjoy them! Thanks so much for reading!
This was such a great post – thanks for putting it together for all of us! I read her autobiography a few years ago and I really liked it! As you said, I learned a lot about the way films were made and how MGM operated just from her descriptions alone – I’m thinking maybe I should give it another read since it’s been a while. Thanks for reminding me how great Esther was 😉
Thanks, Vanessa! So glad you enjoyed this post! Hurray for Esther Williams, and thanks for reading!
What an epic post on the wonderful Miss Williams! I love Esther Williams movies – they’re the perfect thing to cheer me up on a blah day. Reading about all the stunts she did, the skills she learned aside from swimming, and the times she risked life and limb to do her job, I can only say “What a woman!” She was certainly a one of a kind star.
I agree completely–there’s nothing like an Esther movie to make me smile! She was incredible, and definitely one-of-a-kind! Thanks for reading!
Excellent post!
Thank you!
I could read this over and over! You paid a wonderful tribute to Esther Williams 🙂
I don’t however love the underwater scenes because it just makes me nervous for her (lol) but she was certainly something else!! Now if only I can swim like Esther Williams I’d be all set 🙂 Thanks again for sharing this with us
Thank you, Tracy! Thanks so much for reading!
Esther was my idol. I , at the tender age of 7, started collecting pictures of her, in 1950. Still have every one of them! Thanks for this wonderful tribute. I finally saw her in person in the mid 1990’s, what a thrill, even got my my picture taken with her. She couldn’t have been nicer. Thanks again:)
How wonderful! I never got to meet Esther Williams but I would have loved to! Thank you so much for reading! I love hearing from Esther Williams’ fans!
Great article on this wonderful star.
Thank you!
I’m so glad I’ve found someone else as enamored of Esther as I am! She’s just the best. I don’t care how cheesy or ridiculous her films can get, Esther is Esther. Her book might just be my favorite autobiography–funny, my sister also gave it to me for my birthday. I haven’t named my dog “Esther”, though. She’s too used to “Peaches” to change it.
I also wrote a piece on the lovely Ms. Williams on my own blog, LoveLetterstoOldHollywood.blogspot.com. I’d appreciate it if you let me know what you think! (Warning: my blog is nowhere near as awesome and professional as yours is.)
Keep up the fantastic work! I just found your blog and I’m already a fan.
Hi Michaela! Thank you for your kind words! It’s wonderful to find another Esther fan. I really enjoyed your post about her, and your blog is great! I’m glad you found my blog and sent me yours. You should consider applying to join the Classic Movie Blog Association, http://clamba.blogspot.com. I think your blog would be a great fit! Thanks again for this comment, and hurray for Esther Williams!
Hey, Cam. I saw her once at a NY restaurant called Elaine’s, long after she retired. She was done up in fur and marched between tables with a small entourage.
I love that! How cool–I’m really jealous. Thanks for stopping by, Jeff!
Loved your blog on Esther. I’m always living in the 40’s as I loved those movies & the stars that made them. I haven’t read her book, my next quest. I did have an Esther Williams pool installed in my backyard & loved swimming in it with my family.
She was really beautiful & made swimming look so effortless. I recorded a bunch of her movies to watch (again) when TCM had her featured. I understand her husband Ben Gage sqandered a lot of the money she made, so sad, also the problem Doris Day had when her hysband (Marty Melcher) left her in debt when he died. These women stars married men they trusted to make correct decisions & investments, they worked long hours at the studios only to have their husbands at the race track loosing their money. So sad.
It’s great to hear from another Esther fan! So cool that you had one of her pools! Thanks for this comment!
Hello BlondeAtTheFilm, I had a question. I’ve read Esther Williams autobiography and I rather enjoyed it, and I seen her in two films “The Million Dollar Mermaid” which wasn’t my favorite, & “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” which I own and I liked her performance in that. Now I wanted to know, do you think that since I enjoyed her book and one of her films that I would like her more as an actress in other films?
Hello! Absolutely! If you liked her autobiography and enjoyed Take Me Out to the Ball Game, I think you’d like some of her other movies. I’d especially recommend Easy to Love, Neptune’s Daughter, and Dangerous When Wet to start.
Okay, thank you for getting back to me so quickly! I cannot wait to watch her films, I’m hoping she will become of of my favorite actresses.
Love her!one of my fav stars. You are a truly fan. thanks for the beautiful post
Thank you!
sorry but I have to make a question. Is Esther homophobic? Don’t get me wrong but I really don’t know and, maybe, you can give me an answer
I’ve never come across anything that made me think she was homophobic.
oh thank you. I m happy:) is because she talk about Jeff, you know. Well, but I understand her. Probably she thought “oh, if he wear dresses, he is gay, so he doesn’t like me”. I’m glad that she is not. Well, she knew that Van is gay and like him any way
Esther Williams was also involved in the swimming pool business. We put a pool in our backyard in 1990- an Esther Williams pool- and it’s still is used & looks as good as the day it was put in!
Yes! She had a pool business and also produced some instructional swimming videos! I’m glad your Esther Williams pool has been so loved!
I loved her too! Thanks for bringing her back and keeping her memory alive.
She was amazing!