Esther Williams, Vintage Swim Wear and Aquatic Fun

Esther Williams was a competitive swimmer and actress in the 1940’s through the 1950’s. As a teenager, she enjoyed going to the local pool so much that she took a job working counting towels to earn the entry fee. The male lifeguards took to giving her lessons and taught her the butterfly, which at the time was a “male only” stroke. (1) In 1940, she was part of the Olympic team going to Tokyo when WWII broke out, which cancelled the competitions and her dreams of international fame.

At the time the sport news took a lot of pictures of female swimmers and Esther was beautiful, tall and very athletic. Billy Rose spotted her and brought her to the audition for his Aquacade. Johnny Weissmuller, and Olympic gold medal swimmer and Tarzan star chose her out of seventy five women who had auditioned. That was the beginning of Williams’ career in synchronized swimming.

The Aquacade was a choreographed musical, and cast in its spectacular show were hundreds of swimmers, with diving scenes, lots of singing and all kinds of special effects with water and props for water sports. Williams was the featured Aquabelle female star, along with the Aquadonis male lead, Johnny Weissmueller.

After that show was over, MGM made Williams an offer and she signed a contract to do films. She asked for two clauses in her contract. One was that she be given a pass to swim in The Beverly Hills Hotel pool, so that she could swim daily, and two that she “not appear on camera for nine months, to allow for acting, singing, dancing, and dictions lessons.” (2) Her film debut was with Mickey Rooney in 1942, in Andy Hardy’s Double life.

By 1944 MGM came up with new subgenre, aqua musicals. They built Williams a $250,000 swimming pool. “It had underwater windows, colored fountains and hydraulic lifts. (3) In 1944 Williams was cast as the leading actress with Red Skelton in Mr. Coed. Halfway through the filming, the name of the movie was changed to Bathing Beauty, which left Skelton as the supporting lead. The movie was the second most successful film of 1944, with Gone with the Wind in the lead. In the 1949 movie Neptune’s Daughter, Williams co-starred with Ricardo Montalban. Together they sang “Baby its Cold Outside.” The song won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song at the 22^nd Academy Award.” (4)

By the mid 1940’s, the MGM musicals were well known, and popular worldwide. Between the early 1940’s and the late 1950’s Esther was in 26 films, most of which were for MGM, except for the last few. She was a box office hit; once she spotted fourteen magazines on the same day at a newsstand with her photo on the cover. In 1952, Williams starred in Million Dollar Mermaid, which ended up becoming her nickname for the remainder of the time she was at MGM. In 1960, Williams was in an aqua-special, Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens. In 1966, she was “inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.” (5)

Williams was married four times. Her first husband, Leonard Kovner, she met while she was in college. They divorced in 1944. She had three children with her second husband, Ben Gage, whom she married in 1945. She was quoted as saying “There I was, diving off platforms with Ben in Neptune’s Daughter, going underwater in silver lame with Kim in Pagan Love Song and learning how to water ski with Susie in Easy to Love…and somehow I stayed a size 10 through it all.” (6) Her third husband, Fernando Lamas, preferred that she not appear in movies after their marriage. They remained together until his death in 1982. She later married Edward Bell in 1994.

Esther Williams also had a mind for business. If you like vintage inspired swimwear you could actually buy an Esther Williams designed swimsuit. She was quoted as saying “I put you in a suit that contains you and you will swim in it. I don’t want you in two Dixie cups and a fish line.”(7) One can buy Esther Williams paper dolls on her website, which is: http://esther-williams.com/

Her name was used as a namesake for a line of swimming pools and swimming pool accessories, along with Johnny Weissmueller, whom she began her career with. She became involved in teaching parents how to teach their children to swim, with her video line Swim, Baby, Swim. She also co-wrote, along with author Digby Diehl, her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid. She met her fourth husband, Edward Bell, when he called her to schedule her appearance “as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics (8).

Williams died at ninety one of natural causes. The Hollywood Walk of Fame bears a star at 1560 Vine Street, for her contribution to the film industry. She was an inspiration to many; and the whole sport of swimming became more popular as a recreation due to her love for the water.

When I was a child I used to love Esther Williams movies. I found the synchronized swimming scenes thrilling. As an adult I still enjoy them, plus I like the spunky, playful character that Esther often played in her movies. She often had the men in her life, in the movies, wondering where on earth they stood. Perhaps it was her quest to play hard to get. In Easy to Love she tried, and eventually succeeded in getting her manager to realize he was in love with her. Or in Neptune’s Daughter, perhaps she was possibly aiming to give herself time to figure out how she felt about the fella. She had originally thought that the Cuban soccer player, played by actor Richardo Montalban, was chasing her sister. Either way, she was charming, entertaining, stunning, and incredibly strong as a female athlete.

If you like vintage swim wear, Hawaiian shirts, dead stock and vintage sunglasses, and vintage wear I inserted a few pictures of summer-beach wear from David Owen’s Vintage Clothing shop. He has a lovely collection of vintage wear. The items are all further down the chain from mass produced items, as well as having a unique look.

The pictures of aquatic animals are from the New York Metro Transit System. They are at the Houston Street stop on the number 1 train, the downtown side. I took them awhile back and saved them for this post.

Whatever water sport you enjoy, I hope you enjoyed this post and are having a good time this summer. My favorite water sport here, in the city, is kayaking on the Hudson. It is free and sponsored by the Downtown Boathouse. I did go to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn recently for a swim and a stroll.