Why do we love Esther?
A movie star who is often credited with the creation of an Olympic sport, Esther Williams was a champion swimmer prior to making a splash in Hollywood. Disappointed at missing the 1940 Olympics because of the War, Esther appeared in her first water ballet at the 1940 World's Fair in San Francisco, which eventually led to her to Hollywood. In her first screen test opposite Clark Gable, whom she quotes as having said to wife Carole Lombard, "Today, I'm gonna kiss me a mermaid", and he did...three times! Not a bad entré into Hollywood. Not only did she cut a graceful path across a swimming pool, she was also an accomplished diver and water skier, performing the bulk of her own stunts. On the set of Pagan Love Song, the pool was sealed off for the filming of a dream sequence, the crew cut for lunch and she was left alone in the pool with inches of air space. Her most breathtaking stunt was almost her last, a 50-foot dive from a tiny platform in The Million Dollar Mermaid. Clad in gold, her suit decorated with thousands of tiny metal sequins and a gold aluminum crown atop her head, Esther executed a perfect swan dive. The force of the crown meeting the water snapped her neck, leaving her temporarily paralyzed and in a body cast for six months.
In 1962, Esther married Fernando Lamas and retired from public life. Upon his death in 1982, she resurfaced to promote her own swimsuit line and to campaign for the inclusion of synchronized swimming as an Olympic sport. Her efforts, among those of others, were successful, and synchronized swimming made its debut in the 1984 Los Angeles games. Esther was among the commentators.
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Biography:
Born - August 8, 1922
Los Angeles, California
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In her own words -- On swimwear:
"I don't know, it just seems so crazy to have a bra made out of a piece of cotton that could double as a napkin on the table. And the thongs! God, we've spent our lives trying to keep our underwear out of that spot, and all of a sudden they want to put a fish line there? I have very definite ideas about what a swimsuit should be: it should be swimmable."
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