ESTHER WILLIAMS - THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID

 

ESTHER JANE WILLIAMS (1921-2013) was an American competition swimmer and actress. In her teens she set regional and national records as a team member of the Los Angeles Athletics Club. Because of the outbreak of WW2 in 1940, she was unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics so she joined Billy Rose Aquacade. She was replacing a role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show moved from San Francisco to New York City. While there she spent five months swimming alongside of Olympic gold-medal winner, Johnny Weissmuller of Tarzan film series.

Every year from 1945 to 1949, Esther made at least one film that became part of the 20 highest-grossing films of that year. In 1952, Esther was cast in a biographical role as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in the film Million Dollar Mermaid, which became her nickname while she had a contract with MGM. Esther left MGM in 1956 and appeared in several unsuccessful feature films, followed by several popular water-themed network television specials from Cypress Gardens, Florida.

Before retiring from acting, Esther invested in a service station, metal products plant, manufacturer of bathing suit, various real estate properties and a successful restaurant chain. She lent her name to a line of swimming pools, swimwear and instructional videos for children. Esther was a commentator for the synchronized swimming events at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

While at Aquacade, Esther attracted attention from MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) talent scouts. Louis B. Mayer had been looking for a female sports star for the studio to compete with Fox studio's figure skating star, Sonja Henie. In 1941, Esther signed a contract with MGM. In her contract were two clauses: she would receive a guest pass to the Beverly Hills Hotel where she could swim in the pool every day and the second clause was that she would not appear on camera for nine months to allow her to attend acting, singing, and dancing lessons. After nine months, a star was born and the rest was history.

ESTHER WILLIAMS, YANK MAGAZINE PIN-UP 1945

Top stars at the MGM and other studios like Judy Garland, Betty Grable, and Shirley Temple were taking part in “bond tours” from 1941 to 1845. Esther Williams was asked to conduct hospital tours. Esther had become one of the “pin-up” girls because of so many photographs taken in her bathing suit. Esther would 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 a scene in front of the other soldiers. The scenes would always end up with men kissing her. Esther continued her hospital tours into the 1950s until the Korean War ended.

Esther screen tested with leading man, Clark Gable for the film Somewhere I'll Find You. Lana Turner had eloped with Artie Shaw which upset MGM studio heads and Esther had gotten the part for the Gable film because MGM was punishing Turner. However, when Turner divorced Shaw after only four months of marriage, she rejoined the film.

Esther then acted in several short subject films and then appeared as Sheila Brooks in Andy Hardy's Double Life. Next Esther had a small part in A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne. It was when she first worked with Van Johnson with whom she would make five films.

Esther & Ben Gage 1947

Her breakthrough came when she co-starred with Red Skelton in Bathing Beauty. It was her first Technicolor musical. Almost all of the film's posters showed Esther in a bathing suit. The date she took to the premiere was future husband Ben Gage. MGM publicity set up a six-story billboard of Esther diving into Times Square.

Esther had a serious role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946) with William Powell.

The first singing part for Esther was in Easy To Wed – a remake of a 1936 film with Van Johnson and Lucille Ball.

In Fiesta that starred Esther as Ricardo Montablan's twin sister, Maria.

In 1947, Esther married Ben Gage.

Esther & Ricardo Montalban

The Fiesta film became a disaster and Williams and Montalban thought it was silly that Esther had no accent and Montalban had a Spanish accent. Then there was several production problems. Gage had traveled to Mexico for the making of the film and was thrown out of the country because he got into a fight with an employee at the hotel where the cast were staying. Then the director of photography, Sidney Wagner and one other crew member died of cholera after eating contaminated street food. Several stuntmen were sent to the hospital after being gored by bulls.

After the completion of Fiesta, Esther appeared in the romance This Time for Keeps (1947) with singer Johnnie Johnston.

In 1952, while filming Skirts Ahoy!, Esther discovered that members of the WAVES program received shapeless swimsuits as part of their uniforms. Esther modeled a swimsuit designed by Cole of California for the Secretary of the Navy and explained that the new swimsuits helped support a woman's figure. The U.S. Navy then ordered 50,000 suits.

In 1949, filming Take Me Out to the Ball Game was a miserable experience, as she wrote in her autobiography. It was a musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra portraying two players in a baseball team owned by K.C. Higgins portrayed by Esther. Kelly and another co-star Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and made degrading jokes about her. The film became a major success taking in $3.4 million and became the 11^th highest-grossing film of that year.

Esther rejoined Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton in the film, Neptune's Daughter, singing Baby, It's Cold Outside. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22^nd Academy Awards.

In 1950s, Esther made Duchess of Idaho, co-starring Van Johnson and John Lund. MGM paired Esther with Howard Keel to make three films.

In Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Esther portrayed Annette Kellerman and costarred with Victor Mature. The two engaged in an affair during the filming.

Fernando Lamas & Esther Williams

In Dangerous When Wet (1953), Esther worked with cartoon characters Tom and Jerry and her future husband Fernando Lamas. During casting, Lamas told Williams he did not want to star in the film because he only wanted to be involved in “important pictures.” His part was rewritten so he would take part in the film.

In 1953, Esther had been on maternity leave for three months because she was pregnant with daughter Susan and thought she would be working on the film Athena when she returned. But production started without her and Jane Powell got the role. She instead played in Jupiter's Darling. Two more films were planned but were never made.

Esther was required to perform a diving stunt in Million Dollar Mermaid, diving off a tower 115 feet. She broke her neck and was in a body cast for seven months. She recovered but continued to experience headaches. Also her many hours submerged in a studio tank resulted in ruptured eardrums numerous times. Esther nearly drowned after not being able to find a trapdoor in the ceiling of the tank. It was hard to find because the walls and ceiling were painted black and the trapdoor blended in. Esther was saved because a member of the crew realized the door was not opening.

After 15 years appearing in MGM films, Esther was threatened with contract suspension because she refused the lead role in The Opposite Sex, eventually released in 1956. The role of Mary was rewritten for June Allyson as “Kay” the nightclub singer. Esther redecorated her dressing room for returning star Grace Kelly, packed her clothes and drove off the studio lot. As a result, Esther lost almost $3 million in deferred contract payments, which had been taken from her paychecks over the previous 14 years, put aside as a tax deferral. However, she did collect $50,000 from her signing bonus.

In 1956, she moved to Universal International and appeared in a non-musical The Unguarded Moment (1956). After that film her film career wound down. Later she would admit that her husband Fernando Lamas preferred her not to continue in films. So she made television appearances, including as a mystery guest on What's My Line?, The Donna Reed Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show.

The following is an episode from What's My Line? - made in 1959.

In 1960, she appeared in a telecast named Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens. In 1966, Esther Williams was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

It was then she retired from acting, turning down the role of Belle Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure. Shelley Winters got the part instead.

The following is a video interview with Burt Reynolds as the host with Ginger Rogers, June Allyson, Esther Williams and Jane Powell conducted in 1991.

In 2007, Chris Johnson of Good Morning America and Diane Sawyer who regarded Esther as her childhood hero had Esther as a guest on their show.

Esther Williams was married four times:

1. Leonard Kovner whom she met while attending Los Angeles City College. They divorced in September of 1944.

2. She married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25^th, 1945. They had three children, Benjamin, Kimball, and Susan. Gage was an alcoholic and squandered $10 million of her earnings. Gage and Williams separated in 1952 and divorced in 1959.

3. Esther married her former lover, Fernando Lamas in 1969. They remained married to him for 13 years until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1982.

4. She then resided in Beverly Hills with actor Edward Bell whom she married in 1994.

Esther Williams at age 91

On June 6^th, 2013, Esther Williams died in her sleep from natural causes at the age of 91 in her Los Angeles home. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

For her contribution in the motion-picture industry, Esther 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 in 1944.

Esther Williams donated her personal film archive that included 20 home movies to the Academy Film Archive. The Archive has preserved several of those home movies.