Thursday 6 June 2013

Esther Williams, Swimming Champ Turned Movie Star, Dies at 91: A Tribute

Esther Williams
Mondadori/Getty Images
Esther Williams, the swimming champ turned movie star who headlined a series of aquatic musicals for MGM in the 1940s and '50s, died in her sleep early on June 6, according to the Associated Press. She was 91.
Williams pioneered a new, more athletic type of sex symbol. A strong swimmer and synchronized swimmer from a young age, she would have been a contender for the 1940 Summer Olympics. But those Games were canceled due to World War II, and Williams had to pivot. She ended up showcasing the sleek artistry of swimming by joining Billy Rose's Aquacade alongside former Olympian and movie Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller. That brought her to the attention of MGM, who hired her in 1944 to star in Bathing Beauties, the first of an incredibly unique Hollywood genre: the swimming musical.
Bathing Beauties and its follow-ups, Neptune's Daughter, Dangerous When Wet, and Million Dollar Mermaid (which became Williams' nickname at MGM), were color- and chlorine-splashed extravaganzas in which she did for a swimming pool what Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor could do for a dance floor. Instead of dance numbers, Williams helped choreograph and star in elaborate synchronized swimming showcases, many featuring movable platforms, fog machines, colored smoke, fountains, fireworks, trapeze swings, and, of course, technically complicated underwater photography. Some of these numbers are daringly expressionistic, as if Busby Berkeley had suddenly decided to become a swimming coach. Here's a montage of her best work in 1974's MGM clip-show extravaganza That's Entertainment.
In these films Williams showed off her athleticism and, intentionally or not, became a major champion for women's physical fitness. She was a new kind of starlet: an actress who didn't just stand around and look pretty but showed how important it is for young women to be active. That's why, decades after her MGM career came to an end — with many live swimming spectaculars at Florida's Cypress Gardens in between — she became a commentator for NBC during their coverage of swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The aquatic musical genre she popularized had long-since died, but her campaign for physical fitness, for women in particular, had never been more relevant. And it continues to be.  
 

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