Esther Williams, who starred in more than two dozen MGM "aquamusicals" during the 1940s and '50s died today in her sleep in Beverly Hills. She was 91.
Born in Los Angeles, the fifth child of Lou and Bula Williams. Esther Williams grew up swimming in playground pools and surfing at local beaches. Young Esther got her first job at eight years old counting towels at an Inglewood pool, that her mother campaigned to have built for the neighborhood, earning an hour of swimming for each 100 towels counted.
In 1940 newspaper sports reportage, swimmers were frequently lined up for cheesecake photos, flashing big smiles and lots of leg. With her stunning good looks and tall, muscular frame, Esther was a standout! It didn't take long for legendary showman
Billy Rose to also noticed the photogenic champion. Rose needed a female lead to star opposite Olympian and screen star Johnny Weismuller in his "San Francisco Aquacade Review." Following an audition at the Los Angeles world famous Ambassador Hotel, Esther was chosen from a casting call of 100 hopefuls.
Billy Rose had found his Star!
MGM executives who saw her in the Aquacade agreed. After a year of being hounded by the studio, they offer
Ed Williams a screen test - paired with none other than
Clark Gable. Gable liked her, the studio liked her, and she was signed to a contract with Louis B. Mayer in October 1941. She made her screen debut alongside
Mickey Rooney in "Andy Hardy's Double Life," in which she gave the popular hero his first kiss - underwater. As Williams explains, "The popular Andy Hardy series movies were MGM's tests for its promising stars such as
Judy Garland,
Lana Turner and Donna Reed. If you didn't make it in those pictures, you were never heard from again."
Possessing the quintessential combination of glamour and athleticism,
Esther Williams swam her way to stardom in such timeless motion pictures as "Bathing Beauty," "Neptune's Daughter," and "Million Dollar Mermaid." The audience response to the athletic All-American girl was phenomenal, and the studio put Williams' career into high gear. For over a decade, Esther reigned in a new Hollywood genre created just for her: The Aqua-musical. A special 90-foot square, 20-foot deep pool was built at Stage 30 on the MGM lot, complete with hydraulic lifts, hidden air hoses and special camera cranes for overhead shots. Over the years, MGM concocted dozens of pretenses for getting her in water, calling on the great Busby Berkley to design some of the more lavish production numbers to show off Esther's assets. "No one had ever done a swimming movie before," she explains, "so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements." It worked. As a matter of fact, the picture "Bathing Beauty" was the most successful film of 1944. Especially notable are the spectacular sequences in "Million Dollar Mermaid" - complete with fountains, flames, and smoke and the
Annette Kellerman story and "Easy to Love," for which she learned to water-ski. Throughout her illustrious film career, she swam more than 1250 miles in 25 aqua-musicals for MGM and continually proved that she was a champion in the pool and at the box office. A champion, an American dream, her name is synonymous with swimming.
Esther Williams was married four times - Leonard Kovner (1940 - 1944), Ben Gage (1945 - 1959),
Fernando Lamas (1969 - 1982) and
Edward Bell (1994 to present). She is survived by her beloved family including her husband (Edward), her children (Benjamin Gage and Susan Beardslee), three grandchildren, three step-children and eight step-grandchildren. Services have yet to be announced, but the family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to The International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale FL. For more information about
Esther Williams, visit her website at www.esther-williams.com
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in December of 1985.
Esther Williamsin Losa Angeles, California on November 1, 1985
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
Esther Williams pictured in New York City in Febuary of 1985.
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