Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 - June 6, 2013) is an American competitive swimmer and actress.
Williams arranged several national and regional swimming records at the end of her teenage years as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swimming team. Unable to compete at the 1940 Summer Olympics due to the outbreak of World War II, he joined Aquacade, Billy Rose, where he took on the role left by Eleanor Holm after moving from New York City to San Francisco. While in town, he spent five months swimming with Olympic gold medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at Aquacade. After appearing in several minor roles, along with Mickey Rooney in the movie Andy Hardy, and future five-star Van Johnson at A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals," featuring an elaborate show with pool and diving synchronization.
From 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one movie listed among the top 20 highest grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in his only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman at Million Dollar Mermaid, which later became his nickname at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in several feature films that did not work, followed by several highly popular water-themed television commercials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.
Williams is also a successful businessman. Even before his retirement as an actress, he invested in "workshops, metal product manufacturers, swimwear manufacturers, various properties and successful restaurant chains known as Trails." She lent her name to the pool ranks and retro swimsuits, instructional pool video for the kids, and served as a commentator for the synchronized pool at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Video Esther Williams
Initial years
Williams was born in Inglewood, California, on August 8, 1921. He was the fifth and youngest son of Louis Stanton Williams (January 19, 1886 - June 10, 1968) and Bula Myrtle (nÃÆ' Â © e Gilpin, 8 October 1885) - December 29, 1971). Louis is the sign painter and Bula is a psychologist. The two lived on a neighboring farm in Kansas and continued their nine-year courtship until June 1, 1908, when they eloped and left for California. However, they ran out of money in Salt Lake City, Utah, and settled there. Esther's brother, Stanton (September 4, 1912 - March 3, 1929) was discovered by actress Marjorie Rambeau, who caused the family (including Maurine's sister and June and brother David) to move to the Los Angeles area to be near the studio. Louis Williams bought a small piece of land in the southwestern area of ​​the city, and built a small house there. Esther was born in the living room, which is also where the family slept, until Louis Williams could add a bedroom. In 1929, Stanton Williams died after his bowel explosion.
In 1935, Bula Myrtle Williams invited 16-year-old Buddy McClure to live with his family. McClure had just lost his mother and Bula was still mourning her son's death. Esther tells in her autobiography that one night, when the whole family was visiting relatives in Alhambra, McClure raped her. He was afraid to tell anyone about the incident and waited two years before finally revealing the truth to his parents. Williams's mother seemed unsure of her story, claiming McClure was "sensitive" and sympathetic to her when she admitted her mistake. Bula Williams later drove him from his home, McClure joined the Coast Guard of the United States, and Williams never saw him again.
Maps Esther Williams
Careers
Competitive swim
Williams was very enthusiastic to swim in his youth. Her sister Maurine took her to Manhattan Beach and to the local pool. He took a counting towel job in the pool to pay for a five-cent admission fee, and while there, there was a swimming lesson from the men's coast guard. Of them, he studied the stroke pool of 'special men', including butterflies, which he then decided to break the record.
His medley team set a 300-yard relay record at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1939, as well as the National AAU champion in 100 meters freestyle, with a record breaking time of 1 minute 09.0 seconds. At the age of 16, Williams has won three US national championships in chest style and freestyle swim.
Williams graduated from Washington High School (now known as Washington Preparatory High School) in Los Angeles, 1939, where she served as Vice President of the class, and later President. However, Williams never practiced swimming while there.
During his senior year in high school, Williams received his D degree in his algebra course, preventing him from getting a scholarship to the University of Southern California. He enrolled in Los Angeles City College for a course. In 1939, Williams expressed an interest in pursuing a degree in physical education to teach it someday. To earn money for school fees, Williams worked as a stock girl in the department store I. Magnin, where she also made clothing models for customers and appeared in newspaper ads.
While Williams worked at I. Magnin, she was contacted by assistant Billy Rose and asked to audition as a substitute for Eleanor Holm in her Aquacade show. Williams impressed Rose and he got the role. The Aquacade is part of the Golden Gate International Exposition, and Williams is partnering with Olympic swimmers and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller, who, Williams writes in his autobiography, repeatedly tries to seduce him. Nevertheless, Williams remained with the show until it closed on September 29, 1940. Williams had planned to compete at the 1940 Summer Olympics but was canceled due to the outbreak of World War II.
Acting
It was at Aquacade that Williams first attracted the attention of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scout. The head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, has been looking for female sports stars for the studio to compete with Fox skating star Sonja Henie. Williams signed his contract with MGM in 1941.
In his contract there are two clauses: the first is that he receives a guest pass to The Beverly Hills Hotel where he can swim in the pool every day, and the second that he will not appear in the camera for nine months to allow acting, singing, dancing , and dictionary lessons. Williams wrote in his autobiography, "If it takes nine months for the baby to be born, I imagine my 'birth' from Esther Williams, a swimmer to Esther Williams, the film actress will not be much different."
While top stars in studios such as Judy Garland, Betty Grable, and Shirley Temple took part in a bond tour during the war, Williams was asked to take a tour of the hospital. At this point, Williams has attained pin-up status due to the number of pictures of himself in a bathing suit. To prepare, Williams and his publicity assistant will listen to Bob Hope's radio programs and Jack Benny, retelling the funniest jokes while in hospital. Williams also invited GI to dance with him on stage and take part in mock test screens. The men will receive a card that tells them their lines, and they will act in front of the other soldiers. These tests are always romantic scenes and include Williams begging men to have sex with his character, which they must refuse... several times. When people say the final, "No", Williams will pull down her skirt and torn sweater and leave nothing but a gold swimsuit. The scene will always end with people giving up and kissing it after the action. His hospital tour continued until the 1950s. A (forged) is signed, Williams waterproof portraits are circulated among the people in the United States Navy to "capture Esther" the competition. The competition continues to this day in the Royal Australian Navy, which holds in its archive an "authentic" portrait that is inscribed while retaining a "catchable" image for use in the fleet.
1940s
Three weeks after signing his contract, George Sidney directs Williams's first screen test. The studio was impressed, and when Lana Turner eloped with Artie Shaw, Williams's screen was tested with prominent Clark Gable, for Somewhere I'll Find You. However, Turner divorced Shaw after four months of marriage, and rejoined the film. After several short subject films, Williams appears as Sheila Brooks at Andy Hardy's Double Life. Sheila is a student with whom Andy falls in love. Next is a small section in the movie A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne. This is where he first worked with Van Johnson, with whom he will partner in five films.
Beauty Bath , previously titled Tuan. Coed , starring Red Skelton as a man who enrolled in a women's college to win back his swimming instructor played by Williams. This is his first Technicolor music. The studio changed the title of the movie to show Williams. Almost all of the movie posters featured Williams in a bathing suit, although the order of the pool was only a fraction of the film. Her date to the premiere at the Astor Theater in New York City was Ben Gage's future husband. For the event, the MGM publicity formed a six-story billboard from Williams who dived into Times Square with a big sign that read "Let's go in! The story is fine!"
Williams appeared in the film Ziegfeld Follies as himself. This was followed by the musical Thrill of a Romance . Van Johnson co-starred as a decorated war veteran who fell in love with Williams on his honeymoon. Thrill of a Romance was the 8th best-selling film of 1945. Williams had to help Johnson swim, and he put his hands under his back to keep him afloat. The studio publicity department tried to put the two together in public as much as possible in the hope of encouraging romance, even though Williams was involved with the Gage at the time. When asked why they were not dating, Johnson replied, "because I'm afraid he can not put his webbed feet into a pair of night slippers."
Williams tried a more serious role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946), with William Powell. The audience expects Powell's personality Nick Charles and rejects the idea of ​​romance between Williams and Powell on screen. She also appeared on Easy to Wed , a remake of 1936's
Fiesta Brava starred in Williams as the twin brother of Ricardo MontalbÃÆ'¡n, Maria, who pretended to be a bullfight in the hope of attracting him back home. The audience, and Williams, think the movie is ridiculous, because Williams and MontalbÃÆ'¡n have very different accents. MontalbÃÆ'¡n was born in Mexico and is a native speaker of Spanish while Williams has a mid-western accent taken from his parents born in Kansas. Production is difficult with many problems. In 1947, Gage and Williams married. Gage has traveled to Mexico for filming. He was involved in a fight with the star's hotel employee, was arrested, and then thrown out of the country. The director of photography, Sidney Wagner, and one other crew member died of cholera for eating contaminated street food. Many film stuntmen were sent to the hospital after being gored by a bull. Director Dick Thorpe does not want the bulls to be killed (because they are usually at the end of a bullfight) because he believes they are too expensive to replace.
After filming finished on Fiesta, Williams appeared in the romance of This Time for Keeps (1947) with singer Johnnie Johnston. In 1948, Williams signed a contract with the swimwear company Cole of California to appear as their spokesperson, and Williams and other swimmers in his films donned Cole's swimsuits. Since musical-aqua is an entirely new genre, studio costume designers have little experience creating a practical swimsuit. William's plaid flannel dress for This Time for the Keeper was so heavy that she was dragged to the bottom of the pool, and had to unzip her suit, swim naked to the edge of the pool to avoid drowning. Cole's swimsuit uses latex, which means the zipper is no longer needed. While filming Skirts Ahoy (1952), Williams found that WAVE program members received thin, cotton and shapeless swimsuits as part of their uniforms. Williams modeled Cole's swimsuit for the Navy Secretary and explained that the new swim suit helped support the female character. The United States Navy immediately ordered 50,000 suits.
The filming of Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) is, according to Williams in his autobiography, the experience of "pure misery". A musical period starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, the two main male characters are players in the baseball team owned by K.C. Higgins, Williams's role. He claims that Kelly and coauthor Stanley Donen treat him with contempt and go out of their way to make a joke at a cost. The film was well received critically and became a major commercial success, raking in $ 3.4 million in lease and becoming the 11th highest earning film of the year. Williams made Neptune's daughter (also 1949) around the same time as fellow Ricardo MontalbÃÆ'¡n, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett, also in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In the film, Williams sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with MontalbÃÆ'¡n. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22nd Academy Awards. Williams and MontalbÃÆ'¡n were originally scheduled to sing "(I'm Getting You in) Slow Boat to China", but studio sensors think the song is too sexual (interpreting the word "get" as "have") instead of giving them "Baby, It's Cold Outside. " Princess Neptune became the 10th best-selling film of 1949.
1950s
Williams made the Duchess of Idaho (1950), shot in a location in Sun Valley, Idaho, starring Van Johnson. MGM paired it with Howard Keel for two films, Pagan Love Song (also 1950) and later Jupiter Darling (1955). They both had a brilliant acting in the movie Callaway Went Thataway (1951).
In Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Williams portrays Annette Kellermann, a live Australian swimming and dive star. Williams starred alongside Victor Mature, who served as husband and manager of Kellermann, James Sullivan. Both were involved in a passionate affair during filming. Williams often calls this his favorite movie, and names his autobiography afterwards. Williams also won the Henrietta Award at Golden Globe 1952, for Favorite World - Women's Movie. Easy to Love (1953), also with Van Johnson, was filmed on site at Cypress Gardens, where a pool in the state of Florida was built exclusively for the film. Williams was pregnant during the filming, but still did all her own water skiing action.
In Dangerous When Wet (also 1953), Williams works with three important men - Tom and Jerry and future husband Fernando Lamas. During the casting, Lamas told Williams that he did not want to star in this movie because he just wanted to get involved in "important pictures". His part had to be rewritten to persuade him to take part in the film.
In 1953, Williams had been on maternity leave for three months while pregnant with Susan's daughter, and suspected she would work in the film soon after she returned. However, production begins without him, and the studio plays Jane Powell in the lead role, rewriting many of the premises put forward by Williams and writers Leo Pogostin and Chuck Walters. The studio moved it to Jupiter's Jupiter. Two more films planned, Bermuda Encounter and Olympic Venus , about the first Olympic swimmer; However, this was never made.
Many of his MGM movies, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter Jupiter, contain detailed detailed synchronized swimming scenes, at great risk for Williams. He broke his neck by shooting at a height of 115 feet from the tower during the climax music number for the Million Dollar Mermaid movie and was on the player's body for seven months. He then recovered, though he continued to suffer from a headache from the accident. Many hours spent in the studio tank resulted in a ruptured eardrum. He also almost drowned after not being able to find the trapdoor on the ceiling of the tank. The walls and ceilings are painted black and the trapdoor is fused. Williams is pulled out just because a crew member realizes that the door is not open.
After MGM
After 15 years in film, Williams was threatened with suspension of contract from MGM after rejecting the lead role in The Opposite Sex (finally released in 1956), a musical remake of 1939 The Women >. Mary's role will be rewritten to become an aquacade star (and eventually filled by June Allyson as "Kay", a nightclub singer). Williams redecorated the dressing room to accommodate the returning star Grace Kelly, packing up her robe and swimsuit and leaving behind many studios. As a result of abandoning his contract, Williams lost nearly $ 3 million in deferred contract payments, which he had withdrawn from his salary for the previous 14 years and was set aside both as a hotbed of eggs and tax deferral. He, however, can still collect signing bonuses of $ 50,000 from when he first signed his contract.
In 1956, he moved to Universal International and appeared in a non-musical drama movie, The Hatiarded Moment (1956). After that, his film career slowly declined. He later admitted that Fernando Lamas's husband would rather he did not continue in the film. He will, however, make occasional appearances on television, including the appearance of a mysterious guest to What is My Path? The Ed Sullivan Show, and two aqua-specials, The Esther Williams Aqua Spectacle (1956) and Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens aired on August 8, 1960. More than half of all television sets used in the United States are tuned in to see the special Cypress Gardens . He starred in aqua-special at Wembley Stadium in London. In 1966, Williams was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Next year
Williams retired from acting in the early 1960s and later rejected the role of Belle Rosen, a character with an important swimming scene, at The Poseidon Adventure. (This role eventually goes to Shelley Winters.) She proceeds to lend her name to the retro women's swimwear line. "Women around the world are struggling against something called gravity," Williams said. "I told the women when I talked to them, 'You girls of 18 years have about 25, 30 at most, and then you have to report to me My clothes are quality fabrics.'" He continued: "I put you wearing suit that contains you and you'll swim in. I do not want you to be in two cups of Dixie and a fish line. "
He is also the name of the company that produces swimming pools and swimming pool accessories. She came out with a line of videos Swim, Baby, Swimming , which helps parents teach their kids how to swim. He also appeared as a commentator for a synchronous swim at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Williams met his fourth husband as a result of his call to coordinate his performance. He co-authored his autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), with popular media critic and author Digby Diehl.
In a 2007 interview with Diane Sawyer, Williams admitted that she recently had a stroke. "I opened my eyes and I can see, but I can not remember anything from the past," he said. In June 2008, Williams attended the funeral of Cyd Charisse, which he did while sitting in a wheelchair.
In April 2010, Williams appeared in the first Classic Film Turner Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California, along with two co-star Betty Garrett. Their film Neptune's Daughter (1949) was played in the Roosevelt Hotel pool, along with a performance from the Williams pool group, The Waterlilies. South Beach Miami 2010 The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swim, a designer swimsuit masterpiece, includes the Williams suite, complete with summer beach themes and sand pallets with aqua accents.
In 2000 an account of Williams's life and career appeared in Esther Williams's book - Esther Williams - Scenbiography ( Esther Williams - The Fake Biography ) written by Jane Magnusson, in which the author shared with its own readers its appeal for the art of swimming as a genre and, here, in particular, Williams as - for writers - both the front and iconic figures are confusing and mesmerizing in this field.
Personal life
Political Views
Williams is a tough Republican.
Wedding
Williams married four times. He met his first husband, Leonard Kovner, while attending Los Angeles City College. He later wrote in his autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid that "he is smart, handsome, dependable... and boring, I respect his intelligence, and his dedication to a future career in medicine." He loves me, or so he said, and even asked me to marry him. "They married on the outskirts of Los Altos San Francisco on June 27, 1940. At their breakup, he said," I find, greatly relieved, that everything I need for my emotional and personal security is my determination and determination I do not "I do not need a wedding and a ring. I just realized that Leonard Kovner is not the man I really love. "They divorced on September 12, 1944.
He married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25, 1945; they have three children, Benjamin Stanton (born August 6, 1949), Kimball Austin (October 30, 1950 - May 6, 2008) and Susan Tenney (born October 1, 1953). In his autobiography, he describes Gage as an alcoholic parasite that spends $ 10 million of income. Gage and Williams split in 1952, and divorced in April 1959.
During the filming of Pagan Love Song in Hawaii, Williams found out she was pregnant with her third child, and told the studio in California. Gage had met a man in a hotel who owned a ham radio and persuaded the man to let them use it to call California. What they failed to realize then was that anyone could listen to their conversation, and news of her pregnancy was broadcast across the West Coast.
He revealed in his autobiography that he had an affair with actor Victor Mature while working on Million Dollar Mermaid, citing that at the time his marriage was in trouble and, feeling lonely, he turned to Mature for love and affection, and he gives everything he wants. The problem stopped when Williams recovered from his fall during the Million Dollar Mermaid shooting. She is romantically associated with Jeff Chandler. He claims in his autobiography that Chandler is a cross-dresser and that he severed the relationship. According to Los Angeles Times , many friends and colleagues of Williams claim that Chandler denies. Jane Russell commented, "I've never heard of such a thing, Cross-dressing is the last thing I expect from Jeff, he's a good man, surely everyone."
He married his former lover, actor/director of Argentina, Fernando Lamas on December 31, 1969. For 13 years, he lived in total surrender to him, where he had to stop being "Esther Williams" and could not let his children live with him.. In return, he will be faithful. They married until his death due to pancreatic cancer on 8 October 1982.
She lives in Beverly Hills with actor husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994.
LSD
In September 1959, Cary Grant told Look Magazine that he had taken LSD under the supervision of a doctor, and that had changed his life. Grant therapist Mortimer Hartman describes LSD as "a psychic activator that empties the subconscious and intensifies emotions and memory a hundred times." Grant says that, with the help of LSD, he has "discovered that [he] has a strong core of strength", and that when he is young, he "is very dependent on older men and women." Now, people [come] to [him] for help. "Williams stated that he wanted to be one of those people. As he said in Million Dollar Mermaid, "At that moment, I really do not know who I am.I am the femme fatale glamorous?... Am I just another broken-down broken that her husband leaving him with all the bills and three children? "Shortly after reading the article, he contacted Grant. He called his doctor and made an appointment for him. Williams says LSD looks like instant psychoanalysis.
Death and reward
Esther Williams died in her sleep on June 6, 2013, from a natural cause, at her home in Los Angeles. He was 91. He was cremated, his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
About his death, CNN quotes the biography of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, saying, "His film career plays a major role in swimming promotion, making him attractive to the public, contributing to the growth of sports as a public recreation for health, exercise, water security - and casual pleasures. His stepson, Lorenzo Lamas, tweets that he is "the best teacher and mother of swimming." Her friend Annabeth Gish also tweeted an award, writing that Esther Williams is "A movie star, legend and graceful and gracious neighbor". The film historian Leonard Maltin called it "the main star, an outstanding box office attraction."
For his contribution to the film-image industry, Williams has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street. He left his fingerprints and toes in front of the Grauman Chinese Theater on August 1, 1944.
Scarlett Johansson's character in Coen Brothers 2016, Hail, Caesar! , sharing some similarities with Williams, most famous as aquamusical star who became pregnant during production.
Archive
Esther Williams donated her personal film archive to the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Movieography
The box office rating
For several years, US film exhibitors chose Esther Williams among the country's most popular movie stars:
- 1947 - 24 most popular stars
- 1948 - 11
- 1949 - 8
- 1950 - 8 - also the second most popular star in the UK
- 1951 - The fifth most popular female star
- 1952 - 12
- 1953 - 12
- 1954 - 25
With the exception of The Hoodlum Saint and Jupiter Darling , no film starring Williams for MGM lost money and some very profitable.
Note
References
External links
- Official website
- Esther Williams on IMDb
- Esther Williams Pool Website
- Photos of Esther Williams
- Golden Year
- The Vaudeville Theater is named in honor of Esther Williams
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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