Esther Williams, 1921–2013

Esther Williams’s favorite co-star, she once quipped, was the water. With her perfect figure and wholesome beauty, the former teen swimming champion shot to fame in the curious 1940s Hollywood subgenre known as the “aqua musical.” Hit movies like Neptune’s Daughter and Dangerous When Wet all followed the same formula: romance, comedy, and some excuse for Williams to perform underwater acrobatics in a Technicolor pool. “Esther Williams had one contribution to make to movies—her magnificent athletic body,” said the late film critic Pauline Kael. “And for over 10 years, MGM made the most of it, keeping her in clinging, wet bathing suits and hoping the audience would shiver.”

Born in suburban Los Angeles, Williams—the youngest of five children—was unplanned and unwanted, said the Los Angeles Times. Her oldest sister taught her to swim, and Williams quickly realized water was her natural element. At the 1939 national swim championships, she took home three gold medals and won a place on the U.S. Olympic team. But the 1940 Helsinki Summer Games were canceled after the outbreak of World War II, and Williams had to work instead of compete. She was spotted by a talent agent at the 1940 World’s Fair in San Francisco and hired by the MGM studio, said USA Today. After a few small roles, she had her star-making debut in 1944 with Bathing Beauty. MGM pitched Williams as “The girl you will dream about!” said The Washington Post, and she became a favorite pinup of U.S. servicemen.

“At a time when most movies cost less than $2 million, MGM built Williams a $250,000 swimming pool on Stage 30,” said The New York Times. It had underwater windows, fountains, and a hydraulic-powered pedestal that rose six stories above the water. “Never had plumbing been put to a more glamorous use,” said Williams. The swimming sequences in her movies, often choreographed by Busby Berkeley, were similarly extravagant. In 1952’s Million Dollar Mermaid, she wore 50,000 gold sequins and a golden crown, and Easy to Love’s finale featured 80 water-skiers weaving between jets of water shooting out of the ocean.

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Eventually, audiences tired of these aquatic spectacles and Williams quit movies in 1961. She used her stardom to promote synchronized swimming, and, when the event was included at the Olympics for the first time, in 1984, Williams was feted as the sport’s unofficial godmother. She loved watching the athletes, she later told reporters. “The only thing is, they didn’t smile.”