I'm sure most of you have heard of Esther Williams - "America's mermaid" - the competitive swimmer turned MGM movie star of the 40s and 50s. She passed away on 6th June this year at the age of 91.
This wonderful autobiography was filled with personal stories right from her childhood to her fourth marriage to Edward Bell.
Esther began competitive swimming as a teen and missed out on going to the 1940 Olympics as they were cancelled due to the outbreak of war. Her first big break came when she starred in the Aquacade alongside Johnny Weismuller who would chase her around the pool at the end of the show sans swimming trunks! After that she reluctantly signed with MGM, and the rest is history!
She shared lots of behind the scenes stories that told so much of how Hollywood operated back then and of the stars that she worked and socialised with including Lucille Ball, Marlene Dietrich, Ricardo Montalban, Gene Kelly and Joan Crawford. My favourite chapters include how she met Clark Gable and how he was the first one to call her 'mermaid', and how she came back from having broken several vertabrae in a scene in Million Dollar Mermaid when she took a dive with a crown on her head.
It was really interesting to read how her childhood shaped her decisions as she looked back on her life with the benefit of hindsight. Unfortunately, as happened to so many Hollywood starlets, one of her husbands spent all of her money on gambling, alcohol and bad business decisions and all her years of moviemaking amounted to was a BIG tax bill!
I had trouble putting this book down and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the heyday of Hollywood.
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