Esther Williams still buoyed by her daily swims

Web posted May 26, 1997

Mary Martin Niepold
Associated Press

If mermaids could shed their tails and walk on shore, surely they would look like Esther Williams - tall, strong, confident.

Both competitive swimmer and movie star, she was the first American female to combine fitness and beauty.

Before Ms. Williams, there was no notion of a pretty athlete. As an MGM movie star through the 1940s and 1950s, when her Busby Berkeley water spectaculars were the Star Wars of the era, she stood out as a woman who could at once power and dazzle.

Through 26 films in 18 years, she was America's sweetheart. Yes, there was Sonja Henie, the Olympic figure skater, but she made only four films and wasn't American. When Ms. Williams, a California teen-ager, came to film, she was a three-time national swim champion who qualified for three events in the 1940 Olympics, the Games that would be canceled because of World War II.

Billy Rose, the show biz mogul, saw a news photo of the young champion and hired her to appear opposite Johnny Weissmuller in the San Francisco Aquacade.

``I didn't know what he wanted me to do, so I dove into that 25-yard pool and swam as fast as I could,'' she recalls. ``He said, `That's very nice, but to star in my show, you have to swim pretty, not swim fast.'

``I took umbrage to his tone and said, `Well, Mr. Rose, you may not be aware of it, but you can't swim pretty unless you can swim fast.'''

Standing up to a tough guy like Billy Rose was good training for a young woman whose first screen test, for Louis B. Mayer, was with none other than Clark Gable. Her first movie, Bathing Beauty, was in 1944. She was 18 years old.

Her movies turned the heads and the thinking of millions of young women.

``Yes,'' she says, ``my movies made it clear it's all right to be strong and feminine at the same time. A survey showed I received more fan mail from teen-age girls than anyone in the business.

``I think it's because pretty girls didn't swim at the time. They hated getting their hair wet.

``Today, young women already know that being healthy is attractive, whether they get that way from going to the gym, swimming laps, bicycling or just running on a regular basis.''

The confidence of a champion permeates her life. As a senior citizen, she radiates luminosity. She is tall and glowing and is gracious even when she anticipates the question strangers ask most and answers with a card that reads: ``Yes, I still swim.''

Today, she tells seniors that swimming is the sport of a lifetime - from the first bath to the last. In the water, ``you are ageless and weightless. You are going to feel peace, exhilaration and young.''

When she married to film star Fernando Lamas in 1962, she retired from films to please him. But she still swims every day, 40 minutes in her personal pool in the Los Angeles area.

Mr. Lamas died in 1982, and the her reason for her retirement was gone. So when the network televising the 1984 Olympics asked her to narrate synchronized swimming, she accepted. It was a fitting match. Her pictures had inspired girls to swim pretty in a sport that would be called synchronized swimming. And the 1984 Games in Los Angeles were the first for the sport.

Today, she is remarried and a grandmother of three. She and her husband, Edward Bell, own the Esther Williams Collection, ranked fourth as the country's most recognized swimwear brand, according to Women's Wear Daily, the fashion industry newspaper.

Ms. Williams makes frequent store appearances where women of all ages cluster to meet her. Her words to them: ``God takes care of you until you are 25 or so. But then, if you have any problem with your mirror, report to me.''

In February, she was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On July 16 and 17, she is to appear at Carnegie Hall as part of a ``Salute to the MGM Musicals Stars.''

Ms. Williams never tires of people telling her that she inspired them to swim. ''If what they say is true, I'm just glad I got them in the water.''

And when she steps into the water, she tells herself:

``Oh, Esther, lucky you. This is the best you're going to feel all day.''