Screen mermaid was a box-office sensation

WILLIAMS. Queen of MGM.

WHEN I began watching movies, my favorite stars included the greatest of all Tarzans, Johnny Weissmuller, and Esther Williams, the beautiful screen mermaid who became Hollywood’s most popular box-office star in the early ‘50s.

The beautiful and shapely star swam with dashing leading men, like Howard Keel, Ricardo Montalban and Fernando Lamas, whom she would eventually marry. Her movies were synonymous with spectacle and grand entertainment.

Popularity

Williams’ popularity lasted over a decade. She was a former model and swimming champion and a hard-worker—but, success came at a price: She ruined her hearing from the high dives she performed as a swimmer.

She was declared queen of the MGM lot after her “aquatic” spectacles outdid the Rooney-Garland musicals, Flynn’s swashbuckling actioners, and the dramatic vehicles of Greer Garson, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

But, when the reign of musicals at the box office ended, Esther made no splash in dramas. Worse, she had an affair with Jeff Chandler—who turned out to be a cross-dresser.

A few years later, she married Lamas, who, she said, was her “only leading man who could actually swim.” Williams is now 93 years old.