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In the early twentieth century, a young Australian woman became one of the highest paid and most adored Hollywood and vaudeville stars of the day. Her name was Annette Kellerman. Born into a musical family in suburban Sydney in 1886, Annette's first love was performing. Yet when she took up swimming to overcome a childhood illness, she quickly found herself breaking records and beating the boys and loving it. When the Depression hit, Annette and her father headed for England to seek their fortune. It was to be the start of a dazzling international career. After winning over Londoners with her death-defying swims in the Thames and the English Channel, she was soon wowing them at the Palladium with her trademark vaudeville act: a performance that included diving into a giant glass tank where she captivated the crowds with her graceful and athletic underwater ballet. Hollywood beckoned and Annette quickly became the darling of the silent film era, starring in the first-ever million-dollar film, Daughter of the Gods. She was soon a household name; dubbed The Perfect Woman', crowds queued for blocks to see her on the screen, men flocked to catch a glimpse her provocative costumes or lack thereof-and women thronged to hear her views on health and fitness. Annette's life was often controversial but always exhilarating, and was immortalised in the 1950s Esther Williams classic The Million Dollar Mermaid. Yet she was to end her days alone and penniless on Queensland's Gold Coast, selling her old fur coat to pay the bills. Strong minded and fiercely brave, Annette Kellerman high-dived onto the international stage, challenging preconceptions of how women should look, act and think, and capturing the hearts of a generation. Here, for the first time ever, is her extraordinary story.
Not since David Niven wrote the bestselling THE MOON'S A BALLOON has one of Hollywood's great stars written with real wit and candour about what it was like to work in the movie factories. In this glamorous world actors were pampered and coddled, yet expected to work without complaint for long, hard hours; made into an object of desire for millions of people and live in a world of almost total unreality, while still being expected to go about the business of finding a partner and raising a family, and avoiding personal scandal at all costs. Now, for the thousands of fans of the Golden Age of Hollywood comes Esther William's wonderfully witty, fresh and frank autobiography, all about an 18 year old girl who reluctantly answers the call of MGM and finds herself launched in a career that will last almost twenty years. During her career, she helped to create a genre of film that seems almost unimaginable today, yet which still holds its original freshness and fascination. Whether speaking of her own marriages, divorces, and love affairs or telling tales about the legends of the studio era, Williams is acutely perceptive and always uncompromisingly honest.
In the early twentieth century, a young Australian woman became one of the highest paid and most adored Hollywood and vaudeville stars of the day. Her name was Annette Kellerman. Born into a musical family in suburban Sydney in 1886, Annette's first love was performing. Yet when she took up swimming to overcome a childhood illness, she quickly found herself breaking records and beating the boys and loving it. When the Depression hit, Annette and her father headed for England to seek their fortune. It was to be the start of a dazzling international career. After winning over Londoners with her death-defying swims in the Thames and the English Channel, she was soon wowing them at the Palladium with her trademark vaudeville act: a performance that included diving into a giant glass tank where she captivated the crowds with her graceful and athletic underwater ballet. Hollywood beckoned and Annette quickly became the darling of the silent film era, starring in the first-ever million-dollar film, Daughter of the Gods. She was soon a household name; dubbed The Perfect Woman', crowds queued for blocks to see her on the screen, men flocked to catch a glimpse her provocative costumes or lack thereof-and women thronged to hear her views on health and fitness. Annette's life was often controversial but always exhilarating, and was immortalised in the 1950s Esther Williams classic The Million Dollar Mermaid. Yet she was to end her days alone and penniless on Queensland's Gold Coast, selling her old fur coat to pay the bills. Strong minded and fiercely brave, Annette Kellerman high-dived onto the international stage, challenging preconceptions of how women should look, act and think, and capturing the hearts of a generation. Here, for the first time ever, is her extraordinary story.
John Fair and David Chapman tell the story of how filmmakers use and manipulate the appearance and performances of muscular men and women to enhance the appeal of their productions. The authors show how this practice, deeply rooted in western epistemological traditions, evolved from the art of photography through magic lantern and stage shows into the motion picture industry, arguing that the sight of muscles in action induced a higher degree of viewer entertainment. From Eugen Sandow to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, muscular actors appear capable of performing the miraculous, and with the aid of stuntmen and filming contrivances, they do. By such means, muscles are used to perfect the art of illusion, inherent in movie-making from its earliest days.
A wide-ranging, beautifully illustrated history of mermaids and mermen from the classics to cosplay. People have been fascinated by merpeople and merfolk since ancient times. From the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and the film Splash, myths, stories, and legends of half-human, half-fish creatures abound. In modern times “mermaiding” has gained popularity among cosplayers throughout the world. In Merpeople: A Human History, Vaughn Scribner traces the long history of mermaids and mermen, taking in a wide variety of sources and using 117 striking images. From film to philosophy, church halls to coffee houses, ancient myth to modern science, Scribner shows that mermaids and tritons are—and always have been—everywhere.
A groundbreaking history of how women found synchronicity—and power—in water. “If you’re not strong enough to swim fast, you’re probably not strong enough to swim ‘pretty,’?” said a young Esther Williams to theater impresario Billy Rose. Since the nineteenth century, tensions between beauty and strength, aesthetics and athleticism have both impeded and propelled the careers of female swimmers—none more so than synchronized swimmers, for whom Williams is often considered godmother. In this revelatory history, Vicki Valosik traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville to the Olympic arena, and brings to life the colorful cast of characters whose “pretty swimming” not only laid the groundwork for an altogether new sport but forever changed women’s relationships with water. Williams, who became a Hollywood sensation for her splashy “aquamusicals,” was just one in a long, bedazzled line of swimmers who began their careers as athletes but found greater opportunity, and often social acceptance, in the world of show business. Early starlets like Lurline the Water Queen performed “scientific” swimming, a set of moves previously only practiced by men—including Benjamin Franklin—that focused on form and exhibited mastery in the water. Demonstrating their fancy feats in aquariums and water tanks rolled onto music hall stages, these women stunned Victorian audiences with their physical dexterity and defied society’s rigid expectations of what was proper and possible for their sex. Far more than bathing beauties, they ushered in sensible swimwear and influenced lifesaving and physical education programs, helping to drop national drowning rates and paving the way for new generations of female athletes. When a Chicago physical educator matched their aquatic movements to music in the 1920s, young girls flocked to take part in “synchronized swimming.” But despite overwhelming love from audiences and the Olympic ambitions of its practitioners, “synchro” was long perceived as little more than entertaining pageantry, and its athletes would face a battle against the current to earn a spot at the highest echelons of sport. Now, on the fortieth anniversary of synchronized swimming’s elevation to Olympic status, Swimming Pretty honors its incredible history of grit, glamor, and sheer athleticism.
During the Silent Era, when most films dealt with dramatic or comedic takes on the "boy meets girl, boy loses girl" theme, other motion pictures dared to tackle such topics as rejuvenation, revivication, mesmerism, the supernatural and the grotesque. A Daughter of the Gods (1916), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Magician (1926) and Seven Footprints to Satan (1929) were among the unusual and startling films containing story elements that went far beyond the realm of "highly unlikely." Using surviving documentation and their combined expertise, the authors catalog and discuss these departures from the norm in this encyclopedic guide to American horror, science fiction and fantasy in the years from 1913 through 1929.
This stirring and vibrant account of women’s athleticism throughout history “will leave readers feeling inspired and powerful” (Ms. magazine). Part group biography, part cultural history, Strong Like Her delves into the fascinating stories of our muscular foremothers. From the first female Olympian (who entered the chariot race through a loophole) to the circus stars who could lift their husbands above their heads and make it look like “a little light housework with a feather duster,” these brave and brawny women paved the way for the generations to follow. Filled with Sophy Holland’s beautiful por­traits of some of today’s most awe-inspiring ath­letes, including Peloton instructor Robin Arzón, bodybuilder Dana Linn Bailey, actress/dancer Patina Miller, and many others, Strong Like Her is “a love letter to muscles and the women who rock them so gloriously” (Shape).
Nils T. Granlund (1882-1957) created the first movie preview, filmed the first commercial, was the first to broadcast a live sports event, and, as a popular radio personality, introduced the Jazz Age to America via his broadcasts from Harlem's Cotton Club. He is also acknowledged as the creator of the modern nightclub, introducing the high-kicking chorus line to the stages of Las Vegas. But though he was among the highest-grossing entertainers of the World War II era--famous enough to star as "himself" in several Hollywood films--he died virtually penniless, and today is all but forgotten. This work is a comprehensive biography of the man known as NTG, from his herding reindeer in Sweden to shepherding the most beautiful chorus girls on Broadway.
America's Girl is an intimate look at the life and trials of Gertrude Ederle, who in 1926 not only became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, but broke the record set by men. The feat so thrilled America that it welcomed her home with a ticker tape parade that drew two million people. This fascinating portrait follows Ederle from her early days as a competitive swimmer through her gold medal triumph at the 1924 Olympics, to the first attempt the next year by Ederle to swim from France to England in frigid and turbulent waters, a feat that had been conquered by only five men up to that time. This is also a stirring look at the go-go era of the 1920s, when the country was about to recognize that women not only could vote, but compete on an international scale as athletes. At the height of Prohibition, Ederle's triumph over the formidable Channel was a triumph for women everywhere. America's Girl immerses readers in a pivotal era of American history and brings to life the spirit of that time.