I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but I couldn’t leave the occasion unmarked. Last week (on June 6th) swimmer and movie star Esther Williams died in her sleep at the age of 91 in California.

I have happy memories of watching re-runs of Esther Williams movies growing up. The first time I ever saw her swim onscreen I was absolutely blown away by it – I’d just never seen anything like it before! She was a truly unique movie star and I think she easily beats Betty Grable to the coveted title of ‘the best legs in Hollywood!’.

If you’ve never seen an Esther Williams movie and don’t know what all the fuss is about *please* take 5 minutes to watch this clip from ‘That’s Entertainment’ – the real Hollywood swimming extravaganza footage starts at about 2 minute into it. It’s fabulous! I particularly love the clip of her sliding down an enormous waterside standing up, I wonder how many takes that took to get right!

Source and copyright:  This work is in the public domain in that it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1977 and without a copyright notice.