Esther Williams single-handedly helped popularize the pastime of swimming — first as the star swimmer of the San Francisco production of Billy Rose's Aquacade, and then as the star of Hollywood films like Bathing Beauties and Million Dollar Mermaid. Williams’s stardom — and the necessity to maintain her image as a grinning glamour girl, even while submerged underwater — led to the creation of several waterproof products and swimwear innovations, from waterproof foundation and eyeliner to bathing cap couture. Despite two decades of sustained celebrity and brand power, Williams eventually struggled to maintain the pristine bathing beauty facade. She lost her MGM contract in the 1960s and had to pay millions to the studio in damages. On her way down, she slapped her name on swimming pools and exercise videos, stumbled through four unhappy marriages and started to experiment with LSD for her depression. Drawing on previously untapped resources, Rachel Syme will tell the story of Williams' rise and fall, and the innovations in aqua-beauty she inspired, while also analyzing why we want to be waterproof, why we want to be so invulnerable to the elements and why putting swimming on-screen led to pressures for women to look put-together, even when sopping wet.
This episode was written and performed by Rachel Syme, a writer, reporter and cultural critic living in New York City. She writes a regular column for The New Yorker on fashion and beauty. She is also a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair and Esquire. She often writes about the complex intersection between fame, glamour, beauty and feminism.
75: The Blacklist Part 5: The Strange Love of Barbara Stanwyck: Robert Taylor
74: The Blacklist Part 4: The African Queen: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn and John Huston
Blacklist Flashback: Bogey Before Bacall
73: The Blacklist Part 3: Dorothy Parker
72: The Blacklist Part 2: Crossfire – The Trials of the Hollywood Ten
71: The Blacklist Part 1: The Prehistory of the Blacklist
70: MGM Stories Part 15: Mayer’s Downfall
69: MGM Stories Part 14: Elizabeth Taylor, The MGM Years
68: MGM Stories Part 13: Gloria Grahame
67: MGM Stories Part 12: Lana Turner
66: MGM Stories Part 11: David O. Selznick Part Two: Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker
65: MGM Stories Part 10: David O. Selznick Part One: The Mayers and Gone With the Wind
64: MGM Stories Part 9: Spencer Tracy
63: MGM Stories Part 8: Eddie Mannix
62: MGM Stories Part 7: MGM's children: Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
61: MGM Stories Part 6: Jean Harlow
60: MGM Stories Part 5: William Haines and Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Marriage
59: MGM Stories Part 4: John Gilbert and Greta Garbo
58: MGM Stories Part 3: Buster Keaton’s Biggest Mistake
57: MGM Stories Part 2: Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, and Citizen Kane
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