Blood and Guts and Ice Cream Dreams

theloudestvoice:

Happy Birthday Annette Kellerman (July 6, 1886 - November 6, 1975)

Known during her heyday as “The Diving Venus,” Annette Kellerman was born with legs that were not fully functional. Along with the standard steel braces used at the time, she was also placed in swim classes, where she excelled. Thanks to her diligence and a natural aptitude, over a period of years she gained full use of her legs and started kicking ass in pools all over her native Australia. This achievement brought her a certain level of fame, and she began performing in mermaid and diving shows around the country.

Kellerman attempted to swim the English Channel on three separate occasions, the first being in 1905. This, along with her advocacy for less cumbersome swimsuits for women, brought her still more fame and eventually she had her own line of swimwear. In 1908 a doctor at Harvard University declared her “The Perfect Woman” due to her…well, you can just refer to the top photo. So! Movies were a natural next step.

Kellerman is today most famous for being in arguably the first nude scene (hello, photo 2!) in a major film, A Daughter of the Gods (1916). She appeared in a variety of movies designed to capitalize on her swimming abilities and frequently dressed as mermaids or sea fairies (photo 3, from Queen of the Sea (1918)).

This may sound remarkably familiar if you’re at all aware of Esther Williams’ swim-centric career in the Hollywood of the ’40s-’50s, and in fact Esther Williams played Annette Kellerman in a 1952 biopic called Million Dollar Mermaid.

Proving that swimming is terribly, terribly good for you, Kellerman died at the ripe old age of 88 in Australia. Happy birthday, Annette.

(source : source : source)