Barely a teenager, Elizabeth Taylor was already more beautiful and voluptuous than Miss America. When she arrived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for our magazine shoot, I was bowled over. I couldn't believe she was only fourteen. She filled out a swimsuit better than I did. We did the pictures, including one shot of me teaching her to float. With that superstructure of hers, she floated just fine. What she couldn't do was sink.

Esther Williams

Categorized in : Beautiful Teaching Teenager

What the public expects and what is healthy for an individual are two very different things.

Esther Williams

health inspiration two

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

Esther Williams

athlete wisdom teaching

Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.

Esther Williams

swimming girl character

My training in Science of Mind had begun with my mother. She took me to a different church every Sunday, and she encouraged me to question the minister afterward.

Esther Williams

training sunday mother

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

Esther Williams

hints swimming home

We can't all win Olympic medals. Even I never won one.

Esther Williams

medal olympic-medals winning

It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious

Esther Williams

invited audience water

Marriage to Fernando offered shelter and security, but the shackle was the price I'd pay.

Esther Williams

shelter marriage pay

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues

Esther Williams

issues girl sports

Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.

Esther Williams

gambling husband drinking

I always took it for granted that there would be life after Hollywood.

Esther Williams

granted hollywood would-be

I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.

Esther Williams

swimming movie would-be

I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers

Esther Williams

beverly-hills hospitality swim

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

Esther Williams

mermaid firsts

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air

Esther Williams

mermaid air feet

I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.

Esther Williams

stars new-york running

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

Esther Williams

swimming strong football

I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.

Esther Williams

yards office firsts

I ended up buying a restaurant. Already we had invested in a gas station and a metal products plant.

Esther Williams

gas-stations plant buying

Howard Hughes himself was a regular at the restaurant, and in a way it became his headquarters, too. Howard had recently relocated to Las Vegas, so when he wanted to do business in Los Angeles, he went into the back of our restaurant to use the telephone.

Esther Williams

vegas business use