ANNETTE KELLERMAN RECALLS THRILLS OF HER PAST, NOW PICTURED ON SCREEN IN MGM's "MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID' Annette Kellerman, one of the most famous women of four de- cades, has turned her headline- making one-piece bathing suit over to Esther Williams. "And long may she wear it," she beamed. Miss Kellerman recently watched the filming of her life story in M-G-M's "Million Dollar Mermaid," now showing at the Theatre, in which Miss Williams plays her role in the story. "I wouldn't have missed it," she says. Miss Kellerman began life in Australia and has traveled in every country in the world. She has met internationally famous figures; she has encountered success and ad- versity with equal aplomb; she and her one-piece bathing suit made headlines across the nation and did much toward blazing the trail to- ward feminine emancipation. Among the thrills of her life was a night at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, when she danced the famous Pavlova num- ber, "The Dying Swan," to the music of a 90-piece symphony or- chestra led by Toscanini. The per- formance was given for a war bond drive during World War 1, and Stills 1567-x-67, Lm-25102 the program read like a who's who Million Dollar Mermaid Mat 2-F of the entertainment world. There were Caruso, Scotti, Geraldine Far- Annette Kellerman, famed swim- ming champion of the early 1900,s rar, Fritz Kreisler, Nazimova. and star of the water spectacles at "But my taste for collecting ex- New York's Hippodrome, served as periences started many years be- technical adviser on "Million Dol- fore the Metropolitan Opera bene- lar Mermaid," M-G-M's lavish Tech- nicolor picture inspired by her life fit," she says. "One of the first story, in which Esther Williams por- was in Paris on an early distance trays Miss Kellerman. Above, she swim in which I found myself com- examines a sketch of the celebrated peting against seventeen men. The one-piece bathing suit, which she in- troduced at Boston's Revere Beach race was a twelve kilometer one in 1907. It was when she was arrest- down the Seine River, and I was ed for indecent exposure by ap- the first girl to enter this competi- pearing in this suit that Miss Keller- tion." man first won the nation-wide at- By the time the race was three- tention which was subsequently to make her the most famous mer- quarters finished, thirteen of the maid of her day. It also helped to seventeen men had dropped out. break the iron-clad bonds which Miss Kellerman and the famed forced women of her day to go Channel swimmer, Burgess, touch- bathing in voluminous petticoats and bloomers. The incident is re- created on the screen in "Million Dollar Mermaid," with Esther Williams clad in the daring form-fitting suit. The insert shows how well Esther fills it!