In the 1930s, Esther Williams was an elite, record-breaking competitive swimmer long before she became Hollywood’s famous “Million Dollar Mermaid.” Training out of the Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC), she dominated regional and national competitions as a teenager, culminating in multiple titles and a spot on the United States Olympic team.
Williams was enthusiastic about swimming in her youth. Her older sister Maurine took her to Manhattan Beach and to the local pool. Esther took a job counting towels at the pool to pay the five-cent entry fee, and while there, she had swimming lessons from the male lifeguards. From them she learned the “male only” swimming strokes, including the butterfly, with which she would later break records.
Her medley team set the record for the 300-yard relay at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1939 and was also the national AAU champion in the 100-meter freestyle, with a record-breaking time of 1 minute 9.0 seconds. By age 16 Williams had won three U.S. national championships in breaststroke and freestyle swimming.
By late 1939, 17-year-old Williams had officially qualified for three berths on the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. She was scheduled to compete at the 1940 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. However, the outbreak of World War II in Europe forced the permanent cancellation of the games, instantly shattering her dreams of an Olympic medal.
With amateur sports sidelined by war, Williams took a job as a department store stock girl before turning professional in 1940. Her local swimming fame caught the eye of showman Billy Rose. She was hired to star alongside Olympic champion Johnny Weissmuller in Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a massive musical swimming spectacle at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. It was her performance in this pool that drew Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) talent scouts, launching her iconic movie career.
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