Thursday, June 06, 2013
SWIMMER
I nominate Esther Williams as this week's heroine.
Technicolor Star Esther Williams Dead at 91
When I was a kid, I went to all the Esther Williams movies because she was in a lot of MGM musicals and I saw all of those.
She was special. Kind of wholesome.
She did the necessary romantic stuff but she seemed a breed apart. A bit distant from the other gals who, while interesting in their own way, were not somehow as "serious".
She was a champion swimmer and, as I look back, I don't think she compromised any aspect of that for the film she was in.
She may not have invented synchronized swimming but she could have.
I always worried that she was getting water in her nose. I got over that. Maybe she was a good role model. I can swim upside down under the water now and not get any in there.
There was a rumor that she had owned a house in our neighborhood. It is possible. It had shells and blue glass and stuff embedded in the walls around it. Nice.
Now, it is all covered over with one of those desert re-dos that rob a neighborhood of any individuality. Painted some shit brown color.
Esther was great. I liked her. And the best thing about her was that she always, always, had latin lovers like Ricardo Montalban. Fernando Lamas. That set me up to be a latino lover myself. Just today, I was able to flirt with a gardener working next door on some project or other.
Esther and me. We like the latin boys.
