Mermaiding
Annette Marie Sarah Kellerman (6 July 1886 – 6 November 1975) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress and writer.
In that same year, her parents decided to move to Melbourne, and she was enrolled at Mentone Girls' Grammar School where her mother had accepted a music teaching position.
In June–July 1903 Kellermann performed sensational high dives in the Coogee scene of Bland Holt's spectacular, The Breaking of the Drought, at the Melbourne Theatre Royal.
Similar designs are still used by The Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaids, including her aquatic fairy costume first introduced in Queen of the Sea (1918).
Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco.
While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold medal winner and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller.
In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which went on to become her nickname while at MGM.
[7] Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.
Many of her MGM films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter's Darling, contained elaborately staged synchronized swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams.
Located an hour north of Tampa on Florida's Gulf Coast, Weeki Wachee Springs has hosted a mermaid show since 1947.
Million Dollar Mermaid (also known as The One Piece Bathing Suit in the UK) is a 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer biographical musical film of the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman, played by Esther Williams.
"Million Dollar Mermaid" not only became Esther Williams' nickname around Hollywood, but it became the title of her autobiography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), co-written with Digby Diehl.
Daryl Hannah's mermaid tail was designed and created by Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Robert Short.
DVD, Tom Hanks recalled how the other cast members would drop French fries over the side of the tank to her as though she were a trained sea mammal, for she could not leave the water while her legs were "shrink-wrapped".
She decides to search for true love on land, and makes two good friends (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Emma Roberts) along the way.
[19][20] The design tried to avoid the traditional representations of mermaids in paintings and literature, instead going for a scaly body with a translucent membrane inspired by both jellyfish and the fabric employed in ballet tutus.
The custom costumes took six months to build, with the tails and tops made from body casts and comprising individually hand-crafted scales.
In May 2023, Netflix released a documentary series titled MerPeople, which depicted the experiences of mermaids in the United States, some historically prominent and some still gaining traction in the community.
The series mostly focused on the Mertailor, the Blixunami, Mermaid Sparkles, Morgana Alba, Chè Monique, and the Red River Merman.
[22] [23] The miniseries covered the mermaids' personal lives, careers as performers, and participation in Virgin Voyages' King and Queen of the Sea pageant.
These mers might wear tails to raise awareness for ocean conservation issues, dry land cosplay, or as character performers at children's parties.
The phenomenon of mermaiding is most notably active in the United States and Asia, where regular conventions and competitions have become part of the countries' cultures.
Many public swimming pools for example need to be first consulted whether you can bring your mermaid tail with you or strictly don't allow it due to safety concerns.
The basic structure of the tail is that of a sleeve or tube that encompasses the legs from ankle to waist, enclosing fins or a monofin that is strapped to and extends from the wearer's feet.
The swimmer's muscle power, swimming style, and the type of aquatic activity the monofin is used for determines the choice of size, stiffness, and materials.
For instance, a large, stiff fiberglass monofin will serve a mermaid well in strong ocean currents, giving them speed and strength in the water.
A mermaid who will be performing in a glass tank may choose a smaller, more flexible, plastic model, which imparts agility and graceful flow rather than strong propulsion.
In 2015, a YouTube video surfaced in which a mother had to come over and rescue her daughter, who was drowning in a backyard pool after trying to do a flip while wearing a mermaid tail.
Other potential minor health issues that mermaids can experience include foot blisters that occur as their tightly packed feet rub against the insides of the tail costume, muscle cramps in the legs from strenuous swimming movements in the tail costume, red eyes caused by continual exposure to chlorine in swimming pool water, along with cold and flu-like symptoms and minor respiratory problems induced from being in cold water.
[51] Mermaids who wear latex tin-cure tails are also subject to several toxic health effects that the chemicals of such material impart (see above).
