Quotes

I was called America's mermaid, because it appeared that I could stay underwater indefinitely.

All they ever did for me at MGM was change my leading man and the water in my pool.

No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.

I don't know to this day how I managed to fit into those bathing suits when I was pregnant, but I did.

The popular "Andy Hardy" series movies were MGM's tests for its promising stars such as Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Donna Reed. If you didn't make it in those pictures, you were never heard from again.

[International Swimming Hall of Fame] If swimming would make his daughter grow up to look like Esther Williams, then father was willing to pay for the lessons.

[in 2003] I was just a swimmer who got lucky.

MGM made money off me, but they never understood the art form. Not until the fifth picture did I even get a choreographer.

When I first started swimming, not many girls participated in the sport. They either didn't want to get their hair wet or wanted to go out on Friday nights instead of going to a meet. But as a result of the popularity of the water ballet, pretty girls began to swim.

I've been a lucky lady. I've had three exciting careers. Before films I had the experience of competitive swimming, with the incredible fun of winning. I had a movie career with all the glamour that goes with it. That was ego-fulfilling, but it was like the meringue on the pie. My marriage with [Fernando Lamas--that was the filling, that was the apple in the pie.

[on her marriage to Fernando Lamas] A really terrific guy comes along and says, "I wish you'd stay at home and be my wife", and that's the most logical thing in the world for a Latin. And I loved being a Latin wife--you get treated very well.

[as a young player to MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, who had scolded her] Mr. Mayer, please don't yell at me. You can make movies, but you can't get to the end of the pool first. So you can't yell at me 'til you can.

[about director Busby Berkeley, who set up a dangerous shot for her while filming Easy to Love (1953) at Cypress Gardens, FL] My life was of no importance to him at all. The shot was the thing.