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Annette Kellermann

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Swimmer

The Resume

    (July 6, 1887-November 6, 1975)
    Born in Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia
    Long-distance swimmer
    Competed in challenge races in the Thames, Seine and Danube rivers
    Performed an aquatic ballet at the New York Hippodrome (1907)
    Appeared in the films ‘Neptune’s Daughter’ (1914), ‘A Daughter of the Gods’ (1916), ‘Queen of the Seas’ (1920) and ‘Venus of the South Seas’ (1926)
    Wrote ‘Physical Beauty and How to Keep It’ (1918) and ‘Fairy Tales of the South Seas’ (1926)
    Portrayed by Esther Williams in ‘Million Dollar Mermaid’ (1952)
    Nicknamed ‘the Australian Mermaid’ and ‘the Diving Venus’
    Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (1974)

Why she might be annoying:

    She failed three times to swim the English Channel; after her third attempt, she declared no woman would ever have the combination of endurance and brute strength necessary to do it. (Apparently, someone forgot to inform Gertrude Ederle of the feat’s impossibility.)
    There are no known copies of most of the films she appeared in.
    She was a life-long vegetarian.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She took up swimming as a child to strengthen her leg muscles (which had been weak enough for her to need braces when she was six).
    She helped popularize one-piece bathing suits in place of bulky pantaloons, and launched her own line of swimwear.
    She did her own movie stunts, including diving sixty feet into a pool of crocodiles.
    In ‘A Daughter of the Gods,’ she became the first movie star to appear completely nude on screen.
    After studying 3,000 women, Dudley A. Sargent, a professor of physical training at Harvard, declared her ‘the perfect woman’ because of the similarity of her measurements to those of the Venus de Milo (1908).
    During World War II, she worked for the Australian Red Cross and entertained the troops.
    She was married to her manager, James R. Sullivan, for 63 years, and died just six days after him.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 29 Votes: 62.07% Annoying