Annette Kellerman

Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann (6 July 1886 – 6 November 1975), whose name is often written with one "n" as Annette Kellerman, was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville performer, film actress, and writer. She was among the first women to adopt a one-piece bathing suit instead of the standard pantaloons, encouraging others to do the same. Her swimwear became so popular that she launched her own line of one-piece suits. Kellermann also helped spread interest in synchronised swimming and wrote a swimming manual. She starred in several films, many with water-based plots, and in *A Daughter of the Gods* (1916) became the first major actress to appear nude in a Hollywood movie. Throughout her life, she promoted health, fitness, and natural beauty.

Born in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, on 6 July 1886, she was the daughter of Frederick William Kellermann, an Australian violinist, and Alice Ellen Charbonnet, a French pianist and music teacher. At age six, weakness in her legs required steel braces. To strengthen them, her parents enrolled her in swimming classes at Cavill's Baths in Lavender Bay. By 13, her legs were nearly normal, and by 15 she had mastered all strokes and won her first race, also giving diving displays.

In 1902, she won the New South Wales ladies' 100 yards and mile championships with record times of 1 minute 22 seconds and 33 minutes 49 seconds. That year, her family moved to Melbourne, where she attended Mentone Girls' Grammar School while her mother taught music. During school, she gave swimming and diving exhibitions at Melbourne baths, performed a mermaid act at Princes Court, and swam with fish in a glass tank twice daily at the Exhibition Aquarium. In mid-1903, she performed high dives in a Coogee scene at the Melbourne Theatre Royal. She had a rivalry with swimmer Beatrice Kerr, but never accepted Kerr's public race challenges.

On 24 August 1905, at age 19, Kellermann became one of the first women to try swimming the English Channel. A Dover pilot stopped her, though he believed she could have continued. After three failed attempts, she said, "I had the endurance but not the brute strength." The first woman to attempt the Channel was Austrian Baroness Walburga von Isacescu in September 1900. Kellermann later beat von Isacescu in a Danube race. While in London, a short film of her performances was made and shown in Australia. In 1911, she starred on Broadway in "Undine," an aquacade by Manuel Klein, performed alongside the musical *Vera Violetta* featuring Al Jolson. In 1917, she performed a water ballet in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome.

Kellermann fought for women's right to wear one-piece swimsuits, which was then controversial. She later claimed she was arrested at Revere Beach for indecency in such a suit, but no police records or news stories confirm this, and the incident appears invented. Her suits became so popular that she launched her own line, known as "Annette Kellermans," a step toward modern women's swimwear.

In 1916, she appeared fully nude in *A Daughter of the Gods*, the first million-dollar film production by Fox Film Corporation. Like most of her films, it is now lost. Her movies often involved aquatic adventure, and she performed her own stunts, including dives from 92 feet into the sea and 60 feet into a pool of crocodiles. She frequently played mermaids named Annette. Her "fairy tale films" began with *The Mermaid* (1911), where she was the first actress to wear a swimmable mermaid costume on film, influencing later stars like Esther Williams and Daryl Hannah. She designed and sometimes made her own mermaid costumes; similar designs are still used by Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaids, including her aquatic fairy costume from *Queen of the Sea* (1918, also lost). She appeared in *Venus of the South Seas* (1924), one of the last Prizma Color films, with one reel in colour and underwater. Restored by the Library of Congress in 2004, it is the only complete surviving feature film starring Kellermann.

Beyond film and stage, Kellermann wrote a swimming manual and advocated for health, fitness, and natural beauty throughout her life.