Esther ( /ˈɛstər/; Hebrew: אֶסְתֵּר, Modern Ester Tiberian ʼEstēr), born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther. According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid empire. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition.
King Xerxes held a 180-day feast in Susa (Shoushan). While in "high spirits" from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him and his guests to display her beauty. But when the attendants delivered the king's command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his wise men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that "The King Xerxes commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not." Then the women of the empire would despise their husbands. And this would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore it would be good to depose her.
Esther Jane Williams (born August 8, 1921 [although some sources cite 1922]) is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star.
Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, Williams 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. There, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller.
It was at the Aquacade that Williams caught the attention of MGM scouts. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronized swimming and diving.
From 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film listed among the 20 highest grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which would go on to become her nickname while at MGM. 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.
Plot
Two smart marketing people resurrect some old films starring cowboy Smoky Callaway and put them on television. The films are a big hit and the star is in demand. Unfortunately no one can find him. When a lookalike sends in a photo, the marketing team hires him to impersonate Callaway. Things get sticky when the real Callaway eventually shows up.
Keywords: character-name-in-title, charity, colosseum, cowboy, double-cross, dual-role, film-studio, foundation, hollywood-california, impersonation
Mike Frye: You know, sometimes I wonder why I keep you around.::Deborah Patterson: Maybe it's because I own 50% of the stock.::Mike Frye: That must be the reason.
Georgie Markham: Don't worry, I'll bring him back dead or alive. Either way, he ought to look great.
Deborah Patterson: What ever happened to your conscience?::Mike Frye: I just had it washed. I can't do a thing with it.
Stretch' Barnes: Grandma used to say money can't buy happiness, but it sure is a most pleasant way of being miserable.
Plot
Light bio-pic of American Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern, featuring renditions of the famous songs from his musical plays by contemporary stage artists, including a condensed production of his most famous: 'Showboat'.
Keywords: aspiring-singer, collaborator, composition, daughter, engagement, england, jealousy, lusitania, mentor, music-arranger
The mammoth musical of Jerome Kern's dramatic life story!
Victor Herbert: [congratulating Jerome Kern on his composing ability] My boy, you've got a song to sing.
Plot
In heaven, showman 'Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.' (qv) fondly recalls his first Broadway revue, the Ziegfeld Follies of 1907. Even from heaven, he is hoping that he can, for one last time, create that same magic by mounting one last follies. As he thinks about who he would like to appear in these follies, he is assisted in realizing his fantasy, at least in his own mind, by such luminaries as 'Fred Astaire' (qv), 'Edward Arnold (I)' (qv), 'Lucille Ball', 'Marion Bell' (qv), 'Lucille Bremer' (qv), 'Fanny Brice' (qv), 'Cyd Charisse' (qv), 'Judy Garland' (qv), 'Kathryn Grayson' (qv), 'Lena Horne' (qv), 'Gene Kelly (I)' (qv), 'James Melton (I)' (qv), 'Victor Moore (I)' (qv), 'Virginia O'Brien' (qv), 'Red Skelton' (qv), 'Esther Williams (I)' (qv), 'Keenan Wynn' (qv), and, of course, a bevy of beautiful girls.
Keywords: 1940s, actress, bag-of-golf-clubs, ballerina, ballet, ballroom-dancing, bird-on-shoulder, bubble, camera-shot-of-a-woman's-legs, carousel
Flashing...smashing SCREEN ENTERTAINMENT! DAZZLING IN ITS BEAUTY...PACKED WITH GLORIOUS Melodies! (original print media ad - many caps)
Greatest Production Since The Birth Of Motion Pictures!
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.: Children play with the dreams of tomorrow. And old men play with the memories of yesterday.
Fred Astaire: I'm sorry, I can't quite place you. What line of business are you in?::Gene Kelly: Well, I dance.::Fred Astaire: Oh, at home, for the folks? Picnics and that kind of thing?::Gene Kelly: Oh, no, no. In public.::Fred Astaire: On street corners?::Gene Kelly: Oh, no. On the screen. Motion pictures! You do go to pictures that have dancing in them, don't you?::Fred Astaire: I try to see them all.::Gene Kelly: Did you see a picture called "Cover Girl"?::Fred Astaire: Yes.::Gene Kelly: Well, who did all the dancing in that?::Fred Astaire: You're not Rita Hayworth?::Gene Kelly: No I'm not... Ginger.
[first lines]::Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.: Ah... Saturday, September twenty fifth. Another heavenly day. Ah, yes. Always a heavenly day.
Fred Astaire: [sings] Here's to the beautiful ladies / Here's to those wonderful girls / Adele's and Molly's, Lucille's and Polly's / You'll find them all at the Ziegfeld Follies.
Fred Astaire: [sings] This is the mixture to start the picture / So bring on those beautiful girls.
Number Please Telephone Operator: Number, please?
Lawyer's Client: [to the Lawyer] For goodness sake, will you pay him the two dollars.
'Love' Number: [sings] Love can be a cup of sorrow, Love can be a lie. / Love can make you wake tomorrow and sigh.
Fred Astaire: Hello.::Gene Kelly: How are you?::Fred Astaire: How's that folks?::Gene Kelly: What's new?::Fred Astaire: I'm great.::Gene Kelly: That's good.::Fred Astaire: Ha-ha!::Gene Kelly: Knock wood.::Fred Astaire: Well, well.::Gene Kelly: That's life.::Fred Astaire: What do you know?::Gene Kelly: How's the wife?::Fred Astaire: Gotta run.::Gene Kelly: Oh, my.::Fred Astaire: Ta-ta.::Gene Kelly: Olive oil.::Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire: Bye, bye.
[last lines]::'Beauty' Number: [sings] And then someone comes into view / And suddenly you find it's true / That love is beauty too.