- published: 06 Oct 2009
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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.
Esther Williams: Princess Mermaid
A Escola de Sereias - (Esther Williams) 1944
Esther Williams - Tahiti - Sea of the Moon - Pagan Love Song - Howard Keel
Esther Williams
Esther Williams - 1999
What's My Line? - Esther Williams (Jan 16, 1955)
Esther Williams 2007 Interview
Esther Williams fragment
Esther Williams - Easy To Love
Ine Nyasaye Mayalo By Esther Williams
Actors: Phyllis Calvert (actress), David MacDonald (director), Richard Leech (actor), Thorley Walters (actor), Alan White (actor), Sydney John Kay (composer), Frederick Gotfurt (writer), Sheila Shand Gibbs (actress), Robert Hall (producer), Kenneth Horne (writer), Seymour Logie (editor), Constance Fraser (actress), Gillian Owen (actress),
Genres: Comedy,Actors: James Harrison (actor), Earle Hodgins (actor), Douglas Fowley (actor), Stan Freberg (actor), Ned Glass (actor), Don Haggerty (actor), Clark Gable (actor), Gene Alsace (actor), Paul Bryar (actor), Paul Fierro (actor), John Banner (actor), Jack Davis (actor), Douglas Carter (actor), Hugh Beaumont (actor), John Indrisano (actor),
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, impersonationActors: Reed Howes (actor), Stuart Holmes (actor), Harry Hayden (actor), Russell Hicks (actor), Lee Bennett (actor), Sam Harris (actor), William Halligan (actor), Byron Foulger (actor), Van Heflin (actor), Ralph Dunn (actor), Stanley Andrews (actor), William Forrest (actor), Rex Evans (actor), James Finlayson (actor), Van Johnson (actor),
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-arrangerActors: Gene Kelly (actor), Sam Flint (actor), Harry Hayden (actor), William Bailey (actor), Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (actor), William Frawley (actor), Rex Evans (actor), Fred Astaire (actor), Charles Coleman (actor), Joseph Crehan (actor), Hume Cronyn (actor), Edward Arnold (actor), William B. Davidson (actor), Eddie Dunn (actor), Peter Lawford (actor),
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