As a companion to Mr. Mudede’s bathing beauty (click the first link here): Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Annette Kellerman, the woman who first advocated that women should be able to wear one-piecers. She may also have invented synchronized swimming, was the first “major actress” to do a nude scene on film (alas, the film is lost), and was a lifelong vegetarian who eventually ran a health food store in Long Beach, California. Her wikipedia entry is so, so worth reading. Why has no one made a movie of this woman’s life?

9c48/1246316143-unknown.jpeg

In 1908, after conducting a study of 3000 women, Dr Dudley A. Sargent of Harvard University dubbed her the Perfect Woman because of the similarity of her physical attributes to the Venus de Milo.

Thank you, Sara.

20 replies on “Re: Watering You”

  1. Dr. Dudley A. Sargent must have dampened a lot of Kleenex in the course of his “study.”

    Wait, did they have Kleenex then? Probably not. He or his long-suffering wife must have had to boil his spunky hankies in the basement.

  2. Wow, what an amazing woman. And she ended her days in my neck of the woods. Next time I’m down in Sydney I must head over to the Powerhouse and see those costumes. That documentary definitely looks worth checking out too.

    Ta for the heads up Bethany.

  3. Good work, Dr. Dudley, but was he blind? This woman, in all her magnificence, resembles the Venus de Milo not at all. For one thing, she has arms. For another, she has BIG TITS; the Venus has smallish ones. She’s also got a BIG ASS; the Venus does not. This hourglass hottie is something, all right, but she doesn’t look anything like that Greek.

  4. Good work, Dr. Dudley, but was he blind? This woman, in all her magnificence, resembles the Venus de Milo not at all. For one thing, she has arms. For another, she has BIG TITS; the Venus has smallish ones. She’s also got a BIG ASS; the Venus does not. This hourglass hottie is something, all right, but she doesn’t look anything like that Greek.

  5. Bethany – in answer to your question: “

    “She was portrayed by Esther Williams in the film Million Dollar Mermaid (1952).”

    and

    “An award winning Australian documentary called The Original Mermaid about Annette Kellerman was produced in 2002.”

    These quotes are from the Wikipedia entry that you link to.

  6. Nice figure, except her legs are a bit short. Her face though, not really so hot. A little odd looking. I wouldn’t rank her as the “perfect woman”

Comments are closed.