Acknowledgement of Country
The NFSA acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waterways across Australia.
We pay respect to their Elders, past and present.
The NFSA acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waterways across Australia.
We pay respect to their Elders, past and present.
How I did love acting and swimming in those beautiful pictures.
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We hope you enjoy this tribute to the extraordinary Annette Kellerman.
Fearless pioneer
After making examinations of 10,000 girls, Annette Kellerman is the closest to physical perfection of any. [She] embodies all the physical attributes that most of us demand in the Perfect Woman.
Comparing Kellerman to Venus De Milo
'The most ghastly thing in the world'
Writing a novel
Health and Fitness Entrepreneur
Kellerman was a champion swimmer by the age of 16, holding every world record for women's swimming.
She performed daily 'mermaid shows' at Melbourne's Exhibition Building - displaying her diving and swimming skills.
A passionate swimming advocate she wrote a book called How to Swim in 1918.
Swimming for women is more than physical, it can engender self-confidence, and ... a kind of equality, even superiority to that of men.
It is the sport for women.
When she moved to London in 1905 she combined swimming displays with a mix of comedy, dance, music and physical culture in a vaudeville act.
She also incorporated lectures about healthy diet and exercise into her routine.
Vaudeville star
Kellerman popularised the one-piece bathing suit in her vaudeville shows. Before this, women were expected to stay covered with pantaloons and other cumbersome garments.
She discovered the freedom of men's cotton swimsuits during her endurance swims across the English Channel and down the Seine, Thames and Danube Rivers in 1905.
After success in long-distance swimming and vaudeville, Kellerman became a star of the silver screen in the US.
She starred in around 14 silent films from 1909 – 1924, many of them with fairytale and swimming storylines.
'Annette' - both mermaid and woman
Annette does her own stunts
Photographs like this publicity still from Neptune's Daughter (1914) show Kellerman's prowess as a stunt diver.
The film included a 20-metre high dive with her hands and feet bound together.
Unfortunately Kellerman's most spectacular stunts on film have been lost.
The three-hour grand epic A Daughter of the Gods (1916) was the crowning glory of Kellerman's film career.
The film itself is lost, however publicity photos like this one give hints of Kellerman's star power.
There were plenty of opportunities for Annette the action hero to shine in the million dollar movie, from a 30-metre dive to being thrown into a pool of crocodiles!
Kellerman is credited with being the first woman to appear nude on screen.
However she later maintained she wasn't nude at all and wore 'a very thin pair of tights'.
The still opposite is from A Daughter of the Gods (1916).
In 1952 relative newcomer Esther Williams starred in a film based on Kellerman's life called Million Dollar Mermaid.
The film included audacious synchronised swimming choreography by Busby Berkeley and was billed as the 'biggest, most exciting water show ever staged'.
Kellerman was one of the first Australians to receive the biopic treatment in Hollywood.
Her legacy lives on
Kellerman's performance of the adagio (slow dance) underwater was a hallmark of her vaudeville shows and films.
Her stunning athleticism allowed her to hold poses underwater. She even trained herself to hold her breath underwater for three minutes and twenty seconds at a time.
She continued to master her unique style of water ballet throughout her career.
Kellerman's underwater ballet
A compilation of Annette Kellerman's underwater ballet (1939). NFSA title: 554.
Training the 'Kellermanettes'
Mermaid and fairy princess
Trivia
Let’s face it, my dear. I really am just about one in a million.
Special thanks to Peter Cox and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
Excerpts of The Original Mermaid courtesy Michael Cordell. Newsreel footage courtesy Cinesound Movietone Productions.
ANNETTE KELLERMAN COLLECTION
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