Annette Kellerman.pub

Born in Sydney in 1886, Annette Kellerman
came to Mentone in 1902 with her music-teaching
parents. She had polio as a child and swimming became
part of her rehabilitation. Mentone was ideal for this, with a sea baths just down
from her home near Mentone Hotel. Annette went to Simpsons’ School (later
MGGS) and then Kilbreda. At both schools she taught her schoolmates how to
swim. Soon she was in show business, diving into a glass tank in a Melbourne
theatrical aquatic show, and then she began long distance swimming. She did a
demonstration swim of many miles in the Yarra and went to Europe in 1905
to attempt an English Channel swim, just failing to be the first woman to achieve
it. She entered long distance river swimming events over several miles in the Seine
Kellerman in her fam
ous
one-piece bathing s
uit.
and the Danube, beating all the women and nearly all the men. Her prowess caused
a sensation in Paris where young men placed her in a chariot, removed the horse,
and then pulled the vehicle themselves all the way along the Champs-Elysees.
With her father she travelled to USA, entering the world of show business, performing
diving, swimming and other aquatic demonstrations on a grand scale. In 1907 she was
arrested on Boston beach for wearing a one-piece bathing costume that was considered
indecent. Annette was acquitted. She then met James Sullivan, who became her manager
and, later, her husband who succeeded in getting her movie roles that featured
adventurous sea swimming. Her movie career lasted until the 1920s when she switched
to business undertakings that suited her talents and featured her interest in health, fitness
and a feminist perspective. She returned to Australia in the 1960s where she lived on the
hed in
Kellerman photograp
the United States, 1907
Gold Coast until her death in 1975. In 1952 MGM made a movie Million Dollar
Mermaid that told Annette’s life story. The famous movie star, Esther Williams, whose roles usually featured
swimming, became Annette Kellerman, Hollywood style.
Brought to you by:
Friends of Mentone Station and Gardens
Web: www.fmsg.org.au
Thanks to Leo Gamble and The Mordialloc & District Historical Society, Old Bakery Lane Mentone