This is a delightful (if often also sometimes infuriating) account of “women in water”—specifically, the origins and evolution of synchronized/artistic swimming. The infuriating part comes down to the men who, for the past century and a half or so, repeatedly denied talented and ambitious women the opportunity to fully engage in the sport they loved: swimming.

As this book recounts, artistic swimming was not just an evolution of vaudeville entertainment acts from the turn of the last century, it was also one of the only routes for outstanding female swimmers to pursue opportunities for competition and performance—because regular speed swimming was considered unladylike and even dangerous for women. I laughed out loud when I read that it was once thought women wouldn’t be able to safely swim farther than 300 meters, but it also made me very angry on behalf of women in the past (as did the lengthy saga of what women were allowed to wear while swimming).

I was especially fascinated by the accounts of the huge aquatic shows from early and mid-20th century, particularly at the New York Hippodrome, a variety theater that took up an entire block:

“The 60-foot stage apron, which curved out into the orcheestra, could be lowered to create a tank 14 feet deep that was filled from spillways under the stage wings. It was equipped with pumpts that could handle 150,000 gallons of water per minute to generate ocean waves, rainstorms, or gushing waterfalls.”

I couldn’t imagine what this was like and found myself really wishing I had been able to witness the groundbreaking Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman performing there. As luck would have it, the equally amazing Esther Williams played Kellerman in “Million Dollar Mermaid”, a 1952 biopic of Kellerman which recreates the Hippodrome act. I was in awe watching it—and horrified, too, knowing that Williams actually broke her neck while performing the high-dive scene in the film. “Swimming pretty” has never been a gentle venture, and women have always been tough as nails.

Further reading…