Annette Kellerman,Million Dollar Mermaid

Annette Kellerman,Million Dollar Mermaid:Long before Kylie or Elle, our first female superstar scandalised the world. Athlete, dancer, diver, fitness expert, model and movie star, the daring woman known as the “Australian Mermaid” was ahead of her time in every way. By Kerrie Davies
It was a hot summer’s Sunday in 1908 and Revere Beach, in Boston, USA, was packed with the usual crowd making the most of the weather. Young ladies were promenading up and down the sand in their fashionable bathing dresses – complete with sailor collars and bloomers – throwing aside their sense of modesty and showing their calves to the appreciative men. Suddenly, there was a commotion. People began pointing, women started screaming and parents hurried to cover their children’s eyes. “Shame on you!” they cried.
There on the shore stood a confident young woman, resplendent in a man’s bathing costume – a skin-tight one-piece black suit with legs that ended well above her knees. She was about to wade in to the waves when a policeman strode across the beach and charged her with indecency. Annette Kellerman had arrived in America.
The 21-year-old Australian couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Later, pleading her case in the courtroom, she argued that she was being practical rather than provocative in choosing such revealing attire. After all, she explained, if she were to swim in the customary garb of her day, she “may as well be swimming in chains”.
So who was this woman who dared to bare her body in public in an era of prudishness; this freethinker who held such radical opinions about what women were capable of? A modern-day Venus worshipped around the world for her beautiful body and boldness, Annette Kellerman was a distance swimmer, diver, theatrical performer, mermaid, feminist, fitness advocate and soon to be internationally acclaimed silent-movie star.
Born in Darlinghurst, Sydney, on July 6, 1886, the woman who would later be dubbed “perfect” had an inauspicious start to life, unable to stand upright on her bowed legs. At the age of two, she was diagnosed with rickets and wore heavy iron braces to correct the condition. To escape the physical pain of the braces and the social isolation resulting from her disability, young Annette frequently found solace in her imagination. Her natural theatricality was fostered by her French-American mother, Alice, a bohemian socialite and talented pianist who turned their home into a conservatoire with Annette’s father, Frederick, a violinist.
When she was seven, a forward-thinking doctor suggested taking off her braces and encouraging the girl to swim as a treatment. It was a decision that would change the course of Kellerman’s life. With grim determination, she joined her brothers, Maurice and Fred, and sister, Marcelle, in the water, and was thrilled with the progress she made. “Only a cripple can understand the intense joy that I experienced when, little by little, I found that my legs were growing stronger and taking on the normal shape,” she later wrote in her memoirs. “After I learnt, I’d go swimming anywhere, any time, at the drop of a hat