Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable, tell-it-like-it-is autobiography
Review: Esther Williams is a celebrity from my mother's generation and, while I knew she was a champion swimmer, that's about all I knew. I started reading this book thinking I would lose interest after the first few pages, but I found it not only to be well-written (actually I don't know how much Ms. Williams "wrote" since the flap lists a "contributing" writer) but very entertaining in its tale about long-ago Hollywood. I would recommend this book.
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Summary: Enigmas resolved by Esther Williams
Review: Esther Williams is an indelible part of my early years. Sheseemed so real on the silver screens, yet how much can one reasonablydeduce about an actor's actual personality based on their performances? Happily for me, my curiosity about Esther Williams and many other actors has finally been sated by Million Dollar Mermaid. She is 100 percent woman, with integrity, credibility, and equally important, a fine analytical mind.Mrs. Williams has neatly dissected her own vigorous life. I believe every word of this account, and that makes all the difference. Given her extraordinary health and physical powers, given her exceptional self reliance and discipline, and given the traumas in her youth, it is admirable that she would preserve her relationship with her husbands as long as reasonably possible. She made empowered her children in many ways which would not have been possible if she had deprived the entertainment industry of her talents which included empowering her husband! Her value to her children was optimized by the decisions which she made to preserve that marriage. Her children were almost certainly enhanced/empowered by the tenacity and commitment to her marriage. The ingenuity with which Mrs. Williams always accommodated her own needs, those of her husbands and her children, took my breath away. What a woman. Jeff Chandler's greatest achievement as an actor is effectively revealed by Mrs. Williams, who could not have known him better. What fabulous information she gives us about a complex, manly, and conflicted actor. The Chandler anecdote is worth the price of the book. I most appreciated Mrs. Williams' discipline and restraint in her business and interpersonal dealings. For example, before she broke off with him, she asked Jeff Chandler all the right questions so that she, and ultimately we, could understand his psychology; this was a case study without equal in the annals of psychology. She buried so many enigmas concerning Hollywood, the film mogels, and actors' lives. This was one wonderful read.
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Summary: A walk down memory lane w/ Esther
Review: After a much awaited arrival, I finally was able to get my hands on "The Million Dollar Mermaid", and read this very entertaining book! Ms. Willaims was able to explain in detail, a time in Hollywood that was at it's best. She gave you personal insight to her struggles with MGM, other actors and their srange quirks, along with tempermental directors, and swimming acomplishments. The stunts the studio (MGM) required her to do, should have been out-lawed. They never cared about her safety in any way. As for her husbands and lovers, one was a cheat, the second, a free loader that fathered her three children. Her third husband (Lamas), demanded she choose him over everyone, even her children. I did have a problem understanding her reasoning on that issue. I recommend this book, if you go into it with an open mind. Ms. Williams tells it like it was.
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Summary: GOOD ACTRESS, GREAT WRITER;)
Review: I LOVED THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID. ESTHER WILLIAMS IS ONE OF MY FAVORTIES ACTRESSES OF ALL TIME AND TO SEE HER LIFE STORY IS AWESOME:) SHE HAS BEEN THRU SO MUCH AND TO COME UP ON TOP, AND TO TELL ALL SHE REMEMBERS ABOUT THE GOOD OLE DAYS IN HOLLYWOOD. WELL ESTHER WRITE ANOTHER BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Million Dollar Mermaid
Review: Enjoyed the book very much. Read it 2 times. Second time more slowly and enjoyed it more. Have met both Esther and Edward Bell four times and so I found the book very interesting. She has mentioned some of those experiences on interviews on the TV and the book fills in all the blank spaces in between. I guess her problems began because she was so truly beautiful from the smile all the way to her toes. Yes, the book was worth the months of waiting.
Rating: 
Summary: Leaves a bad taste in your mouth...
Review: As a big fan of Hollywood, I was anxious to read this book. Now that I'm done, I'm just left with a bad taste in my mouth. From start to finish, the book is full of Ms. Williams' sense of superiority over others, as well as her impatience with some of the greatest talents of Hollywood. She dismisses Gene Kelly, hates Dore Schary, pats herself on the back for making her swimming stars look good, smugly twists a police officer around her little finger, reduces her 20+ year marriage to Fernando Lamas to a litany of arrogant and sexual encounters, takes credit for how well her children turned out despite the fact that she threw them over for her equally superior acting husband, tells us she sacrificed for the kids by preparing veal piccata and delivering it to the house where they lived with their drunken and out-of-it father (yes, it's fine for Esther to divorce the drunken, no good, embezzling husband, but apparently it's okay to turn her children over to him to raise while she shacks up with the well-endowed Latin. Isn't it funny what sex will make you do?). She asks Fernando if he doesn't enjoy using the children as accessories as much as she does. How could her children forgive her? (Maybe they want her inheritance?) I got so tired of hearing how strong she was in the face of all odds. And she calls her mouth outspoken. I call it conceited. Or she tells us how Fernando was going to disclose the fact that Arlene Dahl was frigid, then Esther misses the irony of this secret by blabbing it herself. She ruins lives with her book, and to what point? Did it really do us any good to know? God, she even had Clark Gable breathless at her presence, as if the man had never been around such charming women before! I liked Esther Williams for what she was: a unique Hollywood creation. Now I can't stand her for what she is. Good job, Esther.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT IMPRESSED
Review: I looked forward to reading this book since I grew up watching many of the SPECTACULARS Esther Williams was in. After reading her memoirs I felt she was, as you say "full of herself". There was too much "back stabbing" of those that are no longer with us. Sorry, but I would not recommend this book to anyone who might have been an Esther Williams fan.
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Summary: Splashing Reviews for The Million Dollar Mermaid!
Review: "For sheer Hollywood gossip, THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID isjuicier than a citrus grove....Williams, now 78 and happily married,presents it all with clarity and humor." - People Magazine "[A] spirited memoir by Hollywood's first aquatic movie star..." - Entertainment Weekly "That's a nicely written line, which is exactly how a lot of the dialogue in THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID sounds: nicely written." - The Washington Post "And she has written, with the help of Digby Diehl, this interesting and engaging account of her life, and of the Hollywood she knew." - The New York Times Book Review "Esther Williams has written one of the most engaging and involving movie-star bios ever..." - Liz Smith, New York Post "Williams, always sassy, proves herself to be a daring memoirist." - Time "But there isn't a trace of self-pity here. Her book, like her movies, makes no claim to be high art; but its charm and candor are irresistible." - Newsweek "What adds immeasurably to the book's appeal is its lens on old Hollywood and old cafe society. There are appearances by Gardner, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Joan Crawrod...and perennial girl next door June Allyson..." - The Chicago Tribune
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Summary: This is one of the funniest and moving show business bios!
Review: I read 3 - 4 books a week including many Hollywood autobiographys and Esther Williams book is one of the funniest and moving books in that genre I've read in quite some time. Thank God she has a sense of humor about her life because it was rarely ever easy! Thank you Esther for giving us a glimpse of your life! You are one of a kind.
Rating:
Summary: Splashy!
Review: Esther Williams' autobiography is a straight eye-to-eye account of her unique saga with none of the usual coyness of show business biographies. She tells all. In the telling, the book seems naughty at times but, no, it's just honest. It is strange how every man she falls in love with is, um, er, well-equipped but she, um, er, even, um, er, handles those details handily. So to speak. I loved this book.
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