Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.Collection: Strength
What the public expects and what is healthy for an individual are two very different things.Collection: Health
Marriage to Fernando offered shelter and security, but the shackle was the price I'd pay.Collection: Marriage
Three events. Three gold medals. I was news, big news, in the sports world.Collection: Sports
The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.Collection: Wisdom
When you're out of sight for as long as I was, there's a funny feeling of betrayal that comes over people when they see you again.Collection: Funny
The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.Collection: Sports
Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.Collection: Sports
Victor Mature was a big man; he had a great swagger. I liked him and I knew we'd be good together on screen.
Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.
I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit.
I took a job at the pool in order to earn the five cents a day it cost to swim. I counted wet towels. As a bonus, I was allowed to swim during lunchtime.
I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.
I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.
I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.
I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.
It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious.
I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you know.
I ended up buying a restaurant. Already we had invested in a gas station and a metal products plant.
Howard Hughes himself was a regular at the restaurant, and in a way it became his headquarters, too. Howard had recently relocated to Las Vegas, so when he wanted to do business in Los Angeles, he went into the back of our restaurant to use the telephone.
Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.
My training in Science of Mind had begun with my mother. She took me to a different church every Sunday, and she encouraged me to question the minister afterward.
No one can avoid a challenge in life without breeding regret, and regret is the arsenic of life.Collection: Regret
Barely a teenager, Elizabeth Taylor was already more beautiful and voluptuous than Miss America. When she arrived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for our magazine shoot, I was bowled over. I couldn't believe she was only fourteen. She filled out a swimsuit better than I did. We did the pictures, including one shot of me teaching her to float. With that superstructure of hers, she floated just fine. What she couldn't do was sink.Collection: Beautiful
It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely deliciousCollection: Water
No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.Collection: Swimming
I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suitCollection: Movie
Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issuesCollection: Girl
I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookersCollection: Swim
I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the airCollection: Feet
I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you knowCollection: Stars
There was a policy at Hughes against drinking at lunch, but the men ignored itCollection: Drinking
The animus is symbolized by male figures appearing in a womans dreams and fantasies, as a husband, son, father, lover, Prince Charming.Collection: Dream