Talk:Esther Williams

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Assessment

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 19:48, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Cat:Sex symbols
Do we have a WP:Citeation for this? Yeah yeah, I know "it's obvious", what with her being in films in her swimsuit and all. But someone thought Connie Chung was obvious, too. So, if we have a reference per Reliable source that names her as a sex symbol, we've satisfied WP:V. - brenneman (t) (c)  21:53, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Birthyear
Was Esther born in 1921 or 1922? Hotwine8 03:28, 11 August 2006 (UTC)


 * According to the link "Associated Press archives list Williams' birthday as Aug. 8, 1921. Boll said Tuesday that the actress was born Aug. 8, 1922." Just last month there was another AP article that said "Williams told The Associated Press in 2004 that she was born Aug. 8, 1921." Did she just flip flop on her own birthdate?


 * According to the California Birth Index, 1905-1995,

"Ester J Williams" was born August 8 1921 in Los Angeles County with mother's maiden name: Gilpin


 * I think that pretty much settles it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.41.24.167 (talk • contribs) 19:13, 4 March 2007


 * On what grounds does the CBI settle it? There is an uncertainty here. What is the problem with alerting readers of this? Gimmetrow 12:00, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Williams' current husband has been dead for more than a century
The current revision says: "She currently resides in Beverly Hills with actor husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994." (Personal Life) The name "Edward Bell" wikilinks to an article which indicates Mr. Bell died in 1879. Now either Ms. Williams has rather off beat romantic predilections, or the link is wrong. Itayb 05:32, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

No evidence to back up Personal section
A citation or two would help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.127.59.221 (talk) 01:29, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Your bio states that "During the filming of Pagan Love Song in Hawaii, Williams learned she was pregnant with her third child, and notified the studio in California. Gage had met a man at the hotel who owned a ham radio and persuaded the man to let them use it to call California. What they failed to realize at the time, though, was that anyone could be listening in on their conversation, and news of her pregnancy was broadcast to the entire West Coast.[83]". Pagan Love Song was filmed in 1950 (see your Filmography as well as the movie's data) so she had to have been expecting her second child, not her third. --submitted by Rosekween1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rosekween1 (talk • contribs) 18:06, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

After taking the LSD, she did not take on the image of her infant son, but her older brother who died. She was unmarried and had no children at this time.

WP:FILMBIO assessment
A request was made for this article to be reassessed. I think it is very close to B-class and just needs a few more fixes:


 * The lead should be a max of four paragraphs. Either trim the lead or combine the smaller paragraphs together. See WP:LEAD for guidelines.
 * There's a few spacing issues with some of the inline citations. To stay consistent, make sure they directly follow the punctuation.
 * Throughout the article are a few single-sentence paragraphs. Either expand on these or incorporate them into another paragraph to improve the article's flow.
 * In the filmography table, the year in film doesn't need to be linked, and there are also some redundant links for the co-stars.
 * A few of the citations have only the title. Go through and make sure they include all available details such as author, date, work, accessdate, etc.

Good job so far and it's great to see so many free images available for her (thank goodness for public domain trailer images). Once these minor issues are resolved, feel free to upgrade to B-class. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 01:24, 16 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Woohoo! Thank you so much! Wool Mintons (talk) 02:49, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Timelines?
The article reads too much as a story and not encyclopedic. It needs more hard dates in many places.

"She then married former lover, Argentine actor/director, Fernando Lamas on December 31, 1969. For 22 years, she lived in total submission to him, where she had to stop being "Esther Williams" and could not have her children live with her. In return, he would be faithful.[46][81] They were married until his death from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 1982.[82]"

If this is true, and, as the NYTimes article in fn 46 says, Lamas "controlled her every move and made her wait on him hand and foot" then the "22 years" period of total submission began in 1982-22=1960, which 1960 date is 9 years before their marriage. At the very least, the mention of marriage needs to follow the reference that she had been "totally submissive" for 9 years by then. Otherwise, the 1960s are a total blank in this article. Is this is what is intended by the reference to "former lover"? If so, then "former" is not the right word. If not, then the "22 year" reference is not correct. And daughter Susan was 6 years old in 1960; did she abandon her infants?

One problem is that Ms. Williams, like most actresses, has always been "highly selective" in her facts when giving interviews and writing - so WP must be very clear. 75.83.32.158 (talk) 20:21, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Two things
One - we've received an email message via OTRS thanking us for this wonderful article. I replied with 'our' thanks, but the credit goes to all of you who have worked on it. Second, this needs to go into GA review ASAP! § FreeRangeFrog croak 21:45, 8 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I am sure you can say from whom? μηδείς (talk) 21:56, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
 * No, it was just a reader. Via email possibly because the feedback tool has been glitchy the last couple of days, but the message was very effusive and warm. § FreeRangeFrog croak 20:24, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090713043154/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1945.shtml to http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1945.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070526045456/http://www.thegoldenyears.org/williams.html to http://www.thegoldenyears.org/williams.html

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External links modified
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I have just modified 9 external links on Esther Williams. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130609094024/http://www.ishof.org/Honorees/66/66ewilliams.html to http://ishof.org/Honorees/66/66ewilliams.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110707100453/http://www.aitexas.com/Ebay/1939_Washington_High_Esther_Williams_Yearbook_283.jpg to http://www.aitexas.com/Ebay/1939_Washington_High_Esther_Williams_Yearbook_283.jpg
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110724190505/http://www.bok.nu/Jane_Magnusson/Esther_Williams_Skenbiografin to http://www.bok.nu/Jane_Magnusson/Esther_Williams_Skenbiografin
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140808062413/http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/08/drugs-in-hollywood-201008.print to http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/08/drugs-in-hollywood-201008.print
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130609094024/http://www.ishof.org/Honorees/66/66ewilliams.html to http://www.ishof.org/Honorees/66/66ewilliams.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060624064523/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1946.shtml to http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1946.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080807162657/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1947.shtml to http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1947.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081012213312/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1948.shtml to http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1948.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110109042835/http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1949.shtml to http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1949.shtml

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