The daredevil feats of ‘Australian mermaid’ Annette Kellerman

Annette Kellerman was the most extraordinary woman you may never have heard of: sports legend, film star and influencer* who was never scared to break the rules or risk danger.

Born in Sydney in 1886, as a child she was handicapped with rickets* – unable even to walk without her legs being strapped into painful iron and leather braces.

But her mother – a famous musician – and father realised that swimming seemed to help little Annette, and as the years went by, her legs strengthened. By her teens, she was racing, diving and doing performances. She became a champion athlete, known across the globe, a stage performer, and a women’s fitness influencer long before social media was invented.

Author of new book Annette Kellerman: Australian Mermaid, Grantlee Kieza, said Kellerman was a female trailblazer* at a time where women weren’t even allowed to vote.

“At one time she held every women’s world swimming record from 100 yards to 36 kilometres,” he said. “She popularised* the one-piece swimsuit and became one of the first global fitness influencers.

“For millions of women, she changed the way they saw themselves and no doubt had a strong influence on them finally winning voting rights* in America and Britain after years of struggle.”

Kellerman was also a Hollywood star in the era of silent film*. Known as “The Australian mermaid” she was, at one stage, the highest paid movie star in the world.

She loved life and laughed in the face of danger – putting herself at risk time and again doing stage shows and stunts for movies, including one where she was knocked unconscious while wrestling a man in a clifftop plunge into the sea. In another, she was dashed through panes of jagged glass when an underwater filming tank shattered mid-scene.

This extract from Kieza’s new book reveals Kellerman’s scariest moment of all:

A TERRIFYING STUNT
Annette believed her most dangerous stunt was while shooting her epic big-budget fantasy movie A Daughter of the Gods in Jamaica, in 1916.

In one scene, two actors playing villains throw her into a pool full of live crocodiles.

It was her idea, she said, and since her manager and husband Jimmie Sullivan – who was often her voice of reason – had travelled back to New York on business at the time, there was no safety catch on her daring.

The American crocodile is one of the largest species of the reptiles, with males sometimes exceeding* 6m in length and 1000kg in weight. According to Annette, the ones brought in for the movie were “really savage, and fought one another all the time.”

Jimmie had helped to collect them with Jamaican crocodile experts, believing that, while director Herbert Brenon would shoot footage of the man-eating beasts, rubber ones would be used for the scenes involving Annette.

When it came to time to shoot the scene, Brenon was going to throw a dummy crocodile into the water, but Annette said, “No! I’ll do it.” Then she had second thoughts and for a while lost her nerve*. She wanted to shriek.

Later, she said:

“Finally they brought the crocodiles in. They were the real thing. You’d take a piece of wood to them and they’d snap it in half, just like that … The Sheik let four or five crocs through a sluice gate*. It was real melodrama* and they looked ferocious. They let them all settle and they fed them well, and believe me I watched after that! I said, ‘I’m ready.’

“I came down some steps … Well, just out of line with the camera there was a little ladder you could go up. The idea was one (of the villains) would take my shoulders … and then the other one my feet. And then they’d go one, two, three plunk! and throw me in.”

Annette looked at the five ferocious crocodiles with dread. Five men were out of the line of camera to one side so they could go for the crocs if the crocs went for her.

Annette was bound hand and foot, and as she hit the water, one of the crocodiles moved towards her. “Zowie, it was an awful moment,” she recalled, but she was up that ladder almost in the instant she touched the water.

***

During a time of rampant* debate in America over whether women were responsible enough to vote in presidential elections, Annette’s superhero antics in A Daughter of the Gods went some way to swaying* public opinion.

One journalist remarked that anyone who believed that women were “too weak physically to contend with a man at the voting booth and therefore should be denied the franchise*, should go to see Annette Kellerman in A Daughter of the Gods.”

Another wrote that Annette displayed courage that was “nothing short of divine”.

“If votes were obtained by physical or mental courage, Miss Kellerman would demand a million of them,” they wrote.

Perhaps the movie in some way encouraged the United States Congress, because before too long it ratified* the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women equal voting powers to men.

This is an edited and abridged* extract from Annette Kellerman: Australian Mermaid by Grantlee Kieza. It will be published by HarperCollins on April 2.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• influencer: a person that influences other people to buy or use a product
• rickets: a disease in children caused by a lack of vitamin D that causes soft, distorted bones and bow legs
• trailblazer: someone who sets new standards and trends by doing something never done before that other people follow
• popularised: made popular
• voting rights: the right for women to vote in elections
• silent film: when movies were first invented they didn’t have sound and the actors had to act without speaking. The dialogue was written on the screen. These movies were known as silent films
• exceeding: going beyond something
• lost her nerve: became very nervous or scared
• sluice gate: a movable barrier that allows water to flow under it
• melodrama: a very dramatic film or act with exaggerated characters and exciting events
• rampant: spreading quickly
• swaying: affecting
• franchise: opportunity
• ratified: changed
• abridged: shortened

EXTRA READING
Crazy old rules for teachers
New $5 bill breaks British tradition
Map clue points to missing colony

QUICK QUIZ
1. When was Annette Kellerman born?
2. Why did she start swimming as a child?
3. In what way did she influence women being allowed to vote in America?
4. What was the name of the movie she starred in that was shot in Jamaica?
5. What controversial piece of fashion did she make popular?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. A new Kellerman movie
What kind of movies do you think Annette Kellerman would star in if she was a young woman in 2025? Write a short screen play to depict one scene that could showcase some of Kellerman’s talents for a modern-day audience. Your screen play should include both dialogue and action descriptions.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Drama

2. Extension
Annette Kellerman’s films were silent, therefore the actors had to communicate the storylines without the use of words. Work with a small group to devise and rehearse a scene with a simple storyline, without sound. Perform your scene for your class to see if they can understand your storyline.

Time: allow 45 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Drama

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.