Stgd/Original Mermaid
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the original ANITRA NELSON mermaid GUIDE STUDY ISSUE 31 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 1 he courageous long distance swimmer, Annette Kellerman, was born in 1886 in Sydney (Australia). In the early years of the twentieth cen- tury, she became renowned for impressive swims down rivers all over the world (and her attempts to swim the English Channel). Annette Keller- man originated an early form of synchronised swimming, toured as a vaudeville underwater performer and featured as a silent screen fi lm star. She scandalised Boston, too, by sporting a one-piece bathing suit! She was a woman ahead of her times in both physical prowess and expres- sive creativity. The Original Mermaid (Michael Cordell 2002) presents Kellerman’s life story and exploits and refl ects on her free spirit as a swimmer and artistic performer. It features archival footage and stills sensually woven together by imaginative editing of abstract reconstructions of underwater diving and swimming. This documentary offers material for discussion and analysis by students in higher secondary and lower tertiary levels, especially in: women’s and gender studies, sports journalism, social and cultural studies, history, sociology, performing arts and cinema studies. This study guide identifi es some of the signifi cant themes in, and key questions to arise from, the documentary and provides references to print and Internet sources for students to explore. Quotes from the documentary script appear in boxes. ISSUE 31 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 2 A LIVELIHOOD Annette Kellerman’s father designed a lucrative future for the 16-year-old references, see the section in this study swimming champion after an economic guide subtitled Competitive Australian downturn and the collapse of her moth- Women Swimmers.) Swimming, like er’s music business. In the fi rst stage, other sporting and performing activities, he helped established her as a fearless remains an unstable profession. long distance swimmer. If you were a swimming champion how Dad decided we needed to do something would you pay to demonstrate and de- drastic to attract public attention. velop your swimming talents and plan for your future? What are the ethics and She swam down the Yarra in 1904 and disadvantages of choosing one strategy then the muddy Thames. Next she man- over another? aged to position herself third in a race down the Seine against seventeen men! SELECT HISTORICAL BACKGROUND DETAILS I was the fi rst woman to race against men on the River Seine. From the outstanding women from the Annette Kellerman period, mentioned But the English Channel beat Annette here are two, Isadora Duncan and May Kellerman three times over. Gibbs, who are relevant to her creative and aquatic performances. Both were It was the most terrible ordeal I ever went born in 1877, ten years earlier than through. Annette Kellerman. Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, and while Contracted by the London Daily Mirror May Gibbs was also born overseas in 1905 she fought icy seas to repeat she migrated and became known as Captain Mathew Webb’s famous 1875 an Australian. Both their lives show feat. Few appreciate her audacity as well certain similarities with the experi- as Alison Streeter, the current ‘Queen of ences and achievements of Annette the Channel’, who has performed this she proposed to her press agent and Kellerman, whose many activities in- crossing forty times, but nowadays at producer, Jimmy Sullivan, and in 1912 cluded writing for children (Fairy Tales POSSIBLE CAPTIONS CAPTIONSPOSSIBLE CAPTIONSPOS- TOP-BOTTOM: GE PREVIOUS PAGE: POSSIBLE CAPTIONS OPPOSITE: POSSIBLE CAPTIONS (INSET: POSSIBLE CAPTIONS) THIS POSSIBLE CAPTIONS) POSSIBLE CAPTIONS OPPOSITE: (INSET: PREVIOUS PAGE: PA SIBLE CAPTIONSPOSSIBLE CAPTIONS POSSIBLE CAPTIONSPOSSIBL a point in history when she already had they embarked on a committed and encouraging role models and the ben- successful lifelong marriage together. efi ts of modern techniques. There is dispute over who manipulated It was desperation, determination and whom in these business relationships guts. and performing enterprises. One way of sifting through the evidence and After she had become well known for points in such arguments is to identify her courageous swims, Annette Keller- the needs and desires of all the con- ISSUE 31 man was attracted to the top dollars tributing parties. What do you think awarded vaudeville performers. Many of they each wanted and what did they AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION her and her managers’ career decisions manage to get? show a careful strategy of moving from one lucrative niche to another. Although many current champions capitalise on the opportunities asso- It was to Dad that I owe much of my suc- ciated with champion status to gain cess … other forms of income, a generation ago Shane Gould decisively created another Her father provided a critical support, life for herself at around the same time one assumes especially against her as the older Dawn Fraser had to deliver male detractors. After her father died groceries to earn her keep. (For print 3 som and Snugglepot managed there are mermaid tail costumes hanging on the clothes line. of the South Seas: and Other Stories, Sampson Low, Marsten and Co., Lon- Mermaids and mermen have been used don, 1926). In particular they represent in various ways as sexual symbols and the heights of female creativity and androgenous metaphors amongst many imagination in the formative period of cultures and throughout history. Some Kellerman’s life. associations with mystical sea folk are constraining, others are liberating. Do Isadora Duncan, who pioneered crea- you know the recent history of the fa- tive self-expression through dance, mous national mermaid sea sculpture like Annette Kellerman became an in- of the Danes? ternational sensation for defying the ex- pected behaviour of a woman. Duncan What other fi lms use mermaids or mer- railed against the contained physicality men as signifi cant characters, symbols of women and established an integrated or references? How does their use en- sense of being in her performances. For hance these stories and contribute to a both Duncan and Kellerman sexuality May Gibbs (www.maygibbs.com.au) separate mythology of sea folk? was part of their expressive ability and used words directly to show that POSSIBLE CAPTIONS POSSIBLE CAPTIONSPOSSIBLE CAPTIONSPOS- SIBLE CAPTIONS POSSIBLE CAPTIONSPOSSIBLE character. Neither perceived sexuality women are capable of fabulous imagi- THE ‘PERFECT WOMAN’ nations that extended far into aquatic locations. Her Gumnut Classics: the In 1910 Dr Dudley Sergent of Harvard Famous Gumnut Adventures (Angus University nominated Annette Kellerman and Robertson Publishers, North Ryde, unique amongst women of her time. He 1985) has earned her a place in world claimed in his physical fi tness study of children’s literature. Her best known literally thousands of women that An- works include two water adventures: nette Kellerman was ‘the closest to Little Obelia and Further Adventures physical perfection’. Primary evidence of Ragged Blossom, Snugglepot and was that she had almost exactly the Cuddlepie (87–131) and Little Ragged same measurements as those esti- Blossom and More About Snugglepot mated for the ancient female icons: and Cuddlepie (41–86). Neither of these Venus de Milo and Diana. stories feature mermaids or mermen but rather ‘fi sh folk’. Their tails are append- She is almost exactly the same measure- ed like extended spines above rather ments as the estimated ones of the statue human seeming feet (Slender Long Tom of the most perfectly formed woman of and Mrs Butterfi sh illustration: 61) and ancient times. Venus de Milo. the cherubim-human Ragged Blossom as deviance but rather a natural dem- became their queen. In the illustration What do you know about Venus de Milo onstration of health and wellbeing. An- (79) of the laundry that Ragged Blos- and Diana? What did they represent in nette did not die like Isadora in a road their times and how have they ap- misadventure but she did go to court on peared in various periods since? What ISSUE 31 more than one occasion for speeding in is perfection? What are the common her open-air vehicle. and contrasting qualities of physical AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION capacity, stamina and beauty? Peter Kurth in Isadora: the Sensational Life of Isadora Duncan (London, Little, INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT Brown and Company, London, 2001: x) AND THE COLLECTIVE points out that she was perverse: ‘I hate MOVEMENT dancing … I am an expressioniste of beauty. I use my body as my medium, Many refer to Annette Kellerman’s just as the writer uses his words. Do not achievements in the context of the call me a dancer.’ women’s liberation movement of the 4 twentieth century. Indeed Annette Kel- ISSUE 31 ISSUE AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION SCREEN AUSTRALIAN ad of her times in both ... a woman ahe ph ysi an cal d exp prow res ess sive creativity 5 lerman makes an interesting case study heightening women’s sense of inferior- Annette Kellerman. However, they dealt to refl ect on the distinction between in- ity as much as helping them overcome with their fame and fortune in a variety dividual achievers and radicals leading their feelings of worthlessness. of ways. Their different perceptions of a movement for collective ends, for all their achievements and futures and the women. In dismissing what was consid- … they called me the Diving Venus, the life-changing decisions they have made ered ‘proper’ and going her own way, perfect woman … cannot be explained simply by history or was Annette Kellerman a ‘real’ feminist culture. In this section we point to a few or women’s liberationist? Annette Kellerman spread a philosophy examples and instances that inform any of the fundamental importance of wa- discussion of The Original Mermaid in I am going to be wonderful and everybody ter to the spirit and soul.