Bathing Beauty Baffles Bashful Boston (episode 82)

We’re taking you to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. 111 years ago, champion swimmer Annette Kellerman was arrested on Revere Beach. Her crime? Appearing in public in a one piece bathing suit of her own design. Along with being a record setting swimmer, Kellerman was a fitness and wellness guru, a vaudeville producer, movie actress, and a clothing designer. Besides her athletic prowess, she was known for her physical beauty, appearing in Hollywood’s first nude scene. A Harvard professor would go so far as to claim that he had scientific proof that she was “the most beautifully formed woman of modern times.” Puritanical Boston wasn’t prepared to see the exposed arms of such a specimen, so Kellerman was arrested for indecent exposure. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/082