The ESTHER WILLIAMS Only I Knew

THE ELDEST SON OF THE GLAMOROUS MGM STAR SHARES HIS FAMILY’S STRENGTHS AND STRUGGLES

- Louise A. Barile

Esther Williams had a warning for her son before he left for boarding school. “She said, ‘Honey, don’t ever do anything you don’t want published on the front page of the LA Times,” Ben Gage tells Closer, noting that his mother spoke from hard experience. “She was on the cover of Life magazine as the mermaid millionaire. A year later, it got out that she was bankrupt and owed the IRS $750,000.”

A competitive swimmer with Olympic aspirations, Esther had been plucked out of humble circumstances to star in MGM aquamusicals, including Million Dollar Mermaid and Bathing Beauty