When you're out of sight for as long as I was, there's a funny feeling of betrayal that comes over people when they see you again.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit

No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.