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.

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.

I took a job at the pool in order to earn the five cents a day it cost to swim. I counted wet towels. As a bonus, I was allowed to swim during lunchtime.

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.

There was a policy at Hughes against drinking at lunch, but the men ignored it

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues