1. Eleanor Grace Theresa Holm was an American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist.
18 Facts About Eleanor Holm
1. 2.
An Olympian in 1928 and 1932, Holm was expelled from the 1936 Summer Olympics team by Avery Brundage under controversial circumstances.
3.
Eleanor Holm went on to have a high-profile career as a socialite and interior designer and co-starred in a Hollywood Tarzan movie, Tarzan's Revenge.
4.
Eleanor Holm was talented in several other strokes, winning several American titles in the 300-yard medley event.
5.
At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Eleanor Holm won the gold medal in her favorite event, though defending champion Marie Braun had to forfeit the final due to an insect bite.
6.
In 1932, Eleanor Holm was one of the fifteen girls named as WAMPAS Baby Stars, including Ginger Rogers, Mary Carlisle, and Gloria Stuart.
7.
Eleanor Holm was a singer and bandleader at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub.
8.
Eleanor Holm even performed with his band while wearing a white bathing suit, white cowboy hat, and high heels, singing "I'm an Old Cowhand ".
9.
Various charges were made against her, which Eleanor Holm did not deny.
10.
Eleanor Holm admitted to having had a few glasses of Champagne but subsequently maintained that her dismissal arose from a personal grudge held by Brundage.
11.
Eleanor Holm had been the top favorite for the 100-meter backstroke event, and she watched from the stands as the gold medal went to Dutch swimmer Nida Senff.
12.
Decades later, Eleanor Holm told Olympic sprinter Dave Sime that Brundage held a grudge from an incident in which he propositioned her, and she turned him down.
13.
On November 10,1939, a year after Jarrett divorced her, claiming that his wife's expulsion from the 1936 Olympics and her affair with another man had caused him embarrassment, Eleanor Holm married her lover, impresario Billy Rose, who had divorced first wife Fanny Brice.
14.
At the 1939 New York World's Fair, Eleanor Holm did 39 shows a week at Rose's "Aquacade", co-featured with Tarzan swimmer Johnny Weissmuller and, later, Buster Crabbe.
15.
Several months later, Eleanor Holm married Thomas Joseph Whalen, an oil-drilling executive.
16.
In 1966, Eleanor Holm was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
17.
Eleanor Holm died of renal disease in Miami, Florida, on January 31,2004, at the age of 91.
18.
Eleanor Holm is portrayed by Heidi O'Rourke in the 1975 film Funny Lady.