It’s the start of Olympic Gal month and Bonnie is giving us “What For!” Well, actually, she’s telling about an Olympic swimmer who swam the English Channel who might have coined the phrase “What For!” Gertrude Ederle learned to win in a New York river with a rope around her waist. She’s the “Grease Smeared Venus” of the world. Grab some motorcycle goggles and dive in!
Show Notes & Extras
- Gal Pals this month are – Bonnie Fillenwarth, Katie Harris, Leah Leach and Edan.
- Bonnie’s art (Etsy)
- Book Club we’re reading about Babe Didrikson Zaharias
- Edan is Indy’s Acting Coach
- “I don’t sport.” Leah Leach
- Bonnie’s 1 Cool Olympic Gal is Gertrude Ederle
- Nicknames “Trudy”, “Queen of the Waves” and “Grease Smeared Venus”
- Born in 1905
- Learned to swim in a New York river
- Poop & heels
- Measles & hearing loss
- 1918 joined the Women’s Swimming Association
- Suffrage swim races
- Olympics in general
- 1924 Gertrude’s Olympics won her a Gold and Bronze medals
- Setting records
- Setting her sights on swimming the English Channel
- “Don’t touch me!”
- Covered in grease
- “What For!” Gertrude Ederle
- 14 hours and 39 minute record.
- CORRECTION Gertrude’s record in 1926 was beat in 1951 by Winnie Lauszler from Canada with a time of 13 hours 25 minutes.
- Book vote
- Movie watching
- Parade of 2 million
- CORRECTION President Coolidge called Gertrude “America’s Best Girl.” She was 21 years old at the time. We previously said “America’s Best Gal” (Vintage News)
- Gertrude inspired 60,000 women to earn their Red Cross Swimming Certificate
- Vaudeville
- Song “Trudy is our girl”
- Tik Tok
- Hearing & Retiring
- In her 50’s the taught swimming to deaf kids
- Katie swims
- Germs
- CORRECTION the movie is The Switch with Jason Batman & Jennifer Anniston.
- Jeff Goldblum’s line
- Leah’s horror movie (video below)
- In a time when women could be “a little” sporty
- Betty White quote
- Ester Williams (pic below)
Images
Video
Gertrude Ederle – First Woman to Swim the English Channel from Kerri Lienhard on Vimeo.
About The Gal’s Guide Podcast
What if you could only share 1 cool thing about a topic? Would it be about ancient history? Would it be breaking news? Would it be safe for work? A group of gals gathers to present to you one cool thing on topics like painting, gaming, movies, music and more.
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