Easy to Love

osbo_easytolove_71197_backlot_1118_PR

Opening cleverness, Charles (Chuck) Walters directing for MGM and producer Joe Pasternak, Van Johnson is Florida water-park operator Ray, at the real Cypress Gardens, showing off his star Julie (Esther Williams) for a guy shooting a promo film (Paul Bryar), in Easy To Love, 1953.

New York night club attraction Barry (Tony Martin) has gotten an audition for visiting underpaid-overworked Florida aquatic star Julie (Esther Williams) with producer Levenson (Benny Rubin), with a small scale Busby Berkeley swimming bit, in MGM’s Easy To Love, 1953.

These days it might prompt snark about “jumping the shark” but not in 1953, with Busby Berkeley’s giant undertaking on Lake Eloise at Cypress Gardens, Fla., Esther Williams playing aquatic star Julie, did lots of water-skiing but not the tricks, in Easy To Love, from MGM and producer Joe Pasternak.

Esther Williams as Florida water-skiing star Julie in New York with boss and not-boyfriend (Van Johnson as Ray), catching singer Barry (Tony Martin), with whom she’s making a commercial, with Carroll Baker’s whole performance as a jealous girlfriend, and an original tune by Vic Mizzy and Mann Curtis, in MGM’s Easy To Love, 1953.

Busby Berkeley's musical number for speedboats and handgliders is one of the highlights of Easy To Love (1953) starring Esther Williams.