Dive-In Movies

Regular readers may have guessed that the giddy social whirl I inhabit results more from finding myself at a loose end every other weekend than any implied social lionhood.

That said, next weekend, to celebrate its centenary year (1906 to 2006), the local and convenient Tooting Bec Lido has created a "swimming pool film bonanza. A magical open-air summer event for lido-lovers and cinema-goers alike".

Since the earliest days of cinema, swimming pools have been a source of fascination for film makers, allowing for an irresistible combination of dreams, longings and all manner of watery worlds and adventures. Many of early cinema’s first screen star celebrities were swimmers – athletic heroes and heroines such as Annette Kellerman, Buster Crabbe, and Johnny Weissmuller capturing the public’s imaginations in all their bathing-suited gorgeousness.

I'm booked for AbbeyFest on Friday, but Saturday at the Lido promises that:

Hollywood bathing belle Esther Williams plays legendary Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman in MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952). Kellerman, caused a public scandal as the first woman to wear a one-piece bathing suit on an East Coast beach in 1910. Complete with a boxing kangeroo, flying machines, a swim down the River Thames and an ‘acquacade’ finale featuring a Busby Berkeley synchronised swimming spectacular.

Ticket price to include a swim in the magnificent 100 yard pool, a Centenary drink and an evening of film.

Be there, or be square.