Currently I am working on completing a new book:
Mermaids in Vaudeville: The Story of Water Queens Clara and Cora Beckwith and Others.
This book will be published by McFarland & Co. in Jefferson, North Carolina. You may have heard of the Australian swimmer, Annette Kellerman, who was the most famous of the water queens in vaudeville. My book is about the many tank swimmers who preceded Kellerman, and especially a Canadian from Nova Scotia. She was Clara Sabean, who took the stage name “Clara Beckwith.” It’s an intriguing story of some incredible women athletes, who were a great attraction in the old dime museum days, and later had successful runs in variety theatres and vaudeville houses. Watch for it soon!
M. Ann Hall 