had little experience creating practical swimsuits. William's plaid flannel swimsuit for This Time for Keeps was so heavy that she was dragged to the bottom of the pool, and had to unzip the suit, swimming naked to the edge of the pool to avoid drowning. Cole swimsuits used latex, which meant zippers were no longer necessary. While filming Skirts Ahoy! (1952), Williams discovered that members of the WAVES program received thin, cotton, shapeless swimsuits as part of their uniforms. Williams modeled a Cole swimsuit for the Secretary of the Navy and explained that the new swimsuits helped support women's figures. The United States Navy ordered 50,000 suits immediately. Filming Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) was, according to Williams in her autobiography, an experience of "pure misery." A period musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, the two male leads' characters were players in a baseball team owned by K.C. Higgins, Williams's role. She claimed that Kelly and co-writer Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and went out of their way to make jokes at her expense. The film was well-received critically and became a major commercial success, raking in $3.4 million in rentals and becoming the 11th highest-earning film of the year. Williams made Neptune's Daughter (also 1949) around the same time with co-stars Ricardo Montalbán, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett, who had also been in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In the film, Williams sings "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Montalbán. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 22nd Academy Awards. Williams and Montalbán were originally slated to sing "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", but studio censors thought the song was too sexual (interpreting the word "get" as "have") and instead gave them "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Neptune's Daughter became the 10th highest-grossing film of 1949. 1950s Williams made Duchess of Idaho (1950), shot on location in Sun Valley, Idaho, co-starring Van Johnson and John Lund. MGM paired her with Howard Keel for three films, Pagan Love Song (also 1950), Texas Carnival (1951) and later Jupiter's Darling (1955). They both had cameos in the film Callaway Went Thataway (1951). In Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Williams portrayed Annette Kellermann, a real-life Australian swimming and diving star. Williams co-starred with Victor Mature, who played Kellermann's husband and manager, James Sullivan. The two engaged in a