It's Betty Grable's Centennial!
Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 2:45PM World War II's most popular pin-up girl, just ahead of Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable would have turned 100 years old today...
Her legs were insured for a million dollars!
She was born Elizabeth Ruth Grable in St Louis Missouri and made the trek to Hollywood at 12 years of age where she went by her nickname "Betty". Though early attempts to put her over with the public didn't quite work (Judy Garland got all the attention for Pigskin Parade despite a supporting role) fame eventually took and in a big way. By the mid 1940s she was, for a time, Hollywood's highest paid star.
Though some of her movies (often musical comedies) were box office sensations (like Mother Wore Tights, 1947) they mostly seem forgotten today with the notable exception of her swan song How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) a passing of the torch if you will, to the next generation's pin-up sensation Marilyn Monroe. Grable retired from movies at only 37 years of age, and passed away twenty years later.
Betty, Lauren, and Marilyn on the set of the smash hit "How to Marry a Millionaire"
If you've seen any of her films, which would you recommend?
Betty Grable, WW II, musicals
Reader Comments (4)
She is great in her Fox musicals- a dream girl from another era
Love Betty Grable!
She was sunny and pleasant and refreshingly clear-eyed about her gifts. When Zanuck tried to cast her as Sophie in The Razor's Edge when Susan Hayward had to withdraw due to pregnancy she told him flatly "No thanks! I'm a song and dance gal, nothing more and nothing less." He gave the part to Anne Baxter instead who won the Supporting Actress Oscar but Betty was right to turn it down, it wasn't right for her.
She was extremely popular behind the scenes, having worked her way up through the chorus ranks she never adopted a star attitude as Ginger Rogers did and was beloved throughout the industry for being a thoughtful and kind lady.
I've seen many of her films, and plenty of them shared VERY similar stories but they are by and large a cheery bunch that go down painlessly. Before "Down Argentine Way" the films and her parts in them are disposable but after that some of the better ones are:
Moon Over Miami
Springtime in the Rockies-This one has a very funny Carmen Miranda in it as well.
The Dolly Sisters-Worthless as biography of the actual sisters but an outre fashion dream.
Mother Wore Tights
My Blue Heaven-Great songs and a more serious storyline about adoption.
Three for the Show-where she costars with a just starting out Jack Lemmon.
The aforementioned How to Marry a Millionaire is an essential
She also dipped into noir territory only once with the very good I Wake Up Screaming which is another essential.
Big, colorful and splashy her movies are the perfect antidote on a dull rainy day or when you're feeling blue.
Grable's sharpest, most charming performance may be in the (basically) non-musical, "A Yank in the RAF". It's a pleasant war-time romance and she's paired with a peak of his charms Tyrone Power, an arrangement almost guaranteed to make a girl feel happy in her work. I certainly agree with the above comment about the costumes in "The Dolly Sisters". Some of them have to be seen to be believed. Probably the best of her formula musicals is "Mother Wore Tights", well put together overall but most impressive as a showcase for Betty's marvelous chemistry with leading man Dan Dailey. He was a giant talent and Grable, never warmer, brought out the best in him. The public responded and so did the Academy. In their next teaming, "When My Baby Smiles At Me", Mr. D. was nominated for Best Actor, something that rarely happened for work in a movie musical, no matter how deserving. I hated the short, tight-to-the skull, dyed platinum hairstyles she favored in the fifties. But my favorite Grable film does indeed come from that era. It's the thoroughly under-rated "The Farmer Takes a Wife" from 1953. Departing from the usual Grable formula - plots punctuated by numbers performed on a theatrical stage with applauding audiences ever-present - this one has an all outdoors feel, fresh as a field of daisies. With integrated musical numbers flowing naturally throughout the plot. Dale Robertson makes an ingratiating partner for her. He even sings a little. Plus there's Thelma Ritter on the sidelines - and when isn't SHE welcome?. All in all a likeable vehicle from start to finish (with an unexpected and inspired approach to its finale). At its best, I'd say this picture's actually Garland-worthy.
I remember seeing The Dolly Sisters and almost questioning my own sanity. I made it through the costume/number whatever it was where people were dressed up as makeup, but then kind of lost it at the full on blackface number later in the movie. It seemed so jarring to see that in vivid color since it always seemed like something out of the distant past.
I looked at Betty Grable's list of credits on IMDB and realize that I've seen very little of her movies for such a major star. Thanks for the tips on what to look for.