Betty Grable


Elizabeth Ruth Grable was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and for 10 consecutive years she placed among the Quigley Poll's top 10 box office stars. The U.S. Treasury Department listed her as the highest-salaried American woman in 1946 and 1947, and she earned more than $3 million during her career.
Grable began her film career in 1929 at age 12 and was later fired from a contract for having signed with a false identification. She studied acting with Neely Dickson at the Hollywood Community Theater. She had contracts with RKO and Paramount Pictures during the 1930s and appeared in a string of B movies, mostly portraying college students. She came to prominence in the Broadway musical Du Barry Was a Lady, which brought her to the attention of 20th Century-Fox.
She replaced Alice Faye in Down Argentine Way, her first major Hollywood film, and became Fox's biggest film star throughout the next decade. Fox cast Grable in a succession of Technicolor musicals during the decade that were immensely popular, costarring with such leading men as Victor Mature, Don Ameche, John Payne and Tyrone Power. In 1943, she was the number-one box-office draw in the world. Two of her greatest film successes were the musical Mother Wore Tights and the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire, one of her later films. Grable retired from screen acting in 1955 after she withdrew from her Fox contract, but she continued to perform on the stage and on television.
Throughout her career, Grable was a celebrated sex symbol. Her bathing-suit poster made her the top pin-up girl of World War II, surpassing Rita Hayworth. The photo was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photographs That Changed the World". Hosiery specialists of the era often noted the ideal proportions of Grable's legs and thighs, calf and ankle. Her legs were insured by her studio for $1 million as a publicity stunt. Describing her film career, Grable said: "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on them."

Early life

Grable was born on December 18, 1916, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children of Lillian Rose and John Conn Grable, a stockbroker. Her second cousin was silent-film actress Virginia Pearson.
Her siblings were Marjorie Lucille Arnold and John Karl "Jackie" Grable. The Grable children were of Dutch, English, German, Swiss German and Irish ancestry. Nicknamed Betty as a child, she was pressured by her mother to become a performer. She was entered into multiple beauty contests, winning many and receiving considerable attention. Despite her success, she suffered from a fear of crowds and somnambulism.

Career

Early career: 1929–1939

A 12-year-old Grable and her mother travelled to Hollywood in 1929, shortly after the stock market crash. In Hollywood, Grable studied at the Hollywood Professional School and the Ernest Blecher Academy of Dance. To obtain jobs for her daughter, Lillian Grable lied about her daughter's age, claiming that she was 15 to film producers and casting agents. That same year, she made her uncredited film debut as a chorus girl in the Fox Studios all-star revue Happy Days. This success led to chorus-girl roles in Let's Go Places and New Movietone Follies of 1930.
In 1930, at age 13, Grable signed with producer Samuel Goldwyn, thereby becoming one of the original Goldwyn Girls, along with Ann Sothern, Virginia Bruce, Claire Dodd and Paulette Goddard. As a member of the group, Grable appeared in a series of small parts in films, including the hit Whoopee!, starring Eddie Cantor. Although she received no on-screen credit for her performance, she led the film's opening musical number, titled "Cowboys".
In 1932, aged 15, Grable signed a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, and she was assigned to a succession of acting, singing and dancing classes at the studio's drama school. At age 14, her first film for the studio, Probation, provided her first credited screen role. Over the next few years, she was again relegated to uncredited minor roles in a series of films, many of which became worldwide successes, such as Cavalcade. She received larger roles in The Gay Divorcee and Follow the Fleet.
After her brief stint as an RKO contract player, Grable signed with Paramount Pictures, which lent her to 20th Century-Fox to costar in the adolescent comedy Pigskin Parade. Despite the studio's effort to introduce Grable to the mainstream movie audience, her performance was overlooked by audiences and critics in favor of Judy Garland. When Grable returned to Paramount, she began a new phase in her career as the studio began casting her in a series of college-themed films in which she usually portrayed a naïve student, such as This Way Please and College Swing. In 1939, she appeared opposite her husband Jackie Coogan in Million Dollar Legs, a B-movie comedy that gave Grable her famous nickname.
When the film did not become the hit for which Paramount had hoped, the studio released her from her contract and Grable began preparing to leave Hollywood for a simpler life. However, she changed her mind and decided to try Broadway, accepting Buddy DeSylva's offer to appear in his musical Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr. The play was an instant critical and audience success, and Grable was branded a newfound star.

Breakthrough at Fox: 1940–1943

In a 1940 interview, Grable stated she was "sick and tired" of show business and that she was considering retirement. Soon thereafter, she was invited to go on a personal appearance tour, which she readily accepted. The tour brought Grable to the attention of Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox, who offered her a long-term contract. "If that's not luck, I don't know what you'd call it", Grable said in her first interview after signing with the studio. Zanuck, who had been impressed by Grable's performance in Du Barry Was a Lady, was, at the time, in the midst of casting the female lead in the musical film Down Argentine Way. The role had originally been assigned to Alice Faye, Fox's most popular musical film star, but she had to decline the part due to an unspecified illness. After reviewing her screen test, Zanuck cast Grable as Faye's replacement in the movie. The film was a lavish Technicolor musical and co-starred Don Ameche and Carmen Miranda. Grable's performance of the song "Down Argentine Way" is considered a highlight of the film.
Down Argentine Way was a critical and box-office success at the time of its release, and many critics proclaimed Grable to be the successor to Alice Faye. The film's success led to Grable's casting in Tin Pan Alley, co-starring Faye. As the Lily sisters, both Grable and Faye received favorable reviews for their performances. Over the years, rumors have circulated that a rivalry existed between Grable and Faye during filming, but this has been said to be entirely untrue—both actresses denied all accusations of a feud, and each often expressed their admiration for the other. The two reportedly remained friends until Grable's death. After Tin Pan Alley, Grable was teamed again with Ameche in the hit musical Moon Over Miami, which co-starred up-and-coming actress Carole Landis.
In 1941, Fox attempted to broaden Grable's acting and audience range by casting her in two films with more serious intent than those in which she had starred previously. The first, A Yank in the R.A.F., released in September, co-starred heartthrob Tyrone Power, and cast her as Carol Brown, who works in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the day, but is employed as a nightclub singer in the evening. The film followed the lines of other movies of the era, but it was not considered a propaganda movie by the studio. At the time of its release, the film received positive reviews, with many critics singling out the obvious on-screen chemistry between Grable and Power. It was a major box-office success, becoming the fourth-most popular movie of the year.
The second movie, I Wake Up Screaming, released in November, had Grable receiving top billing as Jill Lynn, the sister of a young model who is murdered. The film offered Grable her second teaming with Carole Landis, and it co-starred Victor Mature. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, the movie was a traditional black-and-white film noir, containing a combination of suspense and romance. Grable's performance was reviewed favorably by most critics, and the film enjoyed reasonable financial success.
File:Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, 1942.jpg|thumb|left|Grable and Carmen Miranda in hit Springtime in the Rockies
Grable's star continued to rise when she starred in Song of the Islands, co-starring Victor Mature and Jack Oakie. The success of the movie led to her re-teaming with Mature in Footlight Serenade, also co-starring John Payne, in which she played a glamorous Broadway star. Fox then began to develop Philip Wylie's short story "Second Honeymoon", into a script suited for Grable's talents. The resulting movie was Springtime in the Rockies, directed by Irving Cummings, and the featured actors included Payne, Cesar Romero, Carmen Miranda, and her future husband, bandleader Harry James. The film was an immediate hit, Grable's biggest success to date, grossing more than $2 million. The film's success led to Fox increasing her salary and her having a wider choice over the films she made.
Grable was voted the number-one box-office draw by American movie exhibitors in 1943; she outranked Bob Hope, Gary Cooper, Greer Garson, Humphrey Bogart, and Clark Gable in popularity. Coney Island, released in June 1943, was a Technicolor "gay nineties" period musical and co-starred George Montgomery. The film earned more than $3.5 million at the box office and was well received by critics. Sweet Rosie O'Grady, her follow-up feature, was equally successful at the box office, but it failed to obtain the same critical favor.