Not that much of an actress, true (though not terrible by any means), but one of the best song-and-dance gals of her era. A voice on a par with Doris Day or Dinah Shore, and (choreographer willing), as good a hoofer as the best of them.
Plus, *so fckin’ cute. Someone you’d really like to take out for a burger and fries. Well, maybe more than that, but I am not into the ladies that way.
She had it going on. Maybe the gams weren’t a they were sold as, but she was a cutie.
ETA: And she couldn’t act her way out of a brown paper bag.
ETAA: Maybe those gams.
Y’know, these kids probably have no idea what “gams” are.
As a definition, long, tall, stately, well-formed, legs.
I was kinda partial to Rita Hayworth, meself.
Well if we’re talking Betty Grable, allow me to submit this sort of lost classic from the sublime Neil Sedaka.
I think he’s speaking to an entire generation of lads of a certain age who got their first stirrings down under by watching Lady Grable in the movie house.
Oh, yes. Thanks muchly minlokwat for the link and to Eve for the impetus. Even when Betty is in a quickie picture like Don’t Turn 'em Loose (which I saw on AMC about 20 years ago), it’s easy to see why she became a much bigger star than, say, Maxine Jennings. Betty is so enthusiastic and good-humored that I wonder why it took her about 10 years in movies before catching on. In Springtime in the Rockies, in one scene Betty and Harry James are sitting at a table. He looks totally smitten.
Speaking of smitten, here is Betty in Song of the Islands, with Hilo Hattie “and the natives” (including Harry Owens?), per imdb, performing the Mack Gordon and Harry Owens song “Down on Ami Ami Oni Oni Isle”: link.
A possibly apocryphal story I’ve heard about her is that when she died she left her kids the key to a safe deposit box. Inside the box was a note saying basically “Sorry sweeties, I spent it all.” Does anybody know the truth of the story?
So, did she get the part?
I can’t think of Betty without thinking of Tribute to Sugar-Lip Shapiro & Animal and the entirety of Stalag 17 (1953)
Shapiro came so close to knowing how Beeks felt in the gorilla cage in the delusional scenes after Betty married.
So was Orson Welles. He was so partial he ate her. Er, married her.
I wish I knew–I would love to do a book on Betty Grable, but her daughters politely but firmly told me “no, thank you.” I don’t want to do a half-assed book with no family cooperation (documents, letters, contacts); I like my books to be . . . umm, fully-assed.
And here for your enjoyment is Betty with the totally gorgeous John Payne: Betty Grable & John Payne - Footlight Serenade (1942) - "Still Crazy For You" - YouTube
[HIJACK]Not related to Betty Grable (though I’m guessing he masturbated to her in WW2), but I just realized the importance of family cooperation when I read the new biography of Kurt Vonnegut (*And So It Goes *by Charles Shields). Vonnegut had authorized the biography, was cooperating fully himself, and had made it known to friends and colleagues that Shields had his blessing, it was all very clear. Unfortunately for Shields, Vonnegut did not explicitly mention it in his last will and testament.
Vonnegut’s widow, Jill Krementz, though she knew fully well/doesn’t even deny that Shields was his appointed Boswell, denied him access. He had to strike anything and everything that was copywritable to Kurt or that was in the estate’s possession, which was a monumental pain in the ass when you’re dealing with a literary estate; consequently you have Kurt’s letters to other people quoted directly but he was legally unable to quote the letter Kurt was responding to, or he could quote from literary reviews of Slaughterhouse 5 (because he had permission from the critic or writer), but couldn’t quote from Slaughterhouse 5 itself, and had to get second hand accounts of some things Kurt had written about firsthand, etc… Understandably*, Krementz comes across in the bio as one of the world’s truly great bitches (not in the complimentary “hard headed and ballsy but with a good heart” way [i.e. Julia Sugarbaker, Ann Richards] but in the strident virago “you want to call in Chris Brown for backup” way [i.e. Livia Soprano, Michelle Bachmann]).
I’m betting if he writes another literary bio it’ll be of Edgar Allan Poe or Kate Chopin or somebody else who is out of copyright. Or, under current copyright laws, he can just wait around until 2100 and write one of Vonnegut without having to worry about it.
*I looked it up after reading Shields’ book, and he seems to be far from unique in this assessment of her. One of the funniest things I read was that after Vonnegut was diagnosed with emphysema somebody asked his daughter Nanny “How’s your father coping with his disease?” and she responded “He went back to her again”. She wasn’t joking; she and her siblings [including Kurt’s daughter with Krementz] referred to his marriage- which involved constant separations- some of which lasted for several years- and open adultery and divorce petitions from both sides- as “Dad’s disease” and just assumed the person was in the know.[/HIJACK]
Betty’s movie with Tyrone Power A Yank in the RAF in on TCM tonight. It starts at 1o:oo Central.
StG
Betty was *not *a dramatic actress, which she was the first to admit. Fox put her into two dramas (this one and I Wake Up Screaming, which resulted in the wonderful ad slogan, “*I Wake Up Screaming *with Betty Grable!”), and then everyone said, “oh, dear,” and put her back into musicals.
Rita was great. She had a far more interesting real life too. Not only Wells, but she had Ally Khan and Dick Haymes and a few others ( I think)
Poor Rita was *so *fucked-up, though. Betty had her problems, but she was not so depressing as Rita (or Hedy Lamarr or Veronica Lake–these pin-up girls had issues).
There’s a deep irony (ok, maybe not so deep) in the fact that my fellow str8 d00dz consider it Kinda Ghey to be caught admiring actresses of pre-1950s vintage.
It might go along with passion for the music, cars, etc., of too long ago. There’s a suspicion that it might not have been handed down from dear old dad.
We watched that last night. (And Mrs. Miniver afterward.) I think everyone knows that I’m ‘into’ aviation, and I especially like WWII films about airplanes. Strangely, I’d never seen A Yank In The RAF before. Not what I was expecting. I was expecting a more dramatic film, not a comedy. Worth seeing, though, and Betty Grable was cute.
I can’t think of Betty Grable without thinking of Hogan’s Heros, where her name was used with a wink as a password or a ‘gotcha’ or something. And I think of her pin-up, or course.
I have to say though, that the old-time actress I find really cute was the young Barbara Stanwyck.
