Betty Grable: WWII Forces Sweetheart

Elizabeth 'Betty' Ruth Grable, born on December 18th, 1916, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., was an actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Betty's 42 movies of the '30s - '40s grossed over $100 million, having featured in the Quigley Poll's Top 10 box office stars for 10 successive years from 1942-1951, later matched only by Doris Day and Barbra Streisand. The U.S. Treasury Department listed Grable as the highest paid American woman of 1946 and 1947, making over $3 million during her lifetime.

Betty began her film career during 1929 aged 12, before losing a contract when it was discovered that she'd signed up with false id. She had contracts with RKO and Paramount Pictures in the '30s, having appeared in a string of B movies, mainly playing college students. Grable became well known in the Broadway musical DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), her performance attracting the attention of 20th Century-Fox.

Betty replaced Alice Faye in Down Argentine Way (1940), her first major Hollywood picture, becoming Fox's biggest film star for the rest of the decade. Fox cast her in a string of Technicolor musicals during the decade that were hugely popular, co-starring with leading men including Victor Mature, Don Ameche, John Payne, and Tyrone Power. Grable was the top box-office draw in the world of 1943, before becoming the highest-paid entertainer in the US during 1947. Two of her biggest hit movies were the musical Mother Wore Tights (1947) then the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), one of her last pictures. Betty retired from screen acting in 1955, having withdrawn from her Fox contract, although she continued to perform on stage and TV.

Grable was a celebrated sex symbol, her bathing suit poster making her the top pin-up girl of World War II, surpassing Rita Hayworth, later being included in the Life magazine project '100 Photographs That Changed the World'. Hosiery specialists of the era often observed the ideal proportions of her legs as thigh 18.5 in, calf 12 in, and ankle 7.5 in. Betty's legs were insured by her studio for $1 million as a publicity stunt. Of her film career she said "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on them".