BETTY GRABLE

December 18, 1916

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children. Nicknamed ‘Betty’ as a child, she was pressured by her mother to become a performer. She was entered in multiple beauty contests, many of which she won or for which she achieved considerable attention.

A 12-year-old Grable and her mother traveled to Hollywood in 1929, hoping to achieve stardom.  To get her daughter jobs, Lillian Grable lied about her daughter’s age, claiming she was 15. That same year, she made her uncredited film debut as a chorus girl in the all-star revue Happy Days (1929).

In 1930, at age 13, Grable (under the pseudonym Frances Dean) became one of the original Goldwyn Girls, along with Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball and Paulette Goddard. Grable appeared with Lucille Ball in the short A Night at the Biltmore Bowl (1935), Old Man Rhythm (1935), and Follow the Fleet (1936). 

In late 1939, Betty Grable dated Desi Arnaz when the two were concurrently appearing on Broadway; him in Too Many Girls and her in Du Barry Was a Lady.  Coincidentally, Lucille Ball did the 1943 film of Du Barry, taking the lead from Ethel Merman. Grable’s role was re-written and she was not part of the film. 

Throughout her career, Grable was a celebrated sex symbol. Her bathing suit poster made her the number-one pin-up girl of World War II. Grable’s legs were insured by her studio for $1 million as a publicity stunt. 

“I became a star for two reasons, and I’m standing on them.” ~ Betty Grable

On an October 1948 episode of Lucille Ball’s radio series “My Favorite Husband” Liz Cugat (Lucy) wonders aloud: “What’s Betty Grable got that I haven’t got?” 

Although she began doing television in 1953 on variety and talk programs, her first scripted program was an episode of “Star Stage” titled “Cleopatra Collins”. Grable played an ex-Miss America. She quickly followed-up by playing Lily Garland in “Twentieth Century” for “Ford Star Jubilee”, an adaptation of the 1932 play about movie stars on a train.  

On a November 15, 1954 episode of “I Love Lucy,” Betty Grable’s name is mentioned by Lucy Ricardo as one of the many Hollywood stars she is looking forward to meeting should Ricky get the role of Don Juan.  

Once in Hollywood, Lucy gets to see Betty Grable’s Beverly Hills home in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30) in May 1955. The driver (Benny Rubin) describes the home as a ‘ranch style’. 

A few months later, just before returning home from Hollywood, Lucy and Ethel visit the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and see Betty Grable’s leg imprint in a slab of cement.   

ETHEL: “What are you doing?”
LUCY: “Comparing my leg to Betty Grable’s.”
ETHEL: “Oh, it looks identical.”
LUCY: “Oh, to you and me maybe, but I doubt it would fool Harry James.”

On February 15, 1943, Grable did indeed leave her leg print and signature in wet cement for the forecourt. 

Her final scripted role on TV was playing herself in “Lucy Wins A Racehorse”, an installment of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” on “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse”. It was filmed in December 1957 and aired on February 3, 1958. 

The episode’s theme grew from the James’ and Arnaz’s shared love of horses and horse-racing. 

In it, Grable appears with her second husband, bandleader Harry James, who she married in 1943 and with whom she had two children. The couple divorced in 1965.  She had first married actor Jackie Coogan, but their relationship lasted only a three years (1937-1940). 

Grable and James do a full out musical performance in the Ricardo living room titled “The Bayamo” in which Grable shows off her legendary legs and James plays his iconic trumpet. 

“She was everything to him. It was always Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. She was his life.” ~ Betty Grable, about Desi Arnaz

In the 1969 Dinah Shore TV special “Like Hep!” Betty Grable’s name is dropped in the title song sung by Dinah, Lucy, and Diana Ross.  That’s hep!  

Grable’s name was also mentioned in the February 1971 “Here’s Lucy” episode “Lucy and Carol Burnett aka The Hollywood Unemployment Follies” (TLS S3;E22). During the episode they ogle a wardrobe rack conspicuously labeled COSTUMES WORN BY BETTY GRABLE AND ALICE FAYE. Faye and Grable did two films together, Tin Pan Alley (1940) and Four Jills in a Jeep (1944).

In a November 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy” Dan Dailey dictates a letter to Betty James and Lucy Carter correctly guesses that he is writing to Betty Grable, who did four films with Dailey.  

Betty Grable died at age 56 of lung cancer on July 2, 1973 in Santa Monica, California.