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Betty Grable: World War Ii
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The celebrated "pin-up girl" of World War II, American actress Betty Grable was the daughter of a stockbroker and an aggressive "stage mother." When her older sister Marjorie balked at a show business career, Grable was taken in hand by her mother and trained to sing, dance, tell jokes and play the ukulele and saxophone. Despite her father's objections, Grable begged her mother to take her to Los Angeles for a movie career, preparing herself with a two-girl musical act while attending Hollywood Professional School. Lying about her age, 13-year-old Grable was hired as a chorus girl for short subjects, getting her first important exposure as the energetic blonde "cowgirl" who sings the first chorus of the first song in the Eddie Cantor film musical Whoopee! (1930).
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How important could Betty Grable be to a soldier who never met her? With World War II scarcely eight years behind when Stalag 17 came out, the question never even arose. Americans knew that from 1942 to 1945, Betty was everything to Yanks in uniform. She was the girl they were fighting for. Then again, so were Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Lana Turner, Veronica Lake, and a bevy of other movie sirens. They were pinup girls, female celebrities whose come-hither looks and terrific figures graced millions of cheap photos given to American GIs free of charge.
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Betty Grable was a major Hollywood star of the 1930s and 1940s, thanks to movies like Tin Pan Alley (1940), Coney Island (1943) and Pin Up Girl (1944). Grable's shapely legs were legendary; at one point they were insured for over one million dollars. Despite her long acting career, Grable is better remembered for a famous pinup photo: the shot, with Grable peeking over her shoulder in a bathing suit, was a favorite among American soldiers in World War II. She was married to actor Jackie Coogan (1937-40) and to band leader Harry James (1943-65).
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During World War II, Grable was the favorite of U.S. servicemen. The classic pin-up photograph of her in high heels and a one-piece white bathing suit, looking back over her shoulder, was posted in countless military barracks around the world. After the war, Grable starred in "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" (1946), a musical comedy set in the 1800s. But the biggest shock to Grable's fans was the lack of screen time for her legs, and they flooded the studio with letters of complaint. Grable returned to her previous form in "Mother Wore Tights" (1947), and her fans were happy again. She kept to the successful formula with "When My Baby Smiles at Me" (1948), "The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend" (1949) and "Wabash Avenue" (1950) -- a re-make of "Coney Island" -- "My Blue Heaven" (1950), "Call Me Mister" (1951) and "Meet Me After the Show" (1951).
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The celebrated "pin-up girl" of World War II, American actress Betty Grable was the daughter of a stockbroker and an aggressive "stage mother." When her older sister Marjorie balked at a show business career, Grable was taken in hand by her mother and trained to sing, dance, tell jokes and play the ukulele and saxophone.
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It was during her reign as box office champ (in 1943) that Grable posed for her iconic pinup photo, which (along with her movies) soon became escapist fare among GIs fighting in World War II. The image was taken by studio photographer Frank Powolny, who died in 1986. [3] Despite solid competition from Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake, Carole Landis and Lana Turner, Grable was indisputably the number one pinup girl for American soldiers. She was wildly popular at home as well, placing in the top 10 box office draws each year for 10 years. By the end of the 1940s Grable was the highest-paid female star in Hollywood.
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