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Sep 17, 2022 · It's one of the most famous pin-up photos of all time –– Betty Grable, in a tight, one-piece bathing suit, posing with her back to the camera and looking over her shoulder. The black-and-white image, taken in 1943, became the most requested photo for G.I.s stationed overseas during World War II.
- Jemima Skelley
- She Had A Scandalous Claim to Fame
- She Became A Star For Two Reasons
- She Had A Horrific Mother
- Her Mother Forced Her to Perform
- She Suffered Mental Cruelty
- She Was A Child Star
- She Told A Big Lie
- She Liked Bad Boys
- She Was A Goldwyn Girl
- The Studio Fired Her
When the United States entered WWII, Hollywood began producing content for the Americans serving abroad. One way to cheer up the servicemen was through "pin-up" photographs of famous actresses, which they made into posters and shipped overseas. Rita Hayworth popularized the pin-up, but it was Betty Grable who became its most famous model. Wikipedia
Betty Grable earned the nickname "Million Dollar Legs," and she didn't get it for nothing. Hosiery specialists and retailers often cited her gams as having the perfect proportions for stockings, and Grable was under no illusions about what brought in the big bucks. As the starlet once quipped, "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on t...
Betty Grable was an adorable, rosy-cheeked, blonde little girl. But that didn't mean her life was perfect...or even well-adjusted. Her mother Lillian was a pushy stage momager who forced her daughter into dance lessons and countless child beauty contests in search of fame. Granted, beautiful Betty won most of the pageants, but Lillian didn't stop t...
When Lillian couldn't find any new dance class or pageant to enrol Betty in, she turned to her own friends to get her fame fix. On slow days, Lillian would "present" Betty at casual gatherings and demand that the girl perform for the adults on command. Is it any wonder that growing up too fast had grave consequences? Shutterstock
Grable might have been a successful child performer around her local area, but eventually all this stress caused multiple issues for the little girl. From a disturbingly young age, she suffered from intense fits of sleepwalking as well as a fear of crowds, known as "demophobia." Huh, wonder where she got that from. Just kidding, I don't wonder at a...
With the Great Depression looming, Lillian's frenzy to make her daughter into a star took an even more chilling turn. In 1929, when Betty was just 12 years old, they packed up from St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Hollywood to try and hit it big.There was just one problem.Betty was too young; the minimum working age was 15. Did this stop Lillian? U...
Instead of taking a step back and saying "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't force my daughter into child labor," Lillian just grew more unhinged and determined. Like many manipulative stage mothers, she lied about Betty's age to producers, saying the tween had just turned 15. Once they saw Betty's face, producers were all too happy to believe it. Shutterstock
One of Grable's first adult relationships really couldn't have gone worse. When she was young, she got together with a handsome married man named George Raft, a tough guy actor associated with sinister figures like Bugsy Seigel. Well, Raft quickly proved just how tough he was: He beat Grable, who fled from the relationship. If only this didn't come...
Most actors struggle to make it in Hollywood for years, but most actors aren't Betty Grable. In 1929, she premiered in her first film. By 1930, she had worked as a chorus girl before signing with legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn. This made her one of the original Goldwyn Girls, along with the inimitable Lucille Balland Paulette Goddard. ...
Lillian and Betty's lies eventually caught up to them in the worst way possible. Although Fox Studios originally signed on Grable, it didn't take them long to find out that she was much younger than she was pretending to be, and much younger than the law allowed. Their response was swift and brutal.They fired her unceremoniously. Shutterstock
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".
Her famous pin-up pose during World War II adorned barracks all around the world. With that pin-up and as the star of lavish musicals, Betty became the highest-paid star in Hollywood. After the war, her star continued to rise.
Eighty years ago, a quirk of fate saw a 1943 pin-up photo of film star Betty Grable smiling coyly over her right shoulder become a Second World War icon. The picture went off to war in the survival kits of around one in 12 Allied servicemen.
Mar 13, 2020 · Frank Powolny takes the famous pin-up photo of Betty. The photo becomes so popular, an estimated 3 million copies are sent to servicemen! (A 1993 estimate put world-wide distribution of the pin-up photo at 0ver 10 million.) It’s the most requested pin-up photo EVER.
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Grable's photograph sold millions of copies, eventually surpassing the popularity of Rita Hayworth's famous 1941 photo. Grable's success as a pin-up girl furthered her career as a mainstream movie star.