Betty Grable
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Taking the picture
Photographer Frank Powolny took the shot. There is quite a bit of legend surrounding the pose with many different versions:
- One legend states that she was finished with the photo session and had turned her back to walk out of the studio, saying "That's it!"
- She was standing waiting and turned to smile at film producer Darryl F. Zanuck who had entered the studio unexpectedly.
- The shot was a costume shot for the film Sweet Rosie O'Grady released Oct. 1, 1943.
- Another story even claims that Grable did the over the shoulder shot because she was pregnant at the time. This is unlikely as while Betty had two daughters with bandleader Harry James. Victoria was born on March 4, 1944 and Jessica was born on May 20, 1947.[1] It was doubtful that the pregnancy would have been showing in early 1943 if she conceived as late as June 1943.
Whatever the method taken to photograph the pose FOX studios saw its potential and persuaded the US military to allow it to distribute 5 million postcards of this picture to American GIs fighting in the war. Soldiers soon had painted the picture on planes, bomber jackets, and barrack walls making it the most popular pin-up in the war.
Betty Grable
She was born Elizabeth Ruth Grable in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 18, 1916. The third child of John Conn Grable (June 28, 1883-January 25, 1954) and Lillian Rose Hofmann (May 29, 1889-December 24, 1964). Her sister was Marjorie L. Grable (April 17, 1909-November 25, 1980) and her brother was John Carl Grable (who died in infancy).
Most of Grable's recent ancestors were American, but her distant heritage included Dutch, Irish, German and English. She was propelled into acting by her mother, who insisted that one of her daughters become a star. For her first role, as a chorus girl in the movie Happy Days (1929), Grable was only 13 years old (legally underage for acting), but, because the chorus line performed in blackface, it was impossible to tell how old she was.
She got a number of small-time roles in various movies before obtaining a contract with 20th Century Fox, becoming their top star throughout the decade. It was during her reign as box-office champ (in 1943) that Grable posed for her iconic pin-up photo, which (along with her movies) soon became escapist fare among GIs fighting overseas in World War II. Despite solid competition from Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake, 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 ten box-office draws each year for ten years. By the end of the 1940s Grable was the highest-paid female star in Hollywood.
Also, in 1943, she married jazz trumpeter and big band leader Harry James, by whom she had two children; they divorced in 1965. Grable's later career was marked by feuds with studio heads, who worked her to exhaustion. At one point, in the middle of a fight with Darryl F. Zanuck, she tore up her contract with him and stormed out of his office. Gradually leaving movies entirely, she made the transition to television and starred in Las Vegas.
She died of lung cancer at age 56 in Santa Monica, California. Her funeral was held July 5, 1973, 30 years to the day after her marriage to Harry James. She is interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.
Trivia
- On May 25, 1953, the largest atomic weapon fired by artillery was exploded over the Las Vegas desert in the test series named Operation Upshot-Knothole. The cannon was named Atomic Annie while the shell and the blast was named Grable. Thousands of military personnel were present at the Grable blast to test exposure to radiation. Operation Upshot-Knothole was responsible for the release of a large portion of the radioactive iodine produced as a result of continental nuclear tests. This fallout resulted in thousands of cases of thyroid cancer. Betty Grable died from lung cancer at the age of 56.
Sources
- ↑ ,Betty Grable FAQ - - Accessed on Dec, 2006
