Betty Grable made an impact on America. In the 1940s, Betty Grable was the highest paid woman in America. She had the highest salary of a woman in the country in the years 1946-1947. Throughout her career, she made over $3 million. Betty, undeniably, held a grip over American culture… over the course of her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s, they grossed a net of $100 million. For those times (and today), those numbers are astounding. During WWII, she surpassed Rita Hayworth as the top pin-up girl, which Life magazine referred to as “100 Photographs That Changed The World.”

Born Elizabeth Ruth Grable on December 18, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, she was the youngest of three children of a Midwestern family. She was pressured to become a performer by her mother and achieved many accolades and won beauty contests frequently. Despite this, she suffered from a fear of crowds and sleepwalking. Her career in Hollywood began in 1929, shortly after the stock market crash, when she traveled with her mother to California. She studied at the “Hollywood Professional School,” and attended dance classes as well. In 1930, she signed under Samuel Goldwyn and became one of the original “Goldwyn Girls.” She led one of the musical numbers titled, “Cowboys,” yet received no on screen credit for the performance. She went on to sign with RKO Radio Pictures in 1932. It is infamously remarked by Marilyn Monroe how she used to stare longingly at an RKO tower from her orphanage window as a child, which helped her solidify her dream of becoming a performer – Betty and Marilyn would later perform together alongside Lauren Bacall. The stars do align!

Following her time with RKO, Betty would sign with Paramount Pictures, even further advancing her career in Hollywood. However, her performances at the time were being overshadowed by those of Judy Garland, especially from The Wizard of Oz, which captured America’s heart in the 1930s. However, she persisted in Hollywood and by 1939, she was performing alongside her husband, Jackie Coogan, in a film called Million Dollar Legs. For a time of such embedded objectification of women in Hollywood, it feels rather ironic that a woman’s career successes could be rooted in that. However, I believe much of female performances by leading ladies in Golden Age Hollywood have been overlooked tremendously for the actual work that they did, with too much emphasis on the idea of their image. This is especially commented on in Richard Barrios new book about Marilyn Monroe’s performances, On Marilyn Monroe, which details the incredible body of work she helped create (and how she was a discerning script reader for films and characters), and this was often overlooked or heavily critiqued by film critics who had no tact in understanding some of the nuanced genius of these performances.

Grable would continue to move film studios, landing in 1940 at 20th Century Fox, and by then, she stated that she felt “sick and tired” of performing and that she was considering retirement. She was given close attention by the head of Fox at the time, Darryl Zanuck (who infamously did not like Marilyn Monroe and held her career back as much as he could). In 1940, this was far before Marilyn’s beginnings at Fox, Grable was cast as lead in Down Argentine Way, replacing Alice Faye, who had been the most popular musical film star at the time. For many who study Golden Age Hollywood like I do, it becomes exceedingly clear that men were deciding the career outcomes of women and they were playing puppet master to who would advance in their career. This does not, however, negate the quality of these performances.

Often, even in times of career burnout (as Grable had discussed wanting to retire), she again stepped up and did a fantastic performance. Over and over again, women have shown persistence in times of tremendous challenge and strength in the face of male dominant, chauvinistic systems created to cast them out just as quickly as they arrived. I would argue that women of Golden Age Hollywood were true icons for this reason. They carried the weight of contractual burdens of the system, performed nearly to no end, and maintained an image of near perfect good looks… no wonder their personal lives were often left troubled.

If there is anything to be truly appreciative of in these remarkable storied lives of Hollywood’s bygone icons, is that there are ways to renew your own appreciation in the importance of living a balanced life, and of the understanding of our limitations for our own health and wellness, not to see as a hinderance, but as a way to guide your decisions in healthy living. Many of these female performers were pushed to limits which became unhealthy. Betty Grable, among many other women in Hollywood, were being stretched to maximum capacity, were excessively critiqued, and yet, created and generated so many profits for Hollywood (and were considered incredibly attractive). The best way we can appreciate their impact today is by remembering their work and respecting them for it.

In 1943, Betty Grable was voted the “Number One Box Office Draw,” by moviegoers – outranking male icons such as Bob Hope, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart. This favorite box office vote was again regained in 1950. By the early 1950s, Betty could not find scripts she wanted to perform for and her career began to decline. Marilyn Monroe replaced her in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Holistically, women in Hollywood were put in competition too often and were isolated in that way, too. Betty was a pioneer through some of Hollywood’s most incredible times. According to director Martin Scorsese, “Looking back at the pictures of the ’30s and ’40s, the period now known as the Golden Age of Hollywood, you can feel, more and more, just how controlled many of the performances were, especially in relation to movies made after the arrival of Brando and James Dean in the ’50s. There’s a tension between directors and actors that I find extremely interesting now.” Scorsese summarizes all there is to be said about the time that Betty performed in. I think we should celebrate her for this.

Betty Grable passed way of lung cancer in 1973 at age 56 in Santa Monica, CA.

Source: Wikipedia