Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Actress Betty Grable Dies Of Lung Cancer", "American Home Front in World War II: Betty Grable", https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SRM7DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT2&dq=betty+grable&ots=K0xSgBoydS&sig=TtKpbEYVBI7310MsydHAV_HYRaw#v=onepage&q=sleepwalk&f=false, https://books.google.com/books?id=dVmWbEUqJXMC&dq=Pin-up%2C+The+Tragedy+of+Betty+Grable&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=billie, "Betty Grable's Famous Pin-up by Frank Powolny", https://www.geni.com/people/Jessica-James/6000000015687744947, "Betty Grable Was Famous For Her Legs. It was reported that Grable often quarreled with Fairbanks and Preminger, and that she nearly walked out on filming, but decided against on the advice of her agent. Grable was reluctant to continue her film career, but Fox was desperately in need of her return. In 1944, Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed a group of fashionable ladies in front of Rockefeller Center. Grable retired from screen acting in 1955 after she withdrew from her Fox contract, although she continued to perform on the stage and on television. Betty Grable (1916–1973) was an American actress. Grable's success as a pin-up girl furthered her career as a mainstream movie star. Those pony legs were later insured for $3.2 million. 1940s actress, dancer and pin-up girl Betty Grable -- the biggest box-office star … The film's success led to Grable's casting in Tin Pan Alley (1940), co-starring Faye. As a member of the ensemble group of attractive young chorines, Grable appeared in a series of small parts in movies, among them the mega-hit Whoopee! After her brief stint as an RKO contract player,[citation needed] Grable signed with Paramount Pictures. This is why she is called "The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs." Soon thereafter, she was invited to go on a personal appearance tour, which she readily accepted. She was entered in multiple beauty contests, many of which she won or for which she achieved considerable attention. Pin Up Girl co-starred comedians Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown and was released in April 1944 to overwhelming success at the box-office. Despite her success, she suffered from a fear of crowds and sleepwalking. Retrieved Sept. 22, 2019. ($22 million i… Why the difference? It proved to be Grable's final film appearance. Reportedly insured for: $1 million When RiRi was presented with Gillette's Venus Breeze Celebrity Legs of a Goddess award, she promptly insured those award-winning gams for a cool million. Her last film was How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955). The film has her as a hostess for a USO canteen, who also provides entertainment for the troops during their time there. Pin-Up: The Tragedy of Betty Grable. Medium Difficulty (Questions 21 to 40 of 2099); Which actress, born in 1916, had her legs insured by 20th Century Fox for one million dollars? "If that's not luck, I don't know what you'd call it", Grable said in her first interview after signing with the studio. Her iconic pin-up image was recently named one of Time's 100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time. It was a major box-office success, becoming the fourth-most popular movie of the year. They were all about discovery. She played Cynthia Pilgrim, a college student who graduated at the top of her typewriting class during the first year of the Packard Business College. Fox became concerned that Grable might be becoming regarded as a movie passé. Two of her biggest film successes were the musical Mother Wore Tights (1947) and the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), one of her last films. Fox then began to develop Philip Wylie's short story, "Second Honeymoon", into a script suited for Grable's talents. How to Marry a Millionaire was a box-office triumph when released, grossing an estimated $8 million. Grable thereafter found a new career starring in her own act in Las Vegas hotels, as well as alongside her then husband, musician Harry James. She opted to play the role of Miss Adelaide, but was passed over in favor of Vivian Blaine, who had played the role on Broadway. Annoyed at first, Dickinson soon decided she liked being blonde. Her following film, My Blue Heaven, released in December 1950, re-teamed her with Dan Dailey, and was equally successful financially. Although the press hinted that a tense behind-the-scenes rivalry existed between the two actresses, they both denied it, claiming to be good friends. The first, A Yank in the R.A.F., released in September, co-starred heartthrob Tyrone Power, and cast her as Carol Brown, who works in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the day, but is employed as a nightclub singer in the evening. Betty Grable’s legs was the beginning of a rush of celebrity leg insurance which has since taken in ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev’s rather more muscular legs, insured for a then-considerable $34,000, Michael ‘Riverdance’ Flatley’s legs, and in 2006, soccer giant David Beckham’s legs, insured for a cool £100m. Grable's photograph sold millions of copies, eventually surpassing the popularity of Rita Hayworth's famous 1941 photo. ), James Bond star Daniel Craig has his body insured for $9.5 … I've had mine!" Supermodel Heidi Klum's legs are insured for $1.2 million and $1 million each. Celebrities who have insured their legs for extremely high sums include supermodel, Heidi Klum who has insured her legs for a sum of $2.2million (one million dollars for her left leg while 200,000 dollars less than her right because of a small mark on her knee). … Grable began her film career in 1929 at age 12, after which she was fired from a contract when it was learned she signed up under false identification. Retrieved Sept. 22, 2019. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, the movie was a traditional black-and-white film noir, containing a combination of suspense and romance. Although the diva's legs have remained completely intact, it seems as if Mariah is not the only A-list celebrity to have a part of their body insured. She replaced Alice Faye in Down Argentine Way (1940), her first major Hollywood film, and became Fox's biggest film star throughout the next decade. ($22 million in 2021 dollars) [1]. It was, however, a box-office hit, earning more than $3.7 million. Grable entered into a relationship with dancer Bob Remick, 27 years her junior, with whom she remained until she died in 1973. Zanuck, who had been impressed by Grable's performance in DuBarry Was a Lady, was, at the time, in the midst of casting the female lead in the musical film Down Argentine Way (1940). Wabash Avenue was released in May 1950, and was a box-office hit. Grable, whose career was declining, was assumed to be jealous of Monroe because she was being groomed as Fox's newest star and possibly as Grable's unofficial successor. Grable died of lung cancer on July 2, 1973, at the age of 56, in Santa Monica, California. [15] She was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians. The success of the movie led to her re-teaming with Mature in Footlight Serenade (1942), also co-starring John Payne, in which she played a glamorous Broadway star. After five years of constant work, Grable was allowed time off for an extended vacation. She also appeared on Broadway in Hello Dolly in 1967.[10]. ", Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born on December 18, 1916, in St. Louis, Missouri,[5] the youngest of three children of Lillian Rose (née Hofmann; 1889–1964) and John Conn Grable (1883–1954), a stockbroker. She continued to be popular until the mid-1950s, when musicals went into a decline. Here's What She Thought About That", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Betty_Grable&oldid=1017712240, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2018, Articles needing additional references from December 2020, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 14 April 2021, at 07:02. Celebs who insured their body parts Heidi Klum has insured her legs for $2 million (each! Because she has a scar on one knee! The children featured in the ... Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) has become one of the most enduring screen icons of the 20th century. The U.S. Treasury Departmentin 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career. Th... Photographs of emancipated children were sold to raise money for the education of freed slaves in New Orleans. American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. She requested an upped salary and the option to make only those films she wanted to make. The film offered Grable her second teaming with Carole Landis, and it co-starred Victor Mature. Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943), her follow-up feature, was equally successful at the box office, although it failed to obtain the same critical favoritism. She then officially retired from motion-picture acting. What a great time to be alive unless you were black or gay. However, her most iconic photo was taken from the back — … A beautiful blonde with a peaches-and-cream complexion, during World War II the famous picture of her wearing a white bathing suit displaying her shapely legs (which were reportedly insured for a million dollars) and looking over her right shoulder, was pinned up on servicemen’s lockers the world over. In 1943, she married trumpeter Harry James. Variety wrote that the film "makes no pretenses of ultra-realism", but also called it "very pleasing and pleasant". After refusing the leading female role in Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Grable again was suspended from her contract. The film earned more than $3.5 million at the box office and was well received by critics. Later, she starred in big Las Vegas stage productions such as Hello, Dolly. Nicknamed "Betty" as a child, she was pressured by her mother to become a performer. Tina Turner’s legs are apparently worth over 3.2 million. Daniel Craig’s Whole Body. Grable married former child actor Jackie Coogan in 1937. She's even a little embarrassed about it," the source told the weekly. In 1930, at age 13, Grable (under the pseudonym Frances Dean) signed with producer Samuel Goldwyn; she thereby became one of the original Goldwyn Girls, along with Ann Sothern, Virginia Bruce, Lucille Ball and Paulette Goddard. https://www.vintag.es/2014/10/25-beautiful-black-and-white-portraits.html Down Argentine Way was a critical and box-office success at the time of its release, and many critics proclaimed Grable to be the successor to Alice Faye. The film was an attempt by Fox to recapture Grable's reputation as the studio's biggest star, and though she was paired with Dale Robertson, the film was a critical and box-office flop. [5] The same year, she made her uncredited film debut as a chorus girl in the Fox Studios all-star revue Happy Days (1929). When the film was released, it received mixed reviews; it was referred to as "a bright and beguiling swatch of nonsense", and it did not generate the revenue Fox had hoped. Putnam Books. The tour brought Grable to the attention of Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox, who offered her a long-term contract. Grable was a Republican who supported the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.[13]. Betty Grable's Legs. Following Carey, Rihanna became the second honoree of the Celebrity Legs of a Goddess award in 2007. Although critics acknowledged that the film "momentarily achieved" brilliance, they also felt that the movie's music was like "sticky toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube". She did, however, briefly return to filming to make a cameo appearance in Do You Love Me (1946), in which she appeared as a fan of her husband Harry James' character. She had contracts with RKO and Paramount Pictures during the 1930s, and appeared in a string of B movies, mostly portraying college students. The film was a lavish Technicolor musical and co-starred Don Ameche and Carmen Miranda. Even though that sounds like a lot, Heidi Klum insured her legs for 2.2 million dollars. Google eBooks. In a 1940 interview, Grable stated she was "sick and tired" of show business and that she was considering retirement. It received critical acclaim from critics, and was a box-office hit, earning an estimated $5 million. She reluctantly agreed to make Call Me Mister (1951) with Dan Dailey, a loose musical remake of A Yank in the R.A.F.. Despite a casting consisting of Cesar Romero and Rudy Vallée, the film was panned by critics, but it was a reasonable success at the box-office. He chose to have them covered in the event of injuries sustained on or off the field, and once implied that no matter what part of his body was injured, he'd pretend it was his hand. The star was apparently surprised by the sum and expected that her legs might be worth a million. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photographs That Changed the World". These films included the moderately popular This Way Please (1937) and College Swing (1938). A few months following her death, Grable was memorialized in song by Neil Sedaka on a track from his 1974 LP Laughter in the Rain. After Lubitsch's death early in production, Otto Preminger took over. The lavish musical used the pin-up photograph in many scenes, which boosted the photo's sales. He was under considerable stress from a lawsuit against his parents over his childhood earnings, and the couple divorced in 1939. Later, 20th Century-Fox insured her legs with Lloyds of London for a whopping million dollars. The 1970s were a party, full of exploration without explanation. The resulting movie was Springtime in the Rockies (1942), directed by Irving Cummings and pairing Grable opposite Payne, Cesar Romero, Carmen Miranda, and her future husband, bandleader Harry James. Paramount lent her to 20th Century-Fox to co-star in the adolescent comedy Pigskin Parade (1936), which first exposed Grable to the public. In 1950, Grable had re-gained her status as the most-popular female at the box office; she ranked fourth overall, just behind John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby. The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career. The Dolly Sisters earned more than $4 million at the box office, and was Fox's second-highest earning movie of the year, behind Leave Her to Heaven. In 1943, she was the number-one box office draw in the world and, in 1947, she was the highest-paid entertainer in the United States. She received larger roles in The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Follow the Fleet (1936). The 1970s were colorful and innovative. Her left leg has a small scar on it from where she fell on a glass, so her right leg is worth more. Her legs were once insured for $1-million dollars through Lloyds of London, but Dickinson hastens to point out that the policy was purchased by Universal Pictures, not her, and the studio would have been the beneficiary had anything happened to Dickinson's legs. Throughout her career, she was very cautious; she often worried about starring opposite well-known leading men. [2], 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, surpassing Rita Hayworth. Her first film for the studio, Probation (1932), provided the 14-year-old Grable with her first credited screen role. 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