Betty Grable
Betty Grable (1916-1973) was arguably the biggest box-office star of the 1940s, appearing in numerous big-budget films alongside Hollywood’s most dashing leading men. Betty was likeable, a talented singer and dancer, and had a lovely smile, but eventually came to be best known for her beautiful legs. Following the release of her 1939 movie Million Dollar Legs (co-starring her then-husband Jackie Coogan), 20th Century Fox insured Betty’s legs for that amount. Our maternal grandparents Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993) and Mary Bell Grayson (1909-2001) lived in Washington, D.C., and though they never told us so, I propose they were big fans of Betty Grable.
Pin-Up Girls
A memorable morale booster for the men overseas during World War II was the pin-up girl. These were either mass-produced photographs of Hollywood stars like Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, or life-like illustrations of idealized women. Leon served as a JAG Officer in the Pacific Theater and would have been well-acquainted with the fad.
The Photos That Changed the World
In 2003 Life Magazine published a coffee-table book with what they called the 100 most influential photos since the inception of the medium. You will easily be able to visualize many of these photos with short descriptions: The Hindenburg Disaster (1937). Flag Raising on Iwo Jima (1945). V-J Day in Times Square (1945). Che Guevara (1960, no relation). Earth Rise (1968). Tienanmen Square tank man (1989).
The Iconic Photo
Frank Powolny was a photographer with 20th Century Fox. Among the publicity photos he took of Betty Grable for an upcoming 1943 film was a back-shot of the actress looking coyly over her right shoulder at the camera. According to the Life write-up, “soon troops were requesting 50,000 copies every month. The men took Betty wherever they went, tacking her poster to barrack walls, painting her on bomber fuselages and fastening 2-by-3 prints of her next to their hearts.” Thus Betty became the pin-up girl of the war, and her pose an American icon of the era.
The Diamond Horseshoe
Welcome to the Diamond Horseshoe, so glad you dropped in. We’ll chase all your cares away, but please be polite to our waiters.
Bonnie Collins (Betty Grable) singing and dancing to the opening number in Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
Betty Grable was cast in a number of highly-choreographed Technicolor features during the 1940s, including Diamond Horseshoe, a musical-romance set in a New York nightclub, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe. The real-life supper club around which the movie was based was located in the basement of the Paramount Hotel at Times Square from 1938 until 1951. When the motion picture was released in May 1945, Leon was likely still overseas. It is nevertheless probable that he and Mary saw the film. Among their papers is an undated souvenir photo of the couple at the nightclub, located about 12 blocks north of the Penn Station railway terminal. Leon and Mary’s only child, our mother Ann, would only have been about three years old in late 1945 or early 1946, but we assume she was left with friends for a sleepover, and the New York City trip and nightclub visit was a welcome-home romantic get-away.
An Iconic Reproduction
Our grandparents took gobs of pictures of Ann in scores of poses and candids. One particular photo recently caught my eye. In it a 6 or 7 year-old Ann in her thigh-length winter coat is posed with her back to the camera and looks obediently over her shoulder at the lens.
Leon and Mary Grayson were our maternal grandparents. They lived just a block away and we loved them dearly. They never said so, but I’m pretty sure they were fans of the Hollywood actress Betty Grable. What do you think?
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