Doug Warren - Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen

By Doug Warren

A Crossroad Press Production

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

Smashwords edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press

Digital Edition Copyright 2016 Tim Warren

Copy-edited by Patricia Lee Macomber

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Visit us online

Check out our blog and

Subscribe to our Newsletter for the latest Crossroad Press News

Find and follow us on Facebook

Join our group at Goodreads

We hope you enjoy this eBook and will seek out other books published by Crossroad Press. We strive to make our eBooks as free of errors as possible, but on occasion some make it into the final product. If you spot any problems, please contact us at and notify us of what you found. Well make the necessary corrections and republish the book. Well also ensure you get the updated version of the eBook.

If youd like to be notified of new Crossroad Press titles when they are published, please send an email to and ask to be added to our mailing list.

If you have a moment, the author would appreciate you taking the time to leave a review for this book at the retailers site where you purchased it.

Thank you for your assistance and your support of the authors published by Crossroad Press.

This list identifies many who provided information integral to this biography. Without their generous contribution of time and effort, it would have been impossible to write the book. The order in which the names are listed says nothing of the importance of their contribution, but only of the chronology of the interviews. Many thanks to each of you.

Jeff Parker, Bob Remick, Steve Preston, Vivian Blaine, Kevin Pines, Marjorie Arnold, Michael Levitt, Leonard Scumacci, Marie Brasselle, Sonia Wolfson, Jet Fore, Lucille Ball, Tony Charmoli, Paula Sloan, Art Kassul, Pan Berman, Jessica Yahner, Max Showalter, Victor Mature, Richard Lamparski, Anthony Coogan, Ron Alexander, Jane Ardmore, Lee Doyle, Duchess Tomasello, George Raft (via Linda Rafful), Betty Baez, Sugar Geise, Charles Le Maire, Bill Smith, Muzzy Marcelino, Charlie Price, Anthony Slide, Morey Amsterdam, Gene Lester, Jimmy Cross, Ham Waddell, Frank Powolney, Vernon Scott.

In Chicago there is a collection of Betty Grable memorabilia that is second to none. It belongs to Leonard Scumacci, who must qualify as one of the worlds foremost authorities on Betty Grable. Without the generous sharing of his photo collection, too many of these pages would remain blank. I give my heartfelt thanks.

I t is early February of 1973. The setting is the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida. On stage, the famous gin rummy scene of Born Yesterday is in progress. The scripted impudence of Billie Dawn is gauged to mangle the nerves of her opponent, Harry Brock. Her chatter is continuous. Periodically she says the word Gin and proceeds to win the hands with annoying regularity. But in this performance there is an added bit of action. At varying intervals, Billie flicks her fingertip against the charms of her gold bracelet.

The audience chuckles in its appreciation of the stage business, without knowing that this is an improvisation for the personal benefit of Art Kassul, the actor playing Brock. Betty Grable, as Billie, is using the device to acknowledge the gift Kassul has given her, the bracelet with gold charms that depict scenes from the show. It is her way of saying thanks without being gooey about it.

It was never easy for Betty Grable to accept gifts, no easier than it was for her to field compliments regarding her persona or her work. She seemed to have a built-in personality device that prohibited effusive displays of sentimentality, a curious inner compulsion that would cause her to slip away quietly, for example, to avoid a meaningful goodbye. It was just one of the quirks that made Betty Grable what she turned out to be.

On this occasionthere were other behavioral peculiarities recognized by the cast. Something had changed since the troupe had toured together three years earlier, there was a new preoccupation on the part of the star.

Betty had always enjoyed sightseeing excursions in the past, but she passed them up this time around, and there was none of the former pub-crawling after the show. It was apparent she was more pensive as she stood in the wings awaiting her cues, and it was obvious she was physically drained after the final curtain. She seemed physically heavier, a bit plump actually, and some of the cast members noticed that she never allowed herself to be seen without a wig or a fall.

When Betty was asked about this by one of the female members of the cast, she tossed it aside by saying her hair had thinned as a result of wearing wigs when shed played Hello Dolly seven nights a week for eight months in Las Vegas.

Art Kassul also noticed the difference in the relationship between Betty and Bob Remick. When he had been with Betty in 1968, it seemed Remick was in command. It seemed to be the case of an older woman inexorably smitten with a younger man, while the younger man maintained full chauvinistic control. Now, the roles were reversed, and it was now Bob who seemed to be dancing to Bettys tune. Remembering their previous relationship, said Kassul, I was surprised to see they were still together. But I was happy about that to see Bob had real feeling for her.

Kassul also noticed that Bettys stage wardrobe had become much more seductive. Initially, he explained, she was subdued in her dress, as though attempting to tone down her sex image. In fact, she wore only one dress that revealed her legs. On tour, she was wearing pajamas when she came downstairs to play gin, but at Jacksonville she wore a sexy black nightie. It was as though she were saying, Its still there, kids look it over.

Word circulated soon enough that Betty was under treatment for lung cancer. She had been hospitalized for four months in California in the spring of 1972 and had received cobalt treatment. After recuperating at home in Las Vegas for the better part of a year, she had felt strong and thoroughly bored, and so, when the offer came to revive Born Yesterday at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in Jacksonville, Betty accepted readily. She was able to bring together most of the cast members from an earlier road company of the show and returned once more to the boards.

Betty was initially under the impression the engagement was for only two weeks, but it turned out to be for a month. She agreed. At the end of the four-week engagement, the management asked for an extension. Betty could have left then, since the contract was fulfilled, but, as was so often the case in the past, her thoughts turned to the kids the members of the cast who needed the money. She extended another four weeks, and, when the theater was still selling out each night, a further extension was requested. This time she was forced to refuse.