Betty Grable's Star-Making Role: "Down Argentine Way"

Here's a free copy of "Down Argentine Way" that's good enough for your computer, perhaps not for your big screen TV. And you can rent a version via YouTube...

Thank you for sharing, Rick! Who knew Don Ameche ever looked like that?

I know, regarding Don! And he had a very pleasant singing voice!

Here's 720p copy for y'all...

TCM airs 1940's "Down Argentine Way" 8/9 @ 11:15 p.m. as part of the tribute to The Nicholas Brothers. Their dancing is athletic & amazing! This picture is also notable because it was the first 20th Century Fox "good neighbor" WWII film. This was also Carmen Miranda's first American film. Finally, this was leading lady Betty Grable's first big hit at Fox. Enjoy! A rare showing of a Fox/Grable musical on TCM. My look here:

OP = Neil

this is a better recording

A lot of her movies are fun, I like The Dolly Sisters and How to Marry a Millionaire

I saw Betty Grable in the original Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" She had replaced Martha Raye.

This era had women looking their glamorous best

Betty was talented and beautiful. How fortunate for the photographer that Betty was pregnant and posed showing off her gorgeous backside. That image was painted on the noses of WWII bombers. She was loved.

Was "Down Argentine Way" old-timey code for sodomy?

I hate that stupid tutting in the title song.

Down Argentine Way has had an absolutely stunning Blu-Ray transfer, unfortunately the same can't be said for most of 20th Century Fox's releases. You can see the shimmer of every bead on Betty's gorgeous blue dress.

My favorite Fox musical. Betty replaced Alice Faye. I love Alice but Betty was more fun. Great songs!!

Someone made some screen caps of a 14-year old Betty in "Palmy Days" (1931).

Betty was much prettier than Alice Faye, and was actually quite funny, so it's no wonder she became a star. But no one could sing like Alice Faye, who had one of the most beautiful of all voices of the 30s and 40s.

They were completely different personalities. Alice had a very warm, vulnerable presence. They are both wonderful.

I like both Alice and Betty. I'd describe Faye's style as more languid and Grable's more sassy. But both had distinctive personas that were very appealing.

Also, no one also had a more beautiful sad smile than Alice Faye.

I just find this movie a lot more fun that Weekend In Havana Or That Night In Rio from around the same time from Fox.

I think Springtime in the Rockies is a lot of '40s style and fun, too...

Moon Over Miami is my fave, but one reason may be that I remember watching as a wee one with my granny.

Funny to think how long she'd been kicking around Hollywood (at least 10 years) at different studios until she clicked with Fox and their Technicolor musicals. It was like she was just waiting for World War II to happen to give her the boost she needed.

Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Betty Hutton, Betty (and Veronica).

Nobody named Betty any more.

What was Betty Grable's best movie with John Payne? Now, he just might get me to to watch.

R24 Well, she wasn’t just kicking around Hollywood for 10 years, she went to Broadway. Herdancing and singing (Well, Did You Evah?) with Charles Walters in DuBarry Was A Lady was popular and I think led to her getting signed by Fox.

Grable and Bert Lahr in the show.

Shocking that Ethel Merman didn't get Betty fired! Or her numbers cut. Didn't Ethel do that to Betty Hutton on another Broadway show?

But the point is, Betty Grable was so under-appreciated in Hollywood, she had to go to Broadway to get noticed. My comment wasn't made in disparagement of Betty, but about Hollywood stupidity. Sorry if it didn't come out that way, I'm a big fan.

[quote]But the point is, Betty Grable was so under-appreciated in Hollywood, she had to go to Broadway to get noticed.

She was 13 when she was in her first movie. She was 23 when she did DuBarry. She got notice in Hollywood when she had matured somewhat in addition to her featured role in a Broadway hit. She never had illusions about herself and always considered herself a song & dance girl.

I point out in my review, despite doing okay in B "collegiate" musicals in the '30s, Betty went off to Broadway to boost her career, and that's where Zanuck saw her... not Hollywood!

I love Tin Pan Alley, with Betty moving up and surpassing Alice Faye, though poor Betty couldn't compete with Alice's tits! But they were great together, and I love the Shiek of Araby number!

R30 I didn't think your comment was disparaging. Sorry if I sounded like I thought so. I was just pointing out she wasn't just in the movies the whole time, just because it was a fact, no other reason. She definitely did kick around Hollywood for a long time before making it.

The Sylvia Stoddard DVD audio commentary is interesting. She talks about why Argentines found the film offensive and also Eva Peron.

Because Argentines see themselves as white and above all that stereotypical "Latino" nonsense.

Only on DL would I have learned about the condom that got stuck in poor Betty's cooter!

I do not believe that particular rumor.

Betty and Harry James did one of the hour-long Lucy-Desi shows. Betty and Desi were ex-lovers. Always wondered if Lucy minded, but then if she did I guess they wouldn't have been on the show.

By the time of those Lucy/Desi Comedy Hours, Desi was into much younger flesh than Betty Grable.

I read that she was lovely to Marilyn and totally non-threatened by the new it-girl "Go and get yours honey, I've had mine!"

R29 - that was Panama Hattie.

R41 - Mitzi Gaynor said Betty said the same thing to her when they did My Blue Heaven.

I always liked Betty Grable a lot. Seemed like a ton of fun (many stories of her closest friends being the gay dancers she was surrounded with and getting drunk with all the time), and her movies are delightful distractions - like the one in OP. Her and Cesar Romero were a fun pairing. I think the film she did with Preston Sturges is decent (The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Land). The studio system era Fox had the same ratio of good movies to garbage as MGM did, but they don’t have half the prestige! They had some good stars under contract though alongside the ones we’ve talked about here - Gene Tierney, Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price…

The Grable and Preston Sturges film is The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend. It was a notorious flop and Grable is said to have hated Sturges.

R2 pretty much every moviegoer in America, except for you.

I'll be posting about "Mother Wore Tights" later this fall, which was a surprisingly solid story along with the songs. And Betty and Dan made a fine team.

My favorite Grable film, r47!

Dan Dailey was another queen in Betty's life

I'm not a great Dailey fan, but he and Betty were quite good, both in the musical comedy numbers and dramatic scenes, as the showbiz couple.

R45 Parts of it were pretty funny.

[quote]Because Argentines see themselves as white and above all that stereotypical "Latino" nonsense.

Most Argentinians are of 100% European heritage so yes they are white.

Serious questions (and then back to Betty):

Are there no indigenous people of Argentina whose ancestors were there before the European invasion? Are they called something other than Argentinians? Do they have their own extant language?

Many of them were wiped out, just like in the US r53

Well at least no one has claimed yet that Don Ameche was a person of color because he was Italian-American.

Marilyn Monroe replaced Betty Grable replaced Alice Faye. Zanuck always had a powerhouse blonde coming up as the current one was going down.

June Haver, though she's forgotten, was a very popular Fox blonde, as well.

...and the real sassy girl next door who replaced Betty Grable with audiences was Doris Day, at WB. But Betty had a great run!

Wasn't Vivian Blaine yet another blonde in Zanuck's foxy stable?

Blaine wasn't a blonde when she was at Fox, she was a glamourous redhead.

Doris Day was more of a replacement for Judy Garland (when her MGM career ended in 1950) than she was a replacement for Grable. Grable was not known as a singer and she was not a ‘girl next door’ type like Doris or Judy, she was more of a sex symbol and brassy blonde.

*Warner Bros. Even made On Moonlight Bay in the style of Meet Me In St. Louis and cast Leon Ames as the father.

Hillbilly Dolly

Betty wanted to play Annie in MGM’s Annie Get Your Gun but I guess nobody could see it. Her old dancing partner Chuck Walters hoped to cast her in Please Don’t Eat The Daisies, in the part Janis Paige ended up playing - a sexy Broadway star. Betty didn’t want to be away from Del Mar during racing season.

Wasn't it Richard Schickel who famously said Betty Grable's popularity was because she reminded GIs of all the hash house waitresses they'd ever flirted with? Pretty apt if you ask me.

Schicklel said a lot of dumb things, didn’t he?

Lana Turner said that when they were young, fans often mistook her for Betty Grable.

R39, On this 1974 Dick Cavett Show appearance @ 6:50, Lucy names the deceased friends she misses the most and Betty Grable is the second name she mentions.

What about me, cunt?

Belle Starr

Fox did allow Betty to extend herself now and then - like I WAKE UP SCREAMING, a 1941 black-and-white film noir murder mystery, with noir favorites Laird Cregar and Elisha Cook, Jr.

R71, What am I, chopped liver?

R71, It’s odd to keep hearing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as background music in that movie.

R57, and the fake, icy, diamond hard Haver, whom Grable said came at you "with a Bible in one hand and a box of condoms in the other" was one of the few co-stars she didn't get along with.

Here's Grable after Dolly, after Belle Starr, as she was approaching the end. The choreographer really knew how to take care of her. She's doing a "Betty Grable number" but it's very easy, a lot of the steps are slow, and it has little rests and breaks in it where she can catch her breath, and she's never without support. Even in the one turn that isn't very fast, she can lean on the cane. She still sells it and looks great, even though it's not a shadow on what she was once able to do.

What happened to her children?

Remade as Vicki, r71...

R70, Music and lyrics by Steve Allen . . . Seriously?

Betty was a true dame . Kind and caring

Truly, r74. She really was just a song and dance girl at heart.

Here she is in a fast number from one of her later films, Call Me Mister. If she had cared a little more and done Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Guys and Dolls on film, as she was initially supposed to, perhaps she'd be better remembered...though one would hate to be without Marilyn's Lorelei.

20th Century was known to have the most dazzling eye popping technicolor and some genius who worked there in the 70s had the original camera negatives dumped in the ocean. That's why their blurays will never be as dazzling as they should be. The best are the Warner Archives although a number of those were destroyed in a fire including Singing I'm the Rain.

I've just watched Errol Flynn's The adventures of Don Juan twice. It's not one of his better films and it's not the kind of film I usually like however watching it in Technicolor is a joy.

My favorite Technicolor film is The Gang's All Here.

r71, and what am I, chopped prime beef?

Well, yes I am!

I wake up screaming...

Zanuck's the one who put the kibosh on buying or lending Grable to playing Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls."

That was an incomprehensible gesture on Zanuck's part as Grable was at the end of her film career by then and little use to him. Playing Adelaide just might have revitalized her career (though I doubt it, as film musicals of her genre were pretty dead). But still, Zanuck was a selfish bastard.

R85, The high point of Zanuck’s day was his daily afternoon blow job, administered in his office by whatever starlet was available.

It didn't really do anything for Blaine's career, r85, did it?

I don’t know why Blaine fizzled out at Fox, she was a much better performer than June Haver who came up around the same time. Maybe June gave better head to Mr Z

I know Blaine won all the awards as Adelaide on Broadway, but her film performance is almost Kabuki like in it's breadth and broadness. It's incomprehensible that a stud like Sinatra (even in a primarily comic supporting role) would really go for her. Did Sinatra ever choose to work with Blaine again?

Grable did play Adelaide onstage later on, opposite...Dan Dailey, in 1962.

Guys and Dolls is mostly a mess. In the end, Betty left films at the right time.

That entire film of GUYS & DOLLS is rather Kabuki-like.

Alice Faye had been the Queen of the Fox lot for years. She was tired of song and dance and period costumes so she stretched to do Preminger’s noir Fallen Angel. She was so irritated by how Preminger and Zanuck cut the film to feature more of Linda Darnell that she quit. She wouldn’t make another movie until middle age mom roles (like in the early 60s version of State Fair).

I only came to appreciate Alice Faye in my eldergay years. I think she has a phenomenally effortless and charismatic presence in her 1930s films with Tyrone Power, even in the non-musical films like In Old Chicago. Great warmth and sensuality. And I adore her singing voice, her rendition of "You'll Never Know" is right up there with Judy Garland's ballads and certainly anything Betty Grable ever recorded. Whatever the cause, I admire her decision to retire from films when she knew she'd had enough.

R93 Yes. I used to watch her movies when I was 11, 12, 13 and off from school for the summer and one of the local stations had morning movie themed weeks. They seemed to have the entire 20th Century Fox mid to late 1930s collection.

Faye was appealing to both women and men. She was warm and maternal enough for children and women but sultry enough for men. My father was born in 1931 and loved Alice Faye. The perfect age to appreciate her movies.

She is an excellent singer and one cannot discount the synergy between film studios and their radio holdings during that era. Faye’s renditions of standards got an enormous amount of radio play.

It’s hard for contemporary audiences to imagine, but that style of music (American Popular Music) was the dominant pop music of its time. Many a standard was introduced in films of the era.

It seems both Alice and Betty had the common sense to not fight the uphill battle of keeping a movie career going in middle age. And just appear on stage or TV when they felt like it.

Didn't Alice and Betty have successful happy marriages with young children when they both quit movies? That must have helped. Though I guess Betty and Harry James didn't last as long as Alice and Phil Harris.

Alice sure traded downwards, looks-wise, when she went from young Tony Martin to Phil Harris.

R96, The James-Grable marriage was far from happy. Harry James was an alcoholic, a womanizer and reportedly physically abusive.

After their divorce in 1965, Betty took up with Bob Remick, 27 years her junior, and they remained together until her death in 1973.

Betty Grable presenting at the 1972 Academy Awards, one year before she died.

Some of the prints that Fox is putting out for their 1930s and 40s films these days have a worse picture quality (brownish and muddy) than the versions I was watching on Australian cable TV in the 90s and 00s. I would love to know the story of the stunning Down Argentine Way blu-ray, it certainly must have come from a different archive than the rest of them.

Hello Dolly Sisters

Was The Dolly Sisters originally conceived to be a project for Alice Faye and Betty Grable before Faye walked out of Fox? Seems odd that Fox (and Betty!) would have considered costarring Grable with a nobody like Haver.

I got the domestic bluray of The Gang's All Here. It's ok. But somebody said the European bluray was better so I got that one too. And it is better. It's on another label. Maybe EUREKA? I'm not crazy about the ending The Polka Dot Ballet. It's too bizarre for me but up until then the movie is fabulous. The opening is Berkely at his best.

I LOVE the Polka Dot Polka, r103. It's so *moderne*. The neon hula hoops and the pink and green Necco wafers.

He wants to play...

I bet very few in the younger generation know about Charlotte Greenwood and her famous kicks! Too bad the old films are slowly being forgotten (except by us on DL, of course).

Dolly Sisters *did* have this little number...

R104 the Polka Dot ballet is one of the highlights of cinema history as far as I’m concerned!

Well I find it very strange with Faye in that tin foil thing and all the stars faces singing in bubbles. A surprising low for Berkeley when the rest of the numbers are so terrific. That opening is sensational.

Yes The good bluray of The Gang's All Here is on Eureka from Amazon UK. I didn't realize I spent $50 for it. But if you love the film... The domestic version is on Twilight Time.

Love Charlotte Greenwood's high kicks, now I know who inspired Sally O' Malley!

Charlotte...

Charlotte...

R63, what was w the Li’l Abner staging of Hello Dolly?

[quote]what was w the Li’l Abner staging of Hello Dolly?

The Chinese staging had already been done.

Betty lives!

At least on the DL for now

R115 much of that was offensive enough then, but Jeezus—mission not accomplished. She’s be rolling in her grave about herself…

Jayne was born in China, r117.

No shit Sherlock, I’m not deaf. But you are clearly tone deaf to my comment. Grow up.

[quote]Grow up.

You're the one being snitty over nothing, r119.

No I’m pointing that the video clip was offensive in 1968 and ever more offensive today. Go defend your bigotry somewhere else…ass.

Where is that curious clip of Betty on What's My Line?

[quote] Are there no indigenous people of Argentina whose ancestors were there before the European invasion? Are they called something other than Argentinians? Do they have their own extant language?

Yes, there are. They are called Argentines but they also acknowledge the individual groups or peoples they came from, more and more these days than in the past. Argentina has a bloody history with people of color, there were attempts to exterminate the natives in the 1800's by the government's campaigns in an order to whiten the population. The descendants of Black slaves were sent off to wars and their population was substantially reduced as well, and the remaining Blacks were encouraged to mix with Whites in order to, again, whiten the population.

But if you were to stand in the middle of Buenos Aires and look around, you'd see mostly White people, all descendants of Italians, Spaniards and Eastern Europeans who arrived in the early 20th Century.

Moon Over Miami

R118 Lest we forget that Victor Borge was virulently anti-Nazi.

Do you have a problem with that R117?! Why are you so selective in your bigotry??

What are you on?…put down the pipe ^^

When I started watching Fox/Grable musicals last winter, I just assumed stars like Grable, Ameche, and Payne were dubbed, like other studios' stars, but they had pleasant voices. Here's Betty and Don, from the title "Down Argentine Way" musical number... For more check out my review, at the top of this thread...

What's My Line?

An Alice line from Gang's All Here:

"Make like Don Ameche and call me a cab."

Rick R127. Already posted more than once ^^^

The 1960s were not kind to Betty. She looks so horribly severe on that WML clip. She looks so much prettier and softer on the 1972 Oscar clip upthread.

I really like Betty in How To Marry A Millionaire. She’s not just “playing Betty Grable” but playing a character, and she’s funny. I first saw the movie on TV as a kid (not letterboxed). When you could figure out what was happening onscreen, in the full screen local TV presentation (not panned or scanned) I was interested in Marilyn, and Bacall. But the more I see the movie the more I see how good Grable was.

Agreed, r132! Betty rarely got to work with material as good as HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. That film holds up really well in every way.

That Betty? Or the other Betty?

R133 And I thought she looked slightly older than the other two, but she was actually 10 years older than Marilyn and 8 years older than Lauren Bacall. Back in the day we really didn’t have access to this kind of info and I never knew this until recently.

R135 was the slow kid back then …of course people knew

R136 I don’t know who “people” were. I saw the movie originally when I was 13 or 14, in the early‘70s. I meant that kids such as myself watching an old movie couldn’t look up the ages of the actors on the internet. How was I supposed to know Betty Grable’s age? Go to the library? I wasn’t that interested.

Why...just out of curiosity, does Millionaire have an overture?

Then why bring it up now…50 years later? Your posts are scattershot. Ever hear of TV Guide? Or the Almanac? Or a Funk & Wagnalls? Or a Time-Life magazine?

Does it surprise anyone else that How to Marry a Millionaire has never been made into a Broadway musical? I mean, thank god, it hasn't. But, still......

It was a TV show...

I see she has moles on the left side of her face on WML? Were these covered up for her Fox movies?

I loved the TV show which seemed to be in perpetual reruns when I was a kid. I was too young to see it in its original evening run, which I think was just one season. I guess it was just a few years after the film premiered.

The characters were somewhat different though as Merry Anders played Mike (hmmmmm), Lori Anders played Greta and Barbara Eden played Loco, which was Betty's movie character name but Eden's character was a dizzy blonde in need of eyeglasses much like MM's movie character Pola.

Eden obviously went onto greater fame but I don't think the other 2 actresses were ever heard of again.

Was she related to Peggy Gravel?

Just watched r141's link to be reminded that the TV series took place in Hollywood rather than the NYC setting of the film, which I'd completely forgotten. And it was Lori Nelson, not Anders, as Greta. She was the prettiest of the 3 of them.

R139 I just made a post saying I didn’t know Betty’s age in the movie until recently and I thought she looked younger. It’s not deep. You’ve now attacked me twice for no reason. I didn’t realize TV Guide published actresses’ ages. Must have missed that issue. I wasn’t studying the film, just watching it for pleasure. Oh, and so sorry by posts are scattershot. I hope you don’t fail me this semester!

*my posts

Too bad Betty Bacall didn't remake HER OWN movie into a Broadway musical. It would have been the HIGH POINT of her career!

You can see a very young pretty Betty as one of three back up singers to Ginger Rogers in Let Yourself Go in Follow the Fleet.

Nothing happening in Hollywood she went to Broadway making a hit in DuBarry was a Lady with Cole Porter's Give Him the Oo La La. I'll give you one guess who took the number from her. Blossom Dearie has a good version of it if you don't know this delightful song.

Betty Grable has her own number in FOLLOW THE FLEET (well, with Edward Everett Horton), "Let's K-Nock K-Nees" It's cute!

I forgot! You're right. Haven't seen the whole film in a while. I think that's the one where Harriet Nelson weighs the whole thing down. It ends with what I sometimes think is the best Fred and Ginger number Let's Face the Music. That exit is sensational.

Is that number the one with Ginger's bat sleeves that keep slapping Fred?

Ironic that Betty Grable caught Zanuck's eye in "Helen Lawson's" vehicle, baby, DuBarry Was a Lady. Betty quickly went on to become Fox's top female star, where "Hell" was given two chances at movie stardom, and failed to win moviegoers over...

*

I can only tolerate her in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE.

R133, “Where is Maine anyway?”

[quote] Why...just out of curiosity, does Millionaire have an overture?

Because it was the first film shot in CinemaScope with 4-channel surround sound and Fox wanted to demonstrate the "wonder" of stereophonic sound before the film started, probably because the rest of the film didn't lend itself to showcasing multichannel sound.

However, The Robe (the second movie to be shot in CinemaScope) was released first.

R157, Actors, particularly stage actors, liked filming in CinemaScope because scenes were played longer.

They tried to get the 1953 version of TITANIC filmed in CinemaScope but they were on a tight schedule and budget. It would have been better than it was.

I imagine there were some actors who were terrified of playing longer scenes.

R157 Same reason there’s a title song by Frank Sinatra showcasing the fountains of Rome before the opening credits of Three Coins In The Fountain, I guess. Just showcasing CinemaScope, “The wonder you see without glasses” and stereophonic sound.

Interestingly, VistaVision (which in a lot of ways was better than CinemaScope, being much sharper, and not only wider but higher) did not use stereophonic sound.

*Wider than standard film, not CinemaScope. But it was projected as wide as CinemaScope only higher, too. All of it lost on TV, of course.

SS

R159 Interesting, since they didn’t even end up making it in color, never mind CinemaScope.

By the way there is a CinemaScope version of Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, with Marilyn Monroe, from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (which was not shot in CinemaScope). It was done as a demonstration but was never seen until it was included in the documentary, Marilyn, released by Fox after MM’s death and hosted/narrated by Rock Hudson. The documentary used to air on TV (in the days before letterboxing). Haven’t seen it for many years.

I pointed out that Ethel took one of her songs in DuBarry. I guess she didn't want to appear greed.

Somebody said Betty took over from Martha Raye on Broadway in Dolly but I thought she took over from Rogers.

R166 . . .

“Martha Raye followed Ginger Rogers in the original Broadway run of Hello, Dolly! Martha Raye was the 3rd Broadway Dolly opening on February 27th, 1967 following Ginger Rogers. Her run lasted until June of that year. Raye lent her charm to become one of the funniest of the Broadway Dolly's.“

[quote] *Wider than standard film, not CinemaScope. But it was projected as wide as CinemaScope only higher, too. All of it lost on TV, of course.

Had it been projected as wide as Cinemascope 1/3 of the image would have been outside the CinemaScope screen. Vistavision was made to fit inside the scope screen in projection usually at a 1.85:1 AR. It was sharper that CinemaScope and just as high but not as wide.

Yes VistaVision when it was printed down to 35mm was meant to fit inside the CinemaScope screen but when originally shown in 55mm in certain venues the screen was enlarged to accommodate a taller as well as wider image.

I'm changing my name to Vista Vision.

Vistavision was never shown in 55mm. You may be confusing it with C'scope 55. VV was shown in horizontal 35mm prints and only 4 or 5 times, then most prints were 35mm reductions. The idea of VV was its sharpness, not its size.

I'll take size over sharpness, r171.

How long was Betty's Broadway run in Hello Dolly? Did she also tour with it? I would imagine she would have brought in millions at the box office on tour.

Dolores Gray must have been pissed that MGM gave Janis Paige (who I love!) that role in SILK STOCKINGS, a Dolores role (and song) if ever there was one and she was even under contract to the studio at the time. I wonder if Fred nixed her?

R173, Jerry Herman said that Betty Grable was the most disappointing of all the women who played Dolly on Broadway, in his opinion.

2 things to say about that wonderful Stereophonic Sound number at r163:

Even with all the acrobatic full-body dancing and complicated lip-synching, it's shot in just 4 or 5 shots. Awesome! To think there was a time in movie musicals when the least number of shots was considered admirable.

And that young blond pompadoured exec (or is he supposed to be a reporter?) at the top of the number was hot! Who's boyfriend was he?

That was when movie actors were triple threats. Today you only find that in the theater. Film actors rely on film editing and stunt dancers to make them look like they can do it.

Grable was relatively young when she died…smoking.

R178, did she fall asleep while smoking and it burned her house down?

No, that was Linda Darnell

This is Betty the night of the 1972 Oscars with Bob Remick, the younger guy she was living with the last years of her life.

R179, No, that was Jack Cassidy.

What is Janis 104? I hope her mind is still all there. Surprised she never wrote a book. Never a bitter thought towards Day she claims. Thought she was wonderful.

R183, Janis turns 101 on September 16th.

During the whole "Me Too" era, Janis claimed she was writing a memoir, and said that she was raped by Alfred Bloomingdale as a young starlet.

BTW, I like that picture of Betty at the Oscars. All things considered, Grable looks pretty good.

That ain’t Cassidy in the picture^

R186, Betty received her cancer diagnosis shortly after that evening in 1972.

Bob Remick resembled Bob Fosse.

Betty actually looks much prettier and softer in color than in b&w at the 1972 Oscar clip at r99, not unlike her 1940s films. She was made for Technicolor (or whatever they called it at Fox).

'72

Janis Paige did write a book recently, a self published large format memoir called Reading Between the Lines. While some of it is interesting, it also reveals her to be deeply conservative about present day political matters.

I think Janis Paige was more the "Peggy Dayton" type than Dolores Gray (Peggy was supposed to be a not very bright swimming star). Also she was shorter than Fred Astaire (at least barefoot), while I think Gray was taller than him (and definitely taller in heels).

Janis/Charity

Janis is conservative. She is a Trump supporter. She is also 98 and a brilliant comedienne, so cut her a fucking break.

She's 100 R194 and she was 44 when she played Charity R193

I've seen Janis lately on Freevee in some All In The Family episodes where she plays the waitress Archie nearly has an affair with. They brought her back for another episode later when he bought a bar.

Does Janis write much about Doris Day in her autobiography?

7 and 3/4 pages

Sorry r194 but this is something that I can’t give someone a pass on.

You are a pillar of virtue, R199! We all admire you so much and know you will be remembered as being on the right side of history...

I couldn't care less what political boxes some ancient star checks.

According to IMDB, Grable was a conservative Republican - doesn't bother me.

She also was a fun broad who loved to hang out with her gay chorus boys. At Film Forum some years ago Marge Champion related that Grable's scenes in her last last big musical "Three For the Show" (at Columbia!) had to be done in the morning as her lunchtimes were spent getting sloshed with Jack Cole and his favorite studs in her dressing room. And Chuck Walters in his biography said he had the most fun in his life taking Betty to all the nightclubs and bars "In the village:" when they were on Broadway in 'DuBarry Was a Lady".

And Jerry Herman may not have cared for Betty's HELLO, DOLLY! but to the cast, she was probably the most-beloved star who played the role:

"Grable loved to be active. When they were in Chicago, every Thursday night, a group of them along with Betty would go to a bowling alley after the show. She loved it! One night, word got around that the little blonde lady was indeed, Betty Grable .

An older guy who had had too many drinks, hollered at her every time she got up to bowl. “Hey, Betty. Show us your legs.” It went on and on.

Finally, the guy who played Rudolph in the show went to her and said, “Betty, should we go to the manager and ask this guy to stop?” She said, “Are you kiddin? Spoil his night out? Every Thursday night he comes and has a few too many drinks and hollers at some old broad. Leave him alone.”

Then there was the story about how Betty went to the doctor’s office because her nether regions were itching and smelled bad. Turned out she had a condom up in there from a one night stand several days before.

r203: That was supposedly left by Ty Power while they were filming A YANK IN THE R.A.F.

I’m surprised that it didn’t come out of her ass then r204 😬