1916-1973
Born Elizabeth Ruth Grable in Saint Louis, Missouri; she was pressured by an over-bearing to become a performer. She was entered into dance school at the very young age of 3 and taken, by her mother, to Hollywood when she was 12 or 13. Her mother lied about her age, thus getting her bit parts in movies in the 1930's. She made 1 full sound talkie in 1929, a musical entitled Happy Days, as a chorus girl. The sound was by MovieTone. Despite being a very talented singer, and actress, she evidently suffered from a phobic fear of crowds; which must have terrorized her when her mother enrolled her in multiple beauty contests and pressured her to become a model. Though the modeling experience did pay off, as she was able to fall back on it in WWII as photos of her "million dollar legs" provided titillation and comfort for soldiers. And she was able to provide entertainment by actually making a film about being a USO hostess called Pin Up Girl, thus avoiding actually facing throngs of actual soldiers as a real USO hostess. She passed away passed away on the 2nd of July 1973 of lung cancer at the young age of 56. She is entombed in Inglewood Park Cemetery....with her mother, under the name Betty Grable James.
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