Betty Hutton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Betty Hutton
Hutton c. 1945
Born
Elizabeth June Thornburg

(1921-02-26)February 26, 1921
DiedMarch 12, 2007(2007-03-12) (aged 86)
Resting placeDesert Memorial Park
Alma materSalve Regina University
Years active1938–1983
Spouses
Ted Briskin
(m. 1945; div. 1951)
Charles O'Curran
(m. 1952; div. 1955)
(m. 1955; div. 1960)
(m. 1960; div. 1967)
Children3
RelativesMarion Hutton (sister)

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007)[a] was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals, and became one of the studio's most valuable stars of that decade.[1] She was noted for her energetic and sometimes manic performance style.[1]

Raised in Detroit during the Great Depression by a single mother who worked as a bootlegger, Hutton began performing as a singer from a young age, entertaining patrons of her mother's speakeasy. While performing in local nightclubs, she was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who hired her as a singer in his band.

In 1940, Hutton was cast in the Broadway productions Two for the Show and Panama Hattie, and attracted notice for her raucous and animated live performances. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1941 after being signed by Paramount Pictures, and concurrently recorded numerous singles for Capitol Records. Her breakthrough role came in Preston Sturges's The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), and she went on to receive further notice for her lead role as Annie Oakley in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950), and for Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). She made her final feature film appearance in Spring Reunion (1957).

After leaving Paramount, Hutton starred in her own series, The Betty Hutton Show, from 1959 until 1960. She continued to perform in stage productions, though her career faltered following a series of personal struggles, including chronic depression, alcoholism, and prescription drug addiction. Hutton largely abandoned her performing career by the 1970s, and found employment in a Rhode Island rectory after becoming nearly destitute. She returned to the stage temporarily replacing Alice Ghostley in the original Broadway production of Annie in 1980.

In her later life, Hutton attended Salve Regina University, where she earned a master's degree in psychology in 1986. After working as an acting instructor at Emerson College, Hutton returned to California in 1999 and resided in Palm Springs, where she died in 2007, aged 86.

Early life[edit]

Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Michigan, the youngest of two daughters of Percy Thornburg, a railroad brakeman, and Mabel Thornburg (née Lum).[1][2] When she was two years old, her father abandoned the family.[1] They did not hear of him again until they received a telegram years later, informing them of his suicide.[3] Betty and her older sister, Marion, were raised by their single mother, who was an alcoholic.[4]

Hutton's formative years during the Great Depression were marked by poverty, with Hutton's mother supporting herself and her two children by working as an automobile upholsterer and running an illegal speakeasy out of her home in Lansing, Michigan.[4] There, Hutton and her sister regularly performed songs to entertain customers of the speakeasy.[4]

Due to her mother's bootlegging of alcohol during prohibition, the family relocated frequently to evade police, eventually settling in Detroit when she was eight years old.[4] Recalling her childhood, Hutton said: "Mom just ran a joint on a small scale. We'd operate until the cops got wise. Then they'd move in and close us down, and we'd move somewhere else. Marion and I would entertain the customers by dancing and singing. We really lived that way until we were 12 and 14 years old...  Things were really tough. At one time we were down to one can of beans."[4]

Hutton attended Foch Intermediate School in Detroit[5] before dropping out in ninth grade. She sang in several local bands as a teenager, and at 15 attempted to find stage work in New York City; her efforts proved unsuccessful, after which she returned to Detroit.[4]

Career[edit]

1938–1940: Music and Broadway[edit]

In 1938, Hutton was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez while she was performing as a singer in local Detroit nightclubs.[4] Lopez recruited her as a member in his band, and she began touring with them as a singer, billed as Betty Jane.[4] During her tenure with the band, Hutton established a distinctive "whoop and holler" vocal style.[1] Lopez, an adherent of numerology, used his numerology practice to rebrand her with the stage name Betty Hutton: "I tried to get a vibration that would make her a lot of money. It was a five-eight vibration. After that she did fine."[4] Through her work with Lopez, Hutton was hired to appear in several musical shorts for Warner Bros.: Queens of the Air (1938), Three Kings and a Queen (1939), Public Jitterbug No. 1 (1939), and One for the Book (1940).

In 1940, Hutton was cast in the Broadway production Two for the Show, which ran for 124 performances and received rave reviews.[4][6] Hutton soon became known for her raucous performances onstage, summarized in a 1950 Time magazine article:

During the show's run, hardworking, hard-cussing actress Hutton spared her fellow performers no more than she spared herself. She thrashed about so violently that once she catapulted off the stage and onto a drummer in the orchestra pit. In a number that required her to maul Keenan Wynn, she once toed him into a dead faint, forced him to take to protective padding. Among her later victims: Bob Hope, whose teeth caps she sent scattering over a soundstage floor during a bit of jujitsu; Cinemactor Frank Faylen, whom she knocked out with a right to the jaw when the director demanded realism; Eddie Bracken, who, in a saloon scene, caught a Hutton slap on the back that looped him over the bar and into a heap on the other side. "When they work with me," crows Betty, "they gotta get insurance policies."[4]

Two for the Show was produced by Buddy DeSylva, who then cast Hutton in Panama Hattie (1940–1942). This was a major hit, running for 501 performances.[7] It starred Ethel Merman; despite rumors through the years that Merman demanded from envy that Hutton's musical numbers be reduced from the show, more careful reports demonstrate that producer DeSylva chose to cut just one song of three, "They Ain't Done Right by Our Nell", due to Hutton's "always in overdrive" performance style.[8]

1941–1949: Paramount contract and breakthrough[edit]

When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Pictures, he offered Hutton a contract with the studio, and she relocated to Los Angeles.[4] She was first cast in a featured role in The Fleet's In (1942), starring Paramount's number-one female star Dorothy Lamour, alongside Eddie Bracken and William Holden.[4] The film was popular and Hutton was an instant hit with the moviegoing public.[9]

Hutton was one of the many Paramount contract artists who appeared in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). The same year, she was signed to the newly-formed Capitol Records and recorded a number of singles over the following several years, marking one of the label's earliest recording artists.[10] Meanwhile, Paramount did not immediately promote her to major stardom, but gave the second lead in a Mary Martin film musical, Happy Go Lucky (1943). The response was positive, and Hutton was given co-star billing with Bob Hope in Let's Face It (1943). During that year, she made $1250 per week.[11]

With American sailors and marines in the Marshall Islands, December 1944

In 1942, writer-director Preston Sturges cast Hutton in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as a dopey but endearing small-town girl who gives local troops a happy send-off and wakes up married and pregnant, but with no memory of who her husband is. The film was delayed by Hays Office objections and Sturges' prolific output, and was finally released early in 1944. The film made Hutton a major star; Sturges was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar, the film was named to the National Film Board's Top Ten films for the year, and the National Board of Review nominated the film for Best Picture of 1944, and awarded Betty Hutton the award for Best Acting for her performance. The New York Times named it as one of the 10 Best Films of 1942–1944.

Critic James Agee noted that "the Hays office must have been raped in its sleep"[12] to allow the film to be released. And although the Hays Office received many letters of protest because of the film's subject matter, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1944, playing to standing room-only audiences in some theatres.

She was next cast in Paramount's And the Angels Sing (1944) with Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour, and Here Come the Waves (1944) with Bing Crosby. Both were huge hits.

DeSylva, one of Capitol's founders, also co-produced her next hit, the musical Incendiary Blonde (1945), where she played Texas Guinan. It was directed by veteran comedy director George Marshall and Hutton had replaced Lamour as Paramount's top female box-office attraction.

Hutton was one of many Paramount stars in Duffy's Tavern (1945), and was top billed in The Stork Club (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald, produced by DeSylva.

Hutton went into Cross My Heart (1946) with Sonny Tufts, which she disliked. She did however enjoy the popular The Perils of Pauline (1947), directed by Marshall, where she sang a Frank Loesser song that was nominated for an Oscar: "I Wish I Didn't Love You So".[13] The recording sold over a million copies worldwide and reached number six in the U.S. charts.[14]

Hutton's relationship with Paramount began to disintegrate when DeSylva left the studio due to illness (he died in 1950). "After he left I started doing scripts that I knew weren't good for me."[15]

Hutton made Dream Girl (1948) with MacDonald Carey, which she later said, "almost ruined me."[15] She did Red, Hot and Blue (1949) with Victor Mature, which she also disliked.[15]

1950–1958: Annie Get Your Gun, film career decline[edit]

Trailer for Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Hutton's next screen triumph came in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which hired her to replace Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film, with the leading role retooled for Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Hutton.[citation needed] Next, she was billed above Fred Astaire in the 1950 musical Let's Dance.

Hutton in 1952

Hutton was one of several stars in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), an epic drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille about performers in a circus which won two Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Story.[16] Hutton portrayed a trapeze artist in the film, and trained extensively for the role for six months, allowing her to perform many of her own stunts.[16] She made an unbilled cameo in Sailor Beware (1952) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, a remake of The Fleet's In, in which she portrayed Dean's girlfriend, Hetty Button.

She made Somebody Loves Me (1952), a biography of singer Blossom Seeley, with Ralph Meeker.

Hutton then clashed with Paramount. The New York Times reported that the dispute resulted from her insistence that her husband at the time, choreographer Charles O'Curran, direct her in a film.[2]

In April 1952, Hutton returned to Broadway, performing in Betty Hutton and Her All-Star International Show.

In July 1952, she announced that her husband and she would form a production company.[17] She left Paramount in August.[15]

Hutton transitioned to radio work, and appeared in Las Vegas, where she had a great success performing in live theater productions.[18]

She had the rights to a screenplay about Sophie Tucker, but was unable to raise funds.[15]

In 1954, TV producer Max Liebman, of comedian Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, fashioned his first "Color Spectacular" as an original musical written especially for Hutton, Satins and Spurs.[19]

Hutton's last completed film was a small one, Spring Reunion (1957). It was a financial disappointment. She also became disillusioned with Capitol's management and moved to RCA Victor.

In 1957, she appeared on a Dinah Shore show on NBC that also featured Boris Karloff; the program has been preserved on a kinescope.

1959–1964: Television work[edit]

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz took a chance on Hutton in 1959, with their company Desilu Productions giving her a CBS sitcom, The Betty Hutton Show. Hutton hired the still-blacklisted and future film composer Jerry Fielding to direct her series.[20] They had met over the years in Las Vegas when he was blacklisted from TV and radio and could get no other work, and her Hollywood career was also fading. It was Fielding's first network job since losing his post as musical director of Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life in 1953 after hostile questioning by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. The Betty Hutton Show ended after 30 episodes.[21]

Hutton continued headlining in Las Vegas and touring across the country. She returned to Broadway briefly in 1964 when she temporarily replaced a hospitalized Carol Burnett in the show Fade Out – Fade In.[22]

She guest-starred on shows such as The Greatest Show on Earth, Burke's Law, and Gunsmoke.

1965–1979: Personal and financial struggles[edit]

By the early 1960s, Hutton's career had declined significantly, attributed to her chronic depression and addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.[23] Turner Classic Movies described her career downswing as "one of the grimmest declines in Hollywood history."[23] Following the 1962 death of her mother in a house fire,[24] and the collapse of her last marriage, Hutton's depression and substance abuse escalated.[25] She divorced her fourth husband, jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, when she discovered he had fallen in love with Edie Adams (who would become Candoli's second wife), and attempted suicide, causing her to lose custody of her youngest daughter, Carolyn, then sixteen years old.[26] She declared bankruptcy the same year.[27]

In 1967, she was signed to make a comeback starring in two low-budget Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began. After losing her singing voice in 1970, Hutton had a nervous breakdown and again attempted suicide. She regained control of her life through rehabilitation, and the mentorship of a Catholic priest, Father Peter Maguire. Hutton converted to Catholicism, and took a job as a cook and housekeeper[28] at a rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. She made national headlines when it was revealed she was practically penniless and working in a rectory. Speaking on her conversion to Catholicism, Hutton stated that she had been fascinated by the religion since childhood, though she was raised irreligious by her mother, who was an atheist.[29]

After an aborted comeback in 1974, she was hospitalized with emotional exhaustion.[30] Later that year, a well-publicized "Love-In for Betty Hutton" was held at New York City's Riverboat Restaurant, emceed by comedian Joey Adams, with several old Hollywood pals on hand. The event raised $10,000 for Hutton and gave her spirits a big boost, but steady work still eluded her.[citation needed]

Hutton appeared in an interview with Mike Douglas and made a brief guest appearance in 1975 on Baretta. In September 1978, Hutton was featured on The Phil Donahue Show, where she extensively discussed her life and career.[26] She was then happily employed as hostess at a Newport, Rhode Island, jai alai arena.[26]

She also appeared on Good Morning America, which led to a 1978 televised reunion with her two daughters. Hutton began living in a shared home with her divorced daughter and grandchildren in California, but returned to the East Coast for a three-week return to the stage.

1980–1983: Return to Broadway and academic endeavors[edit]

In 1980, she took over the role of Miss Hannigan during the original Broadway production of Annie while Alice Ghostley was on vacation. Ghostley replaced the original Miss Hannigan actress, Dorothy Loudon (who won a Tony Award for the role).[31]

Hutton's rehearsal of the song "Little Girls" was featured on Good Morning America. Hutton's Broadway comeback was also included in a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning about her life, her struggle with pills, and her recovery.[32]

A ninth-grade drop-out, Hutton went back to school and earned a master's degree in psychology from Salve Regina University in 1986.[33] During her time at university, Hutton became friends with fellow student and singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh, and attended several early concerts of Hersh's band, Throwing Muses.[34] Hersh later wrote the song "Elizabeth June" as a tribute to Hutton, and wrote about their relationship in further detail in her memoir, Rat Girl (2010).[35]

After completing her master's degree, Hutton worked as a drama instructor at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.[28]

Hutton's last known performance, in any medium, was on Jukebox Saturday Night, which aired on PBS in 1983.[citation needed] She became estranged again from her daughters.

Hutton's headstone with epitaph "Loved by All", Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California

Personal life[edit]

Marriages and children[edit]

Hutton was once engaged to the head of the Warner Bros. makeup department, makeup artist Perc Westmore, in 1942,[36] but broke off the engagement, saying it was because he bored her.[37]

Hutton's first marriage was to camera manufacturer Ted Briskin in September 1945.[4] The couple met in a nightclub and she described their meeting as "love at first sight."[4] The couple had two daughters, Lindsay (b. 1946) and Candice (b. 1948), before their marriage ended in divorce in 1951.[4][38]

Hutton's second marriage in 1952 was to choreographer Charles O'Curran.[2] They divorced in 1955.[38] He died in 1984.

She married husband Alan W. Livingston in 1955, weeks after her divorce from O'Curran. They divorced in 1960.[38]

Her fourth and final marriage in 1960 was to jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli. They divorced in 1967.[38] Hutton and Candoli had one child, Carolyn (b. 1962).

Final years and death[edit]

After the death of her mentor, Father Maguire, Hutton returned to California, moving to Palm Springs in 1999, after decades in New England. Hutton hoped to grow closer to her daughters and grandchildren, as she told Robert Osborne on TCM's Private Screenings in April 2000, though her children remained distant. She told Osborne that she understood their hesitancy to accept a now elderly mother. The TCM interview first aired on July 18, 2000. The program was rerun as a memorial on the evening of her death in 2007, and again on July 11, 2008, April 14, 2009, January 26, 2010, and as recently as March 18, 2017.[39] as part of TCM's memorial tribute for Robert Osborne.

Hutton lived in Palm Springs until her death March 12, 2007, at 86, from colon cancer complications.[2][40] She is buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.[41]

Legacy[edit]

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Betty Hutton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6259 Hollywood Boulevard.[42]

Hit songs[edit]

Introduced by Hutton in The Perils of Pauline (1947) and released on Capitol Records, "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song
Year Title Chart peak Catalog number Notes
1939 "Old Man Mose" with Vincent Lopez Orchestra
"Igloo" 15 Bluebird 10300 with Vincent Lopez Orchestra
"The Jitterbug" Bluebird 10367 with Vincent Lopez Orchestra
1942 "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry"
"I'm Doin' It For Defense"
1943 "Murder, He Says"
"The Fuddy Duddy Watchmaker"
1944 "Bluebirds in my Belfry"
"It Had To Be You" 5 Capitol 155 with Paul Weston Orchestra
"His Rocking Horse Ran Away" 7 Capitol 155 with Paul Weston Orchestra
1945 "Stuff Like That There" 4 Capitol 188 with Paul Weston Orchestra
"What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" 15 Capitol 211 with Paul Weston Orchestra
"(Doin' It) The Hard Way" Capitol 211 with Paul Weston Orchestra
"Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" 1 Capitol 220 with Paul Weston Orchestra
"A Square in the Social Circle" Capitol 220 with Paul Weston Orchestra
1946 "My Fickle Eye" 21 RCA Victor 20-1915 with Joe Lilley Orchestra
1947 "Poppa, Don't Preach To Me" Capitol 380 with Joe Lilley Orchestra
"I Wish I Didn't Love You So" 5 Capitol 409 with Joe Lilley Orchestra
1949 "(Where Are You?) Now That I Need You" Capitol 620 with Joe Lilley Orchestra
1950 "Orange Colored Sky" 24 RCA Victor 20-3908 with Pete Rugolo Orchestra
"Can't Stop Talking" RCA Victor 20-3908 with Pete Rugolo Orchestra
"A Bushel and a Peck" (duet with Perry Como) 3 RCA Victor 20-3930 with Mitchell Ayres Orchestra
1951 "It's Oh So Quiet"[43] RCA Victor 20-4179 with Pete Rugolo Orchestra
"The Musicians" (with Dinah Shore, Tony Martin and Phil Harris) 24 RCA Victor 20-4225 with Henri René Orchestra
1953 "Goin' Steady" 21 Capitol 2522 with Nelson Riddle Orchestra
1954 "The Honeymoon's Over" (duet with Tennessee Ernie Ford) 16 Capitol 2809 with Billy May Orchestra
1956 "Hit the Road to Dreamland" Capitol 3383 with Vic Schoen Orchestra

Filmography[edit]

Motion pictures
Year Title Role Notes
1938 Queens of the Air Herself film short
1939 Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra Herself film short
Three Kings and a Queen Herself film short
Public Jitterbug No. 1 Herself film short
1940 One for the Book Cinderella film short
1942 The Fleet's In Bessie Day
Star Spangled Rhythm Polly Judson
1943 Happy Go Lucky Bubbles Hennessy
Let's Face It Winnie Porter
Strictly G.I. Herself film short
1944 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Trudy Kockenlocker
And the Angels Sing Bobby Angel
Skirmish on the Home Front Emily Average film short
Here Come the Waves Susan Allison / Rosemary Allison
1945 Incendiary Blonde Texas Guinan
Duffy's Tavern Herself cameo
Hollywood Victory Caravan Herself film short
The Stork Club Judy Peabody
1946 Cross My Heart Peggy Harper
1947 The Perils of Pauline Pearl White
1948 Dream Girl Georgina Allerton
1949 Red, Hot and Blue Eleanor "Yum-Yum" Collier
1950 Annie Get Your Gun Annie Oakley
Let's Dance Kitty McNeil
1952 The Greatest Show on Earth Holly
Sailor Beware Hetty Button cameo, Uncredited
Somebody Loves Me Blossom Seeley
1957 Spring Reunion Margaret "Maggie" Brewster
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1954 Satins and Spurs Cindy Smathers TV musical
1958 That's My Mom 1 episode (unaired pilot)
1959–1960 The Betty Hutton Show Goldie Appleby 30 episodes
1964 The Greatest Show on Earth Julia Dana 1 episode
1964–1965 Burke's Law Carlene Glory
Rena Zito
2 episodes
1965 Gunsmoke Molly McConnell 1 episode
1977 Baretta Velma 1 episode (final appearance)

Box-office ranking[edit]

For several years, film exhibitors voted Hutton among the leading stars in the country:

  • 1944 – 25th (US)[44]
  • 1950 – 15th (US)
  • 1951 – 9th (UK)
  • 1952 – 14th (US),[45] 3rd (UK)

Stage work[edit]

Radio appearances[edit]

Year Program Episode/source
April 12, 1942 Command Performance with Gene Tierney - first show from Hollywood
June 2, 1942 Command Performance with Mickey Rooney
February 6, 1943 Command Performance with Rita Hayworth
October 2, 1943 Command Performance with Don Ameche
November 13, 1943 Command Performance with Bob Hope
May 29, 1948 Command Performance with Bob Hope - sixth-anniversary special
February 6, 1950 Lux Radio Theatre "Red, Hot And Blue"
1952 Stars in the Air "Suddenly, It's Spring"[46]
April 27, 1953 Lux Radio Theatre "Somebody Loves Me"

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Category Film Result
1944 Golden Apple Awards Most Cooperative Actress Won
National Board of Review Awards Best Acting The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Won
1950 Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Annie Get Your Gun Nominated
Photoplay Awards Most Popular Female Star Won

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Information about the date of Hutton's death has conflicts.
    • Her gravestone says March 12, which is also given in the Social Security Death Index and in a list provided by the cemetery.
    • The New York Times obituary, published on March 14 (Wednesday), says she died "Sunday night", which was March 11.
    • The AP obituary does not have a clear death date: "The death was confirmed Monday by a friend of Hutton, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, citing her wishes that her death be announced at a specified time by the executor of her estate, Carl Bruno."
    • The Guardian obituary was first published with March 12 as the death date, which was then changed to the 11th a week later, per the note at the bottom.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Hutton, Betty 1921–2007". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Severo, Richard (March 14, 2007). "Betty Hutton, Film Star of '40s and '50s, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012.
  3. ^ Legacy Staff (March 11, 2012). "Betty Hutton: Incendiary Blonde". Legacy.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Cinema: This Side of Happiness". Time. April 24, 1950. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. (Note: Toggle through numbered subpages for full source.)
  5. ^ "Betty Hutton Estate". Bettyhuttonestate.com. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  6. ^ "Two for the Show (Broadway, Booth Theatre, 1940)". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  7. ^ "Panama Hattie (Broadway, Richard Rogers Theatre, 1940)". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  8. ^ Kellow, Brian (2007). Ethel Merman: A Life. New York City, New York: Viking. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-670-01829-1.
  9. ^ "Variety (January 1943)". New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company. October 24, 1943 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Bergan, Ronald (March 14, 2007). "Betty Hutton". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  11. ^ "Hollywood Fights Its Slowdown: Wage-ceiling starlets will solve the shortage of stars". Click: The National Picture Monthly (March 1943): 17.
  12. ^ Donnelly, Elisabeth (July 21, 2009). "The Reelist: Virgins on Film". Tribeca Film. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018.
  13. ^ "Variety (January 1948)". New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company. October 24, 1948 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  15. ^ a b c d e Thomas, Bob (August 7, 1952). "Betty Hutton, Husband Form Own Company". The Washington Post: 22.
  16. ^ a b "'The Greatest Show On Earth' is Cecil B. DeMille's best: 1952 review". New York Daily News. February 17, 2015. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  17. ^ "Betty Hutton to Produce Films, Appear on TV". Los Angeles Times. (July 18, 1952): 20.
  18. ^ Schallert, Edwin (October 14, 1954). "Betty Hutton Terrific in 'Final' Appearance". Los Angeles Times: A12.
  19. ^ Television in Review: Betty Hutton: N. B. C. Stages First of Color 'Spectaculars' ' Satins and Spurs' Has Some Lusty Hoofing V. A. The New York Times. September 13, 1954: 31.
  20. ^ Billboard Oct 26, 1959 p. 52
  21. ^ Korman, Seymour (September 26, 1959). "Betty Hutton Turns to 'Goldie'". Chicago Daily Tribune: a5.
  22. ^ "Fade Out – Fade In replacement cast members at IBDB". Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  23. ^ a b "Betty Hutton Biography". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022.
  24. ^ Estate, Betty Hutton. "Betty Hutton Estate". Betty Hutton Estate. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  25. ^ "Obituary: Betty Hutton". New Zealand Herald. March 16, 2007. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023.
  26. ^ a b c "Betty Hutton". The Phil Donahue Show. September 20, 1978. Multimedia Entertainment.
  27. ^ "Landlords Sue Betty Hutton". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. March 10, 1967: B8.
  28. ^ a b Schwartz, Lloyd (March 16, 2007). "Betty Hutton's Life Filled with Drama". NPR. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023.
  29. ^ At Home with Betty Hutton: Part 1. The Mike Douglas Show. 1977. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved April 12, 2023 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  30. ^ "Betty Hutton Put in Mental Hospital". Los Angeles Times. December 14, 1974: 5.
  31. ^ "Annie replacement cast members at IBDB". Archived from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
  32. ^ Betty Hutton: A Trouper's Torment: The Showbiz Fires Are Banked, But the Flame of Hope Burns High A Trouper's Torments By Paul Hendrickson. The Washington Post 10 Feb 1979: C1.
  33. ^ Salve Regina College (May 18, 1986). "Salve Regina College Thirty-Sixth Annual Commencement program, 1986". Salve Regina University Commencement Programs.
  34. ^ Hersh, Kristin (September 27, 2007). "Beautiful Old Betty". Powell's Books. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013 – via KristinHersh.com.
  35. ^ Sheffield, Rob (October 8, 2010). "Book Review - Rat Girl - By Kristin Hersh". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 3, 2011.
  36. ^ "Perc Westmore to Wed Again". St. Petersburg Times. November 5, 1942. Retrieved July 24, 2016 – via Google News Archive.
  37. ^ "The Milwaukee Journal". Retrieved July 24, 2016 – via Google News Archive.[dead link]
  38. ^ a b c d "Betty Hutton Remembered". Streamline: The Filmstruck Blog. 19 March 2007. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  39. ^ Robert Osborne interview on TCM on YouTube, video, 60 minutes
  40. ^ "Actress And Singer Betty Hutton Dead". CBS News.
  41. ^ "Palm Springs Cemetery District "Interment Information"" (PDF).
  42. ^ "Betty Hutton - Hollywood Walk of Fame". Walkoffame.com. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  43. ^ "Advance Record Releases". The Billboard: 30. July 7, 1951. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  44. ^ "Bing Crosby America's Screen Favourite". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 24 March 1945. p. 8 Supplement: The Argus Week-end Magazine. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  45. ^ "Box Office Draw". The Barrier Miner. Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 29 December 1952. p. 3. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  46. ^ Kirby, Walter (February 17, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40. Retrieved June 1, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon

Further reading[edit]

  • Betty Hutton, Backstage You Can Have: My Own Story, 2009. The Betty Hutton Estate ISBN 978-1500916220
  • The Betty Hutton Estate, Betty Hutton Scrapbook: A Tribute To Hollywood's Blonde Bombshell, 2015. The Betty Hutton Estate ISBN 978-1514202531
  • Gene Arceri, Rocking Horse: A Personal Biography of Betty Hutton, 2009, BearManor Media ISBN 978-1593933210

External links[edit]