Betty Hutton (II)

Rambunctious blonde band vocalist (billed as "America's Number One Jitterbug" in the late 1930s) who signed with Paramount in 1941 and went on to become one of the most popular musical comedy box-office stars of the 1940s. Often paired with bumbling comedian Eddie Bracken, the irrepressible, almost manically energetic, Hutton starred in a slew of successful but largely mediocre musicals shaped by her mentor songwriter B.G. 'Buddy' DeSylva, as well as biopics of speakeasy owner Texas Guinan ("Incendiary Blonde" 1945), silent film heroine Pearl White ("The Perils of Pauline" 1947) and singer Blossom Seeley ("Somebody Loves Me" 1952). She is best remembered for her superb comic performance in Preston Sturges' "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), her suitably rowdy Annie Oakley in the Irving Berlin musical, "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) and her starring role in as a highwire artist in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952).

Hutton's completely unrestrained playing style, decidedly an acquired taste, seemed to suggest at once insecurity, unhappiness and a possibility for temperament. Hutton walked out of her Paramount contract after the studio refused to allow her second husband, choreographer Charles O'Curran, to direct her films; her film career subsequently went into a downward spiral and despite successful vaudeville tours in the 1950s, by the 1960s Hutton had slipped into obscurity. A virtual recluse, making occasional headlines with her marital, physical and emotional problems, she filed for bankruptcy in 1967 (after having made and spent $10 million during her heyday) and was discovered working as a cook and housekeeper at a Rhode Island rectory in the mid-1970s.

In 1980 Hutton made a heralded return to the Broadway stage as Miss Hannigan in the hit musical "Annie" and in the mid-1980s became a teacher of film and television at Salve Regina College in Rhode Island, where she had earned her liberal arts degree in 1986.

• Also Credited As:
  Betty Darling, Betty Jane Boyar, Betty June Thornburg
• Born:
  February 26, 1921 in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States
• Died:
  March 11, 2007.
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Singer, Cook, Housekeeper, Teacher

Family

• Daughter: Candy Briskin. born on November 23, 1946
• Daughter: Carolyn Candoli. born in 1962
• Daughter: Lindsay Briskin. born on April 14, 1948
• Father: Percy Thornburg. deserted family in 1923 when Hutton was two; committed suicide in 1937
• Mother: Mabel Thornburg. died on January 1, 1962; fell asleep while smoking and died in the fire
• Sister: Marion Hutton. born on March 10, 1920; died in 1987; female lead vocalist with the Glenn Miller Band; appeared in the films Orchestra Wives (1942), Crazy House , In Society (both 1944) and Love Happy (1950)

Significant Others

• Companion: Edward Norris. dated briefly
• Companion: Norman Krasna. briefly engaged in 1955
• Companion: Robert Sterling. dated after her divorce from Ted Briskin c. 1951

Education

• Salve Regina College, Newport, Rhode Island, liberal arts, MA

Milestones

• 1923 Mother moved with daughters to Detroit where she worked in an automobile factory and operated a speakeasy after husband s desertion (date approximate)
• 1937 Discovered by bandleader Vincent Lopez, singing at a Detroit nightclub; hired as vocalist with Lopez s band at $65 at week; used name of Betty Darling on tour (had previously been billed as Betty Jane Boyar)
• 1938 Professional singing debut with the Lopez band at Billy Rose s Casa Manana Club in Manhattan
• 1938 Sister became a vocalist with the Glenn Miller band; both sisters changed their last name to Hutton
• 1939 Made first short for Paramount, Three Kings and a Queen
• 1939 Performed on Vincent Lopez s NBC radio program; toured vaudeville circuit with bandleader
• 1939 Recording debut on Bluebird Records doing vocals with Vincent Lopez s band on Igloo and The Jitterbug and a duet with Sonny Shuyler on Concert in the Park
• 1939 Screen debut in Vitaphone short, Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra ; also appeared with Hal Sherman in Vitaphone short, One For the Book (1939) and with Hal LeRoy in Public Jitterbug No. 1 (1939)
• 1940 Featured in the Cole Porter Broadway musical Panama Hattie , starring Ethel Merman
• 1940 Left Lopez s band; Broadway stage debut in revue, Two For the Show
• 1942 Hired at $1,000 a week by Panama Hattie producer B G Buddy DeSylva to make feature debut in Paramount musical, The Fleet s In
• 1942 Landed a comedy and singing job on radio s The Bob Hope Show (date approximate)
• 1942 Named Star of Tomorrow by the MOTION PICTURE HERALD exhibitors poll
• 1943 Became one of the first performers to be signed by songwriter Johnny Mercer for the newly formed Capitol Records
• 1944 Appeared in first non-singing role, The Miracle of Morgan s Creek , directed by Preston Sturges
• 1944 Embarked on a two-month USO tour of the South Pacific
• 1944 Renegotiated new contract with Paramount at $5,000 a week
• 1944 Toured vaudeville circuit
• 1945 Starred in first dramatic role as Texas Guinan in Incendiary Blonde
• 1950 Replaced an ailing Judy Garland as Annie Oakley in the film version of Irving Berlin s Annie Get Your Gun
• 1950 Signed with RCA Victor records
• 1952 After successful vaudeville engagement at the Palace Theatre in New York, underwent throat surgery and had to retrain her voice
• 1952 Played the trapeze artist in Cecil B DeMille s The Greatest Show on Earth
• 1952 Turned to successful vaudeville career
• 1952 Walked out of her Paramount contract (a year before it expired) when the studio refused to allow her husband Charles O Curran to direct her vehicle Topsy and Eva ; film was never made
• 1953 Returned to Capitol Records
• 1954 Announced retirement as a result of failure of TV special
• 1954 TV debut as the star of the musical special, Satins and Spurs (NBC)
• 1957 Returned to film with Spring Reunion (her last film to date)
• 1959 Starred as a manicurist on short-lived CBS sitcom, Goldie (retitled The Betty Hutton Show )
• 1962 Toured in a summer production of Gypsy
• 1964 Returned to Broadway as Carol Burnett s replacement for one week in the musical, Fade Out, Fade In
• 1967 Filed for bankruptcy
• 1975 Briefly resumed nightclub career
• 1976 Made guest appearance on the ABC detective series Baretta
• 1978 Hired to greet people at the door of a jai-alai playing field and establishment in Connecticut
• 1981 Returned to Broadway for two weeks playing Miss Hannigan in the hit musical Annie
• 1986 Named a member of the faculty of Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island, teaching motion picture and TV classes
• 1988 Collapsed while teaching; diagnosed with Epstein-Barr syndrome
• 2000 Gave first major TV interview in nearly 20 years to Robert Osborne for the American Movie Classics series Private Screenings
• Began career dancing on tabletops with her sister at her mother s bootleg bar in Lansing, Michigan at age three
• Got first professional job as a singer at a Michigan summer resort at age 13; worked with a local band composed of high school students
• Made brief, unsuccessful trip to New York to break into show business at age 15
• Moved into St Anthony s Rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island after entering a detox program; worked as a housekeeper--cooking, washing dishes and making beds at rectory; converted to Catholicism in the mid-1970s
• Returned to Rhode Island to live