Tuesday, 17 December 2024

18 December: Betty Grable

Betty Grable, US dancer, singer, and actress was born on this date in 1916. 10 facts about her:

  1. She was born Elizabeth Ruth Grable, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children of Lillian Rose and John Conn Grable, a stockbroker. Betty was her childhood nickname.

  2. Her mother wanted her to be a performer and entered her in beauty contests from an early age. She was quite successful on that circuit but nevertheless suffered from a fear of crowds and used to sleepwalk. Her mother took her to Hollywood at the age of 12 and lied about her age to get her chorus parts in films.

  3. Her first film appearance was as an uncredited chorus girl in Fox Studios Happy Days in 1929. The following year she signed with producer Samuel Goldwyn under the name Frances Dean.

  4. She married former child actor Jackie Coogan in 1937, but the marriage only lasted a couple of years and they divorced in 1939. In 1943, she married trumpeter Harry James and had two daughters with him. Their marriage lasted 22 years. They divorced in 1965. Grable entered into a relationship with dancer Bob Remick, 27 younger than she was, and stayed with him until she died in 1973.

  5. She missed out on a role in Samuel Goldwyn's Guys and Dolls in 1955, because she didn’t attend a meeting with him as her Dog had broken its leg. Goldwyn was peed off by that and gave the role to Vivian Blaine.

  6. Grable is known as the star whose legs were insured for a million dollars. In the late 1940s, 20th Century-Fox insured her legs with Lloyds of London for $250,000. The figure of a million probably came from a film she appeared in called Million Dollar Legs.

  7. A poster of her in a swimsuit with her back to the camera and smiling over her shoulder was the most requested photo by G.I.s stationed overseas. It was one of the shots taken in a studio session with photographer Frank Powolny. There was a reason for the pose. She was pregnant at the time.

  8. Her last film was How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955). After that she appeared in ads for Playtex products based on the pose in her famous pin up.

  9. Grable died of lung cancer on July 2, 1973, at the age of 56, in Santa Monica, California.

  10. She’s mentioned in a couple of songs: by Neil Sedaka on a track on his 1974 LP Laughter in the Rain, and in Elkie Brooks' song Pearl's a Singer.


A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Themes 
Christmas; superheroes; reunions; parties; life choices; shocking surprises; mistaken identity; kidnap and rescue.

Reasons not to read it

  • It's a bit short. You could probably read it in one sitting.
  • Most of the action takes place at a Christmas party. In a palace.
  • It's all about Christmas but there doesn't seem to be a schmaltzy moral message.
  • There are a couple of babies and some small children in it - and one nearly gets eaten.
  • Santa appears in it, but he isn't really Santa.
  • Superheroes. Again.
  • Not to mention a whole bunch of super-villains. Again all new ones and not the ones we know from Marvel or DC.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle


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