A Moment for Betty Garrett: Neptune's Daughter

Carne con frijoles...  You know, that's just the way I feel about you!

The Movie

   I am slow to post this - Betty Garrett, comedienne and musical actress extraordinaire, passed away in February of this year. Neptune's Daughter (directed by Edward Buzzell, 1949) may not be the most fitting tribute movie, but it is the film for which I remember her best.
   The set-up for Daughter revolves around Eve Barrett's swimwear design company, not a surprise when you know that Eve is played by Esther Williams -- a swimsuit just can't be far away.  Esther and Betty play sisters; Esther is the older sister with her life and business well under control, while Betty is the madcap, man-chasing younger sister.

   The plot turns on a case of mistaken identity between Jose O'Rourke, an Argentinian polo-playing lothario (Ricardo Montalban, apparently with Irish ancestry) and bumbling country-club masseuse Jack Spratt (Red Skelton).  Amidst the identity confusion, stay tuned for a swimwear fashion show, Xaviar Cugat production numbers, a love triangle involving Keenan Wynn, a swimming spectacular, an ensemble performance of a new Christmas carol in an un-Christmas-like setting and some hilarious bits involving a man trying to get on a horse.  I loved this movie when I was younger and still find it enjoyable; with so much going on, it's hard not to...

   And, yes, Neptune's Daughter is really an Oscar-winner.  Frank Loesser's tune 'Baby It's Cold Outside' won the Best Original Song Oscar in 1950, and is sung by all four of the main players:  Garrett, Williams, Skelton and Montalban.  In this film, Betty Garrett's talent for cheerful musical comedy is on full display in Loesser's tune and in an assist to Xavier Cugat.

Betty the Musical Star

  Betty had a somewhat peripatetic childhood, moving with her mother several times after her birth in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1919.  The family lived in Seattle several times, and while in her senior year of high school, a family friend connected Betty with Martha Graham who was touring with her dance troupe at the time.  On Ms Graham's recommendation, Betty received a scholarship to an acting academy in New York where Graham taught dance.  In between studying, she performed in summer-stock theaters in upstate New York.  After her schooling, Betty joined the last performance of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater company, performed in company at Carnegie Hall and sang at the Village Vanguard jazz club.

  Her Broadway debut was more of a series of short-lived roles, each leading to the next and sometimes to a touring show.  Her performance in Call Me Mister on Broadway led to awards and a one-year MGM contract in 1947.  Following her first MGM performance, the studio renewed her contract and she appeared in several musicals, including On The Town with Frank Sinatra, before taking some time to tour in England with her husband in a nightclub show.  When they returned, she was cast in another MGM musical, but the next 20 years would see Betty only occasionally working - on Broadway, TV and in film.
   Betty's career picked up again in the early 70s with the television show All in the Family, in which she played neighbor Irene Lorenzo, and on Laverne and Shirley, in which she played the neighbor Edna Babish (and won a Golden Globe).  She continued to guest on television shows until her death in 2011.

Betty Off-Stage
   Betty met her husband, Oscar-nominee Larry Parks, at an Actor's Studio workshop event in 1944 and immediately hit it off.  She proposed marriage to him after a few months dating, they were married, then did not live together again for two years while each worked in different places.
   In the early 1940s, both had joined the Communist party, and were later called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the mid-1950s.  Parks did testify that he had been a member of the party and was blacklisted.  Betty was not called to testify at the time, which she attributed to the late stage of her pregnancy, but she was 'grey-listed' and had difficulty working for some time.  Later, when they were performing in Vegas to avoid their notoriety in LA, former senator Joseph McCarthy showed up backstage one evening, and re-appeared the next day to attempt to teach their two boys to swim.  "They never understood why they had to take a bath right after getting out of the swimming pool," she said of her two sons that day.  Her husband's career was never to recover, and after some time as a housebuilder, he died at the age of 60 in 1975.  They had been married for 30 years.
  In her later years, Betty continued to perform, teach and to support Theater West in Los Angeles, which she had helped to start in the mid-1960s.

Sources and Links

Betty Garrett's 90th Birthday Bash edited by David Engel, YouTube (well worth watching!)
Betty Garrett, Wikipedia
Betty Garrett, Time Magazine
Betty Garrett, LA Times
Her Story is One of Luck..., LA Times 
Also, check out these great pics of the TCM screening of Neptune's Daughter with Betty Garrett and Esther Williams in 2010 over at Life

A Moment for Elizabeth Taylor: Jane Eyre

Elizabeth Taylor (1932 - 2011)

The Movie

A classic.  You know the story: Orson Welles' sulking and bombastic Rochester, Joan Fontaine's doe-eyed Jane, with Elizabeth Taylor in an uncredited performance as Jane's childhood friend, Helen.  Over 27 movie versions have been made and this is the best (although I prefer my older Jane with a bit more spice).  It isn't Elizabeth's movie, but her small role as the very sympathetic Helen Burns provides a poignant scene and serves as a counterpoint for passionate young Jane.  Jane Eyre (1943, directed by Robert Stevenson) was made the year before Elizabeth became a true star in her own right for the movie National Velvet.

The Elizabeth Taylor Image

White Diamonds...

I first became aware of Elizabeth Taylor when I was a child.  The picture at left shows her style - where the culture was really - at that point in time.  Big hair, frosted highlights, press-on-nails, Dynasty, shoulder pads, People magazine, gold-tone QVC jewelry, multiple divorces and marriages.  In truth, she embodied the defining style of every decade:  haltertop dresses and short curls in the 50s, stacked bouffant hair and cat's-eye liner in the 60s, (lets skip the 70s), the aforementioned 80s style, and vacuous blond wigs in the aughties.  Thank goodness there's so much more to her (and us)!

Activity and Activism
On closer inspection, there was much to admire in Elizabeth Taylor, not especially the jewels or expenses, but in her passion and generosity.  She was also brave enough to advocate for a cure for a disease (AIDS) that, at the time, was both misunderstood and socially repugnant.  Owner of many gems, she donated several to auction for various charities, including an engagement ring donated for AIDS charities and the famous Burton-Taylor Cartier diamond donated and sold to build an entire hospital in Botswana.

Taylorana
The mother of four children from three of her seven marriages.
A dual citizen of the United States and Britain, she was named a Dame of the British Empire in 1999.
Was photographed and painted many times by Andy Warhol

As a child star, was cast in several classics, including Life With Father and Lassie Come Home

Oh right, the 70s...  well, at least the Oscars must have been fun

A Moment for Jane Russell: The Paleface

Here's to you, Calamity Jane

The Movie
Short post this evening in honor of Jane Russell, who died today.  Her two best movies were among my favorites growing up: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Paleface (directed by Norman McLeod, 1948).  The Paleface is (at least to someone who first saw it at age 12) a cornball movie with some really hysterical moments. It's the story of a yellow-bellied dentist with a mail-order degree (Bob Hope) and the gun-slinging toughie (Jane Russell) who uses him as cover to join a wagon train headed west in order to win freedom from a jail sentence by serving as a bounty hunter of sorts for the bandits also traveling in the train.  Add an Oscar-winning song ('Buttons and Bows'), some Wild West action and Bob Hope zingers and you have an overall enjoyable movie!

A publicity still from The Outlaw

Jane Russell
Ernestine Jane Russell was born in Bemiji, Minnesota in 1921.  Her family moved to California when Jane was still young, and it was there that she was discovered while working as a secretary in a doctor's office.  Howard Hughes signed her to a 7-year contract and initiated and nursed the controversy that resulted from her first controversial picture, The Outlaw.  The build-up was intense, but the movie's release was long delayed due to Hays Code-related controversy over the amount of skin on display.  Life magazine at the time even ran an article entitled 'Jane Russell Can Be Seen Anywhere But in a Movie', referring to her years waiting for the release of The Outlaw.  The article painted her as a good-natured, outdoorsy type (which many other interviews confirm) somewhat at the mercy of the publicity-man Russell Birdwell.  As a result of this publicity, Jane's pictures were popular WWII pin-ups, and in the Korean War it was reported that a hill was named after her (Jane Russell Hill).

Jane and Marilyn at Grauman's Chinese Theater (Life Magazine)

Following The Outlaw, Jane was in several forgettable pictures usually referred to as 'potboilers', eventually landing in The Paleface with Hope and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe.  After sequels to both pictures, film work eventually dried up and Jane turned to stage work, singing and commercial work, including serving as the spokeswoman for Playtex brand undergarments.  In her later life she became very religious, appearing on various talk shows, assisting with charitable programs and recording gospel music.

The Movie:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040679/

Links and Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Russell
Life Magazine  13 April, 1942
Life Magazine  27 October, 1952
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?participantId=167425|79325