Betty Hutton

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Betty Hutton
from the trailer for Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Born
Elizabeth June Thornburg

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg, February 26 1921 – March 11 2007[1]) was an American film actress and singer.

Biography

Early life

She began life as Elizabeth June Thornburg, a daughter of railroad foreman Percy E. Thornburg (1896-1939) and his wife, the former Mabel Lum (1901-1967). Her father abandoned the family for another woman and they did not hear from or see him again until they received a telegram, in 1939, informing them of his death from suicide. Hutton was raised by her mother along with her sister, Marion, who later took the surname Hutton and was later billed as the actress Sissy Jones. They started singing in the family's speakeasy when Hutton was 3 years old. Related troubles with the police kept the family on the move, and eventually they moved to Detroit. When interviewed as an established star appearing at the premiere of Let's Dance (1950), her mother — arriving with her, and following a police escort — commented, "This time the police were in front of us." Hutton sang in several local bands as a teenager, and at one point visited New York City hoping to perform on Broadway, where she was rejected.

A few years later, she was scouted by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who gave Hutton her entry into entertainment. In 1939 she appeared in several musical shorts for Warner Bros., and appeared on Broadway in Panama Hattie and Two for the Show, both produced by Buddy DeSylva.

Career

When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Pictures, Hutton was signed to a starring role in The Fleet's In in 1942. She made 14 films in 11 years during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Annie Get Your Gun for MGM, which hired Hutton to replace an exhausted Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film and the leading role, retooled for Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Betty (her obituary in The New York Times described her as "a brassy, energetic performer with a voice that could sound like a fire alarm") but Hutton, like Garland, was earning a reputation for being extremely difficult.

In 1942, she signed with Capitol Records, one of the first artists to do so, but was unhappy with their management, and then signed with RCA Victor. Among her many films was a curious, unbilled cameo in Sailor Beware (1952) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, in which she portrayed Jerry's girlfriend, Hetty Button. Her time as a Hollywood star came to an end due to contract disagreements with Paramount following The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Somebody Loves Me (1952), a biopic of singer Blossom Seeley. The New York Times indicated that her film career ended because of her insistence that her husband at the time, Charles O'Curran, direct her next film; when the studio declined, Hutton broke her contract.

Hutton worked in radio, appeared in Las Vegas and in nightclubs, then tried her luck on the new medium of television. An original musical TV "spectacular" written especially for Hutton, Satin 'n Spurs (1954), was an enormous flop with the public and critics, despite being one of the first television programs televised nationally by NBC in compatible color. Desilu Productions took a chance on Hutton and in 1959 gave her a sitcom The Betty Hutton Show, which quickly faded. Her last TV outing was a brief guest appearance in 1975 on Baretta.

In 1967, she was signed to star in two low-budget Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began. Afterwards, Hutton had trouble with alcohol and substance abuse, eventually attempting suicide after losing her singing voice in 1970 and having a nervous breakdown. She divorced her fourth husband, jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, and declared herself bankrupt. However, after regaining control of her life through a church, she converted to Roman Catholicism and went on to teach acting and to cook at a rectory in Rhode Island.

She replaced Dorothy Loudon as the evil Miss Hannigan in Annie on Broadway for a limited run in 1980. Her last known performance in any medium was on Jukebox Saturday Night, which aired on PBS in 1983. Robert Osborne interviewed her for TCM's "Private Screenings" in April 2000.

Marriages

The actress's first marriage was to camera manufacturer Ted Briskin on September 3 1945; they divorced in 1950. Two daughters were born to the couple, Lindsay Diane Briskin (born 1946) and Candice Elizabeth Briskin (born 1948). Ted Briskin had a brief 21-day marriage to Joan Dixon after this divorce. He died in 1980 in Los Angeles.

Hutton's second marriage was in 1952 to choreographer Charles O'Curran, and they divorced in 1955; he died in 1984.

Her third marriage was in 1955 to Alan W. Livingston, the creator of Bozo the Clown; they divorced five years later, although some accounts refer to this as a nine-month marriage.

Her fourth and final marriage was in 1960 to jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, who was born in 1923, a brother of Conte Candoli. Hutton and Candoli had one child, Carolyn Candoli (born 1962) and then divorced in 1967 (although some accounts place the year as 1964).

Hutton lived near Palm Springs, California until her death due to complications from colon cancer at 86 years of age. Carl Bruno, executor of her estate and a long-term friend, told the Associated Press that she died on the evening of Sunday, March 11 2007.

Hit songs

Filmography

Features

Short subjects

  • Paramount Headliner: Queens of the Air (1938)
  • Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra (1939)
  • One for the Book (1939)
  • Three Kings and a Queen (1939)
  • Public Jitterbug Number One (1939)
  • A Letter from Bataan (1942)
  • Strictly G.I. (1943)
  • Skirmish on the Home Front (1944)
  • Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945)

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Betty Hutton, Hollywood actress: 86". Associated Press. 2007-03-13. Retrieved 2007-03-13.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Betty Hutton.
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