Betty Grable Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Betty Grable was born on December 18, 1916, in St. Louis, Missouri and she was an American actress, dancer, and singer.

Trained in dance from an early age, she moved to Hollywood in her teens and secured minor roles in films throughout the 1930s. Her early appearances included roles in Whoopee! (1930), College Swing (1938), and Man About Town (1939). Grable signed with 20th Century-Fox in 1940, replacing Alice Faye in Down Argentine Way (1940), which became a breakthrough role. Throughout the 1940s, she was featured in a series of successful Technicolor musicals including Moon Over Miami (1941), Song of the Islands (1942), Springtime in the Rockies (1942), and Mother Wore Tights (1947). She was consistently listed among the top box-office draws during this period.

She became an iconic figure during World War II due in part to a widely circulated 1943 publicity photograph of her in a bathing suit, which became one of the most famous pin-up images of the era. At the height of her popularity, she was one of the highest-paid women in the United States and was often marketed as having the “most famous legs in Hollywood,” which were insured for $1 million.
Grable’s later film roles included How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), in which she co-starred with Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall. She gradually transitioned to stage work and television appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. She was married to actor Jackie Coogan from 1937 to 1939 and later to bandleader Harry James from 1943 until their divorce in 1965; the couple had two daughters.