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Betty Hutton (1921-2007)

Betty Hutton, the highly energetic leading lady who scored in a series of bright comedies and musicals in the '40s such as The Fleet's In (1942) and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek died of colon cancer on March 11 in her Palm Springs apartment. She was 86.

She was born Betty June Thornburg on February 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her father left the family at a young age, and Hutton's mother Mabel was forced to raise Betty and her sister Marion on her own. After relocating to Detroit to work in the Chrysler factory, young Betty would pick up pocket money singing in street corners and neighborhood taverns.

In 1936 at the age of 15, Hutton took a summer job at a lake resort singing with a local band. She soon dropped out of school and within a year was singing in local nightclubs in the Detroit area. In 1938, she was hired by bandleader Vincent Lopez, who changed her name to Hutton and enabled the young entertainer to develop a strong fan base on his late night radio program.

By 1940, Hutton was ready to go, and she became the darling of Broadway critics when she debuted in the musical Two for the Show and followed that with a supporting role in the Cole Porter musical Panama Hattie starring Ethel Merman. It was this production that would lead Hutton to Hollywood when the show's producer Buddy DeSylva was hired as head of production at Paramount Studios in 1941. He had complete faith in Hutton and brought her to Hollywood and immediately put her in some bouncy musical-comedies that showed off her high spirits with unflagging momentum: The Fleet's In (1942), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Let's Face It (1943), and Happy Go Lucky (1943). But it would be in Preston Sturgis' magnificent comedy on the social mores during World War II - The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943) - that Hutton would prove herself a star. As Trudy Kockenlocker, the young lady who was too drunk to remember how she got married and who made her pregnant, Hutton gave one of her most memorable performances. As she goes from being a front page sensation to giving birth to sextuplets, she convincingly registers hysteria, confusion, vulnerability, but is never mawkish.

Unfortunately, Hutton's follow up roles weren't as exceptional as The Miracle of Morgan's Creek; The Stork Club (1945), Cross My Heart (1946), The Perils of Pauline (1947), and Red, Hot and Blue (1949) simply lacked stellar material. That's what made the timing of best known role, that of Annie Oakley in the lavish MGM musical Annie Get Your Gun so fortunate. Based on the Broadway smash that made a legend of Ethel Merman, the role was slated for Judy Garland, but after Garland bowed out, Paramount lent Hutton to MGM and the result was overwhelming critical acclaim for Hutton; it also addedbrief spurt to her career.

Returning to Paramount, Hutton played opposite Charlton Heston in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) playing a trapeze artist. The film received mixed reviews despite winning the Best Picture Oscar®. She made one more picture for Paramount, Somebody Loves Me (1952), but abruptly ended her career after a contract dispute. She returned to the big screen just once, in the minor drama Spring Reunion (1957) with Dana Andrews, before she switched gears to television. She spent one season in the short-lived sitcom The Betty Hutton Show (1959-60); and she guest starred in some hit shows: Gunsmoke, Burke's Law before she filed for bankruptcy in 1967.

In 1974, Hutton was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation. After several weeks of treatment, she slowly eased back into her career. She appeared in plays in Louisville, San Francisco, and made a return to Broadway in 1980 when she played the orphanage boss in a brief run of Annie. Hutton had lived in retirement for several years in Palm Springs until her passing last week. She is survived by her daughters, Candy, Lindsay and Carol; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole