The Betty Hutton Story

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 9:45pm

Starring Chloe Sevigny.
Can you see it?

[alterego]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 9:58pm

Not really.

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:00pm

I don't even know if there's much of a story but I'm seeing the resemblance.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:02pm

Don't tell Chloe that!

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:03pm

LOL!

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:05pm

Don't you think Chloe has a certain beauty?

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:09pm

Absolutely.
I'm not saying I like Betty Hutton's acting (especially in Annie Get Your Gun) but in her day she had a pretty face that resembled Chloe now.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:14pm

Really? All I can think of is "The Greatest Show on Earth"

[Glebb]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:15pm

I remember reading that Betty replaced the pregnant Lucille Ball in that one.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 10:28pm

i did not know that. Betty was kind of cute in that film. I think it won best picture if I'm not mistaken.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:04pm

Glebb, do you like Betty?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:14pm

I am officially revoking your Celebrity of the Day status that I bestowed on you, you...you...Betty Basher!!!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/28/06 at 11:19pm

tiny threadjack about similarities...anyone see anything in casting Chita Rivera as Marlene Dietrich?

[justme2]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 12:35am

Glebb, I watched Robert Osbourne interview Hutton sometime last year or so on TCM. I had no idea that she just up and left the business one day and never looked back!

It would be an interesting story, but rather short. Her pin up status and musical movies and a couple of other films.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 12:48am

But her stories of being brought over to MGM from Paramount to replace Judy and the way she was treated would be a great film all in itself! Not to mention the later years as a cook in a rectory. Of course we may never know what happened with her and her children...

Happy Belated Birthday, Betty! Last Sunday Betty turned 85!

[justme2]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:03am

I agree, that part alone is worth a movie. She talked about how horribly Howard Keel and the others treated her on one of the movies. How she almost had a breakdown just trying to keep up, and then she just said f*** it, it ain't worth it.

What's the thing about her and her children? I don't remember her talking about it during the TCM interview. A bit of Joan Crawford in it?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:06am

She said she had had a very tough year and I remember thinking it had to do with her children which she refused to discuss. But she said things were getting better. She alluded to the fact that she was a bad mother and never there for them.

[justme2]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:08am

aaaahh, I do remember that. And a lot of talk about religion as well.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:15am

Do you guys really like her? I ask because some of my friends found her to be very irritating. I on the other hand think she was pure genius in her musicality. Some of her renditions drive me mad with joy. "It's Oh So Quite" "His Rocking Horse...","Stuff Like That There", ....I could go on.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:16am

Yes, she did go a little overboard on the Jesus shilling.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:30am

I wrote her a letter for her birthday.

I totally disagree with anyone who thinks she doesn't have "a story."

Her father committed suicide when she was 16; her mother was an alcoholic. She was married and divorced 4 times...had several children. She was addicted to pills. She wound up working in a rectory and converting to Catholicism. (That fact alone is worth a biopic!) A 9th-grade dropout, she went back to school, earned a Master's Degree, taught in a college and received an honorary Ph.D. I'm only skimming the surface here. I can't remember everything. And I haven't even mentioned her stage and movie career.

I think she is quite the looker in this photo:

[justme2]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:33am

chita33....she's just ok in my book. I've seen most of her film work and yes...she can get VERY annoying. I saw one of those "soundies" that TCM shows (short musical film meant to be shown between films) and I don't remember what she was singing, but I had to turn it off as her silly expressions and yelling got to me. She was prancing around like a monkey and climbing over things in the orchestra. I suppose it was supposed to be kinda "Red Skelton" comedy, but....I never liked him either.

And yes...she was shilling the Lord something fierce on that TCM special!


edit...yes, quite a looker!

Updated On: 3/1/06 at 01:33 AM

[justme2]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:37am

pennywise...did you see the interview on TCM that we are discussing? It was only last year, and she told some heartbreaking stories indeed.

But, after reading through so many of the old film star biographies of that era...her's by far isn't the worst. Which is pretty sad in itself.

Filmable story, though? Yes. I'd see it.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:39am

I defy anyone to watch her in her prime and not at least smile. She is brilliant in Miracle of Morgan's Creek and comic genius in Perils of Pauline. Her dramatic scenes are a bit sappy even by 40's standards, but her sheer pluck and willingness to throw herself whole hog into any comic bit is a joy.

Back when True Hollywood Story was actually about Hollywood I wrote suggesting her as a subject for an episode. I got a couple of responses back. Both wanted to know more about her but it was obvious they had no idea who she was.
Sad.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/1/06 at 1:42am

I also found that she was a pretty good dancer in her youth.