I almost missed a milestone earlier this week.  The inimitable, irrepressible, and incredibly talented actress Betty Garrett celebrated her 90th birthday on this past Tuesday, May 23rd!  A showbiz veteran with a career that spans theater, Broadway, movies during the Golden Age of Musicals, and television, Betty Garrett’s lasting impact on the American entertainment scene and in the hearts of her many fans makes her a very special lady indeed.  If you’re a musical fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Even though she appeared in relatively few movies compared to other Hollywood stalwarts, you knew you’d really seen something wonderful after watching one of her performances.  Much like Kay Thompson, whom I wrote about last week, Betty Garrett lit up the screen and it’s impossible to even think about her without smiling.

When I started watching — and really paying attention to — classic movies and especially movie musicals as a teenager, it was Betty Garrett who jumped out of the screen at me.  I might have come around to her through a side door; I loved Vera Ellen because she had co-starred with my all-time favorite Danny Kaye, and so On the Town was on my Very Important Film list.  And so who was that bouncy and hilarious lady playing the female taxi driver?  Ann Miller I knew — soup commercials, talk show appearances, many other movies — but this other comic dynamo?  Wow!  I soon ran into her in Take Me Out to the Ball Game, again with Sinatra, Gene Kelly (another particular favorite of mine), the broadly comedic Jules Munshin, and Esther Williams.  Then I saw her in Neptune’s Daughter, a wild musical farce, easily stealing the show from stars Esther Williams and Richardo Montalban as she and Red Skelton unleashed comic perfection together.  Red Skelton pretends to be a famous Latin American polo player, and Betty is the love-starved sister of bathing suit manufacturer Esther Williams.  Their pure comedy scenes are delightful, and I loved her and Skelton’s introduction of what’s now a bonafide song standard, the delightful “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, as Betty once again plays the female aggressor and sets her sights on Skelton. 

It’s fascinating that the adorable and completely appealling Betty Garrett would be more or less typecast in her MGM musicals as a desperate man-chaser.  It’s certainly not her looks that would have made the male leads wary of her — she’s every bit as lovely as the other women in the films and a consummate entertainer to boot — she could both sing and dance — so why does she always have to go into a knockdown drag-out battle to get her man?  In Take Me Out to the Ball Game she literally slings Sinatra over her shoulder at one point.  In Neptune’s Daughter she has to grab Skelton by the lapels to get him to pay attention to her, and in On the Town she gives Sinatra a near-whiplash to tame him a bit.   Trust me, there has been oodles written about the dynamic going on there — Sinatra as the actual figure of adoration, in essence a role-reversal with the aggressive Garrett  as the pursuer– and clearly her matches onscreen with Sinatra play off of his character’s supposed naivete and actual skinny build, both liabilities which disappeared as soon as he began to sing.  With Skelton it’s the match-up of two clowns, with the extremely funny Garrett sublimating her good looks somewhat — what red-blooded American fella would turn her down, for heaven’s sakes? — and trading her obvious sex appeal for a laugh, but eventually morphing back into a romantic partner once Red figured out his own dilemma.   In On the Town you’ve got the cool brainy gal (Anne Miller) who actually ends up wanting the most primitive romantic experience, the faux sophisticate (Vera Ellen) who’s really just an innocent small town girl at heart, and Betty, who’s tasted independence and likes it a lot.  If we’re going to find a heroine for our times anywhere in the movie, I think Betty Garrett fits the bill nicely.

For an example of her rambunctious tactics to lure reluctant sailor Gaby in On the Town, Betty as Brunhilde pleads “Come Up to My Place” — hilarious!  (In case the video doesn’t show up here, watch the clip here.)

And then when their relationship finally turns a little more conventional –  (If the video isn’t showing, watch the clip here.)

A little part of her siren song “It’s Fate, Baby, It’s Fate” to Sinatra is in the trailer for Take Me Out to the Ball Game  –

When talking about Betty Garrett, we don’t want to leave out her happy marriage to fellow actor Larry Parks, a loving union that endured through the treacherous years of the HUAC hearings after which Parks, and by association Betty, found their careers in Hollywood in jeopardy.  Ever the troupers, Garrett and Parks hit the boards again in a vaudeville and nightclub act which they took across the country and to Europe, and were both active in television when movie roles were not forthcoming.  Of course, the era of the big Hollywood musical was over anyway, and Betty’s last bigscreen musical was Columbia’s 1955 My Sister Eileen, in which she was the one pursued for a change, this time by a wolfish Jack Lemmon.   (If the video didn’t embed here, watch the clip here.)

I think I like her the other way better, like in her MGM movies, coming on a little strong, and with a smile on her face the whole time, don’t you?

Anyway, what’s really exciting about Betty Garrett’s 90th Birthday is the big bash sponsored by Theatre West that’s happening Sunday May 31st at The Music Box Theatre, in Hollywood.   If you are around there, check out the site (which also has links to other wonderful Betty Garrett resources) and get yourself over there, for a tribute to Betty and a great variety show.  She’s been associated with Theatre West for a long time, including her revue “Betty Garrett, Closet Songwriter” featuring her own songs, from a couple of years ago.

Many years ago, 1976 in fact, I saw Betty Garrett onstage at the Westwood Playhouse in her one-woman show “Betty Garrett and Other Songs” and it was one of the thrills of my life.  She was marvelous, and later used the title of her show for her 1998 autobiography.   There’s a nice collection of her Hollywood tunes available on CD now, too.  I’m not the only one who loves Betty Garrett like crazy– there’s a wonderful post written by blogger Danny Miller here, and you’ve just got to join her fans on Facebook.  The Los Angeles Times did a wonderful piece on her on this past Wednesday entitled “Betty Garrett, still naughty at 90″ .  For a thoroughly engrossing, almost personal visit with Betty, be sure to watch the five part TV Legends interview with her, conducted by the Archive of American Television.  The first part is here and the rest is there, too.  Completely fascinating, anedotal and charming, just like the lady herself.

So a little belatedly, we wish the beautiful and enduring Betty Garrett a happy 90th birthday!  We love you!