1938–1940: Music and Broadway In 1938, Hutton was discovered by orchestra leader
Vincent Lopez while she was performing as a singer in local Detroit nightclubs. Lopez, an adherent of
numerology, used his numerology practice to rebrand her with the stage name Betty Hutton: "I tried to get a vibration that would make her a lot of money. It was a five-eight vibration. After that she did fine." Hutton soon became known for her raucous performances onstage, summarized in a 1950
Time magazine article:
Two for the Show was produced by
Buddy DeSylva, who then cast Hutton in
Panama Hattie (1940–1942). This was a major hit, running for 501 performances. It starred
Ethel Merman; despite rumors through the years that Merman demanded from envy that Hutton's musical numbers be reduced from the show, more careful reports demonstrate that producer DeSylva chose to cut just one song of three, "They Ain't Done Right by Our Nell", due to Hutton's "always in overdrive" performance style.
1941–1949: Paramount contract and breakthrough ,
Oahu, Hawaii, 1945 When DeSylva became a producer at
Paramount Pictures, he offered Hutton a contract with the studio, and she relocated to Los Angeles. Hutton was one of the many Paramount contract artists who appeared in
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942). The same year, she was signed to the newly-formed
Capitol Records and recorded a number of singles over the following several years, marking one of the label's earliest recording artists. Meanwhile, Paramount did not immediately promote her to major stardom, but gave the second lead in a
Mary Martin film musical,
Happy Go Lucky (1943). The response was positive, and Hutton was given co-star billing with
Bob Hope in ''
Let's Face It'' (1943). During that year, she made $1250 per week. , December 1944 In 1942, writer-director
Preston Sturges cast Hutton in ''
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'' as a small-town girl who gives local troops a happy send-off and wakes up married and pregnant, but with no memory of who her husband is. The film was delayed by
Hays Office objections and Sturges' prolific output, and was finally released early in 1944. The film made Hutton a major star; Sturges was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar, the film was named to the National Film Board's Top Ten films for the year, and the
National Board of Review nominated the film for Best Picture of 1944, and awarded Betty Hutton the award for Best Acting for her performance.
The New York Times named it as one of the 10 Best Films of 1942–1944. Critic
James Agee noted that "the Hays office must have been raped in its sleep" to allow the film to be released. And although the Hays Office received many letters of protest because of the film's subject matter, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1944, playing to standing room-only audiences in some theatres. Hutton was next cast in Paramount's
And the Angels Sing (1944) with
Fred MacMurray and Dorothy Lamour, and
Here Come the Waves (1944) with
Bing Crosby. Both were huge hits. DeSylva, one of Capitol's founders, also co-produced her next hit, the musical
Incendiary Blonde (1945), where she played
Texas Guinan. It was directed by veteran comedy director
George Marshall and Hutton had replaced Lamour as Paramount's top female box-office attraction. Hutton was one of many Paramount stars in ''
Duffy's Tavern (1945), and was top billed in The Stork Club (1945) with Barry Fitzgerald, produced by DeSylva. Hutton went into Cross My Heart (1946) with Sonny Tufts, which she disliked. She did however enjoy the popular The Perils of Pauline'' (1947), directed by Marshall, where she sang a
Frank Loesser song that was nominated for an
Oscar: "
I Wish I Didn't Love You So". The recording sold over a million copies worldwide and reached number six in the U.S. charts. Hutton's relationship with Paramount began to disintegrate when DeSylva left the studio due to illness (he died in 1950). "After he left I started doing scripts that I knew weren't good for me." Hutton made
Dream Girl (1948) with
MacDonald Carey, which she later said, "almost ruined me." After Garland's firing, production on the film came to a halt in May of 1949, as a replacement actress was required. Hutton, Paramount's top female musical attraction, lobbied for the role with both MGM and Paramount, her home studio. An agreement between the studios was reached through a five month loan out deal. Paramount loaned Hutton, while MGM loaned
Fred Astaire. In her next film, the 1950 musical ''
Let's Dance,'' she starred with Fred Astaire and was billed above him. But the film was overshadowed by Annie Get Your Gun, which was the third
highest grossing film of 1950. She was one of several stars in
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), an
epic drama directed by
Cecil B. DeMille about performers in a circus which won two
Academy Awards:
Best Picture and
Best Story. She made an unbilled cameo in
Sailor Beware (1952) with
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis, a remake of ''The Fleet's In'', in which she portrayed Dean's girlfriend, Hetty Button. She starred in
Somebody Loves Me (1952), a biography of singers and vaudevillans
Blossom Seeley &
Benny Fields with
Ralph Meeker. During filming, Hutton had vocal surgery to have a wart removed in her throat. She also had to train her voice extensively to fit Seeley's lower vocal pitch. Hutton then clashed with Paramount.
The New York Times reported that the dispute resulted from her insistence that her husband at the time, choreographer Charles O'Curran, direct her in a film. In April 1952, Hutton returned to Broadway, performing in
Betty Hutton and Her All-Star International Show. In July 1952, she announced that her husband and she would form a production company. She left Paramount in August. In January 1953,
Variety named her the second highest grossing female star of 1952 behind
Elizabeth Taylor and fifth highest grossing overall with a total gross of $14,200,000. Hutton then transitioned to radio work, and appeared in
Las Vegas, where she had a great success performing in live theater productions. She had the rights to a screenplay about
Sophie Tucker, but was unable to raise funds. Hutton's last completed film was a small one,
Spring Reunion (1957). It was a financial disappointment. She also became disillusioned with Capitol's management and moved to
RCA Victor. In 1957, she appeared on a
Dinah Shore show on NBC that also featured
Boris Karloff; the program has been preserved on a
kinescope.
1959–1964: Television work Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz took a chance on Hutton in 1959, with their company
Desilu Productions giving her a
CBS sitcom,
The Betty Hutton Show. Hutton hired the still-blacklisted and future film composer
Jerry Fielding to direct her series. They had met over the years in Las Vegas when he was blacklisted from TV and radio and could get no other work, and her Hollywood career was also fading. It was Fielding's first network job since losing his post as musical director of
Groucho Marx's
You Bet Your Life in 1953 after hostile questioning by the
House UnAmerican Activities Committee.
The Betty Hutton Show ended after 30 episodes. Hutton continued headlining in Las Vegas and touring across the country. She returned to Broadway briefly in 1964 when she temporarily replaced a hospitalized
Carol Burnett in the show
Fade Out – Fade In. She guest-starred on shows such as
The Greatest Show on Earth, ''
Burke's Law, and Gunsmoke''.
1965–1979: Personal and financial struggles By the early 1960s, Hutton's career had declined significantly, attributed to her
chronic depression and addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
Turner Classic Movies described her career downswing as "one of the grimmest declines in Hollywood history." and the collapse of her last marriage, Hutton's depression and substance abuse escalated. She divorced her fourth husband, jazz trumpeter
Pete Candoli, when she discovered he had fallen in love with
Edie Adams (who would become Candoli's second wife), and attempted suicide, causing her to lose custody of her youngest daughter, Carolyn, then sixteen years old. In 1967, she was signed to make a comeback starring in two low-budget
Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began. After losing her singing voice in 1970, Hutton had a
nervous breakdown and again attempted suicide. She regained control of her life through rehabilitation, and the mentorship of a
Catholic priest, Father Peter Maguire. Hutton converted to Catholicism, and took a job as a cook and housekeeper After an aborted comeback in 1974, she was hospitalized with emotional exhaustion. Hutton appeared in an interview with
Mike Douglas and made a brief guest appearance in 1975 on
Baretta. In September 1978, Hutton was featured on
The Phil Donahue Show, where she extensively discussed her life and career. She was then happily employed as hostess at a Newport, Rhode Island,
jai alai arena. Hutton's rehearsal of the song "Little Girls" was featured on
Good Morning America. Her Broadway comeback was also included in a profile on
CBS News Sunday Morning about her life, her struggle with pills, and her recovery. A ninth-grade drop-out, Hutton went back to school and earned a
master's degree in psychology from
Salve Regina University in 1986. During her time at the university, Hutton became friends with fellow student and singer-songwriter
Kristin Hersh, and attended several early concerts of Hersh's band,
Throwing Muses. Hersh later wrote the song "Elizabeth June" as a tribute to Hutton, and wrote about their relationship in further detail in her memoir,
Rat Girl (2010). After completing her master's degree, Hutton worked as a drama instructor at
Emerson College in
Boston, Massachusetts. Hutton's last known performance, in any medium, was on
Jukebox Saturday Night, which aired on
PBS in 1983. She became estranged again from her daughters. ,
Cathedral City, California ==Personal life==