How perfect legs made actress Betty Grable the highest paid woman in America

Betty Grable was a Hollywood star in the 1930s and 1940s. Films with her participation broke all records in collections, and Betty herself held the title of the highest-grossing star for 12 years. During her career, she earned 3 million dollars – a very impressive amount at the time! The US Treasury Department has twice recognized her as the highest paid woman in America.

Grable was also a recognized sex symbol. Her bikini pin-up photo was even included in Life magazine’s list of “100 photos that changed the world”. But that’s not the only reason why she went down in history.

The legs of the actress were considered a real standard – and this opinion was shared not only by her fans, but also by manufacturers of stockings, who noted the ideal proportions of Betty.

The actress herself jokingly liked to say: “There are two reasons for my success, and I stand on both of them.” A funny and very self-deprecating comment!

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Although Betty’s dramatic talent was still not to be cast. Directors often tried to use Grable in one role – a sweet and naive blonde, but she stubbornly tried to diversify her roles and finally got her way. In the 1940s, Fox began to give her more serious roles, and Betty began to act not only in musicals and comedies, but also in film noir.

But in the 50s, Betty’s career began to decline: she herself began to lose interest in films, and the studio had a new favorite – Marilyn Monroe, who was openly called Grable’s replacement. There were rumors of a feud between them and Betty’s jealousy after Monroe replaced her in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, but in fact Betty sympathized with the emergence of a new star and eventually ended her career in the mid-1950s.

Grable died of lung cancer at the age of 56 in 1973.

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