THE authoritative, comprehensive biography of the woman whose pin-up provided the inspiration for American soldiers to win World War II. (Oh, and she was a very talented dancer, actress & thespian as well.)

Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen is a fascinating and intimate account of the famous star who was for many years the highest-paid woman in America and a favorite pin-up all over the world. Filled with fascinating and intimate accounts from many who knew her well, this publication is a well-documented and eminently readable biography of the sparkling, complex personality of one of the best-loved stars in Hollywood's history.

This is a biography of the musical comedy star who epitomized the wholesome yet sexy girl-next-door during WWI and the post-war era. Sadly, her real-life was in stark contrast to that image. Her ambitious stage mother abandoned her marriage and firstborn, taking Betty to Hollywood at age 12, where she lied about the girls age, falsified documents, and kept her out of school in order to make her a star. Betty Grable was well-liked by co-workers and treated directors and cameramen with respect, but her tirades were known and feared. She always claimed that she felt more at ease with "ordinary people" and would often befriend fans, chorus performers and strangers alike, which is one reason why her fans adored her so much. Despite being worshipped by thousands of lonely G.I.s, reigning as the number-one box-office draw in the world, and her standing as highest-paid entertainer in the United States during the 40s, the smiling saucy pin-up girl was a fiction, with an on-screen attitude that has been copied ever since.

This reference work provides a comprehensive record of the life and career of Betty Grable. The book begins with a biography that presents and discusses the most significant events in Grable's life. The chronology that follows summarizes her career in capsule form. The succeeding chapters provide a detailed account of Grable's performances in various media, including films, television, radio, stage, nightclubs, videos, and records. The entries in these sections succinctly present the facts concerning each of Grable's performances and offer insightful commentary. The volume concludes with a list of Grable memorabilia, a section of miscellaneous information, and an annotated bibliography of books and articles containing extensive or unique material about Grable and her career.

Six Degrees of Betty Grable: Movies, Music, and Murder is an abridged version of Betty Grable's life story told over a period of 55 years, 1945-2000 by six fictional characters whose lives were touched by the most famous pin-up girl of WWII. Each degree is a self-contained character study but every character who is the focus of one degree has a way of showing up as a secondary character in someone else's story. Betty Grable provides the ties that bind them. The characters include a five-year-old boy who develops an obsession for the blonde beauty, a big-boned, five-foot-ten girl who aspires to be the next Betty Grable, a young high school English teacher who has a clandestine affair with a married colleague, a former female movie extra who danced at the charity ball in Gone with the Wind, a partially paralyzed former cowboy star, and a psychopathic killer. The text is chocked full of movie trivia, nostalgia, and dark humor. Something for everyone.

Swing is back in style, and with it a renewed interest in the Big Band Era. And few players dominated that era more than Harry James, whose soaring trumpet solos and romantic hit tunes influenced popular music for a generation. Now, Peter J. Levinson, who knew Harry James personally, has written a revealing biography of this jazz icon, based on nearly 200 interviews with musicians and friends. Harry James led a truly colorful life, and in Trumpet Blues Levinson captures it all. Beginning with James's childhood in a traveling circus, we follow the young trumpeter's meteoric rise in the 1930s and witness his electrifying performances with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. We see how James formed his own band in 1939, an incubator for many pop music stars of the 1940s and '50s, including Frank Sinatra, Connie Haines, Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, and Kitty Kallen. Combined with James's superb musicianship, peerless trumpet technique and talented sidemen, this stellar group dominated the war years and the immediate post-war period. And James himself, especially after his marriage to film goddess Betty Grable, became one of America's most famous personalities and lived like true Hollywood royalty. Levinson describes their twenty-two-year marriage with insight and sympathy. But he shows how James's marriage--and his triumphant late-1950s comeback in Nevada's casinos--were slowly undermined by his penchant for compulsive gambling, womanizing, and alcoholism. He gives us the inside story of James's sybaritic life style, and probes the profound psychological reasons for James's destructive behavior. The first biography ever written on Harry James, Trumpet Blues is a scintillating portrait of Swing's brightest star--his life, his loves, and the music that defined an era.

One of Hollywood's best known stars, Betty Grable, was the subject of many paper doll books. This 1943 reproduction is a favourite among collectors. The red, white and blue covers feature pretty dolls, and the inside pages are nicely designed with well-drawn and painted clothes.