Exuberant, firecracker, live wire—all of these describe the dynamo that was Betty Hutton, and yet none of them fully do her justice. In addition to her mile-a-minute screen persona, Hutton was a seasoned performer who could act and sing and put over a vehicle by the sheer force of her extremely vibrant personality. In the World War II years, her frenetic energy seemed to be a catalyst for the American people in their struggle against the Axis. She captivated wartime audiences by her looks and talents and, most of all, by her “blonde bombshell” rambunctious screen shenanigans.

Betty at four years old, in 1925, with her mother Mabel Lum Thornburg and sister Marion.

Betty was born Elizabeth June Thornburg in Battle Creek, Michigan, on February 26, 1921. When she was two years old, her father, a railroad brakeman, abandoned his family, Betty’s mother Mabel Thornburg and an older sister Marion. After Percy Thornburg’s desertion, Mabel took her two young girls to Detroit, where she got a job in a car factory but made more money operating a bootleg liquor joint. Mrs. Thornburg could play the guitar, and she taught her daughters to sing and dance. Betty made her first public singing appearance in her mother’s cheap speakeasy at age three standing on a kitchen table. Betty recalled later: “We were so poor, we never had enough to eat. We lived three families in a flat. It was a nightmare.” When she was nine years old, Betty happened upon a church, where she became inspired by religion. It was then she decided to make something of her life. At age thirteen, she got a job as a singer in a Michigan summer resort and then worked with a local band of high school students.

When she was fifteen, Betty saved $200 and went to New York City hoping for a break in show business. However, the trip was a brief, unsuccessful one and she was told she'd never make it in show business. Back home, she and sister Marion scored a gig in a Detroit nightclub, where bandleader Vincent Lopez heard her and soon hired the teenager to be a vocalist with his band for $65 weekly. While touring with Lopez, Betty developed her exuberant singing style as well as using the name “Betty Darling.” However, in 1938, when sister Marion became a vocalist with Glenn Miller, the sisters both began using the surname Hutton after Lopez consulted a numerologist to conceive a solid-sounding surname.

In the autumn of 1938, Betty had her first big professional exposure with Lopez at Billy Rose’s Casa Manana Club in New York City. The next spring, she made her recording debut with the bandleader on RCA Victor’s Bluebird Records with vocals on “Igloo”, “The Jitterbug”, and a duet with Sonny Schuyler on “Concert in the Park”. She also made her screen debut in the 1938 Vitaphone short, Queens of the Air. The next year she made more Vitaphone short subjects, including Public Jitterbug Number One. Thanks to the success of this short and her Bluebird record, Betty was billed as “America’s Number One Jitterbug.” Said Betty about this title, “It was just an unfortunate label that was passed on. I was just a screwball. I sang crazy songs. I did just whatever came to my mind. They didn’t know what to call me, so they called me a jitterbug.” Also in 1939, she made her first Paramount picture, the short Three Kings and a Queen. Betty continued to tour with Lopez in vaudeville as well as singing on his NBC radio program. Her contract with the bandsman called for him to receive 20 percent of her income in current and all future ventures. It was a clause that was to give her legal headaches in the future.

A seventeen year old Betty poses in an early promotional shot during her days as a vocalist with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra.

Early in 1940, Betty left Vincent Lopez’s band and sang and danced to good notice in the Broadway revue Two for the Show. During its run, she and Lopez terminated their contract with an out-of-court settlement. Later in the year, at $500 weekly, Betty was the comic lead in another Broadway musical, Cole Porter’s Panama Hattie. After her biggest musical number in the show was cut just before opening night by orders of star Ethel Merman, Hutton was understandably upset, but vowed to continue her run after the show’s producer, songwriter B.G. “Buddy” DeSylva, promised to hire her for $1,000 a week to appear in his Paramount film musical The Fleet’s In (1942). The movie teamed her with light-comic actor Eddie Bracken for the first time. In it, she played the part of Dorothy Lamour’s hyperactive roommate with the plot centering on sailor William Holden trying to get his way with club-singer Dorothy. Betty scored well in the film with the songs “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry” and “If You Build a Better Mousetrap”. PM reported, “her facial grimaces, body twists and man pummeling gymnastics take wonderfully to the screen.”

Next, Betty was rematched with Eddie Bracken in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) as a Paramount Pictures telephone switchboard worker who loves sailor Bracken. The sailor’s father (Victor Moore) is, in actuality, a studio gateman, but has told his son he is a movie executive, which causes a series of screwball situations—all of which provide comedy relief between the star-filled specialty numbers. By the end of 1942, the Motion Picture Herald named Betty Hutton as Star of Tomorrow, and she negotiated a comedy and singing job on radio’s The Bob Hope Show.

Now under contract exclusively with Paramount, the “blitzkrieg bombshell” again appeared with Eddie Bracken in the comedy Happy Go Lucky (1943). In it, she was the hoydenish pal of a gold digger (Mary Martin). The latter is pursuing a rich man (Rudy Vallee) at a Caribbean resort, with the aid of her beachcomber boyfriend (Dick Powell). The picture gave Betty the energetic production number “Murder, He Says”, which was so popular it became a national catchphrase. Betty then teamed with Bob Hope for her first starring role in the screen version of Cole Porter’s Broadway musical comedy Let’s Face It (1943), with Hutton running a fat farm and in love with crafty GI Hope. She sang “Let’s Not Talk About Love”. The performance solidified her position as one of Paramount’s top female box-office attractions.

For her first non-singing movie role, Hutton scored well in The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944), a comedy now regarded as a classic. She is the fickle girl who convinced her none-too-bright 4-F boyfriend (Eddie Bracken) to marry her so her pregnancy (from a brief one-night marriage when she was intoxicated) will be blessed with respectability. It proved to be one of screwball comedy writer/director Preston Sturges’s most satisfying zany screen works.

Betty, in 1945, in a publicity shot for The Stork Club.

Concerning And the Angels Sing (1944), in which Betty was part of a sister quartet (along with Dorothy Lamour, Diana Lynn and Mimi Chandler) at odds with a crooked bandleader, The Nation magazine praised, “Betty Hutton is almost beyond good and evil, so far as I am concerned.” Hutton negotiated a new Paramount contract, which paid her $5,000 weekly. She went on a vaudeville tour and appeared on several radio shows, including The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Command Performance, and Mail Call. She closed out 1944 with dual roles as patriotic WAVE sisters in Here Come the Waves with Bing Crosby. Then, at year’s end, she embarked on a two-month South Pacific USO tour.

When Hutton returned to the sound stages, she was granted the dramatic role she long wanted, that of Roaring Twenties speakeasy star Texas Guinan in Incendiary Blonde (1945), a title that described the star even better than its subject. The film—thanks to lavish production values and the star’s verve—was a tremendous success and even broke box office records at the Paramount Theatre in New York. Betty then sang “Doin’ It The Hard Way” in Paramount’s all-star Duffy’s Tavern (1945), based on Ed Gardner’s popular radio program. The Stork Club (1945) followed, with Betty as a hatcheck girl who comes under the benevolent wing of millionaire Barry Fitzgerald after she saves his life, which complicates matters with her bandleader boyfriend (Don DeFore). She performed “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief”, which became a number one hit single for her on Capitol Records, “A Square In The Social Circle” and dueted with popular crooner Andy Russell on “If I Had A Dozen Hearts”.

By now Betty’s studio mentor, B.G. DeSylva, was no longer in charge, and Betty’s vehicles became more variable in quality and many critics began to note that Betty’s performances were much better than and often undeserving of the films themselves. Cross My Heart (1946) was a mild remake of a Carole Lombard 1930s comedy, with zany Betty confessing to a murder so her lawyer boyfriend (Sonny Tufts) will gain publicity by proving her innocent. Much better, though, was another biopic, The Perils of Pauline (1947), in which Betty played silent-screen serial star Peal White. Among her songs in this film were the jukebox hits “Poppa Don’t Preach to Me”, "Rumble, Rumble, Rumble” and “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and became a gold-certified top selling single for Betty.

By this point, Betty was enjoying a happy domestic life, having wed Ted Briskin, a camera manufacturer. They had two daughters together, Lindsay (born November 23, 1946) and Candy (born April 14, 1948). Betty’s return to motion pictures in 1948 was in the fantasy flick Dream Girl, which cast her as a self-centered rich girl who daydreams about happiness. She also had a most successful stand at the London Palladium, earning $17,500 per week.

Annie Get Your Gun was an instant hit for Betty, who portrayed legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

Back on the screen in 1949, Betty co-starred with Victor Mature in the pleasant farce Red, Hot and Blue, which cast her as a stage actress whom director (Mature) attempts to make a star, while the two become implicated in a murder. She repeated this role with John Lund on NBC’s Lux Radio Theater. However, plans to star her in a biography of Theda Bara fell through, as did subsequent projects in which she was to play Sophie Tucker, Clara Bow, and Mabel Normand. Having lost the lead in a loan out to Warner Bros. for Romance on the High Seas (1948) due to her second pregnancy, Betty was even more upset to lose the coveted role of Annie Oakley in MGM’s screen version of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (1950). The choice part went to Judy Garland, who, however, was forced to withdraw after recording the soundtrack and filming two musical numbers. Betty was rushed in to play opposite Howard Keel, who portrayed Frank Butler, the sharpshooter Annie loves. Hutton was a sensation as Annie, and the resultant film made a mint at the box office. Betty was featured on the cover of Time magazine and named the year’s most popular actress by Photoplay magazine.

The year 1950 proved to be a good one for the star. Following the success of Annie, she then teamed with Fred Astaire for Let’s Dance at Paramount, in which she is a singer whose husband dies in the war. She makes a show-business comeback and, meanwhile is attracted to a dancer (Astaire). On NBC radio’s Theater Guild on the Air, Betty starred in “Daisy Mayne” and “Page Miss Glory”, the latter with Ronald Reagan. She also signed with RCA Victor Records, recording the Let’s Dance song “Can’t Stop Talking” and having chart hits with “Orange Colored Sky” and “A Bushel and a Peck”, a top-five single duet with Perry Como.

In 1951, Hutton and Ted Briskin divorced, and for a time she dated actor Robert Sterling. The following year, she returned to the screen in Cecil B. DeMille’s circus epic The Greatest Show on Earth as a high-wire artist, and the movie made $14 million at the box-office. Her next success came with a solid vaudeville engagement, following Judy Garland into the Palace Theater in New York City. After this engagement, she underwent throat surgery, which also required her to retrain her voice. Thereafter, she starred in her third biopic for Paramount, as vaudevillian Blossom Seeley, in Somebody Loves Me (1952). It was a Technicolor story about the trial and tribulations of Seeley and her husband Benny Fields (Ralph Meeker). RCA Victor released the movie’s soundtrack, and Betty and Gene Barry reprised the leads on Lux Radio Theater.

On March 18, 1952, in Las Vegas, Betty married choreographer Charles O’Curran (her dance director on Somebody Loves Me). When Paramount balked at her insistence that O’Curran direct her next vehicle (Topsy and Eva with Ginger Rogers), she walked out on her studio contract, which was not scheduled to expire until the end of the year. Paramount announced it would star Rosemary Clooney in all their planned Hutton vehicles, but the only one that entered production was White Christmas. As suddenly as it had begun, Betty’s meteoric film career had been aborted.

Betty performs with the Skylarks during a concert rehearsal at the London Palladium.

Betty returned to the London Palladium for a three-week stint in 1952, and the next year she was performing on the lucrative nightclub circuit. She was back at New York’s Palace Theater in late 1953 and, after turning down the role of Ado Annie in the film adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, began making plans for her television debut in the NBC-TV musical special Satins and Spurs. She returned to Capitol Records, which released a compilation album of her previous Capitol hit singles entitled A Square in the Social Circle and the Satins and Spurs soundtrack, which was issued prior to the show’s debut on September 12, 1954. The much-touted Max Liebman production cast Betty as a rodeo queen in the Annie Oakley tradition. Despite the entire hullabaloo, the program was not the success it was hoped to be. Betty was so distraught over its failure that, after a good run at the Las Vegas Desert Inn, she tearfully announced to the media and public a temporary break from show business.

Early in 1955, Betty and Charles O’Curran were divorced, and the next month she wed Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston. Vouching to continue her career despite previous setbacks, she reasoned, “I still have pride enough in myself as a performer not to simply drop out of the business, leaving people asking, ‘Say whatever became of Betty Hutton anyhow?’” By 1957, Betty was ready to return to the spotlight and did so with a number of exciting projects. She returned to films in United Artists’ Spring Reunion, a project once planned for Judy Garland. It was a low-key entry with lonely spinster Betty falling for Dana Andrews at a high school reunion. The next year, she signed a recording contract with Warner Bros Records and released Betty Hutton at the Saints and Sinners Ball, a concept album featuring a mix of faux-gospel numbers and racy blues tunes under the conduction of Jerry Fielding. She also began negotiations with CBS and Desilu Productions to star in her own television sitcom. After filming an unsold pilot entitled That's My Mom, the proposal finally came to fruition in 1959 as The Betty Hutton Show, in which Betty starred as Goldie Appleby, a talkative manicurist who inherits a legacy and the custody of three children from a rich customer. She show was carried into the 1960 season after running for thirty episodes.

Then came more television appearances, club work, a divorce (1960) from Alan Livingston, and her fourth marriage (on December 24, 1960) to trumpeter Peter Candoli. MGM producer Arthur Freed had hoped to re-team Betty with Howard Keel in Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962), but Betty wasn’t able to commit for personal reasons: her mother had recently died in a tragic house fire, and she was expecting her third daughter, Carolyn. By year’s end, Betty was starring in a touring production of the musical Gypsy as the infamous Madame Rose. (Bernadette Peters played the role of Dainty June in this production, and would go on to play Rose herself in the 2003 Broadway revival.) Later in the 1960s, Betty continued to tour in theatre productions and was a temporary replacement for Carol Burnett on Broadway in Fade Out-Fade In during the summer of 1964. She also did guest spots on TV series, such as The Greatest Show on Earth, Burke’s Law, and Gunsmoke. She and husband Candoli had much publicized marital problems, and were divorced in 1967. The same year, Betty filed bankruptcy. She bemoaned, “I’ve been crucified in this racket, crucified, when I only gave out love. I bought houses, Cadillacs, furs, you name it, for people—even churches for my maids. But when the money went, everybody split.” Her unbridled demeanor—considered unbecoming in the medium at the time—forced Betty off a daytime quiz show. In the same period, she was dropped from two Paramount Westerns because she could not handle the quick shooting schedules. She was replaced in Red Tomahawk (1967) and Buckskin (1968) by Joan Caulfield, another ex-Paramount star from the 1940s.

After that, Betty did not reappear before the public until later in 1971, when she rode in the Hollywood Santa Claus Lane Parade. That occasion brought work offers, including more theatre and concert appearances, but nothing truly worked out for the former star, who admitted she had made and spent over $9 million and was now broke. She mused, “I don’t know the ‘in’ crowd in Hollywood anymore. I don’t even have many friends anymore because I backed away from them; when things went wrong for me I didn’t want them to have any part of my troubles.” She had alienated herself from her two oldest daughters and her sister Marion. She had lost custody of her youngest daughter, and while on tour in New England in 1973, Betty suffered a nervous breakdown but was helped by a Portsmouth, Rhode Island priest, Reverend Peter Maguire. During this time she became extremely reclusive, and on and off for the next several years, she worked at Father Maguire’s rectory as a cook and housekeeper.

Betty earned her Masters Degree from Salve Regina University on May 18, 1986.

In the later 1970s Betty had become a devoted follower of Catholicism, and with the help and encouragement of her priest, she found the courage to become socially active again. She was hired to perform at Jai-alai Grand in Newport, Rhode Island, and enrolled at Salve Regina University, where she earned a Masters degree in liberal studies. She also made a guest appearance on the ABC detective series Baretta and granted her first interview in over a decade to Mike Douglas for a segment on Good Morning America. A well-publicized “Love-In for Betty Hutton” held at New York’s Riverboat Restaurant and emceed by comedian Joey Adams gave Betty’s spirits a big boost, and in the fall of 1980, she returned to Broadway in the role of Miss Hannigan in Annie. Rex Reed enthused in the New York Daily News, “She is a seemingly endless fountain of comic exuberance, a one-woman fireworks display that lights up the stage at the Alvin and leaves the audience cheering.” She also made a guest appearance on the PBS-TV special Jukebox Saturday Night singing her old movie hits. She returned to Rhode Island, where she was made a member of Salve Regina’s faculty teaching motion picture and television classes. In 1989, a performance of Betty singing “Murder, He Says” was licensed for the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors, and she was supposed to attend the Academy Awards that year, where the film was nominated for three awards, but again illness and insecurities kept her away from the festivities.

After teaching theater arts at Emerson College in Boston in the 1990s, Betty relocated to the West Coast in 1996. Her good friend and benefactor, Reverend Maguire, had recently died, and said Hutton: “I figured there’s no reason for me to be here anymore, now that Father’s gone. I can be a good Catholic anywhere.” By this time, Betty’s music began to be reissued back into the mainstream. Aretha Franklin and k.d. lang had already recorded their own perspective versions of “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So” and in 1991, Bette Midler sang “Stuff Like That There” in a pivotal scene from For The Boys, a film about two singers who entertain American troops during World War II. 1991 also saw the release of Betty’s first greatest hits compilation on CD format—the AEI Records release, The Blonde Bombshell, which featured twelve live recordings of Betty’s brassiest hit songs.

The EMI release Spotlight On Betty Hutton followed in 1994 with sixteen of Betty’s Capitol hit singles re-mastered and newly mixed, and included a previously unreleased studio recording of “Love Is The Darndest Thing” from Betty’s film Cross My Heart. The Best Of The RCA Years was released in 1996 and also featured seventeen Betty songs—this time, however, from her stint on RCA Victor, including her early recordings made with Vincent Lopez and his orchestra. That same year, Icelandic singer Bjork shot to stardom with a remake of Betty’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”, which ignited a renewed interest in swing music that continued for several years.

In 1997, Betty’s voice came roaring through on the silver screen once again, as her recording of “Hit The Road To Dreamland” was featured on the soundtrack to the hugely successful film L.A. Confidential. During this time, a number of Betty’s films were also being released on VHS and DVD, and in 2000, a decades-long feud between the Irving Berlin Estate and MGM ended, allowing Annie Get Your Gun to finally be issued on home video. To celebrate the release, Betty, candid to a fault, turned up on cable TV on Turner Classic Movies’ Private Screenings interview program in which the former “bounding Betty” conversed with host Robert Osborne. During the hour-long chat, Betty garrulously discussed—among other things—her alcoholic mother, her four “disastrous” marriages and her estrangement from her children.

Betty’s films continued to be released into the 2000s with The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek, The Greatest Show On Earth, The Stork Club and The Perils Of Pauline also appearing on DVD. In addition, a volume of The Betty Hutton Show was released, and Betty’s songs continued to be remade for a new generation: Kelly Clarkson performed “Stuff Like That There” during Big Band Week on the first season of American Idol in 2002, a performance that many have credited to cementing her status in the program, and ultimately, her winning the show. In 2003, Tori Amos appeared in the film Mona Lisa Smile singing “Murder, He Says”, and Lucy Woodward recorded “It’s Oh So Quiet” in 2005 for Disney’s The Ice Princess.

Betty Hutton lived in Palm Springs, California until her death due to complications from colon cancer at 86 years of age. Carl Bruno, executor of her estate and long-time friend, told the Associated Press that she died on Monday, March 12, 2007. Hutton is buried at Desert Memorial Park in Palm Springs, California.

1921 February 26: Betty Hutton is born Elizabeth June Thornburg in Battle Creek, Michigan. 1939 May 25: Betty records "Igloo" and "Concert In The Park" for Bluebird Records. July 5: Betty records "The Jitterbug" for Bluebird Records. September 6: Betty appears with Vincent Lopez at the Avalon Ballroom in La Crosse, Wisconsin. 1940 February 8: Two For The Show opens at the Booth Theatre. May 25: Two For The Show closes after 124 performances. August 13: Broadway producer Buddy DeSylva casts Betty in his next show, Cole Porter's Panama Hattie. October 30: Panama Hattie opens at the 46th Street Theatre. 1941 June 1: Betty drops out of Panama Hattie to relocate to Los Angeles, where Buddy DeSylva casts her in his first film for Paramount Pictures. She is replaced in the show by Ann Barrett. September 20: Filming begins on The Fleet's In. October 31: Filming is completed on The Fleet's In. November 4: Betty makes her first appearance on Bob Hope's radio show. The response is so great that she negotiates a thirteen week comedy and singing contract with the show. 1942 March 12: The Fleet's In is released to theaters. Both critics and moviegoers take notice and Betty scores a hit with the tune "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry". April 12: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry" with the Ray Noble Orchestra. April 17: Filming begins on Happy Go Lucky. June 2: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Murder, He Says" with the Billy Artzt Orchestra. June 10: Filming is completed on Happy Go Lucky. June 11: Filming begins on Star Spangled Rhythm. July 23: Filming is completed on Star Spangled Rhythm. August 25: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "The Fuddy Duddy Watchmaker" with the Alfred Newman Orchestra. October 21: Filming begins on The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek. December 21: Appears on radio's "Mail Call" with Cecil B. DeMille, Bert Lahr, Mickey Rooney, Richard Haydn and Douglas Aeronnaders. December 23: Filming is completed on The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek until February 1943. 1943 January 4: Happy Go Lucky is released to theaters. January 27: Appears on Eddie Cantor's radio show with Rudy Vallee and Jimmy McHugh. January 28: Appears on Abbott and Costello's radio program with Monty Wooley. February 3: Filming begins on Let's Face It. February 6: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Murder, He Says" and "Doin' It For Defense". February 25: Betty films additional scenes for The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek. March 3: Betty appears on radio's "Mail Call" with Betty Rhodes and Bob Hope. March 25: Appearing with Rudy Vallee on his radio program, Betty performs several tunes from their film Happy Go Lucky including "Murder, He Says." April 9: Filming is completed on Let's Face It. May 5: Filming begins on And The Angels Sing. June 5: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Bluebirds In My Belfry" with the Woody Herman Orchestra. June 29: Filming is completed on And The Angels Sing. July: Betty tours Army camps. July 7: Appears in the Philip Morris Playhouse version of "The Fleet's In". August 5: Let's Face It is released to theaters. August 6: Appears in the Philip Morris Playhouse version of "Anything Goes". September 8: The twenty-city Hollywood Bond Cavalcade tour kicks off in Washington, D.C., with Betty appearing with twelve other stars including Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Greer Garson and Harpo Max. This was part of the effort to help achieve the goal of the Third War Loan drive. It ultimately raised $1,079,568,819. October 2: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "His Rocking Horse Ran Away". October 5: Appears on Bob Hope's radio show. October 27: Appears on Eddie Cantor's radio show. November 1: Filming begins on Incendiary Blonde. November 13: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Murder, He Says" with the Meredith Wilson Orchestra. 1944 January 19: The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek is released to theaters. January 23: Filming is completed on Incendiary Blonde. February 16: Appears on Eddie Cantor's radio show. March 11: Betty records "It Had To Be You" and "His Rocking Horse Ran Away" for Capitol Records. March 22: Appears on Orson Welles' radio show ("Your Radio Almanac") singing "His Rocking Horse Ran Away". April 25: And The Angels Sing is released to theaters. May 6: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Pig Foot Pete". May 11: Filming begins on Here Come The Waves. July 8: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "His Rocking Horse Ran Away". August 5: Filming is completed on Here Come The Waves. August: Betty begins a personal appearance tour, which is highly successful. She beat Frank Sinatra's all time record at the Boston RKO Orpheum and in Cleveland, brought $15,000 more than Bob Hope, who previously held the house record. September 25: Filming begins on Duffy's Tavern. September 28: Appears on Joe E. Brown's radio show "Stop Or Go." October 6: Betty begins a 50,000-mile flying tour of Army camps in the South Pacific. The kickoff was in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, with other stops including Saipan, Guam, the Philippines and the Marshall Islands. She returns home November 23. December 3: Appears on the radio program "We The People" to discuss her trip to the South Pacific. December 13: Filming is completed on Duffy's Tavern. December 15: Betty records "Stuff Like That There" and "Blue Skies" for Capitol Records. December 18: Here Come The Waves is released to theaters. December 28: Filming begins on Cross My Heart. 1945 January 7: Appears on "Radio Hall Of Fame". February 9: Appears on radio's "Duffy's Tavern". February 24: Filming is completed on Cross My Heart. March 13: Appears on Dick Haymes' radio program "Everything for the Boys". April 7: Betty records "Love Is The Darndest Thing" and "Doin' It The Hard Way" for Capitol Records. April 16: Filming begins on The Stork Club. April 25: Appears on radio's "Mail Call" singing "Stuff Like That There". Other guests include Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, B.S. Pulley, William Demarest and The King Sisters. June 9: Filming is completed on The Stork Club. June 21: Betty records "A Square In The Social Circle" and "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For" for Capitol Records. June 25: Betty serves as master of ceremonies on radio's "Mail Call" with guests Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, B.S. Pulley, The King Sisters and William Demarest. June 29: Betty records "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" for Capitol Records. August: Betty begins a tour of USO camps in Europe. She returns home August 26. August 27: Appears on the radio program "Voice of the People" to celebrate Paramount's "Third of a Century" anniversary. August 31: Incendiary Blonde is released to theaters. September 2: Betty marries camera manufacturer Ted Briskin in Chicago, Illinois in the Camellia house of the Drake hotel. The decorations included white gladioli and ferns. Lindsay Durand was matron of honor, Philip Briskin was best man, Betty's mother, Mabel Hutton, gave her away in marriage. The wedding ceremony was performed by Federal Judge Philip L. Sullivan. Ted and Betty honeymooned in Florida. September 28: Duffy's Tavern is released to theaters. December 28: The Stork Club is released to theaters. 1946 January 4: Appears on Danny Kaye's radio program. January 17: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" singing "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" and parodying "The Peanut Vendor" with the Meredith Wilson Orchestra. February 12: Appears on Bob Hope's radio program. February 28: Filming begins on The Perils Of Pauline. May 15: Filming is completed on The Perils Of Pauline. May 17: Betty records "Walkin' Away With My Heart" and "What Did You Put In That Kiss" for RCA Victor Records. September 13: Betty records "On The Other End Of A Kiss" and "Don't Tell Me That Story" for RCA Victor Records. October 10: Dorothy Lamour throws a baby shower for Betty at the Beverly Tropics. November 23: Betty's first child, daugter Lindsay Diane Briskin, is born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. She is named after Betty's friend Lindsay Durand, who worked in the publicity department at Paramount. December 10: Cross My Heart is released to theaters. 1947 January 15: The Beverly Hills post of the American Legion awards Betty their Medal of Honor for entertaining over 2,000,000 servicemen during the war. February 14: Betty records "Poppa, Don't Preach To Me" and "Rumble, Rumble, Rumble" for Capitol Records. February 24: Appears in the Screen Guild Theater radio version of "The Stork Club" with Charles Ruggles. April 14: Betty records "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" and "The Sewing Machine" for Capitol Records. April 21: Filming begins on Dream Girl. June 31: Filming is completed on Dream Girl. July 4: The Perils Of Pauline is released to theaters. September 28: Appears on Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen's comedy radio show singing "Poppa, Don't Preach To Me" with the Ray Noble Orchestra. December 1: Appears in the Screen Guild Theater radio version of "The Trouble With Women" with Ray Milland. 1948 April 15: Betty's second child, daughter Candice "Candy" Elizabeth Briskin, is born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles. May 29: Appears on radio's "Command Performance" for their Sixth Anniversary Special singing "His Rocking Horse Ran Away" with the Michel Perriere Orchestra. June 30: Betty opens at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. July 23: Dream Girl is released to theaters. September 15: Betty opens at the London Palladium in England for three weeks. November: Betty visits Veterans hospitals in the north. 1949 January 11: Filming begins on Red, Hot and Blue. March 3: Filming is completed on Red, Hot and Blue. March 19: Betty attends the Press Photographers ball in Washington, D.C. April 29: Betty entertains 600 visiting sailors in Los Angeles aboard the Canadian cruiser Ontario. May 9: Betty records "I Wake Up In The Morning Feeling Fine" and "That's Loyalty" for Capitol Records. May 20: Betty records "(Where Are You?) Now That I Need You" and "Hamlet" for Capitol Records. June 6: Appears on radio's "You're Never Too Old" as a guest judge alongside Pat O'Brien and Loretta Young. July 5: Filming begins on Let's Dance. July 18: Betty announces her separation from Ted Briskin, although they reconcile soon after. September 7: Filming is completed on Let's Dance. October 3: Betty records "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun" for film Annie Get Your Gun. October 5: Betty records "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" for film Annie Get Your Gun October 6: Betty records "I'm An Indian, Too", "Let's Go West Again" and "Anything You Can Do" for film Annie Get Your Gun October 7: Betty records "There's No Business Like Show Business", "They Say It's Wonderful" and "I Got The Sun In The Morning" for film Annie Get Your Gun October 8: Betty records "The Girl That I Marry (Reprise)" for film Annie Get Your Gun October 10: Filming begins on Annie Get Your Gun. October 19: Betty records "They Say It's Wonderful (Reprise)" for film Annie Get Your Gun October 21: Betty records the finale/end title version of "There's No Business Like Show Business" for film Annie Get Your Gun. November 25: Red, Hot and Blue is released to theaters. December 17: Filming is completed on Annie Get Your Gun. 1950 February 6: Betty films additional scenes for Annie Get Your Gun at MGM. February 6: Appears in the "Lux Radio Theatre" radio version of "Red, Hot and Blue" with John Lund. February 10: Betty files for divorce from Ted Briskin saying that her husband "didn't approve of her career in films and that his conduct made her nervous." Their interlocutory decree was issued in April 1950 but after Ted and Betty reconciled in July 1950, that decree was set aside. Betty filed a second suit against Ted in December 1950 charging him with extreme cruelty. February 24: Appears in the "Screen Directors' Playhouse" radio version of "Incendiary Blonde". April 16: Appears on Louella O. Parsons' radio program. April 27: Appears on Hank Weaver's radio program "Hollywood Byline". May 9: Appears on Bob Hope's radio program. May 20: Appears on Radie Harris' radio program. May 21: Appears in the "Theater Guild On The Air" radio version of "Page Miss Glory" with Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson. May 23: Annie Get Your Gun is released to theaters. May 25: Appears on the radio program "The Supper Club". July 27: Betty throws a party at the Beverly Hills Crystal room for columnist Louis Sobol and pressagent Peggy Strohl to celebrate their impending wedding. August 18: Betty records "Orange Colored Sky" and "Can't Stop Talking" for RCA Victor Records. September 1: Betty opens at the Michigan State Fair through September 11 to celebrate their 100th annual festivities. September 12: Betty records "A Bushel and A Peck" and "She's A Lady" with Perry Como for RCA Victor Records. September 24: Betty organizes the Chuck Wagon party at the Crystal room of the Beverly Hills Hotel, which benefits the nursery school for visually handicapped children. October 3: Appears at the Municipal Auditorium for the Community Chest's 2000-plate kickoff Luncheon. Betty says, "The Chest helped support my mom, my sister and myself until I was 16. They never let us down." November 11: Betty flies to Montgomery, Alabama to work out for a few days with the Ringing Barnum circus in preparation for The Greatest Show On Earth. November 16: Let's Dance premiers in Lansing, Michigan. November 23: Let's Dance is released to theaters. 1951 January 1: Betty's divorce from Ted Briskin is finalized. January 31: Filming begins on The Greatest Show On Earth. June 7: Filming is completed for The Greatest Show On Earth. June 15: Betty performs a benefit show at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, where she raises $50,000 for handicapped children. June 20: Betty has her first throat surgery to remove nodules from her vocal chords. July 16: Somebody Loves Me begins pre-production. July 25: Betty films additional scenes for The Greatest Show On Earth. August 2: Betty announces her engagement to movie producer Norman Krasna with plans to marry in January. August 7: Betty breaks her engagement with Norman Krasna, telling the press, "Any information will have to come from Mr. Krasna." August 26: Filming begins on >Somebody Loves Me. September 5: Betty films a cameo scene for the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film Sailor Beware. October 28: Filming is completed on Somebody Loves Me. November 10: Betty attends the premiere of "An American In Paris" at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. November 15: Betty leaves on the S.S. Lurline for Honolulu, Hawaii for a three-week vacation at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. 1952 January 10: Betty performs a benefit show at the Imperial Theatre in Toronto, Canada, to benefit handicapped children. January 10: The Greatest Show On Earth premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York. January 13: Appears on Tullulah Bankhead's radio program "The Big Show" alongside Fred Allen, Vera Lynn, Phil Foster, Tony Bennett and June Havoc. January 20: Appears in the "Theater Guild On The Air" radio version of "Daisy Mayme". February 9: Sailor Beware is released to theaters. February 21: Appears in the "Stars In The Air" radio version of "Suddenly It's Spring" with MacDonald Carey. February 23: Betty begins a three-week tour of Japan and Korea to entertain troops near front lines and in hospitals. March 18: Betty marries dance director Charles O'Curran at the Hotel Last Frontier's Little Church of the West by Judge Frank McNamee. One news report wrote that Betty wore an ice blue satin dress with an orchid in her hair. Another wrote that she wore a navy blue wool suit with a little hat with a turned-up brim. Their honeymoon was delayed because of her work. Charles and Betty honeymooned at Lake Tahoe, California in August 1952. April 12: Betty opens on Broadway at the Palace Theatre through May 9. June 19: Betty records "To Know You (Is To Love You)" and "The Last Straw" with Perry Como for RCA Victor Records. July 18: Betty and Paramount agree to end their contract. Betty announces her plans to produce films on a partnership basis with her husband, Charles O'Curran. August 12: Appears on Louella O. Parsons' radio program. August 13: Betty has her second throat surgery to remove nodules from her vocal chords. September 24: Somebody Loves Me is released to theaters. September 29: Betty opens at the London Palladium in England for a four week engagement, then spends an additional four weeks touring Dublin, Scotland, Liverpool and Manchester. She returns home November 25. 1953 January 19: Betty opens at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco for a four week engagement. February 10: Betty greets S. Sgt. John J. Colletti with a kiss after his exit from the transport Gen. W. F. Hase in San Francisco. He was the 300,000th soldier returned by ship from fighting since war began in Korea. February 18: Betty opens in Vancouver for a week's engagement. February 25: Betty opens at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington for a week's engagement. March 4: Betty opens in Portland, Oregon for a week's engagement. April 27: Appears in the "Lux Radio Theatre" radio version of "Somebody Loves Me" with Gene Barry. May 14: Betty opens at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, Illinois for a four week engagement. June: Betty records "Goin' Steady" and "No Matter How You Say Goodbye" for Capitol Records. July 17: Betty opens at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas for a four week engagement. Edith Gwynn reports, "Seldom have we heard or read such raves as those reaped by Betty Hutton in her Vegas night club act. So energetic and so good, she's filled top fellow performers with awe. Almost scared Betty Grable out of hitting the road with a turn of her own. Said Grable, 'How can any girl have the nerve to do an act after seeing Hutton?'" After seeing her perform, movie executive Joseph M. Schenck told Betty, "I'm getting old. I didn't know I had a thrill left in me. But you gave me one tonight." July 20: Betty collapses before her Monday night show at the Desert Inn. Danny Thomas goes on for her. She tells the press she "got too much sunshine." October 14: Betty opens on Broadway at the Palace Theatre for a four week engagement through November 10. 1954 January 3: Appears on radio's "Guest Star" promoting her "Goin' Steady" record. January 13: Betty opens at the Beachcomber in Miami Beach, Florida for a four week stint with Sophie Tucker. They sing one number together. Walter Winchell reported that the Betty act broke "every record in the history of Miami Beach night club business." February 18: Betty appears at the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California, performing at a party tossed in honor of president Dwight D. Eisenhower and his press secretary James C. Hagerty. March 3: Betty records "The Honeymoon's Over" and "This Must Be The Place" with Tennessee Ernie Ford for Capitol Records. March 10: Betty records "Banana Boat (Oomba-Oomba-Oomba)" and "My Cutie's Due At Two-To-Two Today" for Capitol Records. March 12: Betty opens at the Beachcomber in Miami Beach, Florida for a four week engagement. April 12: Betty meets with president Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House in Washington, D.C. April 15: Betty opens her act at the Capital Theatre in Washington, D.C for four weeks. April 20: Betty and Charles O'Curran become legally separated. May 11: Max Liebman and NBC announce their plans to star Betty in Satins and Spurs. May 14: Betty opens in Buffalo, New York for a four week engagement. May 21: Betty files for divorce from Charles O'Curran in California. July 1: Betty obtains a California divorce from Charles O'Curran. July 23: Betty appears at Sophie Tucker's opening at Ciro's in Hollywood, dueting on "Friendship, Friendship". August 20: Betty records the soundtrack for Satins and Spurs for Capitol Records. September 12: Satins and Spurs airs live on NBC-TV. October 12: Betty opens at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas for a four week run. October 26: Betty falls ill and is replaced for two days at the Desert Inn by Merlene Dietich and Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy. November 7: Betty gives her last performance at the Desert Inn and announces her retirement. November 19: Betty performs at the Last Frontier in Las Vegas as a replacement for injured entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. November 20: Betty files for divorce from Charles O'Curran in Las Vegas. She claimed that their marriage was unbearable by Charles' violent temper. They had to wait a year for their California divorce to be final. December 4: Betty's sister, Marion, marries musician Vic Schoen in Santa Monica. Betty serves as matron of honor. Betty's fiance, Alan Livingston, is the best man.

1955 January 6: Betty records "Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)" and "Heart Throb" for Capitol Records. February 21: Betty's divorce from Charles O'Curran is finalized in Las Vegas. She was originally set to be divorced from Charles by default on December 24, 1954 in Las Vegas after fulfilling the six weeks' residence requirement, but her flight from Los Angeles was delayed due to fog. The divorce trial was taken off the court calendar until this time. March 8: Betty marries Capital Records executive Alan Livingston in Las Vegas, Nevada by District Judge Frank McNamee, although a ceremony had originally been planned at the home of Myrt Blum in Beverly Hills, California. Alan and Betty honeymooned in Miami, Florida at the Beachcomber where Betty was scheduled to perform. March 17: Betty opens at the Beachcomber in Miami Beach, Florida for a three week run. April: Betty and Alan Livingston continue their honeymoon in Cuba. May 6: Betty opens at the Sydney Stadium in Sydney, Australia for a four week engagement. July 26: Betty announces that she and her husband, Alan Livingston, are expecting a baby in January. July 29: Betty is rushed to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, where she loses the baby she expected in January. She is released two days later. August 17: NBC announces that Betty has been signed to do an hour-long show in the fall with guest Sophie Tucker. Sophie later is forced to drop out of the program after she is hospitalized for a severe virus attack. October 25: Betty hosts her own hour-long television special, part of NBC-TV's The Chevy Show, with guest stars Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante. November: Betty opens at the Chez Paree in Chicago, Illinois for a four week run. November 15: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Bob Hope Show. 1956 January 7: Betty headlines the entertainment at the 30th Annual San Francisco Auto Show at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium for a nine day run. January 31: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Milton Berle Show, singing "(Love Is) The Tender Trap". February 21: Betty records "Hit The Road To Dreamland" and "Sleepy Head" for Capitol Records. March 4: Betty appears as the mystery guest on the CBS-TV program "What's My Line?". May 13: Betty appears as a guest on the CBS-TV program "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan, where she is named "Hollywood Mother of the Year" by the City of Hope. June 6: Filming begins on Spring Reunion. July 18: Filming is completed on Spring Reunion. October 5: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. December 2: Betty performs in Pheonix, Arizona for a ten day try out of her new nightclub act. December 25: Betty opens at the Sahara in Las Vegas, Nevada for a four week engagement. 1957 March 1: Spring Reunion is released to theaters. April: Betty opens at the Beachcomber in Miami Beach, Florida for a three week engagement. May 17: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. July 24: Betty opens at the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, Nevada for a limited ten day engagement. September: Betty opens at the Sahara in Las Vegas, Nevada for a four week engagement. December 3: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Nat King Cole Show, singing "(Where Are You?) Now That I Need You". December 13: Betty opens at the Stanley Warner Theater in Fresno, California for a limited ten day engagement. 1958 January 4: Betty opens at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada for a three week stint. February 1: Betty opens at the Americana Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida for a limited ten day engagement. February 4: Betty announces she is divorcing her husband Alan Livingston, although they quickly reconcile. March 23: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. April 27: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. May 6: Betty opens at the Cafe de Paris in New York for a four week engagement. June 1: Betty appears as the mystery guest on the CBS-TV program "What's My Line?". August 5: Betty opens at the Sahara in Las Vegas, Nevada for a four week engagement. October 14: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Eddie Fisher Show. 1959 January 18: "Jazz Ball", a compilation of performances by several bands, orchestras and vocalists whose work depicts the wide variety of American jazz, premiers on TV. Included is a performance from Betty from one of her early shorts with Vincent Lopez. February 6: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Phil Harris Show. March 12: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's special presentation "Art Linkletter's Top Ten Sports Stars of the West." March 20: Betty and screenwriter Stanley Roberts announce the formation of Hutton Productions, whose first series will be "Goldie" (later renamed "The Betty Hutton Show"). April 3: Betty files for divorce from Alan Livingston, charging that he caused her grievous mental suffering. June 18: Betty is hospitalized at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for what is reported to be "a long overdue checkup." She is released on June 23 and cites exhaustion and fatigue as the culprit. September 4: Betty is given permission to delay a legal action in her divorce case until September 12 so she can continue rehearsals for her TV show in Culver City. She had filed an affidavit saying that the show could not be completed on schedule if she could not attend all the rehearsals. October 1: "The Betty Hutton Show" premiers on CBS-TV. October 4: Betty appears as a guest panelist on ABC-TV's "Dick Clark's World of Talent." 1960 January 4: Betty, suffering from influenza, is admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. She is released January 7. February 8: Betty is among the original honorees of a star in the official groundbreaking of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. May 5: The last original episode of "The Betty Hutton Show" airs on CBS-TV. May 10: Betty opens at the Sahara in Las Vegas, Nevada for a nine week engagement. May 12: "The Betty Hutton Show" goes into summer re-runs through June 30. September 16: Betty opens at the Basin Street East in New York for a four week engagement. September 22: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Jack Paar Show. October 21: Betty's divorce from Alan Livingston is finalized in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. December 24: Betty marries jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, a friend of twelve years, at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Las Vegas, Nevada. The wedding ceremony was performed by the Rev. Richard L. Sowers. Pete and Betty planned a six-month honeymoon in Europe. 1961 January 18: Betty is hospitalized at Doctors Hospital, again suffering from exhaustion. Her mother tells reporters: "Betty has been working too hard rehearsing her act." February: Betty tries out her new nightclub act in Johannesburg, South Africa. March 14: Betty opens at the Pigalle in London, England for a four week engagement. March 19: Betty appears as a guest on ITV's "Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium". August 8: Betty opens at the Sahara in Las Vegas, Nevada for a nine week engagement. November 8: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's "Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall". December 31: Betty's mother, Mabel Hutton, dies in a house fire at age 61. Her funeral is held January 3, 1962. 1962 June 19: Betty's third child, daughter Carolyn Candoli, is born. June 25: Betty is replaced by Ginger Rogers as the star of Calamity Jane at the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Wallingford, Connecticut. July 3: Betty's daughter, Candy, is injured in a horse riding accident at the Wonder Valley Dude Ranch in Sanger, California. July 31: Betty stars in a touring production of Gypsy. The show opens at the Veterans Memorial Building in Columbus, Ohio. August 7: Gypsy moves to the Civic Light Auditorium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. August 14: Gypsy moves to the Colonie Summer Theatre in Latham, New York. October: Betty stars in a production of South Pacific in San Diego. October 3: Betty appears as a guest on Westinghouse TV's The Steve Allen Show. 1963 April 24: Betty's daughter, Carolyn, is injured when a car driven by the family maid went out of control and jumped a curb. Carolyn suffers facial lacerations and is taken to UCLA Medical Center for surgery. July 2: Betty stars in Annie Get Your Gun at the Melodyland Theatre in Anaheim, California through July 14. December 1: Betty appears in the MGM-produced NBC-TV special "The World's Greatest Showman: The Legend of Cecil B. De Mille", recreating scenes from The Greatest Show On Earth. 1964 February 21: Betty appears as a guest on NBC-TV's The Johnny Carson Show. March 24: Betty appears as a guest on Westinghouse TV's The Mike Douglas Show. March 31: Betty appears as "Julia Dana" on an episode of the ABC-TV series The Greatest Show On Earth entitled "The Glorious Days of the Used to Be". May 3: Betty appears as a celebrity panelist on the "The Celebrity Game". May 8: Betty appears on an episode of Burke's Law entitled "Who Killed 1/2 Of Glory Lee?" as "Carlene Glory". May 9: Betty appears as a guest on "The Hollywood Palace." June 23: Betty stars in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Melody Top Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin through July 5. July 27: Betty stars in Fade Out, Fade In on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre through August 3. 1965 February 24: Betty appears as "Rena Zito" on an episode of Burke's Law entitled "Who Killed The Thirteenth Clown?" April 10: Betty appears as "Molly McConnell" on an episode of the CBS-TV series Gunsmoke entitled "The Bad Lady From Brookline". June 13: Betty and her husband Pete Candoli give a guest sermon at Bethel Temple in Hayward, California. August 3: Betty stars in Mary, Mary at the Avondale Playhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana through August 15. August 21: Betty performs at the Hollywood Bowl. 1966 May 9: Betty appears on Hollywood Talent Scouts. May 13: Filming begins on Red Tomahawk. May 23: Betty drops out of Red Tomahawk and is replaced by Joan Caulfield. June 16: Betty is named honorary chairman of the Thomas Tinerella Memorial Fund. Mr. Tinerella was a police officer in Streamwood, Illinois who was killed on duty. July 5: Betty stars in Here Today at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in St. Charles, Illinois through July 24. July 18: Betty performs and is honored with an award for her entertainment contributions to Marines at the 17th Annual Marine Association Ball at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. August 10: Betty and Pete Candoli are legally separated. September 9: Betty opens at the El Patio Club in Mexico City, Mexico for a two week engagement. September 20: Betty and Pete Candoli are divorced in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. November 14: Police are called to Betty's South Laguna Beach home for a domestic disturbance. November 16: Betty is rushed to South Coast Community Hospital after overdosing on sleeping pills. 1967 March 23: Betty files for a U.S. divorce, charging Pete with causing her mental and physical suffering. June 8: Betty files for bankruptcy. June 16: Betty's divorce from Pete Candoli is finalized in California. July 20: Betty appears as a guest on The Joey Bishop Show. August 16: Betty cancels her engagement at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. 1969 December 31: Betty appears as a guest on The David Frost Show. 1971 December: Betty rides in the Hollywood Santa Claus Parade. 1972 January 27: Betty appears as a guest on The Virginia Graham Show. December 26: Betty stars in Here Today at the Hayloft Dinner Theater in Lubbock, Texas through January 27, 1973. 1973 July: Betty stars in a twenty week tour of Anything Goes at the Cheateau de Ville Theatres in East Windsor, Connecticut; Framingham, Massachusetts; and Warwick, Rhode Island. 1974 February: Betty begins working at the rectory of St. Anthony's in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. June 24: A dinner honoring Betty is held at the Riverboat in New York. Proceeds go to St. Anthony's Rectory. December 13: Betty is committed at Butler Hospital, a psychiatric facility, by her psychiatrist, after she suffers a "complete emotional breakdown." She is released January 2, 1975. 1975 January 4: Betty relocates to New York, where she stays with friends on the south shore of Long Island. She announces plans for a new nightclub act. March 8: Betty cancels an engagement at the Riverboat in New York and is admitted at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic through May 5. May 5: Betty checks into the Graymoore Spiritual Life Center in Garrison, New York. June 18: Betty returns to St. Anthony's parish in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. August 16: Betty leaves St. Anthony's after letters are sent to the Providence bishop complaining that her presence was disrupting the rectory. She relocates to California. December 23: Betty announces her comeback plans, including an engagement at Hollywood's Studio One Club and an appearance at the "That's Entertainment Part II" premiere in Cannes, France. 1976 February 18: Betty undergoes surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for a dislocated shoulder, cancels her engagement at the Studio One Club and the trip to Cannes. July 25: Betty returns to St. Anthony's parish in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. 1977 February 23: Betty appears as "Velma" in an episode of Baretta entitled "Everybody Pays the Fare". February 25: Betty appears as a guest on The Mike Douglas Show. 1978 May: Betty is hired to do public relations work for the Newport Jai Alai fronton in Rhode Island. August 16: Betty appears on Good Morning America. 1979 February 10: Betty appears at a toast to Eddie Bracken presented by the American Film Institute. March 8: Betty is interviewed on Hollywood Backlot. 1980 June 16: Betty appears on Good Morning America, re-uniting with her children and granddaughters. September 15: Betty appears on Good Morning America to discuss her Broadway return. September 17: Betty stars in Annie on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre for a three week run. September 21: Betty is interviewed during a segment for CBS Sunday Morning. October 5: Betty is among the performers at a benefit for Fight For Sight, which does research on the causes of blindness. Other performers include Roberta Peters, Tony Randall and Mary Tyler Moore and master of ceremonies Morey Amsterdam. 1982 May 5: Betty performs in a tribute concert to songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans in the "Lyrics and Lyricists" series at the 92nd Street Y in New York. September 10: Betty is interviewed for Entertainment Tonight. September 10: Betty performs in "A Salute to Capitol", a four-off concert celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Capitol Records, at the Orrie de Nooyer Auditorium in Hackensack, N.J. Other artists include Peggy Lee, Margaret Whiting, Keely Smith, Gordon MacRae and Ella Mae Morse. 1983 March 19: Betty appears on PBS' concert series Jukebox Saturday Night, performing her hit songs. October 6: Betty is honored for her work in mental health at a benefit for the Westchester psychiatric branch of St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in Harrison, New York. 1984 September 19: Betty is awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. 1986 January 7: Betty appears on "Hollywood Interview with Tom Cooper". April 6: Betty attends the annual Archbishop's Communion Breakfast in Los Angeles, where she is presented with an award to honor "a wide area of achievement" as a prominent Catholic in the motion picture, television, radio and recording industries. May 18: Betty receives a Master of Arts degree from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. 1987 May 30: Betty is interviewed for a segment on Entertainment Tonight. June 7: Betty appears on Entertainment This Week's special to celebrate Paramount's 75th anniversary. 1990 July 2: Betty appears in the television special "Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer", aired as part of PBS' American Masters series. 1996 March 19: Betty is asked to participate in the annual "Who Reads What?" list of celebrities' favorite books. She picks "Omnir Opera" by Gilbert K. Chesterton as her favorite. 2000 January 21: Betty, Charlton Heston and other stars of Cecil B. DeMille films appear at the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles to announce the Cecil B. DeMille museum. April 27: Betty tapes an interview with Robert Osborne for the Turner Classic Movies program "Private Screenings" in Atlanta, Georiga. July 18: "Private Screenings: Betty Hutton" premieres on TCM. 2007 March 11: Betty Hutton dies in her apartment in Palm Springs, California at the age of 86 from complications from colon cancer. March 14: Betty's funeral is held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California. March 23: A memorial service is held in Palm Springs at St. Theresa Catholic Church.