The doctor said no. Betty Hutton whispered yes. So, right after two operations for the removal of warts from her vocal chords, Betty Hutton took off to London with a subdued Hutton bounce—accompanied by her new husband, Charles O’Curran, and her mother.

Betty’s vocal range is about four notes higher and four lower since surgery and gives her a sexy mellowness which blends well with the intimate, come-hiterish style recently taught to her by old-timer Blossom Seeley.

“Blossom opened up a brand-new career for me,” Betty stopped by to say before taking off. “She taught me to do more with a shrug of the hip than I used to accomplish with three hours of shouting. She taught me how to sing so that every man in the audience will feel I’m singing to him alone. She showed me how to put sex into a song.”

Betty Hutton’s newest film, “Somebody Loves Me,” is based on the four-decade show business careers and romance of Blossom and Benny Fields, and Miss Seeley wanted to make sure that Betty’s bombshell was in abeyance for the movie.

She’s easier to take this way. Also, she’s more assured since her recent marriage.

“You know, when I married Ted Briskin, I had two lives,” Betty confided. “I felt my career and my home life should be distinct and separate from one another, but it didn’t work. I’d come home nights tired out and worried and Ted couldn’t understand why. After all, he had worked a full day at the camera factory, too, and now he wanted a little relaxation, but I’d crawl in bed at 8 o’clock, even though I couldn’t go to sleep for hours. At least I got some physical rest. Month after month of this, and Ted was bored blue in the fact.

“I believe that it takes one actor to understand another’s emotional strain. While Charlie isn’t an actor, he was a performer for many years and he’s in the business as deeply as I am. What’s more, we’re both interested in the same type of entertainment. You know, when actors get together all they talk about is themselves. This gets a bit tiresome for an outsider like Ted, but Charlie’s part of it all. We have a wondrous rapport.

Then years ago, when Betty first was brought to Paramount by Buddy DeSylva, she didn’t know the meaning of rapport! Today she tosses it off like a Groucho Marx ad lib.

Irving Brecher, her last director in “Somebody Loves Me,” said: “Betty may have changed, but she’s still the essence of show business, a mixture of Eva Tanguay, Clara Bow, Bette Davis and a six alarm fire. Put her on the stage and she’ll wow an audience. Put her in pictures and she exhibits an amazing emotional appeal. Put her in the middle of the Sahara and she’d draw a crowd.”

“Eventually,” said Betty, “I want to concentrate on directing. If that doesn’t work out, I could even be a character actress. Anyhow, I’ll never quite. I can even follow Sophie Tucker’s footsteps. All I need is some red-hot lyrics and I’m set for the next 60 years! Cabarets are where I came from and I can go back to them if I must.” She’ll produce her next picture based on Miss Tucker’s life story, which her husband directs.

Betty has given up smoking. She used to run through at least two packs a day. “It’s bad for my throat,” she explained, “and it lessens my energy. I have too much to do yet to take any risk like that.”

She will follow her London engagement with one-week dates in the provinces and Ireland. Then, if the script is ready, she’ll start preparations for the Sophie Tucker picture. Otherwise, she’ll take her Palace act on a tour of top Canadian and American cities.