Rambunctious blonde band vocalist (billed as "America's Number One Jitterbug" in the late 1930s) who signed... (Learn more)
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Betty Hutton’s Milestones
| Began career dancing on tabletops with her sister at her mother's bootleg bar in Lansing, Michigan at age three | |
| Got first professional job as a singer at a Michigan summer resort at age 13; worked with a local band composed of high school students | |
| Made brief, unsuccessful trip to New York to break into show business at age 15 | |
| Moved into St Anthony's Rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island after entering a detox program; worked as a housekeeper--cooking, washing dishes and making beds at rectory; converted to Catholicism in the mid-1970s | |
| Returned to Rhode Island to live | |
| 1923 | Mother moved with daughters to Detroit where she worked in an automobile factory and operated a speakeasy after husband's desertion (date approximate) |
| 1937 | Discovered by bandleader Vincent Lopez, singing at a Detroit nightclub; hired as vocalist with Lopez's band at $65 at week; used name of Betty Darling on tour (had previously been billed as Betty Jane Boyar) |
| 1938 | Professional singing debut with the Lopez band at Billy Rose's Casa Manana Club in Manhattan |
| 1938 | Sister became a vocalist with the Glenn Miller band; both sisters changed their last name to Hutton |
| 1939 | Made first short for Paramount, "Three Kings and a Queen" |
| 1939 | Performed on Vincent Lopez's NBC radio program; toured vaudeville circuit with bandleader |
| 1939 | Recording debut on Bluebird Records doing vocals with Vincent Lopez's band on "Igloo" and "The Jitterbug" and a duet with Sonny Shuyler on "Concert in the Park" |
| 1939 | Screen debut in Vitaphone short, "Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra"; also appeared with Hal Sherman in Vitaphone short, "One For the Book" (1939) and with Hal LeRoy in "Public Jitterbug No. 1" (1939) |
| 1940 | Featured in the Cole Porter Broadway musical "Panama Hattie", starring Ethel Merman |
| 1940 | Left Lopez's band; Broadway stage debut in revue, "Two For the Show" |
| 1942 | Hired at $1,000 a week by "Panama Hattie" producer B G 'Buddy' DeSylva to make feature debut in Paramount musical, "The Fleet's In" |
| 1942 | Landed a comedy and singing job on radio's "The Bob Hope Show" (date approximate) |
| 1942 | Named Star of Tomorrow by the MOTION PICTURE HERALD exhibitors' poll |
| 1943 | Became one of the first performers to be signed by songwriter Johnny Mercer for the newly formed Capitol Records |
| 1944 | Appeared in first non-singing role, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", directed by Preston Sturges |
| 1944 | Embarked on a two-month USO tour of the South Pacific |
| 1944 | Renegotiated new contract with Paramount at $5,000 a week |
| 1944 | Toured vaudeville circuit |
| 1945 | Starred in first dramatic role as Texas Guinan in "Incendiary Blonde" |
| 1950 | Replaced an ailing Judy Garland as Annie Oakley in the film version of Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun" |
| 1950 | Signed with RCA Victor records |
| 1952 | After successful vaudeville engagement at the Palace Theatre in New York, underwent throat surgery and had to retrain her voice |
| 1952 | Played the trapeze artist in Cecil B DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" |
| 1952 | Turned to successful vaudeville career |
| 1952 | Walked out of her Paramount contract (a year before it expired) when the studio refused to allow her husband Charles O'Curran to direct her vehicle "Topsy and Eva"; film was never made |
| 1953 | Returned to Capitol Records |
| 1954 | Announced retirement as a result of failure of TV special |
| 1954 | TV debut as the star of the musical special, "Satins and Spurs" (NBC) |
| 1957 | Returned to film with "Spring Reunion" (her last film to date) |
| 1959 | Starred as a manicurist on short-lived CBS sitcom, "Goldie" (retitled "The Betty Hutton Show") |
| 1962 | Toured in a summer production of "Gypsy" |
| 1964 | Returned to Broadway as Carol Burnett's replacement for one week in the musical, "Fade Out, Fade In" |
| 1967 | Filed for bankruptcy |
| 1975 | Briefly resumed nightclub career |
| 1976 | Made guest appearance on the ABC detective series "Baretta" |
| 1978 | Hired to greet people at the door of a jai-alai playing field and establishment in Connecticut |
| 1981 | Returned to Broadway for two weeks playing Miss Hannigan in the hit musical "Annie" |
| 1986 | Named a member of the faculty of Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island, teaching motion picture and TV classes |
| 1988 | Collapsed while teaching; diagnosed with Epstein-Barr syndrome |
| 2000 | Gave first major TV interview in nearly 20 years to Robert Osborne for the American Movie Classics series "Private Screenings" |
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