When I Was, So Long Ago
When I was young I thought that fame, the famous
Was and were to aim at:
Constant, stable, durable and permanent.
Never dreamed fame came and went.
At the end of Grable films,
The musicals in Technicolor
Leading ladies got the part
They thought they’d never get;
The men they disliked at film’s start
Became ‘the one’,
Love, applause and confirmation!
Illusion, fantasy, appearance, dream!
Any/all the synonym.
Yet the young are out there
Sharing all the four above.
Five years later most shoved aside,
The false dream but delusion,
Forced by fame’s real pain,
Groom, bride divorced
To glide into a normal trade.
When one is new and in-the-making,
Ipod, tv, thousand apps,
Mental processes taken over
By the ‘happenings’ competing for
This so-called glory, popularity and stardom -
Oh, my goodness, time will come
When what and who
Is young and new
Will have, like me, a ‘long ago’
To refer to. Then they’ll know.
Like me, they’ll know.
Betty Grable -- Frank Powolny
The 42 films Betty Grable made in the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million, and she reigned in the Quigley Poll's Top 10 box office stars every year between 1942-1951. In 1943 she was the world's top box-office draw, and in 1947 she was the highest-paid entertainer in the US. After 20th Century-Fox refused to meet her new contract demands she was replaced in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1952) by Marilyn Monroe, with whom she co-starred in "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953). She agreed to make "How to Be Very, Very Popular" in 1955 but Monroe was replaced by another actress; it was her last film, though she continued to perform on stage and TV. She acquired her nickname in 1939 when she appeared in "Million Dollar Legs," and she later remarked, "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on them." Though pregnant, while filming "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" in 1943 she did a publicity shoot with Frank Powolny, which 20th Century-Fox converted into 1 of the 1st pinups. She divorced her 1st husband, actor Jackie Coogan, in 1939 after 2 years of marriage, and then in 1943 she wed trumpeter Harry James, who she divorced in 1965 after prolonged bouts of alcoholism and infidelity.
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