WEBVTT - Warmest Regards, The Leopard: Betty Grable Extortion Letters 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:05.520 And and and A. 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:08.200 Elizabeth five, six, seven, and eight was. 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.000 Just working on some chair dancer routine. 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:11.760 Oh, I was doing with deep stretches over here. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:12.479 Yeah, it's good. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:13.800 With the leg warmers. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:15.560 Yeah, I like those? Are this pink? Or would you 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:16.639 eat more? Future? What is that? 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:18.079 They're black? 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.200 Oh? I don't have my glasses on, So I got 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:23.760 a question for you. Besides it's about your lovely leg warmers. 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:25.720 Do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:30.800 I certainly do. Do you like baked potatoes? No? Stop it. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.800 Maybe I have a fun fact about the history of 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:34.520 baked potatoes. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.239 Okay, let's pretend Elizabeth. I know a lot about big potato. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.840 Do you like them? Do I like them? Yeah? 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:42.000 You like a good baked potato? 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.640 Yeah, I mean like if it's like dressed. Well, I mean, actually, 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:45.120 I grew up. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.040 It's funny you should say it that way. 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:48.879 I grew up eating a lot of them because my 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:51.599 mother gave us a vegetarian diet, so we had bake 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:53.840 and she's Irish and Catholic, so we had baked potatoes 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.720 like twice a week. Sure, So I got I know 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:58.600 a lot of ways to dress up but to baked potato. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:00.200 Do you know? But I can also, I mean it 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.319 would just butter dress a baked potatoes. No, but you 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.360 know in the UK they call them a jacket potato. 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:07.319 I did not know that. 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.039 A lot of times they put like corn on it. 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.920 You've seen that, Like you done that cut off the 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:13.399 corn from a corn cob. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:18.080 Do they like boil the corn or no? But I mean, 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:19.640 like did they turn it into like a mash? 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.039 It's just corn on their corn on pizza. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:23.080 Corn kernels, Like I'm. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:29.000 Not like a corn pone or a polenta. Anyway, I'm 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.840 getting off track here. So jacket potatoes in the UK 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.520 are baked potatoes over here. And I've talked before about 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:37.840 Aldi they have a special this time of year on 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.200 jacket potatoes. Yeah, because they say it's jacket potato season. 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.200 Now, oh, kind of cuffing season. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:49.600 Well, no, it's more sweat weather. A companies sweat a 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.640 weather and so they have come up with you know, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.080 they have all those cool products in the center aisle. 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.480 They have like well they have a new new thing, 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:01.919 but you can't buy it in the store. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.320 Oh it's only online. It's in the center aisle. 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.680 One steaks. You have to enter on social media to 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:08.480 get purchase. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:08.960 Necessarily. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:14.040 It's a limited edition jacket potato jacket. So it's a 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.359 puffer coat that has the outside print like the outside 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.520 of a potato, which kind of makes it look like 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:20.959 this guy's got a skin disorder. 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.040 It looks like something Tyler the creator would wear. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.920 Ago maybe, but it's all fleece inside, so it looks 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.720 like fluffy inside of a potato. And then you can 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.640 also it comes with a silver rain poncho over the outside, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:38.959 wrapped in foil when you bake them. Some people bake 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:39.600 them in foil. 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.240 Some on the street like that. Yeah, I don't know, 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.040 like in London, but I've seen that sold that. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.520 Way, like baked potatoes on the street. 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.120 Yeah, you know, like they sell like hot dogs on 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:49.520 the street. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:51.360 They tacos where I'm front, Yeah. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:52.560 People also sell baked potatoes. 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:57.400 Really freaks. So anyway you can get this, you're the 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.760 one with the jacket. Gotta go on, you gotta go 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.240 on and try and get you a jacket potato jacket 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.120 if you're in aldi UK. Here's my favorite part of it, 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.760 and then I'll stop. Julie Ashfield is the chief commercial 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.640 officer at Aldi UK. Okay, and she said, you know, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.880 we know our customers love jacket potatoes, so launching this 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.200 jacket made sense, especially now the temperatures are dropping. Okay, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.480 that makes sense. Here's the line that I feel like 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.359 she wrote for us, enjoying a jacket potato in all 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.480 these new jacket potato jacket is sure to be a 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:36.119 mash made in heaven. But I'm chat that is ridiculous 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:37.040 every time. 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.160 Well, if you guys a can just sit back down, 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.720 keep those legwarmers present, because you know I got something 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.040 for you. Yea, it's ridiculous. Yeah, you know, like lots 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.520 of Hollywood stars and celebrities get fan mail, but the 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.880 mid century actress and the World War two era sex 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.920 symbol Betty Grable, right, she was the rare star who 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.400 got lots and lots of extortion letter as fan mail boy. Yeah, 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.560 in the immortal words of Keenan Thompson, what's up with that? 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:07.080 What's up with that? 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:32.520 This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:37.719 heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.200 and one hundred percent what one hundred percent? 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:42.600 What? 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.960 One hundred percent ridiculous. 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.920 Ridiculous, Elizabeth Sar. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.520 A few weeks back, you told me a story that 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.000 blew my mind about the child actor Jackie Coogan. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.039 Yes, you remember that one, right, I remember it well. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.440 Today I want to tell you a story about his 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.440 better half, one of his wives, the super famous actress 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:03.279 Betty Grabil. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:04.080 Yeah. 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:05.440 What do you know about Betty Grabel. 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.359 I know she was married to Jackie Coogan, and I 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.279 know she was like a World War two pin up. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.119 She's got the famous one where she's kind of looking 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.520 over her shoulder. Yeah, you're looking at her rump in 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:15.320 a swimsuit, like. 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.440 If you look over my shoulder. I've brought a Betty 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:18.200 Grable here. 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:20.120 Into the student I can see that. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.400 I always tell you I have a poster of Betty Grable. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.640 So I took a life size cardboard cutout. Did you 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:26.480 have that in your car? 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:33.240 Laminated totally for weather never mind? Yeah? So okay, So 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.560 now let's dive a little deeper and get to know 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.680 Betty Grabil. Yes, she was born in nineteen sixteen and 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.400 her parents named her Elizabeth Ruth Grabil, So it's really 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.640 her name, Betty Grabil. She was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.440 youngest of three kids. Father was a stockbroker. Her mother 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.479 was basically a stage mom. She used she used to 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.400 enter her daughter and like beauty contest all the time 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.440 as a little girl, and then like as a younger girl, 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.520 and she would win, like she want a bunch of them. 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:00.960 She's a looker, right yeah. So after that taste of 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.120 early success, and just after the stock market crashed in 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.040 nineteen twenty nine, her mother took her out to Hollywood 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.359 to chase stardom. Yeah, no mention of her father going 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:12.279 the stockbroker. 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:13.520 But any way, I hope he was okay. 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.599 Betty Grable was twelve years old at the time, and 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.960 her mother lied and said she was fifteen so she 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:19.080 could work in the industry. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.000 Oh that's disturbing, right yeah. 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.080 So she gets her first movie part that same year, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.479 nineteen twenty nine, and at the time she was using 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.120 a stage name, Francis Dean. You got a name like. 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.640 Betty Gray Grable's like the best name. 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.919 Right anyway, Next year nineteen thirty, at age thirteen, she 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.640 signs a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and becomes one of 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:37.360 the og. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.919 Goldwyn Girls at thirteen. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.200 Right, yeah, which if you're unfamiliar. That's just a Hollywood 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.359 knockoff of the Ziegfield Follies, which are the chorus girls 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.239 that were all the rage on Broadway at the time. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.000 And again thirteen years old. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:50.240 Thirteen yeah. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.640 So two years later, nineteen thirty two, she signs with 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.240 RKAO Pictures. That's where she gets to her start actually 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.760 doing acting parts, not just like kicking her legs. She 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.760 takes classes because that was the thing back in like 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:06.080 classic Golden age Hollywood. So she's doing acting classes, dance classes, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.640 voice lessons, and she then goes to her birth name 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.040 as her stage name, Betty Grabel. After she spends the 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.440 thirties basically playing like a typically colleged age girls in 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.440 a series of college set films, and she starts to 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.840 make a name for herself as Betty Grabel. And then 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.400 in nineteen thirty seven she gets married to who former 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.040 child star Jackie Coogan. But as you explained in your episode, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.880 at the time, he was all emotionally bogged down with 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.360 the lawsuit against his parents over his childhood earnings. So 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.600 eventually that puts strain on their marriage and it gets 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.240 cramped by all this emotional like you know, baggage and 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.520 they get divorced two years later in nineteen thirty nine. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.160 Before they got divorced, they started a movie together called 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:48.720 Million Dollar Legs. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.120 Million Dollar Legs. 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.920 Yes, that was the movie where she earned her nickname 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.720 and they called attention to her world famous legs. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:56.280 Yeah. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.320 Anyways, after her divorce from Jackie Coogan in thirty nine, 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.160 the next year, she's feeling a little blue. She's considering 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.200 leaving showbism behind. Right, She's like in her feels because 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.560 she's been in the industry for a decade. 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.520 So she's twenty three, yeah exactly. 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.360 Now at this point, she goes on this national tour 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.960 where she would do personal appearances, and this saves her 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.880 career because it rekindles her love of being a star 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.480 when she's out amongst the people. Though, yeah those of us, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.600 of the little people, right. But the big deal of 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.080 this tour is that she meets Daryl F. Xanik, the 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.680 head of twentieth Century Fox, and he's all charmed by 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.280 Betty Grabil. He can see potential in this, like untapped 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.320 possible megastar. Yeah, So she dyes her hair blonde. She 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.640 becomes Xanic Like well, Xank was kind of a sucker 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.319 for a blonde star. Right, So she becomes his new 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:44.600 like favorite, like it girl of the moment, and he 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.480 believed that he could make this happen for America too. 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.480 And this is when her career really starts to take off. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.960 She becomes this glamorous movie star, a blonde bombshell. She's 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.880 also essentially known for her self deprecating wit, which really 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.520 went a long way in differentiating her from some of 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.760 the other stars of the time. Like as far as 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.319 why she became a big star, Betty Grabel once said, 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.640 as a dancer, I couldn't outdance Ginger Rogers or Eleanor Powell. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.959 As a singer, I'm no rival to Doris Day. As 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.000 an actress, I don't take myself seriously. I'm the girl 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.679 truck driver's loves. And she also means she's such like 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.959 a woman of the people and specifically soldiers. She also acknowledged, yeah, 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.080 she said quote, I'm strictly an enlisted man's girl. Oh right, Yeah, 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.320 So that's obviously in reference to Betty Grabel being a 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.560 major screen icon of the World War two era, because 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.880 you know it's gonna kick off in forty one for us, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.360 right now, there's that famous image that you mentioned of 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.040 her in the white bathing suit. She's like glancing over 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.960 her shoulder, which is just over my shoulder, And that 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.559 image it gets painted on the sides of bomber planes 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.640 and she becomes the it girl of the day. Darryl's 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.160 Anni's call works out perfectly. He's totally right, and she 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.360 becomes actually a good luck charm for soldiers over sees 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.440 this sexy reminder of why and who they're fighting for 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.560 back home. She's what they would call a morale booster. 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.800 But who was Betty Grabel beyond the iconic pin up imagery. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.360 So glad you asked you. 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:13.839 I'm glad to like. 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:15.440 I've been saying, she was a fun star. She's a 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.880 self deprecating woman. She manages to scale the heights of Hollywood. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.880 And also this is, you know, stark contrast to who 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.200 she really is, because she was painfully shy, and yet 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.600 she becomes really, yeah, this major star. This was because 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.240 of a few factors, all right, As Debbie Reynold's, a 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:34.920 fellow actress and a contemporary, once said Betty Grabel was 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.080 the most easy going woman in Hollywood. So, like everybody 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.240 liked working with her. Everyone liked chilling on the set 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:42.760 with her, and she often said, you know that she 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.520 just loved show business, Like she's got this great quote 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.719 about show business. It's loud, it's cheap, it's gaudy, it's 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:50.520 like everything I've ever done. I love it. 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:55.320 I love stars who lean into it, like how good 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.040 they have it, how fun it can. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.960 Be, exactly like a set is incredible. It really does 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.520 feel awesome. It feels like you're getting away with something. 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.520 Yeah, and you look at like actors and professional athletes 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:08.800 who moan about it. You know, when you think that 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.079 there are people who that's their life's dream and you're 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.440 sitting there complaining about this, like, come on. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.080 You've lost perspective, you have lost the plot exactly now. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.800 Betty Grabel was also a huge star because Betty Grabel 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.360 knew who Betty Grabel was. She was super realistic about 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.760 what the public wanted from her. She was extremely self 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.560 aware as a star in show business terms. She was 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.000 essentially a song and dance woman, right, and that's what 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:33.439 those the movies she made. And she once said, there 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:35.880 are two reasons why I am successful in show business, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:40.360 and I am standing on both of them, or more succinctly. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.080 She once said, there's nothing mysterious about me. My legs 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.480 made me. Yeah. I saw this Life magazine pictorial they did. 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.920 We had like eighteen pictures of her, and I think 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.240 her face is only in like four of them. It's 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.280 just always her legs. Yeah. 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:54.640 Wow. 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:56.800 I mean they used to use her legs as measurements. 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.080 If you went into go buy hosiery, They're like, okay, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.360 Betty Grabel's legs, this, what are yours? 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:02.480 Oh wow? 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.959 Yeah. Her megastarretan was very much due to this obviously 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.880 self awareness and then her sexy legs. Yeah, and you 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.240 could say she was also unafraid to flaunt what she had, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.040 namely her million dollar legs. 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:14.480 Yeah. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.560 In fact, as this publicity stunt Daryl Zanik in twentieth 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.000 Century Fox the Studio, they paid this insurance company, Lloyd's 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.480 of London to ensure her legs for one million dollars. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.319 Every time they do those like I've insured my hands. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.840 Really it's fat, it's so bizarre, lovely if you get hurt, 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:31.760 you know, I guess. 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.040 Now by the nineteen forties, so when World War two 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.840 is in full swing, Betty Grabel is the biggest female 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.000 star in America, specifically, in nineteen forty three, she was 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.360 the number one box office draw in the world. That's 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.079 including male actors. Really, she stayed the number one box 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.920 office draw for a full decade when she's making these 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.160 lush Technicolor musicals. Yeah, Betty, Now, Betty Grabel was more popular. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:57.839 I want to make this clear, then the big male 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.960 stars of the day. She's more popular than Clark Gave, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.320 more popular than Gary Cooper, Humphy, Bauagart, Bob Hope. And 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.840 due to that, in forty three, she signs this million 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.400 dollar contract with twenty eighth Century Fox, every with hers 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:11.959 million dollars. Yeah, of course, she comes the first woman 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.920 to join what was known as the million dollar club 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.480 because male actors were getting paid that they'd cross that line. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.840 Right now, since I know you often wondered that this 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.920 a million dollars in nineteen forty three would be eighteen 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.839 point seven million dollars in today's dollars. Wow, she's like 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.600 in the basically the twenty million dollar club. 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:28.040 Yeah. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:29.960 Now, for the next ten years, as I said, she 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.079 remains the highest paid female star in America. In fact, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.280 the US Treasury confirmed with data that in nineteen forty 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.360 six and nineteen forty seven, she was the highest paid 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.960 woman in America regardless of the industry. 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.959 Yeah, think too about you know, we talk about salaries 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.480 now in Hollywood, but that's also because you have this 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.720 global market and they didn't have that then. I mean, 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:54.120 films could make it overseas, but not to the degree 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:55.880 of like that's where the earning is. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.040 Exactly, and that's what now the majority of the earnings. Yeah, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.760 So to recap Betty Grabel, she's this pin up girl, 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.720 She's the sex symbol of her era. She's a major 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.959 blonde bombshell. Basically, one way of thinking about is this, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.800 before there was Marilyn Monroe, there was Betty Grabl. Yeah, right, 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:13.559 you can think of her. Actually, you can kind of 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.320 think of this this series of famous blonde sex symbols. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.040 It goes like this. First there's Gene Harlow, She's the 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.880 first blonde bombshell. She's the Big six symbol of the 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.480 nineteen thirties. And then comes Betty Grabl, the pin up girl, 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.360 blonde bombshell of World War Two of the nineteen forties. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.520 And then along comes Marilyn Monroe, who fuses the appeal 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.720 of both Geen Harlowe and Betty Grabel and then becomes 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.040 you know, it's basically the sex appeal Jean Harlowe and 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.720 the mystery of her and then the every GI's girl, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.000 all American appeal of Betty Grabel. Right, that's how Maryland 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.040 becomes the huge star of the nineteen fifties. So essentially, 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:49.320 Betty Grabel actually even passes the torch to Maryland when 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:51.800 they start together in the movie How to Marry a Millionaire? 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:53.480 Oh right, right, yeah exactly. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.360 In fact, Marilyn Monroe would tell anyone who listened when 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.120 she was growing up, she idolized Betty Grabel like that's 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.160 who she wanted, Yeah, because she knew she had it, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.000 and also she was unapologetic about it. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.640 That's what I think is interesting when you're describing her 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.800 and we know what we know about Marilyn being very 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:14.560 self aware and in control, and you know, they get 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:19.200 portrayed as like ditches and not and kind of manipulated. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.560 Jane Mansfield is another one like that, where these are 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.120 really smart women who are savvy and talented and they 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.160 play characters and people think they are those characters. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.320 Exactly and they know that. You know, American audience at 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.640 the time in particular, liked these like dumb, daffy, goofy women, 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.480 so they would play into that. But you have to 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.080 be smart to play that part exactly. So, No, in 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.560 the nineteen forties, if you're Betty Grabel and your sex symbol, 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:45.480 if you're at this blonde bombshell and you're the most 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.440 famous woman in the world, there's something you also are. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.160 You're a symbol, you're a focus of obsessions, and you 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.200 become a target for you guessed it. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.239 Crime, Oh boy, in this case, oh Betty. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.280 Ridiculous crime. Now. I mentioned old radio shows far too often, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.120 but in this case who Ida too, because it's relevant 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.760 to the story. Because before TV becomes the thing in 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.960 nineteen forty eight, radio is what folks did at night 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.080 for entertainment, as you know, right. They'd gather around, they'd 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.000 listen to sitcoms or news programs. They listened to soap 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.040 operas in the daytime, action adventure shows at night for 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.840 the kids, major Broadway plays, if you're cultured, Hollywood movies 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.400 would get acted on the airways. Right. One of the 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.400 big shows of the day was The Green Hornet, which 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.960 I've mentioned before. It's the radio show that Seth Rogan 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.520 turned into a movie in twenty eleven, but in nineteen 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.160 forty that show became the inspiration for a Betty Grabel based. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.160 Crime waits The Green Hornet. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.360 The Green Hornet. On December sixth, nineteen forty, someone sat 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:43.480 down and they penned a letter to Betty Grabel. But 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.840 this wasn't fan mail. Instead, this person wanted to send 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.200 an extortion letter to Betty Grabel, but rather than call 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.640 himself by his government name since it was an extortion letter, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.800 he called himself the Yellow Hornet. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:54.880 Yellow Hornet. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.440 Yeah, the letter he's sent read you have been selected 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.480 by me, the Yellow Hornet, to pay me the sum 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.399 of two thousand dollars in cash. Of course, of course 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.080 I love the court lady. No want to start to 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.920 a letter. It's like part scam letter, part deranged fantasy. 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:13.639 And also that much money two thousand dollars in nineteen 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.080 forty would be yes, forty six thousand dollars that I've 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.480 been doing it for you, right forty. So back to 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.200 the Yellow Hornet's letter. This amount will be addressed to 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.760 Miss Betty Westlake, six' Ten Allison, Avenue, Washington. Pennsylvania the 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.199 amount will be sent by special delivery any, way you 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.760 prefer By december twenty, Fifth Christmas, day or you will 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.120 thus suffer the results is. 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.359 That The Yellow horns. House. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.760 No, interestingly he doesn't make it clear what these bad 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:42.920 results will. BE i, guess like hel For, ditchcock he 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:44.920 wants to leave it to the. Imagination but The Yellow 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.120 hornet then ends his. Letter this is not a, joke 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.000 as you may, think but strictly. Business if, you, however 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.400 don't send this money to the address, ABOVE i will 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.600 personally come out and get. You, sincerely The. Hornet strictly. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:00.320 Business no pleasure involved in. This it's LIKE. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.119 Epmd it's strictly. Business Erica Perrish Macon ducats. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:04.920 Come and get. 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.400 You yeah. Right he decides to go with the threat 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:10.200 IF i don't get my money By Christmas, day will 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.080 personally come out and get. You AND i assume he 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:13.879 means to come out To, hollywood, right not like to his. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:15.960 Mother AND i guess he'll buy one of those maps 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.000 of the stars homes and just go, knock, knock knock 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.879 on her. Door, now another interesting thing about The Yellow hornets. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.040 Letter it's at the address he sent you asked. About 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:28.040 this is the home In East, Washington, pennsylvania was the 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.439 home of the superintendent Of schools For East, washington and we, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.679 assumed presumably he was the father Of Betty, westlake except, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.919 for as THE fbi found, out there was No Betty. Westlake, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.960 instead the daughter was Named Mary. Westlake so, yeah, anyway 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.520 THE fbi investigates the center of the letter is this 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:50.119 eighteen year old kid Named James, porter Not Betty. Westlake 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:54.040