[4] Fox cast Grable in a succession of Technicolor musicals during the decade that were immensely popular, costarring with such leading men as Victor Mature, Don Ameche, John Payne and Tyrone Power.

[11] That same year, she made her uncredited film debut as a chorus girl in the Fox Studios all-star revue Happy Days (1929).

[18] In 1932, aged 15, Grable signed a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, and she was assigned to a succession of acting, singing and dancing classes at the studio's drama school.

[19] After her brief stint as an RKO contract player, Grable signed with Paramount Pictures, which lent her to 20th Century-Fox to costar in the adolescent comedy Pigskin Parade (1936).

In 1939, she appeared opposite her husband Jackie Coogan in Million Dollar Legs,[20] a B-movie comedy that gave Grable her famous nickname.

When the film did not become the hit for which Paramount had hoped, the studio released her from her contract and Grable began preparing to leave Hollywood for a simpler life.

However, she changed her mind and decided to try Broadway, accepting Buddy DeSylva's offer to appear in his musical Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr.

Zanuck, who had been impressed by Grable's performance in Du Barry Was a Lady, was, at the time, in the midst of casting the female lead in the musical film Down Argentine Way (1940).

[23] The role had originally been assigned to Alice Faye, Fox's most popular musical film star, but she had to decline the part due to an unspecified illness.

[25] Over the years, rumors have circulated that a rivalry existed between Grable and Faye during filming, but this has been said to be entirely untrue—both actresses denied all accusations of a feud, and each often expressed their admiration for the other.

After Tin Pan Alley, Grable was teamed again with Ameche in the hit musical Moon Over Miami (1941), which co-starred up-and-coming actress Carole Landis.

The first, A Yank in the R.A.F., released in September, co-starred heartthrob Tyrone Power, and cast her as Carol Brown, who works in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the day, but is employed as a nightclub singer in the evening.

At the time of its release, the film received positive reviews, with many critics singling out the obvious on-screen chemistry between Grable and Power.

[27][28] The second movie, I Wake Up Screaming, released in November, had Grable receiving top billing as Jill Lynn, the sister of a young model who is murdered.

The success of the movie led to her re-teaming with Mature in Footlight Serenade (1942), also co-starring John Payne, in which she played a glamorous Broadway star.

The resulting movie was Springtime in the Rockies (1942), directed by Irving Cummings, and the featured actors included Payne, Cesar Romero, Carmen Miranda, and her future husband, bandleader Harry James.

[citation needed] Grable was voted the number-one box-office draw by American movie exhibitors in 1943; she outranked Bob Hope, Gary Cooper, Greer Garson, Humphrey Bogart, and Clark Gable in popularity.

[32] As her star continued to ascend, Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck expressed interest in broadening Grable's range as an actress.

Pin Up Girl co-starred comedians Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown and was released in April 1944 to overwhelming success at the box office.

[citation needed] After time off to give birth to her daughter, Grable returned to Fox to star in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe (1945), co-starring Dick Haymes and Phil Silvers.

Although critics acknowledged that the film "momentarily achieved" brilliance, they also felt that the movie's music was like "sticky toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube".

When the film was released, it received mixed reviews; it was referred to as "a bright and beguiling swatch of nonsense" and it did not generate the revenue Fox had hoped.

Closing the decade, Grable starred in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949), an oddball movie that unevenly mixed musical numbers with Western clichés.

In 1950, Grable had regained her status as the most-popular female at the box office; she ranked fourth overall, behind John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby.

The film was moderately successful and quickly was followed by Meet Me After the Show (1951), co-starring Macdonald Carey, Rory Calhoun, and Eddie Albert.

The studio refused, and she went on strike, which led to her being replaced by Marilyn Monroe in the movie adaptation of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)[42] and by June Haver in the musical comedy The Girl Next Door (also 1953).

After a year off from filming, Grable reluctantly reconciled with Fox and agreed to star in a musical remake of The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953).

Critics called the film a "slight, but cheerful, item", and proclaimed it "does serve to bring Betty Grable back to the screen".

[47] Grable thereafter found a new career starring in her own act in Las Vegas hotels and with her husband at the time, musician Harry James.

[20][52] Her funeral was held two days later and was attended by ex-husbands Jackie Coogan and Harry James as well as Hollywood stars Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Booth, Mitzi Gaynor, Don Ameche, Cesar Romero, George Raft, Alice Faye, Johnnie Ray and Dan Dailey.