Betty Hutton

Betty Hutton (1921-2007) was a comedic actress and singer known for her raucous bellowing delivery and frenetic physicality. She was a Paramount Pictures contract player during her peak stardom in the 1940s. She was loaned to MGM for her best known musical, the film version of Annie Get Your Gun. She was also a successful recording artist, with multiple records used on Sam and Friends.
Hutton first gained notice on Broadway, in the 1940 revue Two for the Show and then as nightclub singer Florrie in Panama Hattie (starring Ethel Merman). She was signed to Paramount and after smaller parts in two musicals, she was third billed in Happy Go Lucky (1943), where she performed the comedic number "Murder, He Says" (decrying her boyfriend's use of then current slang in romancing her). The song became a hit and Hutton reprised it often in her career. She teamed with Bob Hope in Let's Face It and Bing Crosby in Here Come the Waves, but received the most attention in the Preston Sturges screwball comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944). She starred as a smalltown girl with more heart than brains, whose conflation of patriotism with dating the military leads to a marriage to an unknown soldier she can't recall (and further barely Hays Code approved consequences).
She pushed her physical comedy skills further in The Perils of Pauline (an extremely loose recounting of the silent serial's star Pearl White). Following her success as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, she was top billed in the Fred Astaire Let's Dance (1950) and as part of the all-star cast in The Greatest Show on Earth (with Charlton Heston and James Stewart).
After breaking off with Paramount, combined with personal issues and a failed TV sitcom, Hutton's career declined. She performed very sporadically later on, taking dramatic guest roles on Gunsmoke and Barretta and returning to Broadway briefly during the original run of Annie, as a replacement for Miss Hannigan.
==Records used on Sam and Friends==
*"The Musicians" (1951) with Dinah Shore, Phil Harris, and Tony Martin. Transcribed on August 18, 1955.Shemin, Craig. Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show. p. 250
*"How Do'ye Do and Shake Hands" (1951) from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (B side of same record). With Shore, Harris, Martin, and "horns courtesy of Spike Jones." Transcribed August 25, 1955.ibid. p. 252
*"Murder, He Says" (1951) with Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra. Written by Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh. Transcribed September 22, 1955.ibid. p. 256
*"Can't Stop Talking" (1951) from Let's Dance. Written by Loesser. Transcribed September 29, 1955.ibid. p. 258.
*"She's a Lady" (1950) with Perry Como. Transcribed Jul 28, 1958.ibid. p. 290.
*"The Musicians." November 25, 1958 broadcast.ibid. p. 306
*"How Do'ye Do and Shake Hands." April 1, 1959ibid. p. 358
*"She's a Lady." May 5, 1959.ibid. p. 369
*"How Do'ye Do and Shake Hands." August 3, 1959ibid. p. 378 
*"She's a Lady." October 1, 1959.ibid. p. 397
*"The Musicians." October 15, 1959.ibid. p. 401
==Sources==
==External links==
*IMDb
*Internet Broadway Database
*Discogs,com listing
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Musical References