Betty Hutton, American singer/actress (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek), died from complications from colon cancer she was , 86

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; ^[1] was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer.died from complications from colon cancer she was , 86

(February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007)

Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg in Battle Creek, Michigan. She was the daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg (1896–1937^[2]) and his wife, Mabel Lum (1901–1967).^[3] While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for another woman. They did not hear of him again until they received a telegram in 1937, informing them of his suicide. Along with her older sister Marion, Betty was raised by her alcoholic mother, who took the surname Hutton and was later billed as the actress Sissy Jones.

The three started singing in the family's speakeasy when Betty was 3 years old. Troubles with the police kept the family on the move. They eventually landed in Detroit, where she attended Foch Intermediate School.^[4]

On one occasion, when Betty, preceded by a police escort, arrived at the premiere of Let's Dance (1950), her mother, arriving with her, quipped, "At least this time the police are in front of us!" Hutton sang in several local bands as a teenager, and at one point visited New York City hoping to perform on Broadway, where she was rejected.

A few years later, she was scouted by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who gave Hutton her entry into the entertainment business. In 1939, she appeared in several musical shorts for Warner Bros., and appeared in a supporting role on Broadway in Panama Hattie^[5] (starring Ethel Merman, who demanded on opening night that Hutton's musical numbers be cut from the show) and Two for the Show,^[6] both produced by Buddy DeSylva.

When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Pictures, Hutton was signed to a featured role in The Fleet's In (1942), starring Paramount's number-one female star Dorothy Lamour. Hutton was an instant hit with the moviegoing public. Paramount did not immediately promote her to major stardom, however, but did give her second leads in a Mary Martin film musical, Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), and another Lamour film. In 1943, she was given co-star billing with Bob Hope in Let's Face It. During that year, she made $1250 per week.^[7]

In 1942, writer-director Preston Sturges cast Betty as the dopey but endearing small-town girl who gives local troops a happy send-off and wakes up married and pregnant, but with no memory of who her husband is, except that a few "z's" were in his name. This film, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, was delayed by Hays Office objections and Sturges' prolific output and was finally released early in 1944. The film made Hutton a major star; Preston Sturges was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar, the film was named on the National Film Board's Top Ten films for the year, the National Board of Review nominated the film for Best Picture of 1944, and awarded Betty Hutton the award for Best Acting for her performance in the film. The New York Times named it as one of the 10 Best Films of 1942-1944.

Critic James Agee noted that "the Hays office must have been raped in its sleep"^{[citation needed]} to allow the film to be released. And although the Hays Office received many letters of protest because of the film's subject matter, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1944, playing to standing-room-only audiences in some theatres. On the strength of its success, she signed a recording contract with the newly formed Capitol Records (she was one of the earliest artists to do so). Buddy DeSylva, one of Capitol's founders, also co-produced her next hit, the musical Incendiary Blonde, directed by veteran comedy director George Marshall and released in 1945, by which time Hutton had replaced Lamour as Paramount's top female box-office attraction. Marshall also directed Hutton in the hugely popular The Perils of Pauline in 1947, where she sang a Frank Loesser song that was nominated for an Oscar: "I Wish I Didn't Love You So."

Hutton in 1952

She was billed above Fred Astaire in the 1950 musical Let's Dance. Her next screen triumph came in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which hired her to replace an exhausted Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film, with the leading role retooled for Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Hutton. Among her lesser-known roles were an unbilled cameo in Sailor Beware (1952) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, in which she portrayed Dean's girlfriend, Hetty Button.

Altogether, Hutton made 19 films from 1942 to 1952. Her career as a Hollywood star ended due to a contract dispute with Paramount following the Oscar-winning The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Somebody Loves Me (1952), a biography of singer Blossom Seeley. The New York Times reported that the dispute resulted from her insistence that her husband at the time, choreographer Charles O'Curran, direct her next film. This is not as outrageous as it now sounds, since many famous female stars, from Greta Garbo to Alexander Korda's first wife, silent movie star María Corda, often demanded directing gigs for their unknown husbands as the price of their next film.

However, beset by the erosion of their audience to television, the dismemberment of their theater chains and the rise of McCarthyism, the studio declined, and Hutton broke her contract. Hutton's last completed film was a small one, Spring Reunion, released in 1957, a drama in which she gave an understated, sensitive performance. Unfortunately, box-office receipts indicated the public did not want to see a subdued Hutton. She also became disillusioned with Capitol's management and moved to RCA Victor.

Hutton got work in radio, appeared in Las Vegas and in nightclubs, then tried her luck in the new medium of television. In 1954, TV producer Max Liebman, of comedian Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, fashioned his first "Color Spectacular" as an original musical written especially for Hutton, Satins and Spurs.^[8] It was a flop with the public and critics, probably because Hutton had an outsized personality that didn't work well on "the small screen." Its viewers also probably expected to see color on their black and white sets, and when they did not, switched to something else.^{[citation needed]}

In 1957, she appeared on a Dinah Shore show on NBC that also featured Boris Karloff; the program has been preserved on a kinescope. Lucille Ball (another female star who had clearly pushed her husband to a lucrative career) and Desi Arnaz took a chance on Hutton in 1959, with their company Desilu Productions giving her a CBS sitcom, The Betty Hutton Show. Hutton hired the still-blacklisted and future film composer Jerry Fielding to direct her series.^[9] They had met over the years in Las Vegas when he was blacklisted from TV and radio and could get no other work, and her Hollywood career was also fading. It was Fielding's first network job since losing his post as musical director of Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life in 1953 after hostile questioning by HUAC. The Betty Hutton Show faded quickly.

She guest-starred in the 1965 Gunsmoke episode "Bad Lady from Brookline". Her character takes a job singing in a saloon, while developing her shooting skills sufficiently to kill Matt Dillon for murdering her husband. The impression is that the show was written specifically to showcase Hutton's talents.^{[citation needed]}

Hutton continued headlining in Las Vegas and touring across the country. She returned to Broadway briefly in 1964 when she temporarily replaced a hospitalized Carol Burnett in the show Fade Out – Fade In.^[10] In 1967, she was signed to star in two low-budget Westerns for Paramount, but was fired shortly after the projects began. In 1980, she took over the role of Miss Hannigan during the original Broadway production of Annie while Alice Ghostley was on vacation. Ghostley replaced the original Miss Hannigan actress, Dorothy Loudon (who won a Tony Award for the role).

Hutton's first marriage was to camera manufacturer Ted Briskin on September 3, 1945. The marriage ended in divorce in 1950. Two daughters were born to the couple:

• Lindsay Diane Briskin, born in Barcelona, Spain on March 1, 1946
• Candice Elizabeth Briskin, born in Havana, Cuba on December 3, 1947

Hutton's second marriage in 1952 was to choreographer Charles O'Curran. They divorced in 1955. He died in 1984.

She married for the third time in 1955. Husband Alan W. Livingston, an executive with Capitol Records, was the creator of Bozo the Clown. They divorced five years later, although some accounts refer to the union as a nine-month marriage.

Her fourth and final marriage in 1960 was to jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, a brother of Conte Candoli. Hutton and Candoli had one child:

• Carolyn Candoli, born on March 9, 1961

They divorced in 1967.

Hutton was once engaged to the head of the Warner Bros. makeup department, makeup artist Perc Westmore, in 1942,^[11] but broke off the engagement, saying it was because he bored her.^[12]

After the 1967 death of her mother in a house fire and the collapse of her last marriage, Hutton's depression and pill addictions escalated. She divorced her fourth husband, jazz trumpeter Pete Candoli, and declared bankruptcy. Hutton had a nervous breakdown and later attempted suicide after losing her singing voice in 1970. After regaining control of her life through rehabilitation, and the mentorship of a Roman Catholic priest, Father Peter Maguire, Hutton converted to Roman Catholicism and took a job as a cook at a rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. She made national headlines when it was revealed she was working in a rectory.

In 1974, a well-publicized "Love-In for Betty Hutton" was held at New York City's Riverboat Restaurant, emceed by comedian Joey Adams, with several old Hollywood pals on hand. The event raised $10,000 for Hutton and gave her spirits a big boost, but steady work still eluded her.

Hutton appeared in an interview with Mike Douglas and a brief guest appearance in 1975 on Baretta. In 1977, Hutton was featured on The Phil Donahue Show. Hutton was then happily employed as hostess at a Newport, Rhode Island, jai alai arena.

She also appeared on Good Morning America, which led to a 1978 televised reunion with her two daughters. Hutton began living in a shared home with her divorced daughter and grandchildren in California, but returned to the East Coast for a three-week return to the stage. She followed Dorothy Loudon as the evil Miss Hannigan in Annie on Broadway^[13] in 1980. Hutton's rehearsal of the song "Little Girls" was featured on Good Morning America. Hutton's Broadway comeback was also included in a profile that was done about her life, her struggle with pills, and her recovery on CBS News Sunday Morning.

A ninth-grade drop-out, Hutton went back to school and earned a master's degree in psychology from Salve Regina University. During her time at college, Hutton became friends with singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh and attended several early concerts of Hersh's band, Throwing Muses.^[14] Hersh later wrote the song "Elizabeth June" as a tribute to her friend, and wrote about their relationship in further detail in her memoir, Rat Girl.^[15]

Hutton's last known performance, in any medium, was on Jukebox Saturday Night, which aired on PBS in 1983.^[16] Hutton stayed in New England and began teaching comedic acting at Boston's Emerson College. She became estranged again from her daughters.

Betty Hutton's headstone at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California - her epitaph reads "Loved by All".

After the death of her ally, Father Maguire, Hutton returned to California, moving to Palm Springs in 1999, after decades in New England. Hutton hoped to grow closer with her daughters and grandchildren, as she told Robert Osborne on TCM's Private Screenings in April 2000, though her children remained distant. She told Osborne that she understood their hesitancy to accept a now elderly mother. The TCM interview first aired on July 18, 2000. The program was rerun as a memorial on the evening of her death in 2007, and again on July 11, 2008, April 14, 2009, January 26, 2010, and as recently as March 18, 2017.^[17] as part of TCM's memorial tribute for Robert Osborne.

Hutton lived in Palm Springs until her death March 12, 2007, at 86, from colon cancercomplications.^[18][19] She is buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.^[

 
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Ernie Ladd, American NFL player and wrestler, died from cancerhe was , 68

Ernest Ladd , nicknamed"The Big Cat", was an American collegiate and professional footballplayer and a professional wrestler died from cancerhe was , 68

. A standout athlete in high school, Ladd attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship before being drafted to the American Football League's San Diego Chargers in 1961. Ladd found success in the AFL as one of the largest players in professional football history at 6' 9" and 315 pounds.

(November 28, 1938 – March 10, 2007)

 

He helped the Chargers to four AFL championship games in five years, winning the championship with the team in 1963. He also had stints with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Oilers. Ladd also took up professional wrestling during the AFL offseason and after a knee injury ended his football career, he turned to wrestling full-time in 1969.

As a wrestler, Ladd became one of the top heels in the business. For much of his career he played a villainous character who would arrogantly taunt both opponents and crowds. Ladd feuded with many popular wrestlers of the time, including Wahoo McDaniel, André the Giant and Mr. Wrestling. He retired from wrestling in 1986.

Ladd was recognized for his careers in both football and wrestling. He was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame in 1981, the Grambling State University Hall of Fame in 1989 and the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995.

Ladd was diagnosed with colon cancer in the winter of 2003–2004. He died several years later on March 10, 2007 at the age of 68.

Ladd was born in Rayville, Louisiana and raised in Orange, Texas. He was a football and basketball star in high school.^[1] In high school, he was coached by William Ray Smith, Sr., father of Bubba Smith. Ladd subsequently attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship.^[2] He was the nephew of Grambling and Houston Oilers teammate Garland Boyette.

Though he was drafted in the fourth round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears,^[3] the American Football League's San Diego Chargers selected the Grambling State University standout with their 15th pick (119th overall) in the 1961 draft.^[4]

At 6'9" and 315 pounds, Ladd was said to be the biggest and strongest man in professional football during his era: 52-inch chest, 39-inch waist, 20-inch biceps, 19-inch neck, and size 18D shoes.^[2]

Ladd played in four AFL championship games, helping the Chargers win the American Football League title in 1963 with teammate Earl Faison, both members of the original Fearsome Foursome.^[5][6] Ladd, an American Football League All-Starfrom 1962 through 1965,^[7] was one of the AFL players that organized a walkout on the 1965 AFL All-Star Game due to the racism they experienced in New Orleans.^[8]

Although Ladd found success with the Chargers, he had a contentious relationship with the Chargers front office.^[1] He started the 1965 season being indefinitely suspended from the team by Coach/General Manager Sid Gillman.

Ladd stated that he and teammate Earl Faison would play out their contract options, opting to take a 10 percent cut in salary in exchange for becoming free agents at the end of the season.^[9] A planned trade with the Oilers in early 1966 would have sent Faison and Ladd to Houston.^[10] However, both were declared free agents after a ruling by AFL commissioner Joe Foss, who declared that Oilers owner Bud Adams had tampered in trade dealings with the Chargers.^[11] Ladd refused to re-sign with the Chargers and suggested he might instead turn to professional wrestling full-time.^[12]

Eventually, Ladd signed with the Oilers and spent the 1966 season playing for them before moving in 1967 to the Kansas City Chiefs.^[2] There, with former Grambling teammate Buck Buchanan, he filled out what was probably the biggest defensive tackle tandem in history. Both Ladd and Buchanan are members of the Grambling State University Athletic Hall of Fame.^[13]

Boston Patriots center Jon Morris said Ladd was so big, he blocked out the sun: "It was dark. I couldn’t see the linebackers. I couldn’t see the goalposts. It was like being locked in a closet."^[2] In 1981, he was inducted into the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame.^[14]

Ladd started wrestling in 1961. As a publicity stunt, some wrestlers in the San Diego area challenged Ladd to a private wrestling workout. Before long, Ladd was a part-time competitor in Los Angeles, during football's off-season.^[4] Ladd became a huge draw in short order. When knee problems cut his football career short, Ladd turned to the more financially lucrative business of wrestling full-time in 1969. After a run as a fan favorite, Ladd became one of wrestling's most hated heels during the 1970s, as well as one of the first black wrestlers to portray a heel character.^[1] He riled crowds with his arrogant and colorful demeanor during interviews, especially with his less than politically correct nicknames for opponents such as Wahoo McDaniel (whom he referred to as "the Drunken Indian"), and Mr. Wrestling (whom he called "the Masked Varmint" and insisted that he was an escaped criminal). Ladd also gained infamy through use of his controversial taped thumb, which Ladd claimed was from an old football injury.^[4] Often, when Ladd appeared to be in serious trouble during a match, he'd walk out of the arena and accept a countout loss. This practice has since become known as "pulling an Ernie Ladd" in some circles.

Ladd wrestled for a number of different wrestling associations, including the World Wide Wrestling Federation where he was managed by The Grand Wizard of Wrestling.^[15] Additionally, he had several successful runs in the NWA territories, The Mid - South Promotion, NWF, and WWC Promotion.

Known for his immense size and power, it was a natural for Ladd to engage in feuds with other giants, including a famous feud with André the Giant (whom Ladd referred to as "Andre the Dummy" or "The Big Fat French Fry" during interviews).

In certain areas, Ladd's wrestling nickname was "The King", and he would wear an ornate crown to emphasize it.^[4]

In other wrestling associations, he was "The Big Cat", and walked in with a big cowboy hat.

Ladd challenged Bruno Sammartino one time at Madison Square Garden for the WWWF title when Bruno reigned, handily pinning Earl "Mr. Universe" Maynard the month prior. He also challenged Pedro Morales for the same title during the latter's reign. In 1978, he wrestled WWWF champion Bob Backlund. When the International Wrestling Association had its brief run in the New York area, Ladd lost a 2 out of 3 fall match to champion Mil Mascaras, 2 falls to 1 (he pinned Mascaras the first fall, was disqualified in the second, and was pinned by Mascaras in the third). This match took place at Roosevelt Stadium, in Jersey City, New Jersey.

After leaving the WWWF, Ladd ventured to the Mid-South territory promoted by Bill Watts.

While in the Mid-South area, Ladd feuded with Paul Orndorff, Ray Candy, and Junkyard Dog. He also served as a manager to Afa & Sika, The Wild Samoans. Ladd also had a decent run as part of a tag team with "Bad" Leroy Brown in the early 1980s. Ladd would also assist Watts as a booker behind the scenes, and had a large part in the development of Sylvester Ritter as the area's top draw.

Ladd retired from wrestling in 1986 due to recurring knee problems.^[2]

In 1986, Ladd returned to the WWF as a Color Commentator, He called the 20 Man Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 2 (which featured NFL players), He also teamed with Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Valiant at the broadcast booth during The Big Eventat C.N.E. Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, then afterwards, Ladd quietly left the WWF.

He was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1994 and the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming the first (and for several years only) inductee in both halls.

Ladd was a longtime friend of the Bush family and supported the 2000 campaign of George W. Bush.^[16]

Ladd also owned and operated Big Cat Ernie Ladd's "Throwdown" BBQ Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana until August 29, 2005, when it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In the hurricane's aftermath, he ministered to Katrina evacuees at the Astrodome. He was a friend of WWE Hall of Fame commentator Jim Ross.

Ernie Ladd also appeared in an episode of That '70s Show entitled "That Wrestling Show." He was in the locker room with The Rock, who was playing his father "Soul Man" Rocky Johnson, from whom Eric and Red Forman were seeking an autograph.

He was also a basketball coach for young kids in Franklin, Louisiana.

 

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