Announcing:
The Return of
Miss Betty Hutton

    On the evening of July 18 Turner Classic Movies will present a very special edition of the ongoing series "Private Screenings," featuring a recent interview with the legendary Betty Hutton, conducted by TCM's Robert Osborne. Since Miss Hutton has for the most part been out of the public eye for several decades, this promises to be the major show business event of the season, if not the millennium. In addition to the visit with Miss Hutton, TCM has also scheduled a mini-festival of four Hutton films, including the rarely-seen 1952 Paramount musical Somebody Loves Me, based on the lives of entertainers Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields, with Hutton starring as Seeley and our very own Ralph Meeker co-starring as Fields. Other Hutton films in the salute include The Stork Club, Incendiary Blonde, and The Perils of Pauline. Check local listings for starting times.






Ralph Meeker      Betty Hutton

Somebody Loves Me

Director: Irving Brecher
1952

[From 1952 pressbook]

Technicolor Musical
'Somebody Loves Me'
Re-creates Golden Era
of Show Business

    Back in the days when no home was considered completely furnished without an embroidered motto on the wall and a piano in the living-room, America was singing such favorite songs as "Jealous," "Rose Room," "Wang Wang Blues," and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans." Melodic proof of the fact that these songs still hold their spell may be seen and heard in Paramount's new Technicolor musical extravaganza "Somebody Loves Me" which comes to the -------- Theatre starting --------. They are gloriously sung by Betty Hutton, who stars in the picture, in the true life role of Blossom Seeley, one of the great ladies of show business.

    Fresh from her triumph in "The Greatest Show on Earth," Betty Hutton brings to glowing life the story of a stage-struck girl who began what was to be a meteoric career in show business, in a music hall on San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Success came quickly -- and with it, a meeting with the man who was destined to become her partner on the stage and off -- Benny Fields. Ralph Meeker is seen as Fields whose inability, at first, to parallel Miss Seeley's success brings unhappiness to them both. A surprise bit is the appearance of a famous comic. A large supporting cast includes Robert Keith, Billie Bird, Adele Jergens and the charmingly decorative "Chez Paree Adorables."

    Betty Hutton has built an enviable career for herself through her dynamic, vivacious style of song delivery, but "Somebody Loves Me" offers her a change of pace. The eighteen song hits which she performs are far removed in type from her usual effervescent singing style. They make a veritable cavalcade of tunes whose popularity has survived the years.

    To re-create the atmosphere of the gilded era when Blossom Seeley's career began, the producers or "Somebody Loves Me," William Perlberg and George Seaton, have assembled a series of lavish backgrounds which range from the Barbary Coast to the colorful settings of Backstage Broadway. Written and directed by Irving Brecher, this authentic reproduction of a fascinating segment of American show business, the generous album of memorable song hits of yesterday, and a truly inspired performance by Betty Hutton, combined to make "Somebody Loves Me" one of the screen's musical achievements.


Ralph Meeker as Benny Fields.

 

 

[From 1952 pressbook]

Betty Hutton Brings
New Characterization
To Screen Immortals

    If a participant in a quiz show were to be asked "Who were Annie Oakley, Pearl White, Texas Guinan and Blossom Seeley?", believe it or not, the correct answer for all of them would be Betty Hutton! In eleven years of entertaining millions of film fans all over the world, filmland"s Blonde Bombshell has re-enacted the explosive lives of no less than four of history's most outstanding female personalities.

First Serial Queen

    Hollywood's bundle of vivacity began her gallery of biographical screen portrayals by getting herself tied to the railroad tracks as Pearl White, the Queen of the Serials, in "The Perils of Pauline." For delighted movie-goers she recreated the hair-raising adventures of the intrepid heroine whose harrowing predicaments inevitably concluded with a title reading "Continued Next Week."


Texas Guinan Next

    Next on Betty's list of screen biographies came "Incendiary Blonde" in which she brought to glowing life the magnetic personality of Texas Guinan, who greeted the tired businessmen of America with a good-natured "Hello Sucker!" and thereby added an unforgettable phrase to the language. She became a symbol of an era of wonderful nonsense -- the time of Daddy Browning, Aimee Semple MacPherson, bootleg gin and stocks on margin. Once again Betty Hutton demonstrated her versatility with a characterization that had all the color and excitement of the Roaring Twenties.

Another Great Role

    Third party in the Betty Hutton album of true life screen roles, put a rifle in her hand and a gleam in her eye as she brought to the screen one of America's truly legendary figures, Annie Oakley. As the girl with the infallible trigger finger in "Annie Get Your Gun," Betty Hutton sang and loved and laughed her way into the hearts of all America.

And Now . . .

    With such an imposing list of screen biographies under her acting belt it would seem that Betty Hutton had reached the climax of her career in screen biography; but now comes a role in which she tops her previous triumphs by creating a memorable picturization of one of the great ladies of show business -- Blossom Seeley, in Paramount's Technicolor musical extravaganza "Somebody Loves Me" which opens --------- at the --------Theatre. As the blues singer who grew up with vaudeville and who teamed romantically and professionally with Benny Fields to become one of the outstanding teams of the musical comedy stage, Blossom Seeley, in the person of Betty Hutton, emerges as a dynamic personality who found her happiness behind the footlights, but who had to suffer heartbreak and bitter disappointment before she could achieve it.

    Miss Hutton's role in "Somebody Loves Me" is an exciting one, inasmuch as it required her to sing some eighteen songs -- a veritable cavalcade of the tunes America has sung since the turn of the century. But to a girl like Betty Hutton, who re-creates the lives of others on the screen and has plenty of time left for a full life of her own off the screen, it's all in a day's work.


 

MEEKER MUSEUM     RALPH MEEKER

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES