Eighty years ago, Betty Grable posed for a photo that one in 12 Allied servicemen took to the battlefield. By Christopher Moor
Eighty years ago, a quirk of fate saw a 1943 pin-up photo of film star Betty Grable smiling coyly over her right shoulder become a Second World War icon. The picture went off to war in the survival kits of around one in 12 Allied servicemen. Grable (1916-73) was proud to be a pin-up girl. She saw pin-ups as an inspiration for those without a woman in their lives back home. Her own pin-up accentuated her famous legs, which had been insured for a million dollars as a publicity stunt. The self-effacing girl with the million-dollar legs believed they were the two reasons for her success in movies – not her singing and dancing talents. She always credited the success of her pin-up to Frank Powolny, head photographer at 20th Century Fox studios. She said, ‘He’ll tell you it was nothing. That I just happened to stand in front of...
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