Born December 18, 1916

St. Louis, Missouri

Died July 2, 1973

Santa Monica, California

Model, actress

"Betty was a representation of the girl-back-home for thousands of homesick young lads… She was company on a cold night, comfort at times of pain."
—From Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen
Betty Grable. © Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

A Hollywood movie studio dubbed the 1943 pinup of actress Betty Grable "the picture that launched a million dreams." The term "pinup" was coined to describe the photographs of female actresses and singers that would decorate the barracks and planes of countless soldiers during World War II (1939–45). Entertainers remaining on the home front during the war used their celebrity in a variety of ways to advance the war effort. The most famous pinup to come out of World War II was Grable's. Her photograph, showing Grable from behind in a bathing suit, peering over her shoulder...