Betty Bartley Nannariello (November 12, 1922 – September 10, 2013), known professionally as Betty Bartley, was an American television and film actress. She began her career as a child actor and continued in film, television, and stage performances including appearances in early

talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

, including '' The Laughing Lady''. Illustrator

McClelland Barclay McClelland Barclay (1891 – 18 July 1943) was an American illustrator. By the age of 21, Barclay's work had been published in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in ...

chose her in 1941 as the Ideal Streamlined

Ziegfeld Girl Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the '' Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris. Desc ...

Early life

Betty Bartley was born on November 12, 1922. Her mother, Elenor Marie McGraw (1892–1956), was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth McGraw of

Seneca, New York Seneca is a town in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 2,658 at the 2020 census. The town is named after a group of local natives. The Town of Seneca is on the southern border of the county and is southwest of the C ...

. Her mother first married Hugh Bartley and lived in

Belle Harbor, Queens Belle Harbor is a small residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, located on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost area of the borough. Belle Harbor commonly refers to the area from Beach 126th to ...

, and then married Charles Devaney in 1933. She lived her married life in Belle Harbor and the

Rockaways The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is a peninsula at the southern edge of the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, New York. Relatively isolated from Manhattan and other more urban parts of ...

, New York until her death in October 1956. Bartley began acting as a child, appearing in the talkie film '' The Laughing Lady'' in 1929.

Career

In 1939 and 1940, she appeared in the Broadway musical revue ''The Streets of Paris''. Bartley was then a dancer in an

Ed Wynn Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...

Broadway production in 1941. She starred in a production of ''

Three Men on a Horse ''Three Men on a Horse'' is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally ...

'' at the Westchester Playhouse in 1946. Her television performances before 1951 were on the shows '' Studio One'', ''

Man Against Crime ''Man Against Crime'' (also known as ''Follow That Man'') starring Ralph Bellamy, one of the first television programs about private eyes, ran on CBS, the DuMont Television Network and NBC from October 7, 1949, to June 27, 1954, and was briefly ...

'', and '' Sure As Fate''. In 1951, she was in the Broadway play ''Twentieth Century''. She was among the cast of the traveling production of '' Twin Beds'' in 1954. In 1959, she starred in

Bert Lahr Irving Lahrheim (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967), known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the MGM adaptation of ...

's stage production of ''

DuBarry Was a Lady ''Du Barry Was a Lady'' is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and the book by Herbert Fields and Buddy DeSylva.

''. Over the course of her career, she had appeared in films and stage productions with Maurice Chevalier,

Fredric March Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, ...

Nancy Carroll Nancy Carroll (born Ann Veronica Lahiff; November 19, 1903 – August 6, 1965) was an American actress. She started her career in Broadway musicals and then became an actress in sound films and was in many films from 1927 to 1938. She was t ...

, and Abbott and Costello.

Personal life

In 1946, Bartley married MGM stage and story editor Howard Hoyt, with whom she had a son, William B. Hoyt. Her second husband was director

Walter Futter Walter Futter (January 2, 1900 – March 3, 1958) was a film producer and director in the United States. After an initial career cutting and editing films, Futter began writing and producing his own shorts and movies, often using footage he acquir ...

in 1955. The following year, Bartley gave birth to a baby who lived only eight hours. Their marriage ended in 1956, and they began divorce proceedings in 1957. Walter Futter died in 1958, while the couple was still separated. In 1959 Bartley was said to lead a firm that made cinemascope lenses. She married advertising executive Edgar Krass in September 1959, and they had a son in June 1960. Their sons are Edgar B. Krass and Richard B. Krass. By 1985, she married John Nannariello, who died in 1993. Betty Bartley died in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

in 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartley, Betty 1923 births 2013 deaths Actresses from New York City Actors from St. Petersburg, Florida People from Rockaway, Queens 20th-century American actresses American child actresses 21st-century American women