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Home , Betty Hutton

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OUR SUNDAY VISITOR I· MAY 27,2007 .\ f Profile ~

MOVIE ~IAVEN Priest and·Eucharist helped actress find herself When Hollywood star Betty Hutton hit bottom she found the Lord and peace , A new life in Christ By Mary Claire Kendall she thought, ''I'm "I just per• While recuperating at a Rhode Island gonna be a star and formed with hospital for a prescription-drug addiction, my mother willstop all my hear~;' something miraculous happened. drinking." is how she She met Father Peter Maguire, who BettyHollywoodHutton,actress,renownedrecently described her helped her turn her life around. She gets her a p pro a c h . After meeting Father Maguire, Hutton diediri Palm Springs at age 86. big tireak And the roles told Osbourne: "I never found me until Dubbed "Amer- kept pouring Father Maguire. I did not know who I was. Like her friend , Hutton ica's No. 1 Jitter- in. I knew what the product was ... like ham• was all heart. But, unlike Garland, after bug;' Hutton's first In 1950 , burgers, hotdogs. But I never found me." this "blond blitzkrieg" lost her way' in real break :was as Hutton gotthe This fatherlike figure reached' out to . Hollywood, she found happiness when she vocalist for band lead in " her, and Hutton eventually converted to found God .. leader Vince Lopez Get Your Gun" Catholicism. Her faith was deep. Before Hutton granted a rare interview to and his orchestra. after Garland receiving Christ in Communion, "I would host Robert Shortly after- pulled out. But sob so because this brought something Osbourne in April 2000 and discussed her ward, she earned the film, she out of me I never knew was in there. That's spectacular show-biz career and amazing Broadway roles told Osbourne, my heart;' she said. "Christ is my heart. converSIOn. and support from "killed the per- But, I didn't know him:' Likewise,she said, Born Betty June Thornburg in Battle son g w r i t e r former in me." "I don't move anywhere without my Creek, Mich., on Feb. 26, 1921, Hutton Buddy DeSylva, She didn't get rosary." never knew her father. who promised to along with her In May 1986, Hutton earned a master's She started singing at age 3 - spon• make her a star. fellowcastmem- degree in psychology, graduating cum taneously breaking into song when a As Paramount bersandDeSylva laude from Salve Regina College in drunken man threatened to beat up her Picture's next died that same Newport, R.I., where she later taught mother at the speakeasy she ran, which executive pro- year. In 1952, drama. Hutton remembered "like it was yester- ducer, he was in a position to help. Hutton walked She also worked with troubled people, day:' . By 1941, Hutton had a contract. out on her Paramount contract. relating, "In can take a soul nobody wants Later, when her mother - whom she Hutton's trademark exuberantperfor- By 1971, two years after Garland died ... and pull them up by their bootstraps, told Osbourne was a "total alcoholic" yet mancein 1942's"The Fleet's In"-"a vita- of a drug overdose, Hutton was on track that is a joy." "the most brilliant, wonderful woman" min pill with legs;' quipped - for the same fate. "I didn't want to go on;' - took her to see a Charlie Chaplin film, made her Paramount's top female she told Osbourne. Mary Claire Kendall writes frof"!l Maryland . ...;fDit