RIP Betty Rowland

 

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By film-mewse

June 15, 2022

 

R.I.P and so long Betty Rowland, aged 106 in April 2022, the fresh-faced flame-haired stage artist dubbed ‘Ball of Fire’ who ruled supreme as one of burlesque's biggest stars.

An original Minsky's Girl, born in 1916, she was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and joined her sisters Dian and Roz Elle on the vaudeville circuit during the early 30s after her father’s fortunes were dashed during the Great Depression. By mid-decade the were working as a trio with their own act.

In 1935, Betty went solo, shorter than her sisters, she perfected a technique by moving her body in the style of a belly-dancer gave the impression she was taller. Her theme during her tenure at Minksy's nightclub in New York was "In the Mood".

Betty moved to Los Angeles in 1938 after New York City Mayor La Guardia cracked down on the appropriate conduct at the city nightspots after a friend of Betty was found to be performing without a G-string. She then became a staple of the Follies Theatre in Hollywood for the next 15 years whilst working on the occasional film.

In 1941, she attempted to sue Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn for using "Ball of Fire" as the title for a Howard Hawks film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. It transpired that Oscar winning costume designer Edith Head had conceived Stanwyck’s wardrobe of beads, sequins and feathers from photos of Betty.

Admired by Howard Hughes and playboy Pat DiCico, she dated Orson Welles who offered her a role in the stage production of "Five Kings", but Betty passed it up. “Orson ditched me for Rita Hayworth. He had a thing about flame haired women; besides I didn't want to be a Hollywood starlet. I was happy working in burlesque earning $2000 a week ‘peeling’,” she said in 2016.

After Welles, she embarked on other tempestuous relationships, married twice, she helped run a series of bars before becoming a restaurant hostess in Santa Monica.

Betty spent her final years in a nursing facility in Brentwood, Cali., still with dyed red-hair and heavy false eyelashes, she would speak candidly to the sisters of her colorful past.

 

ROWLAND, Betty (Betty Jane Rowland)

Born: 1/23/9116, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.

Died: 4/?/2022, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Betty Rowland’s western – actress:

A Time for Dying – 1969 (Mamie’s girl)