Was Betty Hutton Neely??????????????????????????

                        Girls, I just found out about this,  yesterday, and it has me wondering.

                        For those of us who have read the novel "Valley Of The Dolls," admire the movie, and consider it a mantra for Life--and that includes most readers of this blog, especially yours truly!!!!!!!!--since the novel was published in 1966, it has been a foregone conclusion that Helen Lawson was based on Ethel Merman (whom Jackie Susann had had something of an affair with!!!!!!!!) and Neely O'Hara on Judy Garland. That whole sequence, where Neely catches her allegedly fag husband, costumer Ted Casablanca, in the pool, with starlet Carmen Carver, was based on an incident in the 1940s, when Garland caught her certifiably fag husband, director Vincente Minnelli, in bed with the pool cleaner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         But, you know the scene where Neely is fired from Helen Lawson's show, when she says, "I'll leave this stinking show--with dignity?????????"  Well, the basis for this, I am given to understand, was a similar incident between Betty Hutton and Ethel Merman during rehearsals of her 1939 hit, "Panama Hattie."
Ethel was the star, Betty a supporting player.  She may have had a number, and her talent showed, and that was too much for Ethel; no one was going to upstage her.  Too bad she didn't cast Ernest Borgnine, though they had not met yet. She would have had no problem there. Just like with Jack Klugman in "Gypsy."  But Betty was another story--ironic she got to play Ethel's role in "Annie Got Your Gun" on film, when she was hired to replace...Judy Garland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Ethel....Judy.....and Betty!!!!!!!!!!!! Their paths keep crossing!  And Betty had her share of mental and career ups and downs too.  I think she was finally diagnosed as bi-polar, before it became fashionable to be such, like today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                          So, who, actually, was Neely?  I mean, she is my role model!!!!!!!!!!  I always favored Judy, of course, but now you cannot discount Betty.

                             Guess I will be watching some more Betty Hutton movies astutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!