Like most people who lived in this part of Southern California, Betty Crabbe had not been born there. But since she couldn't remember living in Wisconsin, the state in which her family had lived before moving to the Los Angeles area in 1935, she considered herself a native Californian.

At age 17, Betty was a girl with a permanent bronze suntan who had a surfer boyfriend named Freddy and spent most of her time at the beach. As they had caught Betty wearing that scandalous new piece of clothing called the "bikini" quite a few times, her conservative parents were constantly threatening to send her back to Wisconsin to live with her grandparents on their small farm in the middle of nowhere.

But their young daughter couldn't have cared any less because her parents knew that Freddy was a nice, harmless boy who would never take "advantage" of her. In fact, everyone at the beach knew that she was Freddy's "girl." So her relationship with him protected her from unwanted advances: Since Freddy was the leader of his high school's football team and had dabbled in boxing matches as well, it was pretty clear that he was not the sort of person you wanted to get in a fight with by harassing his girlfriend.

Moreover, Betty's visions of her future were pretty innocent: She dreamt of marrying Freddy after graduating high school and wanted to become a homemaker and mother. Even though she lived in Los Angeles, loved movies and was an avid reader of movie magazines, she was one of the few girls in the area who did not dream of a career in movies. She just didn't think she was beautiful enough or talented enough to become an actress like Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe. That didn't prevent her from copying the Hollywood glamour makeup every morning when she dressed up for school meticulously and painted on the arched, thick eyebrows that were fashionable in the early 1950s.

As a matter of fact, Betty's life might have gone on like this and no one might ever have taken any notice of her if Leon Sawyer hadn't had a really bad day.

***

Leon Sawyer was a Hollywood talent agent in his late twenties who had just been told that he might lose his job because his boss had heard that Leon had had a fling with one of his clients. That was a definite no-go for his boss, who did not care so much whether Leon had had an affair with a male or female star. Therefore, he needed to come up with a great idea for the agency or at least with a promising new talent, and he needed to come up with that very fast because his boss would only stay in New York for a couple more days and had already sent him a cable that he wanted to talk to him.

As Leon knew that he might find a lot of good-looking young men and quite a few girls in bathing suits at the beach, he drove to Malibu and took a walk on the beach on a sunny Thursday afternoon. The search for a male or female Lana Turner* turned out to be quite difficult on that particular day because the surfers were already far out in the water, riding spectacular waves. Most of the people who were still at the beach were families with small children who were playing in the sand. He wasn't looking for the next Jackie Coogan** though, but for someone who looked like they had just left high school or college, someone like that Brigitte Bardot girl he had just seen on the cover of a French magazine.

Then, he saw her.

She was not the greatest beauty he had ever seen - but she would do if she was interested in becoming a star. As he knew from experience, most of them usually were.

Of course, her dark blonde hair was a long, curly mess, and her skin had been exposed to the sun a bit too much. But she had an almost perfect hourglass figure, and her facial features, especially the huge eyes and full lips, would photograph well. Thus, he was already very confident that if she lost a few pounds, got a haircut, was made up by a professional makeup artist and photographed by a good photographer from the right angle, this girl could be a star. As for changing her name and the way she moved and spoke, that had to be seen. After all, he hadn't spoken to her yet.

***

It was rare that a man in a business suit took a walk on the beach. Therefore, Betty had spotted the stranger from far away and had soon had the impression that the man was watching her, which made her uncomfortable as Freddy was surfing with his friends and wouldn't be able to help her with this gentleman today if he chose to harass her. Therefore, she got up when she realized that he was definitely walking towards her. She had to admit to herself at that moment that she was indeed frightened and that her parents might have been right about the bikini.

But then he began to speak, and she was less frightened of him. "Hello, Miss. I was wondering if you were interested in becoming a star?"

Her first reaction was to laugh, but she decided that she needed to talk to him as if she was far wiser than she was at 17 and more confident than she actually felt. So she channeled her inner Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner. "And you think you can turn me into a star?"

"As a matter of fact, I can. I'm a talent agent. Here's my card," he said, producing a business card that said he worked for one of the most famous talent agencies in this town.

His agency was so famous across town that even she had heard of it, which made her blush. "And how do you think you can turn me into a star?"

Noticing that they had finally turned a corner, Leon replied, "Well, for starters, we need to take your picture. I think I could arrange a meeting with our agency's photographer, like, tomorrow afternoon?"

"I don't know. I have to ask my parents' permission." Betty knew exactly what her parents would say: "No way!" On the other hand, this could be the one and only shot at fame she would ever get in her life.

"Call ne anyway. You got my number, Miss-"

"Crane. Betty Crabbe."

Leon made a mental note that they definitely had to change that name if he was to represent her.

***

Neither Betty's parents nor her boyfriend knew that she had an appointment at a talent agency on the next day. They thought she was preparing for an upcoming English test with a friend.

To her surprise, Leon was at the shooting. He said he had a clear vision of her and wanted to make sure that she looked exactly like that. Even though the makeup artist couldn't have been any nicer, he was slightly irritated by Leon observing his every move and telling him how to do his job.

Betty felt incredibly glamorous and hardly recognised herself in the mirror when the makeup artist and hairdresser had finished their job.

Leon was happy with the result as well. But when Betty, who was not taller than five foot two, emerged from the makeup room, he held up one pink item that immediately caught her attention: 4-inch high heels. 

Betty loved the shoes, but she was hesitant to put them on. "I've never walked in shoes like these. I don't think I can... I will probably ruin them!" 

"Nonsense!" Leon exclaimed. "If you want to be a star, it is absolutely vital that you must learn how to walk in them! Or as Marilyn put it, 'Give a girl the right kind of shoes and she'll conquer the world.'"

So Betty took his advice and somehow managed to have her picture taken by pretending that she had been born to wear shoes like those pink high heels. She neither stumbled in them nor did she fall flat on her face. 

***

Leon's boss loved the pictures. He signed the starlet with the gummy smile and pink high heels on the day that he fired Leon. 

Betty Crabbe's journey on the path that had been trodden by so many starlets in Hollywood before her had only just begun. 

Author's Notes:

* Actress Lana Turner was famously discovered at a shop in Los Angeles while buying a soft drink.

** Jackie Coogan became famous as a child actor when he starred in The Kid with Charlie Chaplin.