Portrait of Betty Garrett

Birthday profile

Betty Garrett

Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2011)

Born
May 23, 1919
Died
February 12, 2011
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1919

About Betty Garrett

Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical films, then returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series. Garrett later became known for the roles she played in two prominent 1970s sitcoms: Archie Bunker's politically liberal neighbor Irene Lorenzo in All in the Family and landlady Edna Babish in Laverne & Shirley. A year later, her mother discovered that her new husband was involved in a sexual relationship with his male assistant, so she and Betty returned to Seattle. She won critical acclaim and the Donaldson Award for her performance, which prompted Al Hirschfeld to caricature her in The New York Times. She won the 1974 Golden Globe for her performance on the series.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Betty Garrett was born

Betty Garrett was born in 1919. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1919

  • Best-selling book"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBlack Sox scandal — 1919 World Series fixed
  • Top headlineTreaty of Versailles signed — 18th Amendment (Prohibition)
  • Technology milestoneFirst nonstop transatlantic flight (Alcock & Brown)
  • Defining fadOuija boards
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population~1.79B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population103.2M

1919 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Betty Garrett's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19192026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Average home$5,000$435,000
Average income$2,000$67,500
Movie ticket$0.15$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population103.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.