If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It, But Keep the Sordid Details to Yourself
Nov 23 – write a pitch for your ancestor’s biography
Betty Phillips divided her time between New York and Miami. She spent much of her life surrounded by celebrities. Though she was a pretty girl who was fond of saying, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it,” she avoided celebrity for herself. Life is meant to be lived, not simply experienced. She was one to take advantage of opportunities, but not people. Modest and unassuming, she lived in the midst of the action, but stayed outside the fishbowl.
She was friends with Capone and Ziegfeld, though she refused to participate in their business ventures. She kept the personal and professional separate. She had tales to tell about the famous, the infamous and many in between. Though her marriage,she became related to Lucille Ball and she was also brought in close contact with many small time street performers and vaudeville acts. Though her scrapbooks were full of autographed photos, she took it all in stride.
She shared many stories with family, but did not write them down herself. Not a tell-all, here is another glimpse into celebrity in the early 1900s.