Beauty for the Asking is a 1939 film drama produced by RKO Pictures, and starring Lucille Ball and Patric Knowles. It tells the story of Jean Russell (Ball), a beautician who is jilted by her boyfriend (Knowles) so he can marry an older but wealthy woman. Russell invents a new facial cream, and with the financial backing of her former boyfriend's wife (Frieda Inescort), starts a business that makes her a millionaire.