Similarities between the jitterbug scene and Betty's arrival at LAX:

-We see the color purple.
-We see doubles of people.
-There is a redhead amongst the 'chaos'.
-Betty emerges from the chaos, brought 'front and center', flanked by Irene and her companion.
-Betty sparkles.
-Irene and her companion appear to have great admiration (maybe even love) for Betty.
-Once Betty is chosen as the 'favorite', Irene and her companion then leave Betty to stand on her own.
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A few things that are different:

-The redhead seen in the jitterbug seems out of place and has a partner. The redhead seen inside LAX blends in and is alone.
-In the jitterbug scene, Irene is wearing purple. At LAX another older woman is wearing purple and Irene is not.
-In the jitterbug we see many couples doubled. At LAX we see one female doubled.
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I believe these scenes are meant to resemble one another. Why?

And are these two scenes the dream Dan has twice?

It also becomes quite apparent that Irene and her companion really think Betty should be the 'winner'. Do they 'push' this issue behind the scenes?

Is the scene with Irene and her companion, at the end when Diane 'kills herself', simply their 'gathering her up' to 'try again'?

Does Betty/Diane keep failing because Rita/Camilla keeps 'showing up' and screwing up how the story is supposed play out? Like a virus (bug). Who keeps facilitating Rita/Camilla's arrival in Betty/Diane's story? Does Betty/Diane's name change with each 'try' as a way to hide from this 'bug'? Did she even try 'switching apartments'? Does this 'bug' finally get caught (quarantined) for good when it opens the box?
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Another thing I should have placed with the original statement:

Betty is (along with the redhead) also out of place in the jitterbug scene. Her attire doesn't seem to fit.

Is this suggestive of yet another 'failed' story (a third story that didn't play out the way it was supposed to), where Betty had won a different kind of contest, a story we see 'overlying' the jitterbug contest?

Was it a beauty contest? Throughout the film we hear "pretty", "beautiful", "checking the gait", etc.
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And has this cycle of 'retrying' been going on for many years...like, since the 60's?

Does Irene have red hair that has now grayed?

When we see a redhead with a man and some luggage, do these two really represent Irene and her companion? When they were a different age?

Something else to note.

When we see the redhead inside the airport she is without a partner. At this moment, we are seeing Irene without her partner.

When we see the redhead outside of the airport she has a man toting her luggage. Outside the airport we've seen Irene with her partner toting her luggage.

Someone asked me:

Now,why is it that Aunt Ruth is off to Canada via LAX to make a film and Betty is arriving at LAX from Canada and they don’t bother to meet each other at the airport???

Because we assume that the redhead we see leaving Havenhurst is Aunt Ruth?* I have reservations about this. When Rita says "She has pretty red hair" it's as if Betty missed this comment, she's so excited and further distracted with unpacking, and would have corrected Rita if she had heard it. Her Aunt Ruth doesn't have red hair.

I cannot think of any other reason why DL would have Rita make this comment.

It could be very possible that Aunt Ruth was not flying out of LAX. Maybe she was just wrapping up a film in New York. Who's the red-headed woman we see leaving there? A version of Irene? Would this explain her not knowing where the keys are kept? What do the yellow, white and blue beads on her keyring signify? Yellow hair, white hair and blue hair? I think there is another bead after the blue one but I can't make it out...

*If the red-headed woman, that we assume is Aunt Ruth, is not really Aunt Ruth DL would still have to list her as 'Aunt Ruth' in the credits so as to not give away that clue.

Something else that is interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-screen

Blue and green are typically used, but other colors can be used for this process.

Do we not see this process being used, with the color purple (or violet), in the jitterbug scene?

Now listen to Irene at LAX:

"I'll be watching for you on the big screen"

When the process referenced above was used in the jitterbug scene, the images in the back were much larger than the images in front.

Also note that this process is called Chroma key compositing.

From Wiki:
Chroma key compositing (or chroma keying) is a technique for compositing two images or frames together in which a color (or a small color range) from one image is removed (or made transparent), revealing another image behind it. This technique is also referred to as color keying, colour-separation overlay, greenscreen, and bluescreen.

Now think about what Dan says.

"I can see him through the wall. I can see his face."

I remember a while back, on the Rotten Tomatoes forum, someone talking about Betty (or Diane) wearing rose-colored glasses took make her world seem so 'rosy'. I think this person was kinda on the right track. Was it you who said that, ctyankee? I wish I had a pair to watch this film with right about now. It would be very interesting to see how the old lady at the airport, dressed in purple, would look. There's also two particular people I'd like to see that walk by Winkie's during Dan's speech. Someone dressed head-to-toe in yellow walks by, and then later someone dressed head-to-toe in baby blue passes by in the other direction.

I guess I need to figure out which color was used for removing or making things transparent first.