final credits - june allyson
On screen, she was the perfect wife.
While World War II American GIs pined after the likes of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, it was June Allyson they hoped would be waiting for them back home.
June Allyson died July 8th, 2006 of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness. She was 88.
Allyson herself was surprised she ever became a movie star.
"I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don't sing like Judy Garland. I don't dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they'd take me home to meet Mom."
Blonde, petite (just 5-feet 1-inch and 99 lbs) and with a face filled with optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, a role she often played opposite James Stewart, Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Alan Ladd, Dick Powell and other movie heroes in nearly 70 film and television roles.
But behind the facade of perfect wife, mom and apple pie was a life much different from what the public saw.
The younger of two children of a building superintendent, Eleanor Geisman in born in New York's the Bronx. Ella was 6 when her alcoholic father left [some sources indicate this occured when she was six months old]. That left her mother to work in a printing plant, as a telephone operator and a restaurant cashier to support the family. Her brother went to live with his father.
At 8, Ella was bicycling when a dead tree branch fell on her. Seriously injured, doctors said she would never walk again. She spent four years confined within a steel brace.
"After the accident and the extensive therapy, we were desperate," Allyson wrote in her autobiography. "Sometimes mother would not eat dinner, and I'd ask her why. She would say she wasn't hungry, but later I realized there was only enough food for one."
Ella went from a wheelchair to crutches to braces and was inspired to dance by the team of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Fully recovered, she tried out for a chorus job in a Broadway show. The choreographer gave her the job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month. In 1951 she missed a chance to star opposite Astaire in "Royal Wedding" because she was pregnant.
After appearing in Vitaphone two-reelers and musical shorts for Educational Films, MGM signed her to a contract in 1943. Her beauty and personality connected with U.S. servicemen in 1944's "Two Girls and a Sailor" opposite Van Johnson. Preview audiences responded so favourably that extra sequences were added.
Not sure what to do with her, MGM never saw the potential of Allyson's husky voice that always seemed to suggest indiscretion. She was soon steadily cast in wholesome roles ("I was always in the kitchen cooking eggs," she complained) and it seemed the studio kept her singing abilities in reserve -- as a threat for whenever Judy Garland "threw a tantrum."
The voice was natural but not to MGM's liking. When she arrived on the set of her first film for the studio she was told to go home at once and shake off her cold.
"But I haven't got a cold," she insisted, "I talk like this all the time." Two decades later Nature succeeded where Louis B. Mayer failed. A chronic bronchial condition required two major throat surgeries that forever changed her characteristic tone.
In 1949 she starred with Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Margaret O'Brien in "Little Women," one of her favourite roles. Allyson appeared in more remakes than any other star in cinema history, and her performance always suffered by comparison with those who previously played the parts.
Allyson's reputation as the perfect wife was cemented in roles with Jimmy Stewart in "The Stratton Story," "The Glenn Miller Story" and "Strategic Air Command."
In 1945, Allyson caused a stir when she married Dick Powell, 13 years her senior and twice divorced. Powell was a singer who became a serious actor and later a producer-director and television tycoon. They remained married until his death on January 2nd, 1963.
Allyson with Dick Powell.
At the news of the marriage, Louis B. Mayer threatened to suspend her. Allyson brought him on side by asking him to give her away at the wedding.
Powell left his wife with a sizable fortune which led to her effective retirement from the screen. It was also that the only roles she was being offered at the time were as psychologically disturbed older women wanting younger men.
Allyson appeared only occasionally in recent years on TV shows such as "Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote." One of her last notable big screen appearances was in 1972 as a lesbian murderess in “They Only Kill Their Masters.”
For the past 20 years, Allyson represented the Kimberly-Clark Corp. in commercials for Depends. She championed the importance of research in urological and gynecological diseases in seniors. In 1988, she was appointed by President Reagan to the federal Council on Aging.
Allyson and her last husband, Dr. David Ashrow, actively supported fund-raising efforts for the James Stewart and Judy Garland Museums (Stewart and Garland were both close friends).
Allyson once confessed that "in real life, I'm a poor dressmaker and a terrible cook. In fact, anything but the perfect wife."
As an actress Allyson said she had two valuable skills: she could memorize her lines almost instantly, and she could turn on the tears.
"They liked me because I was the only actress who not only cried on cue, I could also cry in key! That's very important in musicals."
June Allyson has a Bacon number of 2.
Other actress tributes can be found here.