June Allyson
| June Allyson | ||
 Allyson in 1944 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Eleanor Geisman | |
| Born | Oct 7, 1917 The Bronx, New York, U.S | |
| Died | Jul 8, 2006 - age 89 Ojai, California, U.S. Bronchitis | |
| Spouse(s): | Dick Powell (1945 - 1963) death Alfred Glenn Maxwell | |
| Occupation: | Actress, dancer, singer | |
| Years active | 1936–2001 | |
| Website: | http://www.juneallyson.com/ | |
| Height: | 5' 2" (1.57m) | |
| Nationality: | American | |
June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; ✦October 7, 1917 – †July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer.
Allyson began her career in 1937 as a dancer in short subject films and on Broadway in 1938. She signed with MGM in 1943, and rose to fame the following year in Two Girls and a Sailor. Allyson's "girl next door" image was solidified during the mid-1940s when she was paired with actor Van Johnson in six films. In 1951, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss. From 1959 to 1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own anthology series, "The DuPont Show with June Allyson", which aired on CBS.
In the 1970s, she returned to the stage starring in Forty Carats and No, No, Nanette. In 1982, Allyson released her autobiography "June Allyson" by June Allyson, and continued her career with guest starring roles on television and occasional film appearances. She later established the June Allyson Foundation for Public Awareness and Medical Research and worked to raise money for research for urological and gynecological diseases affecting senior citizens. During the 1980s, Allyson also became a spokesperson for Depend undergarments, in a successful marketing campaign that has been credited in reducing the social stigma of incontinence. She made her final onscreen appearance in 2001.
Allyson was married four times (to three husbands) and had two children with her first husband, Dick Powell. She died of respiratory failure and bronchitis in July 2006 at the age of 88.
Early life
Allyson was born Eleanor Geisman, nicknamed Ella, in The Bronx, New York City. She was the daughter of Clara (née Provost) and Robert Geisman. She had a brother, Henry, who was two years older. She said she had been raised as a Catholic, but a discrepancy exists relating to her early life, and her studio biography was often the source of the confusion. Her paternal grandparents, Harry Geisman and Anna Hafner, were immigrants from Germany although Allyson claimed her last name was originally "Van Geisman", and was of Dutch origin. Studio biographies listed her as Jan Allyson born to French-English parents. Upon her death, her daughter said Allyson was born "Eleanor Geisman to a French mother and Dutch father." In an interview with Larry King Allyson denied being of German Jewish descent.
In April 1918 (when Allyson was six months old), her alcoholic father, who had worked as a janitor, abandoned the family. Allyson was brought up in near poverty, living with her maternal grandparents. To make ends meet, her mother worked as a telephone operator and restaurant cashier. When she had enough funds, she occasionally reunited with her daughter, but more often, Allyson was "farmed" to her grandparents or other relatives.
Accident
In 1925 (when Allyson was eight), a tree branch fell on her while she was riding her tricycle with her pet terrier in tow. Allyson sustained a fractured skull and broken back, and her dog was killed. Her doctors said she would never walk again and confined her to a heavy steel brace from neck to hips for four years, and she ultimately regained her health. Still, when Allyson had become famous, she was terrified that people would discover her background from the "tenement side of New York City," and she readily agreed to studio tales of a "rosy life", including a concocted story that she underwent months of swimming exercises in rehabilitation to emerge as a star swimmer. In her later memoirs, Allyson describes a summer program of swimming that did help her recovery.
After gradually progressing from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, Allyson's true escape from her impoverished life was to go to the cinema, where she was enraptured by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies. As a teen, Allyson memorized the trademark dance routines of Ginger Rogers; she claimed later to have watched The Gay Divorcee seventeen times. She also tried to emulate the singing styles of movie stars, but she never mastered reading music.
When her mother remarried and the family was reunited with a more stable financial standing, Allyson was enrolled in the Ned Wayburn Dancing Academy and began to enter dance competitions with the stage name of Elaine Peters.
Career
- Wikipedia article: June Allyson career
Personal life
Marriages and children
On her arrival in Hollywood, studio heads attempted to enhance the pairing of Van Johnson and Allyson by sending out the two contracted players on a series of "official dates", which were highly publicized and led to a public perception that a romance had been kindled. Although dating David Rose, Peter Lawford, and John F. Kennedy, Allyson was actually being courted by Dick Powell, who was 13 years her senior and had been previously married to Mildred Maund and Joan Blondell.
On August 19, 1945, Allyson caused MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer some consternation by marrying Dick Powell. After defying him twice by refusing to stop seeing Powell, in a "tactical master stroke", she asked Mayer to give her away at the wedding.[40] He was so disarmed that he agreed but put Allyson on suspension anyway.
The Powells had two children, Pamela Allyson Powell[42] (adopted in 1948 through the Tennessee Children's Home Society in an adoption arranged by Georgia Tann) and Richard Powell, Jr., born December 24, 1950.
In the mid 1950s, Allyson reportedly had an affair with actor Alan Ladd.
In 1961, Allyson underwent a kidney operation and, later, throat surgery, temporarily affecting her trademark raspy voice. She filed for divorce that year, the reason being Powell's devotion to work. In February 1961, Allyson was awarded $2.5 million in the settlement, along with custody of their children, in an interlocutory divorce decree. However, before the divorce was finalized, they reconciled and remained married until his death on January 2, 1963. Later, Allyson reflected on how the loss of Powell affected her:
- I felt I had no props. I'm not really that wise to be able to live life alone and know where I'm going. I felt fear. I felt loneliness. I felt guilt and anger. I was afraid that I would not be able to stand on my own two feet. The loneliness made me feel empty. Then I had an awful guilt. I had always complained that Richard worked too hard, that he had no time for me. I gave him a bad time about this. When he left, I realized that he was working for our future and he wasn't there for me to say, "I'm sorry." I was angry because God had taken Richard away. God should have taken me. He should have left Richard, who had so much more to give.
This loss prompted Allyson to start drinking heavily. In 1963, she was going to elope with Powell's barber, Glenn Maxwell, but decided against it. She and Maxwell would later get married and divorced, then married and divorced again between 1963 and 1970.
She also went through a bitter court battle with her mother over the custody of the children. Reports at the time revealed that writer/director Dirk Summers, with whom Allyson was romantically involved from 1963 to 1975, was named legal guardian for Ricky and Pamela as a result of a court petition. Members of the nascent jet-set, Allyson and Summers were frequently seen in Cap d'Antibes, Madrid, Rome, and London. However, Summers refused to marry her and the relationship did not last.
During this time, Allyson struggled with alcoholism, which she overcame in the mid-1970s.
In 1976, Allyson married David Ashrow, a dentist turned actor. The couple occasionally performed together in regional theater, and in the late 1970s and early 1980s, toured the US in the stageplay My Daughter, Your Son. They also appeared on celebrity cruise ship tours on the Royal Viking Sky ocean liner in a program that highlighted Allyson's movie career.
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: June Allyson filmography
Death
Following hip-replacement surgery in 2003, Allyson's health began to deteriorate. With her husband at her side, she died July 8, 2006, aged 88 at her home in Ojai, California. Her death was a result of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis. On her death, Kimberly-Clark Corporation contributed $25,000 to the June Allyson Foundation to support research advances in the care and treatment of women with urinary incontinence. Along with her husband, she was survived by her daughter, Pamela Powell, her son, Richard, a grandson, and her brother.
External links
- Official website
- June Allyson at the Internet Broadway Database
- June Allyson at the Internet Movie Database
- June Allyson at All Music Guide
- June Allyson at the Turner Classic Movie Database
- Joe Daurril's Allyson Without Tears
- Obituary in the Los Angeles Daily News
- Obituary in The New York Times (July 11, 2006)
- Photographs and literature
- Wikipedia article: June Allyson
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Note: June Allyson was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
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