With her twinkling smile and her wholesome and unassuming screen image, June Allyson gained wide popularity as the perfect girl-next-door in the 1940s. Later, she would become the perfect screen wife, eager, loyal and understanding, notably in three films with James Stewart. Audiences found their pairing especially endearing and believable. In 1986, she said: "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".
French postcard by Editions E.P.I., Paris, no. 2 10 D. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. a.x. 254. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
A serious accident
June Allyson was born on the 7th of October 1917 in New York City, U.S.A.
Her parents were
Robert Geisman and
Clara Provost.
Later, she would claim that her name was 'Van Geisman' and that she was of Dutch origin. However, records show that her paternal grandparents,
Harry Geisman (without a 'Van') and
Anna Hafner, were immigrants from Germany.
When she was a child,
June Allyson was a victim of a serious accident. Doctors feared that she would be crippled for life.
She had to wear a brace to support her spine for some time. She started doing exercises to be able to walk again and to build her muscles. A determined child, she finally recovered.
British postcard in the Picturegoer series, no. W251. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 951.
June Allyson and
Peter Lawford in
Good News (Charles Walters, 1947).
Becoming a dancer
An avid fan of the films of
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers,
June Allyson dreamed of becoming a professional dancer.
June soon started entering dance contests.
She embarked on a career in show business in the second half of the 1930s.
From 1937 to 1940, she appeared in 10 musical shorts at Educational and Vitaphone, including
Up and Downs (1937),
Dime a Dance (1938),
Sing for Sweetie (1938),
The Prisoner of Swing (1938),
Rollin’in Rhythm (1939) and
All Girl Revue (1940).
She also had her first professional stage engagement in 1937 at the Lido Club in Montreal.
Dutch postcard by Van Leer’s Fotodruk Industrie N.V., Amsterdam, no. 351.
American postcard by Movie Candid Color Card, Beverly Hills, California. Photo: MGM.
Broadway
June Allyson worked for the first time on Broadway as a chorus girl in the musical 'Sing Out the News' (1938-1939).
She then was in the cast of 'Very Warm for May' (1939-1940), which, despite a score by
Jerome Kern and
Oscar Hammerstein II and staging by
Vincente Minnelli, lasted only 59 performances.
Next came another chorus girl’s job in Rodgers and Hart’s 'Higher and Higher' (1940), which marked the Broadway debut of famous Hungarian-born soprano
Marta Eggerth. However, it turned out that the biggest hit of the show was a trained sea lion named 'Sharkey'.
She was a dancing girl and an understudy to
Betty Hutton in 'Panama Hattie', which premiered on the 30th of October 1940. When Hutton came down with measles, June had the opportunity to replace her for a few days.
Producer
George Abbott noticed her and took a liking to her. He gave her a good supporting part in his Broadway show 'Best Foot Forward' (1941-1942). M.G.M. bought the film rights, and
June Allyson was hired to appear in the screen adaptation.
Dutch postcard by Uitgave P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-36.
Dutch postcard by Uitgave J. Sleding N.V., Amsterdam, no. 1250.
A team with Van Johnson
In 1943, she had three musical numbers in
Best Foot Forward and sang
George and
Ira Gershwin’s 'Treat Me Rough' in
Girl Crazy.
That same year, she also sang 'In a Little Spanish Town' with
Gloria DeHaven and
Virginia O’Brien in the star-studded musical
Thousand Cheers (1943).
She then had a supporting part in
Meet the People (1944).
Producer
Joe Pasternak thought that June was ready for bigger things, and M.G.M. teamed her with
Van Johnson in
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), which made her a star.
Having noticed the great screen chemistry between June and Van Johnson, M.G.M. would later reunite them in
High Barbaree (1947),
The Bride Goes Wild (1948),
Too Young to Kiss (1951), which won her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and
Remains to Be Seen (1953).
French or Belgian postcard, no. 551.
June Allyson,
Arlene Dahl and
Van Johnson in
The Bride Goes Wild (Norman Taurog, 1948).
Spanish postcard, no. 4384.
June Allyson and
Gene Kelly in
The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948).
M.G.M. star
June Alyson was
Margaret O’Brien’s sister in
Music for Millions (1944) and co-starred with
Robert Walker in
Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945) and
The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945). After
Two Sisters from Boston (1946) with
Kathryn Grayson, she had her first straight dramatic part, as
Claudette Colbert’s depressed and neurotic stepdaughter, in
The Secret Heart (1946).
June guest-starred in two lavish biopics based on the life and music of famous composers.
Till the Clouds Roll by (1946) was about
Jerome Kern, and
Words and Music (1948) depicted the rise to fame of the duo
Richard Rodgers and
Lorenz Hart.
At 29, she still looked youthful enough to play a college girl in the lively and cheerful musical
Good News (1947).
She played Constance in
The Three Musketeers (1948) and Jo March in
Little Women (1949), which were both top-grossers.
In 1949, she co-starred with
James Stewart, with whom she got along very well, in
The Stratton Story, as his devoted wife. It was one of the most popular films of the year.
Spanish postcard, no. 1123.
June Allyson and
Walter Pidgeon.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 1151.
June Allyson,
Marie McDonald and
Peter Lawford.
Growing dissatisfied with her roles
Two films with her husband,
Dick Powell, followed:
The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and
Right Cross (1950).
June Allyson had two straight parts in a row as a turn-of-the-century doctor in
The Girl in White (1952) and as an army nurse in
Battle Circus (1953), opposite
Humphrey Bogart.
After ten years working exclusively for M.G.M., June began growing dissatisfied with the roles she was being offered. She reckoned that working for other studios would give her career a welcome boost.
In May 1953, it was announced that her M.G.M. contract had been dissolved through mutual agreement.
She owed them one more film, which would be
Executive Suite (1954), as
William Holden’s wife. It received the Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting at the Venice Film Festival.
Dutch postcard by Fotoarchief Film en Toneel, no. A.X. 303. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
June Allyson and
Dick Powell. The stationery paper
Dick Powell is writing on is Waldorf Astoria’s.
Dutch postcard by Foto Archief Film en Toneel, no. a.x. 352. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
June Allyson and
James Stewart in
The Stratton Story (Sam Wood, 1949).
Enduring popularity
June Allyson was again
James Stewart’s understanding and supporting wife in Universal’s
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and Paramount’s
Strategic Air Command (1955), which were massive hits.
In 20th Century Fox’s
Woman’s World (1954), she was
Cornel Wilde’s unsophisticated and gauche wife, involved in a three-men competition for a general manager job. The film cleverly contrasted her guileless character with that of her two glamorous co-stars,
Lauren Bacall and
Arlene Dahl. It was a box office success.
In a complete departure from her screen image, she agreed to play
Jose Ferrer’s domineering, jealous and manipulative wife in
The Shrike (1955). During the course of the story, the character played by June is compared to a shrike, an innocent-looking bird which impales its prey. Although the original 1952 Broadway play concluded with a dour note, the end of the movie was altered by Universal to offer a more positive conclusion, enabling the wife to express her regrets. It was assumed that audiences were not ready to accept
June Allyson as a wholly negative character. Nevertheless, the public stayed away from
The Shrike.
She was back to more familiar fare as another perfect wife, this time
Alan Ladd’s, in Warner’s
The McConnell Story (1955). During filming, there were rumours of an off-screen affair between the two stars.
The McConnell Story proved much more popular with audiences than
The Shrike.
In February 1955, she received the 'Year’s Most Popular Actress ' Photoplay award, which recognised her audience appeal in 1954. In 1955, she placed 9th on the list of the ten most popular stars at the U.S. box office.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 850.
June Allyson in
The Reformer and the Redhead (Norman Panama, Melvin Frank, 1950).
French or Belgian postcard, no. 552.
Four remakes in a row
June Allyson then starred in four remakes in a row, which, as a whole, suffered by comparison with the originals.
M.G.M’s
The Opposite Sex (1956) was a musical version of
The Women (1939), but director
David Miller was no
George Cukor. Despite its cast, which, besides June, included
Joan Collins,
Ann Sheridan,
Ann Miller,
Joan Blondell,
Dolores Gray,
Agnes Moorehead and
Charlotte Greenwood, it didn’t meet the expected success.
Columbia’s
You Can’t Run Away from It (1956) was directed by
Dick Powell. It was a remake of
It Happened One Night (1934), which had won five Oscars at the time, including one for
Claudette Colbert, one for
Clark Gable and one for director
Frank Capra. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t any Oscar nomination for
You Can’t Run Away from It.
Universal’s
Interlude (1957) benefited from
Douglas Sirk’s direction and from beautiful Bavarian and Austrian locations, but it was quite a hard task for June and
Rossano Brazzi to compete with the screen chemistry
Irene Dunne and
Charles Boyer had displayed in
When Tomorrow Comes (1939). Later,
Interlude would get some critical reevaluation.
Finally came
My Man Godfrey (1957), again at Universal. The 1936 version, starring
Carole Lombard and
William Powell, was a Screwball Comedy classic. The same couldn’t be said of the remake.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 950.
June Allyson and her daughter
Pamela.
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 75.
Last appearances on the big screen
After
A Stranger in My Arms (1959), opposite
Jeff Chandler, which was a box-office disappointment, she only made very few appearances on the big screen.
June Allyson played a lesbian murderess in
They Only Kill Their Masters (1972).
She later was featured in
Blackout (1978), about four criminals terrorising the occupants of an apartment complex during the 1977 New York blackout.
She briefly appeared in
A Girl, Three Guys and a Gun, which premiered in 2000 at the Cinequest Film Festival and later was released on the video circuit.
Allyson also co-hosted the M.G.M. compilation film
That’s Entertainment III (1994).
Dutch postcard, no. A. x. 464. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 651.
June Allyson and
Ricardo Montalban in
Right Cross (John Sturges, 1950).
Television and stage
June Allyson was much more active on television.
From September 1959 to April 1961, she hosted
The DuPont Show with June Allyson, an anthology drama series in a format similar to
The Loretta Young Show. She acted in 17 of the 57 episodes.
She appeared in popular series such as
Burke’s Law,
The Incredible Hulk,
The Love Boat,
Hart to Hart and
Murder, She Wrote. She was also featured in the TV movies
See the Man Run in 1971,
Letters from Three Lovers in 1973,
Curse of the Black Widow in 1977,
Three on a Date in 1978 and
The Kid with the Broken Halo in 1982.
She guest-starred in various panel game shows, musical variety series and talk shows such as
I’ve Got a Secret,
What’s My Line?,
The Perry Como Show,
The Judy Garland Show,
The Match Game,
The Mike Douglas Show,
The Dean Martin Show,
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
The Merv Griffin Show,
Larry King Live, …
She occasionally appeared on stage. She notably replaced
Julie Harris in the Broadway play 'Forty Carats' on the 5th of January 1970 and played it for several months. She also toured with 'No, No Nanette' in 1971 and 1972.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 952.
June Allyson in
Too Young to Kiss (Robert Z. Leonard, 1951). In the film, she plays a pianist masquerading as a 14-year-old child prodigy.
French or Belgian postcard, no. 952.
June Allyson and
Van Johnson in
Too Young to Kiss (Robert Z. Leonard, 1951).
Depend spokeswoman
In the first part of the 1980s,
June Allyson became the spokeswoman for Depend undergarments, a Kimberly-Clark Corporation line especially designed for adults suffering from bladder leakage, and this association would last for many years. June said she accepted because her mother faced a similar problem.
The marketing campaigns, with the catchphrase 'Get Back into Life', helped reduce the social stigma of incontinence.
In 1988, President
Ronald Reagan appointed her to the Federal Council on Ageing.
At the end of the 1990s, the June Allyson Foundation, whose main goal was to help research the causes and management of pelvic floor disorders and incontinence, was established.
In 2008, it would merge with the AUGS (American Urogynecologic Society).
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 1792. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Belgian postcard, no. 951.
June Alyson and
Dick Powell.
Her private life
June Allyson fell in love with
Dick Powell during the filming of
Meet the People (1944), and they married in 1945. They adopted a daughter,
Pamela, in 1948, and had a son,
Robert Jr., in 1950.
In 1961, June filed for divorce, but the couple soon reconciled and stayed married until Powell’s death in January 1963.
Unable to cope with a deep sense of loss, she married
Glenn Maxwell, a men’s hair stylist, in October 1963. They divorced in 1965 but remarried in 1966. They finally divorced for good in 1970. About this difficult period, she later said: "When
Dick Powell went away, my life went mad. For eight years, I lived in a tunnel. I was like a blind person. I handled his death very badly."
In 1976, she married Dr.
David Ashrow, with whom she found emotional stability.
June Allyson died on the 8th of July 2006 from pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis.
Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. A.X. 1744. Photo: Universal.
June Allyson and
James Stewart in
The Glenn Miller Story (Anthony Mann, 1954).
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin.
June Allyson and
Harry James in
The Opposite Sex (David Miller, 1956).
Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.
