June Allyson

You don't have to be a fan of June Allyson to like this book. Just about the best movie stars in Hollywood and some of the most beloved are covered in between the pages of this book. Everyone from Judy Garland to Lucille Ball, Claudette Colbert to John Wayne, and Lauren Becall to Alan Ladd. Also, Bogie, a young Candice Bergen, Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Benny, George Burns and the Mel Torme incident. Movie star heaven for those of us who appreciate the Golden Years of Hollywood. I could not put this book down. I only knew a film or two of Miss Allyson's and had just seen my first Dick Powell film only a few weeks prior and liked him. Reading about their marriage, their movie star friends, Judy singing at their parties, well, it made for really good reading. June Allyson definitely suffered from some kind of identity problem and when Powell died she obviously did not know what to do with herself. She even remarried 10 months after his death, got a divorce three years later, then remarried the same man, then got divorced. The last part of her book deals with her self-destruction after Powell's death, and eventually she pulls herself together. But she never offers or reveals any words of wisdom or inspiration on how she reached this point well over a decade later. She and her husband were never religious, which is okay in my book. But I also saw no appreciation in her for all the wonderful things that came her way, and the fortunate life that fell into her lap. How many of us can say that John Wayne stopped over, or getting trick or treat candy from Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck at their homes with her children? Or have Eva Gabor offer you her complete home, and Lucille Ball giving you pep talks every time you wanted to quit and return to NY? And what about a dinner party at Merle Oberon's or forming a close friendship with Claudette Colbert and being a godmother to your kid? Allyson is always filled with self-doubt and wondering why such stars would even want her at their parties. The marriage between June Allyson and Dick Powell was very strange. He didn't want a beautiful woman for his wife, with make-up and pretty clothes. When he brought Allyson home to meet his father his dad asked in a whisper, "Who's the cute boy you brought home?" It's hard for me to imagine any man wanting a wife who was less than feminine. Dick Powell spent so many months and nights away from home working with the recluse Howard Hughes and constantly pushing his wife away, that by the middle of the book I couldn't help but think these were excuses to get together with real women he could have for a few hours without strings attached. Allyson herself reflects back believing no other women were ever involved outside their marriage but if you're familiar with infidelity some red flags are very present. A lot of men were crying at Powell's funeral, some even sobbing out loud. Some of Powell's buddies were even

To be honest, I didn't buy this book because I was a June Allyson fan. Admittedly, I wasn't that familiar with her film work. I'd been watching old Busby Berkeley movies and had become fascinated by Joan Blondell and Dick Powell. I wanted to find out more about the lives of these two stars. My search lead me to "Center Door Fancy", Ms Blondell's thinly veiled autobiography, in which she writes some not-so-nice things about June Allyson. I then read "A Life Between Takes", an exhaustively researched, very well written Joan Blondell biography that offers a more balanced, less "catty" insight on her relationship to June. This naturally lead me to Ms Allyson's autobiography "June Allyson". "June Allyson" is a completely engaging and thoroughly enjoyable book. Its an easy read. Ms Allyson tells her story with an earnest candor, spontaneously dropping anecdotes about stars such as Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Jimmy Stewart, Van Johnson, John Wayne, and the list goes on. June recalls her very humble beginnings and eventual rise to one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 40s and 50s. Despite her fame and great success, there's no ego-tripping. She freely admits to being gullible, naive and unassertive. Her humility is both endearing and refreshing. Its no wonder she was so well loved. Ms Allyson details the story of her courtship and eventual marriage to Dick Powell. (Their adoration for one another was immeasurable...) The marriage was a fascinating mixture of old school traditional (Mr Powell was firmly the head of the household, making any and all major family decisions) and modern day "woman as major bread winner" mentality (Mrs Powell was making oodles of money and therefore not relegated to strictly being a homemaker). He was king and she was his queen. He protected and sheltered her from the harsher realities of life. He was a financial wizard, investing wisely, while still providing a sumptuous lifestyle for his wife and children. June loved and trusted him deeply and unconditionally. Although their union was not perfect (Who's is?) they were blessed to have found such happiness in eachother. When June speaks about people she didn't particularly care for, she avoids being mean-spirited and nasty. Instead, she resorts to a matter-of-fact delivery that lends greater credibility to her account of dealings with those she did not consider friends. Most interesting are her encounters with Joan Crawford, Joan Blondell and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. "June Allyson" is a great autobiography. I now consider myself a fan and am currently in the process of tracking down and viewing her films. If you love "old school" Hollywood, this book is a must have.

The only thing I knew about June Allyson before reading this book was that she was married to Dick Powell, one of my favorite movie stars. I picked up this book hoping to hear about him, and I was not disappointed. There is a large section of this book dedicated to "Richard," what Allyson called her beloved husband very sweetly. The book details their relationship from the first time they met to his divorce from Joan Blondell to their courtship, marriage, struggles, and finally his death from cancer. It is one of the most loving portrayals, perhaps biased but very well written and highly entertaining. This book isn't only dedicated to her husband though. Allyson talks about her life before show business, going into the theater, entering the movies, becoming a star, becoming a mother, and life after Powell, not necessarily in chronological order, but in a way that makes sense. Allyson was acquainted with many celebrities from classic Hollywood including Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford, Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Alan Ladd. She tells stories about each of them adding insight into their personalities and how they shaped her life. This book is certainly a page turner. Not only did it help me find information about Dick Powell, but I learned a lot from and began to love June Allyson.

June Allyson's life and career are stuff of Hollywood legend. She was born in poverty, raised in a broken home, had little formal education, still less in the way of social graces. She taught herself to dance by watching Fred Astaire on the silver screen. Then, while still a teenager, she crashed Broadway on a schoolgirl dare, making her mark with the hit BEST FOOT FORWARD. When MGM bought the screen rights she went along for the ride--and hit the career jackpot, emerging as one of the most popular stars of the 1940s and 1950s. Married to movie star, director, producer, and noted Republican Dick Powell, she lived at the center of both Hollywood's film and political scene for more than two decades. It's a biographer's dream.And yet-- This is not the great autobiography that it could have been, largely because Allyson is so completely uncritical in her thinking about her own life and the various people who moved through it. Although such figures as George Murphy, Richard and Pat Nixon, and Ronald and Nancy Regan were frequent guests in the Powell-Allyson home, we learn little more about them beyond the occasional antedote--certainly nothing about their politics or what Allyson herself thought of politics, if indeed she had any thoughts on the subject at all. Perhaps more startling, given Allyson's own star-status, is her take on such figures as Judy Garland and Alan Ladd, both of whom figure heavily in the Allyson autobiography; while Allyson acknowledges that Garland used drugs and that Ladd was a heavy drinker, she never really references the dark sides of their behavior, and again it is difficult to know if this is because she feels loyalty to them or if indeed she herself ever knew anything of it to begin with. Even so, when Allyson writes of individuals that she flatly did not like, she doesn't pull any punches. Her portrait of an afternoon with Joan Crawford is chilling, she repeatedly slams gossip columnist Hedda Hopper--and when considering such individuals as Alan Ladd's formidable wife Sue or Dick Powell's previous wife Joan Blondell, Allyson's tone turns rather steely.But what ultimately emerges from this autobiography, and emerges whether Allyson intended it or not, is a portrait of a woman who married a man that was determined his wife should never challenge him in any way. Indeed, June Allyson might have coined the term "co-dependent" on the basis of her marriage to Dick Powell. In reading Allyson's autobiography (which was co-written with Frances Spatz Leighton), it is very clear that she loved Dick Powell, and loved him deeply; it is also very clear that, in spite of his often glitchy personality, he returned that love. But again, it is difficult to know if Allyson herself is aware of the fact that Powell essentially forced her dependency or whether or not she recognizes that the degree of that dependency was largely responsible for her collapse in the wake of Powell's death. While it may be difficult to know how to t