June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress.
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,Ancestry.com according to the 1920 U.S. census 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."June Allyson Discusses Her Career." CNN Larry King Live. Retrieved September 10, 2009. Studio biographies listed her as Jan Allyson born to Franco-English parents. Upon June's death, her daughter said Allyson was born "Eleanor Geisman to a French mother and Dutch father."Luther, Claudia. "Obituaries: Film Sweetheart June Allyson Dies at 88." Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2006. 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.Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 1. 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.Harmetz, Aljean. "June Allyson, Adoring Wife in MGM Films, Is Dead at 88." The New York Times, July 11, 2006. Retrieved March 14, 2010. Allyson sustained a fractured skull and broken back, and her dog was killed. Her doctors said she never would walk again and confined her to a heavy steel brace from neck to hips for four years. She ultimately regained her health, but 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.Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 8.
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 17 times.Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 7. She also tried to emulate the singing styles of movie stars, but she never mastered reading music.Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 10, 36.
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.Parish and Pitts 2003, pp. 1, 3.
Career Early work With the death of her stepfather and a bleak future ahead, she left high school midway through her junior year to seek jobs as a dancer. Her first $60-a-week job was as a tap dancer at the Lido Club in Montreal. Returning to New York City, she found work as an actress in movie short subjects filmed by Educational Pictures at the General Service Studio in Astoria, New York.Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 3.
Fiercely ambitious, Allyson tried her hand at modeling, but to her consternation, she became the "sad-looking before part" in a before-and-after bathing suit magazine ad.Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 11.
Musical shorts Her first career break came when Educational cast her as an ingénue opposite singer Lee Sullivan, comic dancers Herman Timberg, Jr. and Pat Rooney, Jr., and future comedy star Danny Kaye in a series of shorts. These included Swing for Sale (1937), Pixilated (1937), Ups and Downs (1937), Dime a Dance (1937), Dates and Nuts (1937), and Sing for Sweetie (1938).
When Educational ceased operations, Allyson moved to Vitaphone in Brooklyn and starred or co-starred (with dancer Hal Le Roy) in musical shorts. These included The Prisoner of Swing (1938), The Knight Is Young (1938), and Rollin' in Rhythm (1939). She starred in All Girl Revue (1940).
Broadway Interspersing jobs in the chorus line at the Copacabana Club with acting roles at Vitaphone, the diminutive 5'1", below 100-lb Allyson landed a chorus job in the Broadway show Sing Out the News in 1938.
The “legend” around her stage name is that the choreographer gave her a job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month, although like many aspects of her career résumé, the story is highly unlikely, since she was already dubbing herself June Allyson prior to her Broadway engagement. At one point, she attributed the name to a director with whom she worked even later.
Allyson subsequently appeared in the chorus in the Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May (1939).
When Vitaphone discontinued New York production in 1940, Allyson returned to the stage to take on more chorus roles in Rodgers and Hart's Higher and Higher (1940) and Cole Porter's Panama Hattie (1940).
Her dancing and musical talent led to a stint as an understudy for the lead, Betty Hutton, and when Hutton contracted measles, Allyson appeared in five performances of Panama Hattie. Broadway director George Abbott caught one of performances and offered Allyson one of the lead roles in his production of Best Foot Forward (1941).Basinger 2007, p. 482.
Early films After her appearance in the Broadway musical, Allyson was selected for the 1943 MGM film version of Best Foot Forward.Hirschhorn 1991, p. 224. When she arrived in Hollywood, the production had not started, so MGM "placed her on the payroll" of Girl Crazy (1943). Despite playing a bit part, Allyson received good reviews as a sidekick to Best Foot Forwards star, Lucille Ball, but was still relegated to the "drop list."Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 22–23.
MGM's musical supervisor Arthur Freed saw her screen test sent up by an agent and insisted that Allyson be put on contract immediately.Fordin 1996, p. 67. Another musical, Thousands Cheer (1943), was a showcase for her singing, albeit still in a minor role.Allyson, June and Frances Spatz Leighton. June Allyson by June Allyson. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982.
As a new starlet, although Allyson had already been a performer on stage and screen for over five years, she was presented as an "overnight sensation", with Hollywood press agents attempting to portray her as an ingenue, selectively slicing years off her true age. Studio bios listed her variously as being born in 1922 and 1923.
Rising fame Allyson's breakthrough was in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) in which the studio image of the "girl next door" was fostered by her being cast alongside long-time acting chum Van Johnson, the quintessential "boy next door."Davis 2001, p. 34. As the "sweetheart team", Johnson and Allyson were to appear together in four later films.Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 4.
Allyson supported Lucille Ball again in Meet the People (1944), which was a flop. On this film, she met Dick Powell, whom she later married.
She supported Margaret O'Brien in Music for Millions (1944) and was billed after Robert Walker and Hedy Lamarr in the romantic comedy Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945).
Stardom
Allyson was top-billed along with Walker in The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945). She had a role in Two Sisters from Boston (1946) with Kathryn Grayson and Peter Lawford, and she was one of several MGM stars in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946). She also appeared in her first drama, The Secret Heart, in 1946 with Claudette Colbert and Walter Pidgeon.
She was reunited with Johnson in High Barbaree (1947) and followed with the musical Good News that same year.
Allyson starred with Johnson in the 1948 comedy The Bride Goes Wild, then portrayed Constance in the hugely popular The Three Musketeers (1948). Her song "Thou Swell" was a high point of the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music (1948), as performed in the "A Connecticut Yankee" segment with the Blackburn Twins.
Allyson played the tomboy Jo March in Little Women (1949), which was a huge hit. She was adept at crying on cue, and many of her films incorporated a crying scene. Fellow MGM player Margaret O'Brien recalled that she and Allyson were known as "the town criers".Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 37. "I cried once in a picture and they said 'Let's do it again', and I cried for the rest of my career", she later said.
The same year, MGM announced Allyson would be in Forever by Mildred Crann, but the project was dropped. Instead, she starred in The Stratton Story (1949) with James Stewart, which she later said was her favorite film.
She made two films with Dick Powell: The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and Right Cross (1950), after which she was reunited with Johnson in Too Young to Kiss (1951).
In 1950, Allyson had been signed to appear opposite her childhood idol Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding, but had to leave the production due to pregnancy. She was replaced initially by Judy Garland, who in turn was replaced by Jane Powell.
Allyson played a doctor in The Girl in White (1952), which lost revenue, and a nurse in Battle Circus (1953), a hit. She starred in Remains to Be Seen (1953) with Johnson, which was a flop. In May 1953, MGM and she parted ways by mutual consent.
Post MGM In 1954, Allyson was in a huge Universal Pictures hit, The Glenn Miller Story, which starred James Stewart, as well as another successful MGM film, Executive Suite. She also starred in the Fox Film Woman's World, which was less successful.
Allyson was teamed with Stewart again in Strategic Air Command (1955) at Paramount, another success.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
She had a change of pace in The Shrike (1955) with José Ferrer at Universal; it flopped. More popular was The McConnell Story (1955) with Alan Ladd at Warner Bros.