June Allyson Remembered
Burbank, California—Hollywood lost another star this week. The word "perky" comes to mind when one thinks of June Allyson in motion pictures. With an irrepressibly cheerful tone in that raspy voice, she carried perkiness with pride.
Cast in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's fabled musicals with Van Johnson in pictures such as Two Girls and a Sailor, she was like the sunny girl next door. She soon graduated to nifty housewife, starring opposite Jimmy Stewart in the first of three pics with him, The Stratton Story. That same year, 1949, gave Miss Allyson the plum role of Jo, the character she said she was most like, in Little Women, adapted from the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
The petite actress peaked in the Fifties, portraying the legendary musician's wife in The Glenn Miller Story (1954) opposite Mr. Stewart in the title role, as William Holden's rising businessman's mate in Executive Suite (1954) and again as Jimmy Stewart's loyal wife in Strategic Air Command (1955). The bubbly gal from the Bronx had mastered America's mid-century cultural marks, from the Big Band era and Big Business through the heroic efforts of the United States Air Force. June Allyson was all-American.
Implied in each performance, notably so in her 1956 remake of The Women, The Opposite Sex with Joan Collins and Agnes Moorehead, was a quality then regarded as entirely appropriate—even desirable—in a woman: she looked up to her man, usually as his partner, not as some meek, helpless housewife.
Besides William Holden, Van Johnson and Jimmy Stewart, June Allyson played opposite David Niven's title character in the remake My Man Godfrey, Gene Kelly's D'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Alan Ladd's Korean War jet pilot in The McConnell Story—impressive company for a kid who'd been crippled at eight years old when a tree branch fell and crushed her, killed her dog and left her in a back brace for four years.
She had recovered, at great expense to her single mother, and emerged wanting to become a doctor. But she fell hard for the captivating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Gay Divorcee, watching it 17 times, and teaching herself how to dance. She transformed adversity into triumph.
Others were more glamorous, few were as plucky, and, with her pageboy haircut and a tiny frame, it's easy to underestimate the goodness that Miss Allyson represents. She laughed, sang and danced her way through Hollywood's Golden Age, always game for a good time.
Younger readers know the diminutive actress as spokeswoman for Kimberly-Clark's incontinence product, Depend, and she played occasional parts in television programs such as Aaron Spelling's The Love Boat, Misfits of Science and The Incredible Hulk. Though she hadn't played a leading role in over 40 years, she kept working. As if to show she could still get fired up—to hell with the girl next door—the Agatha Christie fan memorably played a lesbian murderess in the 1972 Doberman whodunit They Only Kill Their Masters with James Garner and Katharine Ross.
Yet June Allyson will always be remembered as the type we rarely see anymore: a strong woman with an upbeat demeanor—and loyalty to the man she loves.
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RELATED ARTICLES
• Katharine Hepburn: A Woman for All Seasons
• Actress Anne Bancroft, 1931-2005
• Entertainer Johnny Carson Dies
RELATED LINKS
• Official June Allyson Web Site
• DVD - The Stratton Story
• DVD - Little Women
• DVD - The Glenn Miller Story
• VHS - Two Girls and a Sailor
• VHS - Exceutive Suite
• VHS - Strategic Air Command
• VHS - The Opposite Sex
• VHS - My Man Godfrey
• VHS - The McConnell Story
• VHS - They Only Kill Their Masters
Cast in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's fabled musicals with Van Johnson in pictures such as Two Girls and a Sailor, she was like the sunny girl next door. She soon graduated to nifty housewife, starring opposite Jimmy Stewart in the first of three pics with him, The Stratton Story. That same year, 1949, gave Miss Allyson the plum role of Jo, the character she said she was most like, in Little Women, adapted from the novel by Louisa May Alcott.
The petite actress peaked in the Fifties, portraying the legendary musician's wife in The Glenn Miller Story (1954) opposite Mr. Stewart in the title role, as William Holden's rising businessman's mate in Executive Suite (1954) and again as Jimmy Stewart's loyal wife in Strategic Air Command (1955). The bubbly gal from the Bronx had mastered America's mid-century cultural marks, from the Big Band era and Big Business through the heroic efforts of the United States Air Force. June Allyson was all-American.
Implied in each performance, notably so in her 1956 remake of The Women, The Opposite Sex with Joan Collins and Agnes Moorehead, was a quality then regarded as entirely appropriate—even desirable—in a woman: she looked up to her man, usually as his partner, not as some meek, helpless housewife.
Besides William Holden, Van Johnson and Jimmy Stewart, June Allyson played opposite David Niven's title character in the remake My Man Godfrey, Gene Kelly's D'Artagnan in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Alan Ladd's Korean War jet pilot in The McConnell Story—impressive company for a kid who'd been crippled at eight years old when a tree branch fell and crushed her, killed her dog and left her in a back brace for four years.
She had recovered, at great expense to her single mother, and emerged wanting to become a doctor. But she fell hard for the captivating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Gay Divorcee, watching it 17 times, and teaching herself how to dance. She transformed adversity into triumph.
Others were more glamorous, few were as plucky, and, with her pageboy haircut and a tiny frame, it's easy to underestimate the goodness that Miss Allyson represents. She laughed, sang and danced her way through Hollywood's Golden Age, always game for a good time.
Younger readers know the diminutive actress as spokeswoman for Kimberly-Clark's incontinence product, Depend, and she played occasional parts in television programs such as Aaron Spelling's The Love Boat, Misfits of Science and The Incredible Hulk. Though she hadn't played a leading role in over 40 years, she kept working. As if to show she could still get fired up—to hell with the girl next door—the Agatha Christie fan memorably played a lesbian murderess in the 1972 Doberman whodunit They Only Kill Their Masters with James Garner and Katharine Ross.
Yet June Allyson will always be remembered as the type we rarely see anymore: a strong woman with an upbeat demeanor—and loyalty to the man she loves.
$
RELATED ARTICLES
• Katharine Hepburn: A Woman for All Seasons
• Actress Anne Bancroft, 1931-2005
• Entertainer Johnny Carson Dies
RELATED LINKS
• Official June Allyson Web Site
• DVD - The Stratton Story
• DVD - Little Women
• DVD - The Glenn Miller Story
• VHS - Two Girls and a Sailor
• VHS - Exceutive Suite
• VHS - Strategic Air Command
• VHS - The Opposite Sex
• VHS - My Man Godfrey
• VHS - The McConnell Story
• VHS - They Only Kill Their Masters
