June Allyson

June Allyson

Allyson pictured in 1944
Born Eleanor Geisman
(1917-10-07)October 7, 1917
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Died July 8, 2006(2006-07-08) (aged 88)
Ojai, California, U.S.
Cause of death Respiratory failure and bronchitis
Nationality American
Other names June Allison
Occupation Actress, dancer, singer
Years active 1936–2001
Spouse(s) Dick Powell (m. 1945; d. 1963) (2 children)
Alfred Glenn Maxwell (m. 1963; div. 1965)
Alfred Glenn Maxwell (m. 1966; div. 1970)
David Ashrow (m. 1976) (her death)
Children Dick Powell Jr. (b. 1950)
Pamela Powell (b. 1948)[1]
Awards Golden Globe - Best Actress (1951)
Website www.juneallyson.com

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 as a dancer 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 five 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.[2] 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,[3] 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 Roman 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[3] although Allyson claimed her last name was originally "Van Geisman", and was of Dutch origin.[4] 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."[5][N 1]

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.[6] To make ends meet, her mother worked as a telephone operator and restaurant cashier. When she had enough funds, she would occasionally reunite with her daughter, but more often Allyson was "farmed" out to her grandparents or other relatives.[6]

In 1925 (when Allyson was eight), a tree branch fell on her while she was riding on her tricycle with her pet terrier in tow.[7] 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, 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.[6] In her later memoirs, Allyson does describe a summer program of swimming that did help her recovery.[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.[6] As a teen, Allyson memorized the trademark Ginger Rogers dance routines; she claimed later to have watched The Gay Divorcee 17 times.[9] She also tried to emulate the singing styles of movie stars although she never mastered reading music.[10] 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".[11] With the death of her stepfather and a bleak future ahead, she left high school after completing two and half years, 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, she found work as an actress in movie short subjects filmed by Educational Pictures at its Astoria, Long Island, studio.[12] Fiercely ambitious, Allyson tried her hand at modeling, but to her consternation became the "sad-looking before part" in a before-and-after bathing suit magazine ad.[13] Her first career break came when Educational cast her as an ingenue opposite singer Lee Sullivan, comic dancers Herman Timberg, Jr., and Pat Rooney, Jr., and future comedy star Danny Kaye. When Educational ceased operations, Allyson moved to Vitaphone in Brooklyn and starred or co-starred (with dancer Hal Le Roy) in musical shorts.

Career

Interspersing jobs in the chorus line at the Copacabana Club with acting roles at Vitaphone, the diminutive 5'1" (1.55 m), weighing less than 100 pounds, red-headed Allyson landed a chorus job in the Broadway show Sing out the News in 1938.[14] The legend is that the choreographer gave her a job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month,[7] although like many aspects of her career resume, the derivation is highly unlikely as she was already dubbing herself "June Allyson" prior to her Broadway engagement and has even attributed the name to a later director.[N 2] Allyson subsequently appeared in the chorus in the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May (1939).[12]

The handprints of June Allyson in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

When Vitaphone discontinued New York production in 1940, Allyson returned to the New York 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.[12] Broadway director George Abbott caught one of the nights, and offered Allyson one of the lead roles in his production of Best Foot Forward (1941).[15]

After her appearance in the Broadway musical, Allyson was selected for the 1943 film version of Best Foot Forward.[16] 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 Forward's star, Lucille Ball, but was still relegated to the "drop list".[17] MGM's musical supervisor, Arthur Freed, saw her test sent up by an agent and insisted that Allyson be put on contract immediately.[18] Another musical, Thousands Cheer (1943), was again a showcase for her singing and dancing, albeit still in a minor role.[19] As a new starlet, although Allyson had already been a performer on stage and screen, 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.[6]

Allyson's breakthrough was in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) where the studio image of the "girl next door"[20] was fostered by her being cast alongside long-time acting chum Van Johnson, the quintessential "boy next door."[21] As the "sweetheart team," Johnson and Allyson were to appear together in four later films.[22]

Allyson's early success as a musical star led to several other postwar musicals, including Two Sisters from Boston (1946) and Good News (1947).[15] Her “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 also played straight roles, such as Constance in The Three Musketeers (1948), the tomboy Jo March in Little Women (1949), and a nurse in Battle Circus (1953).[22] She was very adept at opening the waterworks 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."[23]

June Allyson 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 because of pregnancy. (She was replaced initially by Judy Garland, and later by Jane Powell.) In 1956 she starred with a young rising star named Jack Lemmon in the musical comedy, You Can't Run Away From It. Besides Van Johnson, James Stewart was a frequent co-star, teaming up with Allyson in three popular biographies, The Glenn Miller Story, The Stratton Story, and Strategic Air Command.

A versatile performer, Allyson also appeared on radio, and after her film career ended she made a handful of nightclub singing engagements. In later years, Allyson appeared on television, not only in her own series, but in such popular programs as The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. The DuPont Show with June Allyson ran for two seasons on CBS and was an attempt to use a "high budget" formula. Her efforts were dismissed by the entertainment reviewer in the LA Examiner as "reaching down to the level of mag fiction."[24] However, TV Guide and other fan magazines such as TV considered Allyson's foray into television as revitalizing her fame and career for a younger audience, and remarked that her stereotyping by the movie industry as the "girl next door" was the "waste and neglect of talent on its own doorstep."[25]

Personal life

Marriages and children

Circa 1953

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.[26] Although dating David Rose, Peter Lawford, and John 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.[27]

On August 19, 1945, Allyson caused MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer some consternation by marrying Dick Powell.[28] 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.[29] He was so disarmed that he agreed but put Allyson on suspension anyway.[30] The Powells had two children, Pamela Allyson Powell (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).[31] In 1961, Allyson underwent a kidney operation and later, throat surgery, temporarily affecting her trademark raspy voice.[32] The couple briefly separated in 1961, but reconciled and remained married until his death on January 2, 1963. She also went through a bitter court battle with her mother over custody of the children she had with Powell. 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.[33]

Following her separation from Summers, Allyson was twice married to and divorced from businessman Alfred Glenn Maxwell, who owned a number of barbershops and had been Powell's barber.[32] 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 United States with the stage play My Daughter, Your Son. They also appeared on celebrity cruise ship tours on the Royal Viking Sky, in a program that highlighted Allyson's movie career.[34]

Philanthropy

After Dick Powell's death, Allyson committed herself to charitable work on his behalf, championing the importance of research in urological and gynecological diseases in seniors, and represented the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in commercials for adult incontinence products. Following a lifelong interest in health and medical research (Allyson had initially wanted to use her acting career to fund her own training as a doctor),[19] she was instrumental in establishing the June Allyson Foundation for Public Awareness and Medical Research. Allyson also financed her brother, Dr. Arthur Peters, through his medical training, and he went on to specialize in otolaryngology.[4]

Politics

Allyson was a staunch Republican and was a strong supporter of Richard Nixon.[35]

Later years

Powell's wealth made it possible for Allyson effectively to retire from show business after his death, making only occasional appearances on talk and variety shows. Allyson returned to the Broadway stage in 1970 in the play Forty Carats[14] and later toured in a production of No, No, Nanette.

Her autobiography, June Allyson by June Allyson (1982), received generally complimentary reviews due to its insider look at Hollywood in one of its golden ages. A more critical appraisal came from Janet Maslin at the New York Times in her review, "Hollywood Leaves Its Imprint on Its Chroniclers", who noted: "Miss Allyson presents herself as the same sunny, tomboyish figure she played on screen in Hollywood... like someone who has come to inhabit the very myths she helped to create on the screen."[7] Privately, Allyson admitted that her earlier screen portrayals had left her uneasy about the typecast "good wife" roles she had played.[36]

As a personal friend of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, she was invited to many White House dinners, and in 1988, Reagan appointed her to the Federal Council on Aging. Allyson and her later husband, David Ashrow, actively supported fund-raising efforts for both the James Stewart and Judy Garland museums; both Stewart and Garland had been close friends.[7]

In 1993, her name also made headlines when actor-turned-agent Marty Ingels publicly charged Allyson with not paying his large commission on the earlier deal on incontinence product advertising. Allyson denied owing any money, and Ashrow and she filed a lawsuit for slander and emotional distress, charging that Ingels was harassing and threatening them, stating Ingels made 138 phone calls during a single eight-hour period. Earlier that year, Ingels had pleaded no contest to making annoying phone calls.[37]

In December 1993, Allyson christened the Holland America Maasdam, one of the flagships of the Holland America line. Although her heritage, like much of her personal story, was subject to different interpretations, Allyson always claimed to be proud of a Dutch ancestry.[4]

Allyson made a special appearance in 1994 in That's Entertainment III, as one of the film's narrators. She spoke about MGM's golden era and introduced vintage film clips. In 1996, Allyson became the first recipient of the Harvey Award, presented by the James M. Stewart Museum Foundation, in recognition of her positive contributions to the world of entertainment.[38] Until 2003, Allyson remained busy touring the country making personal appearances, headlining celebrity cruises, and speaking on behalf of Kimberly-Clark, a long-time commercial interest.[34] The American Urogynecologic Society established the June Allyson Foundation in 1998 made possible by a grant from Kimberly-Clark. As the first celebrity to undertake the role of public spokesperson for promoting the use of the Depend undergarment, Allyson did "more than any other public figure to encourage and persuade people with incontinence to lead fuller and more active lives." [2]

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.[39] On her death, Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) contributed $25,000 to the June Allyson Foundation to support research advances in the care and treatment of women with urinary incontinence.[2]

Awards and honors

Broadway credits

I couldn't dance, and, Lord knows, I couldn't sing, but I got by somehow. Richard Rodgers was always keeping them from firing me.

June Allyson, 1951, Interview[7]

Date Production Role
September 24, 1938 – January 7, 1939 Sing Out the News Performer
November 17, 1939 – January 6, 1940 Very Warm for May June
April 4 – June 15, 1940 Higher and Higher Higher and Higher Specialty Girl
October 30, 1940 – January 3, 1942 Panama Hattie Dancing Girl
October 1, 1941 – July 4, 1942 Best Foot Forward Minerva
January 5, 1970 Forty Carats Ann Stanley

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1937 Swing for Sale Short subject
1937 Pixilated Short subject
1937 Ups and Downs June Daily Short subject
1937 Dime a Dance Harriet Short subject
1937 Dates and Nuts Wilma Brown, Herman's girl Short subject
1938 Sing for Sweetie Sally Newton Short subject
1938 The Prisoner of Swing Princess Short subject
1938 The Knight Is Young June Short subject
1939 Rollin' in Rhythm Short subject
1940 All Girl Revue Mayor Short subject
1943 Best Foot Forward Ethel
1943 Girl Crazy Specialty Singer
1944 Two Girls and a Sailor Patsy Deyo
1944 Meet the People Annie
1944 Music for Millions Barbara Ainsworth
1945 Her Highness and the Bellboy Leslie Odell
1945 The Sailor Takes a Wife Mary Hill
1946 Two Sisters from Boston Martha Canford Chandler
1946 Till the Clouds Roll By Jane Witherspoon/Lou Ellen Carter Segments: Leave It to Jane and Oh, Boy!
1946 The Secret Heart Penny Addams
1947 High Barbaree Nancy Frazer
1947 Good News Connie Lane
1948 The Bride Goes Wild Martha Terryton
1948 The Three Musketeers Constance Bonacieux
1948 Words and Music Alisande La Carteloise
1949 Little Women Josephine "Jo" March
1949 The Stratton Story Ethel
1950 The Reformer and the Redhead Kathleen Maguire
1950 Right Cross Pat O'Malley
1951 Too Young to Kiss Cynthia Potter
1952 The Girl in White Dr. Emily Barringer
1953 Battle Circus Lt. Ruth McGara
1953 Remains to Be Seen Jody Revere
1954 The Glenn Miller Story Helen Burger Miller
1954 Executive Suite Mary Blemond Walling
1954 Woman's World Katie Baxter Alternative title: A Woman's World
1955 Strategic Air Command Sally Holland
1955 The Shrike Ann Downs
1955 The McConnell Story Pearl "Butch" Brown
1956 The Opposite Sex Kay Hilliard
1956 You Can't Run Away from It Ellen "Ellie" Andrews
1957 Interlude Helen Banning Alternative title: Forbidden Interlude
1957 My Man Godfrey Irene Bullock
1959 A Stranger in My Arms Christina Beasley Alternative title: And Ride a Tiger
1972 They Only Kill Their Masters Mrs. Watkins
1978 Blackout Mrs. Grant
2001 A Girl, Three Guys, and a Gun Joey's Grandma
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1959–1961 The DuPont Show with June Allyson Hostess 59 episodes
1960 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater Stella Episode: "Cry Hope! Cry Hate!"
1962–1963 The Dick Powell Theatre Various roles 3 episodes
1963 Burke's Law Jean Samson Episode: "Who Killed Beau Sparrow?"
1968 The Name of the Game Joanne Robins Segment: "High on a Rainbow"
1971 See the Man Run Helene Spencer Television film
1972 The ABC Comedy Hour Episode: "The Twentieth Century Folies"
1972 The Sixth Sense Mrs. Ruth Desmond Episode: "Witness Within"
1973 Letters from Three Lovers Monica Television film
1977 Switch Dr. Trampler Episode: "Eden's Gate"
1977 Curse of the Black Widow Olga Television film
1978 Three on a Date Marge Emery Television film
1978 Vega$ Loretta Ochs Episode: "High Roller"
1978 The Love Boat Various roles 2 episodes
1979 The Incredible Hulk Dr. Kate Lowell Episode: "Brain Child"
1980 House Calls Florence Alexander Episode: "I'll Be Suing You"
1982 The Kid with the Broken Halo Dorothea Powell Television film
1982 Simon & Simon Margaret Wells Episode: "The Last Time I Saw Michael"
1984 Hart to Hart' Elizabeth Tisdale Episode: "Always, Elizabeth"
1984 Murder, She Wrote Katie Simmons Episode: "Hit, Run and Homicide"
1985 Misfits of Science Bessie Episode: "Steer Crazy"
1986 Crazy Like a Fox Neva Episode: "Hearing Is Believing"
1986 Airwolf Martha Stewart Episode: "Little Wolf"
1989 Wilfrid's Special Christmas Miss Nancy Television special
1991 Pros and Cons Episode: "It's the Pictures That Got Small"
1995 Burke's Law Shelly Knox Episode: "Who Killed the Toy Maker?"
2001 These Old Broads Lady in Hotel Television film
Uncredited

Box Office Ranking

For a number of years exhibitors voted Allyson among the most popular stars in the country:

Radio appearances

Year Program Episode/source
1950 Richard Diamond, Private Detective Mrs. X Can't Find Mr. X
1952 Stars in the Air The Bride Goes Wild[41]
1953 Lux Radio Theatre The Girl in White[42]

References

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ During her lifetime Allyson published an autobiography that has led to much of the confusion as her recollections did not correspond to the actual record, starting with her birthdate and her family background. MGM was partly to blame as the studio PR machine created a "goody two-shoes" image of a young ingenue which required some imaginative tailoring of her age, family circumstances, and even her famous "tree limb" story.
  2. ↑ The name "June Allyson" has been attributed to three different sources and June herself had a different memory of from where it came, but the use of a nickname and stage name had already begun in her teen years. On the Larry King interview, her recall was that Broadway producer George Abbott had given her the name, while other sources have her first stage choreographer calling her that in exasperation, as he could not be bothered to remember her real one; at least that was the tale in her book. Probably, it made sense to her, as she liked "Allison", her brother's name, and simply tacked "June" onto it, and was reportedly using it before her Broadway debut.

Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/actress-june-allyson-dies-at-88/2/
  2. 1 2 3 "Kimberly-Clark Corporation Honors June Allyson And Her Humanitarian Contributions: Long-Time Depend Brand Spokesperson Educated Millions on Incontinence." Kimberly-Clark Corporation, July 11, 2006. Retrieved: May 12, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Ancestry.com according to the 1920 U.S. census
  4. 1 2 3 "June Allyson Discusses Her Career." CNN Larry King Live. Retrieved: September 10, 2009.
  5. ↑ Luther, Claudia. "Obituaries: Film Sweetheart June Allyson Dies at 88." zap2it.com, Special to The Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2006. Retrieved: March 14, 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 1.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Harmetz, Aljean. "June Allyson, Adoring Wife in MGM Films, Is Dead at 88." nytimes.com, July 11, 2006. Retrieved: March 14, 2010.
  8. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 8.
  9. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 7.
  10. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 10, 36.
  11. ↑ Parish and Pitts 2003, pp. 1, 3.
  12. 1 2 3 Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 11.
  14. 1 2 "June Allyson." Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved: September 10, 2009.
  15. 1 2 Basinger 2007, p. 482.
  16. ↑ Hirschhorn 1991, p. 224.
  17. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 22–23.
  18. ↑ Fordin 1996, p. 67.
  19. 1 2 Allyson, June and Frances Spatz Leighton. June Allyson by June Allyson. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982. ISBN 0-399-12726-7..
  20. ↑ Milner 1998, p. 155.
  21. ↑ Davis 2001, p. 34.
  22. 1 2 Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 4.
  23. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, p. 37.
  24. ↑ Becker 2009, pp. 116–117.
  25. ↑ Becker 2009, p. 33.
  26. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 51–53.
  27. ↑ Kennedy 2007, p. 130.
  28. ↑ Wayne 2002, p. 392.
  29. ↑ Eyman 2005, p. 290.
  30. ↑ Wayne 2006, p. 46.
  31. ↑ Allyson and Leighton 1982, pp. 30–31
  32. 1 2 Parish and Pitts 2003, p. 5.
  33. ↑ Carroll, Harrison. "June Allyson & Dirk Summers Marriage." Herald Examiner, Vol. XCV, Issue 223, November 4, 1965, p. Front Page.
  34. 1 2 3 "Biography: June Allyson." juneallyson.com. Retrieved: October 17, 2010.
  35. ↑ Doyle, Jack (March 11, 2009). "1968 Presidential Racd: Republicans". PopHistoryDig.com. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  36. ↑ Weil, Martin. "Perky Actress June Allyson, 88." Washington Post, July 11, 2006, p. B06. Retrieved: March 14, 2010.
  37. ↑ "Allyson Lawsuit Accuses Marty Ingels of Slander." archive.deseretnews.com. Retrieved: September 10, 2009.
  38. ↑ "The Jimmy Stewart Museum." jimmy.org.
  39. ↑ Mormon 2007, p. 65.
  40. ↑ "June Allyson awards." IMDB. Retrieved: September 10, 2009.
  41. ↑ Kirby, Walter (February 24, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 38. Retrieved May 28, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ↑ Kirby, Walter (May 17, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 48. Retrieved June 27, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.

Bibliography

  • Allyson, June. June Allyson's Feeling Great: A Daily Dozen Exercises for Creative Aging. New York: Da Capo Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-88496-257-1.
  • Basinger, Jeanine. The Star Machine. New York: Knopf, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4000-4130-5.
  • Becker, Christine. It's the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television (Wesleyan Film). Indianapolis, Indiana: Wesleyan, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8195-6894-6.
  • Davis, Ronald L. Van Johnson: MGM’s Golden Boy (Hollywood Legends Series). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. ISBN 978-1-57806-377-2.
  • Eyman, Scott. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Meyer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7432-0481-1.
  • Fordin, Hugh. M-G-M's Greatest Musicals. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-306-80730-5.
  • Hirschhorn, Clive. The Hollywood Musical. London: Pyramid Books, 1991, first edition 1981. ISBN 978-1-85510-080-0.
  • Kennedy, Matthew. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends Series). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN 978-1-57806-961-3.
  • Milner, Jay Dunston. Confessions of a Maddog: A Romp through the High-flying Texas Music and Literary Era of the Fifties to the Seventies. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-57441-050-1.
  • Mormon, Robert. Demises of the Distinguished. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4343-1546-5.
  • Parish, James Robert and Michael R. Pitts. Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors who can Sing. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 978-0-415-94332-1.
  • Wayne, Jane Ellen. The Golden Girls of MGM: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Others. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7867-1117-8.
  • Wayne, Jane Ellen. The Leading Men of MGM. New York: Da Capo Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7867-1768-2.
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