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Film legend Ginger Rogers once said of June Allyson, "She's
the girl every man wants to marry and the girl every woman wants as a
friend." Often cast as the bubbly girl-next-door,
June Allyson was born Ella Geisman in New York City. She love of show
business began at an early age when she taught herself to dance while
recuperating from a back injury.
On a dare, she auditioned for the 1938 Harold Rome musical
revue SING OUT THE NEWS and won a role in the chorus. Following other
chorus parts in Kern/Hammerstein's VERY WARM FOR MAY and Rodgers & Hart's
HIGHER AND HIGHER, she was cast as Betty Hutton's understudy in the hit Cole
Porter musical PANAMA HATTIE (1940).
While going on for Hutton, June was spotted by producer
George Abbott who offered her a featured role in his new musical BEST FOOT
FORWARD (1941). When MGM acquired the movie rights to the musical,
June was offered the part of Ethel (she had played Minerva on Broadway).
The film was successful enough for the studio to offer June a long-term
contract. (She would not return to the Broadway stage until 1970,
starring in the comedy FORTY CARATS.)
MGM quickly cast their young rising star in a series of
musicals including TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR, MUSIC FOR MILLIONS, TILL THE
CLOUDS ROLL BY, GOOD NEWS and GIRL CRAZY. She also distinguished
herself as a dramatic and coemdic actress in several such notable films as
LITTLE WOMEN, THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE GLENN MILLER STORY.
In 1959, she became one of the first movie stars to host
her own TV program, THE DUPONT SHOW WITH JUNE ALLYSON. She also made
recurring appearances on her then-husband Dick Powell's TV series, THE DICK
POWELL SHOW.
Throughout the rest of her life, she had supporting roles
on TV and films, headlined in the 1971 national touring company of NO NO
NANETTE, toured in dinner theatre (often starring opposite her husband,
David Ashrow, and son Dick Powell, Jr.) and was the spokesperson for a
series of well-remembered Depends adult diapers TV commercials in the 1980s.
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