Posted on 07/10/2006 2:45:35 PM PDT by lunarbicep
June Allyson, the sunny, cracked-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, has died, her daughter Pamela Allyson Powell said Monday. She was 88.
Allyson died Saturday at her home in Ojai, with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side, Powell said in a telephone interview.
She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness, Powell said.
During World War II, American GIs pinned up photos of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, but June Allyson was the girl they wanted to come home to. Petite, blonde and alive with fresh-faced optimism, she seemed the ideal sweetheart and wife, supporting and unthreatening.
"I had the most wonderful last meeting with June at her house in Ojai. We had gotten lost in the car. She told me: 'I could wait for you forever.' We were such dear friends. I will miss her," lifelong friend Esther Williams said.
With typical wonderment, Allyson expressed surprise in a 1986 interview that she had ever become a movie star:
"I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don't sing like Judy Garland. I don't dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they'd take me home to meet Mom."
Listening now. Gives me goose bumps.
Well said, Sand. I seem to remember her more from TV also, the '50s being the first decade of the family television in every living room.
That's how I became a Shirley Temple fan too, watching her movies as Sunday afternoon matinees on KHJ-TV.
*sigh*
Interesting. As I remember the story, the Reagans and the Powells were at dinner. Dick took Ron into his study where they talked privately. Ron emerged a conservative, but what Dick had said to him was secret. Nice story. Anybody know if it's true?
Oh, I loved that movie. I was posting on a 2nd thread and didn't know this one was here, until the other was deleted and I was directed here.
That one had a story that didn't even mention Dick Powell, so I'm glad I'm here now. LOTs more info on this thread.
Loved Strategic Air Command, though. I was a little kid, but SAC was big news for us in Oklahoma, because bases were all around us in the Midwest - the guys were training over our skies a lot - and lots of sonic booms.
I can't recall for sure, but I think they were supposed to be in Omaha in the movie. I distinctly remember a little ranch-style house they lived in and absolutely *nothing* else around it - no trees or anything. It looked like desert - like maybe AZ. Not sure where they filmed it, but the flying footage was incredible, just fabulous. Glad you posted about this!
I grew up in the 70 and 80's watching some of her movies, GLENN MILLER STORY is my best. I also didn't know she was still alive.
Oh, I forgot the McConnell Story. Loved that, too - and The Stratton Story - even the Glenn Miller Story. Guess I'm a biography freak or something. I just like people's life stories - and June Allyson was the quintessential wife!
Isn't she the 3rd, so no more for a while? Jan Murray, Smilin' Jack Smith and now June Allyson.
Did I miss someone?
RIP Ms. Allyson!
Don't we have a FReeper named CydCharisse? Maybe she'll have you!
And I loved every one of those, even Rhapsody in Blue with Ms Allyson. I was too young to know they were "bad." I just knew I liked the biographees involved.
Strategic Air Command, one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it with my Dad when it first came out. We went to the dedication of Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, SD and witnessed a flyover of a squadron (?) of B-36 Peacemakers from Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City. They couldn't have a static display because the runway was too short. I never will forget the sound of all those big B-36 bombers flying overhead at low altitude.
Hart to Hart trivia for you... During the 5 year span of the show, the Harts home (the exterior shots and the property) belonged to June Allyson.
Low blow. I felt awful, as did many fans of her early movies, when she was reduced to doing those demeaning commercials. I don't know whether she needed the money or what, but my heart went out to her.
She and Van Johnson essentially kept the home front positive and optimistic during WWII when I was a kid. Their roles were corny and silly by today's standards -- which says a lot about today's standards IMO.
I met her when I did a luncheon interview with her friend Carolyn Jones at Jones's (Aaron Spelling's) home. It was for Jones's debut as Morticia Addams in "The Addams Family." June Allyson was the gracious hostess for the event and I was able to tell her how much I'd enjoyed her roles over the years.
Also, sole example of the transport version of the B-36, called the XC-99, amazingly still survives and might be restored and put on display.
Dick Powell always seemed like such a sweet man. Don't know if he was, but he sure seemed to match June Allyson. I always thought they were a great "love story," too.
Wow, look at the list of Four-Star productions! Many, many favorites in here:
Four Star Playhouse (1952-56) hosts Dick Powell, Ida Lupino, David Niven, Charles Boyer
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater(1956-60)
Hey, Jeannie(1956-57) starring Jeannie Carson
Mr Adams And Eve (1957-58) starring Ida Lupino & Howard Duff
Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-60) starring David Janssen
Trackdown (1957-59) starring Robert Culp
Black Saddle (1958-59) starring Peter Breck
Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-60) starring Steve McQueen
The Rifleman (1958-63) starring Chuck Connors
The David Niven Show (Summer 1959)
The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959-62)
The June Allyson DuPont Show (1959-61)
Johnny Ringo (1959-60) produced by Aaron Spelling, starring Don Durant
Law of The Plainsman (1959-60) starring Michael Ansara
The Westerners (1960) produced by Sam Peckinpah, starring Brian Keith
Michael Shayne (1960-61) starring Richard Denning
Dante (1960-61) starring Howard Duff
The Law and Mr. Jones(1960-62) starring James Whitmore
Stagecoast West (1960-61) starring Wayne Rogers
The Tom Ewell Show(1960-61)
Peter Loves Mary(1960-61) starring Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy
Mrs G. Goes To College(1961-62) starring Gertrude Berg
Target: The Corruptors (1961-62) starring Stephen McNally
The Dick Powell Show (1961-63)
Saints and Sinners (1962-63) starring Nick Adams & John Larkin
The Lloyd Bridges Show (1962-63)
McKeever And The Colonel(1962-63) starring Scott Lane & Allyn Joslyn
Ensign O'Toole(1962-63) starring Dean Jones
Burke's Law (1963-65) / aka Amos Burke, Secret Agent (1965-66) Gene Barry
Honey West (1963-65) starrng Anne Francis & John Ericson
The Rogues (1964-65) David Niven, Charles Boyer, Gig Young
The Big Valley (1965-69) starring Barbara Stanwyck
The Smothers Brothers Show (1965-66)
PDQ (1965) host Art James
Thrill Seekers (1973-74) host Chuck Connors
Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection (1985)
Liar's Club (1988-89) host John Barbour
Also, here's another good bio of June:
http://www.juneallyson.com/Biography.htm
Who's Smilin' Jack Smith? I forgot about Jan Murray. The quality of celebs dying has been really lacking this year.
Aww, what year was that? I had a taffy-colored cocker spaniel who looked just like that in 1953-54. Named him "Scuffy," after "Scuffy the Tugboat," my favorite Little Golden Book (that day, probably).
Yup!
I checked closely.
Nothing broken there!
Jack Smith thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663011/posts
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