June Allyson, Dick Powell, Alan Ladd

In late 1944, Allyson and Powell tried to stay out of public sight and, one night, went for dinner and dancing to an out-of-the-way nightclub where L.B. Mayer’s spies were not apt to find them. Powell drove her home and they sat in the car while they kissed. Powell told her he loved her very much but he had no intention of ever getting married again. Allyson burst into tears and said she didn’t think they should see each other again. Allyson wouldn’t even let him walk her to her door. Do you have any better offers?, he called out. Two, she said defiantly. The phone rang at the usual time and she answered sobbing, which made Powell hang up. Later there was a pounding on her door and he said that if she wanted to get married, they would get married. Allyson felt it was an odd proposal until he added, “You know I love you.” She threw her arms around him, saying, “I love you too, Tommy,” not realizing her gaffe. Powell asked who the hell Tommy was and when Allyson explained, he roared with laughter and so did she. 

Allyson and Powell lived in a big house in Bel Air but Allyson wasn’t a good housekeeper. She didn’t know how to order food or plan meals or how to handle personnel. Once, instead of one cord of fireplace wood, she ordered seven; they sat around looking like a beached whale until Powell sent back six. When he had to go to New York to make a speech, Allyson packed for him but forgot the pants. Another time she forgot to get a pair of pants to the cleaners that he needed for the next day. Allyson found Powell a joy to live with, always either whistling or singing. He talked a lot and cried with happiness, and also cried over the deaths of people he did not know that were struck down in their prime. If Powell felt anger coming on, he would say “God is love” and just slow down, or work on his boat. Humphrey Bogart was determined to own the boat and his persistence paid off when one day he caught Powell in the right mood. Powell said his friend had worn him down and the Bogarts invited the Powells on the new maiden voyage. Bogart was all smiles but Lauren Bacall told Allyson in a low sour voice, “Thanks a lot,” because she hated the boat. Allyson learned how her husband did everything better than she—swimming, playing tennis, golf and skiing—though when they went to Sun Valley ski lodge, he broke a shoulder while Allyson was still unpacking in their suite. They had agreed to meet for lunch at the Round House but she got a phone call from Powell, who was in the hospital. 

Now that Allyson was married, there were no more money worries. Powell would say to have any store send their bill to the house and he would pay for it. Allyson had dreamed of having an Adrian suit but was afraid the elegant salon might ask her to leave, as Tiffany had the time when the girl first came to Hollywood and went there wearing pigtails and flat shoes. But now the salespeople made her feel at home, congratulating Allyson on the success of Two Girls and a Sailor. She ordered a suit made of white cashmere. At home she modeled the suit for Powell. Powell thought he knew the woman he had married but now learned of her desperate feeling of inadequacy. She was afraid of everything—cats, people who didn’t like her, being alone, the dark, and illness. She was always going to Powell to dispel some specter that had been raised. Allyson confessed she was afraid of Hedda Hopper because she had said mean things about her, as when Hopper blamed the actress for Powell giving the news of the marriage to Louella Parsons and not her. He advised her to just smile and be sweet in return and let the people who were mean shame themselves. 

Allyson needed constant reassurance of Powell’s love, wanting to be with him every moment. He wanted to be with her too, but he was aiming to get to be so successful that he could finally relax, saying it was as much for her as it was for him. Powell drove Allyson to their new home in Copa de Oro. It was an estate done in English Tudor with a two-acre yard behind a big iron gate. Powell rebuilt the house and had the walls covered in silks and tapestries. This time Allyson was determined to have a hand in the decoration and ordered furniture which he sent back because it was Early American. Allyson invited everyone she could think of and sometimes the guest number was 75. Powell manned the phone to pull the evening together (including a small band for dancing) and she would get all the credit. Half of the Hollywood colony was entertained at the Powells: the Bogarts, Louis B. Mayer and his daughters Edie Goetz and Irene Mayer Selznick, Merle Oberon, Lana Turner, Louella Parsons. Judy Garland was always the center of attention and, when she sang, Allyson sat on the floor worshipping her. For Allyson, it was fun to venture out into Hollywood society as Mrs. Dick Powell. One evening they attended a party at Mary Pickford’s Pickfair. When they arrived, they saw that everyone was dressed to the hilt while Allyson had just thrown on a Peter Pan dress and wore no makeup. She felt like the ugly duckling in a room full of swans. But it didn’t bother Pickford, who made a big fuss because she had heard so much about the little girl who had been compared to her. 

Powell took his wife to visit Marion Davies, who was an old flame. When they arrived at Marion’s mansion, it almost broke Allyson’s heart to see that Marion had been drinking. Allyson could still see the beauty in her face with enormous, very sad eyes. The Marion in the photos with Powell that he had shown her no longer existed. Janet Leigh wrote in her memoir There Really Was a Hollywood that she had first seen Allyson in June 1946 in the MGM makeup room when Leigh was waiting to be made-up for her first screen test. She described Allyson as sweet and adorable and one of her favorites. Leigh said that when making Little Women Allyson was the ringleader of the four actresses, though they blended beautifully to weave the web of sisterhood. Leigh turned 21 during filming and a surprise birthday party was thrown on the set with Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Gloria DeHaven as Allyson’s guests. Mary Astor reported that Allyson giggled a lot, which distracted the older actress and did not amuse her. She also said that Allyson chewed gum constantly and the young actress’ silliness wore her down. 

James Stewart and Dick Powell chuckled as they compared notes on their helpless wives and how they had to fix everything around the house or it would stay broken forever. Powell gave June a new wedding ring, similar to the old plain one but gem-encrusted, and Allyson wore both of them. Allyson wanted to continue playing serious roles and not be typecast in light romantic comedies or as the plain girl next door, the one men took home to meet their mother and always got her man. The actress complained that MGM fell back on typecasting and was not choosing her vehicles as well as she would have liked. Allyson’s mother Clara also came to live nearby after Powell gave her husband a job in transportation and maintenance. Allyson blamed Howard Hughes for the emerging strain in her marriage. 

Powell had made The Conqueror for RKO, which was run by Howard Hughes, and the two men met in the dead of night, rather than in the day during standard business hours. This was to accommodate Hughes’ eccentricities since he was going deaf and preferred the quiet of nighttime. After the film was made, Hughes continued to be important in Powell’s life and in Allyson’s by osmosis. But she continued to resent the amount of time her husband spent away from her in conference with Hughes and working on Hughes’ projects. According to Beverly Linet’s book Ladd—The Life, The Legend, The Legacy, Allyson found him to be very quiet and rather sad, his poor morale said to have been due to a less than tranquil home life. Ladd was the man described by Linet: withdrawn and somber. Allyson tried to make him laugh by clowning around on the set, because the man certainly looked like he needed cheering up. Ladd soon found the actress’ exuberance contagious. When she was passing him one day at rehearsal, Allyson stumbled over her own feet—maybe by accident, maybe for fun—and he grabbed her. Ladd said, “Hey, small fry. One accident-prone person in a movie is enough” and laughed for the first time since Allyson had met him. After the rehearsal resumed, he showed up at her dressing room asking if he could come in. She replied, “Only if you stumble in,” and they laughed together. When the couple got to talking, Allyson noticed how alike they were.

They never had any problems with their scenes and, when she would tell Ladd how good he was, the man couldn’t accept it. He could be a very funny man with a wry sense of humor and they always found something to laugh about. But even as his mood changed, Allyson sensed an underlying sadness in him. In the past, Ladd felt uncomfortable in love scenes and kissing—but he didn’t object to those with her. He was impatient to get to work in the morning, let down when shooting ended for the day, and invariably disappointed on the days the actress was not on call. Ladd found excuses to spend as much time as possible with her between setups. They talked about everything—their families, the way the film was going, acting—but nonetheless she felt he was a very private person and never discussed their past. Together they drove everyone else on the set out of their minds since they were both crazy about music and had it blasting, which helped keep anyone from overhearing them. The music would be turned off when Sue appeared. Ladd could not keep his eyes off his co-star and the infatuation did not escape the notice of cast and crew. 

Rumors of a hot romance began to spread and blind items appeared in several Hollywood columns. Ladd was so disturbed by his feelings for Allyson that he had difficulty sleeping but he never became ill or had more accidents. The man even began looking forward to Carol Lee’s wedding, to which Allyson and Dick Powell were invited. At the Powell home, nothing had changed or improved. Powell was still on the telephone, preoccupied with his work, and out late. Allyson bore a haunting resemblance to the first Mrs. Ladd, Midge, who was his first great love. This was a marriage Hollywood wanted kept secret so that the actor could maintain the Hollywood fantasy of romantic availability, much like Powell’s marriage where his wife was also kept secret. Allyson and Ladd were both good at picking up accents and would carry on hilarious conversations, each of them using a different dialect and pretending not to understand the other. They played the game of “What if?” a lot, speculating what would have happened if the pair had met when they were younger and created a whole life together in their reveries. Ladd asked her repeatedly how she could always be so cheerful and she replied that she was not. 

Sometimes she would sit and brood, or read her favorite cynic Oscar Wilde. Ladd told her that now that he had found her, he would never have to feel lonely again. He would know that somewhere there was one person who had seen the world as he saw it. She knew the same thing applied to her and that wherever Ladd was, she would always feel an invisible tie to him. They clung to every minute they could have together. He asked how it would feel to wake up next to her and she said she slept in flannel pajamas. He told her she had taken the place of sleeping pills: Since he had been working with her, he didn’t need anything to put him to sleep. He grabbed her and jokingly pretended he was going to give her the spanking of her life. They were like puppies, wrestling, growling at each other, then marching off the best of buddies, arms around each other. Even on the set they walked that way, knowing perfectly well that they were setting tongues wagging. They didn’t give a damn. When they were alone, Ladd sang to her, breaking into some Gilbert and Sullivan. She told him she liked to sing “Clair de Lune” with lyrics she had written for it and calling the song “I Remember.” The actress believed she was falling in love with Ladd. One time, Ladd kissed her and she didn’t fight back. It felt almost like they were married, with that special awareness two people develop when they felt that they belonged together. But Allyson told Ladd she belonged to Powell.

Allyson suggested they both tell their mates that it was just a warm loving friendship that would not turn into a clandestine love affair. By now there was more gossip, which made Sue Ladd call Powell to say that Alan Ladd was in love with his wife. Powell’s reply: “Isn’t everybody?” To demonstrate that there was nothing to the gossip items, the four went to Trader Vic’s for dinner. Powell talked about his favorite subject, The Conqueror, and Ladd and Allyson talked about their film. But Ladd couldn’t take his eyes off Allyson—and Sue noticed. Sue decided to confront the actress once Carol Lee and Richard were off on their honeymoon, but the Powells escaped to the safety of home. When Ladd heard about Sue’s call to Powell, he packed his clothes and moved out of the house. Louella Parsons had been at the wedding and saw the looks between Ladd and Allyson. Now she heard about the separation and telephoned Sue for the scoop, then filed the story for her January 28, 1955 column. Ladd phoned Allyson to tell her he had moved out and the actress told him she had told Powell they were in love. But Allyson didn’t want a divorce. Maybe if things were different—if there was no Pammy or Ricky—but there was. She was sad for Ladd and the actress hoped she hadn’t hurt him too much. Ladd didn’t feel hurt. Rather, Allyson had brought a little sunshine into his life at least. Allyson would always love him in a special way.

Alan Ladd played the role of the repentent husband admirably but Beverly Linet writes that his smile looked forced in the photographs, and that the light was gone from his eyes. Allyson tried to get over Ladd and to seem carefree, but a lot of laughter was now gone from her life. One day Ladd sent a gift, a record of “Autumn Leaves.” She played it over and over, and missed him. They had telephone conversations—sometimes hurried, sometimes long and loving. Ladd said he missed her and was back to having insomnia and accidents. Allyson heard rumors about him drinking but she refrained from scolding the man and they cheered each up by doing their funny accents. When Powell answered the phone, he and Ladd would have long conversations and Allyson wondered about what was said. Ladd would call late at night and she would start by sitting on the floor of her dressing room and then lie on her stomach when she got tired. 

Ladd said she was lucky to have a man like Powell who was wise and full of understanding. Allyson was offered the leading role in The Three Faces of Eve (1957) but Powell talked her out of it, believing she would be miscast. Joanne Woodward took the role of the woman suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder and won the Best Actress Academy Award. On the night of November 1, 1957, Alan Ladd called from his ranch to have a long conversation with Powell. Ladd urged Powell to drive out there to talk to him; Allyson did not ask if they included her. Powell did not go to confront Ladd, and the next day came the news that Ladd had been shot. He was found near death in a pool of his own blood, his gun beside him, a bullet hole next to the heart. A .38 caliber bullet had to be removed. Powell was beside himself with grief because he had not gone to see Ladd as Ladd had begged him to do. ―June Allyson: Her Life and Career (2023) by Peter Shelley