June Allyson & Dick Powell: Can It Last?

Robert Michael Pyle (who played Lt. Zander in the mystery drama Two Wrongs Make a Right): Dick Powell was a terrific, full-throttle, vibrant singer and all-around charismatic screen presence, perfect for the Warners musicals of the 30s, so his transformation into a non-singing actor was long overdue by the time of "Christmas in July" (1940). Older relatives of mine who lived in Pittsburgh remembered him as a local theatre personality, and reacted to his appearance in his movies of late as to an old friend. Now I live in Indianapolis, and used to work with a man who remembered Powell in 1928 working at the old Illinois Theater where he came once and played the saxophone in a small band. Shades of the beginning of Fred MacMurray. The man with whom I worked - long since dead and evidently a former musician himself - said that Powell was as nice a guy as you'd want to meet, but quite a loner. There is a short on the GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 DVD that shows Powell helping Busby Berkeley pick out winners of some beauty contest. Powell is visiting from the set of MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, and he looks really good. Just look at how the beauty contestants are looking at him as he passes by them. It's like they never noticed what a handsome man he was. Source: nitrateville.com 

“What’s with June Allyson?” a newsman asked a girl on the set of The McConnell Story at Warner Brothers. “Don’t you know?” she asked. “It’s all over the lot!” “What’s all over the lot?” asked the newsman. The extra smiled. “You’re kidding,” she said. “You must be kidding. Little Junie has fallen head over heels in love with Alan Ladd, and he with her.” It sounds incredible, but that’s the story that was making the rounds in Hollywood several weeks ago, and the vicious rumor caught on like a prairie fire. A columnist had printed the tip-off: “June Allyson and Dick Powell are quarreling and it’s serious.” The next thing anyone knew, Dick Powell and Sue Ladd were having a telephone conference. They had been singed and hurt, but they were determined to extinguish the gossip. And Dick began to take June out practically every night. 

“By practice,” Dick explained, “June and I are not nightclub habitués, but we’re determined to show people that our marriage is swell. There’s nothing wrong with it, no matter what you hear.” Dick and June showed up at Ciro’s to see Sammy Davis, Jr. Then they attended Sonja Henie’s circus party. They made the club rounds, living and loving it up, and when they thought they had dispelled the ugly rumors, they took off—just the two of them—to Sun Valley for a month of relaxation and winter sports. Alan Ladd drove down to a resort, Rancho Santa Fe, alone, taking time separated from his wife. Whilst, Sue Ladd went to Las Vegas with her friends and her aunt. This year (1955) marks the tenth anniversary of the June Allyson-Dick Powell wedding. They were married on August 19, 1945, in the home of Johnny Green, the loquacious MGM musical director. Dick is thirteen years older than June. She was his third wife, and at the time there were many who insisted that the marriage would not work out.

They said that Dick was too professorial, that he sometimes treated June like a wayward little girl, and that sooner or later she would come to resent Dick’s domination of her life. The record shows that the Powells have had several quarrels in the last ten years. “Which married couple hasn’t?” Dick asks. But their marriage is more secure than ever, thanks to these very quarrels and to Dick Powell’s great understanding. Last year June was reported to have been romanced by the Rat Pack's VP Dean Martin, much to the chagrin of Dick, who reportedly was howling in pain. While Dean and June were seeing each other in New York (June was there on a shopping spree), Dick Powell waiting back in Hollywood assured he trusted his wife. June Allyson was a grown-up girl and could handle herself very nicely. On another previous occasion, Peter Lawford had been another of June Allyson’s ardent admirers. Dick Powell wouldn’t even dignify that particular rumor with a reply.

As to the gossip about June and Alan Ladd, here’s what June confided to a friend. “I don’t know how it got started. I really don’t. Sure, I like Alan. Who doesn’t? He’s a wonderful guy. But how anyone could imply there was anything serious between us I don’t know. After all, Sue Ladd was on the set a good deal of the time." June conceded: "Sure, Richard and I have had our spats. But the latest one had nothing to do with Alan. Thank heaven, Richard is sensible enough to discount these stories. He’s an actor and he knows how easily rumors can begin about a leading lady. I’ve had reporters call me day after day. They want to know about Alan and me. I told them it was ridiculous, crazy. But once these stories start, what a time they’ve got! By the time we get back from Sun Valley, I sure hope the whole thing has blown over.”

Thrusting the Alan Ladd canard to one side, what factors are there that could possibly cause dissension in the Powell household? In Pamela and Rick, the Powells have two of the most adorable children in Mandeville Canyon. They have all the money they will ever need. They own a fifty-eight-acre estate, three cars, the Four Star corporation. What could possibly be wrong at home? First, June has been working too long. In the past eleven months, she has worked unceasingly in Strategic Air Command, Woman’s World, The Shrike and The McConnell Story. Between pictures she has gone on location with Richard, shopped for and decorated their new house. And most important of all, she has changed her way of life to include her stepdaughter Ellen, and her half-brother Arthur Peters, twenty-one. Ellen and Arthur came to live with the Powells this year. What this means is that June has a houseful of children ranging in age from four to twenty-one. Managing such a household is a wearing job. Ellen Powell, at sixteen, is entering the problem years. Arthur is a medical student. Pamela and little Ricky see their mother much less than they’d like. The Powells have about seven people in service, plus four dogs, two cats and two horses. June’s job to see that the household functions smoothly has taken its toll in her temperament. 

Dick works very hard on his various enterprises all day long—he has just finished editing The Conqueror for Howard Hughes, an outstanding film he directed last summer—and when he comes home, he likes everything to be in order. He wants his Scotch and water, his seat by the fireplace, and a few minutes of relaxation. “As a matter of fact,” June said, “Richard and I haven’t had very much time together. That’s why this Sun Valley vacation will be a very good thing.” In Sun Valley, Dick and June vacationed and skied, until Dick turned up in bandages. Headquarters for their stay was the Sun Valley Lodge—near the skiing area. The first morning there they took the chair lift to the highest slope. June learned to ski only a few years ago. Dick has been at it longer. Dick, a camera bug, snapped her, sent photos home to the kids. Later they relaxed during a long sleigh ride. And then... calamity! Dick took a bad fall on skis and broke his shoulder. Originally, June and Dick planned to hire a tourist cabin in Ketchum, a small town near Sun Valley. June was going to cook for her husband. It would be another honeymoon, idyllic and peaceful. “It’s not that June doesn’t cook well,” Dick later explained, after he canceled the cabin routine. 

“It’s just that we thought Sun Valley Lodge and the hotel service would be a little more appropriate for a vacation.” June and Dick are both pretty good skiers, because they are both supple and light on their feet. Originally a dancer, June surprised the Sun Valley ski instructors by learning how to slalom so quickly. There’s a story about their skiing that’s told around Hollywood with great relish. When the Powells went to Sun Valley a year or so ago, June bought the most expensive clothes and ski equipment. She also hired the best ski teachers. Dick thought it was all a lot of nonsense. But he’s a camera bug, and likes to run family motion pictures, so he hired a man to take movies of him and June skiing down the mountainside. One night he ran off the movies at home to the accompaniment of wisecracks. “See that figure coming down the mountainside?” he asked his children. “See that figure with her skis spread a mile apart? See that figure who looks as though she’s ready to fall head-first into the snow? Well, that’s your mother after five hundred dollars’ worth of instruction!” 

The figure Dick was talking about was rather fuzzy on film. Once the camera moved in for a close-up, however, the figure turned out to be Dick himself! The family roared. Actually, Dick is a better skier than June but not by much. “Another season on skis,” says Leif Odmark, a Sun Valley instructor, “and Mrs. Powell will be very good. She has rhythm and grace. She’s come a long way.” June Allyson has come a long way in other ways, too. Ten years ago when she became Mrs. Richard Powell, she was scared stiff. She was shy, insecure, frightened, completely dependent on her husband. She knew nothing about housekeeping, nothing about personnel, nothing about budgets. It was Dick who did the hiring and firing, Dick who chose the furnishings. June seemed ashamed of her background and avoided probing interviewers. Interior decorators reported that she had no idea of what should be in her home. Lovingly, Dick used to judge her scripts, give her advice, tried to bolster her courage and inflate her ego. And now it has been suggested that subconsciously June resented her total dependence on Dick. If so, she never showed it publicly.

At first, June didn’t want to star in The Stratton Story. Dick said, “Don’t be foolish. With Jimmy Stewart you’ll have a big hit.’ Dick was right. He’s been frequently so. A little over a year ago, June said that she was tired of the stories MGM was giving her. She wanted to quit. “Only I lacked the courage to free lance. After all, I’d been at Metro almost ten years. My contract had been renegotiated twice. The studio had been kind to me, but I knew I couldn’t go along forever playing opposite Van Johnson. Richard said if I felt that way, I should quit, that I’d have no trouble getting work as a free lancer. I was hesitant. He told me to put my foot down. I listened to him and I left the studio. I’ve never been happier in my career. I’ve had the most wonderful offers. I’ve worked at Paramount, Warners, 20th Century Fox, and I’ve been able to choose my own stories.” Before June and Dick left for Sun Valley, June gave her first dinner party. “It was the first time I arranged everything myself—ordered the food, arranged the guest list and so forth.” The party was for Harold Cohen, a Pittsburgh screen critic, and it came off beautifully. “I knew I could do it,” June said proudly. It has taken her ten years to mature, but now her personality is coming to the fore, ready to assert itself. June has found renewed confidence. 

And her relationship with Dick reflects those changes due to it. Being the kind of husband Dick is, warm-hearted, understanding and considerate, Dick Powell thinks June’s growth is a very good thing. For years he has been telling June that she has absolutely no reason to suffer from feelings of inferiority. “You’ve got good looks, ability and talent,” he once told her, “and you can do anything you set your mind to!” June realizes, of course, that she owes her character development to Dick, that it was he who brought her potential out. No one was happier than Dick when June insisted upon furnishing their new home herself. June has reached the point where she is ready to give orders in her house. That goes not only for Rick and Pam but for Ellen and Arthur as well. When she has something to say, she wants Richard to listen to her as an equal, not as a precocious child feeling her oats. Not too long ago, the Powells had a quarrel in public at the Mocambo. June left the table when she felt like a pressure cooker about to explode.

She went out, ordered a cab and went home alone, having demonstrated her independence. It has been hinted of late that June’s new success has given her a rate of growth faster than Dick anticipated. Many say, “June Allyson is outgrowing her husband. It’s just a question of time before they begin to differ about major things. She was elected Number One box-office star of 1954. She’s coming along fast.” Yes, but let's not forget that Dick Powell is the mastermind behind June’s new success. June is adamant that his husband was her first mentor. When June met him, Dick knew every avenue of show business. He'd started as a saxophone player and crooner. At Little Rock College, Powell formed a band called Peter Pan. Powell’s professional career began in 1925, when he toured the Midwest with the Royal Peacocks dance band. He made his first recordings for Gennett Records in late 1927 and for Vocalion in 1928, recorded in Indianapolis with the Charlie Davis orchestra, including "Was It a Dream?" Then he graduated to master of ceremonies in the Enright theatre in Pittsburgh in 1929.

Dick turned himself into a musical comedy star in Warners, then into a serious straight actor. He also combined his film career with his own radio programs. Powell was a guest on Bing Crosby's Philco Radio show around 1948 and it's interesting to hear him sing several of the old WB songs. Powell also plugged his own "Richard Diamond" radio show by playing sleuth with Crosby. When challenged to prove his detecting skills, Dick says that Bing had an argument with his wife Dixie before leaving home. Crosby admits that's true and asks Powell how he knew. Dick says he observed a lump on Bing's head! Presently Powell has become a director, producer and president of a show business corporation. Additionally, he is also an attentive father, a charming host and a shrewd businessman. Dick Powell mentored Jane Powell and Mary Tyler Moore's careers. In 1954, he helped launch Kim Novak's career in Columbia. Powell heard they were filming a noir film starring Fred MacMurray (Pushover), and he thought Novak would be ideal for the femme-fatale role. Columbia intended for Novak to be their successor to Rita Hayworth; also that Novak would bring them the same box-office success Marilyn Monroe brought 20th Century-Fox. Novak's first role for the studio was indeed in Pushover (1954), and quickly became one of Hollywood's top box office stars. 

Dick Powell predicted that Debbie Reynolds would become a big star. He did record the two songs from Susan Slept Here for Bell Records in 1954. Later, at a dinner party after the whole Liz-Eddie-Debbie saga, June kept mistakenly calling Liz Taylor 'Debbie', and she was understanding for the first few times but by the end, Liz snapped: "Why don't you just call me George? Just call me George." Powell helped to defuse the bad mood. Also, June said that Joan Fontaine would come to dinner parties and talk business the entire time with Dick. So, would June ever give all this up? She was once asked that question. Her answer: “I would never give it up for anything. The most important thing in my whole life is my husband. And he always will be!” It looks as though the Powell-Allyson marriage will last a long time. Each of the participants has much of what the other needs, wants and loves. —"June Allyson & Dick Powell: How Long Can It Last?" article by William Barbour for Modern Screen magazine (May, 1955)