Talk:June Allyson/Archive 1

Allyson and Powell
I remember once reading that, while she was married to Powell, she inherited a large amount of money but there was a condition that she was single. So she divorced Powell in order to get the money, but continued living with him as husband and wife. Is any of this true? JackofOz 00:02, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Actress and spokeswoman June Allyson dies
June Allyson, the sunny on-screen "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie leading men, has died, her daughter, Pamela Allyson Powell, said Monday. She was 88.

June's background
June Allyson was Jewish, not Dutch!! - the nonsense about "Van Geisman" came from her (on Larry King!!) and is not credible in light of her own past lies re her age/background.

Queereyes 01:09, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Census records indicate that both of her paternal grandparents, Harry Geisman and Anna Hafner, were German immigrants - not Dutch. Do you have a source that she was Jewish? I don't believe she was. Mad Jack 07:23, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Her parents married in a Lutheran Church in NY. Questors 02:23, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps by the time the question came up WWII had started and she was avoiding the unpleasant associations of Germany rather than the problems of Jewishness. Dutch Deutsch perhaps an interviewer misheard the former when she playfully said the latter.Pliny 09:14, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

No, she said "Dutch" on Larry King - i.e. it's in an online interview. Anyway, I changed the name back to "Ella Geisman". This is the name on the US census and this is the name reported by some of the obits. "Eleanor Geisman" is reported in some of the other obits, and is incorrect - although I suppose we could make a note of that. Mad Jack 08:15, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
 * There is a list of Jewish personalities that changed their names. But no author is given. Most of the claims seem to be correct. http://www.well.com/user/argv/funny/jewish-names Ontologix (talk) 04:00, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

The Date she had hide herself
Let me know the correct UCT-date when she passed away if it comes to known officially.(sorry, I an poor English speaker)  (12 July 2006)

Cleaning up the "Personal Life" section
I plan to do some housekeeping in this section, as it's an unsourced, biased jumble of information with few dates to put any of it in context. If anyone wants to lend a hand, it's very welcomed. Petitscel (talk) 20:59, 11 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Where you will you source your information? FWiW Bzuk (talk) 22:48, 11 March 2010 (UTC).
 * Books, most likely - I enjoy reading up on the odd Hollywood star and I'm sure I can find some sources involving her at my extremely well-stocked local library :) Petitscel (talk) 02:44, 12 March 2010 (UTC)
 * You may want to start here: "Allyson, June and Frances Spatz Leighton. June Allyson by June Allyson. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982. ISBN 0-39912-726-7." Bzuk (talk) 03:13, 12 March 2010 (UTC).
 * Thanks for that source! :)  I'll see if I can find it at the library tomorrow - it'd be great if we could get dates put into this article so it makes chronological sense.  Petitscel (talk) 14:56, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Research into June Allyson's background makes for fascinating reading
As an exercise in research and verification of sources, I have found that a great deal of the published record that deals with June Allyson is an exercise in contradictions and myth-making. 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 here 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. The name "June Allyson" has been attributed to three different sources and June herself had a different memory of where it came from but the use of a nickname and stage name had already been used 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 giving her the name in exasperation, as he couldn't be bothered to remember her real name, at least that's the tale in her book. Likely the name made sense to her as she liked "Allison", her brother's name and simply tacked on June to it and was reportedly using it before her Broadway debut. As to dates, she was already 21 when she appeared in the chorus line not in her teens and attending high school. Her relentless pursuit of acting, dancing and other career advancing jobs such as modeling was acknowledged in some sources but June painted a much more benign picture of what must have been a pressure-filled experience of auditioning. Her constant efforts were ultimately successful but she alludes to many instances of being too short, too young, not pretty enough rebuttals that seemingly did not deter her in her relentless drive to the top. A lot of the anecdotal references to Allyson's career show that she was ambitious and courageous; one producer was astonished that the dancers actually pitched the tiny Allyson completely out of sight as they threw her into the air during a particularly memorable dance number. The audience roared as June bounced back into the male dancer's arms as if appearing out of nowhere but each performance culminated in the young starlet getting physically sick in her dressing room, out of sight of the cast and crew. When she got to the bright lights of Hollywood, her ability to make friends and keep good company kept her "in the picture". The famous scene of her getting picked up on the roadside by Judy Garland as she waited, nearly broke, for a bus to take her to the studio in Hollywood, may or may not have happened exactly as she remembered it but the fact that Allyson counted Garland, Lucille Ball, Alan Ladd, James Stewart, Peter Lawford, Van Johnson, Margaret O'Brien, Ronald Reagan, and of course, Dick Powell, her first "true love" as close friends and confidantes, led to a remarkably long and successful career for a performer who confessed to not being able to sing or dance! FWiW Bzuk (talk) 18:13, 15 March 2010 (UTC).

Marriages/Cohabitation issues
According to imdb, Allyson married four times, twice to the same person. David Ashrow 	(30 October 1976 - 8 July 2006) (her death) Alfred Glenn Maxwell 	(1 April 1966 - 17 March 1970) (divorced) Alfred Glenn Maxwell 	(13 October 1963 - 20 April 1965) (divorced) Dick Powell 	(19 August 1945 - 2 January 1963) (his death) (2 children) After the death of first husband Dick Powell, she went through a bitter court battle with her mother over custody of her son Dick Powell Jr., and adopted daughter Pamela Powell. Reports at the time revealed that Dirk Wayne Summers was named legal guardian for Dick and Pamela, as a result of a court petition. On NNDB, they ignore the second twice married husband and state that Allyson lived with Summers for nearly 10 years. If she did, how did she manage to marry twice in between? She had separated from Powell in 1957, but returned in 1961 when he supposedly declared "I will not let you go". Then he died. Just curious if any of the books have any info on this. Zabadu~enwiki (talk) 05:52, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Jewish
June Allyson was Jewish, not Dutch. (86.144.82.147 (talk) 22:36, 19 December 2017 (UTC))

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:21, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
 * June Allyson in Too Young To Kiss trailer.JPG

June and Van Johnson
I just discovered that this article says that they made 5 movies together, but that is incorrect. They made six movies together. Was there a reason one was left out? I shall go over them in order of year, for clarity. I will go ahead and change 5 to 6. If there is a reason though that one is not being counted, please respond. MagnoliaSouth (talk) 16:15, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
 * 2) Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
 * 3) High Barbaree (1947)
 * 4) The Bride Goes Wild (1948)
 * 5) Too Young to Kiss (1951)
 * 6) Remains to Be Seen (1953)

Jewish
June Allyson was of German Jewish descent, not Dutch descent. (86.147.253.22 (talk) 01:51, 19 August 2019 (UTC))


 * If you want the article changed, you should say exactly how it should be changed, as well as provide references for what you want said. Dhtwiki (talk) 20:16, 19 August 2019 (UTC)