In Private Screenings: June Allyson, Allyson discusses her film career; her late husband, Dick Powell; and her leading men, including James Stewart, Van Johnson and Alan Ladd. Excerpts include Allyson on:
Being Typecast as the "Girl Next Door":
"It bothered me a lot. I wanted to do something different so I went to Jose Ferrer and he had a script for The Shrike and he asked MGM if he could use me in the film as his wife, who was a terrible lady. I begged them to let me do it. When they took the film out for preview, most of the cards came back saying it's a good picture, but I would never put my husband in an insane asylum and leave him there. So we had to re-shoot the end of the film just so I could be good."
On L.B. Mayer:
"I remember he {Mayer} called me up to the office and said, "You're not really going to marry Dick Powell? " He {Powell} had been married before and Pop Mayer was a very moral man. I said, "Well, I'm going to marry him." He said he'd put me on suspension and I said okay. I got downstairs and I thought if you get married, you have to have someone give you away. So I went upstairs into the office and said, "Now Pop, I know I'm on suspension, but I don't have anyone to give me away at my wedding, so would you do it, please?" He was so shocked that I would have the audacity to come back and ask, so he said okay and gave me away."
On Gossip Columnist Hedda Hopper:
"Oh Hedda Hopper always gave me a bad time. She always said, "I saw June Allyson at this party in her little Peter Pan collar again. I'm so sick and tired of her wearing her little Peter Pan collar." Well, I thought I am going to show her. I had this wonderful straight black dress made cut down low. I thought I looked great. And I went to the party. The next day in the paper it said, "I saw June Allyson last night in a dress I can't describe but it was cut awfully low and I couldn't tell if she was coming in or going out. But I'd like to know what she is trying to prove." There was no way to please Hedda."
TCM's Private Screenings: June Allyson also covers some of Allyson's favorite movies, including the 1949 drama The Stratton Story co-starring James Stewart; the 1956 musical remake of The Women, The Opposite Sex, co-starring Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan and Ann Miller; the 1949 version of Little Women, opposite Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh; and 1944's Best Foot Forward, co-starring Lucille Ball and Gloria De Haven.
BW & C-47m. Closed Captioning.
