Word: allysons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Honey. That word describes the tenor of both her voice and her roles. In 12 years as a star at the lion of studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and for decades afterward, June Allyson purred sweet reason to the prime men of her era: Jimmy Stewart (in three movies), Humphrey Bogart (in Battle Circus), William Holden (Executive Suite) and her husband, Dick Powell. Other women might get the showy parts, and the Oscars. Allyson, in her movies, got the wedding ring. And from her fans, she received the Photoplay Magazine citation as 1954's Most Popular Female Star...
...Maybe I hear, and feel, something different in Allyson. The Internet Movie Database Obit describes her as having a "raspy voice," and David Thomson, that most gifted of biographical sketch artists, refers to "her petite, sore-throated charm." To my ear, Allyson was a crooner, her voice a salve to her male co-stars' belligerence, grudges or indecision. Those nectarine vocals suited her sweet looks, and the roles assigned her by MGM, when that studio was still America's arbiter of middle-class propriety...
...that was Allyson's persona. Playing characters named Connie, Patsy, Annie, Kathy, Nancy, Penny, Sallie, Ellie - names that might have adorned any high-school yearbook, with hearts dotting the I's - Allyson held on to that amiable freshness for most of her career. She was the girl most likely to be hugged; the one who'd be nice to come home to; the postwar dream wife, if your dreams were domestic reveries that didn't get too lurid or extravagant...
...jolts June Allyson could provide is the knowledge that this Heartland heart was born (on Oct. 7, 1917) in the Bronx, not a borough renowned for gentility. And that little Ella Geisman endured a rough childhood. She was raised in poverty by her divorced mother. Then, as she related it on her website , "I had a very bad accident at age eight which killed my dog and totaled my bike, not to mention me! The doctors said I might never walk again. Because of the respect I gained for my doctors, I aspired for a time to become one myself...
Sophomore Allyson Pritchett finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.27 meters, and Vinduskova made 5.2 meters for seventh. The Crimson finished at the front of the pack in the 60-meter hurdles, as junior Mary Serdakowski and senior Eleanor Thompson finished second and fourth with respective times of 9.18 and 9.3 seconds...