June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress.

During the 1980s, Allyson also became a spokesperson for Depend undergarments,[2] in a successful marketing campaign that has been credited in reducing the social stigma of incontinence.

She said she had been raised as a Catholic,[citation needed] but a discrepancy exists relating to her early life, and her studio biography was often the source of the confusion.

She ultimately regained her health, but when Allyson had become famous, she was terrified that people would discover her background from the "tenement side of New York City", and she readily agreed to studio tales of a "rosy life", including a concocted story that she underwent months of swimming exercises in rehabilitation to emerge as a star swimmer.

[11][12] After gradually progressing from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, Allyson's true escape from her impoverished life was to go to the cinema, where she was enraptured by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies.

[15] With the death of her stepfather and a bleak future ahead, she left high school midway through her junior year to seek jobs as a dancer.

Returning to New York City, she found work as an actress in movie short subjects filmed by Educational Pictures at its Astoria, Queens NY studio.

[16] Fiercely ambitious, Allyson tried her hand at modeling, but to her consternation became the "sad-looking before part" in a before-and-after bathing suit magazine ad.

[17] Her first career break came when Educational cast her as an ingenue opposite singer Lee Sullivan, comic dancers Herman Timberg, Jr., and Pat Rooney, Jr., and future comedy star Danny Kaye in a series of shorts.

[18] When Educational ceased operations, Allyson moved to Vitaphone in Brooklyn and starred or co-starred (with dancer Hal Le Roy) in musical shorts.

[16] Broadway director George Abbott caught one of performances and offered Allyson one of the lead roles in his production of Best Foot Forward (1941).

Despite playing a "bit part", Allyson received good reviews as a sidekick to Best Foot Forward's star, Lucille Ball, but was still relegated to the "drop list.

"[22] MGM's musical supervisor Arthur Freed saw her screen test sent up by an agent and insisted that Allyson be put on contract immediately.

[29] She supported Margaret O'Brien in Music for Millions (1944) and was billed after Robert Walker and Hedy Lamarr in the romantic comedy Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945).

She had a role in Two Sisters from Boston (1946) with Kathryn Grayson and Peter Lawford, and was one of several MGM stars in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).

Her song "Thou Swell" was a high point of the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music (1948), as performed in the "A Connecticut Yankee" segment with the Blackburn Twins.

[32] In 1950, Allyson had been signed to appear opposite her childhood idol Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding, but had to leave the production due to pregnancy.

[33] In 1954, Allyson was in a huge Universal Pictures hit, The Glenn Miller Story,[34] as well as another successful MGM film, Executive Suite.

[18] In 1957, she signed with Universal and did two more remakes: Interlude, a drama for Douglas Sirk, and My Man Godfrey, a comedy with David Niven.

Throughout the 1970s, she appeared regularly on television shows such as See the Man Run (1971), The Sixth Sense (1972), and Letters from Three Lovers (1973), as well as a cameo in the film They Only Kill Their Masters (1972).

Until 2003, Allyson remained busy touring the country making personal appearances, headlining celebrity cruises, and speaking on behalf of Kimberly-Clark, a long-time commercial interest.

[42] Although dating David Rose, Peter Lawford, and John F. Kennedy, Allyson was actually being courted by Dick Powell, who was 13 years her senior and had been previously married to Mildred Maund and Joan Blondell.

Reports at the time revealed that writer/director Dirk Summers, with whom Allyson was romantically involved from 1963 to 1975, was named legal guardian for Ricky and Pamela as a result of a court petition.

They also appeared on celebrity cruiseship tours on the Royal Viking Sky ocean liner in a program that highlighted Allyson's movie career.

[39] After Dick Powell's death, Allyson committed herself to charitable work on his behalf, championing the importance of research in urological and gynecological diseases in seniors.

[55] In 1993, actor-turned-agent Marty Ingels publicly charged Allyson with not paying his large commission on the earlier deal on incontinence product advertising.

"[10] Privately, Allyson admitted that her earlier screen portrayals had left her uneasy about the typecast "good wife" roles she had played.

[6] In 1996, Allyson became the first recipient of the Harvey Award, presented by the James M. Stewart Museum Foundation, in recognition of her positive contributions to the world of entertainment.

[64] On her death, Kimberly-Clark Corporation contributed $25,000 to the June Allyson Foundation to support research advances in the care and treatment of women with urinary incontinence.

/ Audrey Wyler S2 E9 For a number of years exhibitors voted Allyson among the most popular stars in the country: Explanatory notes Citations Bibliography