Eldergays - What's the gossip and lowdown on Hollywood legend Jane Powell please?

Pretty glamorous in a classic way.

First time I've attempted to post a pic on here so hope I don't balls it up!

Photo was from Pinterest. Could that be why it didn't work?

Maybe you should save the photo on your desktop and upload it via this site:

Many thanks indeed [R3]

I think she was famous for denture commercials when I was a kid.

Thanks [R8] Are there any diva behaviour rumours about her?

She was a true triple threat and gorgeous. While she is most famous for being a singer, she was able to keep up with Fred Astaire quite well in "Royal Wedding". Their "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life" is terrific; she even stays in tough gal character coming back for a curtain call. She was a bigger star than Debbie Reynolds when Reynolds was a supporting player in a few of her films. I saw them both as a kid in "Irene" on Broadway and met Powell after the show. She was wonderful (as was Reynolds) and very nice when I saw her.

When the studio system collapsed in the mid-to-late 50s and studios including MGM didn't renew the contracts of most of their stars, Powell turned to tv and the stage to perform. She had originally been hired at MGM (as was Kathryn Grayson) to be MGM's versions of Universal's huge soprano star Deanna Durbin, who had slipped through MGM's fingers to the chagrin of Louis B. Mayer, so he wanted an MGM star soprano too. I'm not a big Grayson fan, but Powell actually had trained as a dancer when she was a kid, and if you look at some of her other films like "Three Sailors and a Girl" opposite terrific dancer Gene Nelson and some later tv work, she could handle pretty complex choreography. She also turned up as mystery guest on "What's My Line", looking absolutely stunning. I've never heard anything negative about her, other than when Gower Champion who had directed "Irene" for Reynolds, refused to help direct Powell when she replaced Reynolds. Apparently Debbie herself helped Jane.

She blew everyone from Louis B. Mayer to Lassie!

Check her out starting at about 25:50

She was extremely short, even for a woman, and she had that annoying shrill piping soprano that people at the time just loved but has dated so badly now (other stars who had it: Kathryn Grayson, Irene Dunne, Ann Blyth, etc.). But she genuinely had a star quality, and moved and danced especially well--look at her in this very typical number from "Two Weeks with Love." Even though her voice is annoying, she's magnetic moving on the screen.

Probably her high point on screen--she gets to sing in a lower register than usual (which sounds much better than the usual piping soprano), and show off her considerable comic and dancing skills.

She pretty darn wonderful in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", too - her other most famous film.

[R7] Thanks

Was she a good friend of Debbie Reynolds at any point? I ask because I recall reading a rare interview with her from 2000 were she said she was never invited to any of Debbie's dinner parties and she wondered if that was because she wasn't in any of the top tier cliques among Hollywood stars? I'm surprised to hear that there was a point in time when Jane was a bigger star than Debbie.

She replaced Debbie in "Irene" on Broadway, allegedly on Reynolds' recommendation.

I so agree [R10] I found myself enchanted watching her in Seven brides for seven brothers. Glad to say she is still with us and as far as I am aware still in good health. Given how few stars are left from Hollywood's golden era I'm surprised she's not talked about more.

She played a nun on Murder, She Wrote, I think. Or maybe it was an old whore.

I think she even did a daytime soap.

Jane started around 1945 or 1946 as a teenager in films. She pretty much became a star in 1948's "Holiday in Mexico" at MGM. Debbie started at MGM around 1949 and was in several of Jane's pictures as a supporting play (usually a younger sister). Debbie became a star in 1952 in "Singin' in the Rain". Actually the Debbie-Eddie Fisher-Elizabeth Taylor scandal really helped Debbie's career, as she was able to get a lot of work in films until the late 60s after MGM phased out of most of its contract players starting around 1955 or so. Jane turned to tv first when they used to do tv musicals and then more to the stage where she did lots of musicals.

She subbed for Eileen Fulton on As the World Turns a few times in the '80s, and played an Angela Channing-ish matriarch on Loving for a few years.

I believe Elizabeth Taylor was Jane Powells bridesmaid after they struck up a friendship at MGM. I don't know if they starred in many films together but I gather they were "educated" together at MGM given whatever limited education the studios gave to their young stars.

I saw her a couple of years ago when she appeared at the Fire Island Pines. She was very nice although the moderator was bad.

Jane Powell starred as Judy in "A Date With Judy" and Elizabeth Taylor I think played one of her sisters.

Cheers. [R21] lovely photo

Did she say much of interest at this event?

Roddy McDowell said some nice things about her in some interviews I saw him do. Powell did some audience post-screening interviews that are on youtube. She's very nice.

[R24] I think Roddy McDowell was instrumental in introducing her to her last husband who died in recent years. Roddy introduced him to Jane as a favour as he was making a documentary or something and they clicked instantly

In her Oceana Roll number at r10, there's not a straight man to be found!

R23, She said she didn't known her friend Roddy McDowell was gay! Said she was brides maid at Elizabeth Taylors wedding. Recounted a story I knew of and asked her about: The cast all listening to Nixons resignation speech on the radio that night. And although she didn't like him, when she sang "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Patsy Kelly had told me this story.

Goodness [R27] She must have been very naive not to realise that Roddy was gay! I know Jane has been married and divorced several times. Any gossip, scandal or tumultuous drama from any of this?

Thanks for replying by the way [R27]

Feeling a more hopeful about Stephen Bannon's firing. Take it away, Jane!

Is it just me, or does Hayden Panettiere bear a really strong resemblance to a young Jane?

R24, R25, R27 - As I pointed out in another thread, his name is spelled McDOWALL.

Not seeing it myself [R31] !

[quote] As I pointed out in another thread, his name is spelled McDOWALL.

Oh, who really gives a fucking shit, Miss Priss.

Jane's second and last husband was Dickie Moore who was a HUGE child star in the 1930s, most famously playing Marlene Dietrich's little son in Blonde Venus.

Jane also had an affair in the 1950s with hottie co-star Gene Nelson.

By all reports, Jane is a lovely woman. I love her version of the Oscar-wining tune It's a Most Unusual Day from MGM's A Date with Judy. That film was one of Hollywood's first acknowledgements of the post-WWII phenomenon called TEENAGERS.

She has interesting things to say about her time with MGM:

[quote]People are always fascinated by the so-called golden age of musicals, but it wasn’t all that great. Everything was glazed. Those movies didn’t reflect reality. I was at MGM for 11 years and nobody ever let me play anything but teenagers. I was 25 years old with kids of my own and it was getting ridiculous. Publicity was froth. Everything you said was monitored. With me, they didn’t have to worry. I never had anything to say, anyway. It was hard work, I had no friends, no social interaction with people my age and the isolation was tough. But I had to support my family, so I did what I was told and had no other choice.

She was into the Dicky long before that marriage r35. As was Jeanette MacDonald. So was I!

R35 Most Unusual Day did not win an Oscar.

I do see a slight resemblance between Hayden and Jane.

Always thought it was so cute when classic Hollywood stars married each other decades after their stars had declined- there was Dickie/Jane, Ben Lyon and Marion Nixon, Loretta Young and Jean Louis. Any others?

I've always loved this duet with Ann Sothern.

No OP, little dish. She is a lovely woman, very grounded. A friend adored her, press agent for IRENE. I heard many stories. She had a happy New York life married to Dickie Moore. They were a couple quietly about town and he died two years ago. She lives near Lincoln Center, goes to Connecticut. When Alice Tully Hall was undergoing major renovation and expansion I was walking down Broadway one balmy early-spring afternoon. I passed by an attractive older woman waiting at the bus stop, later realized it was Jane Powell. Well, it is New York, so I turned around and went back. I quietly said "Miss Powell?" She was quite at ease, smiled and said yes. I told her we'd not met, but in passing by I recognized her and immediately thought of, R.I.P, our close friend. "Henry Lurhman just adored you." We talked of Henry, his house out east, their show days. Ms. Powell could not have been more friendly nor conversational. She was wearing a smart cloche hat and Lanvin coat -- what, I know these things -- in light yellowish-tan shades. She would have been 80, didn't look it, was just lovely.

She wasn't bad on that SVU episode where she played the old bag with Alzheimer's.

Thanks for that [R41] It certainly sounds like Jane Powell is a very lovely down to earth woman and there's little scandal as such to be had. But I am genuinely interested in if she came to reject much of Hollywood as I understand she hasn't lived there for many years? Did she try to revive her career in film or pretty much accept it was of its time and over?

She actually was married five times had three children between her first two husbands. I think she realized musicals were on the way out and a lot of other musical stars (and other dramatic contract stars) were being let go by MGM and other studios. She gravitated to the stage in regional productions and also did a lot of variety shows on tv as back then there were a lot of them. I don't know if she tried to get into some of the big ones that she might have done well in like "Music Man" or "Carousel" or "South Pacific", among others.

My grandmother always said Florence Henderson was a poor man's Jane Powell.

Most people my age probably remember her best from Seven Brides, which we watched on CBS a few times some 20 years later. And it was about horny fit young men, gay required viewing.

Later I saw her in other movies with gran. She could do anything. Is she the last real star left?

She was actually a really good temporary recast on As the World Turns. Emergency recasts are often obviously struggling, trying to figure out how they fit on the show and learning all the lines, but she stepped in a completely seamless way. And much better than scores of other actors who were vets, but couldn't hack daytime's pace like Kier Dullea or Robert Vaughn.

Mary Pickford and Buddy Rodgers.

[R45] Oh I wouldn't go as far as to say she's the last real star left, we still have Angela Lansbury, Olivia De Havilland, Doris Day, Shirley Maclaine, Vera Miles, Tab Hunter, Etc amongst others still alive but it's a naturally shrinking pool of people

Anyone on here ever seen her in a stage show?

She lives in my town (Wilton, CT) and over the past few years I have seen her a few times in local restaurants. She looks fabulous for someone in her late eighties!

And Kirk Douglas! Don't forget about me.

Is she under consideration to replace Bette in "Dolly?"

When she was off for a week in "Irene", the role was played by Pamela Peadon. She played Cassie in the later stages of ACL on the road and Bennett referred to her as the TV Movie of the Week Cassie.

R23 She said one of her sons had disoned her and become a forest ranger.

Unfortunately I always associate Jane with the insipid, saccharin MGM musicals that were so out of touch with the public following WW2. I'm glad to see some self-awareness from her up thread. I remember an interview from years ago where she blamed MGM for giving up on old style musicals and cutting her loose, but I see why they did. The other studios had all moved on.

They weren't out of touch with the public, considering how popular they were.

R54 her son disowned her? Did she say why?

MGM was hit the hardest in the 1950s. Those expensive musicals, so popular in the 1940s, were out of touch with American life by the mid-1950s.

Does her pussy stink?

I saw her in the early 1970's when she and Howard Keel toured in a stage version of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. She was much better in the show than he was and she wasn't doing as much of that annoying MGM trilling as she did in the movie.

Cute as a button, but as had been mentioned very tiny......

She had her dogs with her on leashes, she asked me to hold them while she signed my program.....one of the dogs peed on my leg, and she was most apologetic....but it was really pretty funny.

She left her husband when Gene Nelson promised to marry her - they had a very public affair. Miriam Nelson told her "He'll never marry you, kid...." And of course, he didn't, leaving Jane with a broken marriage and a big public relations mess.

I think she said something to the effect that she was in Taylor's wedding party and Taylor was in hers because they were stage managed by MGM not because they were especially close.

Poor Jane. Looks like Farley and Roddy only had eyes for each other.

Farley Grainger loved to suck cock. Jane said that he had cum breath.

If Jane couldn't tell Roddy was gay how could anybody?

Used to have to sit through Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at my grandma's house as a kid. She had it on vhs and I hated it so much. Such a 50s musical ie very conservative and dull. It's so dated now and not in a good way.

MGM always had so many female singing stars on contract: Jeanette MacDonald, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson and Jane.....but very few men. I guess Nelson Eddy and Howard Keel were the two exceptions. They often made their non-singing actors embarrass themselves in their musicals: Roberts Montgomery and Taylor, Jimmy Stewart, Peter Lawford, et. al.

I always wondered why they didn't build up Tony Martin's career after Ziegfeld Girl? He was far handsomer and hip than Nelson Eddy could ever hope to be.

I love Howrd Keel. Very hunky man!

[quote][R35] Most Unusual Day did not win an Oscar.

It would've if they'd let me sing it.

MGM also had Mario Lanza and Vic Damone for a fairly short time. Actually Howard Keel was only there for about 5-6 years, but he was in some famous musicals during, so it seems like he was there longer.

I guess someone considered June Allyson a singing star.... since she did do musicals, but does anyone really want an album of June Allyson singing songs?

June Allyson didn't sing r68.........

I wonder why Gloria de Haven never became a major musical star at MGM? She was kinda wedged in there between June A and Jane P but was prettier, certainly sexier, than both of them.

She always seemed to play second fiddle at MGM. Was there some dirty scandal involved?

R67 Vic Damone was SO hot. Mario Lanza -- not so much.

Mario was a monster talent who couldn't handle it.

Food was pretty much all he had to live for.

Lanza was dropped from his contract because he couldn't keep his obesity under control. He was set to star in The Student Prince in the mid-1950s. The project was initiated and planned around him. He showed up on the set nearly 100 pounds overweight. MGM stopped production, recast the role with William Purdom but dubbed Lanza's voice on the songs (as was standard practice, the music had been recorded before filming started). Other than Lanza's vocals, it's not a very good film.

I only really knew her from her time on the front lines of the war against denture odor.

R49 I saw her in a summer stock tour of Seven Brides forSeven Brothers.at Starlight Theatre in K.C.. Howard Keel recreated his film role.This would have been in the mid70's. A good friend was in the ensemble of Irene and worked with both Debbie Reynolds and Jane. He adored them both.

She was in my dad's high school class at University High School, West Los Angeles. He did everyone adored her.

Already in his 30s Lanza looked like an alcoholic in his 50s. He died at 38.

^^^ He said everyone...

Somewhere I read that 7 Brides was a happy experience for all involved because it escaped the usual interference from Dore Schary and the MGM front office, who were obsessed with the making of Brigadoon.

Jane starred with Debbie Reynolds, Vic Damone and Steve Reeves (Mr. Uinverse) in MGM's "Athena" (1954).

And without Mr Reeves in Hit the Deck the last of MGM's all star big splashy musicals.

R73 EDMUND Purdom, not William.

[quote] He was set to star in The Student Prince in the mid-1950s.

They should've scrapped it and gone with Ethel Mertz in "The Chocolate Soldier."

No, she just outgrew her film career, glad that it happened, but it was over. She stayed active in entertainment, it just wasn't her life force. And remember, OP, just because Jane or any one of them had a career in films, one didn't have to have a horrid life, have a dirty scandals. You seem to want "dirt." With Powell theret is none., Don't be disappointed.

R76, were you a Uni grad as well. The only two people of note in my high school class at Uni were Mary Bond Davis who played Maybelle in the OBC of "Hairspray" and Paul Behn who would become punk rock pioneer Darby Crash.

I'm not disappointed [R84] I was just very curious as I feel she's under appreciated and overlooked when the golden era is discussed. Dish or gossip would have been good but it ain't essential it's just the icing on the cake. Might be good for this thread to evolve into a kind of appreciation thread for Jane Powell or an "all things Jane Powell" thread. I'm fairly new to DL so I don't know if that's the best way to do things or if a fresh appreciation thread is best.

I don't think it helped Donen's and Kelly's relationship that the low budget runt Seven Brides turned into a surprise runaway hit and the sure fire stunningly composed Brigadoon turned out to be a dud.

But Brigadoon except for the always wonderful MGM orchestra has practically nothing going for it. Minnelli was obviously uninterested, Kelly is far from his best, Cyd is horribly miscast(they needed to find a Scottish Leslie Caron), Van Johnson seems to have been told to be as sour and grumpy as possible and DeMille's legendary choreography was thrown away.

And the thing is it looks just as cheap as Seven Brides. Like they took the sets from a national tour and stuck them in a movie studio. All those big budget Cinemascope MGM musicals seem to have had their budgets slashed with an axe by Schary. Kismet is another ugly low budget looking film. The Night of My Nights procession should have been one of Minnelli's finest moments and the great Tony Duquette who designed the spectacular baroque This Heart of Mine seems to have dressed it up with Woolworth's party decorations and 4th of July sparklers.

The 7 Brides' dresses and Mary Jane shoes are just about the ugliest costumes ever designed at MGM. Adrian must have laughed himself to sleep.

I stand corrected, r82. Did I get the rest right?

Minnelli wasn't initially opposed to doing Brigadoon but lost all interest when MGM canceled all location shooting and stuck him on a sound stage with the above mentioned tacky sets. He was never interested in doing Kismet (a show I love) and furious with the extremely low budget they stuck him with.

R65 Tony was indeed very handsome and has one of the best voices of all the male singers. I particularly like his 1930s work at Fox. He was just coming up at MGM with Ziegfeld Girl when his career was interrupted by an unfortunate scandal where, IIRC, he was alleged to have attempted to bribe his way into a Navy commission. In 1941 a story like this went over like a lead balloon. He denied it and the story seems to have been a fabrication. He went on to serve with distinction as an enlisted man in the Army, serving in India and the Far East. He appeared in a few more musicals after the war, but the momentum had been lost and he concentrated more on his recording/nightclub career rather than films.

Also (and I say this as a fan) he wasn't the greatest actor...although he was very good in Casbah which is probably his best role (a movie he co-produced).

He was Frank Loesser's original choice for Sky Masterson in the original stage Guys and Dolls- can't remember why he turned it down, but I think it was something to do with Cyd's career.

Musts on youtube to get a sense of Tony Martin's talent;

Moonshine Over Kentucky with The Ritz Brothers. Hilarious.

Make Believe with Kathryn Grayson in Till the Clouds Roll By

All the Things You Are in Till the Clouds Roll By. Stunning.

Tony was living with Lana Turner at the time they made Ziegfeld Girl. Judy was very jealous, she had a crush on Tony.

He also had a relationship with Rita Hayworth but she dumped him to go back to Orson Welles.

A few years later he managed to sneak Cyd Charisse away from Howard Hughes. She dodged a bullet there!

Tony must have had a big dick. All those ladies were known for loving sizemeat!

Not to mention Tony Martin was married to Alice Faye (20th Century Fox's biggest musical star) from 1937-41.

He certainly got around. No wonder Alice divorced him. He lived to be 98 so he must have been doing something right.

Tony Martin still kept his wonderful voice in shape. I saw him at Carnegie Hall concert of former MGM stars. He did an absolutely wonderful "All The Things You Are". This must have been in the late 1980s. He continued to do nightclub work. The other standout that night was Gloria DeHaven, still sounding great.

Has Jane written an autobiography?

Jane Powell really was beautiful

That's MGM beautiful.

Powell was pretty.

What's the gossip on an 88-year-old woman?

I thought I heard that Jane did write an autobiography called The Girl Next Door and How She Grew or something like that, in the late 80s or so. Did she write it with the help of Dickie Moore? Obviously, I've never read it, but I'm sure copies are out there.

I saw her playing the mother in Bounce, the benighted Stephen Sondheim musical about the Mizner Brothers in its Washington, Hal Prince-directed tryout (before it limped into the Public Theater directed by John Doyle and called Road Show). Her voice had deteriorated, but it was nice to see her even in a small part. Oddly, both she and the gentlemen who played her husband both had numbers that ended with them dying in bed. Seemed very strange, but since it's Sondheim, I suppose we can't say anything.

What year was this [R100] please?

She would have been the perfect Sally in Follies in 1970, though maybe she couldn't sing it well enough. But I bet she was on the casting list with other 1940s ingenues.

She wasn't mentioned as potential casting in Everything Was Possible (if I remember correctly) r102. Why would you think she couldn't sing it? One on the list that intrigued me was Jane Wyman. One thing that always.....maybe not bothered me...but....I questioned. That very noticeable height differential between Smith and Collins. I would have assumed they'd keep the chorus girls around the same height.

Smith really would have been a showgirl and Collins one of the singing ensemble not a chorus girl. But you know it's a musical and in real life people don't sing(usually) when they express what they're thinking.

No r104, they weren't. They were chorus girls. A showgirl wouldn't have done the Mirror Number.

I think the point is that back then (1940), chorus girls were usually all the same standard height in any given show, much like The Rockettes still are.

Back in the 1940s the standard practice was to have a dancing chorus and a singing chorus. I'm not sure they cared too much about the physical appearance of the singers (within limits, of course).

It was until the 50s, 60s and especially the 70s, after the rise of director/choreographers like Robbins, Champion, Bennett, Fosse, etc., chorus people were expected to be triple threats.

These were the Follies (or Scandals) r107, not standard Broadway book musicals. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. In the show Follies, Phyllis and Sally were singing/dancing chorus girls. I just found their original casting ....well ...diverse (vertically speaking). Similar to a Sigourney Phyllis with a Chenoweth Sally.

The Follies were considered classy and sophisticated. George White's Scandals were considered quite vulgar, barely a step above Minsky's.

I know r109. I just included them to differentiate the revue format as opposed to a book show.

Murder at the Vanities was filmed backstage at the Scandals with Scandals showgirls.

i don't know what the hell I was thinking when I posted the above. Murder at the Vanities was filmed backstage at Earl Carroll's Vanities (duh) using Carroll's showgirls.

And it was shot on Paramount sound stages in Hollywood. But it did use showgirls from the New York Vanities.

How did a thread about me devolve into an argument about Follies?? Only on DL, you bitches!

Funny story: well, Tyrone wanted to fuck me! I told him no, you should go back to Cathy in Wuthetimg Heights. He prétended not to know. Ha!

Anybody see her in 70, Girls, 70?

Olympia Dukakis couldn't even get her head out of her script during "Boom Ditty Boom", afraid she'd miss a boom or a ditty. Very miscast. It should have been Anita Gillette doing the lead instead of a supporting part.

That's why I asked about Jane r117. I would think she was great in the role. Dukakis by all accounts was bad and miscast.

I notice that Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds who worked on many films together shared the same birthday April 1st. I wonder if they ever had joint parties especially if their birthdays fell during filming?

I saw Jane in "Irene"; she was terrific and they added back "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" for her, which Reynolds recorded but had been dropped by the time they got to NY. Both were great in the role.

OP is an eldergay asking other eldergays about gossip he's forgotten.

Jane Powell was very talented indeed -- just not the fount of lurid stories one can find from others during Hollywood's Golden Age. See Turner, Lana or Garland, Judy et al.

I think it's a soprano thing r122. We're pretty scandal-free. Jeanette, Grayson, Powell, Durbin, et al.

Oh, if you dig a little deeper there are some affairs, multiple marriages and stuff there, too. Sopranos like to be fucked too!

Those aren't really scandal-scandals now are they, r124?

R120, Reynolds did it in the touring production.

Lives in my building near Lincoln Center -or I live in her building. Have not seen her for a while (almost a year?)- hope she is well. Lost her husband a couple years ago (maybe less)- he was quite frail. She could not be nicer- very very pretty older lady- and I mean close to 90. She loves to be recognized and chat if she's not in a hurry. I mentioned to her what a great fan I was of Elizabeth and how sad it made me when she passes away and I could tell they were close. She glowed like a kid when I told her some time ago how much I love "7 Brides..." although I did not say it was all those hot guys dancing up a storm in their lumberjack-type drag. She's a sweetie- gets on the M66 bus cross town- normal folks.

If you haven't seen her in a while it could be she's so frail now she can rarely go out or has moved in with a relative or to a care facility.

I believe she is the last of the MGM musical stars though somebody probably already said it. Marge Champion is still alive but she was pretty much always featured. I think she and Gower only starred once.

I went to the last salute of MGM musicals at Carnegie Hall hosted by Michael Feinstein. I don't remember her being there. But there were a number of stars who all died not much long after.

Arlene Dahl from "Three Little Words" (did she do her own singing?) is also still around from MGM, not many more from that era besides Jane, who was a big musical star. Russ Tamblyn and some of those supporting brides from "Seven Brides" like Julie Newmar and Ruta Lee are still living as well.

I'm still here and a bigger star than ever!

I also clearly remember seeing (and hearing) Debbie Reynolds sing I'm Always Chasing Rainbows in Irene.

Can't imagine they could have cut that. It was her big number!

Don't forget The Gaslight of Dorian Gray r130.

Was Jane Powell in the Encores' 70 Girls 70? Which role did she play?

Or another production?

Excuse me r131?!

No r133, Dukakis was in the Encores production. I want to say it was done at Mufti where Jane played the lead. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Sorry Angela though you may have been a Broadway star you were never a REAL star.

Like where it really counts.

In HOLLYWOOD!

Except for a few queens nobody was ever going to buy a movie ticket to see Angela.

If anybody knew it Louis B did.

Now the astonishingly untalented Lana Turner had people lining up for blocks.

Fuck you R136. If it weren't for my daughter, my son, my husband, my name, my face and my bank account, I would have been the star of Mame the movie.

Dearest Angela Jane Morgan would have starred in the film of Mame before you.

Oh.

So can we all agree that Jane Powell is the last surviving STAR of the MGM musicals? That's lovely

What about Carleton Carpenter?

Jaye P. Morgan would have gotten Mame before Angela.

HENRY and HARRY Morgan each would've gotten it before Angela.

Well sure you were cute as anything Carleton but when exactly were you a star?

J.P. Morgan would have gotten it before Angela.

Jane's last movie to date was "Enchanted Island" (1958), playing a blue-eyed island girl. After that it was stage and TV guest spots in "Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", "Murder, She Wrote", more. She famously quipped: "I didn't quit movies. They quit me."

Saw her as the queen in the R and H Cinderella at City Opera with Jean Stapleton as the wicked stepmother.

A wonderful production.

Leslie Caron is around as well, as is Nanette Fabray!

Also Janis Paige, who is absolutely terrific in "Silk Stockings", plus "Please Don't Eat the Daisies".

I'll give you Leslie Caron, but she is only one besides Jane Powell who top-lined an MGM musical.

So none of her divorces lead to public spats, acrimony and dramas Burton Taylor style?

Yeah Caron is the only one at Powell's level as wonderful as Fabray(only one starring role and it was really Astaire's movie)) and Paige(supporting) were.

That dame got around, married 5 times! Thought she'd be similar in nature to the petite, wholesome singer/actress Ann Blyth, married once for 53 years, and 5 kids.

She was a wildcat like Allyson.

The good girls are the ones with the best sex lives. Total male fantasy fulfilled.

Isn't Ann Blyth still with us? She starred in MGM's Kismet, Rose Marie, The Student Prince and The Helen Morgan Story, Not to mention Warners' Mildred Pierce.

She have a lead over Jane Powell, if not Leslie Caron.

Blyth is a good one but was she in the MGM musical pantheon the way Powell and Reynolds were?

A rather substantial penis. Uncut.

In spite of the Jackie Coogan law, Dickie Moore saw no income from his childhood work. He ran a very successful public relations firm during his adult years. Robert Osborn interviewed him and an few other child stars (Jane Withers, Darryl Hickman) and Dickie had ZERO fond memories of childhood. He did give Shirley Temple her 1st screen kiss, which he remembered as one of the most uncomfortable scenes he ever filmed.

Ann Blyth subsisted on a diet of Twinkies and Hohos, and will therefore outlive us all.

Yes [R155] Ann Blyth is still with us and turns 90 next year.

Lovely Ann sang wonderfully in MGM musicals Rose Marie, The Student Prince, Kismet.

Speaking of Ann Blyth.....and Rula.....

I love The Student Prince [R161] Such a shame Mario Lanza died at such a young age.

I waited on her once in the late 80s. She was absolutely lovely and beautiful. She wasn't with her husband, former "Our Gang" member Dickie Moore, so I was sort of bummed.

[R164] Thanks for sharing.

Did she reveal anything interesting or noteworthy? Did she chat much? Have you ever waited on any other celebrities who were not as gracious as Jane was?

Dinah Shore invited stars from the Hollywood glamour era for some girl talk in 1970s. Here are Jane Powell, Jane Russell, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Peters and Diahann Carroll.

Notice how butch Debbie acts.

Blyth is lovely and perfect casting in Kismet. Along with Dolores Gray, cute and gorgeous voiced Vic Damone and sensational Jack Cole choreography how come it's so awful?

Has Jane Powell ever received an honorary Oscar?

Meet Me in St. Louis - - Tab Hunter gets first billing

Choreography by DL fave Herbert Ross!

And featuring DL goddess Reta Shaw!

How could we ignore

The Boy Next Door

When he's Tab Hunter!

R101, Bounce tried out at the Kennedy Center in 2003, I think. Think it was at another regional (The Goodman, maybe?) before D.C. It was recorded. Richard Kind (quite nice) and Howard McGillin (I saw his understudy) were the brothers, and Michelle Pawk was the dame who comes between them, with Gavin Creel as the gay one's lover. There were some good moments, but by the time I saw it, the reviews had savaged it and it was clear no one's heart was in it. Only Kind and Pawk really tried at all.

Powell did a lot of summer stock and touring, including revivals of Seven Brides and other shows with Howard Keel as have been noted. But since that hadn't been a going concern for some time by 2003, and she was older, I imagine she just hadn't kept her voice up. It was nice to see her, despite the weird dying-at-the-end-of-a-solo thing that I mentioned.

Any recent news on Jane Powell?

Nothing in the realm of news, but a friend runs into her now and then in Connecticut. He said she is always quite friendly when they chat.

Thanks [R174]

Its a shame she doesn't give more interviews or the media doesn't ask her for them maybe .As I think she's a fascinating lady with a good tale to tell about the special era in Hollywood's history .

Wow, that TV version of MMISL is terrible. Even Walter Pigeon and Myrna Loy can't save it. The Trolley Song is not even sung on a trolley!

I really like Jane's version of Musetta's Waltz from "Nancy Goes to Rio", which is a remake of Universal's "It's a Date" starring Deanna Durbin, who also sings the same aria in the earlier version very well.

Jane Powell is really underappreciated is my feeling.

Tonight's been Jane Powell night on TCM!

Tragically, as an old woman in a nursing home she was raped.

A Date with Judy is such an odd movie watching it from 2018. The adults all "cater" to the teenagers and THEIR problems and lives which, of course, was part of the plot for a 1947 audience. The film showcases Jane and Elizabeth and, boy, was Taylor a gorgeous teenager. Robert Stack was gorgeous, too. But its all so totally lacquered and "MGM" glossy and a 100% bizarre fantasy world. It actually borders on creepy!

Is it really true? I cannot believe it. Here it is, 181 posts in and nobody has mentioned THE FEMALE ANIMAL? A nearly washed-up drunken Hollywood star (Hedy Lamarr) and her slutty daughter (Jame) fight for the love of George Nader.

Some years ago, Jane & hubby Dick were stars at a chat/clip screenings at Film Forum NYC, and moderator Bruce Goldstein screened a clip where sex kitten Jane in a bikini tries to seduce shirtless George, only to be thrown over his knee and spanked. Pointing to Dick, Jane said "I only let him do that now."

At last! Wonderful [R179] Jane Powell starred in some real fun over the top films.

Let’s make her tv show happen!

Jane Powell turns 90 next year on April the 1st.

I hope there will be lots of datalounge love for her to celebrate the occasion!

Not many MGM musical stars still with us.

Joan Crawford called her “that screeching thing”. Guessing she didn’t like her.

oooh I didn't know that r185 !

I wonder what created that enmity!

I guess the show might have had some legs, there were certainly some talented people involved - including Jane. But how long before we got the plots of her character putting on the campus show....or having to fill in for a sick friend in their nightclub gig or show that just happened to come through town....or helping a super talented student get his/her big break? Her singing at the beginning is as good an example of Jane's gargling style of singing as is out there.....ugh....trilling or screeching or gargling - her three singing styles.

And of course there is the story of Jane leaving her husband an ice skater and their kids when Gene Nelson gave her a tumble and her declarations of mutual love and impending nuptials.....and her very public humiliation when Gene went back to his wife and said his fling wasn't worth the trouble......just as Gene's wife predicted....

Jane divorced G.A. Steffan (Sonja Henie's former skating partner) and was married a couple of years later to a car salesman.....of course her fifth and last marriage was to Dickie Moore - who widowed her a few years ago.

Ouch r189 That must have hurt Jane to be humiliated in love so publicly.

Jane liked her men BIG.

That's Dick Dubois sitting next to Steve Reeves near the end of that clip R191. He was smokin' hot, especially with his pants off.

More DIck...

Jane Powell was on The Judy Garland Show as a guest. She was 34 and absolutely beautiful. All of the overdone MGM artifice was gone. Judy even asked where had she been - very tellingly it seemed inconceivable to Judy to not be a STAR. She might have been around longer if she looked at Jane and Deanna and just gave ut up for a while.

Unfortunately that episode was scheduled to air the Sunday after JFK was killed, so it was pulled and not shown until March 1, 1964, and by then everything truly had changed so it did Jane and Judy no good.

Awe that's a shame r194

Who were Jane Powells friends in hollywood? Was she a friend of Judy Garlands?

I like her song "What Gives, What Goes"

[quote] MGM was hit the hardest in the 1950s. Those expensive musicals, so popular in the 1940s, were out of touch with American life by the mid-1950s.

But then they became popular again in the mid-Sixties with the box office successes of THE MUSIC MAN, MY FAIR LADY, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and (especially) THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

I wonder if musical films will have another sustained popularity surge r197 ?

R197, R198 I don't think we make generalisations about the rise and fall of musicals.

What we can say is 2 of Julie Andrews' films in '64 and '65 brought in almost $300,000,000. And that of course spawned lots of copies which didn't do so well.

R169 I wish these ancient TV shows could be properly restored and preserved.

It's a treasure seeing gorgeous Tab singing. His memoirs suggest he wished he could have been a musical star instead of an acting sex-symbol.

And it also has Jeanne Crain who NEVER seemed sufficiently interesting to be given top-bilIing in anything worthwhile.

I may be homosexual but I could never get even remotely interested in the warblings of those two wide-faced blondes Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell.

She was a massive cockslut; she left men weak and begging for mercy.

[quote] [R197], [R198] I don't think we make generalisations about the rise and fall of musicals.

Oh hon, not only do I think I do, but I think I very much already [italic]did.[/italic]

But there in Cabaret in 1970 and Chicago in 1980, wasn't there?

Yes r204 but they weren't followed by a trend to make an era of musicals like in the 1950s.

The musicals started in 1927. There was a slump in the 1950s when movies were filmed outdoors to fill the wider screen.

She did a ton of commercials before the one for Polident--Lustre Cream Shampoo among others. She always had that "deer in the headlights" look.

She also did a lot of Kenley Players and Dinner Theater--light comedy and musicals. She probably toured with Howard Keel and Van Johnson who did those things during lulls in their careers. I don't think she got stuck with stunt casting---occasionally those shows would attempt drama with odd leads---Martha Raye and Rip Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff", that kind of thing.

I worked on a project in NYC in which she appeared. She was lovely. Good in the show. Thoroughly professional. Everyone loved her. She even donated services to BC/EFA for one of the Easter Bonnet shows.

That doesn't count for much on Data Lounge. But it's true.

LOVE this gif of Jane Powell that I have just stumbled across!😁

Bump! A legend that deserves celebrating!

Love this Jane Powell gif also. 🙂

r208 Well it counts for much with this datalounger. She sounds like a throughly decent human being.

Jane is one of my favourite surviving stars from Hollywoods golden era.I really hope that she manages to stay safe and well during the coronavirus crisis. Especially as she is nearly 91 and if I recall correctly now lives in New York which is a major hotspot for this horrible epidemic?

[quote] I think it's a soprano thing [R122]. We're pretty scandal-free. Jeanette, Grayson, Powell, Durbin, et al. —Miss Grace Moore

But I heard that you, Carole Lombard, and Gloria Swanson too were all rebels!

How fun to see those clips at R10 and R11. Such a different time then. There is something kind of sweet and innocent about people just suddenly bursting into a song or starting to dance about. Jane did do a good job of keeping up with Astaire - man, could that guy move.

"Three Daring Daughters," with Jane, Elinor Donahue, Mrs. McGillicuddy, and Angie Lansbury's mother, is on TCM this morning,

r218 Seven brides for seven brothers will always be my favourite Jane Powell film.

I meant r216