JANE POWELL is dead to me!

Yes, dear, already a thread, of course.

Sorry but the search didn't reveal one.

Your title was better anyway

Still haven't seen the other thread....

I don’t see another thread either. Go find it and put the link here R1. If it exists, that is.

RIP Jane

R5 Not my duty to search for others

It is your duty when tell OP there was already a thread you fucking old fucktard.

Drop dead. I’ll start the thread.

Piece of shit.

And you gave yourself a WW

Fucking moron

Was she a great big fat person?

[quote]Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who rose to fame in the mid-1940s with roles in various Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals. Noted for her operatic soprano voice and "girl-next-door" image, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

~Wiki

No R9

R6 is the fat frau

I don't see another thread for Jane Powell.

Well then R12, don’t ask R1 to provide the link. She’s on the rag today.

[quote] She’s on the rag today.

She’s dead. She can’t be on the rag.

She played Lisa on As The World Turns

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Gigi are the most misunderstood movies of all time.

I'm convinced that R1 is lying. I see no other Jane Powell thread, and am devastated that this icon is receiving so little comment and respect on DataLounge of all places!

My life was going so well until I…I…I discovered a duplicate thread….(shaking fist at heavens) Why? WHy? WHY???

[quote] I'm convinced that R1 is lying. I see no other Jane Powell thread, and am devastated that this icon is receiving so little comment and respect on DataLounge of all places!

If it’s any consolation R17, there is a Leta Powell Drake thread.

Was she the Depends spokesperson?

Jane's all-time best performance, with Fred Astaire in ROYAL WEDDING:

No, R20. She was the Denture Woman.

She plucked it out every night.

[quote] Was she the Depends spokesperson?

Polident. Depends was June Allyson.

R12 This one—

[quote]She’s dead. She can’t be on the rag.

Honey, she was 92. That rag dry-rotted a few decades before.

I confuse this woman with that Debbie Reynolds woman.

Both were brassy. And both had singing voices but wide, unappealing heads.

And wasn't this one in the lousy TV version of 'Meet Me in St Louis' romancing Tab Hunter even though she looked old enough to be his mother?

MGM was the first-rate studio. But none of its other female musical stars can hold a candle to Judy.

She replaced Debbie Reynolds on Broadway in "Irene." Married to Dickie Moore of "Our Gang" comedies. He died at 89 in 2015.

[quote] Married to Dickie Moore of "Our Gang" comedies. He died at 89 in 2015.

Sad. She enjoyed more dick for many years.

Looks rather emaciated here.

But excellent dentures!

[quote] But excellent dentures!

You’re welcome.

She was wonderful.

^ Wow, she has excellent breath control in that song (unless, of course, the sound track has been faked).

The lyrics suggest we should be a tramp and go looking for love any and everywhere we can find it.

Love is Like This...

r16, MGM indeed made GiGi and 7 Brides but they weren't really rape rape movies.

She was going to make a Broadway comeback in Sondheim's musical Bounce, but it closed during out of town previews.

Jane & Ann

She was quite unique!

Meet Me in St. Louis

The apex of her career was playing the grandma on Growing Pains.

[quote] The apex of her career was playing the grandma on Growing Pains.

Did Boner have a boner for her?

She was the queen of dinner theater for a long time. If it didn't have Ruta Lee or Barbara Eden in the lead, it had Jane. And, of course she also guested on "Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote".

Another sad part of this: it used to be that when a big movie star died, you would look forward to the big Hollywood funeral, where all the old-timey stars would show up, including some you hadn't seen in many years. Now, there are none left to attend the funeral.

[quote] Now, there are none left to attend the funeral.

Fuck you.

Her late husband, center.

Jane's first movie - Song of the Open Road

The boy to the left of Dickie Moore in r45's photo is Scotty Beckett who played Jane's love interest in A DATE WITH JUDY. All 3 boys in that photo are hot!

Im saddened to hear this news. She was a good entertainer and seemed a very decent down to earth soul.

r43 Yes I remember Frank Sinatras 1998 funeral was a roll call of hollywoods previous eras with Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas,Anthony Quinn, Robert Wagner, Liza Minnelli, Angie Dickinson, Debbie Reynolds ,Connie Stevens among many in attendance . 13 years later unless of course it was a more private service ? I cannot really remember which celebrities attended Elizabeth Taylors funeral?

A date with Jane Powell...

Do you know how disappointed I was to find out 7 brides for 7 brothers was a musical??

Not sure if this is covered in r49...

Jane dancing with Fred Astaire.

Yes, R48, Sinatra's funeral was probably the last one for that.

First Melanie Wilkes and now this! I don't think I can bear it....

The Oceana Roll

r53 Who is the man in the film around 1.20 to 1.24? Old with glasses and a hat and needing some support.He is the main one that I cant place? Do you know his name please?

I've always wondered why Jane didn't get the role of Kathy Selden in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

She was a far bigger MGM star than Debbie when the film was being planned and had already proven herself as Fred Astaire's song and dance partner in ROTYAL WEDDING (which I believe was directed by SITR's co-director Stanley Donen. Not to mention her much superior singing voice.

r56, that's Milton Berle.

r58 Thank you very much.

r58 Sorry also do you know if honorary rat packer Shirley Maclaine was there? I know his ex fiance Lauren Bacall wasnt invited and I thought he was friends with Elizabeth Taylor but she too wasnt there although she may have been invited but too ill to attend as I think she hurt her back in an accident at home around february 1998.

She was lovely in Irene.

El Manisero!

r60, I don't think Elizabeth Taylor really appeared in public that often in the last years of her life, probably for health reasons but also not wanting to show the public the decay of her beauty.

I have no idea about Shirley Maclaine....she could very well have been out of town working on a film set at the time.

[quote] I have no idea about Shirley Maclaine....she could very well have been out of town working on a film set at the time.

She was busy demanding her crème brûlée at the time.

r63 Thanks very much for your patience in replying!

Jane Powell was also a triple threat. In addition to being able to act well and sing in both operatically and do jazzy-bluesy tunes, she really was a wonderful dancer. She's not just keeping up with Fred Astaire in "Royal Wedding" -- she's really doing some difficult dance moves, as she also did in other films like opposite her one-time lover Gene Nelson in "Three Sailors and A Girl", among other films. If you see some of her tv variety show appearances, she actually did some intricate, difficult dance choreography rather than move around like some other people mostly known as singers. She was also really beautiful. Her movie career was over by about the time she was 29 in 1958, but she went on to do tv and lots of theater.

Interviews she gave made it appear that she had a lot of difficulties in her mental state regardingh men and her starting her career to please her parents, so it sounds like she didn't really enjoy being a star back then and felt isolated. It's a shame, since she gave a lot of pleasure to people in movies. She was a bigger star than Debbie, as Debbie was a supporting player in 3 of Jane's top-billed films. Perhaps Jane was happier doing the work in theater later on; maybe she lacked the ambition and drive to hang on and pursue movies in Hollywood when the studio system and most musicals stopped being churned out regularly.

I saw Jane in "Irene" on Broadway, and she was just great -- very pretty, singing beautifully (they added back "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows which Debbie recorded but had been dropped from the show during her run) and dancing Gower Champion's choreography very well indeed. Rest in peace!

Marsha Hunt, Margaret O'Brien, and Arlene Dahl are still around.

As is Janis Paige.

R66 according to her Wikipedia page, she was dancing before she could talk, so her dance chops make sense. Her mother sounds like she was a real piece of work—a classic stage mom who intended to breed her child as a meal ticket. Aside from all of her talents, I've always had a soft spot for Powell because she's from my hometown—there weren't many stars to come out of Portland, OR, especially during the Golden Age of Hollywood—she may have been the only one.

Jane was probably proud that one of her biggest hits "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" has her playing a feisty Oregon gal, too!

On Judy’s TV show. She’s very pretty, and performs well.

What a shame! She was great on Dateline.

El Tango with Ricardo

Jane looks gorgeous on this "What's My Line" starting around 15:30.

Her movie career ended on kind of a depressing note with "The Girl Most Likely," a musical remake of "Tom, Dick and Harry." It was one of the last pictures made by RKO before its demise, and was actually released several years after the studio shut down.

"The Girl Most Likely" features DL faves Keith Andes and Kaye Ballard.

Ann Sothern looks like a pretty version of Agnes Moorehead at r37.

The Lately Song

[quote] She was a bigger star than Debbie

No, she wasn't.

Jane always seemed very real and direct in interviews. She said that she was very disappointed with the lack of support from both Debbie and Gower when she took over in Irene.

Awe. So sad. My mom was friends with her when they were kids. They took Dance Classes together. My mom was always in awe of her success in Hollywood and would bring her up, but I didn't know who she was talking about. Not until I was adult did I realize who she was.

She kept in touch with a mutual friend of my mom's and her's throughout her whole life. So, she never went "Hollywood". She seemed like a nice person. RIP.

With hunky George Nader in The Female Animal.

R79 Jane Powell was already a big star at MGM before Debbie made a hit in "Singin' in the Rain". What really actually kept Debbie from fading like many other stars at MGM whose contracts weren't renewed around the mid-to-late 50s was the Liz-Eddie scandal, which made her into a sympathetic tabloid fodder and really put her career into higher gear from that point on.

Jane's fun in "The Female Animal" playing the nymphomaniac daughter (as much as one could play a nympho back in pictures around 1958) of Hedy Lamarr. The film used on be on-line some years ago, and it's kind of a hoot.

[quote]I've always wondered why Jane didn't get the role of Kathy Selden in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

Jane Powell and Leslie Caron were briefly considered for the Kathy Selden part, but Debbie Reynolds, who had earlier played Jane's younger sister in "Two Weeks with Love," got MGM so excited that they put her in SITR, against Gene Kelly's wishes, and built her up for stardom. Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter stole the movie right from the two leads, Powell and Montalban, and became instant fan favorites.

Actually.... Rumor has it.... Debbie gave more enthusiastic blow jobs. Just sayin'.

R84, Making "The Female Animal" was not a happy experience for Jane. 44-year-old Hedy Lamarr was not thrilled playing mother to 29-year-old Jane, so she wasn't exactly warm, gracious, and accommodating to her co-star. It would be Hedy's last picture.

I sat next to her at "Hairspray" early in its run. We chatted during intermission. Quite lovely and sweet.

It's Hedley!

I shall scream, Mr. Bumble!

I shall scream, Mr. Bumble!

[Quote] Jane Powell was already a big star at MGM before Debbie made a hit in "Singin' in the Rain". What really actually kept Debbie from fading like many other stars at MGM whose contracts weren't renewed around the mid-to-late 50s was the Liz-Eddie scandal, which made her into a sympathetic tabloid fodder and really put her career into higher gear from that point on.

And what about the decades subsequent? Debbie wasn't a star for decades off the fumes of Eddie and Elizabeth.

[quote] And, of course she also guested on "Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote".

AND "Fantasy Island"!

She popped up as Rebecca Beachum on Loving, pushy matriarch of those sexy Beachum Boys.

I think she came on after Doug Marland left; she popped up on ATWt several years later subbing for Eileen Fulton.

Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor were each others bridesmaids for their first weddings. Jane would go on to marry four more times, while La Liz, as we know, would add another seven to her resume.

I was at home sick watching Turner Classics and I saw A Date With Judy and fell in love. She was delightful.

[quote] Actually.... Rumor has it.... Debbie gave more enthusiastic blow jobs. Just sayin'.

Surely not more enthusiastic than mine, and I was never offered the part!

Jane Powell was signed to MGM in 1943, and was groomed to be the girl-next-door with a rich coloratura soprano voice in the mold of Deanna Durbin. Ironically, MGM lost Durbin to Universal a decade prior and Durbin went on to amass a shitload of money for Universal.

James Dean, Pier Angeli, Jane and her second husband, Patrick Nerney

What an interesting gathering of people.

Angela Lansbury is still around, too! Class of MGM 1944

Jane's wedding shower, 1945.

R92 Debbie was still a movie star throughout the 1960s, though she was not good in some sophisticated comedies like "Mary, Mary". She's fun in "How Sweet It Is" and "Divorce American Style" though. She remained ambitious to remain in films until she said in some interviews that nudity was starting to show up a lot in scripts by the late 60s and she declined to do it. She switched to nightclubs, tv and theatre and made a wonderful comeback in film in "Mother" later on. She should have gotten an Oscar nomination for that, too.

You have to realize Debbie was 19 when she blew past starlets like Jane and got cast in Singing in the Rain! There was major resentment and shade directed at Debbie in those days.

Debbie was unusual in that she was pretty and demonstrated a boatload of personality. People like Mitzi Gaynor, who had personality, didn't really get to show it onscreen.

Poor Jane being ignored while Farley Granger and Roddy McDowall eye-fuck each other.

That's a well-known photoshopped pic R106.

R57, that's precisely why she didn't get the part -- because of her 'superior singing voice'. Plus, it was waaaay too operatic for the role -- and most roles.

R107 it doesn't look photoshopped to me at all. This one does, though:

This is the photoshopped version. See no Jane.

What an GREAT photo R99. Both Dean and the other guy are having nothing to do with the PR bullshit, while their wives paste on the plastic smiles.

Farley looks edible there.

Jane and the ever-gorgeous Farley Granger in "Small Town Girl"

Farley is one of the most gorgeous actors in film history IMO. He is so handsome I almost find it difficult to watch him onscreen. I wonder if he and Jane were friends? I know she was very close to Roddy McDowall up until the end of his life. She also close friends with Robert Osborne, who, like her, hailed from the Pacific Northwest. It seems Jane was very much a friend to the gays.

R83 is correct. America's angel Debbie Reynolds, played the Taylor-Fischer 'scandal' for all it was worth. William Mann wrote about it extensively in his biography on Taylor, even (strongly) suggesting that Reynolds was a lesbian and never really interested in men -- unless they could further her career. She in fact DID want to be a gym teacher, and if you check out magazine covers from the 50's, early 60's -- it was almost always Reynolds who was pictured bearding for guys like Tab Hunter, George Nader, etc..

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a book comes out in the next year or so outing Debbie.

Granger was 'gorgeous' for about 10 years, max. He lost his looks VERY quickly after 1960 or so.

Mamie Van Doren bearded. Was she not interested in men?

I love Jane Powell. She talked straight about the so-called 'Golden Age' of musicals:

"She has constantly refused to appear onstage at those retro concerts at Carnegie Hall celebrating the MGM stars. She calls them dog-and-pony acts. “It’s like a circus. The old stars work like dogs and the producer gets all the profits,” she said. “Fans show up out of curiosity to see if they can still talk or walk without a cane and count the lines in their faces. It’s exploitation of a piece of the past that no longer exists, and I find it sad. Some people are exhibitionists. Not me. I like those people, but I was never socially involved with them and never will be.”

Now that her friend Roddy is gone, she has few acquaintances from the old MGM days. “Arlene Dahl is a friend. June Allyson has visited us in Connecticut. But despite all the movies I made with Debbie, I’ve never been to her house for dinner. I’ve never been to anyone’s house that I worked with. There was an A Group and a B Group. I was in the F Group.”

Granger was an attractive older man, not a knockout but few past a certain age are.

He just looks like he aged fairly normally to me R116. He lost his boyishness as one does, but he was still handsome as a middle-aged man. Here he is circa 1975, around age 50. You can age a hell of a lot worse than that.

I doubt Powell was always in the F Group. Her career probably took her there.

R118 I'm sure she had a different take on show business than some of her peers because she never really wanted to be a movie star. Her parents basically forced her into show business, having groomed her from birth. Her mom would peddle her around Portland dressed up as Shirley Temple for Christ's sake, perm and all. In her autobiography, she writes that, when she was offered her contract at MGM, she wanted to decline and go back to Oregon to start her freshman year of high school, but she ultimately felt guilty about passing up the opportunity (i.e. she was mom and dad's cash cow). The way she describes the dynamics of studio life has a cynical bent, and probably for good reason.

From her Wiki:

[quote]In 2000, Powell appeared in the Off-Broadway production Avow, in which she portrayed a devout Catholic woman whose gay son wishes to marry his partner in the church.

Did anyone happen to see this production? If so, how was it?

Never heard of her.

Wasn’t she Zona on Loving?

She's wonderful in Royal Wedding but she was third choice: June got pregnant and Judy had another breakdown.

We have a troll who lies about already-existing threads r17, that's who this is.

June Allyson’s success always baffled me.

Really, r115, is it still 1962? Are we still saying that a woman who wants to be a gym teacher must be a lesbian? This is silly. It's brought up every time Debbie Reynolds is brought up and it's embarrassing, it's like listening to ancient old rightwingers talk.

Can you believe Farley's Fauxmance with Shelley Winters? You can see him silently counting to 10 in this photo:

You've never heard the rumors, have you, dear?

She's adorable in that r71, and they both look great. I think Jane also looks lovely in the photo with Robert Osborne though I cannot fully endorse that pink fluffy dress of hers.

She and Debbie will now be celebrating their birthdays together in heaven.

Of course I have but saying any woman who wants to be a gym teacher is a lesbian is stupid, r131. She decided to be a beauty queen and model by the time she was 16, her constant talk of being a tomboy who wanted to be a P.E. teacher was exaggerated.

William Mann is pretty unreliable biographer who usually includes some major howlers in all his books.

Reynolds projected personality in a way that Powell didn't and seemed to photograph better. Reynolds was more cute than beautiful, but her looks held up whereas Powell began to look like a young Mamie Eisenhower with a better stylist.

MGM always had a multiple actors of every type, so they could try and see who did better at what and pit them against each other to foster some competition. Allyson was a dreadful actress but she projected a winning helpmate personality that probably accounted for her success. Donna Reed, who hated Allyson for getting parts she wanted, projected a cool and reserve in her better parts that probably would have been seen as less warm than Allyson. Reynolds projected personality in a way that Powell didn't and seemed to photograph better. Reynolds was more cute than beautiful, but her looks held up whereas Powell's round face began to look like a young Mamie Eisenhower with a better stylist. Powell wasn't always so critical of Hollywood and some interviews had her complaining about people like Garland who said that Hollywood wrecked their lives.

[quote]Powell began to look like a young Mamie Eisenhower with a better stylist.

True but June Allyson was miles ahead of her in the Mamie look-a-like department and got much more prestigious roles, for reasons I've never understood. Jane looked pretty even when she was matronly and had a much warmer personality and presence on screen.

[quote] 44-year-old Hedy Lamarr was not thrilled playing mother to 29-year-old Jane

Can you blame her? Lamarr still looked good at that point.

But the one who looked the BEST in that movie was Nader! Wowzer!

Clearly, in interviews, Jane became more critical and outspoken about Hollywood and the star system as she aged and felt more released from that old life. There are so many tributes to her in my Facebook feed, many from New York friends who'd often seen her grocery shopping near her home on the upper westside, at the Y taking aerobics classes and riding the Broadway bus. She apparently had no airs and enjoyed living like a non-celeb.

Jane Powell wasn't playing a 29 year old in the film though, so Hedy didn't have to treat the very nice in real life Jane badly.

I remember on the day Fred Astaire died, CBS News had a live special about his life and career with I think Dan Rather, and Jane Powell, who lived in NY and was available on short notice, was reminiscing about working with him. She was very charming, and it was great to have one of his famous co-stars there to give some context.

Cadaver next door

Jane on Fred...

Did Debbie Reynolds usually avoid Gene Kelly after "Singin' in The Rain" had been in theaters and her publicity duties were over? She sounded grateful for the opportunity, but did not like the way she was treated by him. There's the famous story of Fred Astaire finding Debbie crying while hiding underneath a piano and allowing her to watch him rehearse, something usually he didn't allow. I know Debbie and Donald O'Connor were friends and were immediately re-teamed in "I Love Melvin". But other than maybe at the time of "That's Entertainment", it looks like she mostly avoided dealing with him, other than questions about that film. Yes, Jane Powell was already an accomplished dancer, having already starred with Astaire in "Royal Wedding" at the time of SITR, so she would have been very fine, too and able to handle more complex choreography.

r142 Yes I think she was a genuinely nice person. Never heard any rumours of diva antics about Jane.

The Girl Most Likely...

I last saw her in Murder She Wrote as one of Jessica’s sorority sisters turned nun.

Her book, “The Girl Next Door”. Is a good read, an interesting and clear-eyed look at showbiz. She revealed in the book that the older of her two daughters is a lesbian. And good for Jane for finding happiness with handsome Dick Moore.

[quote] She revealed in the book that the older of her two daughters is a lesbian.

This one?

No, R190, that is her stepdaughter Mona, aka actress Monie Ellis. If memory serves, her gay daughter’s name was Suzanne aka Sissy.

Has anybody checked on her little brother Colin? Is he doing well?

This must be the one.

She's fine...

R120, yes you can. But he looks closer to 60 in that photo, than 50. And that's with good lighting.

Shoot, there used to be a great clip on youtube of Powell dancing with Gene Nelson -- and singing w/a gorgeous young Gordon Macrae -- in a number called 'Home is Where the Heart is' from Three Sailors and a Girl. It seems they have every number BUT that one now...but she was indeed a great dancer as well as a singer.

We had the VHS of Seven Brides as a child and while I remember Jane's face, I don't recall her performance. I still recall the barn construction scene vividly. If you've seen a Debbie Reynolds movie, you don't forget Debbie - even if you might wish she'd sometimes toned it down (Molly Brown etc.).

7 Brides...

On Dinah discussing glamour with Diahann Carroll and a couple of broads.

Gowns by TRAVILLA

I have had a bucket list of classic movies I've always wanted to see on the big screen for the past few decades, and I've crossed most of them off - West Side Story, Doctor Zhivago, Ben-Hur, etc - but one of the few remaining titles is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - just to appreciate the barn raising dance in all its wide screen splendor.

r160 Hope you enjoy when you get around to it!! I think you are in for a real treat!

They said that her pussy stunk at the end……….

R159 That 1979 is shocker!

They wouldn't be allowed to say half of what they do if they were still on a studio contract.

I'm not big on redheads - I thought they should redo Seven Brides with a Latino male cast.

Seven Baddies For Seven Brothas.

Seven Brides for Seven Cubans

Trivia: Russ Tamblyn had never danced before 7 Brides. He'd been a champion gymnast.

People in the WSS thread have been talking about what a homophobic asshole he was in real life and how nasty to work with.

Was he gay?

Which of the dancers in Seven Brides were gay?

Has Fine, Fine, Fine been posted?

R168 I don't know, but he's definitely a bottom

That's Bobby Van in R170's clip. "And Ensemble" indeed.

r169 Good question!

R167, and he didn't really 'dance' in Seven Brides. But Donen and Kidd helped choreograph his gymnastic talents to fit in w/the real dancers, including the underrated Tommy Rall.

R134-R135, Here's a few bits from the Taylor book:

In cold hard truth the marriage of Eddie and Debbie had been a masquerade from the start. Even their daughter Carrie would admit their whole relationship was basically a press release. Their courtship had been arranged by MGM, concocted by a publicity department that saw magic between the two “All Americans.” Both Debbie and Eddie new the game they played. “That's how stars would meet,” Debbie explained years later. …MGM had arranged matches for her in much the same way that she had described for others, first with Robert Wagner, then Tab Hunter, and finally Eddie.

Their domestic bliss was a well orchestrated fiction. Tension between husband and wife increased in the summer of 1957 when Debbie’s recording of Tammy spent five weeks at number one and then stayed an unprecedented 31 weeks on the charts.

For a man who had been used to bedding as many girls as his schedule would permit, the marriage to Debbie was like being exiled to a vast arid desert. Sex between them Eddie said “was non-existent” except to make babies. Debbie admitted that she was “frigid and sexually unresponsive” until she was much older.

Eddie even thought that his wife might be a lesbian: “The idea crossed my mind,” he said. Rumors about Debbie’s sexuality had been floating around Hollywood for years, and Eddie wondered if they might be true. “My father's story is basically that my parent’s relationship had gone South because my mother was gay,” Carrie Fisher said, though she made sure to express her opinion that Eddies tale of leaving Debbie “in the house with her lover” was “insane” since after all “the press was living in the yard.”

Still many wondered about this Camille Williams on whose slender shoulder Debbie Reynolds wept throughout the resounding smashup of her marriage. Those reporters out front note that when Debbie and Camille returned home from the movies the lights in the house went dark –“All except the light in Debbie’s bedroom upstairs.”

Debbie would describe Camille has a voluptuous brunette forever being chased by men. Sounds a little like Elizabeth. But at 27 years old Camille had so far managed to elude all offers of marriage and was currently dancing in Dan Dailey’s Vegas act -- a comeback attempt by the former movie star who had been outed as a cross dresser by Confidential.

There was one other “very close friend” of Debbie’s as Eddie called her. This was Jeanette Johnson, another old pal from Burbank who served as Debbie’s maid of honor and frequent traveling companion and who had become the gym teacher Debbie once dreamed of being.

Whatever the truth of Debbie’s sexuality and it's likely far more nuanced than any one label could describe -- the fact of her artificial largely sexless marriage to Eddie radically alters the narrative that seemed so sure, so true, in the fall of 1958. One thing is certain Elizabeth was no home wrecker. When she told Hedda Hopper, “I'm not taking anything away from Debbie Reynolds because she never really had it,” it definitely upset a lot of people. But it was 100% true. And Elizabeth's candid violation of the set of fictions that she herself had sometimes exploited must have been very threatening to Hedda, one of the chief perpetrators of Hollywood untruths.

Debbie's messy marriages don't really hold water for arranged/bearding. She spoke about being sexually assaulted as a child so it's not surprising if she had an aversion to sex. Carrie made a point of saying that she wasn't, even in passing.

Why would horndog Eddie Fisher have gone along with an arranged marriage?

What about me????

You were just religious.

I once went out with someone who told me he had been Eddie's assistant at one time, apparently many years after the height of his fame, though he was still performing in clubs. He said that Fisher was really well-hung. (He had occasion to be backstage and in hotel rooms.) Gee, very talented with a beautiful singing voice, a rather cute guy, very famous, wealthy, and a huge dong. Why did he get married indeed?

[quote]Eddie even thought that his wife might be a lesbian

Lies! All lies!

Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, Dianne Carroll, Dinah Shore, Jean Peters and Jane Russell with designer TRAVILLA discussing glamour.

[Quote] Dianne Carroll, Dinah Shore

Black folks are so extra with the spelling of names.

Debbie simply cannot stop stealing focus on Dinah's show. Were all of these ladies Thalians?

No, R185, Debbie was drunk.

Will there be a third death this weekend to complete the Jane Powell/Norm MacDonald Trifecta?

r187 Bob Barker? Barbara Walters?

[quote] a third death this weekend

I'm anxious about Vanessa and/or Dame Maggie.

Betty

For the person who wants to see 7 Brides on the screen. In the very late 70s Radio City after it stopped being a presentation house(stage shows and movies) had a summer series of classic movie musical morning matinees at 11am. One movie every week shown daily on weekdays.

One of them was of course Seven Brides which I had already seen a few times in revival houses which were legion in those days but of course I had to see it at the Music Hall where it had opened in NY in '54 and proved to be a sensation squashing MGM's really big musical for the year Brigadoon.

Well nothing had prepared me for seeing it on the Music Hall screen as early Cinemascope was in a 2.55 ratio as opposed to the soon to be standard widescreen of 2.35. That screen was WIDE. And though I had seen the barn raising scene a multitude of times including in the first That's Entertainment film at the Music Hall it was astounding and thrilling. I really wasn't expecting it to have that impact because I was kind of in a I've already seen it a million times mood. It was really spectacular and it's unfortunate it will never be seen that way again.

Brian Laundrie is kinda famous.

R183, that's like the third time the clip has been posted.

Poor Jane - even in death she can't escape that scene-stealing bitch Debbie Reynolds.

Fake personalities like Debbie who are ‘on’ 24/7 and need constant attention are usually threatened by down to earth folks so I can see her not being besties with Jane.

r190 Windsor or White?

I could only make it through a few minutes of that Dinah Shore clip. Everyone looked great, but Lord, Debbie Reynolds’s behavior was annoying.

One big difference between Debbie and Jane: Debbie really enjoyed playing the star on and off-stage, while Jane seemed happier doing the work, but she was very down-to-earth off-stage. Also, Jane was a superior singer and dancer.

r198 Yes Jane Powell even had her own Spotify page

I Can See You

The difference between Debbie and Jane in Irene was huge. Debbie mugged and bulldozed her way through the show. Jane kept it light and won the audience over with her charm.

IRENE...opening night

I don't know about bulldozing....when I saw IRENE with Debbie at a packed Saturday matinee, she perfunctorily walked her way through each number and scene with the barest energy. She seemed tired and I can remember feeling like I was watching her count the steps as she danced. I was very disappointed. I wish I'd gone back and seen Jane.

Does anyone know: Debbie brought in Irene Sharaff to design her costumes when she became unhappy with Raoul Pene-du Bois' designs. Did Sharaff design Jane's as well? I believe her costumes, in any case, were different from Debbie's.

Alouette

Why...oh, why?

I wouldn't dismiss Debbie as a fake personality. There's a clip on YouTube of her appearing on a talk show with Shelley Winters and Debbie merrily cuts Shelley down to size.

I saw Irene the first week it opened and Debbie hadn't yet gotten tired. She was enormous fun, had a lot of energy and was every inch the star but also generous to others on the stage. But that's what you wanted. Debbie was as they say a real phony. MGM down to her toes. I very much wish I had gone to see Powell but I was pretty young and wasn't that familiar with her. I mostly knew her from those bank commercials.

Another plus seeing it when it first opened was Monte Markham who I had a crush on from his TV roles. I don't think he was in it very long. For the time it was luxury casting.

The spectacular closing number in "Hit the Deck," wherein Miss Ann Miller proves why she earned the title "Tops in Taps!"

Who does Kay Armen get, r208?

[quote]Polident. Depends was June Allyson.

I think Jane got the Polident gig after Martha Raye died. Hollywood is so cruel to female stars.

Love that finale to Hit the Deck but is there another decent moment in that entire film? Did Kay Armen make any other films for MGM......or anyone?

And love the way Ann Miller straightens out that sailor's collar as she taps by him....that must have been ad-libbed, no?

Kay Armen plays Vic's mother so maybe she doesn't get anybody?

Annie was *so* OCD, r211!

I think she was mostly a recording artist, r211.

Kay was Armen was Armenian (duh!) but was she Lesbian?

Wiki doesn't say, r215. Her father and younger brother were professional wrestlers. This is her brother, Bobby Managoff...

Spring Came Back To Vienna

Jane & Jeanette...

I never thought there'd be so much affection for Jane Powell on DL. It's nice to see.

Joan Crawford called her “that screeching thing”.

Was that not in reference to the woman from Kiss Me Kate?

R219 Why not? Ms. Powell was truly talented -- a triple threat in fact, lovely in appearance and by nearly all accounts a really nice person in real life. Plus she outlived most of her contemporaries, too. Also, she did a Sondheim show!

DL doesn't tend to go for sopranos.

There are a lot of Deanna Durbin, Jeanette MacDonald, Irene Dunne Ann Blyth and Julie Andrews fans here. Kathryn Grayson, not so much. Milizia Korjus was great too, considering she only did one Hollywood film, but got an Oscar nomination for it.

Jane was probably the only major soprano star who was an excellent dancer, though Julie did some good dancing in 'Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Star!".

Ahem.....

Donald Brooks designed Jane’s costumes for Irene including some gorgeous gowns AND A TURBAN! Monte Markham booked a sitcom and was let out of his contract early in the run.

Jessie Matthews was amazing.

It was criminal that their agents wouldn't allow Fred Astaire to appear with her.

[Quote] Hollywood is so cruel to female stars.

So true.

Deanna Durbin only gets brought up in the orbit of Judy Garland.

Jessie also had a crackin' bust.

Imagine if Peter Bogdanovich had someone like Jessie Matthews for At Long Last Love.

Indeed R208. Here she is THIRTY TWO years later, still tappin' up a storm at age 64.

Ann in that clip is why Madonna got butt implants.

That Jessie Matthews clip of "Dancing on the Ceiling" - love it but does anyone recall that song getting covered in more recent years (like the last 40 years, lol) by someone else, or maybe being featured in a show or film? Sounds incredibly familiar but I know I don't know it from Miss Matthews version. It's driving me nuts.

Jane had a champagne voice and Kathryn had a milkshake voice.

Jane & Debbie

The Jane arrangement of "I Could Have Danced All Night" was awful.

All the chimps she worked with must be so sad.

Agreed on all points, R222!

Dancing on the Ceiling was a popular Rodgers and Hart song written for Matthews for the film Evergreen which everybody knew in the 30s and I strongly recommend. Matthews is delightful. There is a documentary of her on youtube where she comes across a very strong iron lady where her career matters more than any other individual in her life. She even disinherited her adopted daughter.

Not somebody you would want to know but would enjoy very much on stage and film.

[quote]Dancing on the Ceiling was a popular Rodgers and Hart song written for Matthews for the film Evergreen

I like the title! "Footsteps on the Ceiling"! What? "Dancing on the Ceiling"? Oh, well, never mind.

[Quote] where she comes across a very strong iron lady

We mustn't have watched the same doc. The iron willed don't keep having breakdown. I don't envy her as the seventh child of sixteen. No wonder she was a bottomless pit of need.

Matthews' brother appears in the doc and tries to convince that Jessie's celluloid legacy makes up for her unmarked grave. She didn't die penniless so it's strange that she had no tombstone.

[quote]She's wonderful in Royal Wedding but she was third choice: June got pregnant and Judy had another breakdown.

Not really. The director of "Royal Wedding" Stanley Donen knew what a disaster the shoot for "Summer Stock" had been for all involved because of Judy (it doesn't show at all in the finished film) and wanted nothing to do with her. He told the brass, "One missed day and I'm firing her".

I think Judy really wanted to do the film. Her last June Allyson fill-in had been a huge hit for her (In the Good Old Summertime), but she was after all Judy Garland. Stanley Donen scheduled a one-hour rehearsal for Judy on a Saturday, and before the call time she called to say she would not be in for it and she was fired.

There are behind the scene photos of Judy rehearsing at the studio and a big birthday cake being cut and served, I believe Vincente Minnelli is even there celebrating with his wife, everyone looking quite well and happy. A week later she was out. Donen wanted her out from the start and Judy was stunned, the tide at MGM had turned as Louis Mayer was no longer there to protect her and Dore Schary saw her only as an expensive problem.

I waited on Jane and Dickie once in the late 80s or early 90s and she was stunning. They'd just come from something at Lincoln Center and were very dressed up. Jane had to be sixty, but I think people assumed she was older, and everyone was gawking at how truly beautiful she looked. They were also warm and lovely.

[quote] Jane had a champagne voice and Kathryn had a milkshake voice.

Jessie Matthews had a high voice but the less-sophisticated 1930s recording equipment makes it sound rather thin.

Astaire had a huge hit with Judy in Easter Parade and didn't fight for her to do Royal Wedding. Even he had had enough.

To be honest I thought she'd died years ago.

Jane was wondering why you'd stopped sending xmas cards.

Wiki tells us Jane had her first baby in July of1951 so it's possible she was pregnant during much of the planning and filming of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN which opened in 1952. I'd like to think she was unavailable and wasn't considered for that reason.

Je Veux Vivre

R241, "Dancing on the Ceiling" was not written for Jessie Matthews in the film, EVERGREEN. It was written for the 1930 stage show SIMPLE SIMON but cut during the out-of-town tryout. It was then used in the 1930 London stage show, EVER GREEN and later in the 1934 film.

Jessie was Gertie's understudy in Charlot's Revue and was Victor/Victoria before Julie was Victor/Victoria. And Julie portrayed Gertie.

LOVE that, r254!

It always bugged me that none of the male actors in Victor/Victoria, James Garner, Alex Carras and especially Robert Preston, wore their hair slicked back 1930s style like Julie faithfully did (so obviously based on Jessie), thus not supporting Victoria masquerading believably as a man. A major flaw in that silly film.

Sarah Brightman actually looked a bit and sounded somewhat like Jessie Matthews, but she couldn't dance like her.

R255 They probably didn't want bald spots to show.

Ave Maria

Quando M'en Vo

Jane also sings "Musetta's Waltz" in "Nancy Goes to Rio" and is pretty sensational.

Deanna Durbin sings it in the film it is based on "It's a Date" and is sublime. Jane was very talented, and a bit underrated as her Pasterack films were such disposable fluff.

*Pasternack

r260....

Jane could certainly do the coloratura!

R254 I was going to include a clip from Jessie's transvestite musical but I was embarrassed by the clip available on Youtube.

The costuming was rather unsophisticated and second-rate-Busby-Berkely but did include the lame Griffith Jones and the catty Anne Lee.

(which reminds me that Julie Andrews did a transvestite number in that horrendous Robert Wise/Gertrude Lawrence bio)

Burlington Bertie is one of the best numbers in that woeful musical.

Nancy Goes to Rio also features the handsome charming young Scotty Beckett who would go on to lead a very destructive and tragic life. Ann Southern gamely plays Jane's mother and is as charming as always and Carmen Miranda gets one of her most bizarre and entertaining numbers. Whoever choreographed it did a terrific job.

It really needs a bluray with all those eyepopping colors but I would probably be the only one who would buy it and unfortunately Warner Archives is not making blurays according to my wants. Some of their recent choices prove it.

I've listened to that bootleg of Jane's opening night in "Irene" on Broadway and she's fantastic.

I think Debbie Reynolds was jealous, as the show ran for quite some time with Jane, and I imagine her reviews were wonderful.

Debbie would have little reason to be jealous. Jane was never as big a star.

That sounds like Snow White singing "Musetta's Waltz."

Jane didn’t get to close the show on broadway. Debbie came back and played the final week before taking the show on tour. Jane’s run lasted 7 months and her reviews were great. She later replaced Debbie on tour and played the role in stock.

R269 What sounds like Snow White singing "Musetta's Waltz"?

'Jane was never as big a star.'

Jane didn't work it the way Debbie did. Reynolds was incredibly ambitious to the point sometimes of being too over the top. I don't think Powell had that kind of drive though clearly she was a hard worker with a lot of talent.

Also, Carrie Fisher wasn't Jane's daughter. That might have had just a little something to do with Debbie's "legacy."

R271, the clip at R262: Jane Powell singing "Musetta's Waltz."

Carrie Fisher didn't keep Debbie working her whole life. Debbie was cast in Will & Grace because of Carrie Fisher?!

Italian Street Song....1946

If they were both alive, Larry King would be interviewing Debbie about her memories of Jane.

There's nobody left from the golden age of Hollywood to ask about anybody anymore. And there's nobody left to ask them in any case with both Osborne and King gone.

Who would you ask about what is was like working with Powell at MGM?

Russ Tamblyn?

Arlene Dahl, Leslie Caron and Margaret O'Brien were all there with Jane at MGM.

Julie Newmar? Ruta Lee?

[quote]There's nobody left from the golden age of Hollywood to ask about anybody anymore.

Excuse me?

I believe you're referring to Miss Julie Newmeyer, r281.

[quote]I believe you're referring to Miss Julie Newmeyer, R281.

And Miss Ruta Kilmonis, R283.

Julie always seems in her own world. Ruta...she's direct.

Ann Blyth?

And Marsha Hunt, though I think she was pretty much gone from MGM by the time Jane became a star.

Kim Novak

Kim Novak was at Columbia and didn't really become a star until PICNIC in 1956 when Jane made her last hit movie 7 BRIDES at MGM.

Was Shirley Maclaine, Angie Dickinson,Vera Miles or Eva Marie Saint ever at MGM?

If they were, it was after the long term contract players like Jane Powell.

[quote]If they were both alive, Larry King would be interviewing Debbie about her memories of Jane.

Yes, and contrary to Jane's account, Debbie would be going on and on about what marvelous close friends they were while somehow turning it into a career retrospective of herself. I bet Jane was liked in a more authentic way by her friends than Debbie who was always a piece of work.

Debbie did retain some residual glow of fame from being Carrie Fisher's mother, although clearly an established star in her own right. Debbie was extremely funny in her turns as Bobbi Adler on "Will & Grace".

My Hero

In Nancy Goes to Rio and Southern plays early 30s so she must have had Nancy at 16. Not very MGM of her.

Ann Blyth was at Metro in Jane Powell's day.

Where do you get early 30s, r294? And there's no U in Sothern.

Ann had Kismet...

And good ol' Rose Marie!

Sothern sure as hell isn't playing pushing 40.

What would that look like, r299?

Watch the movie you clearly haven't seen it.

Sothern was 41, r299. Granted it's been years since I've seen it, but I don't remember her pulling a Margaret Elliot.

Women weren't always ostracized for being middle aged like some people think. In Valley of Decision Garson made it while she was in her 40s and her love interest is Peck who was in his 20s.

She seems to be acting age appropriately...

Jane and Vic Damone -- both at their most luscious.

I can't believe no one's posted one of her final performances -- at the Hollywood Bowl -- in 2010. Sounds pretty good too...

This thread has told me a lot I don't know about this MGM contract player.

But I'm more interested in whether she had Full Dentures or Partial Dentures? Upper and Lower?

I bet her dentures compromised her coloratura.

Dentures? She wouldn't have been caught dead. Jane had the money for implants.

Is it safe for octogenarians to get implants?

All that blood and exposed bones can't be safe for those with Osteoporosis !

You're right I just had my first implant and it was very very intense.

r311 Butt or pec?

r293 Meh.

In R237's Athena clip, Debbie totally outshines Jane. Jane looks like her mother in that clip.

As a side note, I'm surprised Athena doesn't get more Datalounge love. It has far more hunkier guys than Seven Brides.

Here's the ending of Athena, with Jane, Debbie, and all the boys. Funny how some of them are really into it -- especially Steve Reeves and Richard 'Dick' Dubois -- and each other (check out the two holding hands at the end of the table). Also never realized Ray "Lt. Tragg" Collins was a munchkin.

More Dick here...

Is there a TCM tribute scheduled yet?

Richard du Bois was gorgeous! That smile......

Always love the combo of a blonde baby face on a thoroughly adult hunky muscular body.

Yes, we definitely need a Dick duBois thread, if we've never had one before!

R317. Yes. No doubt a day of films to follow.

Also, agreed re Dick Dubois. Tons of photos w/him and Mae West. Wonder if he ever had to sniff out her arid regions...

Once Upon a Song...1945

That’s a lovely tribute, R320!

Gotta say it's so sweet seeing all the Jane Powell appreciation and love here.

Has there been a lot of Jane Powell appreciation?

I'm so sorry I didn't see her in 70, Girls, 70.

Are there any recordings of that "70, Girls, 70" concert/production? Thanks in advance.

I've never come across anything, r326.

I thought I had never seen her on stage. Then I remembered she was the Queen in NY City Opera's R and H Cinderella. Jean Stapleton was the stepmother. I remember(I think) the transformation scene was a big production number that ended act 1. It was a wonderful production. I should have gone again.

Day In Day Out, Filles de Cadiz

I could only get through 20 minutes of Athena. For its fans it is now on bluray. It was supposed to be an Esther Williams film which I believe she came up with Charles Walters. Dore Schary took it and gave it to Jane and Debbie. Esther was fucking pissed.

r320 You can tell that was prepared before the changeover to the new, improved TCM this month. (Although they do have the new logo in the watermark.)

r316 Yum Divine!! Thank you

r320 Rumor has it that Mae West enjoyed DuBois' dick.

[quote] In the 1960's Richard DuBois ended up in Mae West's famous stage show. West put together a stage act which featured several half-naked male bodybuilders, a twist on the old vaudeville acts in which scantily-clad women were featured. It was rumored that Mae West fell for DuBois, and that for some time, they were an item.

He never married, this DuBois fella?

He was married to "Gladys" who helped him with his evangelist gig.

R334, Dick Dubois had a wife and kids, and became an evangelical minister. He allegedly hooked up with Jan Crouch and fathered Matt Crouch, current president of Trinity Broadcast Network.

Evangelical? Yuck. No longer hot.

True R337, but it would be interesting to hear WHY he fell into the religion racket. GUILT maybe?

Back to Jane Powell. She fell in love with Gene Nelson while working with him in "Three Sailors and A Girl" and both agreed to leave their spouses, but he backed out. She went through with her divorce. Jane had to have her studio back her up to deal with the gossip before "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" came out, and they did dispel and minimize that real-life story, which didn't stop it from being a blockbuster hit. Check out Nelson's incredible gymnastics and dancing below in number from "She's Working Her Way Through College". Great body, and he was a better athlete than the more highly-touted Gene Kelly.

TCM will honor Jane on 10/16

Didn't know that R339. Here's a clipping from way back then...

And another...

Thank you and good night

Nelson lacked Kelly's on screen charisma. He directed a lot of episodic tv through the 60s and 70s. I think IMDB is probably missing some credits--I think he directed episodes of MASH which aren't listed. He occasionally acted, of course doing a "Murder, She Wrote". I would imagine his B movie colleagues who succeeded in tv like Donna Reed helped start his directing career and Lansbury seemed to feature a lot of old MGM B players as guest stars..

I wonder how her career would have evolved if she kept her real name, Suzanne Burce?

Suzanne Burce sounds more real and less antiseptic than 'Jane Powell'.

Was there any link at all between 'Jane Powell' and Eleanor Powell?

R345, 'Jane Powell' was the name of her character on her very first film, "Song of the Open Road." She adopted it as her stage name when she signed with MGM.

Here is the Obituary that The Guardian published for Jane.

R347, that's quite a feat for an obituary for someone who died in 2021 to be written by someone who died in 2020.

(Check the bottom of the article.)

When Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds co-starred in films, Jane always got top billing over Debbie.

They could use the alphabetical excuse.

[quote]that's quite a feat for an obituary for someone who died in 2021 to be written by someone who died in 2020.

Major newspapers always have obits for major celebrities (performers, politicians, etc.) "in the can" so that they're not scrambling for a staff-written obituary when a famous person suddenly ups and dies. This is especially true for older celebrities. I edited obits for some well-known actors and actresses several years before they died. When the Grim Reaper calls, all you have to do is fill in the date and cause of death, and any other necessary updates, and you're good to go.

r348 Indeed but obituaries are often commisioned and written in advance.I recall hearing politicians and some celebrities commenting that their obituaries were pre written years ago by journalists or writers who they have now outlived!!

r351 Explains it perfectly!

I'm reminded of that MTM episode, r351.

Wee Willie Williams

Thank you, r354.

At ABC News they call them JICs - Just in cases

Barbara Walters write her own JIC obit years ago.

It doesn't give a cause of death.

TCM could only find four of her films for the tribute day?

[quote]It doesn't give a cause of death.

Policies differ from paper to paper, and some publications are more strict about requiring a cause than others. But a cause of death is often waived for people of very advanced age, such as those 90 and older.

I'm telling my family that should I predecease them I want the word "DIED" in the first sentence of my obituary!

Good for you, R360. Everyone should have a purpose in life.

I told my family there was to be no obit. I should be cremated instantly and my ashes thrown in a Walmart dumpster. A Target if Walmart was unavailable.

Indecisive!

Della does Musetta's Waltz...

[quote]Barbara Walters write her own JIC obit years ago.

Hopefully better than you wrote that sentence.

Maybe. Maybe not...

So Jane like sweet June Allyson was quite the wildcat.

I thought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would have had a dentist on staff to check and correct the teeth of all contract players.

Was the MGM dentist remiss in the care of Janes teeth which led to her unhappy dentures?

Cycles

That's Dancing

Jane featured in much more media work than I had appreciated.

I was working at Norcostco in Dallas, Halloween...1980? She came in looking for a long cigarette holder for her club act. I didn't wait on her though.

r372 Did she seem nice?

A couple of us were back in stock, r373 and another floor person came running back and asked if anybody knew what Jane Powell looked like. So we went to the doorway and looked through the curtain and we all agreed it was Jane Powell. She appeared very nice. Some years later a friend of mine was in NYC for her first time. She was in a fabric store and Jane came in looking for fabric for a jacket to go with a "formal" she had.

Jane Powell has been dead to us for quite a while now - is there really much more to be said about her?

We could make up things.

She would have been great doing some of the roles Shirley Jones got cast in later on.

[quote] is there really much more to be said about her?

This thread has made me realise that Jane Powell wasn't as uninteresting, bland and talentless as I had assumed she was.

Shirley Jones still seems as bland and uninteresting as I had assumed Jane Powell was.

It would have been interesting to see what she would have done with Love Me, or Leave Me.

Sally in FOLLIES

[quote]Shirley Jones still seems as bland and uninteresting as I had assumed Jane Powell was.

Apparently you never read Shirley's tawdry memoir. It's a smutty book!

Oh no, Eulalie. I abhor smut!

Didn't Shirley win an Oscar for playing a prostitute?

She's only 38 in R369's clip, but she's turned into the champagne lady on Lawrence Welk. Sad fall from grace.

She still starred on Broadway and did lots of theater, including a Sondheim show later on. They mostly stopped making the kinds of films she was most interested in doing back when the studio system collapsed. She was quite well-loved by her public, and she was a really nice, down to earth person in real life.

I heard she could be seen walking around on the upper west side. I always had hoped to run into her when I was in that area. I went to the last of those MGM salutes produced by Michael Feinstein at Carnegie. It's too bad she didn't do it. It was a wonderful salute to a great era of entertainment that a lot of us love. Unfortunately shortly after it those stars started dying off and the last star left alive was Marge Champion who died a year ago at the age of 101. Amazing to think she worked on Snow White with Wat Disney which managed to change so many things in the 20th Century and the effects of which we are still feeling today for good or bad.

Jane said in interviews that she didn't want to appear in those MGM shows, as she thought they were kind of sad to see the old stars trotted out. I went to one of them and the standouts were Tony Martin's voice still sounding great when he was clearly quite advanced age, wife Cyd Charisse's looking great, and Gloria DeHaven, beautifully singing her Mom's famous song "Who's Sorry Now" that she had sung in "Words and Music".

I did see Jane Powell in an Alan Jay Lerner tribute, still singing and dancing amazingly to her "Why Did You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life" number from "Royal Wedding" along with Lee Roy Reams when she was about 60 or so. It was recorded for broadcast.

correction: not "Words and Music", but "Three Little Words".

'Walt'

[quote] Gloria DeHaven, beautifully singing her Mom's famous song "Who's Sorry Now" that she had sung in "Words and Music".

That's MY song!

[quote] I did see Jane Powell in an Alan Jay Lerner tribute, still singing and dancing amazingly to her "Why Did You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life" number from "Royal Wedding" along with Lee Roy Reams when she was about 60 or so. It was recorded for broadcast.

There's a shot of the audience at the very end, R387. Which one is you?

A song Gloria introduced...

Who was the tallest of Gloria's boys? He was hunky.

Gloria had been married to DL fave, dreamboat John Payne!

[quote]If it’s any consolation [R17], there is a Leta Powell Drake thread.

And now I'm dead!

Johnny & Glo

The middle-sized sailor gyrating with Gloria de Haven is long time Carol Burnett dancer Don Crichton.

This interview was just posted a few weeks back. Very touching at about 7 minutes in:

"I never really felt I belonged..."

She has that eternally surprised look that now seems common with plastic surgery, although she seemed to come by it naturally. At least she didn't look like a Siamese cat, the other plastic surgery look.

Great interview, R398, thanks. Never knew she had romance with George Brent. years after they did a movie together (see pic).

Also, she goes into a lot of detail about the Little Red School house on the MGM lot, which is quite interesting (if you're looking for it, she talks a bit about it in the first 1/3 then again in more detail in the last 3rd).

It IS incredibly surprising that she had a crush on Brent, who not only was much older than her, but had the sex appeal and body shape of soft pudding. But it sounds like he was actually a lot more in love with her, holding on to the photo of the both of them for 20+ years...

Today is Jane Powell tribute day on TCM, hosted by cute gay Dave Karger.

Wow if anyone knew who she was they might care.

Thanks for your contribution, R403. So knowing and wise and original.

r400 Thank you!