June Allyson

Allyson sustained a fractured skull and broken back, and her dog was killed. Her doctors said she would never walk again and confined her to a heavy steel brace from neck to hips for four years, and she ultimately regained her health. But when Allyson had become famous she was terrified that people would discover her background from the "tenement side of New York City", and she readily agreed to studio tales of a "rosy life" including a concocted story that she underwent months of swimming exercises in rehabilitation to emerge as a star swimmer. In her later memoirs, Allyson does describe a summer program of swimming that did help her recovery.

After gradually progressing from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, Allyson's true "escape" from her impoverished life was to go to the movies where she was enraptured by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies. As a teen Allyson memorized the trademark Ginger Rogers dance routines; she claimed later to have watched The Gay Divorcee 17 times. She also tried to emulate the singing styles of movie stars, although she never mastered reading music. When her mother remarried and the family was reunited with a more stable financial standing, Allyson was enrolled in the Ned Wayburn Dancing Academy and began to enter dance competitions with the stage name of "Elaine Peters." With the death of her stepfather and a bleak future ahead, she left high school after completing two and half years, to seek jobs as a dancer. Read Less

Members of the nascent jet-set, Allyson and Summers were frequently seen in Cap d'Antibes, Madrid, Rome, and London. However, Summers refused to marry her and the relationship did not last.

Following her separation from Summers, Allyson was twice married to and divorced from businessman Alfred Glenn Maxwell, who owned a number of barbershops and had been Powell's barber. During this time, Allyson struggled with alcoholism, which she overcame in the mid-1970s. Read Less

She spoke about MGM's golden era, and introduced vintage film clips. Read Less

As the first celebrity to undertake the role of public spokesperson for promoting the use of the Depend undergarment, Allyson did "more than any other public figure to encourage and persuade people with incontinence to lead fuller and more active lives." Read Less