Fun with Dick and Jane.

A Most Unusual House Call from Hollywood Icons
Jane Powell and Dickie Moore.
 

By Hal Drucker

Photos: Hal Drucker

It is not every day that the Drucker apartment plays host, not merely to an acclaimed, still-beautiful Hollywood musical star, but to a gentleman (her husband of 20 years) who once received a commendation rarer than the Academy Award.

The man had the distinction of  being but one of 24 actors (MGM Studio performers all) who in 1933  were licked by millions of young Americans, when  their mugs appeared on the underside of a Dixie Cup lid pressed against a dollop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream (a list of the 24 cinema notables appears below).  

I speak of perhaps the youngest performer to grace a Dixie, or should I say Dick-see as in seven-year old Dickie Moore who appeared in more than 80 movies – 20 in 1932 alone - from the silent era to Our Gang Comedies, to the lead in Dickens’ Oliver Twist,  to working with Gary Cooper in Sergeant York.  He played the son of Marlene Dietrich and gave Shirley Temple her first screen kiss (in Miss Annie Rooney, 1942).  

I was most  impressed with the fact that Moore appeared with the great Paul Muni in two famous biographical movies, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Life of Emile Zola. My father saw Muni Weisenfreund perform on the Yiddish Stage and I saw him in the monumental stage role of Henry Drummond (modeled after Clarence Darrow) in Inherit the Wind. “Mr. Muni was always very nice to me,” Moore said. “His wife was always on the set, just off-camera. I would spot her signaling him  with eye movements, approving ones if she liked the way the scene went, or negative signals,  in which case he asked that the scene be done over.”

Dietrich and Moore in Blonde Venus (1932) –directed by Josef von Sternberg.

John Richard Moore, Jr. was born on September 12, 1925 in Los Angeles.  Dickie Moore made his acting and screen debut at the age of 11 months in the 1927 John Barrymore silent, The Beloved Rogue.

This is the same Dickie Moore who at age five stood up mano-a-boyo to the despot of the back lot on the location set of The Squaw Man, the jodphur-clad director Cecil B. De Mille. “’Young man,” he said to me, ’I did not like the way you did that last scene!’ “To which I answered (uncharacteristically for me, since I was always compliant), ‘Who Cares?’”

Whereupon, De Mille raised his riding crop to strike the child. Mrs. West, who was the teacher and children’s welfare supervisor on the set said,  ‘Mr. De Mille, you touch that child and I’ll close this set.’“

Cecil B. De Mille © Paramount Pictures.

Eight years later, the stentorian voice of C. B. De Mille intoned magisterially, every Monday on my family’s Magnovox, “Lux Presents Hollywood.” It was the signal for millions of listeners from coast to coast to listen intently to a live, aural representation of a motion picture, often acted by the same principals who appeared in the screen version.  On January 30, 1939, Lux Radio Theater, hosted by De Mille, presented The Arkansas Traveler, starring the Bazooka©-playing comedian Bob Burns, the perennial mother-figure Fay Bainter and – yes – 14-year-old Dickie Moore, who was also in the movie version. “I enjoyed that movie a lot, I loved Bob Burns. During our first Lux Radio rehearsal,” Moore recalled, “De Mille said to me, ‘Dickie, do you remember how rude you were to me the last time we met?’ To which I couldn’t respond, I was that stunned. Nevertheless, the show went on without further incident.”  [sidebar:  Bob Burns coined the word  bazooka  for the homemade musical instrument he invented in 1905 from two gas pipes and a whiskey funnel. My parents gave me a toy version on which I tried unsuccessfully to replicate The Arkansas Traveler tune. The U. S. Army famously adapted Burns' appellation for its potent, shoulder-type, anti-tank weapon of World War II.]

On the subject of radio days, my earliest memory of Jane Powell was tuning in to Chase & Sanborn’s The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show in the ‘40s, on which she sang arias like Il Bacio and played Charlie McCarthy’s girl friend, and also bantered with Mortimer Snerd and perennial guests W. C. Fields and Mae West.

“Edgar was a very nice man,” professed Powell. “He was very quiet and introspective.  He invited me to visit his house, and showed me Charlie’s room. It was a real boy’s room. All the furniture was built to scale. He even had a bathroom with a miniature toothbrush. ‘Where’s Mortimer’s room?’ I asked.  Edgar pointed to a foot locker. “

Born April, 1 1929 in Portland, Oregon, as Suzanne Lorraine Burce –  she was the only child of Paul  and Eileen Burce.  Neither of her parents had ever been associated with the entertainment business; her father was a salesman for Wonder Bread. Like so many couples of the Depression days, they wanted her to be the next Shirley Temple.  At the age of five she had two radio shows on local Portland stations.  She received no coaching from either parent. However, her mother permed her hair in curls.

“She wanted me to look like Shirley Temple, but I never did. What’s more, I wasn’t blonde.”  Suzanne got into pictures when she appeared on the radio show Stars Over Hollywood, (a Saturday Morning staple in the Drucker household). She won the talent contest and the next day was taken to meet Louis B. Mayer at  MGM.

Those on the lot who saw and heard her concurred that here was another Deanna Durbin - a girl who not only sang beautifully, but photographed equally well. Next day, she was given a long-term contract by MGM head, Louis B. Mayer.

“Did he ever come on to you?” I asked, having read several biographies about Mayer’s purported relationships with Garland, Taylor and other young stars.

“Not at all, he was very nice to me. In fact, he was a father figure, always. On his very last day at   MGM, when he was fired, I said goodbye to him in his office. There he was behind that imposing desk, weeping, weeping, weeping like a baby.”

Jane and Ricardo Montalban in Two Weeks with Love (1950).  

Her first MGM musical was Holiday in Mexico (1946) with Powell dueting with her favorite actor Walter Pidgeon.  If you have trouble picturing the straight-arrow Pidgeon in a Hollywood musical with people like Xavier Cugat  and Jose Iturbi, I’ll remind you, that Pidgeon did a servicable job on Broadway, in the Bob Merrill 1959  musical Take Me Along, with Jackie Gleason. Powell was later billed as the co-star in several films,  including A Date with Judy (1948) – based on the popular radio series, with Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Miranda, Wallace Beery and Robert Stack, who coincidentally played opposite Deanna Durbin in her inaugural movie in 1936, Three Smart Girls. What I liked most about A Date with Judy was Miranda’s explosively popular Cuanto Le Gusta! along with Powell’s most exhilarating and enduring signature song , It’s a Most Unusual Day, with words and music by Harold Adamson & Jimmy McHugh.

Fred and Jane in The Royal Wedding. (1951). Collection of Dick Moore.

What do you do for an encore, if you’re Jane Powell? You wait five years for the chance to dance opposite Fred Astaire in the move musical The Royal Wedding, based loosely on the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten. But you’re third in line for the role of Astaire’s sister in the movie, a role that loosely parallels Astaire’s first partner, his sister Adele.  But the stars had to fall in the proper alignment for it to happen. No. 1 choice, June Allyson became pregnant and was succeeded by Judy Garland. Then Garland’s penchant for missing rehearsals resulted in her being replaced by Powell.

The Royal Wedding finished shooting on October 5, 1950. Fred Astaire was quoted in Hugh Fordin’s MGM’s Greatest Musicals: “While Janie was not primarily a dancer, I knew she could do what was required. She surprised everybody.”

“I never knew Fred said that about me,” she said. “As a singer I did an Alan Jay Lerner/Burton Lane song from that movie that has since become a classic, Too Late Now.”

Aside from Astaire’s  gravity-defying dance-on-the-ceiling number, the top turn  (thanks to You Tube) is the wonderful music hall comic sequence with Powell and Astaire dancing  and singing:  How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life?"

Click here: YouTube - How Can You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know

Or Copy and Paste …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cm8WG2UVz0&feature=related

To get an instant musical synopsis of the The Royal Wedding, (in which Astaire’s and Powell’s love interests are the expressionless Sarah Churchill and the tedious Peter Lawford).

Click here: YouTube - Wedding Ditty 

Or Copy and Paste …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3mY6u5rUX

Fred and Jane in The Royal Wedding. (1951). © MGM Studios.

If Jane Powell had made but one musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), her place in motion picture history, let alone, the world of dance, would be secure. In a column entitled, My 25 Favorite Movie Musicals, I positioned Seven Brides at #4, behind another memorable dance movie, West Side Story.  I wrote:  “This MGM musical has some of the most rousing dance numbers (the highlight of which is the barn dance) ever put on celluloid, thanks to choreographer Michael Kidd and a cast of dancers that includes Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt and the New York City Ballet’s Jacques d’Amboise. The exquisitely matched Howard Keel and Jane Powell are the remarkable singing leads. “

Click here: YouTube - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers-Barn Dance

Or Copy and Paste …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCdiWxzw0RU&feature=related

“Funny about Jacques,” Powell recalled, “during the entire filming I heard not a single word from him, nor did I approach him in conversation. I took for granted that he spoke only French. Years later I met him at a City Ballet reception in New York. This time we approached each other gingerly. Well, instead of an accent that I expected to be the essence of Louis Jourdan, it was pure Phil Silvers Brooklynese, “Jane, glad ta see ya!”  

In 1984  Dick  Moore published a book about his and other child actors’ experiences, entitled Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: But Don't Have Sex or Take the Car. Among the 31 people he interviewed were Roddy McDowell, Shirley Temple, Jackie Coogan, Margaret O’Brien,  Natalie Wood and yes, Jane Powell.  Seven years later they married and live in Connecticut and Manhattan, where Moore has a communications company.

“Donald O’Connor became a good friend,” said Moore, “and Jane still keeps in touch with Jane Withers, who may be the country’s  biggest collector of paper dolls. There are a number of paper doll books of Jane which are very popular, and even one or two of me. She was recently the guest of honor at a paper doll convention in New Jersey.”

I asked about Gloria Jean with whom Donald O’Connor appeared  in four movies. And Deanna Durbin. “ Gloria is living in Hawaii. Dick wanted Deanna Durbin for his book,” said Powell, “but she was all used up, couldn’t stand the system, and moved to Paris. For a long period of time, Dick did not hear back from her. Then one day he received a very touching letter from Deanna. She said that hearing from him was like discovering a ship’s bottle on her stoop. She wouldn’t have done the interview in any case, but she was kind enough to invite us to stay with her in Paris, but we never took her up on.”

After a  delightful hour with Dick and Jane in my dining room, where they deigned not to have anything more exotic than New York tap water, she got up to clear the table.

“Please don’t bother,” I said.

“At home, I always do the dishes. We don’t have a maid.”

On that surprising note, I asked for an update on their families.

“My baby Lindsey just turned 53,” Jane said, “and I have a granddaughter  Skye who is 15. Lindsey and her husband adopted a gorgeous Chinese baby Tia  who is now  four. Lindsey and my other daughter Suzanne (Sissy), my middle child, live  in Colorado. My son Geary, is 58 and lives in Arizona. They’re all very happy. Dick  has  a son who lives in  North Carolina   two  grandchildren and a great-grandchild.”

“And none of them is in the business,” she said, her face lighting up as if she had won the Connecticut lottery.