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Personal appearance? People think it's a glamorous tour. Jane Powell knows it's just plain work from coast to coast and home again . . .
■ She'd finished her engagement at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. .The Student Prince, her first complete operetta, had gone over well. After that she'd headed East on tour. Cincinnati was behind her, and so was Chicago. All that remained was two weeks at the Capitol Theatre in New York. It was a busy schedule, but New York lay waiting like a giant mardi gras, and a 19-year-old girl could really have herself a time. Only the way it turned out for Jane Powell, there was no time at all.
There was, to begin with, a cold. It took place in the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel on the ninth floor. Jane's mother sat in one corner of the suite, worrying. Dorothy Day, of the M-G-M publicity department, sat by the phone and cancelled appointments. And Jane stayed in bed, downing cold tablets.
The whole p.a. (personal appearance) was Jane's idea, though. She could have stayed home and experimented with the 16mm camera her father had just bought. Up until now, all the pictures had come out unrecognizable.
She could have stayed home and dated Geary Stephen. Geary used to be Sonja Henie's skating partner, but he'd given up the ice for the real estate business. Now he was in Hollywood, willing to give up the real estate business for a screen career. Janie could have made it easier for him. She could have sung to him every night while they were out dancing. . . .
But Jane had thought the tour was a good idea. Apart from the money, there was the experience, and there was the thrill of playing to a live audience and having them in the palm of your hand. The cold, though, was unplanned.
The rest of her time in New York was planned too well. There were five shows a day, and in between the shows she was interviewed. In between the interviews she nibbled on sandwiches, and in between sandwiches she thought how nice it would be to go shopping. To keep from being depressed she embroidered cats' faces on turkish towel bibs — presents for some babies she knew in Hollywood.
The sad fact was, she had only one date and that was arranged. Tom Rogers, who handles radio appearances for M-G-M stars, escorted her to Radie Harris' CBS show. Jane was the guest star. And that night Tom took Jane to the opening of Madeleine Carroll's new play, Goodbye, My Fancy, and to the Stork Club. Tom was lovely. But Jane kept wondering about Geary and whether he was lonesome, too . . .
The beginning of a wild dash: Jane, above, consults her watch while waiting for a cab. Below, a frenzied conference at the Capitol Theatre.
Shep Fields' orchestra accompanied Jane during her two-weeks engagement. Here, Shep and Jane rehearse downstairs at the theater between shows.
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