She will be remembered as the best of those

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

, and rightly so because she was the one who made Howard Keel fall in love, and the one who made his six rude brothers decide to leave the cabin and go down to town in search of a woman. to civilize them in that

western

musical

, set in the Oregon of 1850, that Stanley Donen premiered in 1954. It

was not a very feminist vision of the role of women, but that in its day seemed almost advanced

.

Jane Powell had the voice of a soprano, and danced marvelously, to the point of being measured without problems with Fred Astaire himself in the no less famous and unforgettable

Royal Weddings

, another great Stanley Donen musical, released four years earlier, which was the other great peak of his career.

Jane Powell was a great musical star, both in Hollywood and on Broadway. Despite her short stature, she filled the screen with her blue eyes, her medium blonde hair and especially with that innocent look a

la

Girl Next Door

, the girl next door, a concept that pigeonholed her to the point of become the title of her memoirs, where she

confessed that, in reality, life had mistreated her

. Her mother exploited her, forcing her to dedicate herself to a career that she never wanted, and Hollywood stopped counting on her when she stopped looking like the characters that consecrated her, such as Polly from

That's the way they are.

(1948), a musical by Richard Thorpe in which he rubbed shoulders with Elizabeth Taylor, Xavier Cugat or Carmen Miranda when he was just 17 years old, or Polly from

Adorable Coquette

, from the same year and again with our beloved Xavier.

She was not more than two years old when Suzanne Lorraine Burce, as such was the true name of this only daughter born in Portland (Oregon), was forced by her mother to act on the radio and then lavish herself in vaudeville shows, to end up signing a contract with MGM in 1948, after

a lifetime as a child artist that passed him the usual bill of anxiety, insecurity and depression

. It is not surprising that the last of her five husbands was precisely Dickie Moore, who had also been a child star, although further back in the silent era. They met when Moore was preparing the book

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (But Don't Have Sex or Take the Car

), for which he interviewed 30 Hollywood child stars.

As she turned 30, Jane Powell's film career began to severely slow down. She still

appeared in interesting films, in which she broke with her sugary image

, such as the noir

The Female Animal

(Harry Keller, 1958), where she was the alcoholic daughter of a decadent actress played by Hedy Lamarr, with whom she competed for the favors of an extra played by George Nader, or the adventure film based on a Melville novel

The Enchanted Island

(Allan Dwan, 1958) where he played, never better said, a "cannibal princess", who fell in love with Dana Andrews. After these two roles, which could have relaunched his career in another direction, he practically only did television, almost always as a guest star in series such as

Vacation at Sea, A Crime Has Been Written, or Law & Order

, which in 2002 marked its last appearance on the (small) screen.

Of course, he

continued to act on the stage, already in a big way

, in shows such as

Smiles and Tears, My Fair Lady

and even a revival of

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

, which he returned to star with Howard Keel, at the end of the 70. Entering the XXI century, he still participated in some shows.

Interestingly, one of his last collaborations was with the lounge group Pink Martini.

With them, who were also from there, he returned to his native Portland to narrate the story of Prokofiev

Peter and the Wolf

, during a New Year's Eve night.

Things went so well that he repeated with them, and at 81 he took the stage again to review the hits of his career, such as the one he popularized with Fred Astaire in

Real Weddings, How Could You Believe Me When I Told You That I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life.

How could you believe me when I told you that I loved you if you already know that I have been a liar all my life?

The dance number they performed was as fun as it was spectacular.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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