DICK POWELL
by Michael B. Druxman on 02/01/19
February 1, 2019
I am pleased to announce the publication of DICK POWELL, the latest and 20th addition to THE HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS Collection of stage plays.
Dick Powell made a career of reinventing himself.
Born
in Arkansas, the young tenor played horn, banjo and sang with various
dance bands and orchestras in Pittsburgh and elsewhere before he was
brought to Hollywood where he sang opposite Ruby Keeler and others in
such classic Busby Berkeley musicals as 42ND STREET, FOOTLIGHT PARADE,
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 and the Al Jolson film, WONDER BAR.
In
the mid-1940s, Powell played Philip Marlowe in MURDER, MY SWEET, which
began his period of doing "tough guy" roles in films like CORNERED,
JOHNNY O'CLOCK and CRY DANGER.
His
astute mind for business led him to invest in real estate and, in the
early 1950s, he moved his show business interests into producing and
directing. Along with David Niven and Charles Boyer, he formed Four Star
Productions, one of the most prolific production companies in
television.
Powell was married three
times. His second wife was actress Joan Blondell and his third, actress
June Allyson, twelve years his junior.
DICK POWELL is a one-person play that looks in on the
actor at two different periods in his life: during the mid-1940s when he
is struggling to reinvent his career from singer to dramatic actor, and
the mid-1950s, as he deals with billionaire Howard Hughes, producer of
director Powell's ill-fated (and deadly) John Wayne-epic film, THE
CONQUEROR.
DICK POWELL, a one person play, is available in paperback and Kindle editions via Amazon or your local bookseller.
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