What enables one youngster to achieve fame and stardom while a similar teenager under like circumstances fails to make the grade? The case of June Preisser is instructive.
June, born in 1920, was a very cute blond with a fresh attractive face, a pleasant screen personality and plenty of talent. She and her sister Cherry developed an acrobatic dance act while they were in their teens, and it was successful enough to get them featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 and 1936. Cherry married and then retired in 1938. June was offered an MGM contract in 1939 on the strength of her looks, fame and celebrity potential. Almost immediately, she was cast in two successful Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland "Let's Put on a Show" musicals--Babes In Arms (1939) and Strike Up The Band (1940). Both were major productions directed by Busby Berkeley. In short order, June then appeared with Rooney in two Andy Hardy films, another with Jimmy Lyndon in Henry Aldrich For President (1941) and still another with Eddie Bracken In Sweater Girl (1942).
June then married, had a child and intended to resume her MGM career. But something strange happened. Notwithstanding her sharing a pattern of similar screen opportunities that made big stars of Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lana Turner, Esther Williams, etc.--MGM gave up on pretty June Preisser. While almost simultaneously Paramount Studios began to groom Betty Hutton for stardom---a similar personality in many ways but without June's good looks---MGM cancelled her contract. Her remaining years in Hollywood were with Poverty Row studio Monogram in inferior juvenile vehicles. June's movie career was essentially over. After many years of screen inactivity, she died in an auto accident (with her only child) at the age of 64.
June's two Rooney-Garland musicals were popular and provided her with positive reviews. The Andy Hardy movies were similarly well received. From the evidence of her screen appearances, June had a likable film presence and the same kind of charisma that had propelled the other young women mentioned above from starlet status to full stardom. Why was she denied their opportunity? We will never know.
June, born in 1920, was a very cute blond with a fresh attractive face, a pleasant screen personality and plenty of talent. She and her sister Cherry developed an acrobatic dance act while they were in their teens, and it was successful enough to get them featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 and 1936. Cherry married and then retired in 1938. June was offered an MGM contract in 1939 on the strength of her looks, fame and celebrity potential. Almost immediately, she was cast in two successful Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland "Let's Put on a Show" musicals--Babes In Arms (1939) and Strike Up The Band (1940). Both were major productions directed by Busby Berkeley. In short order, June then appeared with Rooney in two Andy Hardy films, another with Jimmy Lyndon in Henry Aldrich For President (1941) and still another with Eddie Bracken In Sweater Girl (1942).
June then married, had a child and intended to resume her MGM career. But something strange happened. Notwithstanding her sharing a pattern of similar screen opportunities that made big stars of Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lana Turner, Esther Williams, etc.--MGM gave up on pretty June Preisser. While almost simultaneously Paramount Studios began to groom Betty Hutton for stardom---a similar personality in many ways but without June's good looks---MGM cancelled her contract. Her remaining years in Hollywood were with Poverty Row studio Monogram in inferior juvenile vehicles. June's movie career was essentially over. After many years of screen inactivity, she died in an auto accident (with her only child) at the age of 64.
June's two Rooney-Garland musicals were popular and provided her with positive reviews. The Andy Hardy movies were similarly well received. From the evidence of her screen appearances, June had a likable film presence and the same kind of charisma that had propelled the other young women mentioned above from starlet status to full stardom. Why was she denied their opportunity? We will never know.