Let's Not Do That Again

When Dick Powell was cast in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he was nervous about the part. That year he was listed as one of the top ten box office stars, so it was no wonder why he was cast in one of the most star-studded ensembles from the Warner Brothers studio. However, Dick had no theatrical training and did not understand his lines. He struggled through each day of shooting, feeling more and more self-conscious. His outrageous costumes did not help his confidence.

He gets through the film remarkably well considering, but it is no wonder Dick was never asked to do Shakespeare again. His best scenes are his tussles with Ross Alexander, an actor with a too-brief career due to his early suicide. He and Dick were paired in three films together and Alexander shows a knack for comedy. It rubs off on Dick here and the two garner quite a few laughs. Dick's romantic interest Olivia de Havilland fared quite well and due to her participation in this film, she became a great star.

Child actor Mickey Rooney also received good notices as the energetic Puck. Like Powell, Rooney had a hard time taking the part seriously. When he was asked not to participate in any sports during the shooting, he went on a ski vacation with some friends. On his way down a hill, he fell and broke his leg, forcing the director to find creative ways to hide his cast. 

A Tribute to Bob Powell

On April 18, 2010, my friend Bob Powell passed away. I planned a tribute to him to be posted on the anniversary of his death on DickPowell.net, but the website went down that very day. Now here it is six months later, and my website is still down, but I think it is high time he had his tribute.

Bob had lung cancer and knew he did not have long to live once he was diagnosed.

I was surprised when he told me about it because his reaction was so casual. He felt he had lived a full life-- he had just celebrated his 50 year wedding anniversary with his wife Caryl-- and he accepted his fate.

Bob reached out to me after finding my website. He was the son of Dick's brother Howard, and he remembered Dick and had a nice memorabilia collection. Although I was a stranger, Bob offered to lend me his large scrapbook collection. He also got me in contact with Dick's children Pamela and Richard.

He was a wonderful man, very kind and generous and genuine, all qualities that sound cliché, but which are so hard to find in actuality. I feel honored for having known him.

Today we remember Bob Powell.

Bob and Caryl

Das Auto

I was watching one of my favorite TV shows the other day, American Pickers, and Frank and Mike found a 1929 roadster. What does this have to do with Dick Powell you ask? Well, it reminded me of the car that Dick Powell drove into Hollywood for the first time, a canary yellow roadster!

Now I have never seen photos of Dick's car, so I can only make assumptions about what it looked like, but wouldn't it be awesome to find out that this is the car that Dick drove? It would bring up the value on Frank's car, which he was told he overpaid for by the appraiser. (I would have thought it was worth more too.)

Speaking of cars though, a friend named Bob e-mailed me with a list of the cars Dick owned over the years complete with photos. I will now share them with you.

Here is Dick's 1932 Packard Convertible Victoria.

Here he is in a 1934 DeSoto series SE Airflow sedan. (DeSotos always remind me of Groucho Marx. "Tell 'em Groucho sent you!")

Dick and wife Joan Blondell in a 1936 Cord 810.

And this is possibly his most famous car, a 1953 Nash Healy Convertible. It was used to film episodes of Superman and later Sabrina and The Fast and the Furious movies.

I'm Back! (Sort of)

I have had many inquiries about my website, www.dickpowell.net and whether I have chosen to shut it down. The answer is NO, a million times NO. 

In April, I planned a tribute to my friend Bob Powell on the anniversary of his death. That morning, I logged onto the website to update, and it was down.  While I was frustrated, this was nothing new to me. The site had gone down for a few days at a time before. I planned to wait it out.

But the site never came back up. I asked my friend, whose server was hosting the website, what was going on, and he informed me that the server crashed and it would be very expensive to fix it.

The crash seemed a mild blessing in disguise, as I was planning my wedding, and the fewer distractions I had, the better. But now that the wedding is over, I am anxious to get back to Dick Powell. So while the site is down, this will be its temporary home.

Thanks for the inquiries. I really appreciate all of your support.