Allyson Hoofs It on Behalf of MGM’s Musicals; Heartbreaks and Horror Among the Coming Attractions

Actress June Allyson, who starred in many musicals, admitted that she doesn’t watch her musicals very often.

That’s a strange admission considering that she’s been promoting videocassettes of musicals from the MGM vault that MGM/UA has been releasing at $29.95, including “Good News” (1947), which may be the best college musical ever.

“I don’t particularly like watching myself,” Allyson, 68, insisted in a suite at Bally’s Grand. “I see weird things about myself.”

Allyson’s career in movie musicals blossomed after her role in “Best Foot Forward”--also part of the latest MGM/UA release. The exceptional 1943 movie is noted for, among other things, a great version of “Two O’Clock Jump” by the Harry James band. The 5-foot-2 actress’ specialty was playing perky “cutie-pie” characters. But, Allyson recalled with a wince, when she started at MGM, they didn’t think she was all that cute.

“They gave me a complex immediately. They said: ‘June, when you smile your eyes disappear and your teeth are a little too big and don’t worry about your voice (always a bit husky)--we’ll have that laryngitis cleared up overnight.’ I told them I didn’t have laryngitis, that’s the way I talk.

“They tried to fix all those things. I tried to smile with my eyes open. They sent me to a dentist to file down my teeth but he wouldn’t do it. They sent me to a voice teacher but she said she couldn’t do a thing with me.

“Now 30 years later, when I watch those musicals, I see all those wrong things. I hear my lisp. I’ll tell myself my voice doesn’t sound like that and I’ll try to adjust the sound on the TV. I make the adjustment but my voice doesn’t change.”

Allyson had another problem: She wasn’t a very good dancer. “I always loved dancing but I never did it very well,” she admitted. “All my life I wanted to be part of a great dance team. I wanted to be Ginger Rogers. She was my idol. When she was dancing with Fred Astaire, I really envied her.”

Allyson had her chance to dance with Astaire in the 1951 musical “Royal Wedding.” However, she got pregnant and relinquished the role to Judy Garland who became ill and turned it over to Jane Powell.

“I’ve never seen the movie,” Allyson said. “I can’t make myself see it. I know I’d be sitting there saying, ‘That should me on the screen, that should be me on the screen’.”

CLOSED CAPTIONED CASSETTES: The latest releases featuring subtitles for the hearing- impaired include Warners’ “After Hours”; RCA/Columbia’s “The Care Bears Movie II”; CBS-Fox’s “The Clan of the Cave Bear”; HBO/Cannon’s “The Hitcher”; New World’s “Jake Speed”; RCA/Columbia’s “Quicksilver”; Charter Entertainment’s “Trouble in Mind,” and Karl-Lorimar’s “Playmate Centerfold III.”

NEW AND COMING MOVIES: “Lucas,” another drama about a teen-age outsider, is due next month from CBS-Fox. Corey Haim stars as the small, scholarly 16-year-old. Later this year, probably in November, Vestron will release “Desert Hearts,” which was lauded as a sensitive film about lesbian relationships. Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau star as the lovers.

“Poltergeist II: The Other Side,” an MGM/UA release next month, didn’t do as well as the original but should be a popular cassette among the legion of horror fanatics in the rental market. So should “Police Academy 3: Back in Training,” due Oct. 29 from Warner Video. “SpaceCamp,” out on Vestron on Nov. 12, is a space shuttle adventure that flopped at the box office partly because, after the January shuttle disaster, audiences weren’t interested in a space shuttle movie. But, by November, there may be enough distance from the tragedy for “SpaceCamp” to score in the rental market.

Next week: MCA’s “Out of Africa” and Vestron’s “Salvador,” the grim political drama starring James Woods.

ODDS AND ENDS: At last week’s Video Software Dealers Assn. convention in Las Vegas, the consensus was that the highlight of the five-day event was the RCA/Columbia dinner honoring actor James Stewart. He spoke briefly at the end of the tribute at a ballroom in Bally’s Grand hotel. As usual, people complained about the food, but all seemed to love the film clips from some of Stewart’s best movies.

Warner Video’s “The Best of John Belushi,” highlights of his “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketches, did so well last year that the company has compiled “The Best of Dan Aykroyd,” the cream of his “SNL” skits. One of the 11 bits is the classic “The Final Days,” about Nixon’s White House, featuring Aykroyd and Belushi. A ballet spoof also includes Belushi. “The Best of Dan Aykroyd” will be out on Oct. 29 at $24.98.

Look what the Chicago Bears started. Their “Super Bowl Shuffle” was such a smash hit early this year that the New York Mets, baseball’s super-team, decided to market a videocassette. “Let’s Go Mets,” released this week by Vestron at $19.95, includes a song, “Let’s Go Mets,” interviews and assorted footage of the Mets’ season and the making of the video. Gary Carter, Dwight Gooden and Keith Hernandez are among the players featured.

Beta is sinking slowing into the sunset. According to estimates by various industry experts, the Beta format, which claimed 17% of the market in 1984, will slip to just 5% at the end of this year. Among software suppliers, there’s a growing trend toward VHS-only releases. Discussions with retailers and distributors from around the country at the software dealers convention indicated that more and more video stores aren’t stocking Beta cassettes. It’s even getting tougher to find Beta VCRs. Sony is just about the only company left selling the machines in this country.

CHARTS (Compiled by Billboard magazine). TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS 1--”Spies Like Us” (Warner).

2--”The Jewel of the Nile” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Murphy’s Romance” (RCA/Columbia).

4--”Iron Eagle” (CBS-Fox).

5--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

6--”White Nights” (RCA/Columbia).

7--”House” (New World).

8--”The Hitcher” (HBO/Cannon).

9--”Enemy Mine” (CBS-Fox).

10--”Jagged Edge” (RCA/Columbia).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES 1--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

2--”The Sound of Music” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Alien” (CBS-Fox).

4--”Alice in Wonderland” (Disney).

5--”Jane Fonda’s Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

6--”Kathy Smith’s Body Basics” (JCI).

7--”Back to the Future” (MCA).

8--”Casablanca” (CBS-Fox).

9--”Miami Vice II: The Prodigal Son” (MCA).

10--”Pinocchio” (Disney).