Hollywood Star Jane Powell and the Golden Age of Film are now dead

• One of the true stars in Hollywood Jane Poweell died today, age 92
• Adventure is as near as stepping out your front door, were her words, and a new adventure begins for this favorite for so many
• Her favorite vacation destination was Mexico, where she filmed Holiday in Mexico in 1946

Hollywood Golden Age had a terminal loss today with Jane Powell passing.

As the center of attention in movie musicals, she was wonderful in such films as ‘A Date With Judy’ and ‘Royal Wedding.’

A tweet says: What a life. I remember seeing Ms. Powell with @PinkMartiniBand at the @HollywoodBowl w/@rufuswainwright@arishapiro and l cast of @sesamestreet#Dream Jane Powell

“Adventure is as near as stepping out your front door.”, words this star believed in.

A fan writes: “The star of one of my favorite movies. I also had the pleasure of seeing her perform the role live in summer theatre. She had an amazing voice. RIP.”

Jane Powell was born on April 1, 1929. Her second film was Delightfully Dangerous, which she called the “worst movie I’ve ever made.” During her third film, Holiday in Mexico 1946 she met her future friend, Roddy McDowall. her first Technicolor film.

Born Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon, Powell was already a locally successful singer – she had toured her home state as an “Oregon Victory Girl” to sell World War II war bonds – when she moved to Hollywood, soon signing on as a contract player with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Her film debut came in 1944 with Song of the Open Road, in which she played a fictionalized version of herself – a teenage singer who joins up with such show-biz stars of the day as Edgar Bergen (with Charlie McCarthy), Big Band leader Sammy Kaye and W.C. Fields. (In what is thought to have been a largely improvised exchange, Fields hands a microphone to Powell with the immortal line, “Here you are, my little kumquat.”)

Powell stared in 1945’s Delightfully Dangers, 1948’s A Date With Judy and, in 1951, a career-defining role opposite Astaire in Royal Wedding, in which the two played a brother-sister dance act (one of the duo’s musical numbers features what is considered the longest song title in any MGM musical:

Several musical films followed, leading to Powell’s role as Milly Pontipee in 1954’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Powell performed such stand-out musical numbers as “Goin’ Courtin’,” “When You’re In Love” and “Wonderful, Wonderful Day.”