How Liza became Liza documentary

Klein did the Merrily We Roll Along Doc [italic]The Best Worst Thing That Ever Happened[/italic], so I have some faith in this.

Born with a spotlight on her life, Liza’s story has never been told absolutely or truly. From the speculation that her beloved godmother Kay Thompson’s “Eloise” series was about her to the gossip rags that hounded her for decades, many were searching for insight into the talented and charismatic performer, but few got it right. This equal parts eye-opening, thoughtful and hilarious documentary is here to correct that, with Liza getting to tell her story in her own words.

Rich with archival gems and Liza Minnelli’s own point of view, Bruce David Klein's luminous documentary celebrates a young entertainer full of boundless raw talent and the deep, creative relationships with her mentors and influences.

Cast Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, Chita Rivera, John Kander, Lorna Luft, Joel Grey.

[quote]old footage found in Minnelli’s closet

Film of Mama playing charades with Lorna and Joey.

Must've been a huge closet to accommodate the found footage and a lifetime's worth of exes, empty pill bottles, and Halston and Bob Mackie castoffs.

R5, Hush. She deserves better.

Liza herself is said to be attending the screening.

R6, I love Liza and will eagerly watch the documentary. But I'd love a peek around her closets and medicine cabinets.

Liza is NOT traveling from California to attend the film fest.

She's Zooming in.

Liza Minnelli is a national treasure.

If you're on or near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, the documentary is being shown at the Provincetown Film Festival this weekend (June 14th and 16th, 2024).

It’s high time we welcome Liza into our homes in a sparkling streaming sitcom wherein she portrays a wacky young single Mom who is also the most in demand hoofer on the Great White Way!

Minnelli’s closet is also where her husbands were kept.

A related podcast with director Bruce David Klein

The rag that gets you red tagged if you mention it, had an article today saying that Liza won't attend the premier because of ill health. How did anyone think she'd be able to make it. If they had the premier in LA, her appearance would still be iffy.

R16, will the best prime minister attend the first showing of the documentary?

YOU KNEW Liza. YOU KNEW!

I hope this isn't another one where she says, "I got my drive from my mother and my dreams from my father..." FFS!

I got my pillsh from my mother and my queersh from my father!

[quote]How Liza Became Lizsha!

Schubstanszh abushe, szhillies!

For SCHENTURIES!!!

I tried to listen to the podcast and if the documentary is as boring and rambling as the director is, Liza is in trouble.

Aww R19 I was just going to say I hope this doc has someone asking Liza, "Where did you get your drive? Where did you get your dreams?"

It makes sense that Judy's death is the start point, but Liza had plenty of career before that without Judy's help: Best Foot Forward and the Tony for Flora, albums on Capitol, apprenticing and headlining in stock shows and packages, variety shows and television specials. It's not like she was Deana Martin doing little things here and there.

R3 - and Michael Feinstein.

R23, additionally, Liza was all over television variety in the late 1960s - Carol Burnett, Sullivan etc. I actually preferred her BEFORE Cabaret.

One of the reveals in the film is that Liza is working on The Sterile Cuckoo 2: Pookie Boogie. Now living in a retirement home Pookie looks back on the career in showbusiness she attempted after graduating from college.

Looksh faschinating.

Can't wait to see it!

No Joey? That makes me feel blue.

Liza on Ed Sullivan

I wonder if Lorna will reveal any secrets about her life?

^ Awesome. Before Cabaret turned her into something else.

My turn:

How Lorna Remained Lorna.

Spoiler hint - I was m******d.

Give it a rest Lorna. You loved it.

Goldie & Liza Together (TV Special 1980)

I wish that choreography for All That Jazz was a bit busier, R35. All they do is stand there.

R35, they were hoping that the special would be the pilot for the proposed Chicago movie. It obviously wasn't but Liza's rendition of Bad Girls, where the concept becomes "STAR" is hilarious.

I wonder if Goldie and Liza are still friends? I mean Liza is showbiz friends with everyone, but I wonder if they're really friends.

I don't think Liza is really friends with anyone these days. She has caregivers.

Yes, show biz friends, R38. That means they giggle and embrace when they run into each other every 25 years.

R35 - looks like an SCTV sketch.

Good Lord, those eyelashes look like spider legs.

Goldie Hawn? Why she'sh my besht friend ever!

I don't believe Liza has left LA for years now. She's in a wheelchair full-time and stays close to home, going out to dinner ocassionally and that's about it.

I think most of her time is spent watching TCM while smoking cigs.

Liza last month

^ Are those Peretti cuffs?

She looks totally stoned in the OP picture.

It's a shame we didn't get the Goldie/Liza film version of Chicago. But I guess film musicals weren't big at the time. Had they been, I think I would much rather see those two than what we got with RZ and CZJ.

The reason we got the movie version, r48, is because of the revival.

[quote] includes old footage found in Minnelli’s closet.

Was it next to daddy Vincente?

R44 - that's Andrea Martin as Lorna Minnelli.

Hi Georgia! You're my mentor too!

Liza was perfect in Cabaret and deserved her Oscar. Saw it on the big screen when it came out and the small screen doesn't do it justice.

It will focus all the diversity she had to overcome I'm sure!

What will we do when she's gone?

I have no fucking idea why this awful bitch is famous (aside from a famous mother who died more than half a century ago) and aside from Sally Bowles.

Based on her weight loss and diminished appearance, it looks like she may be gone soon, R55.

I'm so lucky I got to see Liza live pre- Victor/Victoria. She was electrifying and unlike anything I've seen before or since.

My big regrets are I missed out on

Barbara Cook

Elaine Stritch

Liza Minnelli

And Marin Mazie

*I was lucky to see*

Barbra Streisand

Bette Midler

Bernadette Peters

Betty Buckley

Patti LuPone

Chita Rivera

Christine Ebersole

Sutton Foster

Audra McDonald

and Idina Menzel

R46, good eye. Yes they are, the gold ones. Say what you want about Liza but she has great taste. Those are $25,000 a piece, more like $50,000 to $75,000 because they belong to LIZA.

You think SHE picks out her own jewelry?

She just started working with clay.

As with the Grand Canyon, time has been eating her out for decades.

^^Well, none of her husbands did.

I thought Mark Gero was straight.

All signs point to drugs and drug connections, R65, so it really doesn’t matter.

I have an idea...

Yes, R47 agreed. For a long while Liza was using something or other that caused her eyes to get a glazed look, no matter how wide she opened them or how big the lashes were.

When she's healthy and all there, her eyes look more alive.

Her Stepping Out show at Radio City (1990, I think) was an amazing experience. So glad it was captured on film and CD).

R59 I've seen everyone on your list except Barbara Cook. Great list!

Shtepping Out

Halshton wash my closhesht and dearesht friend. He made me shparkle. And by shparkle he held the shpoon up to my noshe while I shnorted up Brazshil.

Liza (via an assistant) posted on Instagram that she's off to Paris to work on a special project. She and Lorna decided to skip the screening of the documentary tonite because it's too Sunset Boulevard-ish. Good for her!

She couldn't make it to NY for Allan Lazare’s Funeral. Three months later and she's heading to Paris. Bullshit.

It was on FB and here is Liza's post:

Bonjour Paris… Hiya Kids, I’ve often said the day I was born I popped outta Momma and the press took a picture. They’ve been taking them ever since. Sadly, when some sleaze balls don’t know the truth, they just make up junk. Tonight, words, images, music from my life will be on display because of my forever friends at the Tribeca Film Festival, where “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” shows up on screen. As for moi? I’m packing treasures designed by my friend Elsa Peretti, for a jaunt to Paris, working on a very special project. And yes, I will be visiting my bijoutierère, Tiffany & Co. My beloved sister Lorna Luft, who makes an all too brief appearance, and I decided we couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t sit in the audience to watch a tribute to me, about me. Shades of Sunset Boulevard? Yikes! This film from @atlasmediacorp, Bruce David Klein and a gaggle of producers is my gift to you. I hope you love it. If you don’t, keep it to yourself…Ha! It shows my history and my life today and is only the beginning of renewing this phase of new ways to create at the ripe old age of 78! I don’t feel a day over… who the hell knows. Some trashy rags lie and say I’m too “fragile” to travel. How dumb is that? Honey, sitting in a Gulf Stream is smoother and more luxurious than any damn wheel chair. Which yes, I use sometimes. Babies, I still travel. Still love living on my terms with a tight circle of people I adore. I’m finally free to have fun… “my heart has wings”. If you’re at @Tribeca, write me here and let me know what you think. I’ll get back to as many of you as I can. And remember it’s the Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story. Meet Nadar Sarkhosh, our pilot whose Eyes in the Skies, keep us safe and comfy. Thank you Michael and Terrence for sharing your plane. P.S. Happy #Pride Everyone!

[quote]I wonder if Goldie and Liza are still friends? I mean Liza is showbiz friends with everyone, but I wonder if they're really friends.

At the time of that 1980 special, they were both pushing hard to do a film adaptation of Chicago with Bob Fosse directing. They went to the oscars together, along with both appearing on a people magazine cover with a story about the TV special.

The movie never panned out, and Goldie tried getting it made again in the 90's with Madonna co-starring, but nothing came of it.

Both ideas would have been much superior to the trainwreck that eventually made it to the screen.

Hence why All that Jazz is in their special, along with a new, dramatic number called "The other woman" written by Chicago lyricists Kander and Ebb. It was basically an hour-long audition tape.

Ken Russell also wanted Liza for his version of Evita around this time. Co-starring Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow.

Liza and Goldie in the film version of Chicago would've been fantastic. A shame it never happened.

Liza sings Donna Sumnmer's Bad Girls.

It's funny she never did a disco album in the late 70s. She was so much a part of that whole scene.

Liza and LORNA in Chicago would've been TERRIFIC!!!

Liza and JOEY in The Moon is Blue would've been even BETTER!!!

Her handwriting has always been so poor. Her “s” always looks like a “z”. Do you think she was a drug baby and as a result, can’t write her name properly?

Liza is an ass baby, create by two gay fellows, Vincent & Judy.

Woman, born of man...

R46, Liza mentions at R75 that she’s packing up some Peretti designs to take to Paris. Maybe she’s showing, or probably selling, some custom pieces. She’s been liquidating assets for the past few years, probably in expectation of the inevitable.

"Longtime admirers might be disappointed by the omission of any talk of her non-musical roles, most notably The Sterile Cuckoo, Arthur or her priceless appearances as Lucille #2 on Arrested Development. And given that her photo should appear next to encyclopedia entries for “Gay Icon,” the failure to address the queer community’s centrality to her fandom seems an oversight.

But these are minor quibbles with a film that deploys a wealth of great archival material plus intimate access to the subject and those closest to her to build a gorgeous portrait of a legendary showbiz survivor, warmly celebratory but also unquestionably authentic."

I’m glad that the doc is getting good reviews. Liza has had some many ups and downs you just have to root for her. I’m glad that she’s seeing some well-deserved attention now towards the end of her life.

She was on hallucinogenic drugs around that time, wasn't she?

Liza was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles, and she theirs.

^ Thank you

R88, it's really true

Wow I thought the R75 post was a joke but it's real.

The documentary ends with a tear-jerking recent scene, as Minnelli sits next to the piano with her friend, musician Michael Feinstein, and sings “But the World Goes ‘Round,” her voice still clear and robust and replete with emotion.

During a post-screening Q&A, Klein recalled how even the burliest of crew members broke down in tears as she sang. “We were all crying in the room,” he says. “She just has that power. As soon as she did that, I just knew that was the end of the film.”

The best rendition of "But the World Goes 'Round" that Liza ever did was at her Carnegie Hall concert in '87.

Why is Feinstein up her ass 24/7?

R94. I dunno. Maybe he likes her? Cares about her? Enjoys her company? All of the above?

[quote]It's funny she never did a disco album in the late 70s.

Are you kidding? Turn in your gay card!

R95 Liza has a lot of gay male friends who like her and enjoy her company.

He even sits in on her interviews.

Michael shits in on all my interviewsh. He'sh my closhesht and dearesht friend. He'sh jusht marveloush!

Did you know that a percentage of the proceeds of Liza's auction went to Feinstein's "charity"?

R88 - She suffered through Diversity with a capital "D".

Because he’s the only person willing to be around her five days a week. The others are over eager publicity seeking queens. Lorna communicates with her infrequently, and “friends” like Joan Collins call once a year.

R79 - Do I hear Love for Sale mixed in with Bad Girls?

[quote]Both ideas would have been much superior to the trainwreck that eventually made it to the screen.

LoL, Chicago was a fine movie adaptation.

R103 one of the most commercially successful movie musicals of all time, an Oscar winner for Best Picture and critically acclaimed. Yet some DLers will never accept it because of no Fosse and Verdon. Rivera has a cameo and it's a jump scare.

[quote]Yet some DLers will never accept it because of no Fosse and Verdon.

These are the same DLers who are still waiting for Patti Lupone to fill a 20,000 seat arena.

How about a large BROADWAY theater of 15,000 seats?

^ Excuse me 1,500 SEATS.

Or the Palladium.

[quote]Her Stepping Out show at Radio City (1990, I think) was an amazing experience.

It was. I saw it solo while visiting friends. 10th row. The next day, Regis was talking with his wife Joy about them being there the night before. Turns out, I was two rows ahead of them. Close enough to see the sweat sling off her face during some of the dance numbers.

You shaw the shweat shling off me?

The movie begins with the 1969 death of her mother, Judy Garland, from an accidental overdose at age 47. Minnelli was only 23 at the time. “It was devastating to me,” she tells Klein. “I didn’t stop crying for eight days, and I had to take on so much.”

She remembers how Fred Ebb once told her to deflect reporters' questions about Garland, who occasionally grew jealous when her daughter got more attention than her. "He would stop me from talking about my mother too much because then they're thinking about her and not me," Minnelli says.

Seeing how her mom wrestled with addiction, she told herself that she’d never go down the same path. But, naturally, she’s only human: “Being Judy Garland’s daughter is not a lot of laughs,” Minnelli tells Klein. She tearfully adds that she’s grateful for “all the bad stuff” she went through because “it prepared me for the rest of my life.”

Liza gets candid about her longtime battle with substance abuse. “I didn’t feel like I had a drug problem,” Minnelli tells Klein. “I’d drink silly drinks like rum and coke.” But whenever she drank, “it turned on me, like it always does.”

Thinking back to the 1970s, Minnelli recalls trying to hide her alcoholism by telling reporters that she couldn't drink, citing stomach problems. “I didn’t want people to know I was under stress. I always wanted to be the hero.”

Interesting that Liza mentions jealousy that Judy had towards her. Liza has always tried to paint the best picture of Judy possible in public.

Someone on here once said that she was the most screwed up out of all of Judy’s kids because she was around Judy the longest.

[quote]Someone on here once said that she was the most screwed up out of all of Judy’s kids because she was around Judy the longest.

And that fag father of hers.

I like screws but not nails.

Joey, go mop the floor in the laundry room and stop it with the retard talk.

But does anyone remember that I was molested?

Ben Platt's dad is trying to push Cynthia because of Wicked.

This claim that Judy was jealous of Liza rings false. Liza is not the singer who mother was. Liza tried this on in her Donohue interview episode and I didn't buy it then either.

I believe that Judy in her final years was jealous of Liza's success. Garland was dead to Hollywood after her show was cancelled and she was fired from Valley of the Dolls. Nightclubs in Mexico and guest spots on The Soupy Sales Show were where she landed, with only a few bright spots like her run at The Palace. She was dead broke. Meanwhile Liza had won a Tony, done Charlie Bubbles, and with The Sterile Cuckoo was on her way to her first Oscar nomination.

R119 Judy wasn’t in her right mind when Liza hit big. The last five years of Garlands life were the worst as she was basically working to score drugs. She chased Joey around with a knife so it’s not inconceivable that she said awful shit to Liza.

Didn't she try to push Liza off the stage at the Palladium.

Push.

The idea that Judy's life was a mess in the last years ignores the fact that she still worked a lot.

After her TV show was over, Judy did concerts in Sydney, and Melbourne (this one was a disaster), and the London Palladium with Liza in 1964.

Was back on TV for On Broadway Tonight, sang at The Academy Awards, The Andy Williams Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, and concerts in Toronto, Florida, North Carolina, Chicago, Cincinatti, Las Vegas, New York, California, and Houston in 1965.

She did Kraft Music Hall and the Sammy Davis Jr. Show and The Hollywood Palace for TV and concerts in Hollywood, Denver, New York, Las Vegas, and the ones in Mexico City in 1966.

The Valley of the Dolls disaster was in April, 1967 but she also did concerts in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, The Palace, Maryland, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Connecticut, and Las Vegas in 1967.

She was on The Tonight Show twice and The Mike Douglas Show and The Dick Cavett Show and The Merv Griffin Show on TV and did concerts in Baltimore (though sick), New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Philadelphia and London in 1968.

She did concerts in Stockholm, Malmo and Copenhagen and her final stage appearance in New York in 1969.

Her appearance on The Soupy Sales Show in 1966 was a brief walk-on as it was filmed the same time and across the hall from The Sammy Davis Show.

R109, that is not a good seat.

[quote]Cincinatti

Oh, dear.

A comment on two of Minnelli's performances in which she made incredible costume changes. In The Act, she steps off stage and returns a moment later in a different outfit. How they did that, I will never guess. At another time in the show, she stands center stage and something descends and envelops her -- a new gown! It was clever staging. In her in 1987 Carnegie Hall appearance, she sings a few numbers dressed in a long gown and sings some comical songs about attempting classical music. She walks off the stage while the orchestra is playing and while the long gown is still moving, re-enters the stage in one of her Halston outfits. The crowd went wild.

Does she talk about how much "mama hated those munchkins?"

R60 Really? I never thought she even had good taste, never mind great. I like her, though.

R129, she sold a lot of things at an auction five or six years ago and while most of it was ephemera from her family and career along with lots of costumes, there were plenty of personal decor items and clothes and it’s was all beautiful stuff. Her collection of modern art glass I remember being particularly impressed by because at that time that stuff was becoming really hot in the art market.

She also had such a huge collections of Warhol paintings. I know that Andy gave her one of herself but she bought plenty more as he wasn’t known for being generous.

I’m also probably going on the friends she famously had. Sure drugs and being Judy’s daughter helped, but I doubt that a personality like Halston would have been so close to someone with bad, or even pedestrian, tastes.

The Peretti Bine cuffs in that picture are icons of modern jewelry design and were the impetus for silver becoming something that wealthy, fashionable women would wear.

Liza reminds me of a climbing plant that slowly rises even while seeming laid low by heat and struggle.

*Peretti Bone Cuffs

I follow "Liza Outlives" on Twitter.

Liza recently revealed that she’s recording a new album.

While Minnelli was married four times, she never became a mom. The musician was married to Peter Allen, Jack Haley Jr., Mark Gero and David Gest.

Minnelli once told Geraldo Riviera, "I desperately want a family."

The "Maybe This Time" singer had three miscarriages, once during her marriage to Haley Jr. and twice during her marriage to Gero, according to People.

"She would’ve been a great mother," Allan Lazare said in the documentary.

Somewhere there are children very happy that Liza DIDN’T become a mother.

I just realized who Jack Haley Jr. is. Dorothy’s daughter married the Tin Man’s son? I always wondered why she wore Ruby slippers for that wedding!

She was great in her cameo on American Dad

Is Billy Stritch not in the documentary?

Liza was so fucked up on drugs during her child bearing years it's not wonder she couldn't have kids.

The sheventiesh were shenshashional!

[quote]She chased Joey around with a knife

For liking blue.

[quote][R109], that is not a good seat.

Perhaps to you, R125. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening. Funny how even the ticket booth commented on it being so good. But, you, an anonymous poster on an anonymous site must know better than anyone.

You must be Gerg.

[quote] She chased Joey around with a knife

She should’ve threatened to bedazzle his ass!

Michael Feinstein, a close friend of Liza's is interviewed throughout the documentary and serves as the film's captivating psychological narrator-bard.

R23

Oh, please. Her last name is Minelli so if Judy didn’t help, her famous last name certainly didn’t hurt.

R146 Liza went to New York by herself and slept on benches in the park and on people's couches. Maybe having a famous name helped her but obviously she's extremely talented, so maybe her name got her in the door sometimes but that's about it. She got jobs on her abilities.

So when the doorbell rang the night before, it was Liza in a hat pulled down so nobody would recognize her, and she said to Halston, “Give me every drug you’ve got.” So he gave her a bottle of coke, a few sticks of marijuana, a Valium, four Quaaludes, and they were all wrapped in a tiny box, and then a little figure in a white hat came up on the stoop and kissed Halston, and it was Marty Scorsese, he’d been hiding around the corner, and then he and Liza went off to have their affair on all the drugs.

r137....

That's the reason she was the only star in That's Entertainment! (1974) who wasn't from the era of the MGM clips in the film. Because she was married to Jack Haley, Jr. (the maker of the film). Of course Haley was a very good maker of documentaries about Hollywood and integrated her into the mix perfectly - since she was Judy's daughter after all, and did appear in one 1949 MGM musical, briefly. But I remember kind of groaning at the time the movie came out (when I was 15) because I didn't really want to see her. It was somewhat jarring.

National Treasure...has never told tales or SOLD tales and has so much talent today's wannabes dont even come close. The Judy connection just adds that special glow.

Judy was a naturally likeable and popular figure, very magnetic. That's why she became a big movie star (which she would have continued as, had she been able to function). Liza just never was - some people loved her, some liked her, and a good number didn't care for her. She had some annoying mannerisms (personally and as an actress and a singer/dancer), she didn't sing as well as Judy, and she inherited her father's weird looks.

Didn’t Liza become Liza when a gay sperm met a pillpopping egg?

^She also wore her hair in a strange way, for the era (the Cabaret hairstyle, with variations, for years - and still does), wore huge false eyelashes, tended to wear black and red, a lot of turtlenecks, and that huge silver jewelry that swamped her (she's only 5' 4").

"Liza" doesn't try to be the definitive chronicle of Liza Minnelli's showbiz career. It lingers over her epochal 1972 TV special "Liza with a Z," as well as the way that she stepped in (unbilled) to save the original Broadway production of "Chicago" when Gwen Verdon wasn't able to perform. But her film career is given oddly short shrift. No mention is made of "The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969), in which she all but invented the manic pixie dream girl, or of her fine screwball performance in "Arthur" (1981). But maybe that's because "Liza" is so devoted, and with good reason, to finding the essence of Liza Minnelli in her relationship to live audiences. We see her drink in their energy like air, then give it back to them as a heavenly glow.

Her film career was largely a failure. She didn't become a successful, major film star.

Whole Variety review

Does the doc go into her engagement to Desi Arnaz Jr.?

I shlept on benshesh in Shentral Park and I really didn't know how dansheroush it wash. I thought Shentral Park wash like one of my father'sh moviesh.

Were you born in a trunk?

My momma wash born in a trunk. Then she went to Hollywood and Louish B Mayer got her hooked on pillsh.

I just blocked the "--sh" guy (who thinks he's funny) and so many unpleasant entries disappeared! Yea!

Good for you r162. Perhaps next you'll have a solid bowel movement.

You aren't alone, r162.

Geesh, R162 and 164! Who pisshed in your corn flakesh?

[quote]She had some annoying mannerisms

Absolutely, R152. But older ladies loved her because they yearned for the show biz pizzazz that was missing from all the new entertainers of that time. Liza was a throwback - never exactly "in style." And of course, lots of gay men went nuts over her.

r165 - I find it witless and over-used.

In the Judy and Liza and...book by Stevie Phillips, she says the reason Liza had no follow-up film to Cabaret as a Best Actress winner usually would is that she changed management and they went for the cash grab, late night schedule and easy drugs and party atmosphere of Vegas concertizing as opposed to a life of location filming or whatever was left of Hollywood, where you do have to get up early the next morning for work.

Lucky Lady was a full three years after Cabaret, A Matter of Time the following year was weird and even worse, and then when New York, New York came along the year after that she was already in her 30s.

[quote]Does the doc go into her engagement to Desi Arnaz Jr.?

I thought she only dated gay men.

Here’s a home movie of Liza. She was supposed to be rehearsing Silent Night. Then she found Judy’s stash.

[quote]What will we do when she's gone?

Earrings. Caftans. Follies.

R168 Singers make much more money on the road than they do making movies. She was also paying off Judy's debts during this period.

What use is choosing straight as a groom

As Mama would wisely say

Wedlock's a cabaret, pussycat

Liza, you only marry gay

R172, no excuse. Liza was interested in living a certain type of lifestyle regardless of Judy's debts.

A shame that little mention is made of her early movies. She was really good.

R166 I don't know. My mom loved Garland but was never crazy about Liza. But then I guess she wasn't really an "older" lady at the time Liza was having her heyday.

R175 Has anyone here ever seen the movie Charlie Bubbles? I remember my Englsih cousin talking about "Lisa Minnelli" in that one. The English at that time always called her Lisa, for some reason.

[quote]Singers make much more money on the road than they do making movies. She was also paying off Judy's debts during this period.

She was also partying like a motherfucker. The late night schedule suited her lifestyle.

*And by "Englsih" I wasn't deliberately trying to sound like the Lisha poster.

The Sterile Cuckoo is does NOT hold up well at all.

I used the VHS tape of The Sterile Cuckoo to hold up a bookcase and it held it up extremely well.

Liza was hard to cast because she was so homely. The charisma and magnetism she demonstrated onstage was not the same without Fosse's sure hand. She might have done better as a Carol Burnett type of comedienne but she was not a Hollywood leading lady.

[quote]but she was not a Hollywood leading lady.

Like her mother she's a damn good character actress.

R182 Except Judy was a Hollywood leading lady.

My grandmother always used to comment on how beautiful Judy was (never thought that myself) and how hideous Liza was. Personally I always thought they were both pretty even looks wise. Judy aged super fast and her weight was up and down.

[quote] Personally I always thought they were both pretty even looks wise.

They weren't.

Judy in The Clock

.....

Liza in The Sterile Cuckoo.

Liza in The Sterile Cuckoo

Liza looks like Vincente

There's still time for that baby, Liza,78 is the new 29!

Judy was "pert". Lana Turner was pretty. Liza has offbeat looks. She can be very striking if care is taken in filming/photographing her.

Wendell Burton was no Peter Fox

Funny, I never thought of Judy as pert.

And I don't think pert is a physical description.

I think young Judy, even years after WOZ was pert.

[quote] Funny, I never thought of Judy as pert.

Well I think she was Percocet.

Judy and Vincente with Liza on the opening night of Flora The Red Menace.

Fine, r195, Judy was character actress pretty and Lana was glamour girl pretty.

Will this movie be playing anywhere?

R199 Judy wasn't a character actress. She was a star who was a romantic lead in movies such as The Clock, Easter Parade, For Me And My Gal. Marjorie Main was a character actress.

I am Mrs. Marjorie Main!

I am Mrs. Norman Bates.

Here's ROSE!

Whildy would have made a good Mama Rose, in Gypsy, I think Liza probably would have.

*While I

Sorry. "While I don't think Judy would have made a good Mama Rose, in Gypsy, I think Liza probably would have."

Dario can you get me into Studio.

I don't know I don't know I just don't know....

Girls usually look like their fathers. Poor Liza.

Has she ever tried to give up the ciggies? That's probably what hurt her voice, as much as anything.

Alcoholics always smoke, R210, recovered/recovering alcoholics more. They also put eight teaspoons of sugar into a 6oz cup of coffee.

The too-brief presence of half-sister Lorna Luft, for example, reminds us how much more we want to know.

[quote] The too-brief presence of half-sister Lorna Luft, for example, reminds us how much more we want to know.

Lorna was molested. That’s all you need to know.

So Liza and Lorna are "on again"? It's hard to keep track with those two...

Liza outlives Donald Sutherland

Friend and performer Jim Caruso says Minnelli didn’t always want to dazzle when she wasn’t on stage. He recalls her disappointment when she returned home from a party and told him, “I just wanted to be the nice lady at the dinner table.” Referring to her larger than life stage persona, she added, “ They wanted her.”

R211 I’m an Alki and I neither smoke nor drink coffee…they’re not good for you.

Yes, I'm sure Liza often refused to sing at a party...

She had been looking forward to attending Tribeca for the premiere of her 'fabulous documentary'. 'I'm so excited, I can't stand it!' she had exclaimed.

Money