Say! How about a Judy Garland thread?

Judy 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 people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

Dollface thread. 🌈 👠

That was a sad interview, OP - and she was dead a year later.

Happy times.

Sweet thing.

R3, Judy looked pretty damn good on that Tonight show. On the others she did around that time, most notably the Mike Douglas Show, she looked and acted like a dead woman walking.

Broadcast a couple weeks after JFK was shot.

She deserved that Oscar.

Heartbreaker.

If you ever wonder why no one can sing Over The Rainbow like her, watch this analysis that shows how i]well she could control her vibrato.

With Ella, the ultimate female interpreter of the Great American Songbook.

[quote] Say!

Ha ha ha! I’ll say.

I cry every year.

Lots of discussion in regards to her singing and acting but few recognize she was a true fashionista of her time!

Say! Let’s put on a show!

With dear Chita.

WTF was/is the Garden State Arts Center?

Ran into her at CVS the other day...

She Vee Esh.

The suit she is wearing is a white version of her Helen Lawson pantsuit from Valley of the Dolls. Gifted the films multi-colored costume by the Fox and worn repeatedly in concerts, she had a version in red and this one in white made for her by TRAVILLA at a cost of $1500 each.

Pic at R14 gives you an idea of how wasted she was at the end.

I ran into her at Piggly Wiggly.

They're making me sing again. BRING ME MY PILLS!

I liked when she told the story of dancing down the yellow brick road and being crowded out by the guys. She said Victor Fleming would put up his megaphone and say "you let that little girl in there!"

The way she told it was really fun.

AUGUST 1968

Her dad was rumored to be gay. Guess you couldn't be out in those days or it would mean death.

Poor lad dealt with it by drinking himself to death.

I was molested at the Palladium I KNOW YOU HEARD ME SCREAMING MAMA!

Oh, Momma!

I wish Liza would do a 23 and me, Judy and her daughter Liza are so unique

Momma????

That's the way Steve Sondheim and Jule Styne titled it, despite the incorrect video title.

Aw poor Judy. That clip with Johnny Carson, she looked a bit ragged but that classic charm was still there, she was so sweet.

OP is headless on DL.

That ultra-emaciated photo of her has always left me thinking: If Judy hadn’t OD’d and died that June 1969 night, was she already ill and would’ve died some other way soon after that? Anorexia, cancer, dementia, or maybe her body and heart just simply giving up finally..?

There really was something endearing about that woman.

Born in a Trunk

This thread deserves love.

No,we’ve never had a Judy Garland thread before.

R35,

She threw herself at me in so many ways.

Who can blame me?

She was a talented woman and gave good vibes.

To me, one of the only saving graces of Judy's sad final years is that by all accounts she actually enjoyed singing for people very much.

Oddly and against all gossip, the only person who effectively and responsibly managed her money was Ethel Gumm.

James Mason said in his eulogy, “Judy’s great gift was that she could wring tears out of the hearts of stone.”

R35 I believe the coroner’s report concluded that she’d have been gone within a year anyway. Her body was just worn out.

Consumed, not worn out. The world consumed her.

Judy was Love. She gave it out and got it back ten fold. She needed that. She was an ally to gays and black performers. She deserved way better. She found herself in a business without any business acumen, that was her main problem, so she clung on to any man who she thought could manage her. She was a great mother by all accounts and wven Sinatra called her the best performer ever. We have to keep her iconic status alive. I always think it's funny how much I adored her growing up; she was my absolute favourite actress, only to find out it's very often a gay thing...its so weird how we all find her. It's not like we seek out this gay icon after we're told to... we found her on our own. I cant bring myself to watch the movie JUDY, as I cant bear to see those years in living colour. There's something very unique about Judy...and I think we all realise it. RIP Judy x

Not sure if it’s true, but Ginger Rogers was said to have a very faint form of facial hair. When she was hired to replace Judy in The Barkleys of Broadway, Garland sent her a small bouquet of flowers in a shaving mug. If that’s true, it’s a pretty clever form of Bitchcraft.

She really makes Johnny Carson look like a bum. He keeps interrupting her. Her fan boys in the audience made me laugh.

She clearly made Johnny nervous.

Is no one going to post Judy's duet with Barbra????

I'd also appreciate seeing her singing and dancing to "Who?" in that composer bio from MGM. I think it was the best production number of her MGM years.

Unique.

R50, why don’t you post them?

I think Judy was suffering from colitis as well as the effects of her long addiction to speed and sleeping pills.

She always felt her current husband was her solution, which I hope gave her a little peace. How was she ever going to dig herself out of her debt with the IRS? The options for Judy by 1969 were pretty bleak. Same as today, everyone was shocked, but nobody was surprised. Her large body of work speaks for itself.

R49, ALL women with half a brain made Carson nervous.

When Barbra did her guest spot on Judys show, she performed a great version of "Down with Love", a song written by Wizard of Oz tunesmiths Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg .It has an interisting history-originally written in 1937 for Kay Thompson, it was introduced by her replacement Vivian Vance in the Broadway musical Hooray for What!. The original production was staged and directed by Vincente Minelli

Here´s Judys take on it.

Here you go, R50.

Judy mentions Juanita Quigley to Johnny.

Judy's version of Down With Love was showcased in that movie of the same name that was a parody of Doris Day-Rock Hudson films. Starred future Judy impersonator Renée Z.

Thanks R55. Wow I’ve never seen her so present and sober- actually finishing her words. I’m a Garland Sycophant from way back.

Was just reading Judy met JFK through Pat Kennedy/Peter Lawford when Kennedy was a Jr senator. I always thought it was through Sinatra/Rat Pack which happened later.

Of course I don’t know if there’s a heaven but if there is-Judy is busy singing in concert for all of us angels.

Carson is hot here.

Shoome where over the rainbow

There are some great stills/clips of Judy at the opening of the Democratic National Convention in 1960 with Adlai Stevenson, Eleanor Roosevelt and LBJ. Seems to have the best seat in the house.

She was a soaring talent crippled by amphetamine, barbiturate and alcohol addiction. Unlike Whitney, she was also a natural artist and that gift coupled with a voice from heaven (when younger and still physically able) make her a voice and artist and entertainer for the ages. The stories of her battle with addiction and its consequences are harrowing.

R56, I love that duet, but I love the medley they sing together later in the show even more. It’s called “Hooray for Love.” There’s one moment, after Barbra makes Judy laugh, that Judy responds with all her sound in such a joyous way that it’s become something I watch when I need a little boost.

Of course I don’t know if there’s a heaven but if there is-Judy is busy singing in concert for all of us angels.

I think her idea of heaven is not having to sing for the public ever again.

did somebody call?😅

R68 would actually have something interesting to say if Judy actually help some cultural power, instead of just being a symptom of it. But these are the times we live in, where blame the victims of this scorched earth because they look like the oppressors.

R65, you forgot mental illness. That was the catalyst for all of the addictions.

whaaaa r68? uok?😂

While Barbra was still doing Funny Girl on Broadway in 1964, Garland sang one of the best songs of the show at the London Palladium.

"His Is The Only Music That Makes Me Dance"

The jack Parr appearances are legendary.

Here´s Liza in Central Park singing a Kander and Ebb song to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. When she mentions the personal relevance that date holds for her, Judy gets a rousing ovation from the crowd.

Nice.

I love Liza for being an ally for so many years, but recall when she really tried to make the song at R74 happen, and it just didn't really seem to catch on as an "anthem."

Thx R66-Wow have never seen that-sweet!

If only her mother had died and not her gay father. Poor Frances

It's strange in the R74 that they should applaud at the fact that Judy died.

54 minutes of Judy and special guest Liza at the London palladium in 1964.

That haircut in R73 does her no favors.

[quote]That haircut in R73 does her no favors.

Neither does the one at R68.

She looks like a 2024 non-binary or MTF. Great talent but she is tweaked out of her brains during this interview.

I take that back. She doesn’t really look trans in close up or profile, just the way she walked out.

[quote]She looks like a 2024 non-binary or MTF.

Well, don't forget that it was Judy's death in June 1969 that caused trans women of color to throw the first bricks at Stonewall.

She seems stoned as fuck in that clip.

R85 She is more than just stoned. I don’t think it’s coke either but some hardcore drug. I think a downer.

Mama loved her Sheconal!

She was on uppers. That's what the pills were.

Judy doing a Harold Arlen classic is always a treat. Lyrics written by Ted Koehler.

"When The Sun Comes Out "

Fun Fact: Arlen and Koehler also wrote "Get Happy"

Judys classic performance of that song in her last MGM musical "Summer Stock", put it at #61 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

It’s a disheashe, Larry. A disheashe!

[quote]She was on uppers. That's what the pills were.

She was on EVERYTHING. Toward the end, in the daytime hours it was Ritalin and straight vodka out of the bottle.

This is what started it all.

I thought it was rumored that she had hepatitis and likely developing liver failure toward the end.

Very plausible. I'm shocked she didn't get into smack given how deep her chemical dependence issues were.

Never heard her do West Side Story. Who knew?

R17 big amphitheater in Homdel New Jersey. Currently the PNC Arts Center. It's in my hometown. My HS graduation was there.

Is that the one where a moth flew into Judys mouth during Over the Rainbow?

It's not one of the hardcore Judy Garland concert songs, but from 1940-1960 Judy would occasionally bust out "It's a Great Day for the Irish" which is not an easy song to sing! Being of Scots-Irish (and also French) background, Judy seemed to have loved singing it. I think this live performance is really jubilant here in 1960.

Irish.

[quote]It's not one of the hardcore Judy Garland concert songs, but from 1940-1960 Judy would occasionally bust out "It's a Great Day for the Irish" which is not an easy song to sing! Being of Scots-Irish (and also French) background, Judy seemed to have loved singing it.

"It's a Great Day for the Irish" was written for Judy Garland by Roger Edens. She introduced it in her 1940 movie "Little Nelly Kelly," which was based on a play by George M. Cohan.

How did Judy keep her voice until the very end with all those pills and booze? She was able to keep her voice better than Whitney Houston was.

Judy Garland’s final “Over the Rainbow” in concert. On March 25, 1969, Judy performed what would become her final concert in Copenhagen, Denmark. She closed the show with a beautiful, and powerful, rendition of her most beloved song, “Over the Rainbow.” She would pass away just shy of 3 months after this performance, on June 22, 1969. Rest in peace, Judy.

[quote]How did Judy keep her voice until the very end with all those pills and booze?

She didn't. The good performances were few and far between in her last years. I can vividly remember adults talking about how bad her voice was in the late 1960s. I was twelve then, I've heard some horrendous singing from her since then.

She is in AMAZING voice all through her TV show. But after the fall of 1964, it was pretty much gone. It went so fast. Like a switch was turned off.

Her obituary is in my family’s bible, so someone was MARY wayyy back.