Posted by “Judy was a smash. She had the hep audience enthralled from the moment she walked on stage.” – Associated Press review, 1956
July 16, 1932: “The Gumm Sisters” (Judy and her two sisters) were part of the “unusually good vaudeville bill” at the Fox West Coast Theater in Santa Ana, California. Although the article listed their name correctly, the ad misnamed them as “Gum” which was a common error the family contended with until they finally renamed themselves “Garland.”
July 16, 1933: “The Gumm Sisters” were auditioned in their home on Cedar Street in Lancaster, California, by the RKO vaudeville circuit booking agents King and Winkler. They were so impressed that they booked the sisters into one of their theaters the very next day (in Los Angeles).
Photo: Judy and a friend in Lancaster in 1932.
July 16, 1937: Judy appeared on the “Hollywood Hotel” show on CBS Radio. The 60-minute show spotlighted the upcoming release of Broadway Melody of 1938, which was Judy’s MGM feature film debut.
No recording of the show exists, but it’s safe to assume that at least part of it was the “Air Trailer” for the film that was sent out to radio stations by MGM. Many times Air Trailers included songs or snippets of songs that were outtakes from the completed films and/or were alternate takes.
In the photo with Judy are Igor Gorin, Billy Gilbert, George Murphy, Sophie Tucker, Eleanor Powell, Buddy Ebsen, Harriet Parsons, Robert Taylor, and Frances Langford. All except Parsons and Langford appear in the film.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Broadway Melody of 1938 here.
July 16, 1939: Judy in the newspapers.
July 16, 1940: Filming continued on Strike Up The Band specifically scenes shot on the “Interior Radio Theatre” set which was the “Finale” sequence.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Strike Up The Band here.
July 16, 1941: Babes on Broadway filming continued. On this day, the assistant director’s notes state: Miss Garland was called on today to rehearse dance at 2:30 p.m. – At 2:45 was sent to Miss Montclair for a French lesson – At 3 p.m.; reported to Eddie Larkin to rehearse “How About You?” routine; at 3:15 she said she had such a bad headache she could not continue – Went Home.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes on Broadway here.
July 16, 1943: For Me And My Gal was featured in the “Metro News Flyer” published in Brisbane, Australia. The film was released in the U.S. in November 1942 but not in Australia until 1943.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on For Me And My Gal here.
Also on July 16, 1943, Judy posed for color photographs for the New York Sunday News newspaper. Her photo appeared on the cover on September 5, 1943 (shown here).
Judy was entertaining the troops in New York on her second tour of Army camps. The USO Camp Shows, Inc. and the Post Special Service Office sponsored the tour. The 10-camp tour was in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Judy was accompanied by her manager, Melvin Heyman, and her mother, Ethel.
July 16, 1947: Judy’s last full day of filming on The Pirate was a marathon day. She was due on the set at 9:45 a.m., having arrived at 10:35 a.m.; dismissed at 6:05 p.m. Judy and co-star Gene Kelly finished filming “Be A Clown,” along with retakes and pickups on five other scenes, which necessitated that Judy change wardrobe, hairstyle, and makeup at least three times for more than twenty-five takes. There would be additional retakes on October 22nd through December 19th.
The photos here of Judy with Gene Kelly and producer Arthur Freed were taken on this day.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
July 16, 1947: Hedda Hopper’s column, dated July 15th, was published. Hopper relays the story of Judy’s recent nervous collapse. Walter Winchell’s column (written by Jack Lait) also mentioned the collapse and wisely noted that it was probably due to the effects of Benzedrine.
The sequence of events happened quickly. As noted above, the day these columns appeared was the same as the final day of filming on The Pirate. Judy’s nervous collapse must have occurred on one of the days before she was ill and unable to work on “Be A Clown,” which in recent weeks was from June 3rd through July 3rd and July 7th. She was also out sick on July 11th & 12th, which are the most likely candidates, as the columnists would have quickly picked up the story. Those earlier dates are too early.
Judy bounced back well enough to show up at the MGM commissary “two days after suffering from a nervous collapse” [per Hedda Hopper] for lunch with Frank Sinatra. Sheilah Graham went into more detail: Judy Garland … replies, in answer to my question about her health: “You all say I’m dying. Okeh, I’m dying.” In the first place, no one has said this. Secondly, Judy does look ill. And she sounded hysterical. But after the above outburst, she joined Frank Sinatra for lunch, and seemed as gay as anything.
The Hopper and Graham columns noted above appeared on July 21st. By this point, Judy had made an unpublicized suicide attempt and was sent to Las Campanas sanitarium in Compton, California. That happened on the 17th or the 18th because she left on July 19th for the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Judy returned to Los Angeles on August 20th.
July 16, 1948: This is the date listed as the official general release date for Easter Parade. The film premiered in New York on June 30, 1948.
Easter Parade became Judy’s second highest-grossing film at the time, making over 6 million on an investment of $2,503,654 (which was actually under budget by $191,280). Only Meet Me In St. Louis grossed more, making over 7 million in its first release.
Today, the film is a true classic and still one of Judy’s most popular. Thanks to the annual showings on TV around the Easter holiday, even people who aren’t “into” classic films usually have seen it.
Of course, no mention of Easter Parade would be complete without giving a shout-out to Judy’s co-stars Fred Astaire, Ann Miller, and Peter Lawford, as well as songwriter Irving Berlin and director Charles Walters. Everyone was brilliant!
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
July 16, 1954: Filming on the “Born In A Trunk” production number continued on A Star Is Born. Filming began late, at 5:00 p.m., and concluded the following morning at 1:40 a.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
July 16, 1955: This article appeared in the UK “Picture Show” magazine, promoting A Star Is Born.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
Scans provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
July 16, 1956: Judy opened at The New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. This was Judy’s nightclub debut and was so successful that 7,000 people had to be turned away on the opening weekend, resulting in the addition of a fifth week to the four weeks originally planned.
Judy earned $275,000 and performed seventy shows. The two-show-a-night act lasted sixty-eight minutes and included two production numbers. The shows began at 7:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., respectively.
The complete show was finally premiered (in any format) on CD on January 13, 2023.
Recording Info: Recorded live at the Venus Room, New Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, NV on July 16, 1956 (opening night of the five-week run and Garland’s Las Vegas debut), recording engineer unknown. High-Resolution transfer of original tape by Robert Witrak, HDTT (2022), at DSD256; restoration and remastering by John H. Haley, Harmony Restorations LLC (2022-23), at 352.8 kHz, 24 bits. Cover design by Robert Witrak. Cover photo: Judy singing at this concert, and a photo of Garland performing with her Boy Friends at this show that is included in the download version of the notes on the HDTT webpage for this release (photographers unknown). Grateful thanks to Lawrence Schulman for his excellent notes and for much other invaluable assistance, planning, and consultation. Thanks also to Raphael Geroni for the Venus Room restaurant menu, also included in the download version of the notes on the HDTT webpage. And special thanks, in memoriam, to Gerald E. Czulewicz, to whom we are grateful for the survival of the original tape. Booklet, compilation, restorations, and remasterings: © (p) 2023 High Definition Tape Transfers, Inc., 118 Tower Hill Road, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4E 0K6. Product of Canada. All rights reserved.
Please Note: This is a monophonic recording. This release was edited in DXD PCM from a DSD256 Master. Then the DXD edited master was used to generate the final DSD files using Merging Technologies Album Publishing. DXD (352.8KHz 24/32 bit PCM) is one of the best and least destructive formats for post-processing DSD originated digital recordings.
Judy Garland – The Lost Vegas Show – New Frontier Hotel – July 16, 1956, can be purchased at: https://www.highdeftapetransfers.ca. For further information, contact info@www.highdeftapetransfers.ca.
TRACKLIST
- A Hot Time in the Old Town (Joe Hayden-Theodore August Metz) (The Eight Boyfriends) (3:38)
- This Is a Party (Roger Edens-Kay Thompson) (Judy and the Eight Boyfriends) (1:28)
- Dialog (0:49
- Judy’s Olio: You Made Me Love You (James Monaco-Joseph McCarthy)/For Me and My Gal (George Meyer-Edgar Leslie-E. Ray Goetz)/The Boy Next Door (Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane)/The Trolley Song (Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane) (6:20)
- Dialog (0:28)
- Come Rain or Come Shine (Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen) (4:32)
- This Is Our Spot (Roger Edens-Kay Thompson) (The Eight Boyfriends) (3:25)
- Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home (Johnny Mercer-Harold Arlen) (Judy and the Eight Boyfriends) (4:37)
- Dialog (0:46)
- A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow (based on Thomas Moore-18th-century traditional Irish ballad) (2:58)
- Dialog (0:20)
- Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe (E.Y. Harburg-Harold Arlen) (2:30)
- Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody (Jean Schwartz-Sam M. Lewis-Joe Young) (3:25)
- What Next? What’ll She Do Now? (Roger Edens-Kay Thompson) (The Eight Boyfriends) (2:21)
- Lucky Day (Buddy De Sylva-Lew Brown-Ray Henderson) (Judy and the Eight Boyfriends) (3:17)
- Orchestral interlude: The Trolley Song (1:37)
- Over the Rainbow (E.Y. Harburg-Harold Arlen) (Garland singing off-mic) (3:39)
- Orchestral: Over the Rainbow (0:44)
Bonus Tracks:
19: Dialog, introducing encores (1:01)
20: Opening notes of Liza (Ira Gershwin-Gus Kahn-George Gershwin) (end of tape) (0:15)
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
Program scans from the Bobby Waters Collection. Thanks, Bobby!
July 16, 1963: Videotaping of “Episode Three” of “The Judy Garland Show” at CBS Television City, Studio 43, Hollywood, California. Guests: Liza Minnelli, the Brothers Castro, and Soupy Sales, plus the show’s regular Jerry Van Dyke.
Judy sang: “Liza,” “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” “Together” (with Liza), a medley of “We Could Make Such Beautiful Music Together”/”The Best Is Yet To Come”/”Bye, By Baby”/”Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight),” “As Long As He Needs Me” (in the “Born In A Trunk” segment); and, as a closer, Judy and Liza singing “Two Lost Souls” followed by “I Will Come Back.” Judy also performed a brief sketch with Soupy Sales.
The show aired on November 17, 1963.
Roddy McDowell took color photos shown here.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 16, 1964: The first of Dick Kleiner’s syndicated column titled “What’s Over Judy Garland’s Rainbow?” was published. Since it was syndicated, the article appeared in various newspapers over the next few weeks, so both parts are provided above.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 16, 1965: Judy was heard in a phone interview on “The Les Crane Show” on syndicated TV. Later in the evening, she took daughter Lorna and son Joe to see daughter Liza Minnelli in “Flora, The Red Menace” on Broadway. Then, they went to the club “Arthur.”
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 16, 1968: Judy went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for her next engagement (at JFK Stadium, which turned out to be her final U.S. concert), checking into the Warwick Hotel with her daughter Lorna. Judy gave several press interviews in her hotel suite, and photos show her with Lorna, looking at a copy of the “Judy” LP. Judy also again mentioned “possibly” playing the Palace that fall, although it did not happen.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 16, 2021: The Dorothy dress that Judy wore for the first few weeks of filming The Wizard of Oz under the direction of Richard Thorpe sold at auction for $88,500!
Check out the Costumes Pages at The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
