Posted by “A Garland performance became an object lesson in courage, vulnerability and blazing talent.” – John J. O’Connor on “The Judy Garland Show,” for “The New York Times,” 1992
March 15, 1930: Frances (Judy) participated in the “Children’s Fashion Revue,” at Walker’s Department Store in Lancaster, California. It’s a shame there are no known photos of Judy in the event.
March 15, 1934: The last night of a week-long engagement for “The Gumm Sisters” (Judy and her sisters) at the Fox Theater in San Francisco, California. Also on this day, Judy sang at the Club Oasis, also in San Francisco.
March 15, 1935: “The Garland Sisters” were on the second day of a week-long engagement at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, CA.
March 15, 1938: Judy was still in Chicago (staying at the Palmer House) when her mother (Ethel) wrote to a family friend on this date. Ethel relayed that she was answering all of Judy’s fan mail, which was about 100 letters a day at that point. Ethel also noted that the fan mail was so much she had just hired a girl who “comes in three times a week for about four hours” to help with the mail.
While Judy was in Chicago, photographer Maurice Seymour took these wonderful photos of her.
March 15, 1941: Judy appeared on the “Islam Temple Shrine Saint Patrick’s Day Program” on NBC Radio broadcast out of Los Angeles, California. Judy sang “Wearing of the Green.”
Still in theaters, and in time for St. Patrick’s Day, was the very Irish Little Nellie Kelly starring Judy and George Murphy.
Listen to Judy’s Decca Records recording of “Wearing of the Green” here (recorded on April 10, 1940):
Photo: Judy with Charles Winninger and George Murphy in the film.
Below, is a disc that’s dated this date. The contents have not been verified.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Little Nellie Kelly here.
March 15, 1941: Two separate two-page ads promoting Ziegfeld Girl were placed by MGM in the trade magazine “Motion Picture Herald.”
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Ziegfeld Girl here.
March 15, 1941: In the “Motion Picture Herald’s” regular feature “What The Picture Did For Me,” A.L. Dove of the Bengough Theater in Bengough, Saskatchewan, Canada, had this to say about Andy Hardy Meets Debutante:
“My patrons were rather disappointed in this one. Chiefly a Rooney show. Why not give his sister in the Hardy family, a very charming girl, some love in her life, and a better break? Judy Garland and her signing helped the show immensely, but very little of it.”
March 15, 1945: Judy appeared in “Vogue” magazine.
March 15, 1945: Filming continued on The Harvey Girls on the “Interior R.R. Coach” and “Interior Parlor” sets. This photo of Judy on the coach set was taken on this day. Time called: 10 a.m.; Judy arrived at 10:35 a.m.; dismissed at 5:50 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Harvey Girls here.
March 15, 1948: Judy canceled a scheduled portrait photo sitting for Easter Parade. From mid-March through early May of 1948, Judy had a two-month vacation. She had become very thin and exhausted from the dual obligations of filming both Easter Parade and extensive retakes for The Pirate. She returned to the studio on May 20th to begin work on Words and Music.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
March 15, 1949: Judy had wardrobe fittings for Annie Get Your Gun from 12:45 p.m. – 2 p.m.
From 2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. she and co-star Howard Keel rehearsed their songs, including “You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun”; “Anything You Can Do”; “They Say It’s Wonderful”; and “The Girl That Marry.”
Photo: Late 1970s bootleg LP of Judy’s prerecordings for the film.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Annie Get Your Gun here.
March 15, 1950: Judy returned to MGM after a short break to record “Get Happy” for Summer Stock, her final pre-recording and film performance for the studio.
According to the Daily Music Report, Judy recorded at least 12 takes. Take #12 is the only one that was “printed,” meaning it was kept for use in the film.
Thanks to today’s audio tech, we now have “Get Happy” in true stereo! Listen here:
Listen to the mono prerecording of “Get Happy” here:
Disc label images from The Rick Smith Collection. Thanks, Rick!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Summer Stock here.
March 15, 1954: More filming of the “Lose That Long Face” number for A Star Is Born. Time started: 10:00 a.m.; finished: 5:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
March 15, 1955: Judy is seen in the background (as is her husband Sid Luft) of this photo of Frank Sinatra and Peggy Connelly enjoying Ella Fitzgerald’s act at the Mocambo.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
March 15, 1957: Judy filed a lawsuit against CBS.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
March 15, 1963: The Capitol Records LP soundtrack of I Could Go On Singing, the last original movie soundtrack of a Judy Garland film, was released.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s I Could Go On Singing pages here.
March 15, 1963: Dorothy Kilgallen’s latest column featured this segment about Judy. In it, Judy notes how she can turn on the tears during a ballad.
March 15, 1964: “Episode Twenty-Four” of “The Judy Garland Show” aired on CBS-TV. The show was taped on February 23, 1964, at CBS Television City, Stage 43, Hollywood, California, just two days after the previous episode’s taping. It was a busy week for Judy!
Judy’s guest for this “Semi-Concert” was Vic Damone. Judy sang: “Lucky Day,” “Sweet Danger,” “Do I Love You?m” “I Love You,” “When Your Lover Has Gone,” “Down With Love,” “Old Devil Moon,” “Never Will I Marry,” “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home,” “Chicago,” and a “Kismet Medley” with Damone. For the “Born In A Trunk” spot, Judy sang “Lost In The Stars.” Outtakes of the “Kismet Medley” and “Lost In The Stars” survived and were released on the DVD of the show.
March 15, 1969: Judy married for the fifth and last time. She married Mickey Deans at the Chelsea Registry Office in London, England, at noon local time.
That previous January 28, Judy made international headlines with the news of her secret marriage to Mickey Deans. She had returned the “Talk of the Town” the night before (January 27, 1969) for the first time since her bad night of January 23rd. She told the audience that she and Deans had recently been married and that they would soon go on a honeymoon.
The secret ceremony took place on January 9, 1969, in a chapel at St. Marylebone Parish (in London) and was given by Reverend Peter Delaney. The ceremony wasn’t actually legal. The divorce papers for Judy’s marriage to Mark Herron had not been picked up. Judy and Deans were finally legally married on March 15, 1969.
Here is more footage of Judy and Mickey Deans outside of the Chelsea Registry Office:
March 15, 2005: “Swing Into Spring” – The deluxe 2-disc edition of Easter Parade on DVD was released, marking the film’s premiere on DVD. The mid-2000s were a kind of “golden age” for Garland films on DVD with Warner Home Video releasing most of Judy’s films on DVD for the first time.
Easter Parade was released on Blu-ray on February 19, 2013.
Check out The Judy Room’s Easter Parade DVD page here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Easter Parade Blu-ray page here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
One of the true benchmarks of how far Judy had sunk by this time, is how alienated she had become from her children. Five years before, it would’ve been UNTHINKABLE for her to be apart from the three, especially Lorna and Joey. Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think Judy physically saw them more than once or twice (if that) in the last six months of her life.
And if I’m (hopefully) wrong, please correct me.
I’m not sure. I would have to research that.
I don’t think you’re wrong. I’m not sure she saw them after they started school in the fall of 1968 and she was on the east coast. I think she left LA in late August. Then she was off to London and they were in Los Angeles.
I’m sure there were plans to see them in the summer of 1969. But…
I always find most of the stuff after 1967 to be more sad than anything else. She was unwell, her finances were awful, and once the house in Brentwood was foreclosed upon, she was without a place she could call home. She seemed to flit about and different people sort of stepped in and “helped” (or not) but she was not in a good place. And it showed.
Her last wedding — ugh. Depresses me. Seemed like a circus. I think they invited lots of people and no one showed.