Posted by This review first appeared in the ARSC Journal (of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections), 2013;44(1):147-159, and is reprinted with the permission of the author, Lawrence Schulman, and the publisher of the ARSC Journal. For information about ARSC, see www.ARSC-audio.org.
Judy Garland – The Amsterdam Concert: December 1960. Judy Garland, vocals; Jos Cleber’s Cosmopolitan Orchestra; Norrie Paramor, conductor. First Hand Records FHR18 (2 CDs, MP3 digital download, www.firsthandrecords.com).
For Judy Garland (1922-1969), there was before Carnegie Hall, and after. The pinnacle of her career, the legendary April 23, 1961 concert[1] is the incomparable standard that eclipses all other Garland live shows.[2] Everything before it was a rehearsal; everything after, a reflection. Her road took her through M-G-M, Decca Records, radio, A Star Is Born, Capitol Records … and Amsterdam, where on December 10, 1960 she performed a midnight show,[3] broadcast live,[4] of twenty-nine songs[5] at the magnificent Tuschinski Theatre. After a bout of hepatitis in late 1959,[6] Garland recorded the Academy Award-nominated “The Faraway Part of Town”[7] in mid-late April 1960 in Los Angeles for the soundtrack of the film Pepe,[8] followed by the Capitol LP That’s Entertainment![9] at the Capitol Tower in June.[10] She then flew to London,[11] where she would reside until the end of the year.[12] The London Sessions[13] for EMI/Capitol, recorded at Abbey Road[14] that same summer,[15] found Garland at her vocal peak. Her abundance of studio sessions in 1960 and her lengthy programs of live performances in London,[16] Paris,[17] Leeds,[18] Birmingham,[19] Wiesbaden,[20] Frankfurt,[21] Leicester,[22] Manchester,[23] and Amsterdam that same year were a “renaissance”[24] that not only resulted in the greatest number of studio recordings she had ever done in one year, but a couple of live performances that were recorded by local radio stations: namely, her October 28, 1960 show at the Olympia in Paris recorded by Europe 1, broadcast on their program Musicorama[25], and released by Europe 1/RTE/Trema in 1994;[26] and her Tuschinski date recorded by AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep, or General Association of Radio Broadcasting), the Dutch public radio network, and broadcast on the Hilversum 2 station. Archival research at Europe 1 in the early 1990s, spearheaded by producer Marc Exiga,[27] did not result in finding the complete Paris show; instead, the edited show, as broadcast on Musicorama, was still enough to merit a CD release,[28] which included such pearls as Garland’s medley of “I Love Paris”[29] and “April in Paris.”[30] The new First Hand release[31] of the Amsterdam show, sourced from the AVRO master tape, is Garland’s complete performance that evening, and as such is an invaluable document of her artistry in this pre-Carnegie period. That the tape survived intact over the years is a tribute to the public sector AVRO and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), where it was archived; Garland’s Paris show, recorded by the private sector Europe 1, was edited for broadcast and the outtakes were not preserved.
This is not the first time the Amsterdam show has been released. Over the years, there have in fact been three bootlegs. According to Garland historian Gerald Waters,[32] David Begelman,[33] who was one of Garland’s new agents in 1960, obtained a copy of the Amsterdam concert and wanted to sell it as a radio show. He took it to a New York recording studio to make a dub, at which time a technician made an additional copy. This private copy wound up in the hands of the jazz archivist and record producer Boris Rose.[34] A legendary New York figure who lived on East 10th Street, Rose recorded jazz artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Sidney Bechet, Eddie Condon, and Billie Holiday either off the radio or on site. These were done by him or for him. Garland was another artist Rose issued repeatedly on various wacky labels.[35] Starting in early 1961 (thus, before Garland played Carnegie Hall), Rose began selling her Amsterdam date on Presto discs to private collectors as a four-LP set for $15 or $20 per LP. In the 1970s,[36] three LPs[37] produced by Rose on the Obligato label were released (in stereo, according to the covers), albeit with voice-overs in Dutch for the audience listening on radio, and quite inexplicably, without “Over the Rainbow.” Obligato was one of the many labels (Alto, Titania, Ambrosia, Caliban, Session Disc, Ozone, Chazzer Records, Amalgamated Records) disseminated by the Rose. All of these labels were invented appellations for him to carry on his passion for music, recording, and collecting. Prankish misinformation was an art for him. The front covers of Rose’s three Garland Amsterdam LPs indicate that Adele, Borj and Güntar van Rensselaer were co-mistress and masters of ceremonies, when in fact Ageeth Scherphuis[38] and Willem Duys[39] had the honors. The front cover on the first Obligato Amsterdam LP – the back covers are blank – indicates that “personal considerations to Miss Garland in the Netherlands [were] donated by noted Dutch cartographer Ronald van Heeswijk.”[40] Van Heeswijk, who was living in Amsterdam at the time, was a friend of Rose, who, ever the practical joker, credited him on the cover as a “noted Dutch cartographer,” which he was not. Today, Van Heeswijk is alive and well and living in Camden, Maine,[41] where under the name Professor Bop he deejays for WRFR-LP FM. Made in Portugal, the third bootleg of Garland’s Amsterdam show, released in 1996[42] by Double Gold Records in a 2-CD set,[43] is no doubt sourced from the same Rose tape as the 1970s LPs, and is of higher fidelity than they were. That “Over the Rainbow”[44] is missing on both the Rose LPs and the Double Gold CDs is proof that both are based on the same tape. Furthermore, certain of the emcees’ voice-overs in Dutch, heard on the Obligato LPs, are missing in the Double Gold set; these, however, are simply cuts for the Double Gold release. The 2012 release of Judy Garland – The Amsterdam Concert: December 1960 is the first time this concert has been issued legitimately, that is to say licensed to First Hand Records Ltd. from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and authorized by the Estate of Judy Garland.[45]
Listeners will be surprised to discover that CD 1 does not open with the beginning of the concert. Rather, First Hand has chosen to duplicate the concert as broadcast by placing at the start of CD 1 six introductory tracks[46] which preceded Garland’s entrance on stage, thereby detracting from the listening pleasure of the concert itself. Taking up eight and a half minutes, these pre-concert tracks were used to fill some of the radio airtime between midnight, when the live broadcast began, and when Garland appeared on stage around 12:30 A.M.[47] What is more, First Hand has placed another track[48] – one which was broadcast during the intermission and lasts one minute twenty-four seconds – at the end of CD 1, further interrupting the flow of the show. Such zeal to relive the event as it occurred, whether in the name of “Judyism”[49] or not, can either be admired or not. Such material, however interesting, should have been placed as a bonus at the end of the recording so as not to mar the general public’s listening pleasure. First Hand’s presentation is a delight to the Garland fan, but not the casual listener, who will simply skip the historical material. The late Scott Schechter,[50] in his failed attempts to release the complete Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli “Live” at the London Palladium[51] in 2002 and 2009[52] was roundly criticized for, among other things, inserting bonus material in the middle (and end) of the planned sets by the very people (the Garland estate, certain people associated with the First Hand release) who have this time around approved such a questionable practice.[53] Such hypocrisy in the name of historical verisimilitude is reprehensible, and a blot on the current release.
Garland’s song line-up in Amsterdam was in large part derived from her August London Sessions,[54] but also from the June That’s Entertainment! LP, as well as her film career and stage show. Extant order sheets[55] show a staggering thirty-one songs on her planned program, which was a veritable “musical biography.”[56] It took stamina and willpower to perform such a tour de force,[57] especially when considering that Garland had been hospitalized for hepatitis about a year earlier and told she was going to be a permanent semi-invalid the rest of her life. Garland’s lengthy program of just Judy,[58] the longest of her career, was not just a nostalgic looking back, but a powerful message to future management[59] and promoters that Judy Garland was back and better than ever. This, her last concert before returning to the United States on what would be her triumphant tour of 1961,[60] was a warm-up of things to come.
And what a warm-up! In resplendent voice, and backed by thirty-three musicians from Jos Cleber’s Cosmopolitan Orchestra under the direction of Norrie Paramor,[61] Garland performed a program that night that not only encompassed her whole career but was a one-woman résumé of an entire musical era. Covering songs from her youth, such as “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”, first performed by Garland in 1935 at her M-G-M audition,[62] on radio,[63] and in the 1938 film Listen, Darling, “Over the Rainbow,” and “Swanee,”[64] songs from her M-G-M heyday, such as the medley of “You Made Me Love You/For Me and My Gal/The Trolley Song,” and more recent additions to her repertoire, such as “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “You Go To My Head,” Garland based the evening on an already-long career that had begun in vaudeville.[65] Vocal maturity added vibrancy to titles such as “When You’re Smiling” and “After You’ve Gone,” both songs she had long done live. Her loud songs gave way seamlessly to soft ones, such as “Do It Again” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.” In the part of her program devoted to jazz, that is with a small group of musicians, she did wonders on such compositions as “Who Cares?,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” and “Just You, Just Me.” Pianist David Lee’s[66] finely symbiotic playing cradled Garland’s voice lovingly on “You’re Nearer,” “If Love Were All,” and “A Foggy Day.” Having first recorded Roger Edens’[67] “It’s a Great Day for the Irish” in 1940 at M-G-M for the film Little Nellie Kelly, then performed it on radio[68] and stage,[69] and again recorded it in stereo for her recent London Sessions at EMI, Garland, in her “daredevil”[70] Amsterdam performance, fueled by an enthusiastic audience clapping in unison to her spirited beat, remembered the tongue-twisting lyric[71] without a single stumble — and this after an already long show![72] The well-constructed program included old classics, such as “How Long Has This Been Going On?” and “Stormy Weather,”[73] and newer ones, such as “That’s Entertainment!” and “The Man That Got Away.” She could rock the house on “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby (with a Dixie Melody)” and rollick them with a rousing version of “San Francisco,” which she sang first as part of her program then a second time as an encore. So many songs were about love: among them, “Alone Together” and the medley “Almost Like Being in Love/This Can’t Be Love,” which is one of the greatest medleys she ever sang. That said, the Amsterdam concert has one drawback: unlike the 1960 Paris Olympia show which allowed Garland to sing the never-before-recorded “I Love Paris/April in Paris” medley,[74] the Amsterdam show does not include any songs totally new to the 2012 ear.[75] In all, it required real endurance to perform such a demanding program, but at the end of it she sounded as fresh as ever. It also required the hardened skills of a trouper who had perfected her craft over the decades. Author Henry Pleasants remarked in his book The Great American Singers[76] that “The secret of Judy’s art was its artlessness,” and that nonchalant, innocent artlessness was never more on display than in Amsterdam in 1960.
As was the case in First Hand’s 2011 release of Garland’s complete London studio sessions,[77] the British label has once again done a superlative job in restoring and reissuing this fifty-two year old recording, transferred in high-definition 96kHz/24bit from the original analog tapes at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision by Hans van den Berg and in 2012 remastered in 44.1kHz/16bit at K&A Productions Ltd. by Debs Spanton, whose philosophy is “to remember that the recording is never going to be up to today’s standards — the best you can achieve is an improvement!”[78] She adds: “I was handed the digital sound files and I was responsible for preparing it for CD manufacture. The main improvement to the sound was the equalisation I added to the bass end of the spectrum. This boosted the lower end of things, making the sound fuller and warmer. I removed clicks, thuds, pops and other extraneous noises that you would expect from a live recording. I also, originally, reduced the analogue tape hiss, using a process called denoising, but this idea was later rejected by the record label. They decided they preferred the more authentic historical sound!”[79] The resultant sound recording, although lacking a presence it would have had had it been recorded by a major label, is still fuller bodied than any previous incarnation.[80] The inherent difficulties in recording a live show, namely level changes, orchestra-voice balance, and Garland’s being too close to or far from the microphone, remain, albeit without contravening the listening pleasure. Like a veil lifted, the First Hand remastering brings out certain orchestral details that can now be better heard. The 16-page booklet,[81] with liner notes by the set’s producer Jonathan Summers[82] that are incisive and packed full of information, also contains many rare photos by Harry Pot taken during the concert and sourced from the Dutch National Archives in The Hague, most of them published here for the first time.[83]
Although Garland’s Tuschinski concert was available to private collectors before Judy at Carnegie Hall was first released,[84] the general public experienced the perfection that was Carnegie Hall well before they could hear the Amsterdam show, which, for all its merits, is still a run-up to the legendary 1961 American tour. Following the London Sessions, the then thirty-eight-year-old Garland took her rejuvenated voice and practiced art on the road, where she could perfect her act. To hear her at Tuschinski no doubt purposely flub a lyric on “You Go To My Head” and at Carnegie Hall four months later do it again at exactly the same spot in the song,[85] or repeat almost word for word at both venues certain banter[86] and the same Paris stories of her hairdresser or the unfastened safety pin, is to realize that Amsterdam was an out-of-town tryout before returning to the States.[87] Although less polished than Carnegie Hall, Tuschinski is no less an accomplishment. A snapshot in time, it cannot come close to the dizzying artistic high that is Judy at Carnegie Hall,[88] which by virtue of having been recorded in three-channels[89] for commercial stereo release[90] is also technically superior to Tuschinski, which was recorded in mono for broadcast. Judy at Carnegie Hall is also superior to Tuschinski because of the phenomenal group of musicians[91] conductor Mort Lindsey[92] assembled that evening. But, after the years 1960/1961, so fruitful in studio and stage recordings, Garland never again attempted such an arduous program, thus the preciousness of the Amsterdam date. Judy Garland really did get to Carnegie Hall by practicing, and the Tuschinski Theatre was one place she did just that. Reviewed by Lawrence Schulman.
Thanks to the following people for helping me with research for this review: Hans van den Berg, Lenny Bloom, Richard Dyer, Alan Eichler, Alain Falasse, James Fisher, Hugh Fordin, John Haley, Ronald van Heeswijk, William Hogeland, David Lennick, Kim Lundgreen, Michael Mascioli, John Meyer, Yukihisa Miyayama, David Murphy, Max Preeo, Margaret Rauenhorst, Bill Reed, Gabriel Rotello, Royce Sam, Michael Schiavi, Debs Spanton, Keizo Takada, Gerald Waters.
This review is dedicated to ARSC member and fellow Mainer Toby LeBoutillier, whose MPBN program Down Memory Lane went off the air on November 30, 2012 after a run of 33 years. It continues online at MPBN.net. Thanks, Toby, for enriching our lives.
[1] Garland played Carnegie Hall a second time on May 21, 1961.
[2] Garland’s April 23, 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall is currently available on Judy at Carnegie Hall, Capitol Records, 72435-27876-2-3, 2001 (complete, stereo); Judy Garland – The Carnegie Hall Concert, JSP Records, JSP 4232, 2012 (mono) [Ed.: See following review]; Judy Garland Live at Carnegie Hall, Delta Leisure Group, Performance 38352, 2012; Judy at Carnegie Hall – Garland at the Grove, Goldies, GLD 25604, 2012 (mono). The DCC set – EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets, DCC Compact Classics, GZS(2)1135 72435-23801-2-1, 2000 (complete, stereo) – is now out of print, but can be found on eBay. Robert Arnold engineered the original 1961 Capitol release and won a Grammy for his work; Steve Hoffman remastered the 2000 DCC edition; Bob Norberg remastered the 2001 Capitol set; Peter Rynston remastered the 2012 JSP release.
[3] The live radio broadcast began at midnight, but Garland did not begin her program until around 12:30 A.M. on December 11, 1960.
[4] Rebroadcast December 13, 1960 between 8:00 P.M. and 10:30 P.M.
[5] With the overture, there are thirty musical tracks in all in the Amsterdam set. Track 7 is the famous Garland overture for which, according to DRG Records President Hugh Fordin (born 1935) (email to the author, October 23, 2012), “Roger [Edens] laid out the song order and Nelson [Riddle] did the orchestration.” According to Gerald Waters (email to the author, October 23, 2012), Garland’s first overture, starting from October 1951, was done in “a low key classical style” and included “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe,” “But Not For Me,” “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” and “Over the Rainbow.” Waters continues that as of 1956 a second overture, again in “a low key classical style,” this time included “The Man That Got Away” and was used until around September 1957. Finally, according to Waters, “The completely new (UP TEMPO) overture we know today I first heard performed in March 1958 at the Town and Country Club in Brooklyn. It was repeated the next year at the Met Opera House with the addition of “The Boy Next Door” immediately before “The Man That Got Away.” Scott Schechter, in his book Judy Garland: The Day-By-Day Chronicle Of A Legend (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002, p.211) states in his October 16, 1957 entry about Garland’s Dominion Theatre (London) run that “Judy’s act included the new “Garland Overture,” arranged by Buddy Bregman, who had started doing some work for her that summer/fall, and would do work on Judy’s entire act in early 1958. (The Overture, which included “The Trolley Song,” “The Man That Got Away,” and her signature song, “Over The Rainbow,” was so thrilling, that it would open all of her engagements for the rest of her life.)” About Schechter’s entry that Bregman (born 1930) was responsible for the overture, Hugh Fordin responded (email to the author, October 24, 2012): “Scott was wrong.”
[6] Garland was in Doctors Hospital in New York between November 18, 1959 and January 5, 1960.
[7] Words by Dory Langdon (1925-2012), music by André Previn (born 1929).
[8] Pepe , Collector’s Choice Music CCM-113-2, 1999.
[9] That’s Entertainment!/I Could Go On Singing, EMI/Capitol Music Special Markets, Collectables COL-CCD-2839
72435-37581-2-7, 2002.
[10] Recorded June 8, 9, and 17, 1960.
[11] July 14, 1960.
[12] December 31, 1960.
[13] The London Studio Recordings 1957-1964, First Hand Records, FHR-12, 2011. Also available in a Japanese edition: First Hand Records/King International, KKP-5011/12 (FHR 12), 2012.
[14] Studio 1.
[15] Recorded August 2-9, 1960. There is some controversy as to whether Garland recorded on August 9. For a discussion of this, see: Schulman, Lawrence. ARSC Journal (2012; 43(1):119-126); online at: http://judygarlandnews.com/reviews/arsc-journals-review-of-first-hand-records-judy-garland-the-london-studio-recordings-1957-1964/.
[16] Garland played the London Palladium on August 28, 1960 and September 4, 1960, and appeared at the London Palladium as part of the Royal Variety Show on December 1, 1960.
[17] In 1960, Garland gave four shows in Paris: at the Palais de Chaillot on October 5 and 7, 1960, and at the Olympia on October 28 and 29, 1960.
[18] October 16, 1960, Leeds Odeon Theatre.
[19] October 23, 1960, Birmingham Odeon Theatre.
[20] October 26, 1960, Kurhaus, in a campaign stop in support of John F. Kennedy.
[21] Two concerts in November 1960, venue unknown.
[22] November 15, 1960, De Montford Hall.
[23] December 4, 1960, Free Trade Hall. This show is said to have been recorded, but no recording has surfaced to date.
[24] See the liner notes, entitled “Renaissance: 1959-1961,” by this author in Judy Garland à Paris, Europe 1/RTE/Trema, 710459, 1994 (French edition), and Europe 1, RTE 2001-2, 1994 (English edition); online at http://www.jgdb.com/2001.htm.
[25] Musicorama was a popular musical program broadcast by the radio station Europe 1 between 1956 and 1975. It was revived by the same station in 2012.
[26] Op. cit., 24. The recording was re-released by Laserlight Digital (23351) in 2005, without this author’s liner notes, under the title Judy Garland: Live in Paris.
[27] (Born 1943). Marc Exiga, head of RTE, was the executive producer of countless live CDs – jazz, rock, and pop – from the Europe 1 archives.
[28] Total playing time: 59:36.
[29] This song was new to Garland’s repertoire.
[30] Garland had previously sung this song on the radio: with Bing Crosby on The Bing Crosby Show (aired March 28, 1951); with Bing Crosby on The Bing Crosby Show (aired May 28, 1952); with Bing Crosby on The Cancer Fund Radio Show (aired April 1953).
[31] Total playing time: 02:06:19.
[32] Gerald Waters saw Garland on stage countless times in the 1950s and 1960s in the New York-Washington D.C. area, and filmed a good many of those appearances on his 8mm and 16mm silent movies cameras. Clips from his films were used in the 1985 television documentary The Concert Years and the 2004 Emmy award-winning PBS American Masters documentary, Judy Garland: By Myself. Waters was interviewed in 2011 for the BBC Radio 2 documentary, Dear Judy, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Garland’s performance at Carnegie Hall, which he attended.
[33] (1921-1995). David Begelman took over Columbia Pictures in 1973, and in 1980 became CEO and president of MGM.
[34] (1918-2000). For more on Boris Rose, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704354704575651483072044218.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Darticle.
[35] Annie Get Your Gun, Dr. Green’s Wax Works, AGYG 100 (Stereo), late 1970s; The Rare Early Broadcast Performances, Accessor Pro, STCT 1001 (Stereo), 1970s; The Greatest Duets, Broadcast Tributes, BTRIB 0002, 1970’s; The Long Lost Bing ‘n’ Judy Off The Air Performances, Broadcast Tributes, 0005, 1970s; Little Nellie Kelly/Thousands Cheer, Cheerio, 5000, circa 1970s; Pigskin Parade/Everybody Sing, Pilgrim, 4000 (Stereo), circa 1970s. The back cover of The Rare Early Broadcast Performances states that it is made by “Pesce-Wenbatto Division P Carlos, New Mexico.” The back cover of The Greatest Duets indicates “Garden Club, Claxton, Maine VTRIB002.” The front cover of Little Nellie Kelly/Thousands Cheer states “”A Salutatory Event Of Extraordinary Significance Promulgated By The Artistic Endeavors Of Eminent Performers” and “Genuine And Reliable Interpretations Of Outstanding Performances.” The back cover states the LP was “Produced for Gwenn Sarducci Productions, Italy.” The front cover of Pigskin Parade/Everybody Sing is labeled “Produced and mastered for Sandra Daytano, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503.”
[36] http://www.thejudyroom.com/misc/longlostholland.html gives the date as the 1970s. William Ruhlmann, at http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-in-concert-the-legendary-amsterdam-concert-1960-mw0000017715, states that these three LPs were issued “in the late ’70s and early ’80s.” The author’s collection has no price sticker with date on the first two LPs, although the third LP has a sticker marked 2/80.
[37] The Long Lost Holland Concert – “The Rarest Garland Ever,” Obligato, GIH 60; Judy Garland in Holland, vol. II; Obligato, GIH 610; Judy Garland in Holland, vol. 3, Obligato, GIH 6100. Adele and Borj van Rensselaer, co-mistress and master of ceremonies. All three LPs were issued by Obligato Supreme in conjunction with the Teesdale, Arizona Garland Society from original tapes mastered in Volendam, Holland. The information on the LP covers was made up by Boris Rose. All three LPs also contained songs from Garland’s April 25, 1962 Manhattan Center performance in New York. The third Obligato LP also included songs from the Bing Crosby Radio Show.
[38] (1933-2012).
[39] (1928-2011).
[40] (Born 1942).
[41] 75 miles from the author. According to van Heeswijk (phone conversation with the author, December 2, 2012): “Boris would exchange tapes with people. Nothing was sacred for Boris. Anything off the radio was in the public domain, according to Boris, who lived, let us not forget, in the Nixon era. I doubt the Garland concert was recorded in the hall. He owned the building he lived in on 10th Street, although his pressing plant was in Brooklyn, where 5000 LPs were usually pressed. He had a tremendous archive.”
[42] Ruhlmann, op. cit., 36. The Judy Garland Online Discography lists this CD as having been released in 1996. Ruhlmann, on the Allmusic web page, gives two dates for this CD: 1999 and August 14, 2000. Amazon also gives an August 14, 2000 release date. The CD itself has “℗© 1996 Intermusic S.A.” on the back cover.
[43] The Legendary Amsterdam Concert 1960, Double Gold, DBG 53044, 1996, with liner notes by William Hogeland. This CD set also contained songs from Garland’s April 25, 1962 Manhattan Center performance in New York.
[44] The Amsterdam “Over the Rainbow” has long been available online and in collectors’ circles.
[45] Lorna Luft (born 1952), Liza Minnelli (born 1946), and Joe Luft (born 1955). John Fricke (born 1950), consultant.
[46] Track 1: Judy Garland interviewed by Nikko van Fleet; Track 2: Male dialogue; Track 3: Orchestral Number; Track 4: Ageeth Scherphuis announcement; Track 5: Orchestral Introduction; Track 6: Norrie Paramor interviewed by Ageeth Scherphuis. Ageeth Scherphuis was a Dutch journalist and broadcaster. The orchestral introduction heard on track 5 is the same introduction heard on track 1 of the Europe 1/RTE/Trema Paris CD.
[47] Other filler – silences before the show, organ music during the intermission – has been edited out.
[48] Track 26: Sid Luft interviewed by Ageeth Scherphuis. Sid Luft (1915-2005) was married to Garland between 1952 and 1965, and managed and produced her for a good many years.
[49] “Judyism” has in recent years become a frequently used term to describe the modern-day, fan-based devotion to all things Garland. Employed in 1974 by LGBT activist, film historian and author Vito Russo (1946-1990) and Lenny Bloom (born 1947), and in 1976 in the printed press (see: Jebb, Julian, “Transmission effect,” The Listener, [London, England], January 8, 1976, Issue 2439, p.15), the term was recently used by both The New York Times in a headline in an article about the Broadway show End of the Rainbow (see: Leleux, Robert, “The Road Gets Rougher for Judyism’s Faithful,” The New York Times, April 5, 2012, or at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/arts/judy-garland-gay-idol-then-and-over-the-rainbow-now.html), and by The Huffington Post in a headline about the above article (see: Fernandez, Carlos, “The Death of Judyism and What It Means For Gay Men,” The Huffington Post, April 24, 2012, or at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-fernandez/judyism-divas-gay-men_b_1447784.html). In an interview at the website here & now, Leleux defines “Judyism” as “a religious faith of which she is the goddess” (see: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/06/08/judy-garland-gay). For a further discussion of “Judyism” and “the Church of Garland,” see: Schulman, Lawrence. ARSC Journal (2001; 32(1):110-116), or http://www.jgdb.com/arsc7.htm. Believers in “Judyism” adhere to the belief that all that does not present Garland in the best light is anathema, and that those who do not follow this scripture deserve excommunication. Outsiders are odd, dissent is taboo and fundamentalism the rule in “Judyism.” “Judy product” is another neologism believers in “Judyism” use to describe commercial products (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, books, etc.) they can purchase to fill their needs. In the 1960s, Garland worship was commonly called a cult. For more information, see: Goldman, William. The Season (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969, pp.3-8); Dyer, Richard. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society. London: BFI/MacMillan, 1992, pp.141-194 (reprint from The MacMillan Press Ltd. first publication, 1986).
[50] (1961-2009). For a discussion and biography of Scott Schechter, see: Schulman, Lawrence, “The Plagued History of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli “Live” at the London Palladium, 1965-2009.” ARSC Journal, 2009; 40(2):174-188, published online at: http://www.thejudyroom.com/capitol/palladiumarticle.pdf.
[51] Original LP: Capitol, SWBO-2295, 1965. Most recent re-issue: DRG Records–EMI Music Special Markets, DRG-CD-19126, 2010. The DRG CD is an expanded, slightly resequenced re-issue of the original LP, but it is far from the complete show. For the review of the DRG set, see: Fisher, James. ARSC Journal, 2011;42(1):132-134.
[52] For the full story of these two aborted releases, see: Schulman, op. cit., 50.
[53] Schechter at least had the elegance of opening the aborted Palladium sets with the actual – and never previously released – beginning of the 1964 concert, and not outside tracks. His desire to release the full Palladium show as performed was comparable to First Hand’s desire to release the full Amsterdam show as broadcast. Schechter was scorned for his completest practices by some of the very people involved in the First Hand release. Had he dared put outside tracks at the start of the aborted sets, he would have been even more savagely attacked than he was at the time. For a full track listing, including bonus tracks, of the two aborted sets, see: Schulman, op. cit., 50, p.178, Figure 2. Schechter was also criticized for allegedly botching the mix on a few songs Garland did live and subsequently did retakes on in the studio; the remastered mix of live and studio sessions was labeled not up to professional standards by certain commentators.
[54] Songs from the London Sessions Garland did not sing in Amsterdam were: “Lucky Day,” “Medley: Judy at the Palace,” “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe,” “I Happen To Like New York” (with chorus), “Why Was I Born?,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (with chorus).
[55] See: Fricke, John. Judy Garland: World’s Greatest Entertainer (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992, p.180).
[56] Max Preeo, head of the musical-theatre-original-cast-recordings email discussion list CastRecL (http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/castrecl), started in 1970 and ongoing, and creator of the magazine Show Music (1981-2002), writes (email to the author, August 28, 2012): “When I was in Chicago for the post-Carnegie Hall concert, there was an article by one of the local entertainment columnists mentioning the London recordings having been done for a two-LP boxed set titled A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY. As I recall, it said it was to contain songs “associated with” Judy, newly-recorded in stereo, plus some she hadn’t recorded before. I don’t think Capitol actually ever released any publicity about it (at the time) because of the project being scrapped. Nor do I remember reading anything about the album anywhere else in that time period. When Capitol finally got around to releasing the LPs, I guess it made more sense to call it JUDY IN LONDON — perhaps to indicate it wasn’t the “usual” tracks.”
[57] Garland finished the Amsterdam show around 2 A.M.
[58] Garland’s stage show from the 1950s always included an opening act. Starting in 1960, Garland performed solo, except in 1965 (The Allen Brothers: Act I), 1967 (Jackie Vernon, John Bubbles, Francis Brunn: Act I), and 1969 (Johnny Ray: Act I).
[59] Freddie Fields (1923-2007) and David Begelman founded Creative Management Associates (CMA) in 1960, and Garland, who signed with them in mid-December 1960, was one of their first clients. Under CMA’s management, Garland undertook her 1961 American tour, returned to the screen in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), recorded a 45-rpm single for Capitol Records (1961), sang in the soundtrack to the animated feature Gay-Purr-ee (1962), taped a CBS TV special The Judy Garland Show with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (1962), filmed John Cassavetes’ A Child Is Waiting (1963), recorded the Capitol album Judy Takes Broadway (1962, released 1989), filmed Ronald Neame’s I Could Go On Singing (1963), taped a CBS TV special Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet (1963), and performed in her CBS TV series The Judy Garland Show (1963-1964). Garland’s association with Begelman turned into lawsuits and counter-lawsuits after Garland and ex-husband Sid Luft accused him of embezzlement. Despite that, needing representation, and with the assistance of songwriter and companion John Meyer (born May 21, 1937), she re-signed with CMA in 1968. Begelman eventually killed himself. For more on Begelman, see: McClintick, David. Indecent Exposure. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1982; Meyer, John. Heartbreaker. New York: Citadel Press, 2006 (reprint from Doubleday and Company, Inc. first publication, 1983); Sanders, Coyne Steven. Rainbow’s End. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990.
[60] Garland’s first American engagement was in Miami on January 9, 1961. Her first show under CMA management was in the Catskills, New York on February 12, 1961, for which Mort Lindsey (1923-2012) first conducted for her. The American tour officially began in Dallas on February 21, 1961 and ended in Washington, D.C. on December 9, 1961, and included thirty dates in all.
[61] (1914-1979). Norrie Paramor was Garland’s conductor on the London Sessions and on her European concert dates at the time.
[62] September 13, 1935. She also sang “Eili, Eili.”
[63] The Shell Chateau Hour, November 16, 1935, NBC, broadcast live from KFI Studios, Los Angeles. Available on: Lost Tracks, JSP Records, JSP 965, 2010. Also: Good News of 1939, aired October 20, 1938; The Chase and Sanborn Hour, aired December 7, 1941; Command Performance #58, aired March 20, 1943; The Frank Sinatra Show, aired May 24, 1944.
[64] Garland’s first attempt at recording this song for Decca Records on July 29, 1939 (DLA-A 1852) was rejected (source: Ruppli, Michel. The Decca Labels: A Discography. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996, Vol. I, p. 111). Her second attempt on October 16, 1939 (DLA 1870-A) was not. The rejected side has never surfaced, although the released master can be heard on: Judy Garland – Smilin’ Through: The Singles Collection 1936-1947, JSP Records, JSP 971, 2011.
[65] Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm, daughter of Ethel Marion Gumm (née Milne) (1893-1953), first stepped on stage at her father Frank Avent Gumm’s (1886-1935) movie theater, the New Grand, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on December 26, 1924, and sang “When My Sugar Walks Down the Street” with her sisters Mary Jane (a.k.a. Susie) (1915-1964) and Virginia (a.k.a. Jimmie) (1917-1977), billed as The Gumm Sisters, and also sang “Jingle Bells” solo.
[66] (Born 1926). David Lee played piano for Garland throughout 1960. He also recorded with her the live version of “It Never Was You,” heard in the 1963 film I Could Go On Singing, Garland’s last movie.
[67] (1905-1970). Roger Edens was Garland’s voice coach and mentor at M-G-M starting when she signed with the studio on September 27, 1935. He composed, among others, “Waltz with a Swing” (1936), “In Between” (1938), “Sweet Sixteen” (1939), “Figaro” (1939), “Nobody” (1940), “Drummer Boy” (1940), “Do the La Conga” (1940), “It’s a Great Day For the Irish” (1940), “A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow” (1940), “Our Love Affair” (1940), “Minnie From Trinidad” (1941), “Hoe Down” (1941), “Judy at the Palace” (1951), “Born in a Trunk” (1954), and “It’s Lovely To Be Back in London” (1957), all of which Garland recorded. He also wrote special material and vocal arrangements for Garland throughout her career.
[68] Leo Is On the Air [with Doug McPhail] (aired Fall 1940); The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope (aired December 24, 1940); Command Performance #35 (aired October 9, 1942); Command Performance #81 (aired 1943); Everything for the Boys [parody version with Dick Haymes] (aired July 11, 1944).
[69] Legends & Songwriters in Concert, Greek Relief Fund, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, February 25, 1941; see: Legends & Songwriters in Concert 1941, Original Cast Records, OC-9839, 1998.
[70] Thanks to James Fisher for suggesting this qualitative (email to the author, November 27, 2012).
[71] The bridge Garland sang flawlessly in Amsterdam included: “Now, there’s Terrence O’Toole and his cousin Phil Doherty, Patrick O’Bogle and Mullin McGrew, Mike Maley, Tim Dayley, and Barney O’Flagherty, Danny O’Doul and ‘tis Shamus Carewe. Conleys and Donleys and Padraic O’Bannigan, Ryans, O’Briens, McLaughlins, and Lynch, McGloans and McFaddens and Mister Pat Flannagan, Hogans and Glogans, McPhersons and Finch.” In addition to the above, in Little Nellie Kelly, she added: “Cowans, McGowans, and Carricks and Garricks,
Mahoneys, Maloneys, O’Donnels, and O’Connels are here to join the jubilee!”
[72] It is the only song from her Amsterdam program she did not do at Carnegie Hall.
[73] Garland sang this song as a youngster. See: Frank, Gerold. Judy. New York: Harper & Row, 1975, p. 57.
[74] Garland’s Paris Olympia performance, according to her remarks during the Amsterdam show, included “How About Me” as an encore. The song was not included on the Musicorama program or on the subsequent CD release. Although previously recorded in the studio on her Capitol LP Alone (1957), a live “How About Me?” in Paris, had it been preserved, would have been new on CD. The only live versions of “How About Me?” known to exist at present were recorded on September 9, 1958 at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, which has long circulated as a bootleg but has never been released on CD, and on November 8, 1963 in Hollywood for episode 13 of The Judy Garland Show television series, available on DVD in The Judy Garland Show Collection, Box One, Pioneer, Volume Four, 1999.
[75] It did, however, include several songs new to the 1960 ear. In that the London Sessions were not released on LP until 1972, the 1960 Amsterdam audience was, of course, discovering songs from those sessions which were new to Garland’s discography, namely “You Go To My Head” and “Stormy Weather.” Garland’s first studio performance of “San Francisco” was at the London Sessions, but she had previously performed it in concerts. However, these stage performances had not been commercially released in 1960. Also new to the Amsterdam audience was “A Foggy Day,” which Garland never recorded in the studio.
[76] Pleasants, Henry. The Great American Popular Singers (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1974, p.286).
[77] Op. cit., 13.
[78] Email to the author, November 1, 2012.
[79] Ibid.
[80] Op. cit., 37, 43.
[81] The booklet can be found online at: http://www.firsthandrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/FHR18_booklet.pdf.
[82] Summers also produced and wrote the liner notes for First Hand Records’ 2011 Judy Garland: The London Studio Recordings 1957-1964. Op. cit., 13.
[83] A joint First Hand Records/King International release, Judy Garland – The Amsterdam Concert: December 1960 is also available in a Japanese edition: First Hand Records/King International, KKP-5113/4 (FHR 18), 2012. The booklet and covers have been integrally translated into Japanese by Yasuhiro Yoden, and there is a special essay, entitled “Judy Garland in Amsterdam, 1960,” written by Keizo Takada.
[84] July 10, 1961.
[85] Garland flubbed many a lyric in her time, but never repeatedly at the same point in a song. This repeat flub could be Garland’s way of milking the audience: “Poor Judy. She’s always forgetting the words.” In fact, she was playing with her reputation, and thumbing her noise at it. She was a great manipulator.
[86] One line Garland uses at the Tuschinski and at Carnegie Hall is: “I don’t know why it is I can never perspire. I just sweat.”
[87] Garland played eight dates in the United States before she played Carnegie Hall.
[88] Where she also sang “Chicago,” one song she did not perform in Amsterdam.
[89] See interview with Steve Hoffman at: http://judygarlandnews.com/2012/05/09/interview-with-steve-hoffman/.
[90] Judy at Carnegie Hall was also issued on LP in mono by Capitol Records: Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall, Capitol, Capitol WBO/SWBO-1569, 1961. Reissued by JSP Records in 2012: Op. cit., 2.
[91] Among whom: John Bello, trumpet; William Lavorgna, drums; Howard Hirsch, percussion.
[92] (1923-2012). Mort Lindsey was a pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, who started working with Garland in 1961, and was musical director for Garland’s last film, the 1963 I Could Go On Singing, as well as for The Judy Garland Show on CBS in 1963-1964. He conducted for her as late as 1968. Lindsey worked with Pat Boone, Eddie Fisher, Liza Minnelli, Willie Nelson, Michael Bublé, and others, and won an Emmy in 1969 for Barbra Streisand’s CBS special, A Happening in Central Park. He led the orchestra on The Merv Griffin Show between 1962 and 1986.