Posted by “One wonders if she would not have been a happier person if she had been a housewife, only known to her friends, than a big-name star who doesn’t seem to be able to adapt herself to her position in life.” – Uncredited article, 1958
April 7, 1929: “The Gumm Sisters” (Judy and her two sisters) performed in the “Meglin Kiddies Revue” at the Figueroa Playhouse in Los Angles, California. The sisters were a part of the Meglin Kiddies theatrical troupe for several years. Frances (Judy) had at least one solo, maybe more.
April 7, 1933: Frances (Judy) performed at a Little Club event at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
April 7, 1935: “The Garland Sisters” (Judy and her two sisters) performed in Lawlor’s School Spring Musical Play at the Masonic Temple Auditorium in Hollywood, California.
April 7, 1938: Judy appeared on the NBC Radio show “Good News of 1938.” Robert Taylor was the emcee. The other guests were Frank Morgan, Hanley Stafford, Fanny Brice, and Sam Levine. Judy sang “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and “Why? Because!” the latter with Fanny Brice, her co-star in the recently released Everybody Sing. No recording of the show is known to exist.
In his “Radiologic” column, Hower Caufield preferred Connie Boswell to Judy, stating, “Judy Garland, through with personal-appearaning, again steps into the picture. This means that there will be no room for Connie Boswell. Although Judy is a grand little singer, Connie is better one. Mr. Sponsor, I’m voicing a protest.”
The photo above of Judy with Fanny Brice might be from a different broadcast judging from Judy’s different attire or she might have changed between the rehearsal and when the studio audience was brought in to watch the live show.
Listen to Judy’s radio performances from this era (and more) on The Judy Room’s “Judy Sings!” pages.
April 7, 1940: The “Minneapolis Star” featured some famous Minnesotans, including guess who?
April 7, 1943: Filming on Girl Crazy continued with more scenes shot on the “Exterior Indian Rock” set. Time called: 10:22 a.m.; dismissed: 4:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Girl Crazy here.
April 7, 1944: Filming on Meet Me In St. Louis continued with scenes shot on the “Interior Smith Living Room” set. Time called: 10:00 a.m.; Judy was ready at 10:30 a.m.; dismissed: 4:00 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Meet Me In St. Louis here.
April 7, 1946: The Harvey Girls and Ziegfeld Follies of 1946.
April 7, 1947: Till The Clouds Roll By (released in 1946).
April 7, 1947: The newly formed MGM Records label was promoting the release of the very first MGM Records album, the soundtrack to Till The Clouds Roll By. In today’s parlance, the album “dropped” on Tuesday, March 11, 1947.
Record critics welcomed the new label and the “Clouds” set was given good reviews. MGM was off and running with a new revenue stream while also creating a new market, the original soundtrack album. MGM Records released soundtracks to just about all of their musicals, and a few dramatic films, in the next 20+ years. All of Judy’s MGM musicals from 1946 through the end of her tenure with the studio in 1950 had MGM Records soundtracks created to complement them.
Originally the soundtracks were four 78 rpm discs with two sides each meaning only eight songs from the films could be included. This means that there was a lot of editing of the musical numbers to fit the short time constraints of the 78s and also some cherry-picking of the “best” numbers from films with more than eight numbers, as most of them were. It wouldn’t be until the long-playing records were developed that MGM began to include more songs from their recent musicals, Kiss Me Kate (1953), which was one of the first in the long-playing format.
Oddly enough, MGM Records never released updated and expanded versions of their originally-78rpm-albums in the LP era. They were content to re-release the existing soundtracks, over and over again. In the late 1980s and early 1990s CBS Special Products (later Sony Music Entertainment Inc./Sony Music Special Products), released expanded soundtracks that were taken directly from the actual film soundtracks and not the pre-recording sessions.
Finally, in the mid-1990s, Rhino Records, working with Turner Entertainment, began to release expanded “complete” soundtracks to MGM musicals utilizing the surviving pre-recordings as their main source of content.
Recent technology in audio restoration software has resulted in the revisiting of some of these pre-recordings. The results are phenomenal. Hopefully, Warner Bros., who now owns the Rhino soundtracks, will revisit all of the soundtracks and remaster them with today’s technology giving us the ultimate in audio clarity and sonic enjoyment.
The most recent example of what our new technology is capable of is the fantastic two-CD set “Soundtracks” from Mint Audio Records. The set features not just a great compilation of Judy’s film performances, but also several new-to-CD versions of Garland film favorites including some MGM Records album versions, film versions, and stereo versions previously unavailable on CD. This is the compilation that fans of Judy’s film soundtracks have been waiting for! More details on each recording and how some of the audio magic of these tracks was accomplished, can be found here.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s Till The Clouds Roll By pages here.
April 7, 1947: Filming on The Pirate continued on the “Exterior Port Sebastian Dock” set on MGM’s Lot #2, the “Chinese Street” which was flooded to look like a port (the flooding of the set for various films was not unusual). Judy was not in any of the “Port Sebastian Dock” scenes but she was in scenes that took place in “Port Sebastian” on MGM’s soundstages. It’s doubtful Judy had any work on the film on these days of shooting on the backlot. Those who did work on this day had an 11:00 a.m. call and were dismissed at 1:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
April 7, 1949: The second and last day of filming the ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly” number for Annie Get Your Gun on the “Exterior Wilson House” set. Judy had a call to be in makeup at 7:00 a.m., due on the set at 9:00 a.m., and arrived on set at 9:30 a.m. The assistant director’s notes are especially detailed:
10:40-10:54 – Wait for Miss Garland, putting on final wardrobe and makeup.
10:54-11:08 – Rehearsal with principles to playback
11:08-11:11 – Add makeup for principles
11:11-11:35 – Shoot 8 takes
11:35-11:42 – Camera reload
11:42-11:44 – Shoot 1 take
11:44-12:10 – Rehearse set boom action; continuation of number
Note: at 12 noon Miss Garland told Director she thought her toe was broken yesterday during rehearsal when she dropped a rifle on it. She left the lot at 12 noon to go and have her toe x-rayed.
12:10-1:10 – Lunch
Miss Garland returned to set from x-rays at 1:55 p.m.
2:00-2:11 – Rehearse set boom action with principles
2:11-2:15 – Rehearse Miss Garland for sync
2:15-2:19 – Add lighting
2:19-2:23 – Rehearse to playback, set boom action
2:23-2:25 – Add lighting
2:25-2:31 – Final makeup principals
2:31-2:35 – Rehearse
2:35-2:47 – Shoot 4 takes, and stills
2:47-3:54 – Director laying out action of scene, set boom action (Children finish school from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.)
3:54-4:07 – L&L Ext. Wilson Lawn
4:07-4:13 – Shoot silent wardrobe test Edward Arnold
4:13-4:25 – Continue lighting Ext. Wilson Lawn
4:25-4:30 – Wait for Carol Sue Sherwood: was hit in neck while playing, and went to hospital to have neck examined.
4:30-4:51 – Rehearse action with principals
4:51-4:55 – Final wardrobe and makeup for principals
4:55-4:59 – Add lighting
4:59-5:01 – Wait for director
5:01-5:04 – Shoot 1 take
5:04-5:10 – Cameral reload
5:10-5:24 – Shoot 5 takes
5:24-5:32 – Trim
5:32-5:45 – Shoot 4 takes
5:45 – Finish
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Annie Get Your Gun here.
April 7, 1951: Judy’s recent appearance on Bing Crosby’s radio show was broadcast in Hawaii. The show was originally broadcast in the continental U.S. on March 28th.
April 7, 1953: Leonard Lyons’ column noted Judy’s new contract with Columbia Records. She did, in fact, record four singles for the label, and the soundtrack album for A Star Is Born was, in fact, also released by the label.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
April 7, 1954: “It’s Tough All Over” – Army Archerd’s column was devoted to Judy’s movie comeback in A Star Is Born, which was currently filming at Warner Bros. At this time, Judy was on a two-week vacation from the film, which had finished principal photography in late March. In mid-April, Judy returned to work on the film for retakes, post-recording of dialog, and the lengthy “Born In A Trunk” sequence.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
April 7, 1955: A Star Is Born.
April 7, 1958: The second and last installment of Jean Bosquet’s article about Judy’s recent troubles and heartbreak career. The first half of the article was published the day before on April 6th.
The second and third images address Judy’s recent tax issues.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
April 7, 1961: Judy was on her way to Atlanta, Georgia.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
April 7, 1963: “Highlights” magazine featured this article about Judy and I Could Go On Singing.
April 7, 1964: Judy wrote a check to the Southern Pacific Railroad for $65.95. The purpose of the check is unknown.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
April 7, 1965: Judy was all set to appear at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 22nd.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
April 7, 1965: TV viewers in Alexandria, Louisiana, were treated to a showing of Till The Clouds Roll By.
April 7, 1965: MGM Records’ latest Garland compilation LP, simply titled “Judy Garland,” was in stores. It was part of the label’s “Metro” series of reissues.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s “Judy Garland” page here.
April 7, 1968: Judy’s upcoming appearance at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena was advertised.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
April 7, 2014: Judgment at Nuremberg was released on DVD in the UK.