Posted by “Somewhere over that rainbow, for Judy Garland, was a big pot of gold called Applause” – Sue Brandt McBeem, The Austin American, 1961
May 14, 1926: “The Gumm Sisters” (Judy and her two sisters) performed at their father’s theater, the New Grand Theater, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
May 14, 1937: Judy and Mickey Rooney attended the premiere of Captains Courageous at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, California. Rooney was one of the film’s young stars. According to the papers, the film simultaneously premiered in 25 other cities and towns across the country covered by a nationwide radio hookup. The duo had previously attended a gala preview along with the other child star of the film, Freddie Bartholomew, and joined by a few other child stars including Jackie Cooper and Peggy Montgomery.
May 14, 1937: This article reports about a planned series of sequels to the hit film Pigskin Parade released in 1936. The film, produced by 20th-Century Fox, was Judy’s feature film debut and her only loan out during her time at MGM. Judy’s name isn’t listed in the article and it’s unknown if Fox planned to have her come back.
It’s unlikely that at this point MGM would have loaned Judy to Fox. At this time she was immersed in work on her MGM feature film debut, Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), and even though she wasn’t a big star yet, she was definitely on her way. MGM wasn’t about to tie her up anywhere but on their own lot.
May 14, 1939: Judy and Betty Jaynes pre-recorded the “Opera Vs. Jazz” number for Babes in Arms. The number included excerpts from “You Are My Lucky Star,” “Figaro,” and “Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight)?” The “Opera vs. Jazz” theme was one that MGM enjoyed using to show off Judy’s talents for swing singing and to sell her to the public as a “hot” singer. She performed variations of the theme in some of her radio appearances at the time. She most famously had previously performed the same basic routine with Deanna Durbin in their famous 1936 short, Every Sunday. Deanna sang “Waltz With A Swing” while Judy sang “Americana.” The two then sang both as a competitive duet.
Listen to the sequence here:
Unfortunately, I do not have the Daily Music Report for this day.
May 14, 1939: A few Garland blurbs, including one about Judy taking her schoolteacher with her on tour to New York, which had already ended and Judy was back at the studio filming Babes in Arms.
May 14, 1940: Judy’s weekly appearance on “The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope” on NBC. This was Judy’s final appearance on the show. The next two were broadcast on May 21 and May 28 out of Chicago and New York respectively. Judy was in Los Angeles working on Strike Up The Band. Newspaper notices on this day noted that it was Hope’s last show broadcast from Hollywood until June 11. By that point, Judy was too busy at MGM to commit to a weekly radio program. It’s also noted that Judy sang “Carioca” on this broadcast. No recording is known to exist.
May 14, 1940: Judy sells Studebakers.
May 14, 1942: Filming continued on For Me And My Gal on the “Interior Jo’s Hotel Room” set. Time called: 10 a.m.; dismissed: 6:15 p.m.
Photo provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on For Me And My Gal here.
May 14, 1943: For Me And My Gal (released in 1942) was still in theatres.
May 14, 1945: A busy day for Judy. First up: A relatively short filming schedule on The Harvey Girls. Judy was due on the set at 11 a.m. She arrived at 11:10 a.m.; dismissed at 5:35 p.m. Scenes shot were those on the “Interior Rail Road Coach” set.
From 8 to 11 p.m. Judy was at the Decca Records studios in Hollywood recording songs from The Harvey Girls for release as part of Decca’s “cast album” of songs from the film.
These Decca recordings were not soundtracks but studio recreations of songs from the film. Judy and the Decca chorus, under the guidance of MGM’s brilliant vocal arranger Kay Thompson, recorded “March of the Doagies” and “Swing Your Partner Round and Round.” Thompson became a lifelong friend of Judy’s as well as a godmother to Judy’s first child, Liza Minnelli.
March of the Doagies
Swing Your Partner Round And Round
When the album was released on November 1, 1945, “March of the Doagies” was not included because it was deleted from the film. The removal of the song from the Decca album created an uneven number of sides for the album. The intent was to have four discs with eight songs.
Decca remedied this by having Judy come in and re-record “On The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” on September 10, 1945. The number had originally taken up one disc (two sides) with a recreation of the elaborate introduction by the chorus on the first side (as it is in the film), then Judy’s entrance into the song beginning on the flip side of the disc with her singing the intro “What a lovely trip…” Decca had Judy re-record the song because they deleted that full chorus introduction, so “What a lovely trip” didn’t make sense. The re-recording had Judy singing “What a lovely day.” The final album featured only three discs with six songs. The standard albums of the times were four discs with eight songs.
“March of the Doagies” was not released until November 12, 1984, when it was included on the “From The Decca Vaults” LP.
To confuse things even more, when Decca began re-releasing Judy’s recordings in the LP era, they mistakenly released the original “What a lovely trip…” version of “On The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.” The later re-recording (“What a lovely day”) had its LP debut on that same 1984 “From The Decca Vaults” LP.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s Decca “cast album” of songs from the film.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s “From The Decca Vaults” page here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Harvey Girls here.
Also on this day was this amusing satirical piece that used Judy’s corset scene in Meet Me In St. Louis as its inspiration.
May 14, 1947: Filming in The Pirate continued with scenes shot on the “Exterior Plaza Calvados” set. Judy was due on the set at 1 p.m., she arrived at 2:23 p.m. The assistant director’s notes state: “3:40 p.m.: Miss Garland too ill to continue – left set.”
Meanwhile, MGM’s Publicity Department was making the keeping of Judy’s name in the public eye a family affair, with 14-month-old daughter Liza Minnelli, rumored to play a baby in the film. That never happened, although Liza did visit the set at least twice, as shown above (photo undated), and also on May 28, 1947, which was extensively covered by an MGM studio photographer.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
May 14, 1953: Judy’s struggle with her weight had been fodder for the papers since her early years at MGM. In this article, Louella Parsons notes Judy’s recent weight loss which was allegedly achieved in a safe manner. At least Parsons mentioned the negative effects of the crash diets Judy had previously been subjected to.
May 14, 1958: In the curio department is this letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune by Edmond Way who objected to Judy’s appearance at the recent Minnesota Centennial celebration in Minneapolis on May 11th. Note that in those days to “rap” meant to give, in this instance Judy’s performance, a “bad rap” (a “bad reputation”). It’s unknown what, if any, vulgar things Judy allegedly said. Knowing how much Judy respected her audience, she certainly wouldn’t have said anything inappropriate.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
May 14, 1961: Judy was in concert at the Music Hall in Clevland, Ohio. Daughter Lorna and son Joe shared the concert with her as it was Mother’s Day in the U.S.
May 14, 1961: This review by Sue Brandt McBee of Judy’s May 8th concert in Dallas was published in the Austin American paper (Austin, Texas). It’s a week late but better late than never! And once again, Judy’s weight is mentioned. There is also an early mention of the newly christened infamous “Judy Garland Cult” and another aspect of her fan group, “the believers.” By the end of the decade “the cult” became a negative slur aimed at the more hysterical, usually gay male, fans who attended her concerts. After her death, the cult continued and can now be found, still being hysterical, in various discussion groups on social media.
On this day, Judy was in concert at The Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. Daughter Lorna and son Joe shared the concert with Judy as it was Mother’s Day.
Judy Garland Proves Star Quality in Dallas
Monday night in Dallas, the mammoth STATE FAIR MUSIC HALL was packed. Every seat in the balcony was gone. The boxes were filled. Finally the deep-sunk orchestra pit was jammed with people.
For the second time in less than three months, JUDY GARLAND was in town.
Thirty minutes past curtain time the star strode onstage. True to advance reports, she was plump, her face considerably rounder than it had been in “A Star Is Born.” She wore a slim black sheath topped by a loose-blue satin jacket. Her legs, shown to advantage by a knee-high skirt and black suede pumps, were as gorgeous as ever.
When JUDY GARLAND appeared, there was a standing ovation. During the two-hour performance, there were six or seven more. She had to sing her jazzed-up version of “San Francisco” twice. And when the show was over, it appeared the crowd would never let her go. A double contingent of guards was assigned to protect her from the overly enthusiastic as she left her dressing room for her car.
This same sort of thing has, they say, been happening across the nation as JUDY GARLAND tours. Even a traditionally caustic TIME reviewer, who caught her show in Carnegie Hall, has admitted in print to falling reluctantly under her spell. There is talk of “the JUDY GARLAND cult” and of “the believers.”
Well, you can count us in. JUDY GARLAND has the quality – what do you call it, star quality? – possessed by a handful of great entertainers. AL JOLSON must have had it, and ETHEL MERMAN, and MARY MARTIN.
This is a quality, a something, not dependent upon great vocal range nor upon physical beauty. It does require talent plus a genuine love of show business – and it comes across the footlights to hold an audience in the palm of its hand.
Monday night in Dallas, JUDY GARLAND was backed by a large, sometimes irritatingly blarey, band. For one group of intimate songs her only accompaniment was from a piano. There were no dancers and no gimmicks. In her only costume change, at intermission, she replaced her dress with a pair of slim black pants and a glittery overblouse.
She punished her voice and sometimes it cracked under the strain. She repeatedly mopped her brow. She took a pill on stage. She kidded with the musicians and helped them move drums. Informality, one might put it, was the keynote of the event.
But when she belted out “Swanee” or “Trolley Song,” the audience stood up and yelled, and when she sang “The Man Who Got Away,” [sic] you could have heard that pin drop.
Has JUDY GARLAND had health problems? Marital problems? Weight problems? Career problems?
Nobody in Dallas’ MUSIC HALL Monday night could have cared less. Somewhere over that rainbow, for JUDY GARLAND, was a big pot of gold called Applause.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
May 14, 1966: According to Charles Whitbeck’s column, Burt Ward, the actor famous for his portrayal of “The Boy Wonder” in the iconic TV series “Batman” claimed to have entered show business because of Judy!
Only a year ago Burt was selling houses for his father, Burt Jervis, in Westwood, Cal., the home of UCLA, and his interest in show business was minor until Bonney Lindsay, now Mrs. Ward, took him to a CBS taping of a Judy Garland Show. Judy and the exciting atmosphere of the show mechanics struck home.
Burt decided he’d like to join an enthusiastic Bonney in taking a whack at acting. Bonney’s father, Mort Lindsay, musical conductor of the Garland Show, agreed to get them jobs in summer stock at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania.
May 14, 1972: Another publication of the first installment in a series of articles based on the book written by Judy’s last husband, Mickey Deans, was published in the “Show” section of the “Democrat and Chronicle” out of Rochester, New York. The series had already been published in other papers prior to this.
May 14, 2019: The Warner Archive re-released the Blu-ray edition of A Star Is Born in this simple clamshell packaging. Previously, it had only been available in the deluxe “Digi-book” format. The good news is that this Warner Archive release includes both of the discs from that deluxe set with all of the same content.
Check out The Judy Room’s Home Media page on this release here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Home Media page on the original digi-book here.
This page includes images of the previous home media editions going back to 1981!
Check out all of the Warner Archive releases here.