Posted by “She still has her voice and her acting ability.” – Louella Parsons in 1941, commenting on Judy successfully progressing to adult roles.
June 8, 1926: The first day of the Gumm family’s working vacation trip to California, destination Los Angeles. They billed themselves and “Jack and Virginia Lee and Three Kiddies.” “Jack and Virginia Lee” was the original name of Judy’s parent’s act before they settled down in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to start a family. The Gumm’s played the following towns along the way: Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Harve, Sheltpy, Whitefish, and Kalispell, Montana; various towns in Idaho; Cashmere and Leavenworth, Washington. They had a short break from performing and vacationed in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, and finally Los Angeles, California.
This was the first real “tour” of Judy Garland’s career, and she soloed on “In A Little Spanish Town” in an Egyptian costume. The family returned to their hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on July 17th and promptly made plans to relocate to Los Angeles, which would prove fortuitous for Judy’s life and career.
Image: Whitefish, Montana advertisement from June 18, 1926, featuring a billing for the family.
June 8, 1935: “The Garland Sisters” performed at the Lomita Theater in Lomita, California. This was Judy’s father’s, Frank Gumm’s, theater. At this point, both Judy’s mother and father began using the “Garland” name instead of the family surname of “Gumm.” Ads for the theater at this time referred to it as “Garland’s Lomita Theater.” This was the first of only two appearances the sisters made on the stage of their father’s last movie house. The second (and last) was on June 14, 1935.
Photos: The Garland Sisters performing at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles in March 1935; Judy in Los Angeles superior court for contract approval of Al Rosen as her representative in August 1935.
June 8, 1937: Judy’s weekly appearance on the “Jack Oakie’s College” show broadcast by CBS Radio. Judy sang “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” and “Shine On Harvest Moon.” No recordings of the show are known to exist.
Download the complete transcript of this show here (PDF).
Also on this date, Louella Parsons reported that Judy would be starred in a film titled Ugly Duckling. Luckily the title was changed to Everybody Sing.
June 8, 1939: Babes in Arms filming continued with more scenes shot on the “Exterior Moran Backyard” set, specifically the “Where Or When” number which Judy only sings a part of, but beautifully so. Time called: 9:00 a.m.; lunch 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.; time dismissed: 5:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes in Arms here.
June 8, 1940: MGM recording session for Strike Up The Band. Judy pre-recorded “Drummer Boy.” Time called: 10 a.m.; dismissed: 5 p.m.
Listen to “Drummer Boy” here:
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Strike Up The Band here.
June 8, 1940: In the Curio Department, this ad from Melbourne, Australia’s “The Age” paper for a Radio Ball that featured several acts including someone named Ray Dunne who was an “impersonator of Judy Garland.” If anyone out there has any further information about this person, please let me know.
June 8, 1940: This four-page spread from MGM appeared in the “Showmen’s Trade Review” trade magazine. Among the films promoted was Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
June 8, 1941: This story about Judy being invited to visit Greta Garbo on the set of Garbo’s new film is more studio-fed fluff. It’s doubtful that Garbo gave Judy an open invitation to visit her on the set of her next film or that she invited Judy to have tea with her. Garbo was notoriously private and Judy’s time was too precious to waste on a tea party.
Judy was big news for the studio due to her film hits and her recent engagement to David Rose (see below) and Garbo was currently filming the follow-up to her 1939 hit Ninotchka titled Two-Faced Woman which was an attempt to “Americanize” her. With the European market (Garbo’s main audience) drying up due to the escalating war, it was hoped that they could make Garbo more appealing to American audiences. Pairing her with Judy in a fluff piece makes perfect sense. Unfortunately for Garbo, Two-Faced Woman was a flop and ended up as her last film.
Also on June 8, 1941: Judy’s engagement to David Rose and her marriage plans was all the news in the entertainment sections and columns of the papers, including this extensive write-up by columnist Louella Parsons.
Judy Garland Makes Plans for Wedding to David Rose
FEELS SURE THAT MATRIMONY WILL NOT HARM CAREER
First Romance of Popular Ingenue Results in Real Adult Role.
By Louella O. Parsons
Hollywood, Cal. – Will Judy Garland’s marriage to David Rose affect her box office standing as one of the 10 most popular stars in Hollywood? Personally, I don’t see how marrying Rose will affect her career, even tho she has been billed as Mickey Rooney’s playmate and a hoyden who never has a serious romance on the screen. She cannot forever remain a child.
Deanna Durbin has always been pictured as a little girl and even now her few love scenes are done very subtly. In fact, when Robert Stack kissed her, her first screen kiss, it was publicized all over the country.
First Romance.
Judy, who is now 20, much prettier and slimmer than any of us thought she would be when she was at that awkward age, and a little on the plumpish side, is in love for the first time. David Rose is her first serious romance. They were first drawn together by a mutual love of music, an interest that has been a great bond. He saw in her a fresh, unspoiled girl with great talent and great sweetness and she found in him someone who had poise, dignity, an older man who talked sense instead of the slang of the younger generation.
I don’t know the details of the trouble that separated him and Martha Raye. She was gone for weeks and weeks on a personal appearance tour and when I saw her in Washington in early 1940 there was trouble brewing then altho Martha denied it. Judy came into David’s life just after his break with his wife and at a time when they had quarreled violently. The talk that Judy separated Martha and her husband is nonsense and Martha, who is now married to Neal Lang, hotel man, would be the first to deny that cruel chatter, I feel sure.
Grown Up.
For one thing, Judy was a little girl up to a year ago. Very young for her years, she was cast only as a high school girl or the kid girlfriend of Mickey. MGM tried, I think, to keep her a child because her great stock in trade was her little girl appearance and her singing voice with its terrific appeal to the youth of the country.
But Judy, just as Deana Durbin did, had to grow up and a girl as talented as she need not suffer because she has reached maturity. She still has her voice and her acting ability.
“It didn’t hurt Deanna Durbin to marry Vaughan Paul,” Judy told me, “and I don’t see how it can hurt me. David is very talented, he is a success in his field and there isn’t such a great difference in our ages as most people believe. I am 19 and he is 30.” Judy was at the Durbin wedding and it was then and there that she made up her mind there would be no elopement. She loved every part of the ceremony. Deanna’s veil, her bridesmaids and the solemnity of a wedding which had a sacred note not always found in Hollywood.
Guided Course Carefully.
Born Frances Gumm, she was renamed Judy Garland by M-G-M, who has guided her career very wisely and you may be sure that now that she is grown up, it will be guided just as carefully, M-G-M does not make mistakes with its important stars. I know that Judy tells the truth when she says that the studio has never interfered with her romance with Rose. I was at the Tony Martin party and Dave was there with her. I sat next to Louis B. Mayer who couldn’t have been nicer to Judy’s boy friend when she brought him over to our side of the table.
The garden party Judy is giving a week from today, her first big party, is a double occasion. She and Dave both have birthdays. So, if you believe in what the stars forecast, the future Mr. and Mrs. Rose will have the same sorrows, joys and experiences for they are born under the same sign and must, by that token be congenial because they are alike.
Rose Is Charming.
I am sure my readers who love Judy and have applauded her as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and in “Little Nellie Kelly” in “Babes in Arms” would like to know more about the man who will become her husband.
For one thing, he has a gracious, charming personality. His hair is prematurely gray and he is, in the opinion of most women, extremely handsome. He has three radio shows a week and is regarded as one of the most successful orchestra leaders. His life is wrapped up in music and since Judy sings like a lark and is more interested in music than anything else, you can readily see that they have much in common.
June 8, 1943: Here are a couple of nice ads for Presenting Lily Mars which was playing in theaters around the country and getting great reviews and was, of course, a big success.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Presenting Lily Mars here.
June 8, 1945: Rogers Jewelers in Dayton, Ohio, used The Clock to help sell engagement and wedding rings. The film opened the following day at the local Loew’s Theater, with proceeds going to the War Bond effort. Those who bought a War Bond at any Dayton theater received free admission.
Meet Me In St. Louis was still opening in theaters nationwide and was, as we know, a mega-hit for MGM and Judy. Is it any wonder that when her contract was up for renewal, as it soon would be, MGM did everything they could to keep her at the studio?
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Clock here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Meet Me In St. Louis here.
June 8, 1948: Judy and Mickey Rooney filmed their last movie appearance together, the “I Wish I Were In Love Again” number for Words and Music, including the brief dialog preceding the song with Tom Drake and Janet Leigh. Time called: 7 a.m.; due onset: 9 a.m.; Judy arrived at 9:10 a.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Words and Music here.
June 8, 1949: Judy and her daughter Liza were reunited in Boston, Massachusetts. Judy had been at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, also in Boston, since May 29th to cure her dependency on prescription medications. The hospital allowed Judy to take a break during which she booked a suite at Boston’s Ritz Carlton hotel where she stayed with Liza and her manager Carlton Alsop.
June 8, 1952: At 6 p.m., Judy married Sid Luft at the Paicines Ranch just 10 miles south of Hollister, California, which was owned by Sid’s friends Bob and Katherine Law. The newlyweds drove back to San Francisco (90 miles north of Hollister) the next day so Judy could continue her run at the Curran Theater in the city. Her appearance ran from May 26, 1952, through June 22, 1952.
Photos: Judy with an unidentified man at the party after the ceremony; a photo of Judy allegedly taken on the grounds of the ranch; a recent photo of the Grogan House on the ranch which is where Judy and Sid were married. The house was built in the 1880s.; The guest cottage where Judy and Sid stayed; Article about the comedian who opened Judy’s show, Max Bygraves; four pics of Judy taken at the ranch on presumably on this date, possibly June 9th although that was also a travel day for Judy and Sid to go back up to San Francisco for Judy to continue her engagement at the Curran Theatre.
Below are two clippings of articles about their marriage.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 8, 1952: Here is an article about Judy’s recent triumph at the Philharmonic in Los Angeles on April 21, 1952.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 8, 1952: The Wizard of Oz had a special three-day engagement at the King Palace Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii. The film had been re-released for the first time in 1949 during which time this ad artwork was created featuring the adult Judy as seen in Meet Me In St. Louis (1944). It was common for films to be leased to various theaters between re-releases for special engagements or simply because a particular theater requested it. Those were still the days when the studios still owned most of the theaters making it easier for the theaters to make special requests.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Meet Me In St. Louis here.
June 8, 1954: Director George Cukor was the guest writer for Dorothy Killgallen’s column. He wrote about his experiences directing Judy and James Mason in A Star Is Born, specifically how Judy was willing to “suffer for her art” in the Academy Awards scene where Mason slaps her.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
June 8, 1955: These photos were taken of Judy, her husband Sid Luft, and Mickey Rooney at the Riviera in Las Vegas, Nevada. Judy and Sid were there for the opening of Mickey’s new show which had a four-week engagement.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 8, 1955: The theatrical re-release of The Wizard of Oz was a welcome addition in theaters around the country.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
June 8, 1960: The first of three sessions for Capitol Records in Hollywood for Judy’s next album for the label, “Judy – That’s Entertainment!”
On this date, Judy recorded “How Long Has This Been Going On”; “Yes”; and “It Never Was You.”
Listen to “How Long Has This Been Going On” here:
Listen to “Yes” here:
Listen to “It Never Was You” here:
June 8, 1962: Judy, along with her children Liza, Lorna, and Joe plus her co-star Gregory Phillips, and several others involved in the production, celebrate her birthday a few days early on the set of I Could Go On Singing which she was currently filming in London. Several of these photos went unused, as shown by the “X” on some of them and the state of several of them.
Photos provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on I Could Go On Singing here.
June 8, 1964: Bobby Kennedy received this telegram from Judy in which she thanks him for his earlier telegram wishing her well after her near-death experience in Hong Kong.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 8, 1984: The recent Danish release of the restored A Star Is Born was heavily covered in the Danish press as proven by these articles from various newspapers.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
Scans provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
June 8, 1997: Can you believe it’s already been over 25 years since people first began syncing up Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album with their VHS tapes of The Wizard of Oz? This article from the Tampa Bay Times by Todd Anthony and Howard Cohen provides the details of what to expect when you play the album after the third roar of the MGM lion at the beginning of the film. At the time, Garland discussion forums debated whether the British rock band had done it on purpose when, in fact, they didn’t. Still, it’s a lot of fun! (click on the images above to read the article)
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.