Posted by “They seem to have left my voice in the dressing room!” – Judy Garland, Westbury Music Fair, 1967
June 13, 1926: The Gumm Family’s working/vacation trip to California continued with an engagement for “Jack and Virginia Lee and Three Kiddies” at the Lyric Theater in Harve, Montana.
June 13, 1929: The last day of Judy’s work on her very first film, The Big Revue. The short, in which she appeared with her sisters as “The Gumm Sisters” (“not the Wrigley Sisters!”), was filmed at the Tec-Art Studio in Hollywood and released by Mayfair Pictures. The sisters performed live on the set (no pre-recordings were done which was typical in those early days of sound film), “That’s The Good Old Sunny South.”
Check out The Judy Room’s “Gumm Sisters Shorts” page for details about this and the other shorts the sisters appeared in.
June 13, 1937: More of those photos of Judy and other young stars (“Hollywood Youngsters”) out having fun at an amusement park. The title and original caption are as follows:
Child Stars Shooting Rifles at a Carnival
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlets recently had the time of their lives when their teacher, Miss Mary McDonald, took them to the Venice Pier for an afternoon of hilarity and play. They saw all the sideshows and played all the concessions. After hot dogs and pop all afternoon they were ready to go home with their many prizes, happy but tired. Shooting straight. Suzanne, Betty Jaynes, John Arlington, Freddie Bartholomew, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney try their luck at the rifle range. Bartholomew and Rooney took top honors.
June 13, 1939: Babes in Arms filming continued on the “Interior Barn Theatre” and “Exterior Barn Theatre” sets. Time called: 9 a.m.; dismissed: 5 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes in Arms here.
June 13, 1940: Strike Up The Band filming continued. Scenes were supposed to be shot on the “Backstage” and “Interior Hospital Room” sets, but the assistant director’s notes state: “When [Mickey] Rooney arrived on set at 9 a.m., his lower lip was in bad condition with a fever blister and unable to be photographed. After discussion situation it was decided to let Rooney rehearse with drum instructor to playback and company will move to stage #6 for shots backstage.”
Judy had a call for 10 a.m. and was dismissed at 10:30 a.m. due to the Rooney situation. Apparently, Judy had the rest of the day off.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Strike Up The Band here.
June 13, 1941: Four clippings. First, we have a couple more notices of Judy’s engagement to David Rose. The third and fourth clippings are of what might be called “Garland Fashions.” There’s the Judy Garland Play Suit as well as the Ziegfeld Girl Slip.
June 13, 1941: From the “Curio Department.” A young man from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, hitchhiked his way across the country in an attempt to meet Judy, complete with a letter he had written to her, to give to her personally.
This wasn’t Judy’s first issue with an overzealous fan. On March 7, 1940 (see the March 8 entry), the FBI and local police stopped two men who had plotted to kidnap Judy. Luckily they weren’t successful!
The following is the text from the above article.
Found sitting on penny scales at a Hollywood street corner, broke and hungry, at 4:30 a.m., Earl Troy, 18, told police today that he had hitch-hiked here from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, to see Judy Garland, but couldn’t find her.
Sorrowfully he handed officers a note he had written the young movie actress. It read: “Dear Judy: Do I want to be with you the rest of my life? You bet your life I do. Where the heck do I find you in a place like this?”
He hadn’t mailed the letter because he lacked a penny for a stamp.
The youth was placed temporarily in the receiving hospital while police attempted to communicate with his relatives in Lebanon.
Judy elicited strong emotions in the emotionally fractured world of Garfreaks, even at this early stage in her career, which was just a little over a year after the failed attempt at kidnapping Judy was foiled on March 7, 194o (see the March 8 entry). Today, the two would-be kidnappers would most likely be among those crazy Internet trolls on social media!
June 13, 1943: Presenting Lily Mars was still making the rounds of theaters across the country. The bottom photo is amusing in that it appears it was touched up to make poor Van Heflin look like he’s got way too much makeup on.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Presenting Lily Mars here.
June 13, 1945: Judy had a short day of work on The Harvey Girls. She recorded “loops” for the film. She was due at 11:00 a.m.; she arrived at 11:45 a.m.; dismissed: 12:20 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Harvey Girls here.
June 13, 1946: Here is another two-page ad placed by MGM in the trade magazine “Film Daily.” The ad promotes several upcoming releases including Ziegfeld Follies of 1946.
June 13, 1950: Judy had another rehearsal for Royal Wedding. Time called: 11:30 a.m.; dismissed: 5:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Royal Wedding here.
June 13, 1951: Here’s a fun ad for In The Good Old Summertime playing in Sedalia, Missouri, two years after its initial release.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on In The Good Old Summertime here.
June 13, 1952: Judy appeared with her brother-in-law Jack Cathcart on a U.S. Treasury Department public broadcast radio show. Judy sang her “Olio” and “A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow.” Cathcart and his Orchestra accompanied Judy as well as performing the “Garland Overture.”
Listen to this performance here:
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 13, 1967: Judy’s opening night at The Westbury Music Fair in Westbury, New York. Judy sang a new song, “If He Walked Into My Life” from the Broadway hit musical “Mame” which starred her The Harvey Girls co-star, Angela Lansbury. Judy had seen “Mame” on January 16, 1967, and had expressed her interest in playing the role on screen.
Here is the audio of that June 13 performance of “If He Walked Into My Life.”
Download a recording of the entire show from June 18, 1967, here (zip file).
Note that the sound quality of these files isn’t the best as the recording was made by a fan from the audience.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
Program scans from the Bobby Waters Collection. Thanks, Bobby!
June 13, 1968: The stormy life of Judy Garland.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 13, 1979: The last day of the month-long Judy Garland Film Festival at the 8th Street Playhouse in New York City.
Check out The Judy Room’s Judy Garland Filmography Pages here.
I’ve only recently heard of the term “Garfreaks.” A fan friend of mine, Mike, and myself, call them “The Judy-can-do-no-wrong” crowd. These are the fans who will say, “Judy is NOT heavy in “Summer Stock; she is HEALTHY!” Then, in the next breath, they add, “And doesn’t she look fabulous in the ‘Get Happy’ number, after losing all that WEIGHT!” Hilarious. That pic of Van Heflin wearing LIPSTICK made me howl!! And it brings to mind that very scene in “Lily Mars”, which is decades ahead of its time. When Lily walks in, Heflin is holding Richard Carlson in his arms, with Carlson swooning. The look on Judy’s face! Clearly, she thinks for a moment that they are gay! And since Carlson says, “Who’s kidding?” and falls back into Heflin’s arms, it makes one wonder about his character.
I began using the term “Garfreaks” when I started “The Judy Garland Wars” series here on this blog. There are Garfans and Garfreaks. Garfans are simply Judy Garland fans. Garfreaks are the fans who lose their touch in reality, take everything way too seriously, and usually engage in negative, nasty behavior (such as harassment, spreading of lies, etc.) online via social media. And always over petty, inconsequential things. They’re the people who give Garland fans a bad name.
I would be surprised if that scene in “Lily Mars” wasn’t simply a joke poking fun at the close relationship between Heflin and Carlson’s characters. 🙂
Yes, I’ve read parts of your website that involve the Garland wars, but they are so nasty and negative in spirit, I stopped reading. Judy Garland means “Joy” to me, plain and simple. And what you do adds to the joy I’ve been experiencing
for almost FIFTY years (when I was a small child, Judy died, and my mother kept playing the Carnegie Hall Album. I couldn’t believe – even at that tender age – that a human voice was capable of such singing). Regarding that scene in “Lily”, no, I don’t think (the ultra cute) Owen Vail is gay, but I DO think that Lily is shocked and a tad suspicious they are – even for a moment – when she walks in on them. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a close-up of her shocked face. I thinks it’s great that they got that bit past the censors.
🙂 I can’t fault you for that. My experiences at the hands of the Garfreaks have skewed towards the negative side, unfortunately.
You’re not alone in your response to “Carnegie Hall.” What a flawless performance! Regarding Lily Mars, I’m sure it wasn’t meant to imply the to guys are gay, I think it’s a simple joke on the part of the writers and director. All in fun.
At the risk of cluttering up your gorgeous site (and I’ll make this my final comment here), I agree wholeheartedly that both John Thornway and Owen Vail are 100 percent straight (Owen: “I was thinking about women, too”), don’t you think that Lily’s shocked close-up was deliberately staged to make Lily question this? Why else would she look so shocked? We know that these two men are embracing, and we know what Lily is looking at. Why else would she be looking at them that way? Also, John recognizes what she’s thinking and drops Owen to the floor with, “Good evening, Miss Mars.” I certainly respect your opinion if you think otherwise, but if you do, why is Lily so shocked when she sees them? I feel it’s an “Inside joke”, and a curious one, as Pasternak and Taurog were – to the best of my knowledge – straight. You get the final say here. Just curious.
I’m just speculating. I certainly don’t know. 🙂