Posted by “To see Judy Garland stormy and she-devilish (that appealing little creature) was just short of revelation.” – Florence Fisher Parry, 1948
June 20, 1936: Judy was mentioned in this article about talent scout and manager I.C. Overdorff. Overdorff was affiliated with the Hollywood School of Dance which was opening another school that following Thursday (June 25, 1936). Judy was mentioned as one of his previous students (it’s unclear if he ever represented her as a manager). What’s notable is that Judy was referred to as, “Babe Gumm, now under contract to M-G-M as Judy Garland.” At this point, it was rare for Judy to be mentioned by her original last name now that she was under the watchful eye of MGM and their huge publicity machine, especially as “Babe Gumm” which was a name she went by for a brief time much earlier than 1936.
June 20, 1937: “Who’s Whose in Hollywood” featured a nice photo of Judy on the town with Mickey Rooney and Jackie Cooper. Below is another example of the fodder provided by the studio publicity departments meant to keep the stars’ names and projects in the public’s consciousness.
June 20, 1939: Judy and Mickey Rooney endured the second of six days of rehearsals of the “Minstrel Number” for Babes in Arms. The pre-recording of the number took place on June 24th with filming starting on July 1st. Time called: 9 a.m.; lunch: 12:15-1:15 p.m.; time dismissed: 5:25 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes in Arms here.
Also on June 20, 1939: This ad is a good example of how the shorts that accompanying films were sometimes included in the ads for the feature films. In this instance, the newsreel of Judy turning 16 years old (actually 17 but MGM was still keeping her young) was featured. See the June 10 post for more about Judy’s birthday.
June 10, 1940: This photo of Judy visiting Greer Garson on the set of Garson’s Pride and Prejudice was circulated. Apparently, Judy must have been a fan as she visited the film’s set more than once as shown in this additional photo of her with Laurence Olivier.
On this day, Judy was filming Strike Up The Band, specifically the scenes on the “Interior Country Club” set. Judy had a call for noon and wasn’t dismissed until 1:43 a.m. that next morning! Hopefully, that’s a typo as the scenes on the Country Club set was not grueling musical numbers that took a long time to shoot.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Strike Up The Band here.
June 20, 1940: This ad was placed by MGM in the trade magazine, “Film Daily.”
June 10, 1941: The “Judy Garland Hope Chest” was available. I wonder if anyone out there has one?
June 10, 1941: Louella Parsons devoted her entire column to the question of whether Judy’s marriage to David Rose would hurt her career. Parsons correctly predicted that it wouldn’t.
June 20, 1943: “Two Stars From Mars.” Two of MGM’s most popular starlets, Frances Rafferty and Marilyn Maxwell. The caption makes one think that both had roles in Presenting Lily Mars when in fact only Maxwell had a role in the film. Rafferty was in Judy and Mickey’s Girl Crazy. Of the two, Maxwell had a lasting career making a name for herself as a competent actress. Sadly she died in 1972 of a heart attack at the young age of 50.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Girl Crazy here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Presenting Lily Mars here.
June 20, 1945: Here is an example of how many theaters used The Clock to help sell war bonds. If you bought war bonds you would get free tickets.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Clock here.
June 20, 1946: This ad was placed by MGM in the trade magazine, “Film Daily.”
June 20, 1948: Max Factor ad. On this day Judy was still in rehearsals for The Barkleys of Broadway.
June 20, 1948: Here is a very insightful column/review of both The Pirate and Easter Parade (which didn’t open until the following month) by Florence Fisher Parry for The Pittsburg Press. She talks about Pittsburg native Gene Kelly and also notes the difference in the appearance of Judy’s health between the two films, [on Easter Parade] …this time Judy was tired; was sick; it showed in the whites of her eyes, the iris, pupil, the very eyelids, and in the nervous tense smile.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
June 20, 1949: Louella Parsons reported that producer Arthur Freed still wanted Judy to be in his upcoming remake of “Show Boat.” Meanwhile, The Wizard of Oz was still in theaters enjoying its first theatrical re-release.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
June 20, 1950: The news of Judy’s suicide attempt hit the papers, making the front page in many instances. See the June 19 post for details. Click on the images to read the articles, most of which are repeats but included here to show the difference in headlines and photos.
June 20, 1952: Judy posed for portraits with famed photographer John Engstead. Here are a few from this session.
Note: I’m not 100% sure that the photo session took place on this date. If anyone can confirm 100% that would be great.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 20, 1957: This photo of Judy was taken after her performance at the Texas State Fair, Dallas, Texas. Judy had opened at the fair on June 10 (her birthday) for a two-week engagement.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
June 20, 1969: Judy’s publicist, Matthew West, visited her at her mews cottage in London for lunch. Judy told him she wanted to go back to work. There had been talks of doing an album for the Blue Records label and a TV special, both to be done in London, in July 1969.
Judy hoped that Lorna and Joe would fly over to visit her in July. She was also making plans for a return concert at the Olympia in Paris, also in July. She planned to then return to the States in August and spend the rest of the summer at Jerry Herman’s summer home on Fire Island.
Per West’s report, Judy looked at her skinny arms and told him that she needed to put on some weight and build up her strength. He said that Judy was in a light and fun mood and the two enjoyed a lunch that consisted of doughnuts and milk.
Judy’s husband, Mickey Deans, said that on this day he saw Judy write in her red leather-bound “Ye Olde Bitch Book” and later saw that she wrote, “Sid” (Sid Luft) along with a comment that a friend had sent her a clip from a New York newspaper. Luft was having legal issues over a hotel that their company “Group Five” had not paid. Judy wrote “Joey and Lorna” on these pages, underlining their names, apparently afraid of any adverse publicity affecting them. Garland biographer Anne Edwards says the Reverend Peter Delaney called to tell her about it.
Edwards also wrote that on this same day, Judy called Lorna in California and the call seemed to make Judy feel better.
Later that evening, Judy and Deans went to a dinner party celebrating the Reverend Peter Delaney’s birthday. Judy appeared to be enjoying herself, but they didn’t stay at the dinner party for very long.
Photos: Judy and Deans in front of the London mews cottage on Cadogan Lane.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
Another great post!! Really enjoyed that article by Miss Parry, who seemed to be among the first to note the strain in Judy’s physical appearance by the late’ 40’s (and BEFORE her firing from “Barkley’s”), although I think Judy looks much thinner and “nervous” in “The Pirate.” One slight error: Although Frances Rafferty appeared in both “Lily Mars” and “Girl Crazy”, Marilyn Maxwell only appeared in “Lily Mars”, hence the pic of the two of them in “Stars from MARS.”
I thought Miss Parry’s comments were interesting as well. People had noticed Judy’s frailty before, as it had been mentioned by various columnists, but this is the first I’ve read it in an actual film review from the time period.
I’ll fix that note about Rafferty. I wondered about that as I thought “I don’t remember seeing her in Lily Mars.” 🙂
I also found this date in 1969 (it would be a Friday) interesting, as it was, sadly, Judy’s last weekend. I guess that party at Peter’s was her very last social affair. I also found it interesting that she spoke to Lorna on the phone just two days prior to her death. The thing I find most incomprehensible about Judy’s last six to nine months, is how Lorna and Joey were totally out of her life!! Judy would’ve NEVER let Sid take fully custody of them before fall of ’68, which shows how far gone Judy was in ’69. I can’t believe she could’ve tolerated being apart from them (especially, Joey). I guess she just drowned it all out with more and more medication. I even wonder if Joey and Lorna even MET Mickey Deens before the funeral! Thanks to you, we’ll find out more in the next week from this incredible site. Thank God, we get to read positive things here, as well.