Posted by “She is all she has always been, with added charm and a heightened dramatic power.” – Constance Herreshoff, the San Diego Union, 1955
July 9, 1931: Judy and her two sisters, as “The Gumm Sisters,” participated in Maurice Kusell’s “Stars of Tomorrow” “kiddie extravaganza” at the Wilshire-Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, California, opening on July 10th. The show ran for a week. One of the featured attractions was Zelda Lamb, noted as one of the “stars of tomorrow” but fate had other ideas, as we know.
July 9, 1939: It’s coming! More Ozzy promotions. Below, 15 years later (1955) Oz was enjoying its second theatrical re-release.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
July 9, 1939: The last scoring session for The Wizard of Oz consisted of these two pages worth of short tracks which were mostly revised tags or updated inserts to previously recorded longer musical segments. It’s a testament to MGM’s attention to detail and the production’s efforts to make everything as perfect as possible that new music was written and recorded for seemingly short sections. That attention to detail paid off.
Listen to all of the surviving recordings sessions at The Judy Room’s Newly Updated Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
2577 – “Witch Castle Insert – Toto’s Chase” – Take 3:
2578 – “Munchkinland Insert” – Take 10:
2579 – “I’m Not A Witch” (revised) – Take 2:
2580 – “Leaving Munchkinland” – Take 3:
2581 – “Fill in Awards” – Take 4:
2582 – “Glinda’s Last Appearance (Munchkinland Insert)” – Take 2:
2583 – “If I Only Had A Brain” (new ending) – Takes 9 through 11:
2584 – “Floating Through Space” – This recording is not known to exist.
2585 – “Tinkle” – This recording is not known to exist.
2586 – “Main Title” (revised ending) – Takes 1 through 3:
2587 – “Threatening Witch – New” – Take 6:
2588 through 2591 – These recordings are not known to exist.
Listen to all of the surviving recordings sessions at The Judy Room’s Newly Updated Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
July 9, 1940: More filming of the “Finale” for Strike Up The Band. Judy was due on the set at 9:00 a.m.; dismissed: 5:00 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Strike Up The Band here.
July 9, 1941: Judy began work on her next MGM musical, Babes On Broadway. Judy and co-star Mickey Rooney rehearsed the song “How About You?” from 10:40 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The two were still working on Life Begins for Andy Hardy at this same time. MGM sure got their money’s worth!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Life Begins for Andy Hardy here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes on Broadway here.
July 9, 1943: Presenting Lily Mars was one of the top films in the Los Angeles market for the week ending July 7, 1943.
July 9, 1944: Judy continued rehearsals of the “Interview” number for Ziegfeld Follies with dance director Charles Walters and sixteen chorus boys, this time in Rehearsal Hall B at MGM (they had previously been rehearsing in Rehearsal Hall A).
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Ziegfeld Follies of 1946 here.
July 9, 1948: The Pirate was still in theaters and although it wasn’t the huge hit that most Garland films were, and it would soon be eclipsed by the mega-hit Easter Parade, it still did good business and according to most of the reviews in the papers it was well-liked.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
Summer 1950: “Famous Stars” comic magazine featured a story about “Judy Garland’s Ordeal” which dramatized Judy’s recent suicide attempt.
July 9, 1954: More filming on the “Born In A Trunk” number for A Star Is Born. Time started: 12:00 p.m.; finished: 6:15 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
July 9, 1955: Only two more days until Judy’s long-awaited, and heavily promoted, engagement of her new show “The Judy Garland Show” in Long Beach, California. On this day, Judy was in San Diego, California, on what was the second of a two-night engagement which was the premiere of her new show. She was a smash hit!
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 9, 1959: Judy’s show at the San Francisco Opera House was a success, however, as much as songwriters Irving Berlin and Rodgers & Hammerstein loved Judy and her talent that didn’t stop them from filing a copyright infringement suit against the show’s producers, including Judy’s husband, Sid Luft.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 9, 1961: Judy, along with daughters Liza and Lorna, son Joey, and stepson John, were staying in a property on the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, when she was taken to a Cape Cod hospital for kidney inflammation. Luckily it wasn’t serious and she was back at the compound within 24 hours.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 9, 1962: Judy returned to work filming I Could Go On Singing after suffering a fall and hurting her head. This notice is from the next day.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on I Could Go On Singing here.
July 9, 1963: Hedda Hopper’s column reported on the recent professional reunion of Judy and Mickey Rooney, taping the first episode of Judy’s upcoming series, “The Judy Garland Show.”
July 9, 1965: Judy taped her guest appearance on “The Andy Williams Show,” which aired on September 20, 1965. taped on July 9, 1965.
Judy sang “On A Wonderful Day Like Today” (with Williams); “Get Happy” (a new pop/rock/jazz version with a male chorus); and a medley with Williams in which she sang “Why Don’t We Do This More Often” and “On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe” plus a bit of “Over The Rainbow”; “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby”; “You Made Me Love You”; and “The Trolley Song.”
July 9, 1967: Here’s an ad and a short article promoting Judy’s engagement at the Camden County Music Fair, New Jersey, on July 10th. The photo is one of many taken at Judy’s tour kick-off at the Westbury Music Fair in New York, on June 13th.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
Also on July 9, 1967: This short interview with Judy appeared in the Detroit Free Press.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 9, 1989: The Museum of Moving Image opened in London, England. Unfortunately, it closed in 1999 for renovations and was never re-opened.
July 9, 1989: Here’s an ad for the CD version of “The Hits of Judy Garland.” This compilation of some of Judy’s Capitol Recordings was originally released on vinyl in 1963.
During the heyday of the CD era, it was rare for most Garland CDs to be featured in ads, except for blockbusters like “Judy at Carnegie Hall” and the soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz.