Posted by “You can have your Rock ‘N’ Rollers, I’ll settle for Judy Garland, America’s minstrel girl.” – Mike Connolly, 1956
July 25, 1926: Frances (Judy) and her two sisters performed at Kom-on-in Beach at Trout Lake, Minnesota (by the campfire).
July 25, 1933: The sixth night of a seven-night engagement for Judy and her sisters, “The Gumm Sisters,” at the Warner Brothers Downtown Theater in Los Angeles. The sisters were one of the “6 Big Acts Vodil.”
July 25, 1937: Judy goes fishing with other kids from MGM. The caption for the photo makes it seem that the kids were taking advantage of the summer break from school to go fishing. In reality, this was a posed publicity shot and it was most likely taken at the lake on the studio’s backlot.
July 25, 1938: Love Finds Andy Hardy was the surprise hit of the summer. Here’s a nice review plus an article about the success of the film that notes that based on the film’s success more entries in the series would be made. How right they were!
Of note is the fact that out of Andy’s “loves” in the film, it’s Judy who is singled out in almost all of the reviews and ads over the more glamorous Lana Turner and Ann Rutherford. Judy was very insecure about her appearance and constantly compared herself to the glamor queens/teens at the studio, especially Turner. It’s a shame she rarely (if ever) saw any of these accolades.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Love Finds Andy Hardy here.
July 25, 1939: Here’s a paragraph from Louella Parsons’s latest column. Talk about fiction!
July 25, 1939: These two studio discs were pressed by MGM on this date. It’s unclear why the records were created. Principle filming ended on March 7 with just a few retakes filmed in early May. The recording session for the Cyclone sequence was on May 6, 1939, noted as Scene No. 2526. The recording session for “In the Cornfield” was on April 11, 1939, noted as Scene No. 2504. In fact, the last known recording session for the film was on July 9, 1939, but neither of these two recordings was re-recorded on this date.
It’s possible that these discs were created for someone’s personal collection, perhaps the film’s composer Herbert Stothart, or maybe one of the arrangers or conductors.
For details about all of the prerecording sessions, check out The Judy Room’s extensive “Songs And Score” page in the Wizard of Oz Spotlight Section.
July 25, 1940: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
July 25, 1941: Judy’s last day of filming for Life Begins for Andy Hardy consisted of retakes. She had started rehearsals and pre-recording sessions for Babes on Broadway during this last month of filming on the Andy Hardy movie, her last appearance in the series.
Although it’s not considered to be Judy’s official first dramatic role, Life Begins for Andy Hardy was the first film in which she didn’t sing, aside from a quick snippet of the “Happy Birthday” song. All of Judy’s songs from the film were deleted: “America”; “Abide With Me”; “The Rosary”; and “Easy To Love.”
Get more details on Judy’s three Andy Hardy films here.
July 25, 1941: Judy Garland, milk enthusiast.
July 25, 1943: Judy’s tour of Army camps with the USO continued. These articles reflect the fun she and the soldiers had.
Still in theaters at the time was Presenting Lily Mars. It must have been quite the thrill for soldiers to see Judy on screen and in person. In the first clipping, there is a fun article about the man “hired just for a laugh” during the “Tom, The Piper’s Son” number.
Check out The Judy Room’s Section on Presenting Lily Mars here.
July 25, 1951: Judy saved herself by singing! According to Harrison Carroll, while Judy was in Nice, France, she was recognized by the public who rushed her. She “leaped on a bench” and sang, and ended up singing for an hour. Judy was in the south of France in mid-to-late July after her successful tour (her first-ever concert tour) of England and Scotland so this event could very well have happened.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 25, 1955: Here’s an odd advertisement for the re-release of The Wizard of Oz. It’s the only time I’ve seen a photo of Judy from her recent Warner Bros. film A Star Is Born used in an ad for the Oz re-release. MGM’s official artwork for the re-release featured photos of Judy taken at, naturally, MGM (see the color example). MGM would never have approved the use of an image from a rival studio. This must have been the result of some clever editing at the local newspaper, “The Miami News.” Whatever the case, it works quite nicely!
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
July 25, 1956: Judy a year after the successful theatrical re-release of The Wizard of Oz, MGM sold the film to television. It was a first for the studio. CBS allegedly asked for Gone With The Wind and was turned down flat so countered with “What about The Wizard of Oz?” The news of the sale made the papers but it wasn’t huge news. It turned out to be a milestone in movie and television history because, as we know, the film first aired in 1956 followed by a second airing in 1959, and every year after until 1998, creating a legend.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
Also on July 25, 1956: Another rave article about Judy’s recent nightclub debut in Las Vegas on July 16th. Her engagement ran through August 19th.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 25, 1962: Here is another call sheet for I Could Go On Singing. This time the number being filmed is “By Myself.”
Photos provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page I Could Go On Singing here.
July 25, 1965: “Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli ‘Live’ At The London Palladium” was released by Capitol Records. The two-record set peaked at the #19 spot on the charts in the fall of 1965.
The album has been a source of some controversy over the years due to the odd order of the songs (Judy never began a concert with “The Man That Got Away”); the quality of Judy’s voice on some of the tracks; and the two aborted attempts by the late Scott Schechter to release the complete concert on a 2-disc CD set (see the PDF link below).
The late Scott Schechter tried twice to get a complete (or as complete as possible at the time) CD set released with almost all of the recordings from both nights, including the tracks that Judy and Liza re-recorded in the Capitol studios months later, but he was unsuccessful. DRG Records released a slightly expanded version on CD in 2010.
Read Lawrence Schulman’s extensive history of the “plagued” recording published in the ARSC Journal in 2009. It’s a definite must-read for any fan. It’s fascinating!
http://www.thejudyroom.com/capitol/palladiumarticle.pdf (pdf document).
Photos: The original cover artwork; Judy at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco on August 25, 1965, looking at the album while being interviewed.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 25, 1965: This notice about Judy’s upcoming engagement in San Carlos, California. It’s notable because it was Judy’s first appearance in “the round,” and the turning stage made her uneasy on opening night but she adapted quickly and had no problem the rest of the nights. She was in concert there through September 5th.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
July 25, 1969: Columnist Cy Gardner gave his thoughts about Judy through the years, and an article notes how Judy’s death was ruled an accidental suicide.
The 1965 San Carlos concert may well have been “Judy’s first appearance in “the round” in California, but more than a year earlier she had given two concerts in Sydney, Australia, at “The Stadium”, the only venue large enough to hold the crowds that flocked to see her. In her opening number, she quipped, “So for Heaven’s sake retain a calm demeanor, when you have to sing in an old wrestling arena.”
Thanks for the info! A stadium venue is not considered “in the round” hence the designation of the San Carlos venue her first time actually “in the round.”