Posted by “She’s a smash. She’s so dynamic. She just grabs you.” – Los Angeles Dodgers Team Captain, Maury Wills, 1965
August 30, 1932: Judy (still going by Frances) received her first-ever “Variety” review which is also the sisters’ first notice in any theatrical trade paper. “The Gumm Sisters” had been performing at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles, California since August 25th. The comic Fuzzy Knight was the headliner. The sisters performed a twenty-minute routine five times a day – six times a day on the weekend.
“Variety,” said of the show: Gumm sisters, harmony trio, socked with two numbers. Selling end of trio is the ten-year-old sister with a pip of a lowdown voice. Kid stopped the show, but wouldn’t give more.
Photos: “The Gumm Sisters” in 1932; a 1932 snapshot of Judy with a friend in Lancaster, California (where the Gumm family lived).
August 30, 1933: This ad promoted the upcoming engagement of “The Gumm Sisters” at the Warner Brothers Downtown Theater beginning on August 31st. However, here they’re billed as “Three DRUMM Sisters – Harmony Supreme.”
August 30, 1934: This ad for the Uptown Theater in Chicago is one of the earliest instances of the newly christened “Garland Sisters” being advertised. The sisters began their engagement at the Uptown the following day (August 31st).
The act had been renamed by George Jessel when they played the Oriental Theater (also in Chicago) August 17 through 23, 1934, and got laughs when he introduced them by their family name, Gumm (The Gumm Sisters). They would be listed as “Gumm” again off and on, over the next year. They also tried “Garland 3” and the “Frances Garland Trio.”
August 30, 1937: Judy’s latest recording contract with Decca Records was “sealed” with a recording session that produced her second single for the label which was comprised of “Everybody Sing” and “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm.” The single was released in September of 1937, Decca single #1432. It was the second Judy Garland single released by Decca, the first was “Stompin’ At The Savoy/Swing Mr. Charlie,” released in July 1936, a full year before Judy signed this contract.
For years, this contract with Decca was thought to be Judy’s first with the label. However, new information discovered in 2021 by The Judy Room proves that Judy’s first contract was in late 1935.
Listen to “Everybody Sing” here:
Listen to the alternate take of “Everybody Sing” here:
Listen to “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” here:
Learn more about all of Judy’s Decca recordings at The Judy Garland Online Discography’s Decca Records Section here.
Record label images are from the Rick Smith Collection. Thanks, Rick!
August 30, 1939: The Wizard of Oz was still enjoying “boffo” business at the box office, but that didn’t stop MGM from promoting Judy’s next film, her first co-starring musical with Mickey Rooney, Babes in Arms (also the first in the “Let’s Put On A Show” series).
Babes in Arms didn’t premiere until October, but the accompanying article about the upcoming films notes that it was due in September which was probably an early targeted release date by the studio.
Of note is the mention of Ziegfeld Follies in the ad as well as in the article. Follies didn’t go into production until 1944, helmed by the newly-formed “Freed Unit.”
More details and images of all of Judy’s activities during that golden year of 1939 can be found on The Judy Room’s Garland Biography 1939 Page.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes in Arms here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Ziegfeld Follies of 1946 here.
August 30, 1939 [plus before and after]: MGM’s publicity department was getting Judy’s name out there, sending various articles and blurbs for papers around the country to run as they pleased when they had space.
Here are a couple of interesting blurbs, one of which might be based in fact the other, well, you be the judge:
GET FAN MAIL NOW AS DOROTHY GARLAND
Judy Garland today doesn’t know whether she is Judy or Dorothy, so closely has the identity of L. Frank Baum’s little heroine clung to her since her appearance in the role in “The Wizard of Oz,” lavish Technicolor musical coming Sunday to the Midland theater [Newark, OH]. Fans address her as “Dorothy,” and many of her fan letters come to the studio addressed to Dorothy Garland.
In a short but eventful career, Judy regards “The Wizard of Oz,” in which she appears with Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and other of the brilliant all-star cast, the red-letter event of her life.
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Judy Garland gave her swimming prowess a real test and almost gave her mother heart failure at Balboa. With Barbara Koshay, her stand-in and former Olympic team star, Judy was sailing around Balboa bay [sic]. As the boat headed for the shore, Judy peeled off a sun suit, which she was wearing over her swimming outfit and, without even waiting to don a swimming cap, dove overboard. Mother Garland laughed, but not for long. Judy struck out for the opposite shore and yelled for them to follow. Mrs. Garland’s shouts to come back fell on deaf ears. Judy kept on going. There was nothing to do but turn the boat around and follow. Laughing at appeals of Barbara and her mother to stop and climb aboard, Judy swam the entire width of the bay, approximately a mile.
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More details and images of all of Judy’s activities during that golden year of 1939 can be found on The Judy Room’s Garland Biography 1939 Page.
The scan of the color magazine photo was provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
August 30, 1939: The last day of appearances for Judy and Mickey Rooney at the Capitol Theater in New York. They had been doing shows between showings of The Wizard of Oz since August 17th. Mickey had to go back to MGM in California. Later on this night the duo appeared a Madison Square Garden (see pic). Some footage of the duo sitting in the audience after performing (but no actual performance video) exists and has been released on the various Oz home media releases.
Also on this day, Loews, Inc. (MGM) issued Judy’s work statement for the period from October 29, 1938, to October 28, 1939, per “option D” of her original contract (dated September 27, 1935). The statement guaranteed Judy forty weeks of work, at five hundred dollars per week, and covered nineteen-and-a-half weeks of work on “Oz” and eleven weeks of tests and production on Babes in Arms. The statement also provided for “casting office interviews,” “idle time,” and “layoffs.”
More details and images of all of Judy’s activities during that golden year of 1939 can be found on The Judy Room’s Garland Biography 1939 Page.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
Program photos provided by Armand DiNucci-Laguerre. Thanks, Armand!
August 30, 1939: This snapshot was taken of Judy and Mickey Rooney in New York. As noted above it was the last day of appearances for Judy and Mickey Rooney at the Capitol Theater in New York. This photo is thought to have been taken outside the theater.
More details and images of all of Judy’s activities during that golden year of 1939 can be found on The Judy Room’s Garland Biography 1939 Page.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
August 30, 1939: The Wizard of Oz in the trade magazines.
August 30, 1939: This ad from MGM touting the success of The Wizard of Oz appeared in the trade magazines.
More details and images of all of Judy’s activities during that golden year of 1939 can be found on The Judy Room’s Garland Biography 1939 Page.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
August 30, 1940: Here is another full page of MGM promotions, similar to what had been published a year before (see above). This time, Strike Up The Band is one of the films featured.
August 30, 1940: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.
August 30, 1941: Filming continued on Babes on Broadway with the first day of scenes shot on the “Interior Gym” set. Time called: 9:30 a.m.; lunch: 12:30-1:30 p.m.; time dismissed: 3 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes on Broadway here.
August 30, 1947: Till The Clouds Roll By.
August 30, 1948: Ad in the “Independent Film Exhibitor’s Bulletin” trade magazine.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
August 30, 1948: Three news items. The first claimed that Judy would co-star with Guy Madison at Warner Bros. titled Dancing In The Sky. The second is from Leonard Lyons’ column in which Lyons relays a story of Judy making a surprise visit to screenwriter Gian-Carlo Menotti’s office letting him know she liked his script. The third is from Louella Parsons’ column. She states that Judy had gained 15 pounds and was ready to begin Annie Get Your Gun on November 15th. She’s not far off. Judy had gained some weight after being fired from The Barkleys of Broadway and going on a rest. She didn’t start Annie until March of 1949. In the interim, she completed her second number for Words and Music, “Johnny One Note” and completed In The Good Old Summertime.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Annie Get Your Gun here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Barkleys of Broadway here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on In The Good Old Summertime here.
August 30, 1949: The Wizard of Oz was on its first re-release in theaters. This uncredited article from the Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, got a lot wrong about the film’s effects and content. Who knows where the information came from? A few quotes (click on the image above to read the full article):
A city of great green bubbles which serve as houses … fantastic fields of giant flowers which move like humans …
[about the Emerald City] A glass-like compound was worked out by studio chemists, colored emerald green, and under the play of lighting effects presented dazzling and iridescent surfaces for the Technicolor in which the picture was made.
The almost human trees [were] constructed of rubber, each of 50 trees in the central group was governed by 12 separate wire controls operated by technicians offstage.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
August 30, 1950: Summer Stock was still a hit. The article here notes that audiences rated it on the same level as Easter Parade.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Summer Stock here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
August 30, 1953: The wait was over. News broke that a decision was finally made on who would co-star with Judy in A Star Is Born. James Mason got the role and proved to be perfect in the role of “Norman Maine.”
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight Section on A Star Is Born here.
Image above: An unused poster concept created by the legendary Saul Bass and sketched by Al Kallis.
August 30, 1955: Here’s a review of the re-release of The Wizard of Oz as published in the “Shamokin New Dispatch” in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. The uncredited review is a good one, even it incorrectly refers to the Emerald City as “the city made of ‘green bubbles.'”
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
August 30, 1955: Judy’s third recording session for Capitol Records. She recorded ‘On The Atchison, Topeka, And The Santa Fe” and “Danny Boy” for the “Miss Show Business” LP. “Atchison” was not included on the album and the recording is lost. To date, it has not been found.
Listen to “Danny Boy” here:
Check out the various releases of “Miss Show Business” at The Judy Garland Online Discography here.
August 30, 1960: London, England, was once again under Judy’s magical spell.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
August 30, 1962: Judy broke with Vegas tradition regarding the format of her show for her upcoming appearance at the Sahara. Judy opened at the hotel on September 19th.
Photo: Judy on stage during her engagement at the Sahara.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
August 30, 1965: Judy made the sports page in Philadelphia. Sports columnist Stan Hochman noted that ballplayer, and captain of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Maury Wills, “digs Judy Garland.” It turns out that Wills was a big Garland fan.
August 30, 1967: Judy arrived in Boston a day ahead of her first concert after her successful Palace Theatre (in New York) engagement. She arrived in the evening and went right into a press conference in which she stated: “It’s wonderful how different my three kids are. Liza and Joey are the most like me – outgoing, affectionate, want to be liked. But Lorna! I call her the ‘cruise director.’ Mind like a whip, a born comedian and independent! Liza and Joey go to people, instinctively, Lorna sits and lets people come to her. And they do!”
Photos: Judy arrives at the Back Bay Station with ex-husband Sid Luft and son Joe Luft. She was gifted a bouquet of roses from Cathy Sandler, who was the young daughter of Malcolm Sandler, N.E. Operations Manager for Knickerbocker Beer, which was the concert’s sponsor.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
Published on this date was this article (below) about Judy’s co-star at her Palace engagement, the wonderful John Bubbles.
LOVE those stills from the “Hoe Down” number from Babes on Broadway. If one watches the number closely, the first third is shot in one continuous take (there isn’t a cut until a few minutes in). This must’ve been exhausting to rehearse and film. This picture is notable in that Judy’s looks had matured greatly by this point. She looks much prettier, slimmer, and more “adult” than in Ziegfeld Girl, released earlier that year (1941). By the time of BOB, she had lost the “baby fat” in her face.
As for her extra pounds in Summertime, they were welcome. She looked so healthy and beautiful, and sang magnificently.
She may have been healthy again in Summer Stock, but here, she was TOO heavy, poorly costumed, and saddled with an
Ethel Mertz hair-DON’T. But we have to cherish and celebrate every moment she completed on film and tape! Plus, it’s
a small miracle SS was even finished, and it is a very pleasant ride. Thank you again for your daily posts!!
The “Hoe Down” number is a lot of fun. It’s always been one of my favorites. Judy looks so great in the film and like you said, she’s not too skinny.
I don’t mind the extra weight in “Summer Stock” but you’re right in that she does look matronly and not in a good way. “Friendly Star” is a favorite. She really belts it towards the end, giving us a preview of her later large vocals. Just glorious! 🙂