Posted by “We know now why she is called Miss Show Business in America. She is among the ‘greats’ of music hall fame. The Sinatras, the Chevaliers, the Trenets. The stage is her natural habitat.” – Paris newspaper, 1960
October 15, 1926: Frances (Judy) and her sisters performed at a Halloween bridge party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert in their hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
October 15, 1928: Frances (Judy) and her sisters performed at a farewell party for A.R. Freeman, held at the Gumm (Judy’s family) home in Lancaster, California (the family’s new hometown).
October 15, 1938: The initial scenes on the “Witch’s Castle” sets were filmed for The Wizard of Oz. At this point, Dorothy was still a blonde, Buddy Ebsen was still the Tin Man, and the costume/makeup styles on all of the principles were vastly different than they would be in the finished film.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
The Witch’s Tower set still was provided by Harper Collins Publishers. The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author. Authors’ credit: Scarfone/Stillman Collection
October 15, 1939: This panel version of The Wizard of Oz appeared in various newspapers around the nation between the film’s opening in August through September.
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.
October 15, 1939: Judy and her flower shop are listed in this article about Hollywood’s “Best Business Men.”
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.
October 15, 1941: Babes on Broadway finished filming except for retakes that were filmed on November 6 & 7. Scenes were shot on the “Interior Corridor,” “Interior Penny’s Office” (retake), and Interior Ghost Theater-Montage” sets. Time called: 9 a.m. The assistant director’s notes state 9:00-10:00 a.m. – Wait for Miss Garland. She called in this and said she was ill, but that she would be in later this AM. 10:00-10:17 – Miss Garland on stage, fixing up in dressing room. Lunch: 12:20-1:20 p.m.; dismissed: 4:52 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes on Broadway here.
Photo provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
October 15, 1942: MGM studio photographer Eric Carpenter took these photos of Judy to use in promotion for Presenting Lily Mars.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Presenting Lily Mars here.
October 15, 1942: This MGM “air trailer” for For Me And My Gal is dated for radio play on this date, meaning it was not to be aired on the radio until October 15th.
Listen to the “air trailer” here:
Label image from The John Newton Collection. Thanks, John!
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on For Me And My Gal here.
October 15, 1945: It was a short day for Judy at MGM. She had a prerecording session for Till The Clouds Roll By. Judy recorded “D’Ye Love Me” which was filmed but deleted before release. The MGM Studio Orchestra & Chorus also recorded “Sunny.” Time called: 1:30 p.m.; dismissed: 2:30 p.m.
Listen to “D’Ye Love Me?” here:
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Till The Clouds Roll By here.
The video below is the surviving footage of the “D’Ye Love Me?” number. NOTE that the beginning of the footage is silent until the pre-recording starts.
October 15, 1951: This photo was taken of Judy with Milton Berle, Ray Robinson, and Walter Winchell with checks to be presented to doctors and institutions for cancer research. The next night was Judy’s opening at The Palace Theater in New York.
October 15, 1954: Judy and her husband Sid Luft attended the Chicago premiere of A Star Is Born at the Chicago Theater.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
October 15, 1954: Some ads and articles related to the recent nationwide release of A Star Is Born.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
October 15, 1958: Judy was involved in a court case that was on its way to the Supreme Court.
On January 11, 1957, Marie Torre published an article about a disagreement between Judy and CBS-TV and quoted a “network official” who said that Judy did not want to do the special “because she thinks she is terribly fat.” Judy sued the network for 1.3 million dollars. The Judge demanded that Torre reveal the source of the quote but she refused, claiming that being forced to do so was a violation of her rights as a reporter under the First Amendment (Freedom of the Press).
The Judge sentenced Torre to 10 days in jail. She (via her paper, the New York Herald Tribune) appealed. The case went to the Supreme Court which refused to review it, so the decision of the Court of Appeals stayed. Torre served 10 days in jail in 1959. She never revealed her source, according to the NY Times obituary published after her death in 1997. Judy didn’t pursue the case any further after Torre was jailed and the case was dropped by mutual agreement of both parties on January 10, 1961, four years after it all began.
Here is the text from the larger article:
The Garland-Torre Case
The confidential privilege case of Marie Torre, radio and television columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, takes on additional interest because the decision upholding her conviction was written by Appeals Judge Potter Stewart, who has now taken a seat on the Supreme Court in Washington.
Miss Torre wrote a column for her newspaper, Jan. 10, 1957, which attribute to a Columbia Broadcasting System “network official” several statements concerning Judy Garland’s appearance. These statements criticized Miss Garland’s “mental and physical makeup” which was said to have been accountable for her failure to perform on a CBS-TV show. The entertainer sued the network company for breach of contract and defamation. One of her connections was that CBS had “authorized, requested and induced” the publication of the statements.
When Miss Garland’s suit went to the court of Federal Judge Sylvester Ryan in New York City, the identity of the CBS “network official” became a matter of judicial concern. The plaintiff’s lawyers contended that the identity was material to her case. Judge Ryan agreed and, after a deposition hearing did not produce the identity, ordered the newspaper columnist to tell who it was. The order was in open court. When Miss Torre refused to divulge the source, Judge Ryan passed a sentence of 10 days in jail.
The case was appealed by the New York Herald Tribune. When it was heard by the United States Court of Appeals, Judge Stewart, a Cincinnati, was sitting briefly in New York and wrote the opinion. The three-Judge court was careful to limit its affirmation to “the present case” only:
“It is to be noted that we are not dealing here with the use of the judicial process to force a wholesale disclosure of a newspaper’s confidential sources of news, nor with a case where the identity of the news source if os doubtful relevance or materiality. The question asked of the appellant (Miss Torre) went to the heart of the plaintiff’s (Miss Garland’s) claim. We hold that the Constitution conferred no right to refuse to answer.”
Since the president and editor of the New York Herald Tribune, Ogden R. Reid, has said the sentence will be appealed to the Supreme Court, the case presumably will be further aired. The attitude of the writer and her management is that it would have set a bad precedent for the press if the identity had been divulged under court order. Yet if the question is limited to this one case, it is hard to see how harm would have been done to any of the principals had Miss Torre given her source voluntarily. For she herself said the spokesman had not requested anonymity.
The defense of a free press would be better served if the first confidential privilege case taken to the Supreme Court presented a clearer issue.
Photos: The original 1957 article; two articles about the case in 1958.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
October 15, 1965: Judy appeared on the ABC-TV variety show “The Hollywood Palace.” She was the “guests hostess” for the show, and sang: “Just Once In A Lifetime”; “West Side Story Medley” with Vic Damone; “A Couple of Swells”; “I Loved Him”; and “The Palace Medley.” The show was broadcast on November 13, 1965.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
October 15, 1967: Judy was set to open at the Bushnell Memorial Auditorium in Hartford Connecticut on October 20. The “Hines Hines and Dad” act consisted of “Dad” and his two sons, Maurice, and future dance legend Gregory Hines.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.