Posted by “Almost everyone, it appears, is rooting hard for big-eyed Judy Garland to make a professional and personal comeback.” – Uncredited article, 1950
November 18, 1933: “The Three Gumm Sisters” performed as part of the “All-Star Midnight Matinee” which was part of the Los Angeles B’nai B’rith Lodge Benefit at Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California. The film currently on the bill was I’m No Angel starring the fabulous Mae West. The sisters are not listed in the notice above.
November 18, 1937: Judy’s weekly appearance on the “Good News of 1938” radio show broadcast out of Hollywood by NBC Radio. No records (aside from the newspaper advertisement above) or recording from this episode exist so it’s unknown what Judy sang.
November 18, 1938: Filming on The Wizard of Oz continued with more scenes shot on the “Tin Man’s Forest” set. This time, Margaret Hamilton is on the scene giving our threesome some trouble. Filming of these scenes was completed on November 19, 1938. The group (minus the Wicked Witch) moved on to the Lion’s Forest set on November 21st.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
November 18, 1939: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin touted the upcoming run of The Wizard of Oz. Check out the other films playing. Those were the days!
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
November 18, 1940: The trade paper “Film Daily” published the following notice:
Metro has made a national tie-up with the Ideal Novelty Manufacturing Co, giving it the right to produce and sell a Judy Garland doll. First promotion under this co-operative arrangement is in conjunction with “Little Nellie Kelly.”
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Little Nellie Kelly here.
Photos: Judy poses for a promotional pic with the doll, three shots of the doll from the Michael Siewert collection, which sold at auction on November 26, 2107. The doll in the second photo above sold for $576 while the doll in the third photo above sold for $256.
The Judy Room’s 2017 Year In Review has details about many of the items in that fantastic auction.
January 18, 1942: The Pittsburgh Press’s “Record Corner” column notes Judy’s recent Decca Records releases, “How About You?” and “F.D.R. Jones.”
Check out all of Judy’s recordings for Decca Records at The Judy Garland Online Discography’s “Decca Records” section.
Photos: The American and Australian versions of “How About You?” from the Rick Smith Collection. Thanks, Rick!
November 18, 1943: MGM ran this ad promoting both Girl Crazy and Thousands Cheer (along with a few other films) in the “Film Daily” trade paper.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Girl Crazy here.
November 18, 1943: Judy had more rehearsals of “The Trolley Song” and “Skip To My Lou” for Meet Me In St. Louis. This time it was a short day. Time called: 3:10 p.m.; dismissed: 5:00 p.m.
Image provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Meet Me In St. Louis here.
November 18, 1944: Filming on The Clock continued with scenes shot on the “Interior Tenement Hall,” “Interior Fireside Circular Stairs,” and “Interior Al’s Living Room.” Time called: 10 a.m.; Judy arrived at 10:25 a.m.; dismissed: 6:10 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Clock here.
November 18, 1947: A short but very busy day for Judy at MGM.
First up, retakes for The Pirate. Judy had a 9 a.m. call, arriving at 10:07 a.m. The retakes for scenes on the “Interior Manuela’s Bedroom” set. Judy was dismissed from The Pirate production at 2:45 p.m. at which time she posed for some hair, costume, and makeup tests for Easter Parade which was in pre-production with filming beginning on November 21st.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Pirate here.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
November 18, 1950: The release of the soundtrack of Summer Stock by MGM Records is the focus of this article about how everyone was rooting for Judy’s “comeback” after her recent problems became public knowledge.
According to the article, a studio spokesman said, “We’re not only interested in sales. We want to give Judy the big buildup so she’ll know we have confidence in her and will regain confidence in herself. We all feel Judy came up the hard and that she’s a good, clean girl. Hollywood killed her. It was too much for yer. She deserves all the feeling we can give her. We’ve got to let the people know how we feel about her.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on Summer Stock here.
November 18, 1953: Filming on A Star Is Born continued with more scenes shot on the “Exterior Oleander Arms” set (filmed on location in Los Angeles). Time started: 10 a.m.; finished: 4:45 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on A Star Is Born here.
November 18, 1956: Can you find Nina?
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” Section here.
November 17, 1957: Judy appeared on “The Royal Command Performance Variety Show” at the London Palladium. Afterward, Judy and the rest of the performers got to meet Queen Elizabeth.
Judy sang three songs (instead of the two usually allotted to each performer), “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby,” “A Couple of Swells” (after her “Boyfriends” had performed to give her time to change into her tramp costume), and “Over The Rainbow.”
The photo below shows Judy in rehearsal earlier in the day.
The show was broadcast on the radio, and a recording of “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby” and “Over The Rainbow” survives. Listen to that recording here:
http://www.thejudyroom.com/songs/Palladium-All-Star-Show-1957.mp3
Program images below from the Bobby Waters Collection. Thanks, Bobby!
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
November 18, 1959: Judy entered Doctor’s Hospital in New York City. She was near death, her weight had ballooned up to more than 180 pounds and her liver was inflamed more than four times its normal size. She began emergency treatment for hepatitis, but her condition was increasingly critical.
Twenty quarts of fluids were slowly drained from her body. Judy began to recover but was told (at the ripe old age of 37), that she would be a semi-invalid for the rest of her life and would never be able to work again. The rest and time off turned out to be exactly what she needed. In six months she defied the doctor’s prognosis and entered a career renaissance.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
November 18, 1959: The Australian newspaper, “The Age” out of Melbourne, featured this review of Judy’s “Judy in Love” LP released by Capitol Records.
Check out The Judy Garland Online Discography’s “Judy in Love” pages here.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” Section here.
November 18, 1963: Production resumed on “The Judy Garland Show” after a one-week break during which a new production team was assembled. Also on this day, Judy’s 16-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, was released from the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Liza had been admitted the prior day with a kidney infection. It’s likely that Judy was with Liza and not a part of the first day of resumed production on the series.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” Section here.
November 18, 1968: Early in the morning, at 12:30 a.m., Judy, John Meyer, his mother, her escort, and Irv Squires (Judy’s assigned agent from CMA, who suddenly turned up), all went to celebrate Judy’s performance at the ASCAP Salute To Harold Arlen that prior evening (November 17th), at PJ Clark’s in Manhattan.
Judy berated Squires about CMA not getting her any work, with Meyer calming her down by saying they’d talk to David Begelman and get it straightened out. Later that day, Meyer paid a visit to Begelman’s office, where it was determined that the quickest way to get Judy cash would be to book concerts for her, which would be difficult, as a promoter/producer named “Marelli” was holding all of Judy’s orchestrations since she supposedly canceled a concert she was to do for him. Marelli wanted Judy to do the concert, plus pay him $25,000 . with $5,000 down – and 2% of the gross earnings for the next year. Let alone the fact that this was blackmail, Judy did not have $5,000. “Marelli” was most likely Anthony DeFalco.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” Section here.
Scott, is it known exactly why Judy got so dangerously ill in 1959?
She had hepatitis.