Posted by “People who remember me as a chubby youngster with a moon face can’t get used to the idea that I’ve grown up.” – Judy Garland, 1947
January 19, 1938: Everybody Sing and Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry
January 19, 1939: Filming on The Wizard of Oz continued with more scenes shot on the “Emerald City” set. This set design photo was taken on this day.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz here.
January 19, 1941: Strike Up The Band.
January 19, 1942: After spending a quick vacay in Miami, Judy and her new husband, David Rose, were set to begin their USO tour of Army camps in the midwest. As noted before, Judy was one of the very first stars to give her time in helping the war effort, then just a little over a month old.
January 19, 1945: Judy was on MGM’s Lot #3, specifically on the “Billy The Kid Street,” which was dressed up as the fictional town of “Sandrock” for The Harvey Girls.
On this day, the company had rehearsals of the “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” production number. Judy had a 2:30 p.m. call, arriving at 3 p.m., then dismissed a short half hour later at 3:30 p.m. According to the assistant director’s notes: “JG was to have fitting at 1:15, then rehearse at 2:30; she called off the fitting and reported for rehearsal at 3:00 p.m.”
It’s unclear what, if anything, was actually accomplished, at least with Judy. It’s likely that the rest of the cast and chorus had already been on the set rehearsing the complicated routine and probably stayed past Judy’s departure at 3:30 p.m. The production number was filmed on January 22nd.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland on the Backlot” section for details about all of the backlot locations where Judy’s films were made.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Harvey Girls here.
January 19, 1946: This four-page ad was placed by MGM in the trade magazine “Motion Picture Herald.” Also included in that magazine was this article about a recent Gallup poll published in “Photoplay” magazine that named the most popular stars of the movies. Judy was one of the stars.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Pages on The Harvey Girls here.
January 19, 1947: Two versions of the same article. According to Hedda Hopper in this lengthy “A Garland for Judy” edition of her column, Judy was planning on spending a year in England to prepare for a new semi-musical remake of Pride and Prejudice. That never happened, but the thought of Judy in a musical remake of MGM’s brilliant 1940 film Pride and Prejudice is an intriguing one. She would have been great!
January 19, 1947: Till The Clouds Roll By.
January 19, 1948: Judy was in the MGM recording studio, or perhaps a rehearsal room, rehearsing the song “Easter Parade” for the film of the same name in advance of the upcoming prerecording session.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Easter Parade here.
January 19, 1952: Judy returned to the Palace after canceling the previous night’s performance due to a case of laryngitis.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 1953: Louella Parsons reported on Judy’s first appearance since her mother’s funeral on January 8. According to Parsons, Judy and her husband, Sid Luft, appeared at a party at Doris and Jules Stein’s home. True to Judy’s nature, they arrived late.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 1954: A Star Is Born continued filming, this time on location at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, the harrowing scene in which Judy’s “Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester” is leaving the funeral services for James Mason’s “Norman Maine” and is accosted by crazed fans. Time started: 10 a.m.; finished: 5 p.m.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight Section on A Star Is Born here.
Photos provided by Kim Lundgreen. Thanks, Kim!
January 19, 1961: “Judy Garland Filled With Joy” – by Tom Reedy. According to Reedy, Judy had “put away the pills,” was eating square meals, and was enjoying London. Reedy must have met with Judy in late December 1960 because, by the time this article was printed, Judy was back in the U.S. and living at the famous Dakota apartment building in New York City.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 1965: Judy gave a deposition regarding her financial affair to Sid Luft’s attorney in his Los Angeles office.
This photo was taken outside Luft’s attorney’s office. It’s obviously touched up for use in newspapers, but it’s the only photo we have of Judy taken on this date.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 1967: Judy and Tom Green dined at the Hickory House in New York City and then went further on West 52nd Street to Jilly’s, where Judy sang with Bobby Cole and his trio, who were appearing there.
Photo: Undated 1967 photo of Judy with an unidentified person.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 1969: Judy appeared on the British TV show “Sunday Night at the London Palladium.” She filled in for an ailing Lena Horne and sang (following the full Garland Overture): “For Once In My Life,” “Get Happy,” and “I Belong To London.”
Unfortunately, the footage does not exist. All that has survived is this black-and-white footage of Judy taking her bows.
However, the audio does survive. Listen to Judy’s songs here:
“For Once In My Life”
“Get Happy”
“I Belong To London”
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
January 19, 2021: The fantastic documentary Sid & Judy that premiered on the Showtime network was released on DVD.
It was nice to see the 1961 London article that gave a positive slant to Judy at the time.
Judy and Sid were truly a great Team while they were married from 1952 to 1965… and it was actually Judy’s longest marriage and the most “sucessful” as well in my
opinion…They also had 2 beautiful children together…Lorna and Joey…A great pity that this union which started out to be so promising did not last…Still Sid Luft was a good and caring Husband to Judy and an excellent father to his 2 kids…The Best Hubby Judy had ever had… RIP to them both ! xxx.
“People who remember me as a chubby youngster with a moon face can’t get used to the idea I’ve grown up.” 1947. Funny, less than five years later, Judy might’ve said, “People who remember me as a slim movie star with lovely cheekbones can’t get used to the idea that I no longer starve myself and I’ve grown up.” Every five years, or so, Judy stated she’d finally grown up, found the right husband, the right weight, everything. Almost never was she at a normal weight, whether slim or heavy.
About twenty years ago, I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Margaret O’Brien, who was lovely, classy and called Judy “My big sister.” But she believed the core of Judy’s torment was her weight issues. Curious.