About Judy Garland

You may remember Judy as the little girl in the blue checked pinafore who skipped down the Yellow Brick Road, or as the star spangled diva who filled concert halls to capacity all over the world. However, Judy's body of work may include more than you think.

Her beautiful and dramatic singing, capable of pulling audiences to their feet or reducing them to tears with its sensitivity and interpretation, often caused her versatility to be overlooked.

Judy was a superb performer with talent and range in many different fields. It was no surprise that she was referred to as Little Miss Show Business and The World's Greatest Entertainer. As well as her amazing vocal talent, Judy was also an accomplished actress, dancer and comedienne. She performed in concert, for records, radio shows and films.

Judy was, and still is, regarded highly for her incomparable talent and star quality. But don't take our word for it. Let's see what the people who worked with Judy and knew her through the years have to say about her.

“Judy was a complicated woman of a tremendous wit and intelligence.”

“Judy was the star of the century... I was very close to Judy, we liked - we loved - one another actually. We had so much fun. She had the best training at MGM and she could do anything, plus she was funny.”

“That gal could do anything except look after herself.”

“She is the greatest singer of popular songs I have heard, because she sings from the heart.”

“Judy was the best thing to happen at MGM.”

“She could learn a song faster than anybody I ever knew, with less rehearsal. The musicians loved working with her.”

“There's nobody since Al Jolson who can handle an audience - walk down to the footlights and sit down and talk to an audience - and hold them the way Judy does... She gets into the hearts of people. Judy interprets a lyric as very few people in our business ever do... Judy had- and has - her own style and sang her way into the hearts of everyone in the audience. And everyone backstage too.”

“Judy was an unusual child, with an ability to project a song and a voice that penetrated your insides. She sang not just to your ears but to your tear ducts. Just like a great cantor, she combined the superb voice with an understanding of the music and lyrics and this ability to sing into your soul.”

“Judy was just delightful to work with, a great, great gal.”

“Judy was the greatest all around talent the movies ever had.”

“When you get down to the incredible Garland cult, you have to use that abused word charisma... You can't define charisma, but she had it always. The amazing thing about her talent was the swiftness with which she could grasp and interpret things that would take other people (and I mean talented people) ten times as long to catch.”

“She's a great technician. There's nobody in the entertainment world today, actor or singer, who can run the complete range of emotions, from utter pathos to power and dimension, the way she can... She's like a piano. You touch any key and that note of pure emotion comes out. She knows how to laugh and cry on cue. When we made Judgement at Nuremberg, I'd just have to say, "Judy, register hate and fear, like a German Hausfrau who had been persecuted by the Nazis," and the hate and fear would be there. It's the same thing when she's doing a concert, and she ends the show by sitting on the edge of the stage and singing "Over the Rainbow". She hits the lachrymal key on her piano, and the tears come out - and she cries, and the audience cries.”

“When you work with an artist like Judy, you realise why you chose to be in the business.”

“She has a force field in her body, an electrical force field that when she turns it on, it would reach the back of the theatre.”

“I have always said that I believe that Judy had one of the most complete and limitless talents of anyone that I have ever known in show business, and in my judgement there is absolutely no part - musical, non-musical, comedy, tragedy or anything else in between - that she couldn't do as well if not better than anyone else.”

“As a singer-actress-comedienne, she was the most talented person - she could make you laugh and cry at the same time.”

“I don't think any actress was so loved by the American public as Judy.”

“I've never in my life seen an audience pull for a singer like they pull for Judy.”

“It is for more than mere acting that we cherish this elated little creature , it is for the true star quality - the quality of being.”

“Judy could do anything and do it beautifully! I loved her very much!”

“She was the greatest performer . No one has been her equal...”

“We will all be forgotten... but not Judy.”

“She was a great artist, and when she was happy she sang better than anyone else who ever sang.”

“She incarnates a dream of adolescence and all the pain and nostalgia that goes with it. When the voice pours out, as rich and pleading as ever, we know where, and how moved we are - in the presence of a big star, and embarrassed by tears.”

Find out about: Club History...