Rainbow Review

Media Watch

Every Rainbow Review includes a list of Judy sightings in the media. You can read this article, along with many others, in Issue 26 of the Rainbow Review.

In February, a London Evening Standard feature about the home of Matthew Bourne, dancer, choreographer and creator of the all-male production of Swan Lake, featured a shot of his kitchen. Proudly displayed in the corner was artwork of Judy performing "Get Happy" from her 1950 MGM film "Summer Stock".

Laurie Holloway, who played piano for Judy during her 1964 Palladium engagements, appeared on "This Is Your Life". One guest, comic actor Ronnie Corbett, recalled the enormous amount of attention Judy attracted when Laurie and Judy appeared together one evening. "Charismatic, glamorous, big star that she was the audience's eyes were glued on Judy and it was lovely. She came around afterwards and we had a wonderful party."

Writer Julie Burchill wrote an assessment of the mediocrity of contemporary celebrity in the Guardian Weekend in March. "The cult of celebrity doesn't damage anyone but the celebrities themselves. The rest of us go on with our daily lives and big loves, while they become their masks, often to the destruction of their real lives and loves. [It is] we who are mocking them - as we once toured through Bedlam or baited village idiots - for making such shows of themselves. Sure, they're well paid, but if one's need for attention is so great that one will go out almost naked, money's never going to fill that hole." She went on to argue that if you were born to uncomplicated, unsophisticated celebrity you could handle the pressure and thrive unhindered. She cited Posh Spice and Madonna as examples. However, celebrity often destroyed those who were above it. "It's only when you're fit to be something else (Marilyn a great actress, Judy Garland, a great singer) that the trouble starts."

Two of Judy's recordings "Lucky Day" and "The Man That Got Away" provided rousing incidental music on an ITV programme about the "unforgettable Larry Grayson." He had been a great Garland fan.

Cilla Black wrote in the Daily Mail about her work with record producer George Martin and of how his fantasy was to turn her into a version of Judy Garland. This of course did not happen, but Martin must have been a great admirer of Judy - even one of his eight "Desert Island Discs" was Judy and Mickey singing "Good Morning".

BBC Radio 2 started a six-part show "The Capitol Story" in March. The third in the series featured "The Girl Singers" and Alan Livingstone, former president of Capitol Records, discussed Judy and his initial reticence to record the Carnegie concert because it would be too expensive. He expressed great pleasure that the legendary recording had gone on to sell so well but failed to list the record-breaking nature of the product.

"Easter Parade" aired on BBC2 on Good Friday. The blurb in the Radio Times observed: "This turned out to be one of MGM's greatest seasonal delights ... simply wonderful ... one opportunity to enjoy the talents of Astaire and Garland on screen together."

The Betty Grable Society held a poll of their favourite entertainers of the twentieth century. In the female category, Judy came (as you'd expect under the circumstances) second, pipped to the post by Betty by only two votes!

Sid Luft wrote a loving tribute to Judy in the Variety article "Scrapbook of the Century". He noted: "Judy was a generous, unusual, loving, unbelievable creature who will never be duplicated in a billion years. She was devoted to making [A Star Is Born] ... The most exciting moment of my life was Judy's opening at the Palace and the opening of A Star Is Born three years later."

One episode of the BBC Radio 2 series "The Men Who Made Hollywood" was devoted to Louis B Mayer. Judy was the only female singer represented in the show with "Over The Rainbow". The narrator noted that she was used by Mayer to represent through the Andy Hardy series the idyll of innocent childhood and family life.

Variety staged a comeback in the United Kingdom when the London Palladium show returned to the TV screens. A brief magazine item about the history of TV broadcasts from the great theatre noted that over the years the show had starred a whole spectrum of performers from Judy Garland to the Beatles.

Noddy Holder, flamboyant frontman with the '70s band Slade said he'd like to invite Liza Minnelli to dinner alongside Billy Connolly, Thora Hird, Steven Spielberg and Bill Clinton. "I was a big fan of Judy Garland and [Liza's] the nearest thing I could get to Judy. My favourite film of all time is Cabaret."

On Radio 2 Desmond Carrington waxed lyrical about Judy's Carnegie Hall performance of "Over The Rainbow." "Here was a little girl who once sang a song plaintively and innocently at the beginning of a classic movie, grown to womanhood and now able to instil a desperate longing into those same stanzas."

Vanity Fair's April 2000 issue ran an extensive excerpt from Gerald Clarke's new biography. Entitled "Till MGM Do Us Part" the segment focused on the early Garland/Minnelli relationship and was beautifully illustrated with colour-toned photographs of the couple. One of the great disappointments of the book is the unimaginative choice of illustrations and artwork.

"For Me And My Gal" was aired on BBC2 in May. Radio Times noted that it was "a fabulous star vehicle for Judy Garland, who glows with talent and basks in the best songs and production values that MGM could bestow on her."

Lyricist and dramatist Dick Vosburgh discussed the influence of "The Wizard Of Oz" on the BBC Radio 4 show "Wizard?" which celebrated one hundred years since the publication of L Frank Baum's wonderful story. It "resurrect[ed] and rejoice[ed] in the story's many incarnations."

An anecdote about Judy and Frank Sinatra was featured on the second episode of "Tony Bennett - the art of excellence" on BBC Radio 2. Bennett reminisced: "One night Judy was in trouble and she called me - it was my opening night at the Waldorf in New York - and she said 'I'm in trouble. I'm being beaten up in my hotel room. I need help.' So I called Sinatra. Less than fifteen minutes later Judy called back. 'I asked for help, but this is ridiculous ... the streets are filled with police and there's five Jewish lawyers in my hotel room!'"

In June Judy's FBI file was released to a wave of publicity. One headline - "Stalkers, Torture Threats And Stolen Rings" - typified the tone of the publicity. File n 87-99683 recounted a 1940 kidnapping plot "in which 19-year-old Robert Wilson and an accomplice staked out Garland's Bel Air home in Los Angeles. But on the night of the planned abduction, Wilson got cold feet and called the police to tip them off about his plan. After police traced the call and arrested Wilson, he told them that every time [Garland] wiggles that cute little pug nose of hers, I fall more in love." Another newspaper declared - "Judy Garland was stalked by nude lesbian". It went on: "Judy Garland has always been known for her gay male followers, but according to a recently released FBI report on the singer, she also held some appeal with lesbians. The report says that Garland was one of the first Hollywood stars to be stalked and in one encounter she was preyed on by a naked lesbian who tried to corner her in a hotel toilet. According to Gerald Clarke [seemingly omnipresent in most press reports during this period], author of 'Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland,' the surprise visit occurred when Garland stepped into a bathroom in a hotel restaurant. A woman followed Judy in and tried taking off her clothes, Clarke said. Judy screamed, and the staff rushed in."

BBC Radio 2 presented the final part of a four-part story about the music of Harold Arlen. Judy appeared throughout the series in segments about the "The Wizard Of Oz" and "A Star Is Born." Presenter Don Black commented: "Between the 1930s and 1960s his gifts for melody and harmony were unequalled and nobody knew better than the long-time friend for whom he provided many of her best-remembered hits." The show ended with Garland's "Little Drops Of Rain" from "Gay Purr-ee".

In Jack Jones' tour of Britain he shows a film montage of stars he has sung with and Judy is prominently featured.

Judy was pictured with Sid Luft in a Channel 4 documentary about the history of the "Rat Pack".

Tony Bennett's recorded concert from Leeds Castle in Kent was broadcast on BBC1. He sang "Over The Rainbow" as part of a tribute to great female singers and during the ovation that followed called out her name to more applause.

The Judy Garland Birthplace was featured in Attitude magazine's travel section in a piece entitled (somewhat predictably) "Return To Oz". Tongue firmly in cheek the narrative went: "Mingling with Munchkins is perhaps not everyone's idea of the makings of a winning holiday, but it does have a twisted charm about it. Not that I have anything against small people, or indeed people who linger below my waist, but conversation is, at best, stilted when your companion is a geriatric dwarf. And these ain't any old dwarves, these are the actual Munchkins from The Wizard Of Oz, some of them in their nineties."

Associated Press reported that costume designer Bill Thomas died at the age of seventy-nine. Among a number of achievements (including an Academy Award for "Spartacus") he designed Judy's clown outfit for "The Pirate".

Steve Sanders, author of "Rainbow's End", came across an interesting item about Judy and Liza's Palladium recording in the Reporter. Apparently Capitol had planned for Judy to go back in the studio to re-record some fluffed notes/lyrics and passages for the Palladium LP. "She backed out (at the last minute, so the item stated) claiming a 'cold and flu' - leaving some potentially workable material, in their minds, unusable. Perhaps additionally not helping her relationship with Capitol at this point was that, the same night of the aborted Palladium redub session, a robust Judy went to a birthday party in chilly Malibu, which was also duly reported in the trades."

Debbie Reynolds has been playing tribute to Judy during her one-woman shows by performing a medley of Judy numbers. She recalled: "Judy could do anything, and do it beautifully! I loved her very much!" One fan described the event: "She started with Get Happy, and then sang Meet Me In St. Louis, The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, Swanee River, The Man That Got Away and Over the Rainbow. My friends were joking that I should cover my ears as she sang Rainbow, assuming that I wouldn't want to hear it. It was a lot of fun, and nice to see such a warm tribute by one of her contemporaries, plus I'm always in heaven when I hear Judy get the credit she deserves."

An article in Genre magazine listed a number of key Judy Garland resources including the two popular WWW sites The Judy Garland Database at: www.zianet.com/jjohnson/contents.htm and Judy Garland: The Live Performances at: users.deltacomm.com/rainbowz/ It also recommended that people buy the Carnegie Hall CD set and the DVD box set. In the accompanying article Judy was described as "Patron Saint of Stonewall. Her death has been purported to be an instigating factor in the Stonewall Riots, which occurred the day of her funeral. Regardless of the veracity of this claim, and our individual opinion of her, Judy Garland is intrinsically linked with 'gay' in the public consciousness. So let us honour the queen of queens ... Wasn't the rainbow flag designed in her honour?"

A new book lists Judy as one of a thousand "Makers Of The Millennium".

Turner Classic Movies made Judy star of the month in July running thirty movies, two documentaries and three musical shorts - "Bubbles" (1930), "Every Sunday" (1936) and "If I Forget You' (1940) in which Judy sang the title song in a tribute to the late Will Rogers. In Robert Osborne's introduction to the season he said: "One thing that is never emphasised enough is how funny Judy was ... a genuine, four-star, top-of-the-line funny lady, one of those rare souls who could find the humour in almost any situation. She not only loved to laugh but also relished making others do the same. The last time I saw her was at the party after opening night of her 1967 Palace show. As I was leaving I took a last glance round and there was Judy dancing cheek to cheek with her once Cowardly Lion, Bert Lahr. If one had to have a last look at her, I can't think of a better one and yes, she was laughing."

"The Wizard Of Oz" also ran without commercials for the first time on US TV on July 3rd. Amusingly Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" was played simultaneously on the Secondary Audio Program channel to enable fans to ascertain the accuracy of the myth that the latter is an "alternate soundtrack" to the 1939 classic. "Though the band says it's all just a coincidence, that still hasn't stopped the rumours and analysis. Those who have listened to the album during the movie say the similarities are truly bizarre. 'Brain Damage' plays as the Scarecrow sings 'If I Only Had A Brain,' Dorothy tries to listen for the Tin Man's heart, just as a heartbeat ends the song 'Eclipse' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky' plays as the big tornado appears." Viewers were instructed to press play on their CD player after the MGM lion's third roar.

TV Guide celebrated Oz mania with multiple Oz covers that saw Judy's return to the famous television magazine cover. Gerald Clarke (an odd choice considering John Fricke's obvious expertise in this area) wrote "the ultimate fan's guide to the Emerald City." Al Diorio was furious with some of the assertions Clarke made about Garland 'fans' in the piece. "He charges Miss Garland's 'more fanatical fans' with 'displaying symptoms that might have puzzled Freud himself' because they dared to take exception to his chronicle of Judy Garland's sex life. Furthermore, he makes the sublimely idiotic assumption that this reaction proves that those fans don't care about Judy Garland - only Dorothy. What Mr. Clarke has persistently failed to understand (he is obviously unable to understand anything that gets in the way of his need to use the sensational to promote his sales) is that most of Judy Garland's fans don't have the neurotic need to read about the singer's sex life in order to understand her magnanimous and heartfelt spirit and enjoy her incredible talents. This attitude stems not from an uncaring attitude on the part of Miss Garland's fans but from an appreciation and caring far over anything Gerald Clarke will ever understand."

"Over the Rainbow" was listed number three in Mojo magazine's "100 greatest songs of all time." In a full page article about the song Fred Dellar recalled its history and described it as: "an inspirational and beautiful creation both melodically and lyrically." Garland recalled singing it at the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony. : "It was the most sensational moment of my career. The lump in my throat was so big when I sang it that I sounded more like Flip the Frog than the most excited girl in Hollywood. I'll never forget how Mickey Rooney came to my rescue. I was so nervous that I thought I'd faint. He practically held me up all through the second chorus."

Betty Hutton was interviewed by Robert Osborne and spoke about Judy and Annie Get Your Gun. "Hutton, 79, complained that the cast and crew were so angry about Garland's firing that they treated Hutton with coldness and hostility. But director George Sidney, speaking by phone from Los Angeles, remembers it differently. "Everybody had a wonderful time,' says Sidney, 86. "She and I had the greatest nonsexual relationship ever between an actress and a director. It was so much fun. As for the technicians being mean to her - the technicians couldn't give a damn. They hammer a nail on a set. They pan this light along. If it's Garbo saying, 'I love you, I love you' - they couldn't care about that. It was a job.' In the TCM interview, Hutton also said that working at MGM was a living hell. "She said that?' Sidney said. "She loved it so much at MGM she planted a friendship tree! I got pictures of her planting it. This little tree - it's big now.'

Eartha Kitt presented a six-part radio series "The Torch Singers" for BBC Radio 2 and said that Judy had left "an unparalleled legacy of torch songs ... We were lost souls always looking for a place to land and maybe in some ways I still am."

John Fricke recalled on Judy's Internet forum the "Judy List" Judy's quick wit and great sense of humour. At the Royal Variety Performance in 1957 she was presented after the show and told by the Queen Mother: "I am always on the verge of tears when I hear you sing Over The Rainbow." Judy responded: "Ma'am, that song has plagued me over the years. It's like being a grandmother in pigtails!"

USA Today listed two Dorothy quotes from "The Wizard Of Oz" in the top twenty movie quotes of all time. Austin Power's "Yeah, baby!" and Arnie's testosterone-laden outbursts provided a contemporary edge to the list. Only four of the quotes are spoken by actresses. Judy's "There's no place like home" and "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," will stay with us forever.

Touring in the United States singer and performer Betty Buckley said in an interview that when she was a little girl she spent a lot of time singing along to Judy Garland records.

Mickey Rooney celebrated his 80th birthday on the road in Michigan and the entire audience

sang "Happy Birthday" to him. His current show is called "Two For The Show" and is an evening with Rooney and Jan, his wife of twenty-five years. Rooney sang "Judy" and performed numbers from their movies together. There was also a clip from "The Judy Garland Show."

David Jacobs on his BBC Radio 2 show often nostalgically evokes his love of Garland, particularly his recollections of watching "Meet Me In Saint Louis" in a Nissan hut in Colombo in the 1940s. "I had the opportunity in the sixties of revealing to Miss Garland what she had meant to me in those far off days and I'm happy to say it at least made her smile."

"A Child Is Waiting" was aired on Channel 4. It received a favourable review in the Radio Times as an "often powerful and always well-acted" drama.

The October 2000 Vanity Fair ran an interesting picture of Judy with Richard Barstow & George Cukor on the set of "A Star Is Born."

In November another Christie's memorabilia sale in Los Angeles included Judy Garland's wedding gown from "The Harvey Girls" which was priced at £33,000.

Nana Mouskouri was guest on Michael Parkinson's Sunday BBC Radio 2 show. She talked about her early days during the war in Greece, and how Judy and "Over the Rainbow" played a fundamental role in her musical development.

PBS featured George Cukor on its "American Masters" series. Judy was featured prominently in a number of photographs taken at some of Cukor's parties in Hollywood during the 40's and 50's. The ruthless editing of "A Star is Born" was a source of great disappointment and grief to Cukor who finally accepted an invitation to watch the film a few days before he died.

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