Frances Ethel Gumm (a.k.a. Judy Garland)
June 10, 1922 — June 22, 1969
[“Mr. Monotony” was cut from “Easter Parade” (1948) because the costume was deemed too modern for the period piece, but the outfit was repurposed two years later for “Get Happy” in Garland’s final MGM film, “Summer Stock” (1950).]
Those glorious pipes.
[This is an outtake from the recording session for “A Star is Born” (1954).]
“LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND: ME AND MY SHADOWS” (2001)
I highly recommend this superb 2001 biopic of Judy Garland starring Judy Davis in a tour-de-force performance. Both Tammy Blanchard and Davis won Emmys for their portrayals of the young and older Garland, respectively (along with well-deserved Emmys for costumes, hair, and makeup), long before Renee Zellweger scooped up the 2020 Oscar for her delightfully nuanced depiction of “Judy”. If you are unfamiliar with the details of this mercurial star’s storied life, this is a very good primer.
Happy birthday, Judy. Enjoy!
“RAINBOW” (1978)
Judy Garland is among a handful of performers (like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis) whose contributions to the industry were so red-hot and culture-shifting that they themselves have become the subject of multiple movie exposes. The 2001 and 2020 biographies of Garland were predated by a 1978 made-for-television biopic starring Andrea McArdle (who had, the year prior, taken Broadway by storm as “Annie”) and directed by Garland’s childhood friend Jackie Cooper (who was himself a gigantic child star at MGM in the 1930s) and it’s a campy — if slightly pedestrian — snapshot of Garland’s early life.
McArdle was unfairly eviscerated by the critics (I remember the TV Guide swipe verbatim: “…and McArdle’s rendition of ‘Over the Rainbow’ is sheer gall”). Listen, nobody in 1978 thought Andrea sounded like Judy Garland — who could possibly? — but she was a bona fide child star with a much-celebrated voice, and it was representative enough to do the job. McArdle didn’t then (nor does she now) have the complex interiors that made Judy Garland such a musical virtuoso, nor did she at 15 possess the exquisite phrasing and devastating subtlety that made Garland a child phenomenon; McArdle had a great big theatre voice that rang out like a jackhammer to the back row of a Broadway house, and while Garland could do that, too, Judy also had an astonishing emotional range that McArdle lacked. You just can’t compare the two. But McArdle gave 1978 television audiences the flavor of Judy Garland and that was the aim. Her voice was not Judy Garland’s, but it’s an exceptional instrument and I think she acquits herself quite admirably in a role that simply no child performer alive at that time could have conceivably managed.
Among the cast are are a team of old Hollywood heavyweights, including the great Piper Laurie as Garland’s overbearing mother Ethel; Martin Balsam as the legendary head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer; Don Murray as Judy’s father, Frank Gumm; Michael Parks as Garland’s musical mentor, Roger Edens; Rue McClanahan as Ida Koverman (a very significant figure in Garland’s early life); Jack Carter as George Jessel (who allegedly gave Judy her last name); and Donna Pescow as her sister, Virginia (also known as Jimmie).
Give it a look and judge for yourself. [The film did, however, win an Emmy for cinematography.]
NOTE: The YouTube version, above, is edited and even omits the original opening (the ratio is likewise distorted. This is the same version minus the ratio distortion and it’s a much better print). The Tubi-TV version, below, is a complete, pristine print and this is the one I recommend.
And just because these platforms are notorious for torching links, I’m including an unedited 7-part version of “Rainbow” which is also on YouTube.
Finally, a few fun viewer assessments from long after-the-fact.
MORE THAN JUST A MOVIE STAR…
GARLAND WAS REGARDED IN HER LIFETIME AS A LIVING LEGEND…
…AND ARGUABLY THE GREATEST PERFORMER OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY…
…WHOSE REMARKABLE TALENTS ARE STILL BEING ANALYZED HALF A CENTURY AFTER HER DEATH.
GARLAND’S PERFORMANCE AS DOROTHY IN “THE WIZARD OF OZ”
assured her cultural immortality (begin to notice how many times a day you see her image as Dorothy employed somehow, somewhere, for something — it’s omnipresent and utterly inescapable), and her outstanding rendition of the Oscar-winning “Over the Rainbow” is universally considered THE GREATEST SONG OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.