Garland Judy - Judy Garland on Judy Garland: interviews and encounters

I ts going to be one hell of a greateverlastingly greatbook with humor, tears, fun, emotion, and love, Judy Garland said of her plans to tell her life story. But she died at the age of forty-seven before seeing it through.

Judy Garland on Judy Garland is the closest we will likely come to experiencing and exploring the legends abandoned autobiography. Collecting and presenting the most important Garland interviews and encounters that took place between 1935 and 1969, this work opens with her first radio appearance under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and concludes with her last known interview, one taped for Radio Denmark just months before her death.

What makes this collection unique and distinguishes it from the plethora of Garland biographies is that it places Judy in the role of storyteller. She wrote a number of essays for various publications and sat for countless print, radio, and television interviews. These and the other autobiographical efforts she made are proof that Judy Garland wanted her story told, and wanted it told in her own words.

Finally, here it is.

Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews Hendrix on Hendrix: Interviews and Encounters with Jimi Hendrix Keith Richards on Keith Richards: Interviews and Encounters Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters

Copyright 2014 by Randy L. Schmidt
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61374-945-6

A list of credits and copyright notices for the individual pieces in this collection can be found on

Interior and cover design: Jon Hahn

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Garland, Judy.

Judy Garland on Judy Garland : interviews and encounters / edited by Randy L. Schmidt. First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61374-945-6 (cloth)

1. Garland, Judy. 2. Garland, JudyInterviews. 3. SingersUnited States Interviews. 4. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited StatesInterviews. I. Schmidt, Randy (Randy L.) editor. II. Title.

ML420.G253A5 2014

772.42164092dc23

2014010486

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

For Jaime

In memory
Coyne Steven Sanders
(19562013)

Would that my throat were blessed by the nightingale That I could but sing of my hearts great love In some lonely tree flooded with silver, Sing till I burst my breast with such passion, Sing, then fall dead to lay at your feet.

F ROM T HE W ISH, A POEM BY J UDY G ARLAND, 1939

Index

I am indebted to my exceptional and thorough editor Yuval Taylor, who felt this title warranted a place amongst the fine titles already in the Musicians in Their Own Words series. I also wish to express my thanks to Amelia Estrich, Mary Kravenas, and rest of the staff at Chicago Review Press for their encouragement and support throughout the production.

A number of individuals provided support at various stages throughout the project. Thanks to Rebekah Ankrom, Daniel Berghaus, Frank Bonito, Walter Briski Jr., Scott Brogan, Jeff Burger, Gerald Clarke, Steve Cox, Tom Early, Rick Ewigleben, Kyle Hall, Dean Hanvey, Sam Harris, Sam Irvin, Richard Tyler Jordan, Sara Jordan, Garry Kief and Stiletto Entertainment, Jeremy Kinser, Frank Labrador, Patrick Lillis (my Avedon angel), Steven Lippman, Chris May, Jeff Marquis, John Meyer, Jon Perdue, the Punchy Players, Michael Riedel, Tom Santopietro, Hillary Banks Self, Michael Siewert, Anthony Slide, Buzz Stephens, Chris Tassin, Donna Trammell, and Scott Zone. An extra special thanks to Laura Adam and Alex Williams for their assistance in transcribing several important radio and television interviews.

I am grateful to Gary Horrocks and the International Judy Garland Club (est. 1963, www.judygarlandclub.org) for images supplied and quotes shared from Judy GarlandA Celebration and Rainbow Review. I also wish to acknowledge the late Coyne Steven Sanders, author of Rainbows End: The Judy Garland Show, whom I had the privilege of meeting in Chicago just weeks before his untimely death. Steve was genuinely interested in the concept of this book and was a source of encouragement to me during its inception.

My appreciation also goes out to the following libraries and organizations, and especially the librarians and representatives who offered such valuable assistance: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences / Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles Public Library, West Hollywood Public Library, Butler Library at Columbia University, University of North Texas Library, Southern Methodist University Library, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (specifically the Collections of Scott Schechter, Amanda Gee, and Charlotte Stevenson), the Richard Avedon Foundation, and the New-York Historical Society / Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. Additionally, I extend thanks to the various online communities of Judy fans, namely the Judy Garland Database, the Judy Garland Experience, the Judy Garland Message Board, and the Judy Room.

For their encouragement of my passion for exploration, research, and writing, I acknowledge my family. First, thanks to my parents and sister for putting up with me during those formative years filled with collecting and conventions. And to those I have the honor and privilege of coming home to at the end of each day: Jaime Rodriguez, my patient and reassuring partner, spent many late-night hours typing and reading aloud to me for this project, while daughters Camryn and Kaylee continually serve as an inspiring, captive audience. Because of them, there really is no place like home.

A book for which publishers have been angling for years has been signed and sealed, proclaimed Random House in a press release dated January 4, 1960. We expect that The Judy Garland Story will be our ACT ONE for 1960, added publisher Bennett Cerf. What promised to be the book deal of the decade was personally negotiated by Cerf during a visit to Judy Garlands room at Manhattans Doctors Hospital, where she spent seven weeks near the end of 1959.

Those great, hypnotic brown eyes of hers were not there. recalled Judys ghostwriter Freddie Finklehoffe, a longtime friend and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scenarist. Just little dark spots, sunken in the fat and bloat of her face. Those famous legs, the ankles of a gazelle, were fat and heavy and she had trouble getting into her shoes. [The doctors] announced the verdict. Sid [Luft] told me. Hepatitis and very bad. Thats what he told Judy. But he was lying to her as he lied to me. She had cirrhosis of the liverand very bad. With physicians prescribing retirement and saying shed forever be a semi-invalid, the thirty-seven-year-olds career seemed at its end.

It has been said that husband Sid Luft pitched Judys autobiography to Bennett Cerf as soon as he realized his wife would not be fit to return to performing and touring anytime soon, and maybe never. Upon signing the book deal with Random House, Judy was reportedly paid an advance in the amount of $35,000. Cerf later recalled an advance of $20,000 to be split with Finklehoffe. Either way, Judy never saw a dime. Some say it was later that same day that Sid bet and lost the entire sum at the horse races.