JUDY GARLAND: Hello there.
I'm Judy Garland, and I'm here to share a very exciting event with you.
(SINGING) I hear music
Mighty fine music
JUDY: One which will make you realize
how Isaac Newton must have felt when the apple fell on his head
and opened up a whole new world of science.
I hear music
Mighty fine music
JUDY: Only in this case, what we're opening
is a new world of sound and entertainment.
I don't pretend to know how it's done, and I don't wanna know.
I hear music
Mighty fine music
JUDY: Like love, the most important thing is to experience it.
So, fasten your seat belts and let's go.
The sweetest sounds
I'll ever hear
Are still inside my head
JUDY: Well, for openers, I don't know how to work this machine.
I just am trying to get a few thoughts down, (CHUCKLES)
and I don't know whether anybody's interested or not, but I am.
And do you realize how many people have talked about me,
written about me,
imitated me?
It's high time to cut the comedy
and high time to stop the trolley ride
because I, Judy Garland, am gonna talk.
And everybody just better sit on the bench and watch the ball game.
Somewhere for me
Waiting somewhere for me
JUDY: I'm sitting in a room all by myself. Ho, ho! Boy.
And across the room on my library shelf
are tapes of shows that I've done for CBS.
Hmm.
Mmm-hmm.
PRESENTER: From Television City in Hollywood,
The Judy Garland Show.
JUDY: My life depends on those, and yet I don't know how to work.
That's not my business. I was trying to be a singer.
I feel a song comin' on
I don't know how to read notes. I can't read music.
But that's the story of my life. You go with it,
even if you don't know what's going on.
Keep talking, singing,
smiling and taping.
Hallelujah
And now that my troubles are gone
Let those heavenly drums go on drummin'
'Cause I feel a song
I feel a song
Comin' on!
(APPLAUSE)
(PHONE LINE RINGING)
HUNT STROMBERG: Hello?
-SID LUFT: Mr. Stromberg, please. -Who's this?
-Sid Luft. -HUNT: Hi, Sid.
I must tell you, Sid,
that the other night was a very, very unpleasant and unfortunate night.
SID: I heard about it. HUNT: Not just for me.
-'Cause I don't need this shit. -SID: I know that.
HUNT: From anybody, and that includes Judy Garland.
SID: I know that. HUNT: Whom I basically like and adore.
SID: Right.
HUNT: And I'm aware that when you get to that state,
you are not responsible for some of the things you do.
SID: It's another person. HUNT: If somebody has leprosy, Sid,
it is highly regrettable, but you stay away from them.
SID: Certain people are getting her too much junk.
HUNT: It just reaches a point where you say, "Aw, fuck it!"
SID: Right.
HUNT: Sid, look, this is not a CBS problem.
And if Judy doesn't show up for one single show, Sid,
the series has to be cancelled and that is gonna hurt everybody.
SID: Judy Garland is not Shirley Temple.
HUNT: You're goddamn right.
SID: My business has been the Judy Garland business for 13 years.
HUNT: Yeah, of course.
SID: Somewhere along the line, she got mixed up.
Maybe it was partially my fault.
Maybe I mixed her up, I don't know.
HUNT: You're both flamboyant people but that's your own personal business.
SID: All right, then. HUNT: All right.
If you knew Judy,
it would be very difficult not to fall in love with her immediately.
She was that magnetic.
She was that much fun.
She was the most unusual creature I've ever known or ever will know.
There'll never be a duplicate of Judy.
When I met Judy, she was sweet and dear and clean.
She had been fired by MGM and she was really glad of it.
That's where our romance started.
Manhattan, 1950. New York was a scorcher.
It was September, and the entire Eastern Seaboard was having a heat wave.
Saturday night, I took a date to Billy Reed's Little Club
in the East Fifties, and ran smack into Freddie Finklehoffe
sipping daiquiris with none other than Judy Garland.
You couldn't live in Hollywood, as I did,
and not be aware of Judy Garland.
In fact, our lives had crisscrossed a couple times over the years.
The last time I'd seen her was a few years earlier
at a bowling alley in Beverly Hills.
Judy was part of the gang.
I was not attracted to her at first, yet some invisible cord
was shortening with every contact,
no matter how casual or distant the meeting.
I'd grown up a tough guy in Bronxville, New York.
I'd traded my amateur boxing career for Hollywood
and was producing B movies in town
while spending a lot of time at the track.
My wild temper got me noticed
by Hollywood's gossip columnists from hell.
I'd made previous appearances in these columns thanks to my social life,
but it was my brawling that garnered the most coverage.
I was married to actress Lynn Bari
and Judy to her second husband, director Vincente Minnelli.
They had a little girl named Liza.
Vincente and Judy had met while filming Meet Me in St. Louis.
(SINGING) Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings
From the moment I saw him, I fell
SID: Back in the Little Club in New York City
on that hot September night in 1950,
Fred reluctantly invited me to sit down.
Judy looked very different from the last time we'd met
at the Beverly Hills bowling alley.
I sensed a kind of electrical force coming from her.
The plunging neckline on her black cocktail dress
revealed alabaster white skin, and she wore ruby red lipstick.
I thought her lips were more beautiful than Hedy Lamarr's.
Freddie was so jealous, it was funny.
Hi, Freddie.
FREDDIE: Judy, let me tell you about this fellow.
He's the dirtiest, low-down SOB you'll ever meet.
He's bad news, and I'm warning you, I get vibrations.
You're a cooked pigeon, baby.
SID: Judy was hysterical with laughter.
JUDY: Oh, Freddie. Let him sit down, really.
FREDDIE: You've heard of this character before, haven't you?
JUDY: One-Punch Luft? Yes, rings a bell.
SID: A few days later, I was on my way to a party at Jackie Gleason's apartment
when the Checker cab got caught in a nasty traffic jam.
What's the hold-up?
DRIVER: Judy Garland. She's in a car by the Winter Garden at the corner of 51st.
Her fans stopped her. She's signing autographs out of the car window.
SID: We were stopped near the Capitol Theatre's big neon signs
beaming Summer Stock.
Movie houses were not doing well that summer,
but Summer Stock was pulling in the crowds.
Shout, "Hallelujah," come on, get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout, "Hallelujah," come on, get happy
Get ready
-For the judgment day! -Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
SID: Judy was signed to MGM in 1935 when she was just 13 years old.
By 17, she was one of MGM's most valuable stars.
There's no place like home.
The Wizard of Oz was on its way
to becoming one of the most beloved films of all time.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
SID: The role of Dorothy and the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow
will be forever associated with Judy Garland.
...that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
She, too, is a child of the theater, born in a dressing room,
-raised in a wardrobe trunk. -How romantic.
SID: More than any other star of her day, her film roles
seemed like parallel stories drawn from her life...
-Why, it's Judy! -Why, so it is.
SID: ...extensions of her dreams, desires, and fears.
Poor little ugly duckling. Well, well, Mother loves you anyway.
SID: She was always putting on a show.
You cannot control your feet
When you hear the drummer boy!
SID: Her early training in vaudeville brought to bear in film after film.
They call her Minnie from Trinidad!
So come to your nabob for next Patrick's Day...
SID: And in For Me and My Gal,
she dreams of the greatest stage of them all.
I've got kind of a goal in my mind.
It's the same goal every vaudeville actor has,
only I'm really gonna get there.
I used to think I'd play the Palace someday, too.
SID: Her past and future magically burned onto celluloid
culminating in musical classics.
When you pull that throttle
Whistle blows
A-huffin' and a-puffin' and away she goes...
SID: Songs and images that would define her career for years to come.
JUDY: On the Atchison, Topeka
And the Santa Fe!
SID: When the cab finally got through the traffic jam
and arrived at Jackie Gleason's, I saw Judy was there.
She remembered me from the other night.
We danced together and excluded the rest of the world.
What do you say we get out of here?
JUDY: I know a place you'll like.
SID: It was an after-hours club in a Midtown brownstone,
a duplex, posh and dark.
When we came in, Johnny Mercer was playing the piano.
He was a golf buddy of mine from a California country club.
Judy sat down next to Johnny and began to sing with him.
JUDY: (SINGING) Missed the Saturday dance
Heard they crowded the floor
Couldn't bear it without you
Don't get around much anymore
SID: Later, as we strolled the Avenue,
Judy would take my arm and we'd hold hands.
JUDY: Vincente and I, we're not getting along.
He... He's a company man, you know.
He can't...protect me.
SID: I wasn't sure what she meant by "protect."
She never said she didn't love him, but she was testing the waters.
As our night together unfolded, Judy told me tales of her years at MGM.
When Judy signed a contract with MGM,
she had, in effect, become their property.
Every aspect of her life was controlled by the studio,
headed by the man who essentially became her surrogate father,
Louis B Mayer.
Gee, Mickey, we don't know how lucky we are
and how much we have to be thankful for with our health and our happiness.
SID: Her life on the lot was nothing but a series of pressures
from the executives, choreographers, voice coaches,
the relentless publicity department, and her mother.
Her weight was constantly monitored.
Amphetamines were commonly doled out by studio doctors.
Amped up on bennies, she'd be worked to near collapse
on films like Girl Crazy, with director Busby Berkeley
pushing her to the limit to complete his elaborate concepts.
She had to be as alert and vital in the last take at 11:00 p.m.
as she had been in the first take at 9:00 a.m.
Who could ask for anything more than music and rhythm?
I got
Rhythm!
SID: When I actually fell in love with Judy,
I knew nothing of her medical history,
other than her recent problems at MGM.
Just the year before, Judy was under contract
to star in a film of the Broadway hit Annie Get Your Gun.
JUDY: Unfortunately, they put Buzz Berkeley on the picture.
Psychologically, Buzz Berkeley represented all of the years
of Benzedrine and... And just...
exhaustion.
Am I an Indian yet?
I was trying to take direction from both Buzz Berkeley and Bob Alton
and all of the music and the costumes and the chorus boys and everything
just were confusing me and I had this migraine headache constantly.
I was just in a daze.
So, I went back to my dressing room one day for lunch.
I remember Les Peterson, that rat, just coming to the door and saying,
"Here's a message for you," you know, and I opened it and read it.
It said, "Don't bother to report back to work after lunch
"because you are dismissed from the picture."
I knew that I was really in for a public beating
and I got a helluva one. A terrible one.
I knew if I stayed around this town, that I'd really go mad.
Meantime, Vincente never did anything. Never did anything.
So I thought, I don't give a damn whether I ever make another picture
as long as I live, but I must get my health back.
SID: Judy told me she had spent three months
in a Boston hospital to detox off pills,
returning to Hollywood to star in the film Summer Stock.
Now rested and healthy, she almost lost the role
for going against MGM's orders to reduce her weight.
When she began not showing up for rehearsals
on the next feature, Royal Wedding, co-starring Fred Astaire,
the studio once again dropped her from the film
and placed her on suspension.
JUDY: At which point, I made a scene.
Of course, it was the wrong thing to do. Such ominous reports.
"It remains to be seen if she ever faces the camera again."
SID: On September 28th, 1950, Judy was released from her contract at MGM.
She had been owned by the studio for the last 15 years of her life.
She was 28 years old.
And now she was free.
JUDY: (SINGING) I'm in trouble
Such beautiful trouble
And it's the most serious trouble I've had
And I'm glad
My doctor made a wise prediction
He said this wonderful affliction
Was simply that beautiful trouble called love!
SID: It was the sort of affair that usually blows up, doesn't work out.
Once I was back in Los Angeles,
I kept waiting for things to swerve in another direction or dissolve.
That didn't happen.
One night, she wanted me to be present at The Brown Derby,
where she was to discuss her career with her agent.
The subject at hand, what should Judy Garland do next?
They suggested that Judy follow the lead of Danny Kaye,
currently a giant success at the London Palladium.
Judy was apprehensive. She was about 10 pounds overweight,
and on her petite physique, extra weight was magnified on screen.
In any case, there were no film offers.
She would not have to worry about one pound singing in concert.
By the time we left the Brown Derby, it was agreed.
Judy would be booked at the London Palladium for April.
JUDY: (SINGING) I thought it would never happen
But I finally got here
Seemed so far away
The trip seemed silly
I'd always heard them say
It's a long, long way to Piccadilly
SID: On April 9th, 1951, Judy opened the Palladium.
Crowds queued up for four hours in the rain.
JUDY: (SINGING) I never thought I'd see
What we call Buckingham
But that's past
So hold fast
At long last
Here I am!
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very, very much. Thank you. I'm glad you liked that.
I like that one too, but not... Huh?
Oh, we'll get to all of them.
We'll be on for hours. You won't be able to get rid...
(LAUGHTER)
It's the biggest, most important, happiest night of my life,
and that's because of you.
SID: A multi-city tour through Scotland and Ireland were added to the schedule.
Out on the road, I discovered her to be
what friends of mine would tag "a no-bullshit dame."
Judy smoked mentholated cigarettes, but in moderation,
and she always took a sip of wine before going on stage.
We began to relax with one another.
We were away from the crowd and simmering down.
She brought up her interest in a remake of A Star Is Born,
a picture she had been thinking about
since she acted the lead in a Lux Radio version in 1942.
HOST: The Lux Radio Theater brings you Judy Garland and Walter Pidgeon
in A Star Is Born.
JUDY: I could be an actress, Granny. I could be.
And I'd go to Hollywood, too, if I had the chance.
SID: I conceded that her days as a film actress needn't be over.
But first, there was a tour to finish.
Then, in Edinburgh, Judy asked me to become her personal manager.
JUDY: You have the experience to manage me, darling.
SID: I can't hang around managing you.
Judy Garland's sweetheart-pimp? Not my style.
JUDY: But you've got to stay with me, Sid.
I don't wanna go to Liverpool and I don't wanna go to Dublin without you.
SID: I knew this was it.
All or nothing. If this was just an affair,
I'd have to end it now, walk out, and never see her again.
If I stayed, I was her manager, her lover.
I was gonna end up marrying Judy Garland.
She was so emotional that night in Edinburgh,
tears streaming down her cheeks when she asked me.
JUDY: I suppose you could call it fear for ever having loved you,
but I'll never be free of you. I know that now.
SID: Don't worry. I'll never let you down.
Tonight, we thought it might be kind of fun to do a concert,
using the music from... from the movies.
After all, our show does come from Hollywood.
And even more important, if movies had... had never happened,
I'd probably still be one of The Gumm Sisters in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
JUDY: I was born in a very small town on the Iron Range in Minnesota.
I was very aware of a peacefulness
because of the very beauty of the little town itself.
It's a magnificent-looking town.
I remember the garden. I remember the way it snowed.
And my mother and father would go down to his theater.
My mother played the piano in the pit
because they were silent movies that he ran in his theater.
My father was a terribly, terribly handsome man
when my mother first met him.
He was French and a little Irish.
He had a marvelous loud laugh,
a funny, explosive temper.
What I do remember was terribly happy.
Possibly the only normal, carefree time in my life.
For such a mixed-up life later, it started out beautifully.
HOST: You were in vaudeville before you started in pictures, weren't you, Judy?
JUDY: Yes, they used to bill me as "the little girl with the big voice."
I may not have been good, but I was good and loud. (LAUGHS)
We'll weave a life of dreams
In the land
Of Let's Pretend
When I went into vaudeville, I was two years old, and my grandmother
threw me onto my father's stage.
And I just sang Jingle Bells and nobody told me to stop,
so nobody ever asked me.
HOST: Were you good in vaudeville? JUDY: We were terrible. Terrible.
-HOST: Yeah. Who was in it? -My two sisters, my mother and myself.
We were not good Keith time or Orpheum time.
We were in lousy vaudeville, where they...
(LAUGHS)
We were in between the switches. They'd show a movie, you know,
and then throw on a lot of acts,
and we were that type of vaudeville. We were terrible.
Then my parents decided to move to California,
so my daddy sold his theater. But we worked our way to California.
You see, my mother and father went back to their original vaudeville act
they did before they bought the theater, Jack and Virginia Lee,
and they booked us as The Gumm Sisters,
because two acts made more money than a family.
We continued on to Los Angeles and landed in a town called Lancaster.
It wasn't much of a town,
but my father seemed to think it was a fine place for the theater.
Up until this point, our life had been a party,
but Mother suddenly changed that.
She became conscious of our career, and she decided we had to be stars.
She started to drive us and drag us about from place to place,
any place where we could be seen.
She'd whip me out of kindergarten and off to Los Angeles with Jimmie and Sue.
And we'd sing anywhere, literally.
Small parties, luncheons, club dates.
She'd play the piano, and we'd sing and get 50 cents apiece.
We were playing, you must remember it, the Oriental Theatre in Chicago.
I remember how crowded the theater. We were doing six shows a day.
-That's right. -I remember you were a baby
with your family, doing an act, The Gumm Sisters.
JUDY: Terrible name. GEORGE: Yes, it was a bad name.
GEORGE: I was the boss of the theater. JUDY: You were the star.
And they got rid of a lot of the acts.
Not that they were bad, but they got rid of them.
"We don't need it." I said, "Keep that little girl."
-Do you remember that? -JUDY: Yes, I do.
Remember I introduced you? You came out alone.
-Yes. -Little baby girl.
-And I'd say to the audience... -Frances Gumm.
-That's right. Frances Gumm. -JUDY: Frances Ethel Gumm.
GEORGE: I told your mother, "Gee, I don't like that name
"for this lovely, warm little thing."
So she said, "Mr. Jessel, she's just starting.
"Call her anything you like." And...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
So you...
You don't know this, but what happened was,
there was a great actress called Judith Anderson,
and she was opening in a Broadway show that night.
And I called from down... a very flowery telegram,
"Dear Judith, may tonight add another rose to the garland of successes
that adorn your great..." something.
And then I walked on.
And I said, "And now, ladies and gentlemen,
a little girl destined to go very far in the show business, Judith Garland."
-And I said, "That's you, honey." -Yes.
-And she came out. -That's right.
(APPLAUSE)
SID: Nearly one year had passed since I had met Judy in New York,
and I was back in the soupy heat of Manhattan.
I'd been astounded that there was no particular media welcome for Judy
after her success in Britain.
JUDY: The press are like the police. Where are they when you need them?
SID: Understandably, she was let down.
Suddenly, she was insecure about her career.
She ordered up a plate of spaghetti, her favorite dish.
Nobody was breaking down the doors for Judy Garland except room service.
I walked over to Broadway, where I ran into an actress I knew
by the Winter Garden Theatre. As I stood there chatting,
I saw in the near distance the run-down facade of the Palace Theatre,
the once proud and lucrative bastion of vaudeville, now reduced to a slum.
I suddenly had a thought. "I gotta do this myself."
The president of the Palace was an old friend of a friend.
I ran to a pay phone and gave him a call.
Miraculously, he was aware of Judy's success in England,
and we were both thinking the same thing.
He would renovate the once-glorious theater all for Judy
and she would bring vaudeville's two-a-day tradition back to Broadway.
JUDY: (SINGING) I played the State
The Capitol
But people said
Don't stop until you've played the Palace
You haven't played the top
SID: One evening, Judy greeted me with...
JUDY: Darling, I'm way past my period. Haven't you noticed?
I had a test, and it's positive.
SID: I gulped down my bourbon, and it hit my stomach like a rock.
SID: You're what? JUDY: Pregnant, darling.
I'd love to have your baby.
SID: We're putting on a show at the Palace
and you're coming to me with "our baby"?
I imagined the headlines. "Not Divorced." "Cancel the Palace."
"Luft's Illegitimate Child."
I handled it like a clod.
I didn't go with her when she had the abortion.
I wasn't attentive. I didn't send flowers.
JUDY: (SINGING) So it became
The hall of fame
The mecca of the trade
When you had played the Palace
You knew that you were made
REPORTER: This is the biggest night Times Square has seen since D-Day.
I've never seen such crowds,
and they're all here for Judy Garland at the Palace.
All future shows are sold out. The atmosphere is electric.
JUDY: (SINGING) So I hope you'll understand
My wondrous thrill
'Cause vaudeville's back at the Palace
And I'm on the bill!
JUDY: What do you wanna hear?
(AUDIENCE SHOUTS)
Oh, we'll do Love first. I can't remember the words,
and he'll have to tell me them as we go along.
And he doesn't remember them half the time, and he wrote the song.
So it's gonna be awful, but here we go. Here we go.
(SINGING) Love can be a moment's madness
Love can be insane
Love can be a life of sadness
-And pain -(APPLAUSE)
I wish you'd talk to each other for a minute while I breathe.
'Cause the longer the song goes on, the tighter the dress gets,
and I'm in a lot of trouble.
I got one song to sing for Sid. Sid Luft.
I gotta sing it. This is his favorite, all right?
Let's make him take a bow for a change.
Come on.
(APPLAUSE)
Come on.
SID: In the conclusion, dressed in her beloved tramp outfit,
teeth blackened out, soot rubbed on her cheeks,
Judy sat on the edge of the stage without a mic,
singing the song that made her famous.
JUDY: (SINGING) Somewhere
Over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby...
SID: On February 24th, 1952, Judy closed the Palace engagement
which had extended itself in triplicate.
She had played 184 performances,
and nearly a million people had come to see her, cheering her on.
It was the beginning of the cult of Garland.
REPORTER: The Philharmonic Auditorium
was the scene of noisy, bustling, packed confusion Monday night
for the debut of Judy Garland,
the repeat of her magnificent show at the Palace Theatre in New York.
For many, there were memories of the tumultuous history
already packed into Judy Garland's years in show business.
JUDY: (SINGING) It's lovely seeing you
But the first thing I must do
Is give an interview to the press
To tell them of the struggling
Of the long and ceaseless juggling
Every time I get into this dress
Call the Herald, call the News...
SID: It was a hell of a homecoming.
At the Philharmonic sat not only her peers
but the people who had shaped her career.
JUDY: (SINGING) This is my town
And I love it
SID: And then there was Louis B. Mayer himself,
who never allowed his eyes to leave Judy.
The old wizards were present, but here was a script they had no control over.
JUDY: It's a wonderful thing to come home
and to not be disappointed when you come home
but to have it even better than you dreamed about.
(APPLAUSE)
JUDY: (SINGING) We're going on the top!
REPORTER: And that's it.
Perhaps the most significant performance ever given by Judy Garland
after several event-packed years with all her personal problems.
Judy Garland's return to her home
was indeed a memorable occasion this week in Hollywood.
SID: Somewhere, sitting ignominiously in the crowd that night
was Ethel Gumm, Judy's mother.
Ethel had found me in the theater one afternoon.
She and Judy hadn't spoken for years.
Judy could barely mention her name without a wince.
I approached Judy backstage.
Darling, your ma's out there.
She'd love to say hello.
JUDY: Please, darling, don't disturb me. I'm rehearsing.
SID: I reported back to Ethel. "Judy is so damn busy," I echoed,
offering her tickets to the show.
Ethel accepted the rejection without argument,
but she walked away with tears in her eyes.
JUDY: My mother was...
truly a stage mother. But a mean one.
She would sort of stand in the wings when I was a little girl,
and if I didn't feel good, if I was sick to my tummy,
she'd say, "You get out and sing, or I'll wrap you around the bedposts
and break you off short." So I'd go out and sing.
I didn't know my father very well
because my mother dominated me so, you know?
From the time we moved from Minnesota to California,
there was dissension in our home between my mother and father.
They would argue and fight, and my mother always used me as a pawn.
SID: In the summer of 1935, The Gumm Sisters were leaving a gig in Lake Tahoe
when Judy was spotted by talent agent Al Rosen,
who would've missed her completely had she not run back
to fetch some sheet music they'd left behind.
He called two weeks later and insisted that she get to Metro immediately.
Ethel was out shopping, so Frank drove his daughter to the studio,
and soon she was singing for Louis B. Mayer himself.
They signed her without a screen test.
Seven weeks later, Frank Gumm was hospitalized for meningitis and died.
He never lived to experience his daughter's great success.
Once, when I asked how she felt when her father died, she said...
JUDY: I thought, "Now there's no one on my side."
There is danger
In my loving you
Danger in your letting me
Danger
In your not instantly
Abandoning and forgetting me
Sweet danger
SID: Judy's next engagement was at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.
One night, we were having dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant
when Judy casually announced that she was over three months pregnant.
I looked at her chocolate-drop eyes shining in the candlelight
and asked her to marry me.
JUDY: You and me, we're some kind of team.
We were destined
For divided paths
Fated to be far apart
And there's danger
In defying fate
With two foolish hearts
Sweet danger
And although we can share
We'll be in love
And we won't care!
(APPLAUSE)
JUDY: Yes, I'd like to make pictures if they'd start a little later. You know?
I'm not all for getting up at 5:00 in the morning. I don't think anybody is.
WOMAN: You're just going to bed then. JUDY: Of course.
Also, what woman looks good at my age?
WOMAN: You look marvelous. JUDY: So what the heck? I don't care.
WOMAN: Just marvelous.
SID: Back in LA, we met Jack Warner at a lavish black-tie party.
Later in the evening, Jack approached Judy.
Warner Bros. had opened up to independent productions
and I had recently secured the rights to A Star Is Born.
Before long, we were shaking hands and drawing up a formal contract
to produce A Star Is Born with Warner Bros.
Our daughter, Lorna, was born November 21st, 1952,
and no sooner were mother and newborn baby daughter seemingly snug at home
when Judy slipped into a postpartum depression.
JUDY: I went into the bathroom and I took a razor and I... I cut my throat.
I went through a terrific feeling of guilt
and awful shame after trying that,
because actually, I didn't want to die.
I had a baby, to live for.
It was just that the pressure had been too much for me.
My mother, I think, from the day I was born,
she always took great delight in telling rooms full of people
how difficult it was for her because I was not scheduled.
I really was unwanted. My mother didn't want to have any more children.
She did everything to get rid of me.
She must have rolled down 19,000 flights of stairs,
jumped off of tables, and...
For some reason, I was a very stubborn child
and I was not about to be shaken loose.
Having had two daughters, she thought, well,
the only way she could possibly accept this ghastly thing that had happened
was that she have a son.
And when I turned out to be just another girl
after they had already named me Frank, that was my father's name,
it didn't work out too well for anybody.
SID: There was another reason why Ethel didn't want a third child,
one she was never able to discuss with Judy.
Frank had transgressed by acting on his homosexual impulses.
When her husband's tendencies became apparent,
heated arguments followed.
But it was 1921, and not only would an abortion have been a scandal,
it would've undoubtedly cast a shadow of shame over the entire Gumm family.
And so, Frances Ethel Gumm was born,
baptized in a local Episcopalian church,
and brought to the New Grand Theater,
where she slept peacefully backstage in a box.
It was January 6th, 1953, when the tragic news reached us
that Judy's mother had been found dead
the previous day in the parking lot at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica.
She had suffered a fatal heart attack
as she stepped from her automobile on the way to work.
It had been a long time since Judy had seen her mother.
Their relationship had deteriorated so badly,
she prevented Ethel from seeing Lorna after she was born.
When I told Judy the news, she sobbed into her hands.
The headlines were cruel.
Judy, the big star, letting her mother work as a clerk in a factory.
For years after, she'd be tortured by the same nightmare.
She would hear her mother's voice pleading, "Help me. Help me."
She'd rush down the darkened corridor, shouting...
JUDY: Mama, where are you?
SID: ...only to wake up screaming, unable to find her.
JUDY: There have been people that go in and out of my life.
I don't think many of them are terribly interesting,
but I have many, many interesting, talented, lovely people
that have taught me the meaning of laughing,
being able to laugh at oneself.
I have the tenacity of a praying mantis.
With a little black Irish witch involved.
SID: In March of '53, we were fortunate to purchase a wonderful Tudor-style home
on Mapleton Drive in the Bel Air, Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles.
Liza came to live with us.
Our neighbors were Bogie and Betty Bacall,
and Lana Turner with varying husbands.
Bing Crosby and his sons, the holy terrors of Mapleton,
were also our neighbors.
There was a lot of socializing.
MAN: Sing a sexy song, Sid. SID: Okay, Charlie.
(PIANO PLAYS)
SID: Late nights spent drinking, singing, laughing.
JUDY: I wanna be the way I am.
SID: Gossip columnist Sheilah Graham
couldn't stop writing about the Rat Pack,
coining the term long before Sinatra's legendary Las Vegas clique.
MAN 1: They sure are easy to please. MAN 2: Yes, they are.
SID: Meanwhile, preparations continued on A Star Is Born.
Moss Hart got to work on the screenplay
and spent time talking to Judy about her life and experiences.
I somehow feel most alive when I'm singing. It's like...
You don't wanna hear all this.
SID: The script had to reflect her essence,
her energy and personal history.
Now here comes a big, fat close-up.
With my someone
I'll be someone
At last
SID: Judy wanted George Cukor to direct.
He almost directed Judy twice
but had to exit The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis.
When Star came his way, he couldn't pass it up.
Judy felt secure with Cukor.
JUDY: The picture has to be the greatest. It can't be merely good.
I have things to prove. I have too much at stake.
This is Mrs. Norman Maine.
SID: I fought for Judy's pals Humphrey Bogart
and Frank Sinatra to be considered for the role of Norman Maine.
Jack Warner wouldn't consider either.
"Bogie's too old," he said. "Sinatra?" he laughed.
"Ha. He's finished." So we turned
to the exceptional British actor, James Mason.
-But, Mr. Maine! -I think at this critical moment,
-you might call me Norman. -Well, Norman,
what difference does it make how well I sing if my face is so awful?
Your face is just dandy.
(LAUGHS)
Now, wipe it off.
SID: Despite his tremendous affection for Judy,
he was against remakes on principle.
But he adored vaudeville and musical films.
Ellen Terry, a great actress long before you were born,
she said that that's what star quality was.
That little something extra.
Well, you've got it.
SID: One morning around 5:00 a.m., I was awakened by the smell of smoke.
I ran into the master bedroom, and the place was ablaze.
I pulled Judy out of bed and called the fire department.
Judy had dozed off on the chaise, allowing a cigarette to fall,
then made her way to the bed, where she had passed out.
Judy was on bad pills. She confessed. It was virtually impossible for her
to sustain a work mode in front of the cameras
without taking some kind of medication.
I came up with the plan to employ an MGM doctor familiar to Judy
for the length of the shoot to monitor her and keep her on an even keel.
In hindsight, I was enabling a lesser version
of what MGM had blatantly and inhumanely jammed down her throat.
After 10 days of shooting,
Warner scrapped the studio's own WarnerScope cameras
in favor of a new and improved technology, CinemaScope.
Everything had to be reshot. Caught up in this expensive overhaul
was the now-classic sequence The Man That Got Away.
It would be shot three times over a period of months,
with changes to sets and costumes and lights.
The night is bitter
The stars have lost their glitter
The winds grow colder
Suddenly you're older
And all because
Of the man that got away
SID: Cukor wanted to shoot it all in one long, continuous take,
and he knew Judy could sustain the intensity.
She once did 27 takes over three days,
belting the song louder than the full-volume pre-recorded playback.
The dreams you've dreamed
Have all
Gone astray
SID: She never varied when she sang, and never missed.
The man that won you
Has run off and undone you
That great beginning
Has seen a final inning
Don't know what happened
It's all a crazy game
No more that all-time thrill
For you've been through the mill
And never a new love
Will be the same
SID: By December, we had shot 33 out of 123 scenes.
We were behind schedule and had already blown one million bucks.
On the set, everyone agreed,
Judy's occasional tantrums were never without provocation.
She once ripped a costume in a rage
and left the studio furious and exhausted.
But she knew what she wanted
and pushed herself harder than anyone else.
There were days of illness and absence,
so Cukor would shoot around her until we could get her to set.
Warner Brothers knew perfectly well Judy's record at MGM.
Nevertheless, there was an awful lot of bitching and complaining
during the making of that film.
Now, you should not bitch if you have a few bad days.
Everybody knew about Judy.
We all knew about Judy. She had this bad reputation.
She wasn't typical in any way.
SID: Initially unsure of her dramatic abilities,
Cukor would say that her performance was a total revelation,
at times thrilling and terrifying.
You told them you'd be there.
That was... That was...
(VOICE FALTERS) That was before.
I know it was before, but come on. Get dressed.
No.
Are you just gonna sit here forever?
Yes! Tonight and tomorrow night and for as long as I like!
I don't want any of your homemade remedies.
I know what you're trying to do, and the best thing you can do for me
is to just leave me alone! You and everybody else.
And thanks for the sympathy!
I don't want it, not from you or anybody!
SID: When we screened the rough cut, all of us agreed.
The title of the film was A Star Is Born,
but where was Esther's star-making performance?
There was something missing.
A big showstopping musical number.
We called on Roger Edens, MGM's musical supervisor
and perhaps the single most creative influence in Judy's life.
Both a mentor and a disciple, he had helped her design her Palladium act,
and he was there at Metro playing piano
and coaching her through her big audition for Louis B. Mayer
when she was 13 years old.
He would pull out all the stops at crafting a film within a film.
ROGER: Let's start it now. From the beginning.
SID: Within the week, he'd outlined a sequence called Born in a Trunk.
JUDY: I was born...
No, no.
SID: The story of an artist going from unknown to discovery to stardom.
It was, in fact, the story of Judy's life.
ROGER: We're back where we started now.
She's sitting on the stage, and she finishes to the audience.
JUDY: (SINGING) I was born in a trunk
At the Princess Theatre
In Pocatello, Idaho
SID: We were dependent on Warner financially,
and this segment would cost
an additional few hundred grand to produce.
We brought Jack down to one of the soundstages to watch a run-through.
JUDY: (SINGING) Without a nickel...
JUDY: What? Like that one.
(SINGING) Nights without a nickel
In my jeans
SID: He loved the sequence and agreed to go ahead.
When my dad carried me out there
To say hello
They tell me that I stopped the show
I loves you
Swanee
How I loves ya, how I loves ya!
My dear ol' Swanee
SID: The longest film shoot in Hollywood history came to an end
at 2:55 a.m. on July 28th, 1954.
A bleary-eyed cast and crew celebrated with cake and champagne.
Judy and I had something else to celebrate as well.
We had just found out that Judy was pregnant with our second child.
REPORTER: It's a long jump from little Frances Gumm at the Oriental Theatre
to Judy Garland, the most beloved singer of songs
and finest young actress in America.
My darling husband now.
-I know your darling husband. -He did the whole thing.
And I envy your darling husband.
ANNOUNCER: One of the biggest opening-night crowds in years
throngs Broadway's Great White Way,
swarming into the heart of the nation's biggest city
to salute Warner Bros.' A Star Is Born.
The enthusiastic fans surge against police lines
for a glimpse of Judy Garland, the film's radiant star, as she arrives.
SID: Judy was at the center of social activities.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were in town
along with old friend Peter Lawford and his new wife, Patricia Kennedy,
and her brother Jack Kennedy, the junior senator from Massachusetts
who asked to be introduced to Dorothy in the flesh.
It was the start of a fun-loving, comfortable friendship.
The movie had ended up costing nearly $6 million,
which was an astronomical cost in 1954.
We'd have to make double that to even think about breaking even.
At the same time, it added to the movie's glamor.
Everyone seemed to think Judy would get an Academy Award.
REPORTER: How do you like Judy?
She's great. She's gonna win everything.
SID: When Star premiered, it clocked in at just over three hours,
but the regional theater owners didn't go for it.
Ominously, they started to complain that three showings a day
would not be enough.
They demanded a cut short enough to fit in five daily screenings.
In the end, the studio butchered the film,
cutting it down from three hours to 100 minutes.
People came up to me. "Have you seen what they've done to your movie?"
The critics took note of it.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "A Star Is Shorn,"
and the pun echoed through Hollywood.
The grosses fell off by half. We went from heroes to failures.
We couldn't believe what was happening.
On March 29th, 1955, the day before the Academy Awards,
Judy gave birth to our son, Joey.
JUDY: I'd just had the baby. I'd just had my son.
And three great, big men
came into my room at the hospital, in the maternity ward.
They said, "You're gonna get the Academy Award.
"We've gotta have extra sets in here
"so you can thank Bob Hope when you win it."
They pulled up the venetian blind, and there was a big three-story tower
that they'd constructed.
And there was a lot of people running around on it, hanging lights.
They had a little trouble with the sound, so they brought a wire,
a big electric wire and cables, and they put it under my bottom,
up through here and down my nightie.
And then covered me up to here with feathers, you know?
And so I was leaning against the pillow sort of thing,
and they opened the envelope,
and he said, "Grace Kelly," and I went, "What?"
Well, they tore down the tower.
The people jumped over. They ripped out this thing under, going through here.
Three television sets... Nobody said good night, even. They were so mad.
They were so mad at me. I didn't win.
(APPLAUSE)
-But I was nominated. -(LAUGHTER)
SID: Our lives had been turned upside down by the financial failure of Star.
Things were off track, but fortunately,
Judy hadn't suffered from postpartum depression after Joey was born.
She was in good health. She expressed a desire to investigate AA.
We made it to one meeting in Pasadena
and then tried the fledgling group Narcotics Anonymous,
which met somewhere in the San Fernando Valley
in a room lit by spooky blue lights.
Everyone was in silhouette, faces hidden.
It had the atmosphere of an opium den.
JUDY: It's enough to make a person wanna stay bombed forever.
SID: So we went to Romanoff's for a cocktail.
You know, I watch television a lot.
And I enjoy it very much.
But I always have the weird feeling that the people up there
who are singing and smiling can see me actually sitting in my living room.
But that's not true, 'cause I can't see anybody.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
SID: September 1955, Judy's very first TV special, the Ford Star Jubilee.
At 6:00 a.m., I found her unconscious, knocked out by too many goofballs.
But a cold shower and some Chinese food had her on her feet for a rehearsal.
When she went out onstage, I heard her announce...
JUDY: (SLURRING) I can't sing. I'm saving my throat for tonight.
SID: I thought, "Brilliant."
When the show went live coast to coast, I began to think, "Que sera, sera."
Whatever came out of her mouth, nearly 40 million people were tuned in.
Shine on
(APPLAUSE)
Shine on, harvest moon
SID: Judy had sobered up.
By the time she got to Over the Rainbow,
the grips, the ushers, the audience, everyone present,
myself included, was magnetized by her performance.
If
Happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why
Oh, why
Can't
I?
(APPLAUSE)
SID: We teamed up with her friend, photographer Richard Avedon
for another special.
In one of her rare TV appearances,
Judy appears on behalf of Live Better Electrically.
Come rain or come shine
I'm gonna love you, I'm gonna love you
I'm gonna love you!
SID: But the show's sponsor, GE, thought Judy showed a bit too much leg
and pulled the show from further broadcast.
Just one of those things
One of those crazy things
That put an end to her TV career... for the time being.
HOST: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Cullen greeting you from Seattle,
and we'd like to say hello to Judy Garland,
who is now sticking her tongue out at me.
JUDY: Don't you say that. We'll start all over.
-JACK: Judy Garland. Hi. -Hi. How are you? Nice to see you.
JACK: Nice to see you, too. I understand that
-you'll be playing Vancouver tomorrow. -JUDY: That's right.
SID: I cooked up a performance schedule for Judy, and I was paying attention.
My little diva was not content with small cities.
I'd have to come up with exceptional bookings.
Loving fans were not enough.
But she was uninsurable, and we had to put our own money up in advance
to finance and promote her performances.
There were mornings she'd be sick from too many pills
and announce out of the blue...
JUDY: I can't work today. My throat's scratchy.
SID: Look, don't sing. People wanna see you.
Tell a funny story. Whistle. Say hi. Tell a joke.
JUDY: Forget about it. Tell them they'll get their money back.
SID: She was never concerned about losing money.
She didn't care. She was not to be bothered about business.
She'd stay up through the night sometimes,
not going to sleep until mid-morning, then leave me notes around the house.
JUDY: Darling, I was really sick all goddamn night.
It's now 7:20 and I'm going to take a crack at lying down and try to sleep.
Anyway don't wake me for 'nuttin'.
In spite of all my pukiness, I loved you all through the night.
Not an attractive thing to tell you, but when you adore your husband,
what are you gonna do?
God bless you, my Sid, for having so much class.
And see you sometime today. All my devoted love forever.
JUDY: Do you want some more? AUDIENCE: Yes!
Good.
(BAND STRIKES UP)
NEW FRONTIER HOTEL LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 1956
Oh, boy, I'm lucky
I'll say I'm lucky
This is my lucky day
I'm all in clover
I'm glad all over
I want to shout hooray
I found a horseshoe
Couldn't go wrong
And then of course
You happened along
Hmm, boy, I'm lucky
I'll say I'm lucky
This is my lucky
Oh, wow, I'm lucky
This is my lucky day!
SID: We started 1958 back home in LA.
Despite my crackdown on the staff,
someone was still supplying Judy with pills.
She turned my concern into a game.
I was the cop, the narc, the flatfoot.
On the road, she could score from anybody.
A chorus boy, a musician, a hairdresser, a friend.
But at home, her options were limited.
One morning, a package arrived from Saks Fifth Avenue.
I took the liberty of opening it and found a spanking-new white robe
brightly lined with red and blue Tuinal capsules.
A friend had bought the robe and sewed the Tuinal into the lining,
returned it to Saks, and asked them to deliver it.
I went looking for her hidden stash.
I went through closets, overturned the rugs, examined the drapes.
Pills everywhere. Pills were hidden in packages of cigarettes.
Her bath powder was loaded with Seconals.
Judy had cut me off to such a degree, I thought I'd better shake her up.
One night, I decided to go through the charade of leaving the house.
JUDY: You wanna walk out on your children?
Walk out, you son of a bitch.
SID: Okay, darling. Is that what you want? I'm going.
JUDY: I don't give a fuck. Get lost.
I dare you to leave.
SID: I checked into a small hotel on Wilshire Boulevard,
and the next morning,
I read in the papers that Judy and I were divorcing.
My lawyer told me it was an opportunity to get out of the marriage,
to start another life. He didn't understand.
I was in love with Judy and had no intention of leaving her.
JUDY: What would you like?
(AUDIENCE SHOUTS)
(SINGING) After you've gone
And left me cryin'...
SID: At the end of '59, we were finishing a tour of opera houses
that had started with raves at The Met.
But Judy wasn't well.
I devised a plan to get Judy treatment.
I arranged for a doctor friend to visit backstage, make a discreet diagnosis.
He told me that she wasn't fat. She was bloating.
Her whole body was poisoned with fluids.
She had to be rushed to the hospital at once.
She could go into a coma at any moment.
But even on the way to the hospital,
she insisted on stopping at our hotel, ordering a triple vodka and water.
Put that damn glass down! You got liver problems.
That's the last thing you should do.
JUDY: Either I have my drink, or I don't go and I die right here with the vodka.
SID: She finally agreed to go to the hospital, drink in hand.
JUDY: I'm taking it with me, Sid. If you want one, order your own.
SID: Her liver was four times its normal size.
For days, she hovered between life and death.
Doctors didn't think she was gonna make it.
Seven weeks later, she emerged.
Twenty quarts of fluid had been drained from her body.
They told her she would be a semi-invalid for the rest of her life
and never be able to work again...
A diagnosis she would defy beyond expectation.
Far from being a semi-invalid,
six months after being released from the hospital,
she flew alone to England for a Capitol Records recording session.
JUDY: (SINGING) It's so lovely to be back again
In London
JUDY: Darling, how I miss you.
London is not the same without you.
They passed a law taking all the whores off the streets.
It's a little like taking the trolleys out of San Francisco.
Had a hectic press conference with the usual newspaper bastards.
The result? The usual. Fat, matronly, but happy.
(SINGING) I'm so glad...
Fuck 'em!
(SINGING) I'm back
I worked very hard.
There's all the success and failure and fatigue and overweight and thinness
and tears and laughter, and I cannot take myself seriously because if I did,
I would've died a long time ago. And I don't want to die.
I've never met a cast of people I wanna die with.
And when my number is up, I want a new one,
and I have no intention of checking out.
Now, this machine isn't gonna get me either.
One way or another, we're gonna overcome it.
(CHUCKLES) I'll say.
SID: The kids and I joined Judy in London,
and she performed here and there,
but indeed, I was running out of funds.
The cash flow was down to nothing,
and there was a question of how to keep up the mortgage payments on Mapleton,
the children's schooling,
and the doctors' bills from the past six months,
not to mention our lifestyle.
Freddie Fields popped up in London, asking to meet Judy for lunch.
A cunning, driven, and well-dressed guy,
he was now in the process
of establishing his own talent agency in New York
and would soon partner with bullshit artist, fellow agent David Begelman.
Fields was only gonna handle a few clients, and he was interested in Judy.
FREDDIE: Hi, Sid. SID: Hi, Freddie.
FREDDIE: How are you? SID: Good.
FREDDIE: Honest... Honestly, I really now firmly, sincerely, deeply believe
that the best thing for this girl's health, security, mind,
uh, uh...
sanity is to get back to work.
SID: I agree. FREDDIE: I tell you
that she's in this bad shape only because she's not working.
SID: I don't think it's only that. FREDDIE: Yeah, Sid, it is.
And I tell you that this girl's reality is work.
SID: That's true. That's her birthright.
FREDDIE: She takes less drugs when she works. She drinks less when she works.
She agitates less when she works, you know.
And if she goes down the drain, then I don't know what the hell you got.
Maybe the best you'll get is a wife in a hospital.
SID: Fields and Begelman set out to prove to the industry
that Judy was reliable, eager and willing to work.
They kicked off 1961 with an ambitious concert tour.
Sunday, April 23rd, 1961, just another stop on her tour,
was to become a night that went down in history.
Whenever there was a Judy event, I ran a temperature.
I mean, that is how invested I was.
They took a small ad in The Times and it was sold out within two hours.
-JUDY: Oh, my God. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
(BAND STRIKES UP)
(SINGING) When you're smiling
When you're smiling
The whole world smiles with you
ALBERT: The cream of the crop of the great stars were there.
You know, they came to worship along with the rest of us.
JUDY: (SINGING) ...comes shining through...
ALBERT: And there were lots of people who had seen her concerts in every city,
and they said, "You know, usually all the fans
"will run down the aisles and touch her on the stage,
"but that won't happen in staid Carnegie Hall."
And it certainly did.
JUDY: (SINGING) Keep on smiling
When you're smiling
The whole world
Smiles with you
ALBERT: She had great strength,
and yet she was as vulnerable as anyone you ever encountered.
JUDY: Oh. It's lovely to be back. Thank you.
ALBERT: When she sang I Can't Give You Anything But Love,
it was like there was no movement in the universe
except Judy Garland singing that song.
JUDY: (SINGING) I can't give you anything
But love
Baby
That's the only thing
I've plenty of
Baby
You can't help but appreciate somebody who looks at you and sees who you are,
that seemed as if she understood.
She made the gay community feel as if it had the rights
to be whoever they needed to be.
ALBERT: At the time of Carnegie Hall,
her constituency wasn't yet as gay as it was eventually,
but she was certainly aware of us being there.
JUDY: (SINGING) Things you've always pined for
(AUDIENCE MEMBER SHOUTS OUT)
-JUDY: Me too! -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
ALBERT: She was our goddess.
We all knew about the troubles she had had,
and we would see her up on the stage, rising like a phoenix.
And it meant that we could do it, too.
(SINGING) San Francisco, I'm coming home again
Never to roam again
San Francisco
MISS MAJOR: She was so important to the community, you know?
And not just the gay community, but to the community of man.
(SINGING) San Francisco!
I don't mean Frisco
San Francisco
Here I come!
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
ALBERT: I had a very good career in the theater
but the thing that meant the most to me
is having started the Judy Garland Fan Club.
I love her. I love her more than anyone else in my life.
HOST: You've made many comebacks.
About 185 up to now.
-HOST: 185 comebacks? -Yes. Yes. (CHUCKLES)
HOST: And...
I don't think I ever went anywhere, did I, really?
-HOST: You're always coming back. -But I'm just always coming back.
SID: The Judy at Carnegie Hall album sold over 100,000 copies
in just the first few months of release, and went on to win five Grammys,
including Album of the Year.
The world still is the same
You'll never change it
Life magazine said,
"Judy Garland has moved beyond talent and fame
"to become the rarest phenomenon in all of show business."
"Part bluebird, part phoenix, she is a legend in her own time."
Go out and get yourself somebody
Somebody to love!
(APPLAUSE)
Thanks!
You hear bad stories about Sinatra, right?
But you also hear that he gives people shots, you know?
Chances. You hear a lot of good things about him.
That's right. What have you heard about me?
ANDRE: Bad things. SID: For instance?
ANDRE: That you've taken all her money. SID: Yeah.
ANDRE: That you're an alcoholic. SID: Yeah.
ANDRE: That you never work. SID: Yeah.
ANDRE: Things like that. SID: Who'd you hear that from?
ANDRE: Judy's told me that you... That you've taken all her money.
SID: She did? ANDRE: Yeah.
ANDRE: That you gambled all of her money.
SID: I did.
ANDRE: See, David and Freddie say you're crazy. You say they're crazy.
She says you're crazy. You say she's crazy.
SID: I haven't said anything.
ANDRE: Everybody says everybody's nuts. Are two still in love with one another?
I mean, what... I don't understand the whole relationship.
SID: Nobody will. Nobody ever will.
JUDY: Sid Luft...
from JUDY GARLAND's personal recordings
is an animal. He's just some kind of breed.
And I'll tell the world.
SID: I had been relieved when I'd handed her career off to Fields and Begelman,
but it drove a wedge between us. Our marriage started coming apart.
We separated, fought for custody of the children.
I chased her from New York to London and back again.
Bodyguards, cops, and detectives played supporting roles.
We were on-and-off again,
the word "divorce" frequently being tossed around.
LIZA: They were always in extremes, the changes that our life had.
For instance, if we were living one way, rather than change it slightly,
we would change it completely, totally.
It was dramatic on other people's standards,
but we didn't live on other people's standards. Nobody in Hollywood did.
We always lived like we had millions, you know.
(LAUGHS) We rarely had money. That didn't seem to faze Mama.
I think you knew her best when you understood that you didn't understand.
SID: With the New Year, 1963, came the news
that Judy had signed the biggest deal of her career,
a four-season, $24-million contract with CBS
for a weekly variety series.
But with a time slot opposite of America's number-one show, Bonanza,
The Judy Garland Show was a huge gamble.
JERRY VAN DYKE: When CBS asked me if I wanted to do The Garland Show,
I said, "Are you kidding? Forget it. She'll never show up."
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
The network, they bought Judy defensively
and they hired me defensively
because they really never thought that she would be that reliable.
(CHUCKLES) And she not only showed up, but she kicked ass.
I'm with you, baby
I'm with you always
Come rain or shine!
(APPLAUSE)
So let's sing a song about Chicago, shall we, Mort?
GEORGE: The studio was not really prepared for Judy Garland.
They wanted her to sit and be calm and nice and sing ballads.
I can't remember Chicago.
I saw a man, I got the surprise, the surprise of my life
GEORGE: You had to handle Judy as an event,
not as someone you're gonna tell what to do.
I saw a man dancing with his own wife
GEORGE: I kept saying, "Judy Garland is a live performer."
There was no controlling Judy.
-Where? Where? Where? -AUDIENCE: Chicago!
Chicago, Chicago, that toddling town
GEORGE: The secret was to accept Judy, to let Judy be Judy and to enjoy it.
Love can be a joy forever
GEORGE: Judy was like a whirlpool.
I mean, she just sucked everybody into this experience.
And the greatest band in all the world
Is waiting somewhere for me
(APPLAUSE)
Is waiting right here
GEORGE: The musicians, they loved playing for Judy.
Everybody in the studio enjoyed the experience,
and they were in awe that it was Judy Garland.
The rumors about Judy were so much bigger than the real thing,
and I'd heard all of the stories.
What was unpredictable with Judy was the humor.
Got the wrong cue cards up, and nobody's helping us.
-Oh, well. -Do you realize?
-Let's just look at where we're going. -Yeah.
Do you wanna start over again now, or should we do it next week?
GEORGE: She loved to laugh, and it was the key to Judy.
If you could make her laugh, you could do anything.
I've found a thrill to press my cheek to
Kiss me.
A thrill I've never known
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
You smiled and then the spell was cast
MARTHA: Yes, I know!
For here we are together
And she is mine at last
(LAUGHTER)
GEORGE: So what you saw was the real Judy.
I didn't make her into anything.
All I did was capture what was there and trust it,
and that's probably what got me fired.
I got this phone call from Judy who was feeling very vulnerable.
And she asked me if I would come down to Hollywood and rescue her. (CHUCKLES)
JERRY: Kid, you gotta talk on television.
That's the way they get to know the little things about you out there.
-You mean just plain things? -Sure. That's how they know.
-All right, well, I'll tell them. -All right.
Well, I look terrible without makeup. And I'm very emotional.
Judy, Judy, no, not that.
And I snore in my sleep, and I have to watch my weight.
And you talk too much!
You can't tell an audience those kind of things.
-No? -Now we gotta win them back.
-Sing Over the Rainbow. -Wait a minute.
NORMAN: She wasn't getting the ratings they wanted.
They were always potchkying with the show and demanding changes,
and I didn't get along with Jim Aubrey, the network head,
because I didn't think he had enough respect for her talent.
You've gotta let the talented people create something unique.
You can't demand it.
And then I came up with the idea
of getting Judy and Barbra Streisand to perform Get Happy together.
And I knew that that would be magical.
I knew it would be a great, a showbiz moment.
We're headin' across a river
Soon your cares will all be gone
There'll be no more from now on
From now on
-Forget your troubles -Happy days
-And just get happy -Are here again
You'd better chase
-The skies above us -All your blues away
-Are clear again -Shout hallelujah
-So let's sing a song -And just get happy
Of cheer again
-Happy times -Happy times
-Happy nights -Happy nights
Happy days
Are here
Again!
(APPLAUSE)
JUDY: My manager, David Begelman,
told me there was no reason I shouldn't have a steady home
with my children, be very rich, and do a weekly show.
SID: The problem was, Fields and Begelman fixed it
so she'd never be rich,
but they sure tried to make themselves a few bucks. As it turned out,
David Begelman had embezzled funds from her on multiple occasions.
They were taking double commissions,
making deposits into their own accounts, and, in some cases,
they were paying Judy what should've been their commissions
and keeping the rest of the money for themselves.
They had set up the TV show, arranged her concert tours.
She was dependent on them for everything.
And the entire future seemed to ride on the success of the show.
She was trapped. She couldn't fire them now and risk everything.
She looked the other way, chose to avoid a big, messy confrontation.
Soon enough, I was the bad guy again,
and it was Fields and Begelman pushing us apart for their own gain.
By July, I was out on my ass.
SID: They robbed you, darling.
You were involved with the wrong man!
JUDY: The wrong man? SID: Uh-huh.
JUDY: I've been involved with men in business all my life.
One's no different than the other.
SID: I guess not, Judy. JUDY: No.
You know that you're all up each other's asses. You're all alike.
SID: You're wrong.
JUDY: You're all in the Judy Garland business.
SID: Not me.
JUDY: All right. SID: Right.
JUDY: You can't get out of it. SID: I am out.
JUDY: No, you're not.
Well, we usually end the show up... It's such a happy show.
We ended up on a terribly sad song.
So I don't see any reason to break the pattern.
Let's try...
Let's try... Let's try...
-There you go. Let's try it. -(BAND STRIKES UP)
HUNT: Hi, Sid. SID: Hi, Hunt.
SID: How d'you feel? HUNT: I'm all right.
HUNT: I saw Judy yesterday, very fleetingly.
SID: Uh-huh. How is she?
HUNT: At the elevators, she seemed fine.
SID: Mmm-hmm. Good.
HUNT: You know, but that was yesterday.
Don't know why
There's no sun
Up in the sky
Stormy weather
HUNT: It's gotten too far out of hand, Sid.
SID: It's not Judy, Hunt.
HUNT: It's Judy when she does some of the screaming and yelling she does, Sid.
SID: But she's not to blame.
HUNT: You know, we're not there to take that kind of crap.
Keeps raining all the time
HUNT: Sid, CBS, and I'm talking Aubrey and CBS as, you know, one entity...
SID: Right.
HUNT: ...are gonna say this whole fuckin' thing is too much trouble.
(SINGING) Life is bare
SID: She takes Ritalin.
HUNT: Jesus, that's... I used to take that under analysis.
That's a terrible thing, to the...
It has a cumulative effect of making you nutty.
SID: It's a substitute for Dexedrine. It doesn't drop you as heavily.
She, you know, eats it like candy.
HUNT: It's a shame this is happening to you
and to this poor, you know, mixed-up girl.
It's so sad, Sid.
Can't go on
Everything I had is gone
Stormy weather
Since my man and I
Ain't together
Keeps rainin'
All the time
Keeps rainin' all
The time
(APPLAUSE)
ANDRE: She's on the crux of her career now.
SID: On the what? ANDRE: On the top. This is the top.
SID: No, she isn't at all.
ANDRE: She's captured all the other mediums, right?
SID: She's a flop on television. Have you read one good review?
ANDRE: Well, uh...
SID: She doesn't belong there. ANDRE: She doesn't belong there, no.
Any great singer can't do it every week.
SID: Judy would famously remark...
JUDY: I can get the President on the phone easier than I can get my managers.
SID: And it was true.
Judy told me one night she was depressed.
Bonanza was beating her out.
I'm sorry. I have to start again. I do. I must.
I-I ran out of gas.
SID: She decided to call the White House
and was put right through to the President.
He told her that the Kennedy family
had changed their eating time on Sunday nights so they could watch Judy.
It was the first time in quite a while
she'd heard someone say the show was terrific.
Then she sang Over the Rainbow to him.
He was assassinated four weeks later, and it devastated her.
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage...
SID: Against direct orders from CBS,
she sang Battle Hymn of the Republic in his honor.
She knew the show was heading for cancellation,
and she wanted to do something for the country
as a message of hope in the face of a national tragedy.
His truth is marching on
MAN: Judy Garland, Episode 20, air, take one.
SID: By the 20th episode, she was finally doing it all her way.
No more bad skits, just Judy on a stage singing.
I'll go my way
By myself
Here's how the comedy ends
SID: People were talking about the show again.
And the audience picked up.
But it wasn't enough to stop CBS from canceling the show after 26 episodes.
Here, put your puff in there at least.
'Cause it's solo
All alone
By myself
From
Now on!
JUDY: All my 44 goddamn marvelous,
failing, successful,
and hopelessly tragic and starlit years,
I've been surrounded by people who were not in my league.
Because I can do something besides sing, you know.
I don't always have to sing a song.
There is something besides The Man That Got Away
or Over the Rainbow or The Trolley Song. There's a woman.
I've sung. I've entertained.
I've pleased your children. I've pleased your wives.
I've pleased you, you sons of bitches!
And I got damn mad!
I'm an angry lady.
I've laughed at myself when I should have cried!
I wanted and I tried my damnedest
to believe in the rainbow that I tried to get over and I couldn't!
So what?
How does it feel to have lived these years being a legend?
MAN: Brava!
JUDY: I'm supposed to be a living legend. Is that right?
-JACK: Yes. -But it's lonesome.
MAN: Sing for me! Just sing!
JUDY: Everybody thinks of you as, well, you're the Statue of Liberty
or something like that, you know, that doesn't breathe or...
And so no one calls you on the phone and asks you to dinner or anything.
They just are, "I'm sure she's busy."
Well, she's waiting for you guys to call her.
So I just sit by the phone.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
(APPLAUSE)
MAN: You're the best, Judy! We love you!
We love you, Judy! You're the greatest!
SID: December 1968.
Judy and I had been divorced for a little over three years.
She'd married and divorced a fourth time and would soon marry a fifth.
I was on my way into the dentist's office on West 57th Street,
and she was there. She called to me.
JUDY: Hey, you. Hey, fella.
SID: I was reminded of one of the last notes she ever left me.
JUDY: Dearest Sid, no matter what way or manner you handle what's ahead for us
in our divorce, your children need, love and want you.
You're their father and always will be!
Our marriage failed, but I'll be your friend forever!
SID: That was the last time I ever saw Judy.
(SINGING) That ol' man river
That ol' man river
He must want something
But don't say nothing
He just keeps rolling
He keeps on
Rolling along
He don't plant taters
He don't plant cotton
And them that plants them
They're soon forgotten
But ol' man river
He just keeps rolling along
You and me
We sweat and strain
Bodies all aching
And wracked with pain
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk
And you land
In jail
I get weary
I'm sick of trying
I'm tired of living
But scared of dying
That ol' man river
He just keeps rolling
Along!
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
LIZA: All I know is that she is always alive. She still is.
I don't think she'll ever die,
and I don't think that we'll ever find out exactly everything about her.
I don't want to, she's a marvelous mosaic to me.
We're friends of Dorothy.
No place like home.
MAN: What a special evening we have tonight,
because today is Judy Garland's birthday.
(CHEERING)
Today also marks the unveiling
of Judy's new resting place
here at Hollywood Forever.
She's here.
I've always been drawn to Judy Garland.
She's such the epitome of hope.
She's just timeless, her music, everything about her.
There's just no one like her. Judy, you know, had a lot of struggles,
but she overcame a lot of them.
Who doesn't wanna go over the rainbow, right?
She's an amazing believer in people.
She did love the gays, too.
She loved the gays, married a few gays, right?
Happy birthday, Judy. We love you, Judy.
Without further ado,
Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. Have fun now.
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why
Can't I?
JUDY: Did you feel as I did?
That you and I were in a tiny universe of our own where only we existed?