Judy Garland on Judy Garland (38 page)

Following a seven-year hiatus from films, it was announced in January 1961 that Judy Garland would return to the screen in Stanley Kramer's upcoming film
Judgment at Nuremberg.
Given her reputation in Hollywood, the decision was one that Kramer agonized over for some time, but he eventually offered $50,000 in exchange for her portrayal of German hausfrau Irene Hoffman Wallner.

This interview with singer-turned-host Helen O'Connell was filmed in Los Angeles on the set of
Nuremberg
in March 1961.
Here's Hollywood
was produced by Desilu and ran for two seasons on NBC-TV.

Helen O'Connell:
And now for a special treat we're visiting Universal Studios via monitor, where Judy Garland is busy appearing in the Stanley Kramer production
Judgment at Nuremberg.
This is a milestone in her career because it marks her first picture in six years, and we're very anxious to talk to her about it. Judy, now that you've appeared in the film
Judgment at Nuremberg,
the inevitable question is … how does it feel to be back before the cameras?

Judy Garland:
Well, it feels … it feels very nice. I'm enjoying it a great deal. I had forgotten how much detail and how much work actually goes into movie-making, but I am enjoying it.

HOC:
The particular role you play in the film is different from anything you've ever done on the screen. How did it happen that you chose this as your first picture in six years?

JG:
Well, I think it's a terribly important picture—I think what it has to say is important—and also the opportunity to work with marvelous actors and to work with Mr. Kramer was very tempting and I couldn't resist.

HOC:
This is a Stanley Kramer picture. Now, how do you like working with this producer?

JG:
I think I could be the president of his fan club
[laughs]
because I find him imaginative and exciting and he knows exactly what he wants and what he wants is inevitably right. And yet he's still very calm. He's very gentle. There's no tense feeling. He's marvelous. I would love to work with him again. Also, the little that I do is quite good, you know. I mean it's written well. I don't know whether I do it well. It's written beautifully. It's very explosive.

HOC:
How would you describe the part?

JG:
It's the part of a German woman who during the Nazi regime is put into prison for not participating in a Nazi plot to execute a Jewish man.

HOC:
I see. It sounds very interesting, and it has a big cast—Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift—you work with all of them?

JG:
Yes. I work with Mr. Widmark in the apartment and then I work with … Well, as a matter of fact, I have no scenes with Miss Dietrich or Mr. Clift. But in the courtroom Spencer Tracy is the presiding judge and Richard Widmark is the prosecutor and Burt Lancaster is the chief defendant. Is that how you'd say it? The defendant? And Maximilian Schell is the prosecutor. And I'm surrounded by rather good people, I'd say.

HOC:
There's been a lot of talk about actors being cast in pictures requiring them to play roles that, although quite brief, are very potent. Now, how do you feel about this, Judy?

JG:
Well, I think it's a good idea. They do that in England a lot, and I think it's good for an actor. I don't mean just a little cameo role where you sort play yourself in your own setting, but if you actually play a character part, no matter how small, if it's good, I think it's interesting for an audience
and it sort of keeps your own work interesting doing that. That's the most involved answer I've ever heard!

HOC:
[Laughs.]
How do you regard yourself? As an actress or as a singer?

JG:
[Hesitates.]
I don't know. I suppose I'd be called an entertainer, I think.

HOC:
I know that Mr. Kramer and other producers have called you the world's
greatest
entertainer. I don't think there's
any
argument about that. What are your plans now?

JG:
I'm going to do a concert tour in the East, and I'm going to play Carnegie Hall in April, and I'm looking forward to that. Then, after that I'm going back to London and I'll probably work there. I have a movie to do there.

HOC:
In this role, a tremendously dramatic one, you do an outstanding job. Is there any thought of your concentrating on dramatic roles in the future, do you think?

JG:
No, I wouldn't stop singing, you know. I think that I would like, though, to only do a good story, and if there's music with it, that's fine. And if not, that's fine, too. Just keep working.
[Laughs.]

HOC:
Judy, thank you very much.

JG:
You're very welcome.

Judy was named “Show Business Personality of the Year” for 1961, as well as “Female Vocalist of the Year,” and awarded “Best Popular Album of the Year” by
Show Business Illustrated,
a short-lived publishing venture by
Playboy
proprietor Hugh Hefner. With flair and sophistication, the magazine showcased the best in film, theater, music, nightclub acts, television, and books. The first copies of the biweekly surfaced in the summer of 1961. “It will do for show business what
Time
does for news and
Sports Illustrated
for sports,” Hefner told the press. But
Show Business Illustrated
turned out to be a costly flop for Hefner, and he sold the publication to a competitor after only six months and eight issues.

During the magazine's short lifespan, journalist James Goode accompanied Judy Garland on tour and penned this fascinating trilogy focusing on her rejuvenated career and life back out on the road.
*
Goode went on to serve as executive editor for
Playboy, Playgirl, Penthouse,
and
Viva
in the 1970s, and was credited with having created the popular
Playboy
Interview.

In 1997, Hugh Hefner was asked to recall
Show Business Illustrated.
“I kind of wish I would've stayed with [it],” he replied.
“Show Business Illustrated
is
Entertainment Weekly.”
†

Miss Garland of the built-in sob is once again over the rainbow and on first-name terms with the universe. Here is the beginning of a three-part love song to America's apparently indestructible girlfriend.

Last summer, at an unrecorded point, but most likely the Fourth of July, Judy Garland became a national monument. America's on-again off-again love affair with the girl-next-door-grown-up was stabilized at last. Judy Garland was back on top again, apparently for good. What is more, she was happy, and her resurgence proved that she had been in our national subconscious all along (with such forgotten virtues as speaking your mind, turning the rascals out, and freedom from fear).

Things came to a head at the Garland concert on April 23 at Carnegie Hall in New York, which became a mass demonstration of love shortly after the first note. It was plain that Judy had emerged from the doubts, fears and gloom of a long illness to find a delightful world, and everyone had wanted her to be happy for so long that when she was, it was more than they could stand. Overnight, one of our potential liabilities became a national asset. Edward R. Murrow, anxious to convince Latin America of our goodwill, asked Judy if she couldn't learn her songs in Spanish. A Broadway director, Jack Cole, said that it plainly didn't matter, that she could sing “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” to an audience of Russians and they would understand. It was all in the voice, not the words.

Judy Garland had started a wave of public love that spread faster than she could sing, beginning last winter in Miami Beach and moving on to Dallas, Houston, Buffalo, Washington, obliterating two hip New York audiences in Carnegie Hall, building to ever-larger mass demonstrations at Forest Hills, the Music at Newport Festival, Atlantic City, and finally carrying her to San Francisco and a record audience at the Hollywood Bowl.

After Forest Hills, riding back to New York in a limousine with her managers, Judy laughed in disbelief about all of the small intimate places she might play: the Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden, the Golden Gate Bridge. But the joke became a reality as the Hollywood Bowl (not big enough for Garland) sold out in ten days after the announcement that she would appear. It was plain that there was a crying (or shouting) national need for Judy Garland. She could easily have walked across the country singing to people lined up on either side of the road.

The only new recording made by the resurgent Garland
(Judy at Carnegie Hall—Capitol,
$10) has sold over 100,000 copies since its release at the end of July. What she was saying in the Carnegie record, from the
opening attack on “When You're Smiling,” in a voice as clear as a million gallons of spring water, was: “I love you, this is a romp, and let's go.” The applause began at total acceptance after the overture and became compulsively vocal as one skeptical Garland-lover after another in the predominantly show business audience conceded that what they were hearing was really true.

Judy talked some of the lyrics, was best at full volume, did not always have ultimate control, and was working with a pickup band that occasionally played slower than God. It did not matter. She could have sold strawberries off the stage and charmed them all. She wasn't working, she was just talented. After the 21st song at Carnegie, the audience began to shout requests. Judy said, “I know, I'll—I'll sing 'em all and
we'll stay all night.
I don't ever want to go home….”

Carnegie Hall had one advantage. It was a relatively small box and, unlike the outdoor appearances, Judy could bounce the notes of pure Garland emotion off the sides and even the top, but she sang as well everywhere else.

“The concerts were the formal part of her life last summer, but she was just as happy offstage, spending her time with her children and her friends, and vacationing at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.