Judy Garland on Judy Garland (63 page)
Read Judy Garland on Judy Garland Online
Authors: Randy L. Schmidt
JP:
What else are we gonna talk about?
JG:
Well, whatever you want, darling.
JP:
Well, let's see â¦
JG:
We can always go back to Marlene ⦠[
Audience laughs.]
JP:
Oh, Marlene.
JG:
And her applause record.
JP:
That's a funny thing. That didn't make her mad, huh? [ ⦠] But you are going home now, aren't you?
JG:
No.
JP:
Yes you are.
JG:
You're going home.
JP:
Well, we're going home together.
JG:
Right.
JP:
And â¦
JG:
I don't wanna go home. You go home and I'll take over!
JP:
No, no, no ⦠[All
laugh; audience applauds; Judy kisses Jack.]
I gotta do a commercial. And God bless you and take good care of yourself.
JG:
Good-bye!
[Audience applauds; Judy picks up the broom and exits.]
On Life
“I think [life] is to be enjoyed. And [it's important] to be economic in your life. Don't work too hard, don't live too hard. But laugh an awful lot. You must laugh a lot.”
âTo Barry Gray, July 1967
On Spirituality
“Of course I believe in God ⦠because it's ridiculous to not believe in God ⦠because I have proof [that He's there]. I've been protected and watched over, and my children have been. It's just a knowing and living knowledge that brings a great deal of comfort to me.”
âTo Barry Gray, July 1967
On “Over the Rainbow”
“[Am I] tired of âOver the Rainbow'? Listen, it's like getting tired of breathing. The whole premise of the song is a question. A quest. At the end, it isn't, âWell, I've found my world and I am a success and you and I will be together.' The lyric is having little bluebirds âfly over the rainbow. Why, oh, why can't I?' It represents everyone's wondering why things can't be a little better.”
âCherry Hill (NJ) Press Conference, July 10, 1967
On Being Fired from
Valley of the Dolls
“I got fired again. Oh, I know the studio says I âwithdrew for personal reasons,' but don't believe a word of it. Judy Garland was fired, canned. Why, I don't knowâ¦.It's just as well, though. I wanted the part, I needed the money, but I have to be honest:
Valley of the Dolls
isn't my kind of motion picture. I don't want to be a harridan on the screen, and I don't think people want me to be.”
âTo
McCall's,
August 1967
On the Legend
“I've heard how “difficult” it is to be with Judy Garland. Do you know how âdifficult' it is to be Judy Garland? And for me to live with me? I've had to do itâand what more unkind life can you think of than the one I've lived? I'm told I'm a legend. Fine. But I don't know what that means. I certainly didn't ask to be a legend. I was totally unprepared for it.”
âTo
McCall's,
August 1967
On the Palace Theatre
“It's a Mecca of artists, an artist's goal. Everybody who wanted to attain a dignity-without doing a play-by doing variety or vaudeville, their main goal was to play the Palace Theatre. This theater was the home and the place of all the European and all the world's stars, and you feel that when you walk on. You have a knowledge of it, even if you don't know about it. It comes to you through the theater itself.”
âTo Martin Block,
Guard Session,
August 1967
On Reliability
“I think that thing about âWill she come out?' âWill she appear?' âWill she be all right?,' is gone. People feel, âWell, of course she'll be all right, of course she'll be here.' Because they've seen me around too many years and they finally feel a little more secure. I never have
wanted
to miss
any
show ⦠I usually did appear.”
âTo Leroy F. Aarons,
Providence (R.I.) Journal,
August 1967
On Happiness
“I'd like to explain myself a little. So much of the past that has been written about me, has been so completely, just âauthored.' Not even correctâ¦. I think that the nicest thing to say is that I enjoy my work, that I'm a very happy woman, a very healthy woman, and that I look forward to my shows every night, and am having a marvelous life. I've had press agents that I've paid, to whom I've said, âWhy don't they put that in a magazine?' And they've said, âNo, they're not interested in that. That's not news. You have to do something terrible.' I don't believe you do. I think it might be awfully smashing news for people to find out that I'm a very contented, healthy, happy woman.”
âTo Stephen Rubin, United Press International, August 1967
On President John F. Kennedy
“I can honestly say that I was very honored to be friends with President Kennedyâ¦. I was allowed to call him on the phone because I'd get a bit confused about my television shows and it seemed to me an awful lot of slipshod business was going on. And if I got into wondering about state income tax or government tax, well, I thought it was all right to call the president of the United States. And he always took time to talk to meâ¦. He took the calls. I think he probably took
lots
of calls. Not just mine. But he was a very good friend, a very fine president, and a very fine manâ¦. Mrs. Lincoln was President Kennedy's private secretary and it always used to be kind of funny. I'd say, âThis is Judy Garland calling President Kennedy at the White House in Washington,' and there'd be a bit of confusion. I'd say, âIf you can't get through, ask for Mrs. Lincoln,' and the operator would always say, âWhoa. This is ⦠really ⦠She's really
gone
now! It's Judy Garland. She thinks Abraham Lincoln is still in the White House and [she's] asking to talk to Mrs. Lincoln!'”
âTo Dale Remington,
Monitor
(NBC Radio), September 1967
On Her Homosexual Following
“For so many years I've been misquoted and treated rather brutally by the press, but I'll be damned if I'll have my audience mistreated.”
âTo Irv Kupcinet,
Kup's Show
(Chicago), September 1967
On Her Cult Following
“Maybe I'm some kind of female Billy Graham.”
âTo
Asbury Park Press,
June 26, 1968
*
Judy's hilarious telling of how Marlene Dietrich played a record of a [Dietrich] concert for Noël Coward, Judy and others was captured during a 1964 interview with Paar: “[Marlene] puts the record on and it was just applause ⦠not one
note
of music! She didn't sing, there was no orchestra, just applause. And Noël turned to me in the middle and said, âI hope there isn't another side.' And there
was!
⦠Marlene isn't one of our better singers, but she looks so marvelous.”
DICK CAVETT |
December 13, 1968,
The Dick Cavett Show
Judy appeared with actor Lee Marvin and Ida Kaminska, a classical Yiddish theater actress, on one of the last episodes of the morning edition of
The Dick Cavett Show,
prior to his move to the late-night lineup. The taping took place on December 13, 1968, and the show aired three days later.
Cavett detailed his Judy encounter in an “Opinionator” post for the
New York Times
dated August 15, 2008: “Judy Garland did my old ABC morning show shortly before she died. (That tape is gone. It was reused to tape
Let's Make a Deal.
Trust me.) I think it was [one of] her last television appearance[s]â1968. And what a comedian! She was garrulous, witty, and wickedly funny. What they say was true. She made you feel you were an old friend, while keeping you in stitches. But afterward we couldn't get her out of the dressing room. I left the theater and later walked back well after tape time, and she was still there. She couldn't make a false move onstage and so [she] did all she could to delay leaving it; and, equally, leaving the cozy womb of the dressing room. She was home in those two places. Leave them, and you are back in so-called real lifeâwhere it seemed poor Judy made only false moves.”
Judy was accompanied by songwriter John Meyer, who later wrote of their two-month relationship in
Heartbreaker.
“Cavett asked her to sing,” he recalled in the memoir. “Bobby Rosengarden's band played an introduction and Judy sang âThe Prayer,' the song I'd composed [â¦] She did not sing it well. For openers, the song was only a week old, and she barely knew it. Secondly, her voice was in ragged shape. So, in addition to cracking vocally, halfway through her rendition, Judy lost track of the melodic line and had to finish on an uncertain, upward surge.”
Judy and John watched the airing of
The Dick Cavett Show from
their room at the Hilton. “My God, he's nervous,” Judy said, watching the host cross and
uncross his legs, and fiddling with the arm of the chair. “Why do I make everyone so ⦠nn, uncomfortable?”
“Because, Judes,” Meyer said, “no one knows whether you're going to sing âOver the Rainbow' or open your veins.”
“Sometimes I do both ⦠at the same time,” she giggled.
Dick Cavett:
Occasionally on this kind of show you have this introduction problem of starting out by saying there's nothing to say about our next guest that's not already been said many times. And I'm in that situation now, so you may write your own introduction to this. Everything has been said about my next guest, over and over and over. She's the only person I know named Judy Garland. Here she is.
[Audience applauds as Judy enters to “Over the Rainbow.”]
Judy Garland:
Well, here we are.
DC:
Two kisses. Are you sure you know who I am?
[Audience laughs.]
JG:
Of course! Why do you think I kissed you twice?
DC:
Yeah, and thank you for the flowers.
JG:
That's all right. You gave them to me.
[Audience laughs.]
You gave me a whole bunch of them, actually.
DC:
That's right.
JG:
I gave two of them back.
DC:
Yes, I cut those this morning from my little window box.
JG:
You did? Did you growâ
DC:
It's so nice to meet you.
JG:
It's nice to meet you. I'm a great fan of yours.
DC:
I can't understand that.
[Audience laughs.]
JG:
Well, I'll tell you all about it. It's because ⦠Now, come on. You can't understand it? Don't be
ridiculous.
DC:
There are certain people in the industry who are so “big,” as we say, that you can't imagine them watching you. I mean, I can't imagine you or Bob Hope sitting in front of a TV screen and seeing me.
JG:
I can't imagine Bob Hope watching you because he'd probably be jealous of your humor!
[Audience laughs.]
DC:
Oh, undoubtedly.
JG:
But I can imagine everybody else would.
DC:
Yes, he's very jealous of me. He keeps having to go to Vietnam to get away from the pressure.
JG:
Well, he creates
wars
when there isn't a war, just to get away from the house, maybe. Bob goes and does a show and all of a sudden there's a war when there wasn't one there before.
DC:
I hadn't noticed that it was in that order, but it's an interesting theory. You know, your fans sometimes are so enthusiastic that when one goes to see you â¦
JG:
One fan? Or â¦
[Audience laughs.]
I'm glad I've got one left.
DC:
No, when a person goes to see you, it's almost hard to hear you sometimes because your fans just won't let you finish a song.
JG:
That's because they sing better than I do.
[Audience laughs.]
No, what do you mean, Dick?