Judy Garland on Judy Garland (8 page)

Though appearances might dispute this opinion, Judy has arguments for each and every theory proffered. For instance, her high heels were the last word in smartness, but the kidding she takes to don them and show her face in public! As for her personal appearance these days, she's bordering dangerously near being glamorous. Her hair is a little lighter with just the right touch of gold to enhance those lovely eyes that feature dark curling lashes. Why the gal is even thinner and, what's more, with that engaging smile of hers, would make any guy's heart skip a beat or two just to pass her quickly on the street!

“Do I get razzed about these shoes!” Judy exclaimed, tossing a glance in their general direction. Then, looking up she laughed, “Why it's getting so I can only wear them in my dressing room and have any peace of mind. And just look at my hair! They had to change it for the color sequences in
The Wizard of Oz.
Now my friends kid me about that, too. You know we worked on that picture for six months and, even though it was the most pleasant time I've ever spent, I lost twelve pounds. So what do you think? All the gang thinks I'm reducing! Gosh, maybe I should at that! But really, it's only that I've grown taller and my weight is going to the right places!

Honestly, I'm in no hurry to grow up,” Judy continued, her large eyes serious and a plaintive note of sincerity in her voice. “The way I figure it, you've only got about eighteen years in which to have fun—so why rush it? Heck, when you're grown, there're too many things to worry about, so while you're still young you should be able to enjoy yourself. All my friends, the gang I run around with, have the best time ever. Of course some of 'em, the boys especially, think they're pretty old. Why they even smoke cigarettes!”

After discussing Hollywood's promising youth we discovered our little friend had very definite ideas on the subject. Certain things were to be accepted. F'rinstance, several of her favorite pals even went so far as to smoke pipes! Of course, none are of the “veddy, viddy variety,” as the handsome William Orr, who was the latest thorn in the side of one Andy Hardy! Judy can't believe any girl would prefer such a “fancy pants” as
he portrayed to a real honest-to-goodness fellow. In fact, Judy has such sound reasoning and excellent ideas about companions that to date she can't decide just which boy she prefers. However, each has his points and plenty to offer, for Judy's far too intelligent to tolerate a dullard very long.

Concerning a few of the snapshots showing Judy steppin' out, she explained, “Oh I don't date very much. Mostly, we all go out together. Of course there's usually a fellow with a girl. Y'know we sorta pair up. Then we go dancing or just stay home and have fun.

“To give you an idea, I'll tell you what we do when Johnny Downs comes over.” At the surprised look on our face, Judy hopped in and told us what a swell dancer and actor Mr. D. is. Having familiarized us with the gent, she continued, “Johnny will come over and bring a book along. We help Mother fix dinner and afterwards may spend the whole evening not saying a word, just sitting there reading. Then, when it's time for him to go home, we'll say good night and that's all there is to it. I think I like Johnny for this very reason. We don't have to put on at all to entertain each other. We can relax and not say a word and still have a simply grand time. He's very nice and very thoughtful, too, which is another reason I'm fond of him.

“Of course it's just the opposite with Mickey Rooney,” Judy said and her eyes lighted up immediately, for all who know young Mr. R. have a very definite affection for him. “I think the thing I like about Mickey the most is that he's so much fun. When I go out with him I don't have to say a word. He keeps me laughing continuously. There's no one I know of that's so much fun to go dancing with, or just be around. And he's not a practical joker either. He's not at all like he seems on the screen. He may joke, but they're all on him and not at the expense of others, like a lot of wits. Y'know, he's not at all wild either, just the nicest person you could meet. I feel so sorry because his vacation wasn't as happy as it should have been.

“I guess everyone in New York expected him to be wild and crazy like the parts he plays, and when he wasn't, they weren't very nice to him. He only stayed a few days, then went to Florida. Of course he had more fun there cause he loves swimming and sports. He's really just like any other boy and a lot smarter than most. Of course, they're people who will try to make you think he's changed by sudden popularity and success, but he's
been working so long and hard that it's not new. I don't think he'd ever change no matter how famous he became. That's why I like him—he's always the same Mickey.

“Another friend of mine,” Judy continued, “is Jackie Cooper. He's awfully smart and loves music. We listen to lots of recordings together and sometimes go dancing with the gang. He smokes the biggest pipe. It's the only thing I can't seem to understand his liking. But then, I guess it's just another thing about men we women can't figure out,” and, philosophically shaking her head, Judy pondered the profoundness of this astute observation. “You'd think he was awfully serious from the parts he plays, wouldn't you? Well, he's not a bit. He likes fun as much as anyone and is the first to get into the spirit of things and the last to sign off. I guess the main reason we have such a good time is because we enjoy the same things.”

Then, Judy laughed and exclaimed, “Gee, if I'm not careful you'll think I'm bragging about beaux. But it's your fault because you wanted to know why I like certain people. I don't really get to go out often enough to be a gadabout. But, since you asked, here's the rest of my story.

“The birthday picture you asked about, the one lighting the candles, was with Billy Halop. Mostly everyone thinks the
Dead End
kids are tough, but they're not. Billy is just the opposite. Honestly, I don't see how he plays those characters so convincingly because he's not a bit that way. He's the most polite and thoughtful boy you can imagine. Why, if he takes you out he can't do enough to make you have a good time. He's pulling out your chair, or helping you up and down all the time. Billy has the most perfect manners of any boy I've met.

“Why, come to think of it, in real life Billy's just like the parts Jackie Moran plays on the screen. Jackie, of course, is the same on the screen and off. He's sweet, well mannered and always a gentleman. He's one of the nicest boys on the coast and everyone's crazy about him. I judge anyone a lot by their friends. I guess I just like nice people and when someone has lots of nice friends then I'm sure to get along with them. It's really an insight into their character to see what kind of people they go around with and like. That's why our gang very carefully looks over a new member before we pass judgment. We may seem overly friendly, but underneath
we're a pretty cagey lot. Why, we have to be, or else we'd be dumb and completely taken in by everything. We may be young, but not quite that much—I hope.

“As soon as I get back home we're going to begin on
Babes in Arms,”
said Judy, getting off the subject of gentlemen. “I didn't see the show last year, but I've read the play and I'm just crazy about it. I think Mickey will be wonderful in it, don't you?”

“A natural! You'll both be perfect,” we admitted quickly and honestly. For Mickey's a lad that any of us could watch ‘doing his stuff' till long past the curfew! And Judy—well, she's the tops in talkies, too!

“I can hardly wait to get started,” she continued enthusiastically. And if you could have seen her eyes light up at the prospect of what was ahead, then you'd no doubt feel quite the same as Judy's many friends. Though in appearance Judy seemed quite a young lady, for all of her sixteen years, her face was that of a kid's before Christmas. However, the way Judy explains it is, “I guess maybe I look grown up, but honestly I don't feel it. The way I figure is that the first fifteen years are the hardest. Well, now I'm over that, the best part is right ahead of me, and I certainly plan to make the most of it.

“It's a lot like in
The Wizard of Oz.
When you're growing up you can hardly wait for the time to pass and things seem so dull and slow. Then one day you wake up and there you are just where you've always wanted to be, and it's wonderful. Well, it's like that in the picture. The cabin I live in is just plain and drab, y'know it's all in black and white. Then one day it's blown to the Land of Oz and when I open the door the lovely color of everything is like fairyland. You can't imagine what a contrast it is. That's about the way it feels to me now that I'm sixteen! Y'know, I always wondered just why they said, ‘sweet sixteen.' Well, now I know, and gosh, but it's grand!”

Known for her syndicated “Going Hollywood” columns, May Mann visited with Judy for
Screenland
about her fascination with older men (Clark Gable, Victor Fleming) and the arranged publicity dates with boys closer to her age (Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney).

The little Garland girl is a famous movie star but that doesn't stop her from having the same cute romantic crushes as any sweet-sixteen schoolgirl

Judy Garland's got me remembering when I was just newly turned sixteen and fell in love with my piano teacher who was thirty-five-ish. I know just how Judy felt about [Clark] Gable, because one day my piano teacher (who was no Gable, but had a dimple on his chin) patted my hand in a grownup way, and I suddenly discovered he was Prince Charming! I knew that if he'd wait a couple of years for me to grow up a little bit more, a great love would be ours. I pictured myself as the woman he adored, inspiring him to greater things—that is, until he introduced me to his real inspiration who was twenty-five-ish and proudly announced she was his new bride. You've no idea how tragic it was. Judy felt much the same way when Clark introduced her to Carole Lombard, and she suddenly realized how hopeless were her plans of their future together, Judy's and Clark's I mean.

“I meant every word of that song I sang to Clark Gable in my first picture,” Judy seriously confided to me as she slipped off a little blue wool
dress with the white lace petticoat trim showing two inches below the hem. And in the next breath, “Look at this note. It's from a boy who saw the afternoon show. He thinks that I should know that my petticoat is showing. Isn't that funny? He doesn't know that's the fashion.”

Judy was in New York on personal appearance tour and I was on a holiday. We'd decided to see Times Square and Forty-Second Street and Broadway together—but the most we saw was the inside of taxicabs and crowds of people as we dashed about keeping Judy's numerous engagements. We'd just come from Judy's broadcast and were in her dressing-room, banked with baskets of flowers, when Judy and I began to wax confidential in true feminine fashion. The telephone was ringing when we entered. It was Los Angeles calling, with Judy's next-door-neighbor-boyfriend on the wire. Ten minutes later a new boy acquired on the New York holiday called for a date, and before a half hour had passed a couple more had called—one, being as Judy described him, “just perfectly wonderful—he's going to Yale and he's so distinguished and everything!” That's how we got onto the subject of boyfriends and then romance in general.

“Clark Gable was really the first man I ever thought seriously of,” said Judy, brushing her gold-brown hair prior to getting ready for the evening show. “The first time I met him, I thought I'd faint, he was so wonderful! He was just exactly the way I'd always imagined he would be. He smiled and took my hand and held it just like he really meant it. He was so clean-looking and had such cute dimples. And the shaving lotion he used smelled so masculine and nice!

“After I sang that little song that I wrote to him in my first picture I was invited to his birthday party. I sang the song for him again. But Carole Lombard was there—and I soon realized that I didn't have much chance when he already had such a glamorous woman in love with him. She's so beautiful and so witty and keeps everyone laughing at the clever things she says. While me, I felt awkward and self-conscious, and I sat and twiddled my thumbs, which didn't get me very far. I didn't know what to say. All I could do was look at Clark and think how much I liked him and wish that there were two of him, one for Carole and one for me. I couldn't help noticing all of the time the way he looked at her—like she was something awfully precious. He just grinned when he looked at me.

“Soon after that Clark sent me a charm bracelet and I wore it right up to the day he married. It was awfully cute with a little gold book in which was inscribed, ‘To My Best Girl, Judy—from Clark Gable.' And then when I was in that automobile accident he sent me a pair of lovebirds. But after meeting Miss Lombard I knew that Clark would never really be serious with me.” And Judy began brushing the curls around her finger. She's very pretty and sweet sixteen-ish. Her large brown eyes are girlishly innocent and have a way of widening when she's serious. There's none of the coquette about Judy—not even when she's talking about her boy friends.

“Isn't that the Gable charm bracelet you are wearing now?” I asked, noting a clever one on her wrist.

“This is the one the boy who lives next door gave me,” Judy explained. “He's a very nice boy who takes me to movies and occasionally to parties, and we go bicycling together. But he's very young—just sixteen. Well, I mean sixteen's young for a boy. Of course we're not a bit romantic—we're just friends,” she added.

“How about Freddie Bartholomew?” I asked.

“Oh, that was one of those studio publicity romances,” Judy said. “They were in vogue at the time. Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power, and Wayne Morris and Priscilla Lane. It really didn't mean a thing. We just posed for pictures and he took me to a premiere or two.”