STAR MADE BY A STAR SHINES ON FOR NEW FANS

CHARACTER SKETCHED IN BIOPIC HOLLYWOOD FILM

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Judy Garland receives star treatment in the biopic film about her final years as a world famous entertainer.

Judy (2019), directed by Rupert Gould, focuses on a specific set of events in the life of Garland, thereby filming more of a character study of one of the greatest entertainers than telling a story about the entertainment industry.  

The film shows how Garland lost her fortune as well as her popularity in the United States of America at the age of 47. The immediate financial troubles jeopardise her children’s well being, so Garland takes a gig in London, England where she had remained popular among adoring fans.

Garland sells out five weeks of shows at the Talk of The Town, but the reasons for her misfortune soon revisit her in London, bringing the run on stage to an unhappy end.

Judy becomes Judy again with Rene Zellweger cast in the role for the film adaptation of the Broadway play, “End of the Rainbow, by Peter Quilter.

Gould uses close camera shots around the actors to highlight the character study and the ability of Zellweger to become Garland.

Zellweger adopts the walk and hand mannerism and facial expressions of Garland. Zellweger also sings Judy’s songs and deliver’s Judy’s self-deprecating humour, and also shows the darker side of the alcohol, drug addicted, and at times, uncontrollable narcissist. 

Gould tells the tragic story of how the child star became such a liability as an adult by using flash backs to Garland’s childhood career.

Darci Shaw plays the young Judy Garland in a series of vignettes talking to the studio boss Louis B. Meyer. Garland became America’s entertainer at the age of 14 when she was cast by Meyer as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz (1939).

Gould shows how the young Judy Garland’s long 18 hour working days at the studio, and the difficult discipline imposed upon her by Meyer, led to the entertainer’s health problems and addiction to drugs and alcohol as an adult.

The film seems targeted at an audience already familiar with the good entertaining side of the famous Garland, because very little background information is provided in the narrative other than the few flashbacks to the child acting career.

Gould presents Garland as a talented person whose misfortune was paradoxically a result of the studio system that developed her into an international star.

BRIGHT STAR STILL SHINING SO BRIGHTLY FOR FANS

Originally Published September 7, 2018

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

For the greatest entertainer in the world, life was lived in a picture show from an early age where her parents met and fell in love and lived, though not entirely happily ever after.

Born from vaudevillian parents, the star burned bright early from the small stages of small town America to the silver screens all around the world. 

Judy Garland’s entertainment career began as the youngest member of a vaudevillian sister act at the tender young age of 30 months. 

Judy’s movie career began a few years later as a 13 year old child star with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Judy received $100 per week in October 1935, which was enough to support her whole family.

Judy loved to be on stage where people would love her and she would love the world. (pg. 26, Clarke)

Judy already knew how to act, sing and dance and endear audiences when she was cast in the role of a lifetime as young Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz (1939).

Hollywood had a golden year in 1939 with the release of Gone with the Wind (1939). The epic film, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, told the story of the deep south during the American Civil War. A film that earned the admiration of audiences, and still considered one of the greatest films ever produced.

Gone with the Wind swept the Oscars that year winning eight, including Vivien Leigh for best actor in a leading role, and the first black female winner, Hattie McDaniel, for her supporting role. 

But Judy would also leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry that year. The young female actress in a leading role would be forever known in the very least as Dorothy who took the world along a mysterious journey down the yellow brick road.

Judy never had life easy thereafter. The film suffered from a number of false starts and production overruns, initially receiving box office returns less than the production and marketing costs. 

The Wizard of Oz only made money once released for television and rerun each year for the new generation of children that found their imaginations when watching Dorothy’s journey.

The world followed Judy’s career from that famous role until her early death at the age of 47.

Hollywood sprung out of vaudeville as the stages gave way to the film studios and the picture houses. Audiences made the transition in part because actors, like Buster Keaton, kept one foot in vaudeville until filmmakers tried and tested a distinct new art form for the silver screens.

Leading men such as Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly acted, sang and danced in the popular musical film productions of the time.

Judy co-starred with Astaire and Kelly, polishing her singing and dancing skills until taking the lead in Meet Me In St Louis (1944).  Judy finally received an adult role as an attractive talented entertaining female lead, as opposed to that submissive child actor from Wizard of Oz in supporting roles beside Hollywood’s leading men.

The film was somewhat self reflective as Judy’s adult character had a child co-star character named Judy, who could sing and talk back to adults, just like Dorothy.

Meet Me in St Louis was a box office success for MGM who produced one of the few films made in Technicolour that year. Judy though would struggle with financial success for most of her career even with the adorations of fans around the world.

Judy eventually formed her own production company, and then entered into a contract with Warner Bros. The first film of the new joint venture was A Star is Born (1954). The film was a self reflective look at a talented young woman struggling first to be accepted into the entertainment industry and then again struggling  for success in Hollywood.

Judy co-starred with leading actor, James Mason. Judy played the actor and Mason played the actor, producer, husband that discovered her for Hollywood.

The film was a critical success during the early theatre release, but when Warner Bros insisted on editing the film down from three hours to two hours, the storyline fell flat and the film lost a lot of its appeal, while Judy’s production company lost all of the hoped for profits.

Judy began the decade on Broadway with a show at the Palace Theatre in New York City in 1951. Judy performed two shows a day for the scheduled four weeks with line ups for tickets stretching down the block. The show was so successful that the theatre extended the run a few times for a total of another 15 weeks.

Judy, it seemed, had found success and would live happily ever after. But Judy only survived the decade by performing live in Europe and North America as a forerunner to what many critics and celebrities in the entertainment industry believe was the greatest night in entertainment.

Judy at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961 produced a double album that earned four Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Female Vocal Performance, Best Engineered Album and Best Album Cover. The double album charted at number one for 13 weeks on the Billboard Charts, 73 weeks altogether, and was entered into the United States Library of Congress in 2003.

The star studded audience for one night witnessed, who many believed at the time was the greatest entertainer in the world, act, sing, tell stories and make people laugh with often self deprecating humour.

CBS tried to build on that success by producing The Judy Garland Show from September 29, 1963 to March 29, 1964. The 26 episodes ran during Prime Time, but the financial returns were not there for a second season.

Hollywood had not given up on Judy though. Judy received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). The film was about the war crime trials of Nazi Germans after World War II.

The film  shows the lack of incite of many Germans in authority, including judges, about the crimes against humanity committed during the war.

Judy played a victim witness at the trial.

Judy played another empathetic character, as a teaching aid in a school for mentally challenged children, in A Child is Waiting (1963).

Burt Lancaster plays the school master who has developed a particular way of getting results from the students even though each student has distinct cognitive issues. Judy befriends one student against the school masters wishes, but in the end, Judy helps the child beyond expectations.

Judy plays another emphatic character in “I Could Go On Singing” (1963). Judy plays an estranged mother who wants to reunite with her son 13 years after she gave him up for adoption. Judy again plays a self reflective role as an entertainer earning a living with live performances on small stages throughout Europe.

Jean Harlow was the first real star to use her female sexuality during a time of strict codes on how to present films on screen for the general public. Harlow had a dramatic rise to stardom after crafting a personality that accentuated many aspects of character that make women distinct from men.

Judy was not sexy and glamorous as much as she was entertaining, but she still challenged gender boundaries and stereotypes as much as anyone else as the social norms for women in society gradually changed during her film and stage career .

When Judy began performing, women were still wearing corsets and predominantly restricted to careers in the home. The roles offered to women in film reflected that realty. 

But when actors like Judy are given the lead role in major motion pictures, then a new dialogue opens the door to women all over.

Finances were always difficult for the star despite her popularity, so Judy ‘sang for her supper’ in night clubs, cabarets, theatres, and hotels throughout the United States for many years. The songs that made Judy famous during her early career were so endearing to audiences that she would have to sing them over and over again until her death: Over the Rainbow (1939), The Trolley Song (1944), Be A Clown (1948), and Get Happy (1950).

Even as the film musical fell out of favour in Hollywood, equally talented actors finding stardom after Judy, such as Barbara Streisand, maintained film careers in parallel with singing and dancing stage performances.

Judy found success, beginning with Dorothy in Oz, with a transparent sincerity. (pg 95, Clarke). Dorothy was transparently sincere in helping others as she tried to find her way back home along the yellow Brick Road. 

Judy became memorable for singing the sweetest of songs with the saddest of notes about life. And although Judy struggled financially, she had repeatedly earned the love of audiences from an early age with her sincere performances and obvious talent as the greatest entertainer in the world.

Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, by Gerald Clarke, New York, Random House, 2000.