As soon as this episode starts there is quite clearly a different feel to the format. The opening shot is a wide shot of the stage, which allows the television audience to appreciate the theatrical setting. Mort Lindsey’s orchestra is on stage along with some backing singers, and the set is punctuated with bulbs like a dressing room mirror. The chorus welcome Judy with the song ‘Sing Sing’. Miss Showbusiness takes to the stage and is given free rein to do precisely that! The first few minutes are filled by a mini concert. This provides a taste of things to come later in the series when The Judy Garland Show follows a concert style format and completely does away with sketches and chat. Judy sings ‘If Love Were All’, ‘Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart’, and ‘Hello Bluebird’ from I Could Go On Singing (1963). It appears from TV recordings from the early 1960s that ‘Bluebird’ was favoured more by Judy than the title song of her last film. She had also sang ‘Hello Bluebird’ in her special with Robert Goulet and Phil Silvers (1963).
Fade out
The stage has cleared of band and chorus. Judy reprises ‘Sing Sing’ and introduces Bobby Darin and Bob Newheart. Judy and Darin step aside to let Newheart perform his comic sketch about encountering a friend’s pet Doberman. It is marvelously realised. Newheart acts terrified and brings the situation vividly to life just with dialogue while seated in a chair.
In another comedy sketch later in the show Newheart is joined by Garland and they both play two television viewers watching The Judy Garland Show in their dressing gowns passing judgment. Judy says that the show’s host has such poor eyesight she doesn’t know who her guests are.
“That’s why they put the lights on a runway there so she won’t fall off – she can’t find the cue cards can’t see the guests! I really know her!”
As part of this hilarious self-deprecating comedy, Judy mentions that the host lip synchs to her old records and offers to change the channel to the station with “that Western on!” Regular viewers at the time would have been aware of the competition between Judy’s show and Bonanza, of course.
Apart from the comedy with Bob Newheart, there is a lot of music on this show, and the only other break from Judy and Bobby Darin’s singing comes from a dance interlude from the Peter Gennaro dancers. An amusing outtake from this episode shows Judy missing her mark to introduce this dance number and complaining that it is difficult to walk across the stage in such a tight skirt to do it again!
Bobby Darin’s solo appearance in the first half of the show is simply staged and consists of the songs ‘Michael Row the Boat Ashore’ and ‘I’m On My Way’. In the second half Judy joins him on an almost empty train carriage with only one seat. Judy asks Darin if she can sit next to him. “All the other seats are taken… away!” she explains. He is going to Kansas City and she’s going to Oz. These two locations are associated in popular culture by The Wizard of Oz (1939), although it may not be immediately obvious how one train journey can pass through both places. Judy explains that she goes to Oz every holiday but usually by house! At this point in the film’s history, The Wizard of Oz had become synonymous with annual Christmas TV broadcasts on CBS Sunday evenings (Fricke, Scarfone and Stillman, 1989: 216).
Although The Judy Garland Show had many memorable song medleys through its run, Garland and Darin’s medley of travelling- and going home-themed tunes in this scene is quite astonishing due to the sheer amount of songs they perform without pause, including: ‘Sentimental Journey’, ‘Chattanaga Choo Choo’, ‘On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe’, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, ‘Toot Toot Tootsie’, ‘Beyond the Blue Horizon’, and ‘We’ve Been Singing on the Railroad’. For much of the medley, the singers remain inside the train, but towards the end they walk out of the front of the carriage to better connect with the audience.
Apart from Judy’s mini concert at the opening of the episode, Garland’s other solos in this show consist of ‘More’ (from Mondo Cane), ‘Do it Again’ and ‘I’m Getting Married in the Morning’ (from My Fair Lady). ‘More’ is worth studying as an example of Judy’s acting ability in song. According to Coyne Steven Sanders’ book, Bill Colleran recalled that Judy “hated” the song but “sang the hell out of it, anyway” (Sanders, 1992: 288). Staged on a hideous set that looks like leftover pieces from a ragbag of different movies, Judy leans against a pillar to sing. At first she seems to be going through the motions but as the song progresses she injects it with some Garland magic. Fixing her gaze into the camera several times throughout the number, it is almost as if she is thinking “if I’ve got to sing this rubbish I may as well surprise everyone by turning it into gold…”
Show 14 lacks a little of the sparkle of other episodes, but this is hardly surprising when you consider that Judy should really have been resting during the time it was filmed. The taping occurred in the aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination. However, rather than take time off, it appears that Garland worked harder than ever following the death of her friend. The work schedule reported by Coyne Steven Sanders recalls the busy time at MGM when Judy was shooting scenes for Thousands Cheer, Girl Crazy, and Lily Mars (all released 1943) retakes back to back. In the week of the Show 14 recording Judy also shot the ‘Babes’ comedy sketch with Mickey Rooney for Show 1 and a scene with the Mighty Mites football team that should have been the opener for Show 14 but was replaced by the mini concert!
At the end of the episode Judy sees out the old year and welcomes in the new: “I wish you a very happy and peaceful 1964. And don’t forget I’m gonna come back – I think – if I can get through these many changes!”
In ‘Maybe I’ll Come Back’ her two guests “Bobby and Bobby” are her cousins.
Garland’s Gowns (Ray Aghayan and Bob Mackie):
There are numerous costume changes in this episode. For the mini concert Judy wears a pale skirt and top. The latter has some sparkly fringing at the cuffs and hem that are sewn on in a check pattern. During ‘More’ she wears a long, plain dress with an elaborate necklace (similar to the one that Joan Crawford wears in I Saw What You Did (1965)). In the train medley Judy wears a travel suit with a thick fur collar and pillbox hat. The dress she has difficulty walking in during her intro for ‘Take 5’ with the Peter Gennaro Dancers is the white, floor-length gown she wore in the ‘Men’ medley with Peggy Lee. In the Trunk scene Judy wears the stripy shirt with bib. There is also the frumpy dressing gown during the comedy sketch with Bob Newheart (presumably not an Aghayan creation!) For the filmed and deleted opening scene Judy wore a football kit and the same dress that she wore in the mini concert.
Of all the above, the ‘Take 5’ dress is the most glamorous, but the Trunk costume is probably the one Judy feels most comfortable in. It certainly seems to be one of her favourite and most regular costumes for the show’s finale.
Further reading:
Fricke, John, Scarfone, Jay, Stillman, William, 1989, The Wizard of Oz, The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History, London: Hodder and Stoughton
Sanders, Coyne Steven, 1992, Rainbow’s End, The Judy Garland Show, New York: Zebra Books
The Judy Garland Project 