The Judy Garland Show with Jack Jones and Ken Murray (episode 22, aired 23rd February 1964)

In the previous blog post from The Judy Garland Project I wrote that episode 21 of The Judy Garland Show had provided television audiences with an opportunity to see much of Garland’s material from her early 1960s concert tours. This has subsequently enabled future generations to get some feeling for what it would have been like to see Judy on stage in the last decade of her career.

 

Show 22 is a sequel of sorts to episode 21 in that it too features several songs from the Carnegie Hall LP:

‘Swanee’

‘Almost Like Being in Love/This Can’t Be Love’

‘Just You, Just Me’

‘A Foggy Day’ (seated with Mort Lindsey at the piano stool)

and ‘If Love Were All’

Although some of the songs in this episode had already been sung by Judy in previous episodes, it is refreshing to hear her sing them again in a concert-format show, uninterrupted by other business.

‘Just in Time’ (sung previously on Show 9) makes a return here. Judy seems incredibly relaxed in this performance. The Pioneer Artists DVD includes two takes. In the second take of the song she nails it.

Years before her film outtake from In The Good Old Summertime (1949) was archived as a DVD extra by Warner Home Video, ‘Last Night When We Were Young’ TV audiences got a rare chance to see Judy sing this song in this week’s episode.

Another treat from Show 22 is the ‘Judy at the Palace Medley’ (from the Miss Showbusiness LP and her Palace Show of 1951). Garland Introduces the medley by reminding the audience that it was the goal of all vaudeville performers to play at the Palace. Something which Judy achieved three times throughout her career.

Judy’s guests this week are Jack Jones and Ken Murray. Jones sings ‘Love With the Proper Stranger’ and ‘Wives and Lovers’ standing in front of a setting that looks like multiple Connect 4 games! It is a welcome return for Mr Jones which gives the series a sense of consistency. The same effect is given by the repeated appearances of Vic Damone).

The version of Ken Murray’s scene on the Pioneer Artists DVD looks like it has been rescued from a kinescope recording. This weeks clips are mostly from Hollywoods silent era. There are some priceless shots of Charles Laughton pretending to hide behind a car. Footage of stars such as Gloria Swanson, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow arriving for the premiere of King of Kings in 1927 looks like the opening scene of Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

 

Judy joins Jack for a Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy themed medley. They sing

‘Will You Remember’, ‘Rosalie’, ‘I’ll See You Again’, and ‘Lover Come Back to Me’.

Jack informs Judy that he was born the night that his father recorded ‘The Donkey Serenade’ from The Firefly (1938). “Oh I love that song!” Exclaims Judy. They end the set by duetting with this number – Allan Jones’s biggest hit.

Show 22 ends with only one song during the Trunk segment, ‘When the Sun Comes Out’ which Judy had first sung on Show 1. This episode is undoubtedly another concert to treasure. The following week would see an unusually placed return to an earlier format…

Garland’s Gowns (by Ray Aghayan and Bob Mackie):

There are three costume changes in this show. Judy wears the twin set with bow at the neck during the Ken Murray scene that she had worn in Show 21 during her duet with Mel Torme. During the MacDonald/Eddy duet she wears the dress with a lattice design worn previously in episode 19 (with the Kirby Stone Four).

The most memorable outfit from this show however is the zebra-striped dress she wears during the concert scenes. In Show 18 she had worn a long zebra skirt with a plain top and a cape. In Show 22 we get the full zebra effect. Another Aghayan success!

 

The Judy Garland Show: The Christmas Show (22nd December 1963)

This is possibly the most beloved episode of The Judy Garland Show, not just because it is the only show in which Judy sings ‘Over the Rainbow’, but because it is noteworthy as being the episode in which she performs with all three of her children, Liza, Lorna and Joey. The episode is staged as a cosy family get-together, albeit with the premier family of show business. Yuletide guests include Jack Jones, Mel Tormé, Tracy Everitt and a troupe of high-kicking Father Christmasses. Music flows with very few pauses. The effect is of a seamless musical show rather than an episode constructed of different scenes and sketches. The entry of all the guests is done as if they are just calling round to Judy’s house. When Liza arrives she pretends that she really is at her mother’s home and wonders wide-eyed why there is an audience inside the house!

The programme opens with Garland singing her Meet Me in St Louis (1944) classic, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. The staging in a window with Judy, Lorna and Joey is an homage to Vincente Minnelli’s direction of the scene in the film with Judy singing to Margaret O’Brien. After the song, Judy and her children walk to the front door where she addresses the audience and says she’s going to do what everyone else is doing over the holiday season: spending time with her family. Judy looks elegant and svelte in a long, brocade button-up housecoat with a fur collar and cuffs. The dress manages to make her look tall. After greeting the viewers, she apologises for keeping us on her doorstep and invites us in.

“It’s really an informal evening… make yourself at home, as a matter of fact… consider yourself!’

The Oliver! Soundtrack was popular in the Garland/Luft household. Judy had sung ‘As Long as He Needs Me’ in Show 3 and in the Christmas show she sings ‘Consider Yourself’ with all of her children. Joey Luft gets his solo by singing ‘Where is Love?’ There is a lovely shot of Judy gazing at Joey as he sings atop the piano.

 

Tracy Everitt was one of the regular dancers in the chorus on The Judy Garland Show, and he is usually quite prominent in the routines. In the Christmas show Judy introduces him as “Liza’s Beau”. Liza and Tracy show Judy the ‘Steam Heat’ number they’ve been rehearsing. She says that Judy could take Liza’s place and that Tracy represents Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire “one of those older dancers!” to which Judy gasps open-mouthed.

 

Again, the introduction of this rather dynamic routine as a throw away – demonstrating something they have been rehearsing together – adds to the informality of the episode. Liza and Everitt also perform ‘Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown’ from Irene later in the show.

After ‘Steam Heat’ Judy’s family decorate the Christmas tree while Judy is left alone with the viewers to sing the sweet ‘Little Drops of Rain’ from her animated feature Gay Purr-ee (1962). She would sing the same film’s ‘Paris is a Lonely Town’ in a later episode.

Up until this point, the show has not halted once. It is high time to let the Lufts and Minnellis have a respite and welcome some extra guests! Cue the shy and retiring Jack Jones who bursts through the door singing ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly?’ Once he has settled in he performs ‘Lollipops and Roses’ for Lorna. She in turn sings a belting ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. Mr. Jones’s father, Allan, of course had appeared with Judy in one of her earliest films, Everybody Sing (1938), so there is something beautifully cyclical about Jones junior performing with Judy’s daughter.

 

Jack Joins Judy and Liza on the couch with a sleigh rug over their knees to sing some jolly, upbeat winter songs such as ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘It Happened in Sun Valley’. One of the songs included here is ‘Jingle Bells’ – a very important song in Garland’s career, as all fans will be aware.

The camp dancing Santas do a quick routine to ‘Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer’ prior to the advert break.

The next section of the show takes on a more traditional flavour. A group of carol singers arrive with Mel Tormé. Judy massages his ego by announcing that he writes the special material for her show and that he is the composer of ‘The Christmas Song’. It was clear that this – arguably one of Tormé’s best songs – had to be performed on the show.

A medley of carols continues. It is rare to hear Judy sing songs like this. It reminds one of the short subject Silent Night that Judy filmed in 1937. Joey and Lorna perform the latter song as a duet, and Liza and Tracy sing ‘It Came Upon a Midnight Clear’ together. Before long it is time for the carol singers to leave. Judy waves goodbye and the house is peaceful for a second until the dancing Father Christmasses run in and persuade Judy to join them in a chorus line. “Goodbye – whoever you are!” she shouts.

She dims the lights and is joined by Joey and Lorna in their dressing gowns. They remind her about what she usually does each year… which is her introduction to sing ‘Over the Rainbow’. She performs the song on the sofa with the children either side. It is a tender set up, but it is clear that Judy is still singing from the bottom of her lungs. At one point Joey reacts to the ringing in his ear by wiggling his finger inside it!

We have come to the end of the show. Judy, Lorna and Joey take their bows as the credits roll. The crew in the gallery don’t seem to know which camera to catch them on so they disappear from view in the final shots. Never mind. This has been a warm and joyful episode and a perennial Christmas treat for future generations of Garland fans to enjoy.