The Judy Garland Show: Judy in Concert (episode 20 aired 9th February 1964)

The orchestra is tuning up… The setting looks much less like the ‘Television City’ studio we are familiar with from the series up to this point, and more like the inside of a theatre. Mort Lindsey takes to the conductor’s podium and starts the overture. (It has been several episodes since we have seen him onstage).

The overture consists of songs that Judy is going to sing in this episode, rather than the overture familiar from her Judy at Carnegie Hall LP. However, it does include ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘The Man That Got Away’ much like the overture from that famous concert… Judy appears onstage on the last note. She looks cute as a button and very chic in her Ray Aghayan creation.

The concert style show for episode 20 was a format Judy had been eager to try out and this must account for her palpable enthusiasm.

She opens with ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ – in a swing rhythm rather than at the more traditional pace in which she sings it in Everybody Sing (1938) – and follows with ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand.’ Judy greets the audience:

“Tonight I’m going to indulge myself a little and I hope it meets with your approval. You see since I’ve been doing a weekly television show I haven’t had much time to do concerts, and a lot of you have called me and written to me and asked when I would be doing concerts again so I think tonight’s the night we’ll just do a concert! Ok?”

She continues with the chat, saying that she will do any changes onstage in her Camelot dressing room and beckons it on. “This is how I got started in Show business you know – Punch and Judy!”

 

When she emerges from the dressing room tent she has changed into white pants and a cowl necked, long-sleeved top with some wildly Baroque embroidery on it. The decoration is similar in style to the white dress that she wears in a later episode that was also used for her wedding dress to Mark Herron. These eccentric designs – like the Travilla suit from The Valley of the Dolls (1967) could either be considered dubious taste or simply wild designs of the 1960s! With so many costumes to design for Judy for the series, there had to be scope for some experimentation, so for that I think we have to hand it to Ray Aghayan.

Once she has changed, Judy begins the WWI medley. Garland has no qualms about being nostalgic. She says it isn’t corny, but rather a “nifty way of life” and this is why she would like to sing some of the sentimental songs written during the war.

Songs include ‘Keep The Home Fires Burning’, ‘Over There’ and ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’. The latter being part of the score from For Me And My Gal (1942). During ‘Dear Little Boy of Mine’ and ‘My Buddy’ Judy leans against the edge of the proscenium. This is part of the set she would return to in future concert episodes for some of the more gentle songs.

Two songs from her 1960s concert repertoire – ‘That’s Entertainment’ and ‘Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody’ bookend a medley of songs dedicated to her children. Joey Luft and Lorna are present on the front row of the audience to receive their gift of song. This moment has become well known due to the honour of Lorna having a song lyric written specially for her by none other than Johnny Mercer to accompany Mort Lindsey’s theme tune.

 

Back in the portable dressing room Judy changes for ‘A Couple of Swells’ and quips that they couldn’t find Fred Astaire as she thinks “he’s busy choreographing Bonanza!” This routine is yet another example of Judy clearly remembering dance steps from her MGM film career and provides evidence of her photographic memory.

 

The band plays ‘Over the Rainbow’ outro music, and after Lindsey assists Judy in removing the blacking from her tooth she sings ‘America the Beautiful’ for the encore and finishes with a standing ovation.

The wonderful thing about Show 20 is that it does not simply lift material from her concert tours. Instead it presents a unique theatrical experience for a weekly television show. Thank heavens it has been preserved!

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

Judy looks spiffing in three costume changes including the tramp outfit…

 

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.