Girl Crazy is one of the most celebrated of all the Gershwin musicals. Since its debut on Broadway in 1930, the show has had several film and stage adaptations.

The original stage production opened on October 14, 1930, starring Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman in her Broadway debut. Merman introduced the song “I Got Rhythm,” stopping the show with every performance. Red Nichols’ pit band for the show is just as famous, including such future musical greats as Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and future MGM music arranger/associate producer (and Judy’s mentor) Roger Edens.

RKO Studios produced a film version in 1932, adapting the story to fit the talents of the comedy team (Bert) Wheeler and (Robert) Woolsey and retaining only “But Not For Me,” “Bidin’ My Time,” and “I Got Rhythm.” A new Gershwin song “You’ve Got What Gets Me” was included, and is included (along with several tracks from the 1943 version) on the 1997 2-CD set “George & Ira Gershwin In Hollywood.”

This 1943 version is by far the best of the film versions, and in my opinion, it’s the best of the Mickey/Judy “Let’s Put On A Show” musicals. It’s also the last. Mickey and Judy would not appear together on film again until Judy’s short guest spot 1948’s Words And Music performing a duet of “I Wish I Were In Love Again.”

Girl Crazy is a bit notorious in the “Garland Legend.” It’s on the set of this film that Judy’s health issues from overwork and medications began to cause real, and public, problems. This is famously portrayed in the 2001 ABC-TV miniseries “Life With Judy Garland.” The miniseries shows Judy gobbling pills to keep her going under the harassing (to say the least) direction of Busby Berkeley while shooting the “I Got Rhythm” number. Judy (expertly portrayed by Tammy Blanchard) collapses and passes out.

Berkeley did, in fact, wear everyone to a frazzle when filming “I Got Rhythm” while taking the film $60,000 over budget! It was the first sequence to be filmed, and as musical arranger Roger Edens later stated “We disagreed about the number’s presentation. I wanted it rhythmic and simply stage, but Berkeley got his big ensembles and trick cameras into it again, plus a lot of girls in Western outfits with fringe skirts and people cracking whips, firing guns and cannons going off all over my arrangement and Judy’s voice. Well, we shouted at each other, and I said, ‘There isn’t room on the lot for both of us.'”

Hedda Hopper visited the set at one point and reported: “I saw [Berkeley] work her over. He watched from the floor with a wild gleam in his eye while take after take he drove her to the perfection he demanded. She was close to hysteria; I was ready to scream myself. But the order was repeated again and again: ‘Cut. Let’s try it again Judy. Come on, move! Get the lead out.'”

Berkeley was fired from the film, replaced by Norman Taurog with Charles Walters handling the musical numbers. On January 29, just a few days after Berkeley’s firing, Judy was confined to her bed and ordered by her family physician Marcus Rabwin to not dance for six to eight weeks. True to Garland form, she quickly got better and was back on the set in just a few weeks, at which time she did double duty on Girl Crazy and the new replacement finale for Presenting Lily Mars.

Even though Judy was better, she was still fragile. She would miss many more days due to illness. Location shooting in Palm Springs (including parts of the delightful “Could You Use Me?” number) was cursed by sand storms and equipment failures, as well as a brief absence by Judy when she rushed back to Los Angeles for a romantic tryst (presumably with Joe Mankiewicz).

In spite of all of these problems, the film turned out beautifully. Judy gives a wonderful performance as does Mickey. Her version of “But Not For Me” is one of the best numbers she ever did on film. To quote Clive Hirschhorn from his massive 1981 book “The Hollywood Musical”: “Gershwin never had it so good.”