January 2, 1960: Judy was still convalescing from her bout with hepatitis when she signed a contract with Random House, to write her autobiography. Titled “The Judy Garland Story,” the book was to be a collaboration with Fred Finklehoffe. Finklehoffe had written the screenplays for some of Judy’s greatest films including Babes on Broadway, For Me And My Gal, Girl Crazy, and Meet Me In St. Louis. Judy was paid an advance of $35,000, and she and Finklehoffe recorded their sessions on audiotape some of which have survived, listen to some of those recordings here.
On September 26, 1960, Bennett Cerf of Random House wrote a letter printed in the fan publication “Garland Gazette” that said Random House had “not yet seen one line of [the] manuscript of the Judy Garland autobiography. I have been assured that we will have half of the manuscript within a month’s time.”
A partial manuscript was eventually produced, totaling 65 pages, and it contains frank observations and startling revelations, including the following: Judy knew she was an “unwanted” (unplanned) baby, and she received a great amount of psychological abuse from her mother and the man who became her stepfather who had taunted and laughed at Judy together, with Ethel (Judy’s mom) at one point telling Judy that she had been born with a defective brain. Although Judy admitted that she loved Ethel and that “she was always doing things . . . which made me love her so much, but at the same time I was afraid of her. At any time, in the middle of a great kindness or loud laughter, she was capable of saying something or doing something that would scare me to death.” Judy also talked candidly about her attempts to rid herself of the medications she was on; the men at the studio who made advances on her; and most astonishingly, about the abortion she had when she was twenty. However, the book would not continue after a certain stage, as Judy felt too good and happy to look back.
On January 5, 1960, Judy was released from the Doctor’s Hospital (see photo) in New York City and immediately returned home to California. Lucky for Judy (and her fans), she rallied and fully recovered. During this time she was also nearly free of all medications aside for a prescribed dose of Ritalin.
Judy rested with her only work being her recording the song “The Faraway Part of Town” for the movie Pepe (her first film work since 1954’s A Star Is Born) in April 1960. On June 8, 1960, Judy was back at the Capitol Records studios in Hollywood recording the album “That’s Entertainment!” This was Judy’s first major work since her bout with hepatitis and she’s in glorious voice.
On July 10, 1960, Judy attended, along with Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Tony Martin, George Jessel, and other celebrities, the Democratic fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The fundraiser was for her friend, John F. Kennedy, who would soon become President. Some film footage exists, see the video below.
Judy traveled to England on July 14, 1960, then on August 3, she had the first of five sessions for Capitol (EMI in England) at their London studios. The recordings made between August 3, 1960, and August 8, 1960, were intended to be released as a two-LP set featuring new stereo studio recordings of many of her concert songs and other Garland standards. Those recordings became known as “The London Sessions.”
Most of the recordings stayed in the vaults due to “Judy at Carnegie Hall” being such a huge success in 1961. The label didn’t think an album that contained most of the same songs (although they were studio versions and not live) would not sell well or it might impede the sales of the Carnegie album.
Six tracks from these sessions appeared without explanation on the 1962 album, “The Garland Touch.” All of the recordings were released in 1972 on a special set released by the Capitol Record Club to members only, titled “Judy in London” which was re-released in 1980 on a Capitol Records “Special Markets” release.
In 1991, they were remastered and released to the general public all together for the first time as part of the CD boxed set “The One And Only” followed by a single CD release in 1992 simply titled “The London Sessions.” They have since been remastered again and released in 2011 on the 2-CD set “The London Studio Recordings 1957-1964.”