This page features a sampling of the many videos you can find over at The Judy Room’s YouTube Channel.
Rare color home movies from the late 1940s show Judy at home with her daughter Liza Minnelli, and her mother, Ethel Gumm.
May 23, 1968: Judy, along with daughter Lorna Luft and son Joe Luft, visited wounded servicemen at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts. Judy had just arrived in neighboring Boston and checked into a suite at the Sheraton Plaza. She was in Boston for her upcoming concert at the Bay Back Theater.
This rare footage features Judy visiting with patients and singing some of “Over the Rainbow.”
Thanks to Bobby for the video and audio fix.
I’M ALWAYS CHASING RAINBOWS – First time in stereo!
Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) follows her Dad’s (Charles Winninger) advice in song styling and almost ruins her audition. Luckily, Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) comes to the rescue. The ballad version is in true stereo!
Also seen are Paul Kelly, Jackie Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, and walking in toward the end of the song, the gorgeous Hedy Lamarr.
Check out The Judy Room’s Spotlight on Ziegfeld Girl here.
HOE DOWN – Alternate Take
Here is a previously unreleased partial alternate take of “Hoe Down” from Babes on Broadway (1941). The last section of the number as featured on this playback disc is different than what’s in the final film. It’s shorter, a different arrangement, and there are no vocals.
It’s great to have this early version of the number, but we can hear why it was changed.
Check out The Judy Room’s Filmography Page on Babes on Broadway here.
OLD MAN RIVER – Boston Common
Here is the previously unreleased complete “Old Man River” footage from Judy Garland’s famous concert at the Boston Common on August 31, 1967.
Well, almost complete. Whoever filmed this only got parts of some of the songs. Photos fill in those missing sections here. There are also a few jumps in the film, due to the manner in which it was filmed on a Super8 home movie camera. Regardless, it’s still thrilling and wonderful to see and hear Judy at one of her most famous concerts.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
HOLD THAT BULLDOG
In 1937 Judy became a weekly regular on the Jack Oakie radio show, “Jack Oakie’s College.” Her first appearance was on January 5, 1937, during which she sang two songs, “Hold That Bulldog” and “Pennies From Heaven.” “Hold That Bulldog” is notable as it’s the only known surviving recording of Judy singing the song which was prerecorded for, and cut from, her 1936 feature film debut Pigskin Parade. That prerecording remains lost but thanks to this previously unreleased radio performance we get an idea of how the song sounded in the film.
A HUGE “Thank You!” to collector John Newton for sharing these previously unreleased recordings.
Check out the “Judy Sings!” pages for more wonderful radio performances.
LOST TRACKS 2 1936-1967
When it came to live performances, no one has ever come close to the magical electric energy that was Judy Garland on stage. Even via the distancing and cold medium of television and film, she was (and still is) able to connect with audiences – on all levels of emotions.
The videos here represent a small sampling of some of the treasures to be found at The Judy Room’s YouTube Channel. The videos here and on the channel also provide viewers a glimpse of Judy performing during various stages of her career.
The “Judy Sings!” pages also feature videos of more Judy Garland performances as do some of the Filmography Pages. Enjoy!
OVER THE RAINBOW – March 5, 1944
Here’s a chance to see 21-year-old Judy Garland perform “Over the Rainbow” as she did dozens of times on the radio and in live appearances during the War Years. The “Command Performance” series were shows recorded on discs and shipped overseas for the servicemen to enjoy. This particular episode was filmed and sent overseas to give the men a chance to see as well as hear some of their favorite stars.
Other Command Performance shows can be found in audio format on the “Judy Sings! – On The Radio” page.
“SOME PEOPLE” – Rare Rehearsal Recording – Newly restored and uncorrupted.
A while back, a misguided person posted a corrupted version of this rare Judy Garland recording on YouTube with an obnoxious voice over added at the beginning and the end, even over Garland’s vocal (!) thereby ruining the listening experience. Why even post it? For “likes” and attention, I suppose.
Here is another version of this rare recording without that inane voiceover, so listeners can finally enjoy it – uncorrupted. This version has been remastered, giving it a more balanced and greatly improved sound quality.
On April 26, 1962, Judy Garland and Capitol Records engaged in a “live” recording session at New York City’s Manhattan Center, for the planned Capitol album “Judy Takes Broadway.” The album was planned as a follow-up to Judy’s 1961 record breaking double LP “Judy at Carnegie Hall.” Capitol invited fans and celebrities to make up the late-night audience (including Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Henry Fonda and Peter Sellers).
Unfortunately, Judy was suffering from laryngitis and although she soldiered on, she could not complete the “concert.” She wasn’t able to get to “Seventy-Six Trombones” and “Tonight.” Later that night, after the audience left, Judy completed “Why Can’t I?” and attempted “Do What You Do,” but halted it after singing just the verse. She was incredibly hoarse by this point (who wouldn’t be?) and her keen musical sense told her that she couldn’t go on.
Capitol decided that Judy should re-record some songs and/or overdub existing tracks in the studio. This never happened, and the surviving tracks from the show and post-show were not officially released until June 28, 1989 when some of them appeared on the Capitol CD “Judy Garland – Live!” To fill out the disc, Capitol added some tracks from their 1965 album of songs from Judy’s TV series titled “Just for Openers.” “Why Can’t I” was subsequently released on the 2002 compilation “Classic Judy Garland – The Capitol Years 1955 – 1965.”
This rehearsal version of “Some People” has never been released until now (uncorrupted, that is).
For more information about this and all of Judy Garland’s recordings, check out The Judy Garland Online Discography.
This is the previously unreleased extended version of the sequence from A Star Is Born, showcasing the original idea of showing “Vicki” (Judy) flub her lip-synching then starting over again. The original intent of the sequence was to show how a movie musical number was created. This was not featured in the film when released.
This video presents, for the first time ever, the newly discovered complete audio of “Lose That Long Face” featuring the original footage.
The “Lose That Long Face” musical number in A Star Is Born was originally filmed in March 1954 by uncredited director Jack Donohue. The film’s principal director, George Cukor, reshot the sequence in May 1954.  The intent was to show the filming of a typical movie musical number, with star “Vicki Lester” (Judy Garland) lip-synching to a studio playback record. Jazz singer Monette Moore provided a quick vocal in a section of the number that was deleted prior to the film’s premiere.
Although most the film footage of the 28 seconds of cut material survived, the audio was thought to be lost for over sixty years. Garland collector Rick Smith purchased an acetate playback disc of the song which turned out to be the original version with the missing 28 seconds.
Restored and remastered by John H. Haley in 2015, this rare acetate gives us a brand new, previously unheard, “extended cut” of “Lose That Long Face” featuring more of Ira Gershwin’s wonderful lyrics, as it was originally intended to be heard.
The original posting of this video was removed due to a copyright claim from Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. After some negotiation, the studio agreed to this re-posting of the newly restored, complete version of “Lose That Long Face.” I appreciate Warner’s consideration so the public can enjoy this great video.
This newly restored acetate is available on the new 2-CD set from JSP Records, “Judy Garland Sings Harold Arlen.”
THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY – Unused version
October 29, 1953: Filming on the second, and ultimately deleted, version of “The Man That Got Away” for A Star Is Born continued. This day was focused on medium and close-up shots. The original version shot on October 20 featured Judy in a pink blouse. For this second version, she was filmed in a brown dress designed by Mary Ann Nyberg. Judy arrived on set each of these three days at 10 a.m. she finished at 5:50 p.m. on October 27th; 4:45 on October 28th and 6:15 p.m. on October 29th. The final film version, with the dark blue dress, was filmed in late February 1954. A total of 27 takes were filmed over those three days. Each time the number was filmed in one long continuous take. According to assistant director Earl Bellamy, Judy would give her all, then rest for 15 minutes, then do it all over again. Every take was brilliant.
In 2015, a recording of Judy’s concert at the Falkoner Center in Copenhagen was released in what was then believed to be complete, having been sourced from an excellent-sounding radio station tape. The concert had been taped to be broadcast several days later.
Since the release of that CD set, amazingly, another tape of this same concert has surfaced, made by the concert hall itself. This second tape is unrelated to the broadcast and is in equally fine sound as that first tape. From this newly discovered hall tape, we know definitively that the first half of the evening was a performance by pop singer and Garland friend Johnnie Ray, with Garland appearing at the second half of the concert. We also now know that the radio station eliminated two duets, “Till The Clouds Roll By” and “Am I Blue,” in which Judy was joined by Ray, who also accompanied both himself and Garland at the piano. These duets occurred right after the number “Chicago” on the program, before Garland concluded the concert with “San Francisco” and “Over the Rainbow.” If there were any encores thereafter, they are undocumented and are not preserved on any known tape.
A 1993 CD release contains similar duets with Johnnie Ray, taken from other performances. “Am I Blue” on that set is identified as being from a rehearsal when in fact it was an impromptu performance by Garland and Ray at a piano with friends. “Till The Clouds Roll By” on that set is from the March 23, 1969, performance on the same tour in Malmö, Sweden.
A film was being made during the tour, some of which can be seen on YouTube. These video pieces present Garland and Ray performing “Till the Clouds Roll By” in concert in Malmö, despite some mislabeling as being from the Copenhagen concert.
The video of “Am I Blue” shows a piano bar setting (matching the audio noted on the previous screen) that is clearly not the Copenhagen performance. In these video clips, the soundtrack to both duets is exactly the same as what is heard on that 1993 Legend CD. They are completely different from the two tapes of the Copenhagen concert. In other words, the CD also mislabels the Malmö recordings as Copenhagen.
The Judy Room is thrilled to confirm that these duets as performed in Copenhagen have never been released before and are in fact genuine new Garland discoveries. They are well performed, with the first duet, “Till the Clouds Roll By,” having the character of something like a spontaneous jam session. “Am I Blue” is sung mostly by Garland, beautifully and unforgettably, as Ray requested of her before they started. Both duets are enhanced by Ray’s beautiful piano accompaniments. The entertaining banter with the audience and between the performers before each duet is also included in full, making us feel even more like members of that 1969 audience as we listen.
These excerpts are part of the very last public performance that Judy Garland gave on any stage. Listen and be held again in Judy Garland’s hand as she works her magic spell on the audience, and by extension, we lucky listeners many decades later.
CARNEGIE HALL 50TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE VIDEO
In 2011 I created this video tribute celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Judy at Carnegie Hall.”
This video celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Judy Garland’s once-in-a-lifetime concert “Judy at Carnegie Hall” – captured on album by Capitol Records and still considered the greatest night in show business history.
The album went on to win 5 Grammy’s and has never been out of print since its release in July, 1961. See the complete silent home movie footage here.
RESTORED AUDIO! Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli perform “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again” and Judy solos on “His Is The Only Music That Makes Me Dance.”
November 15, 1964: Judy Garland and daughter Liza Minnelli gave their second concert at London’s famed Palladium. The show was filmed by the British TV station ITV. Unfortunately, they only aired 55 minutes from the 130 minute concert. The only footage available is this poor transfer that’s been around for years.
Audio engineer John Haley has done a fantastic job of restoring the audio. Thanks John!
A LOST JUDY GARLAND MGM RECORDING? Well, sort of…
Not long after giving birth to daughter Liza Minnelli on March 12, 1946, Judy participated in a radio show memorial honoring the late composer Jerome Kern, broadcast “live” from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on July 20, 1946. “Live” is in quotations because a chunk of the broadcast was provided by MGM pre-recordings.
In February of 1946, the Hollywood Bowl Association approached MGM producer Arthur Freed to produce a Kern memorial concert for their summer season. Freed accepted. At the time of the request, the studio was finishing up production of their all-star biopic about Kern titled Till The Clouds Roll By. The film previewed on July 2, 1946, so the timing of the concert gave MGM some great promotion, even though the film didn’t go into general release until January 3, 1947.
Most of the guest stars who appear in the film also appear on the broadcast on July 20, 1946, recreating their numbers with Robert Walker narrating (Walker played Kern in the film). The concert was divided into three sections:
1) The California Junior Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Meremblum played a medley of Kern songs.
2) Johnny Green conducted the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with some of the stars from the film recreating their numbers (including Judy singing “Look For The Silver Lining” and “Who?”) followed by Green and the orchestra performing the “Mark Twain Suite” (a Kern eulogy written by Freed himself).
3) The extensive “Finale Medley” from the film. This is the section of the broadcast that MGM cleverly used their orchestra-only pre-recordings for the stars to sing with.
Twenty minutes after the concert had started, word came that Lena Horne would not be able to appear. Since they were using the MGM pre-recordings for the finale section, which included Lena’s “Why Was I Born?” solo, her section couldn’t be cut at such short notice. At intermission, MGM’s musical director Roger Edens went to Judy’s dressing room and persuaded her to step in for Lena. They quickly rehearsed the song at a “small, broken down piano” in a “passageway leading to the dressing rooms backstage.” Judy came through with a beautiful performance.
Because of this last minute change, and the fact that the broadcast was recorded, we’re treated to a unique MGM recording of Judy Garland singing “Why Was I Born?” Yes, an MGM recording. It’s Judy singing with the studio pre-recording of the MGM Studio Orchestra. That’s not as crazy as it sounds. MGM pre-recorded their music in a multi-track system on separate audio optical tracks, a process dating back at the studio to about 1931. This was done to create perfect takes and a balanced mono track for the films. Many of the recordings your hear in their films are culled together from multiple vocal and orchestra takes.
The only public release of this performance was on a 1970s record “The Judy Garland Musical Scrapbook” without any explanation of its history. Over the years, collectors have wondered if this was a rare, unreleased and possibly undocumented pre-recording that Judy made for the studio. Maybe she was even slated to sing it in the film?
As nice as it would be to think that this is a rare test record Judy made at the studio, it’s not. Judy completed her work on Clouds on November 7, 1945. Already pregnant with Liza, Judy was off work for the rest of her pregnancy and shortly thereafter. In fact, this broadcast is one of Judy’s first public appearances after Liza’s birth. Lena recorded her numbers for the film in January, March, and April of 1946. It makes no sense for MGM to call Judy in to record a vocal to marry to the orchestra track of a Lena recording from March 22, 1946. Besides, Judy was never slated to sing it in the film. It was always planned as Lena’s solo in the film’s “Finale Medley” section.
In the end, thanks to this concert being recorded we have this “lost” Judy Garland MGM recording.
Information for this was provided by Hugh Fordin’s book “The World of Entertainment! Hollywood’s Greatest Musicals” and Scott Schechter’s book “Judy Garland – The day-by-day Chronicle of a Legend.”
Check out The Judy Room’s spotlight on Till The Clouds Roll By here.
THE WIZARD OF OZ – CYCLONE IN STEREO
“GARLANDS FOR JUDY” SPECIAL ISSUE – THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WIZARD OF OZ
“WHO?” – MGM RECORDS VERSION
Speaking of Till The Clouds Roll By, here is the MGM Records version of “Who?”
This MGM Records version was the only version available for decades and it is quite different than what’s in the film.
I’ve married the film to the corresponding parts of the MGM Records version. Explanatory text fills out the rest
“SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT” – COMPLETE VERSION
Judy Garland recorded “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” for the film Everybody Sing on October 24, 1937. NOTE: That date is incorrect. According to the surviving MGM Daily Music Report for this song, it was actually recorded on November 8, 1937. In the film, co-stars Allan Jones and Henry Armetta talk over part of Judy’s performance of the song. That’s great for the plot, but not so great for soundtrack collectors. The surviving pre-recording has never been released but here, finally, for everyone to enjoy, is “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” without that dialog.
This version is a combination of the film soundtrack and a rare MGM promotional disc that was sent by the studio to radio stations as part of the film’s promotional campaign.
Thanks to John Haley’s new remastering of the recording, we’re now able to appreciate this vocal by 15-year-old Judy Garland for what it is: A charmer – and sounding better than ever!
MERRY CHRISTMAS – COMPLETE MGM RECORDS VERSION
Here is the complete MGM Records version of “Merry Christmas” as introduced by Judy Garland in the 1949 film In The Good Old Summertime.
In the film, Judy sings an abridged version of the song. The song wasn’t included in the 1949 MGM Records soundtrack album. Instead, it finally showed up in its complete form on the 1952 MGM Records compilation album titled, naturally, “Merry Christmas.”
JUDY AT THE SAHARA – 1962
When Judy Garland appeared at the Sahara in Las Vegas in 1962, she gave an interview backstage and chatted about daughter Liza Minnelli.
Judy’s was in concert at the Sahara from September 18, 1962, to October 29, 1962. She was paid $40,000 per week. Showtime was 2:30 a.m.! Even at that hour, she packed the house.
On opening night, Capitol Records presided Glenn Wallichs presented Judy with a Gold Record for her 2-LP set “Judy at Carnegie Hall.” However, he had to wait after the two-minute-and-eighteen-second standing ovation to be over before making the presentation.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
JUDY AND MICKEY VISIT THE NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR – August 1939
While in New York performing at the Loew’s State theater inbetween showings of The Wizard of Oz, Judy and Mickey take a break to check out the World’s Fair. New York’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia welcomes the teens.
I added the color footage at the end from family home movies taken of the fair in 1939. The footage gives a glimpse of just how lovely the fair was, and also how better dressed people were when they went out in those days!
“THE TONIGHT SHOW” – December 17, 1968
Here is the complete video of Judy’s final appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. Judy sings “It’s All For You” and “Till After The Holidays.”
JUDY GARLAND SINGS HAROLD ARLEN
This is still one of my all-time favorite CD sets. “Judy Garland Sings Harold Arlen.” Arlen was Judy’s favorite composer and with good reason. He wrote the music for the immortal “Over the Rainbow” as well as many other Garland classics including the original score of A Star Is Born.
This set is a must-have for every Garland music collection!
October 15, 1965: Judy appeared on the ABC-TV variety show “The Hollywood Palace.” She was the “guest hostess” for the show, and sang: “Just Once In A Lifetime”; “West Side Story Medley” with Vic Damone; “A Couple of Swells”; “I Loved Him”; and “The Palace Medley.” The show was broadcast on November 13, 1965..
Here’s a treat! Brilliant restorations and remasterings of the 1967 ABC Records release “Judy Garland – At Home At The Palace – Opening Night” – from the ABC reel-to-reel, by John Haley.
Find out more about this release at The Judy Garland Online Discography’s “Judy at the Palace” pages.
Check out The Judy Room’s “Judy Garland – The Concert Years” here.
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