ABOUT THE DISC & RECORDINGS:

On June 29, 1939, Judy took a break from filming Babes In Arms to appear on this special broadcast of the "Maxwell House Good News" radio show. Judy had reported to work at MGM at sometime prior to her call for 1pm, most likely 11am or noon. Judy left the studio to perform on this radio show between 4 - 6pm, then went back to MGM to continue filming Babes In Arms until approximately 10pm. Quite the busy day!

For this special "preview" of The Wizard Of Oz, which wasn't due in theaters for several weeks, NBC Radio and MGM tapped Judy, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Oz composer Harold Arlen & lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg to join the "Good News" regular cast of Meredith Willson, Robert Young, Fanny Brice, "Daddy" Hanley Stafford, and The Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan. As an added bonus, the cast is joined by the original Scarecrow Fred Stone, who played the role to great success on the stage in 1903. Willson would go on to further fame as the composer/lyricist of the Broadway and film hit The Music Man. Brice had recently appeared with Judy in Everybody Sing, performing their cute duet "Why? Because!" together - Fanny as her famous character Baby Snooks and Judy as Little Lord Flauntleroy.

This broadcast is special in that it's the first public performance of "Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland, with none other than the song's composer Harold Arlen at the piano. Judy even flubs a lyric!

The entire cast shines, but Bert Lahr almost steals the show with his performance of "If I Were King Of The Forest", which is the only time Lahr performed the complete version of the song (it was edited prior to the film's release) outside of the MGM sound stages.

All in all, this is a great CD and a great opportunity to take a trip back in time and experience how films were sometimes promoted over the radio.

This show was originally released on LP by Jass Records in 1986, as JASS 17, with the same cover art, and on cassette (again with the same cover art), #J17C.

As an added bonus, this CD includes the complete "Leo Is On The Air" "Air Trailer" made by MGM in the summer of 1939. These Air Trailers were extended promos for films that MGM would put on 12" LPs and send out to radio stations, free of charge, to air between broadcasts. CLICK HERE to see some examples of these records. What makes these "Air Trailers" so special is that they usually included tracks from the prerecording sessions for the film. In the case of the Oz Air Trailer, it includes a then-rare alternate take of Judy singing "Over The Rainbow", from the MGM prerecording sessions. This alternate take would not be officially released until 1993 when MGM/UA home video released "The Ultimate Oz" on laser disc, and then on CD in 1995 when Rhino Records released it's deluxe 2-CD set of the soundtrack to the film.
This CD was re-released in 1996 coupled with the 1993 CD "All The Things You Are".

All images on this page from the collection of Scott Brogan.

Photo above right: Rehearsing the "Good News" broadcast. Standing left to right: Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, MGM Executive LK. Sidney, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, Meredith Willson and publisher Harry Link. Sitting: Judy Garland and Harold Arlen.

Cassette

TRACK LISTING

Judy Garland tracks in blue.