Judy, Judy, Beauty

  Strolling through the campus rose garden after Latin class this week, I came upon a particular placard that denoted a gorgeous crop of classic film flowers. These beautiful yellow-and-orange hybrid roses are named in honor of Miss Judy Garland, the sparkliest star of the MGM constellation in the 1930's and 40's.

  The idea for the Garland flower was developed and implemented by longtime Judy fan Pat Losiewicz in 1970, the year after Garland's death, but it took nearly a decade for the horticultural homage to become a reality. Frustrated with a lack of response from American rosegrowers, Losiewicz transferred the project to the President of the Great Britain Judy Garland Fan Club, Gwen Potter, who selected the rose from a collection of unnamed hybrids in 1978; the flower was finally available for sale in the United States in 1991.

  The flowers are planted near Judy's gravesite in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York, as well as at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand, Rapids, MN, the result of another effort spearheaded by superfan Losiewicz.





The Judy Garland Rose is available for purchase via Heirloom Roses. Please note that clicking this link will take you to an external site.

Mickey the Great

  At an astonishing span of 81 years, his is the longest film career of all time. He was, as a very young man, the biggest star in the world. He's worked with Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, and every ingenue in between, and he is, let's face it, the closest I will ever get to the aura of Ava Gardner, unless I somehow come up with the cash to buy those earrings she gave Lana Turner off of eBay. And thus, mulling over such weighty attributes, I argued myself into seeing Mickey Rooney in person.

  He's aged a bit, yes, but impish Andy Hardy is still intact. Touting 2008 as his 85th year in show business - he made his stage debut in a vaudeville act at just 17 months - Rooney, his humor, and his 8th wife, Jan, have melded songs, jokes, and affectionate husband-and-wife shtick into a thoroughly enjoyable and genuinely funny two hours of entertainment, Let's Put On A Show!, which is currently touring the United States.

  Physically unimposing though he appeared onstage, Rooney, 87, is still an Old Hollywood legend, the extent to which can really only be felt acutely in his presence. That is to say, he doesn't look the part of a star so much as he speaks it - the stories he tells, the fond memories of dear friends like Judy Garland and Ava Gardner, the latter whom Rooney shared a brief marriage with - even the songs he sings, or rather talks, are remnants of his long-buried stint as a superstar. But Rooney's talent for balancing out snippets of self-deprecation with honest accolades to his own success allow for such sugar-coated sentimentality: if Mickey Rooney can't reminisce about the glory days at MGM, then who can?!

  I was hoping for at least a tiny bit of interaction with Mickey when the show was over, but it proved to be a futile hope, as the program ran beyond its anticipated end time, and the lobby was nearly empty when I finally reached it. But I can't take a shred of disappointment from such a night, and I have consolation in the fact that he couldn't have missed seeing me out in that audience: I was the girl in the seventh row with stars in her eyes.


Visit Mickey Rooney's official website to see when he'll be in your area.

Merry Christmas, Movie House!

December proved to be a hectic month that slid into a relatively relaxed holiday with friends, family, and fattening food, and I hope you've experienced the same happy Christmas season that I have. Even though Santa didn't bring me the laptop I wrote him for - the same one that would allow me to post every single day instead of twice a month, computer-less as I am - I'm confident I will have one before the new year. Until then I'll have to muddle through somehow (sounds so much better coming from Judy, I know).

And until then, you can revel in the vintage voice of Miss Judy Garland in this classic scene from 1944's Meet Me In St. Louis.



Merry Christmas to all, and to all a reminder that there's a TCM Debbie Reynolds mini-marathon on Christmas Day!

Photo of the Week

Judy Garland
June 10, 1922 - June 22, 1969

Were she alive, Judy would've celebrated her eighty-fifth birthday today. That girl - that voice - she's sorely missed.

Source

Quote of the Week

"As for my feelings toward 'Over the Rainbow,' it's become part of my life. It is so symbolic of all my dreams and wishes that I'm sure that's why people sometimes get tears in their eyes when they hear it."

- Judy Garland, on the song she made legendary in 1939's Wizard of Oz

It Hasn't Lost Its Glitter

Judy Garland is a star. She's a beautiful child-talent-cum-teenage-sensation who, despite struggles with the studio and several debilitating health issues, went on to achieve unanimous acclaim as a vocalist throughout the 1950's and '60's. Her presence in movies like Meet Me In Saint Louis and The Wizard of Oz is simply unforgettable; her concert performances are the stuff of legends. Yes, our girl Judy is a star: enduring, glittering, luminous.

What a surprise, then, that prior to screening 1954's A Star Is Born this weekend, Dame Judy's star status had somehow slipped my mind. At nearly three hours long, the newly-restored director's version tells the tale (or re-tells, if you've seen the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March) of a faded alcoholic movie star (Mason) and his relationship, both professional and personal, with aspiring singer Esther Blodgett (Garland, in a role that was tailor-made for her sensational stage presence). The storyline is compelling enough - to watch the pair's careers struggle valiantly to synchronize in success and remain buoyant in defeat is sadly captivating, and the movie is perfectly punctuated with staggeringly spectacular musical numbers, both dazzling, upbeat songs and hauntingly melancholy ballads (Garland's The Man That Got Away is a landmark moment in the history of the musical - quite possibly the most impressive and memorable song ever filmed).

We here at Hillary's Classic Cinema salute you, Miss Frances Gumm - it was a long and troubled road from Minnesotan plains to the skies of Hollywood legends, dotted with stars - but you made it most gracefully, leaving behind a bright, beaming legacy that still lights our world today.

Judy Garland would have celebrated her 84th birthday today, June 10, 2006.

Juday Juday Juday

Okay, so Cary Grant never actually said the divine Miss Garland's name like that - at least not to his recollection - but I'll say it with equal fervor when praising the incredible PBS documentary on the sad songbird's life, the aptly titled Judy Garland: By Myself. TCM aired the in-depth look at her tumultuous private and public lives earlier this week, chronicling her immersion in show business at a precociously young age, her unprecedented popularity as a teenager in Hollywood, through her serious studio issues and several marriages on through her live shows in the 1960s. It is narrated with excerpts from Judy's own personal writings, which are seamlessly woven into voiceovers from famous contemporaries like Ann Miller, daughters Liza Minelli and Lorna Luft, and Judy's ex-husband Sid Luft; the result is a beautiful and multi-faceted look at a legend in a most humanizing and honest light. The film clips of Judy's legendary concert performances of the 1960's alone are worth the watch, but I found the entire two-hour piece captivating. It isn't completely comprehensive, but it is a deeply personal piece and a highly-recommended portrait of Judy Garland, be you new fan or long-time fanatic.

You can find more upcoming portraits of your favorite performers in the PBS American Masters series, or search for them in Turner Classic Movies' extensive database.