AMERICAN MASTERS: JUDY GARLAND: BY MYSELF (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series that explores the lives and achievements of America's most celebrated native-born and adopted artists, performers, and creative talent. This program chronicles the career of singer/actress Judy Garland, much of which is told through her own words, as she recorded herself in a tape recorder, or through interviews, film clips and concert appearances.
Beginning with her birth in Grand Rapids, Minn., in 1922, Garland recalls that the first four years of her life were the happiest, before moving with her parents and two sisters to California as rumors of her father's gay liaisons got out of control. As Garland felt a special rapport with her father, his subsequent death left her feeling that "there was no one on my side." Her mother pushed Garland and her siblings into the show business spotlight as "The Gumm Sisters." Garland was singled out and signed to an MGM contract at age 12. After supporting roles, the studio decided to build a star vehicle around her, which became "The Wizard of Oz." Though the part gave her instant immortality on the screen, her subsequent popularity led to a personal, and ultimately professional, decline, followed by a series of comebacks and failures that continued until her death at age 47 from a drug overdose.
The production also highlights: the studio's insistence that Garland use pep pills and sleeping pills as a child performer to maintain a non-stop schedule; her ongoing battle with low self-esteem; an abortion forced by her mother and the studio after she eloped with orchestra leader David Rose; her stormy marriage and divorce from director Vincente Minnelli; being fired by MGM after suffering from exhaustion on the "Annie Get Your Gun" set; losing her finances after extensive electro-shock therapy and sanitarium stays; marriage -- and divorce -- with producer Sid Luft; the birth of children Liza, Lorna and Joey; the making of "A Star Is Born" and how its last-minute editing cuts destroyed her chance for a cinematic comeback; her subsequent one-woman concert triumphs at the London Palladium and New York City's Carnegie Hall; the production of CBS-TV's "The Judy Garland Show" and how its cancellation proved the setback from which she couldn't recover. Garland's longtime colleague, band leader Mort Lindsey, concludes by referring to her as "the greatest entertainer of the century."
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: February 25, 2004 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:55:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:87160
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries; Music
- SUBJECT HEADING: Actresses; Biography; Music, popular (songs, etc.); Singers
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1986-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- George Feltenstein … Executive Producer
- Roger Mayer … Executive Producer
- Susan Lacy … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Julie Sacks … Supervising Producer
- John Fricke … Producer
- Jennie Amias … Co-Producer
- Van Grunsven, Cheryl … Associate Producer
- Jessica Berman-Bogdan … Researcher
- Joan Cohen … Researcher
- Kathy Levitt … Researcher
- Stephen Stept … Writer
- Thomas Wagner … Theme Music by
- Harris Yulin … Narrator
- Isabel Keating … Voice, Judy Garland
- David Margulies … Voice, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Robert Sella … Voice, Vincente Minnelli
- George Morfogen … Voice, George Cukor
- Margaret Hall … Voice, Lillian Burns Sidney
- Cyrus Newitt … Voice, Bill Colleran
- Judy Garland
- Gumm Sisters
- Mort Lindsey
- Joey Luft
- Lorna Luft
- Sid Luft
- Liza Minnelli
- Vincente Minnelli
- David Rose