"It's a most unusual day
Feel like throwing my worries away
As an old native-born Californian would say
It's a most unusual day"
-From the 1948 film "A Date With Judy" starring Wallace Beery, Jane Powell,
Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Miranda, Robert Stack , and Xavier Cugat
Happy Saturday!
Finally they got it right in the legislature!
Be healthy, be happy, long life (L'Chaim)
I hope this finds you well! Here in NY, It is A MOST UNUSUAL Day! Last night in a major victory for ALL people, Marriage EQUALITY passed! I say for ALL people because it does affect all people.
I know that conservatives and right wingers and staunch religious fanatics feel that it is wrong. If two people love each other and want to COMMIT to each other, WHY is that wrong? I don't blame those that oppose. They are only acting on THEIR belief system and what they have been brought up to believe.
I go through life with a laissez-faire attitude. (The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone.").
I am truly focused on what I NEED TO DO! I could care less what others do as long as it does not involve animals and/or children and as long as it doesn't oppress another human being. Wouldn't it be a better world if we all tried to build each other rather than constantly tearing each other down?
What is it in our nature that constantly wants to be mean and sarcastic and bitchy?
Let us take this victory and this Pride weekend to build each other up and celebrate equality and LOVE for all!
Tomorrow is a celebration in NY, I encourage ALL of you instead of standing on the sidelines to actually get in the race.
March PROUDLY for WHATEVER you belive in...as long as it's positive!
My blog today is a celebration of LOVE! I was brought up to believe that it was not okay to know you're good. In whatever it is/was you were doing. I was never encouraged to pursue my goals and/or to go after my dreams. Imagine if none of us dared to dream! I was not safe to love myself.
Today's headline in The NY Post reads: New York legalizes same-sex marriage as cheers ring out in city
Everyone is not going to agree with this decision. Resist the temptation to tackle a difficult issue in an aggressive manner. It may feel the most natural thing to do but it won't get you anywhere worth going. Hold your breath and count to ten. It will pass.
Senators said "I do" to gay marriage last night in a narrow 33-29 vote -- making New York the sixth and largest state to allow same-sex couples to wed.
The groundbreaking vote set off a roar of approval from supporters in the Senate gallery -- and a massive street party around the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, the birthplace of the gay rights movement.
"I can't believe this is happening -- no words can say how I feel right now," said an elated Eugene Lovendusky, 26, a Queens teacher who joined nearly 600 champagne-swilling, rainbow flag-waving celebrants in the streets around the bar.
(Photo from NY POST)
What inspires you? Do you immerse yourself in that which inspires you or do you focus instead on that which stalls you?
Good morning everyone! Happy HAPPY PRIDE!!!!!!!
xoxoxoxo-Richard
I found this in a blog this morning, "Even though your bible clearly says it's wrong to eat shellfish, Mom, I support your right to follow your heart. I know you love to eat shellfish. I remember watching you scooping out those poor little oysters, smothering them with sauce, sticking them on crackers and moaning in ecstacy. Not my thing, to be honest. As a vegetarian, I found it a little gross. But hey, I'm very open-minded. Live and let live, I say. Do what you want, as long as you're not hurting anyone. I love you and I want you to be happy. Something tells me God loves you and wants you to be happy, too. My religion is love."
I own nothing, no copyright infringement on anything included in this blog intended.
Thanks for being a loyal reader of my blog!
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Tomorrow's blog will be about The Ziegfeld Society...I'm open to suggestions!
Please contribute to the DR. CAROL CHANNING & HARRY KULLIJIAN FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS: http://www.carolchanning.org/foundation.htm
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED SUMMER!
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
-Ambrose Bierce, American author (born this date in 1842, disappeared in 1914
Happy Friday!
Well, we've made it through another week!
One of my favorite people is celebrating a birthday today! The ageless Michele Lee! I have a confession to make: I have a crush on Michele Lee! I always have. Today I honor her and another one of my favorite entertainers in this blog.
Although she is most notably known as the face of Knots Landing’s Karen Mackenzie, where she starred along side Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark, her expertise spreads far and wide in the field of television as a singer, dancer, actress, producer and director.
on the 1980s prime-time soap opera, Knots Landing.
She also co-starred with Dean Jones in the 1968 Disney film, The Love Bug.
Lee was born Michelle Lee Dusick in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Sylvia Helen (née Silverstein) and Jack Dusick, a make-up artist.
She is of Russian and Polish descent.
Lee began her career on television in an episode of the late 1950s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
She attended Alexander Hamilton High School where she became popular with her class. She in turn also attended the same high school as did Joel Siegel, Al Michaels and Michelle Phillips (who would later co-star with her in Knots Landing) did. When she was 18, after graduation from high school, she auditioned for the Broadway play Vintage '60. She soon began appearing in musicals, becoming a star on Broadway at the age of 19 in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in the role of "Rosemary", opposite Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee, a role she reprised in the film version.
She also appeared in more plays, such as the Los Angeles production of Jerry Herman's Parade and the Broadway productions of Bravo Giovanni and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife.
After she sang and starred in the film version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, she became known for her roles in the films The Comic and The Love Bug, the latter becoming the biggest blockbuster movie of 1969. That same year, she starred in a special television production of the Jerome Kern–Otto Harbach musical, Roberta, in which she sang "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". After the birth of her son, she worked infrequently until accepting a role on Broadway in Seesaw, which netted her a Tony Award nomination in 1974. After her mother's death, she stopped working, wanting to spend time with her only son.
In 1974, Lee starred in the pilot episode for proposed CBS sitcom The Michele Lee Show.
She would play Michele Burton, a clerk in a hotel newsstand, with support from Stephen Collins.
Only the pilot episode was aired and the series did not eventuate.
Lee became a busy guest actor in the 1970s, appearing in Marcus Welby, M.D.,
Alias Smith and Jones, Night Gallery, Love, American Style, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat.
She also made numerous appearances on many game shows of the 1970s, including: Hollywood Squares* (see below), Match Game, Celebrity Sweepstakes, This Is Your Life, The Movie Game, The $25,000 Pyramid, What's My Line, The Gong Show, Snap Judgment. She appeared on a pilot of a 1970s game show Cop-Out that was never aired.
In 1979 (the year I moved to NY), Lee accepted the role of Karen Fairgate on Knots Landing, a spin-off of the immensely popular Dallas.
Though slow to start, the series eventually became a ratings hit and became one of the longest running primetime dramas ever, lasting for a total of 14 seasons from 1979 - 1993. Lee was the only performer to appear in all of the show's 344 episodes, which was a record for an actress playing the same character on US primetime television — only recently surpassed by S. Epatha Merkerson on NBC's Law & Order as of 2008.
Although Lee was enjoying great success, her marriage to actor James Farentino was failing. She and Farentino separated around the same time Lee's onscreen husband, Don Murray, left the show. Lee thus played a single mother on Knots Landing at the same time she was becoming one in real life. Lee revealed that when her character took off her wedding ring in a 1982 episode, she was taking off her real wedding band.
During the fall of 1982, her character met M. Patrick "Mack" MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson), who became her screen husband the following year. They would continue working together until the end of the series. As one of the series' leads, Lee became very popular with fans, winning the Soap Opera Digest Award for Lead Actress five times, and being nominated for an Emmy Award in 1982 for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series". In 1983, the writers/producers of Knots Landing urged her to do a storyline based on prescription drug dependency which became one of her most prominent storylines. Six years later, Lee directed her first of several episodes of the series. One of her co-stars Joan Van Ark was praised of her series' lead's directing skills.
In 1991, Knots Landing reached a milestone with its 300th episode. During the same season, Lee filmed her favorite scene from the series, known as the "Pollyanna Speech" among fans. In this scene, for which Lee had much input, Karen explains how she would like to be a Pollyanna and see the world through rose-colored glasses, but cannot be due to the real world around her.
As Knots Landing moved into the 1990s, its popularity began to wane. The big budget that the series once had was trimmed and in the final season, the higher paid cast members were asked to appear in only 15 of the season's 19 episodes, as the budget constraints had become so that the production company couldn't afford to pay them. However, Lee insisted on appearing in all 19 episodes that season, doing her extra four episodes for "union scale" pay.
Since Knots Landing ended in 1993, Lee has appeared in many made-for-TV movies, including a biopic of late country star Dottie West ( Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story) and she became the first woman to star in, direct, and produce a TV movie for Lifetime, Color Me Perfect in 1996. She also starred in the reunion mini-series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac in 1997, and portrayed Hollywood novelist Jacqueline Susann in the television biopic Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story in 1998. In 2004, she returned to feature films in the role of Ben Stiller's mother in Along Came Polly. She guest-starred alongside Chita Rivera in a February 2005 episode of Will & Grace. Also in 2005, she reunited with her Knots Landing co-stars for the special Knots Landing: Together Again, in which the stars reminisced about their time on the hit series. She also appeared alongside Tyne Daly, Leslie Uggams, Christine Baranski and Karen Ziemba for the Kennedy Center Honor of Julie Harris (2005)
In 1963, Lee met actor James Farentino on the set of the play, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and in 1964 they were married. Their son, David Farentino, was born July 6, 1969. Lee and Farentino divorced in 1983. She married Fred Rappaport in 1987.
Lee and her son David have since relocated to New York.
Emmy Awards:
(Nominated) (1982) Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Knots Landing
Tony Awards:
(Nominated) (1974) Best Actress: Musical for Seesaw
(Nominated) (2001) Best Actress (Featured Role: Play) for The Tale of the Allergists Wife
Soap Opera Digest Awards:
(Won) (1986) Outstanding Actress on a Primetime Serial for Knots Landing
(Won) (1986) Favorite Supercouple on a Primetime Serial: Shared with Kevin Dobson for Knots Landing
(Won) (1988) Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role: Primetime for Knots Landing
(Won) (1988) Favorite Supercouple: Primetime Shared with Kevin Dobson for Knots Landing
(Won) (1991) Outstanding Lead Actress: Primetime for Knots Landing
(Won) (1992) Outstanding Actress: Primetime for Knots Landing
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 19, 1998 located at 6363 Hollywood Blvd.
(SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA)
Love you, Michele!
Several months ago, I saw my friend Richard Holbrook do his incredible tribute to Burton Lane called Richard Sings Burton. It was a dream come true for Richard to appear at The Metropolitan Room!
Well, he continues to soar! He has been asked to appear at Feinstein's for one night only.
Richard Holbrook: Richard Sings Burton - The Songs of Burton Lane will be presented at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency (540 Park Avenue @ 61st Street New York, NY 10021) on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 8:00 P.M.
This musical tribute covers Burton Lane's career as a composer beginning with his success at M-G-M as a motion picture songwriter of over thirty films leading up to his great triumph on Broadway with Finian's Rainbow and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever. The musical selections included in this show are songs written by Burton Lane with celebrated lyricists as Ira Gershwin,(pictured)
Frank Loesser, Harold Adamson, Ralph Freed, and of course, Alan Jay Lerner and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg.
Richard will be accompanied by the fabulous Tom Nelson Trio.
Tom Nelson is Richard's musical director and pianist.
Richard Barclay, an Academy Award-winning documentary film maker, as well as a veteran Broadway and cabaret performer, will direct the show.
The Music/ Cover Charge is $30.00 for premium seating or $25.00 for general admission with a $25.00 Food/Drink minimum.
Make a reservation for Richard's show at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, the number to call for reservations is (212) 339-4095.
Needless to say, I am very excited, thrilled, and ecstatic that Richard is singing at this wonderful venue. It has been a dream of his to perform there and the dream has come true. So, I hope you will join Richard on June 29th for his debut at Feinstein's.
I own nothing, no copyright infringement on anything included in this blog intended.
Thanks for being a loyal reader of my blog!
GO SEE A LIVE SHOW TONIGHT!
Become A Facebook friend of mine!
Follow me on Twitter
If you've seen one of my appearances/shows, add your thoughts to my guestbook at www.RichardSkipper.com
Tomorrow's blog will be you tell me...I'm open to suggestions!
Please contribute to the DR. CAROL CHANNING & HARRY KULLIJIAN FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS: http://www.carolchanning.org/foundation.htm
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED SUMMER!
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
"Remember my friend, a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others."
-Frank Morgan as The Wizard to Jack Hayley as The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Happy Thursday!
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900,
it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of both the 1902 stage play and the 1939 film version. The story chronicles the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Thanks in part to the 1939 MGM movie, it is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial success, and the success of the popular 1902 Broadway musical Baum adapted from his story, led to Baum's writing thirteen more Oz books. The original book has been in the public domain in the US since 1956.
The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, commonly shortened to The Land of Oz,published on July 5, 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum's books set in the Land of Oz, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This and the next thirty-four Oz books of the famous forty were illustrated by John R. Neill.
The book was made into an episode of The Shirley Temple Show in 1960, and into a Canadian animated feature film of the same name in 1987. It was also adapted in comic book form by Marvel Comics,
with the first issue being released in November 2009. Plot elements from The Marvelous Land of Oz are included in the 1985 Disney feature film Return to Oz.
(Here I am with Meinhardt Raabe, the coroner of Oz!) Set shortly after the events in the first book, the protagonist is a boy named Tip, who for as long as he can remember has been under the guardianship of a witch named Mombi in Gillikin Country. As Mombi is returning home, Tip plans to frighten her with a scarecrow he has made. Since he has no straw available, Tip instead makes a man out of wood and gives him a pumpkin for a head, naming him Jack Pumpkinhead. Mombi is not fooled, and she takes this opportunity to demonstrate the Powder of Life that she bought from another sorcerer. She sprinkles the powder on Jack, bringing him to life and startling Tip, whom Mombi catches and threatens with revenge.
Song from Filmation's "Journey Back to Oz" (1973), starring Liza Minnelli as Dorothy Gale and Paul Lynde as Pumpkinhead.
Dorothy tells Pumpkinhead not to fear about old Witch Mombi's menaces, and they follow the Yellow Brick Road to get to the Emerald City.
The movie is available on DVD.
Tip leaves with Jack that night and steals the Powder of Life because Mombi plans to turn him into a marble statue in the morning. As they head for the Emerald City, Tip uses the Powder to animate the Sawhorse so Jack can ride him – for even though his wooden body does not tire, it can get worn away from all of the walking. Tip loses them as the tireless Sawhorse gallops faster and he meets with General Jinjur's all-girl Army of Revolt which is planning to overthrow the Scarecrow, who has ruled the Emerald City since the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Marching with the Army, Tip meets again with Jack, the Sawhorse, and now the Scarecrow as they flee the Emerald City in Jinjur's wake.
The Quadling Country is the southern division of L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz. It is distinguished by the color red, worn by most of the local inhabitants as well as the color of their surroundings.
Like the Munchkin Country, the outer regions of the Quadling Country are rich, pleasant and beautiful, inhabited by kind and friendly people, while the areas closer to the Emerald City (i.e. most of the regions between the mountains of the Hammer-Heads and the Forest of the Fighting Trees) are forbidding and dangerous."
Wikipedia
I hope this finds you well. As I was writing my blog yesterday celebrating the legacy of Judy Garland, I wrote a little bit about FINDING OZ by Evan I. Schwartz.
I ordered the book yesterday through Amazon.
I cannot wait to read it.
My horoscope today says, "You are an intense bundle of erratic thoughts today as familiar ideas combine to create ingenious plans. Luckily, you can showcase your talents without too much effort.
However, there is a huge difference between an adequate job and an awesome one. Putting extra time into your preparation pays off now, so don't take any unnecessary shortcuts." and in the NY Post, "Too often in the past you have given up on your plans because they were not progressing to your satisfaction. That's an awful waste of time and energy!
Whatever you are working on, see it through to the end."
I hope I achieve my goals today and entertain YOU in the process!
Finding OZ by Eric I Schwartz tells the remarkable tale behind one of the world's most enduring and best-loved stories.
Offering profound new insights into the true origins and meaning behind L. Frank Baum's 1900 masterwork, it delves into the personal turmoil and spiritual transformation that fueled Baum's fantastical parable of the American Dream.
But I got to thinking about finding my Oz and perhaps yours in the process.
I've written often about my childhood growing up on a tobacco farm in South Carolina. I couldn't wait to get to New York and become an actor! THAT was and IS my Oz! At the end of the The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy tells her Auntie Em, "But it wasn't a dream, it was a place...It was a truly live place and some of it wasn't very nice, but most of it was beautiful!"
That sums up everything! At least it sums up my life. Every time I'm on stage, I find an inner peace that I don't always find in the "real world". It's the "behind the scenes" issues that we deal with on a daily basis.
What is YOUR Oz?
I would love to hear your stories!
When I was a kid, I found THE LAND OF OZ! And through the internet, I have found it again!
THE LAND OF OZ opened on Beech Mountain in Banner Elk, North Carolina. It was a theme park based on The Wizard of Oz.
I begged my parents to take me there. We finally made it there one day and the park was closed! I never got a chance to see it! But I've seen pictures! I used to have a brochure about it.
The following information is from their website: Oz was dreamed and designed by Jack Pentes, on behalf of Carolina Caribbean Corp., and headed by Grover Robbins, of Tweetsie RR.
(We used to go to Tweetsie every Fall!) Both men were exceptional "visionaries". It was their plan to create something special for children - something that would be fun and financially compatible with the ski slopes of Beech - and, in turn, would bring parents, purchasers of resort property. Just as important, local talent and craftsmen were employed, bringing pride and opportunities to the area. It was a grand dream and was done in a grand fashion. OZ exceeded everyone's expectations of success.
Six months before its opening, however, Mr. Robbins contracted bone cancer and passed away. He was young and handsome and lived a "whirlwind" life. (Everyone who ever met him has stories to tell of Grover.)
He left behind OZ, Tweetsie, Hound Ears, Beech, Land Harbor, and what is now Elk River Club, as well as North Carolina and Caribbean coastal properties. Each met their own destiny, and Mr. Robbins was given a memorial marker on the pinnacle of Beech, where he could forever soar, one of his most favorite joys in life.
OZ was operational from 1970-80, but changing times, economics, liabilities, maintenance, and other interests of its owners, along with the lack of change at OZ, took their toll on the park. Ten years passed with the property reverting back to its original owners. Vandalism and nostalgia seekers destroyed much of the remains. Even today, people try to take a "piece" of OZ, to their despair.
In 1990, the 450 acre project known as Emerald Mountain development was begun, the concept of creating homesites with respect to The Land Of OZ being one of their goals. In the past eight summers, OZ has gone from being an "archeological dig" to an enchanting private garden, with Dorothy's farm restored, gazebos renovated, fountain, pond and waterfall made operational, and the yellow brick road unearthed and patched. For now, the character houses and Emerald City are gone. But each summer they add something back to OZ. Sometimes it is original items returned to them from caring friends.
The park is not, nor will it ever be, what it once was. However, with its maturing flora and graceful aging, it has evolved into its own unique entity. Dorothy's house is a lovely cottage they now rent to romantics wanting to escape.
Each year they share the park and their memories on a special weekend. They call it their Autumn at OZ party, where they all take a nostalgic stroll down the yellow brick road and see some of the original cast perform again. Volunteers and local charities help them with the event, and everyone is invited. Proceeds pay for the party and help with restorations. It's a wonderful chance to meet other Ozzies and relive their childhood....."We're off...."Cynthia Keller, Broker
EMERALD MOUNTAIN
2669 South Beech Mountain Parkway
Beech Mountain , NC 28604
(828) 387-2000 (phone)
(828) 387-2007 (fax)
Email Emerald Mountain
Check out their website!
Could this be part of the yellow brick road that inspired L. Frank Baum?
(Eric I Schwartz pictured here)
How could such a segment still exist after more than 140 years?
And why isn't anyone taking proper care of it?
The episode of how a teenage Baum must have come upon this road is told in Finding Oz. And a recent front-page story in The Wall Street Journal has brought renewed attention to what should be a famous footpath.
These shoes are mine! They are an EXACT replica of one of the pairs worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz! Right down to the label inside!
The tradition continues! The Wizard of Oz is my dog's Horace's favorite movie! Actually, he has a thing for Toto!
For the latest on Judy Garland, check here: THE JUDY ROOM
I own nothing, no copyright infringement on anything included in this blog intended.
Thanks for being a loyal reader of my blog!
GO SEE A LIVE SHOW TONIGHT!
Become A Facebook friend of mine!
Follow me on Twitter
If you've seen one of my appearances/shows, add your thoughts to my guestbook at www.RichardSkipper.com
Tomorrow's blog will be you tell me...I'm open to suggestions!
Please contribute to the DR. CAROL CHANNING & HARRY KULLIJIAN FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS: http://www.carolchanning.org/foundation.htm
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED SUMMER!
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
"If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?" - Judy Garland, actress, singer, who died on this day in 1969.
"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart." ~Judy Garland
Incidentally, today is 42nd anniversary of Judy Garland's death and of the Stonewall Uprising. Just saying. Marriage Equality TODAY
42 years ago today Judy Garland died, riots broke out in the streets of Greenwich Village. 42 years later, we rally still for equality.
Happy Wednesday!
As I wrote above, today is the 42nd anniversary of the physical passing of Judy Garland. She is 89 today. I write of her age in the present tense because she is still very much with us.
As I write this, I'm listening to her on my Ipod. She is now singing STAR OF THE EAST.
I have over 300 songs of hers on my Ipod.
I'm drinking coffee out of my Wizard of Oz mug!
Obsessive? Just a fan!
I was eight when Judy passed. I'll never forget that Sunday and Monday. I was too young and too far away to know anything about Stonewall.
June 22nd, 1969 was a Sunday. My parents used to play Canasta with my Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Christine. They were coming over for dinner that night. I remember we were having pork chops and apple sauce. (All of The Brady Bunch fans can chime in now!)
We were living in a small frame house on Hway 544 in Conway, South Carolina.
They arrived with their six daughters in tow. All I remember is my cousin Patsy getting out of the car and telling me that Judy Garland had died.
Something you need to know about me, THE WIZARD OF OZ was my movie! I lived for that movie. Those of you from my generation will remember that we had only three networks in those days and no dvds or vhs. Every year waiting for The Wizard of Oz for me was the way that some kids waited for Santa Claus.
Each year, I would anticipate the announcement that The Wizard of Oz would be coming on and then count the days. What was it about that movie that resonated so strongly for me? Was it my longing to leave South Carolina? I don't think so. It was Judy Garland! I just loved her and this was before it was fashionable to be so!
Back to my story, Patsy told me that Judy had died.
I didn't believe her and refused.
I then turned on the TV and there it was! I felt as if I had lost a friend.I also felt that because of this, I would never see The WIZARD OF OZ again! So I was losing two friends.
The next morning, I stayed at Hazel Elvington's. She "baby sat" for us in the summer. The newspapers arrived and there it was all over the paper. Reality set in. I went home that night and was hysterical! My mom slapped me and told me to calm down that I didn't even know this woman! She didn't know. I knew this woman more than she knew!
Weird facts: on this day,in 1969, Judy Garland Died, & by strange coincidence, at the same time, a Cyclone Hit Kansas!
The Wizard of Oz continued to air, of course. The next showing was on NBC - Sunday, March 15 - 7:00 p.m. I waited impatiently from June 1969 to March 1970 nine months! Like giving birth!
And, then again, 1971 - NBC - Sunday, April 18 - 7:00 p.m!
1972 - NBC - Tuesday, March 7 - 7:00 p.m.
The first time that the film aired in the middle of the week, rather than on a weekend.
This would not happen again until 1979.
The network also took back the prime time access hour from local stations in order for children to see it more easily.
AND 1973 - NBC - Sunday, April 8 - 7:00 p.m.
Fitting isn't it, because Judy is ALWAYS with us. Lorna said that everywhere she goes, she sees images of Judy.
She is on mugs, posters, t-shirts. Everything and everywhere!
Yesterday on the 6PM news, there was a segment on Peekskill, New York's yellow brick road. Research is providing significant support to longtime claims that Peekskill helped inspire the Wizard of Oz’s Yellow Brick Road. The evidence also seems to show that the City’s one remaining Yellow Brick Road existed when Oz author L. Frank Baum went to school in Peekskill in the 1860s and that he likely saw it regularly.
There is a great blog by Evan Schwartz called FINDING OZ, which also coincides with his book of the same name. Eric writes, " L. Frank Baum conceived the Yellow Brick Road to symbolize...what:
Life's journey? Destiny? The path to spiritual enlightenment? As a universal icon of the imagination, this golden footpath can mean many things to many people."
"But as a teenager arriving at the Peekskill (N.Y.) Military Academy in the late 1860s, the young Frank Baum almost certainly walked on an an actual path of yellow bricks, a section of which survives today."
The road of yellow brick is an element in the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, with additional such roads appearing in The Marvelous Land of Oz and The Patchwork Girl of Oz. The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, based on the novel, gave it the name by which it is better known, the yellow brick road (it is never referenced by that title in the original novel). In the later film The Wiz, Dorothy has to find the road, as the house was not deposited directly in front of it; in the novel and the 1939 film, Dorothy's house is placed directly in front of the road.
The road is introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tip and Jack Pumpkinhead likewise follow a yellow brick road to reach the Emerald City while traveling from the Gillikin Country in the north of Oz.
In the book The Patchwork Girl of Oz, it is revealed that there are two yellow brick roads from Munchkin Country to the Emerald City: according to the Shaggy Man, Dorothy Gale took the harder one in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
While the road taken by the Shaggy Man et al. has man-eating plants, it lacks the chasms of the road Dorothy followed, and it does not go through a forest of wild beasts.
Public taste in popular entertainment, entertainers, and music changed many times during the twentieth century. As a result, hundreds of gifted or at least celebrated performers once at the top of their profession are now pretty much only a memory: fondly, happily, or proudly recalled but almost solely of their time. Perhaps a dozen exemplary talents have endured — those who broke new musical ground or whose abilities or impact now “define” a generation. But only a very few entertainers have flourished, maintaining their artistic reputations and garnering additional critical and popular respect. The enthusiasm for them continues to grow, as does acknowledgment of their importance, their influence, and their singular ability to communicate with an audience.
It’s been just forty-two years since Judy Garland gave her last performance — and almost eighty plus (at age thirty months) she gave her first.
In the decades between those two events, she amassed a body of work astounding in its range, amazing in its power, and timeless in its ability to exult, enthrall, and excite cross-generational audiences. In each medium, her legacy encompassed unsurpassed artistic and popular successes.
Her motion picture work includes thirty-two feature films, voice-over work for two more, and a half-dozen short subjects. She received a special juvenile Academy Award in 1940 and nominations for two other Oscars (for A STAR IS BORN
and JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG). Several of her movies rank among the very best musicals ever produced for the screen: BABES IN ARMS,
FOR ME AND MY GAL,
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, THE PIRATE, and EASTER PARADE. Additionally — and perhaps preeminently — she starred in the most widely seen and (arguably) best loved film in history, THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Her television specials in 1955 and 1962 attracted the largest audiences for any entertainment programs in CBS-TV network history to those dates. Her 1963-64 weekly series has passed into legend as one of the highlights of musical variety video programming.
Fifteen of her recorded singles “charted” between 1939-1954, including “Over the Rainbow,” “The Trolley Song,” and “The Man That Got Away.” Her 1961 “live” two-album set, JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL, won an unprecedented five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance. It was the fastest-selling album of its time, on the charts for ninety-five weeks, and # 1 for thirteen of those. From vinyl to tape to compact disc, it has never been out of print.
Additionally, Garland’s original 1939 recording of “Rainbow”
and the CARNEGIE set were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1981 and 1998 respectively.
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS is another of my favorite films!
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904.
It stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll.
The movie was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, and later in the novel 5135 Kensington. It was later developed into a Broadway show which I saw and loved!
Songs by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Based on "The Kensington Stories" by Sally Benson and the MGM motion picture "Meet Me in St. Louis"
Songs by Martin & Blane published by EMI Feist Catalog, Inc.
Produced for the Broadway stage by Brickhill - Burke Productions, Christopher Seabrooke and EPI Products™
The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met his future wife, Judy Garland, on the set. In the film, Garland debuted the standards "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which both became hits after the film was released.
Arthur Freed, the producer of the film, also wrote and performed one of the songs. It was the second-highest grossing picture of the year, only behind Going My Way.
The backdrop for Meet Me in St. Louis is St. Louis, Missouri on the brink of the 1904 World's Fair.
The Smith family lead a comfortable middle-class life. Mr. Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and Mrs. Anna Smith (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther, Agnes, and Tootie; and a son, Lon Jr. (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.) Esther, the second eldest daughter (Judy Garland), is in love with the boy next door, John Truitt (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first. Rose is expecting a phone call in which she hopes to be proposed to by Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully).
Esther finally gets to meet John properly when he is a guest at the Smith's house party, although her chances of romancing him don't go to plan when, after all the guests are gone and he is helping her turn off the gas lamps throughout the house, he tells her she uses the same perfume as his grandmother and that she has "a mighty strong grip for a girl".
Thank you, Judy, for the memories!
For the latest on Judy Garland, check here: THE JUDY ROOM
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Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
