#studio report

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May 28, 1947:  Judy and Vincente Minnelli’s daughter, Liza Minnelli, visited her parents on the set of 'The Pirate'.  Judy had a 9:45 a.m. call for filming on the ‘Interior Don Pedro’s Salon” set.  The day’s filming was completed at 6 p.m.

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Seregor’s Wise Words…

“Sometimes you’ll need them…Other times you think like…”

THWACK

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May 28, 1941:  Judy was on MGM’s backlot filming scenes 'Life Begins For Andy Hardy' with Mickey Rooney on the “Andy Hardy” Street.  That’s the nickname of the street, it’s official name was “New England Street.”

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May 28, 1948:  Judy and Mickey Rooney pre-recorded their duet of “I Wish I Were In Love Again” for 'I Wish I Were In Love Again'.  Rooney starred as Lorenz Hart and Judy guest-starred as herself.

Photos were taken of the recording session (seen here).  As she had done exactly a year earlier, a now three-year-old Liza Minnelli (Judy and Vincente Minnelli’s daughter) visited her mom and dad at MGM.  The session lasted a quick hour and 45 minutes, from 3 to 4:45 p.m.

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May 28, 1942:  This article by Robbin Coons was apparently done while Judy was filming 'For Me And My Gal'.  On this day, 'For Me And My Gal' filming continued with scenes shot on the “Exterior French Square.”  There is no such scene in the final film, but it could have been the set for the recently recorded and filmed “Three Cheers For The Yanks” which was deleted from the final cut.

Judy Garland Reminiscences

By Robbin Coons

HOLLYWOOD – Miss Judy Garland, practically out of her teens, was moved today to look back down the long corridor of the years and reminisce.

She had ample urging.  Her new movie, “Me and My Gal” is a yarn about vaudeville when there was a Palace and all vaudevillians dreamed of playing it.  Judy herself is a veteran vaudevillian of the later days when all of them dreamed of playing Grauman’s Chinese – and wowing the movies.

Judy was two years old when the Gumm Sisters initiated a new member in their song-and-dance act.  She was 13 when, with the other Gumms married and retired, and Judy carrying on alone, she was picked up by the movies.

Her first picture was that famous short of Metro’s – the one in which two little girls named Garland and Durbin showed off their voices, after which Miss Durbin was dropped and Miss Garland kept on the payroll in a small way.  Then Miss Garland was loaned to 20th to play a raucous little girl in pigtails for “Pigskin Parade,” thus beginning her own pigtail parade.

Miss Garland in due course attended the preview, and cried for three days.

“I’d always imagined that anybody in pictures automatically became glamorous,” she recalled, looking very glammy in a 1917 evening gown and hair-do for the picture.  “But I wasn’t.”

So she cried for three days, one day more than she cried when a reviewer covering the Gumm act described Judy as a leather-lunged singer who sang “Stormy Weather” and inspired in the listener a fervent hope that the thunder would drown her out.

Then there was the time the Gumms, motoring from stand to stand, settled down at the Chicago Century of Progress exposition and, by dint of warbling and stepping and hoarding the proceeds for weeks, bought a complete new set of costumes; four outfits for each of the three girls, four “changes” for their mother-accompanist.  They headed west for Hollywood and the Chinese, their new wardrobe in a trunk strapped to the rear bumper.  Somewhere outside St. Joseph, Mo., the trunk – not the other one containing “junk” – was lifted.  The act got to Hollywood and bought four sweater-and-skirt sets.

But Judy is a glam-gal now.  In this picture she has eleven costumes, nine evening gowns, eight suits and five coats.  She has 19 different hair-do’s.  Fun, Judy?

“Of course I like it.  But why did I complain before?  It used to be I could run into the wardrobe department, try on a gingham frock, and that was that.  Now it’s hours of fitting.  And two hours earlier in make-up.  And I have to guard against picking up new freckles, and I can’t go bowling – no broken finger nails for me until the picture’s over.  I guess I never really appreciated those pigtail parts.”

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April 2, 1949:  Wardrobe, hair, and makeup tests for 'Annie Get Your Gun' for Judy as well as J. Carroll Naish and Geraldine Hall.  Judy was due in makeup at 8 a.m., on set at 10 a.m.; she arrived at 10 a.m.; lunch at 12:05 p.m. – 1:05 p.m.; dismissed at 2:25 p.m.

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May 28, 1940:  This photo was taken of Judy with her mother, sister Virginia, and Virginia’s daughter Judaline.  The occasion was Judaline’s 2nd birthday.  Judaline’s granddaughter, Audra May, is currently a very successful alternative rock/blues singer.

MGM shot some footage of Judy at this birthday party, which has been shown in various documentaries about Judy.

On this day at MGM, Judy was filming 'Strike Up The Band', specifically scenes shot on the “Interior Holden Home” and “Exterior Barbara’s Car” sets.  Time called, 9:00 a.m.; dismissed: 4:00 p.m.  Because of this, the photos above must have been taken right after Judy’s day ended at the studio.