"The Wizard of Oz" 4D cinema experience is unveiled at Madame Tussauds in New York on July 13, 2010. UPI /Laura Cavanaugh

Judy Garland "I Could Go On Singing" (alternate version)

Judy Garland, Ethel Merman & Mae West...

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Organizers of annual Judy Garland Festival debate 2011 location

Thu, 07/08/2010 - 9:00pm Thu, 07/08/2010 - 9:00pm
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Iron Range & Itasca Co.
FOX 21 News
GRAND RAPIDS- Organizers of the annual Judy Garland Festival find themselves wondering if there really is "no place like home."
As part of an experiment this year, the 3 day festival moved to Minneapolis. The museum board hoped the move would generate more publicity for Grand Rapids but attendance numbers didn't see much of an increase.
“I find it hard to explain other than there are so many different entertainment opportunities in the twin cities and we didn't get enough local sponsors,” says John Kelsch, Executive Director of the Judy Garland Museum.
The board isn't opposed to giving the twin cities another shot next year and will vote on a decision.

Four-Disc Set "Judy Garland – The Lost Tracks" Will Get U.K. Release

By Adam Hetrick23 Jun 2010 Released By JSP Records 8/2

June 22 marked the 41st anniversary of the death of Judy Garland, the late entertainer who captivated fans on stage and screen. U.K. record label JSP commemorated the date by announcing a four-disc collection of never-before-released recordings from Garland's early career.
The collection of songs — some of which feature a 12-year-old Garland's 1935 Decca studio tests — spans the years 1929-1959. "Judy Garland – The Lost Tracks" boasts 100 songs, 55 of which have never been previously released.
JSP will first release the collection in the U.K. Aug. 2, with a planned U.S. release in the future, according to representatives. All of the songs in "The Lost Tracks" have been remastered.
Notable inclusions are some of the earliest surviving recordings of the Gumm Sisters performing together, as well as a young Garland singing "Bill" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop/The Object of My Affection/Dinah" with her mother accompanying on the piano. The latter tracks were rejected by Decca in 1935 and thought to be lost until discovered in a trash heap outside Garland's vacated home in 1960.

Judy Garland, the Stonewall and Mr. wOw ~ Our Mr. wOw looks back at June 28, 1969.

06/26/2010 12:00 am

Monday, June 28, is the 41st anniversary of the famous Stonewall riot, an event that changed history – gay people battled their way out of the closet – with bricks and uprooted parking meters and a defiance so shocking it scared the men of the NYPD. And despite many challenges, they have never gone back in.Now, unlike many gay men of my age who lived near and/or hung around Greenwich Village in 1969, Mr. wOw will not claim to have been a participant in the riot, an observer or even having been at the Stonewall earlier that night. He wasn’t in the Village that night. He had, however, been downtown the night before, and attempted to get into The Stonewall. The Stonewall was my very first bar – so exciting with its two jukeboxes and the little dance floor in the back that looked like a chessboard, lit from below. But the bouncer who usually allowed 16-year-old Mr. wOw onto the premises was away. No amount of eye-batting or promises of more could dissuade this dragon at the wooden door to allow me in. "How old are you?" I swore I was 19. "You look 15. Go away!" I wanted to argue that I’d been let in when I was 15, but better to wait for the friendly bouncer another night.So Mr. wOw wandered off, found a few similarly displaced acquaintances and spent the hot summer night camped (and camping it up) on various stoops, loitering outside other bars and making general teenaged nuisances of ourselves.At six o’clock AM on the morning of June 28, Mr. wOw and his pals were standing on Sixth Avenue right off Christopher Street. We were about to go our separate ways, when Mr. wOw said, "Wait, girls, today’s the last day Judy’s laid out, we should go up and see her!" (Back then, if you weren’t overtly masculine, you talked like that. Later, I dropped my "Oh, Mary’s" and "Miss Things." A guy I met around that time said, "I thought you were really cute, until you started talking! Why do think that’s necessary?") Now, the funny part was I wasn’t even much of a Judy Garland fan. No fanatic, at any rate. I knew who she was, what she supposedly represented to gay audiences, I was aware of her many dramas, suicide attempts, tales of her ruined voice, the "scandal" of her new much younger husband, Mickey Deans. I loved her MGM musicals, especially "Presenting Lily Mars." And of course I’d seen "A Star Is Born." I didn’t think then, and don’t think now, it was her finest hour. But, yes, of course she deserved the Oscar over Grace Kelly. But I’d never seen her perform live, and had never listened to any of her later recordings. (My one memory of her ill-fated TV series was visiting relatives on Sunday – there was Judy on the tube, in stark black and white, and looking rather fascinating to me. "Eh, she’s drunk," said one of my uncles, switching to "Bonanza.") So, I knew nothing of the thrall she held over audiences, gay and straight.Still, we all decided that going to see Judy Garland laid out at Frank Campbell’s would be a "fun" thing to do. (I know – but now you tell me about how sensitive you were at 16.) So, we boarded an uptown bus and pretty soon there we were in front of Frank Campbell’s – five motley, long-haired, fey boys in jeans and tee-shirts. There was still a line of mourners traipsing past Judy’s open casket. (The funeral would begin in a few hours.) While we stood there, I thought I’d impress my friends with my vast knowledge – "Rudolph Valentino was laid out here." Nobody was impressed. They didn’t know from the Sheik of Araby.

Blu-ray 'A Star Is Born' heads classic DVD releases

June 25, 2010By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

Leading the pack is Warner Home Video's Blu-ray release of the 1954 Judy Garland classic "A Star Is Born." Garland made a triumphant comeback in this lavish musical- drama based the 1937 film about a star on the rise who marries a star on the decline ( James Mason). Garland and Mason have never been better under George Cukor's direction, and the Ira Gershwin and Harold Arlen score, which includes the standard "The Man That Got Away," is joyous to the ears.
Warners recently did a major digital restoration of the film, which the late film historian Ron Haver reconstructed in 1983. The studio unveiled this gorgeous print at the TCM Film Festival in Los Angeles this year, and it looks just as good on Blu-ray. The set's second disc is filled with extras, though a few, including the original telecast of the 1954 premiere, were previously available on DVD. Others include additional takes of "The Man That Got Away," an alternate take of Mason's suicide scene and several new audio takes from the rehearsal and recording session.

The Judy Garland House in Grand Rapids

Herald-Review file photo Just one of many attractions in town that entice fans to visit Judy Garland's birthplace.

The JUDY Rose from Denise...

THE JUDY ROSE

I promised you a pic of the Judy Rose. I'm not the greatest gardener, but I do my best. I think I may have told you that, at least in our area(Long Island) the rose begins budding the week of Judy's birth and begins blossoming the week she died. No kidding! A fan named Pat Losiewicz lobby for the rose and has them planted throughout the country. Amazing, right!!!
Thanks, Denise.