Great Entertainers
Great Entertainers Judy Garland Judy Garland Judy Garland was a little Mozart of song and dance who led a dazzling and extraordinary life. Though forever remembered as the wistful little Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz going up The Yellow Brick Road and singing ‘Over the Rainbow’, it was her plaintive quality, her humour, her ability to be dramatic and send herself up that made her a unique artist. Tender love songs, torrid torch songs, quiet songs, noisy songs, songs with a swing to them, songs with a sentimental strain to them, she could do them all. She hoofed it with Mickey Rooney, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire whilst belting out some of Hollywood’s greatest songs. She was a natural. Her abilities came so easily, so naturally, that she came to doubt them. Suffering from stage-fright and emotional problems, she exasperated everyone around her with her ab- sences and lateness, but she needed little rehearsal time and all would be forgiven when she produced a moment of magic. On stage she was a tiny, stocky figure, so where-in lay the magic? Innocent of any artful management, she sang directly to her audience, able to convey the joy and heartrending pathos of human existence: “She sang, not to your ears, but to your tear ducts.” And with her gift for self-mockery and sense of the ridicu- lous, she had an ability to rise above adversity and carry on. Her highly-publicised life of suicide attempts, broken marriages and neurotic battles with weight and sleep seemed to draw affec- tion from her audiences, yet it was her gaiety, passion, and huge, warm dramatic voice that seized her audiences and filled theatres around the world.
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