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Movie Mirror Junior
Judy Garland - Guest Editor
(from Movie Mirror, December, 1937)
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(cover)
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Hello Juniors:
Freddie Bartholomew was telling me about the time he was guest editor for MOVIE MIRROR Junior and how much he enjoyed writing it, so when Miss Turner asked me if I would like to write the department this month, I jumped at the chance and I hope you like mine as much as you did Freddie's.
I've been on the stage ever since I was a few years old and I've been in pictures for the last two years. I'm fourteen now, and I hope to spend the rest of my life in pictures.
Mother and Dad were both vaudeville entertainers, but when my oldest sister, Suzanne, was born, they quit the stage and Dad bought a movie theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I have two older sisters, and the three of us used to spend all the time we possibly could in Dad's theater watching the acts.
We were crazy about the stage, and my sisters got up a little act and the two of them used to put it on in the theater. They sang and danced, and I would cry because they wouldn't let me be in it, too, so when I was four years old I just determined to get up there anyhow. I got to the stage during their act and interrupted proceedings to give my version of a nursery song. It wasn't very good but, boy, it was plenty loud.
After that, they made a place for me and the three of us used to give regular performances in Dad's theater and for our friends. In fact, we'd put on that act for anyone who would stay still long enough to watch us dance and listen to us sing. We kept adding new songs and dances to it and spent all our spare time rehearsing.
My folks decided to take a trip to California and we thought it would be a lot of fun to act our way out there. So Mother and Dad got up an act of their own, and we three girls had ours. We put on performances in movie theaters all along the way from Minnesota to California, and I've never enjoyed a trip so much in my life. We'd give our act first, and then Mother and Dad would go on, and we three girls would sit out in front and watch them. We were tremendously proud of the whole thing.
We all liked California so much that my parents decided to stay out here, and Dad bought another movie theater in Lancaster, which is about eighty miles from Hollywood, and we all settled down there.
My sisters and I wanted to keep on acting, though, so we went to agents and managed to get bookings in theaters all up and down the coast. We were in a different theater almost every night. Lots of times we'd have to leave Lancaster on a moment's notice for a new engagement, and we'd scurry around like mad getting our things together and rushing off so we'd be in time for the theater. Mother always went along with us on these trips and played the piano for us.
Finally we thought it was about time for a vacation, so the whole family went up to Lake Tahoe for a few weeks. As we were driving back home, we discovered that we'd left all our hats at the hotel so we had to turn around and go back for them. When we got there, a friend of ours dashed out to the car and said, "Are you lucky, Judy! Lew Brown, the song writer, just got here, and you're going to sing for him right away!" He started dragging me into the hotel, and before I knew what it was all about, there I was standing in front of Mr. Brown.
I was so excited that I hardly knew what I was doing, but I managed to open my mouth and start singing. He evidently liked it, because he said he thought I'd be good for pictures and he'd try to fix it up for me.
Well, I had been home for a couple of days and was just about recovering from all the excitement when the phone rang and it was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios telling me to come down and see them right away. My mother wasn't home to go with me, so Dad and I went right on down. I just had on a pair of slacks and a shirt, but we were so excited and in such a rush that I didn't have time to change them.
When we got to the studio I found that they had thought that I was older than twelve years, and weren't sure whether or not they could use a girl of that age. But they let me sing, and then called Mr. Mayer down to hear me. Finally they decided that they liked my songs and signed me to a contract. That was certainly one of life's big moments for me.
The first picture I did was a short with Deanna Durbin called "One Sunday Afternoon." We sang together in that and she and I were great friends and still see a lot of each other. After that I was in "Pigskin Parade" at 20th Century-Fox.
My next picture was "Broadway Melody of 1938." Sophie Tucker played my mother in it, and we had a lot of fun on the set while we were working. I sing a song to Clark Gable called "Dear Mr. Gable" in the picture, and I sure put my heart and soul into it because he is such a grand person. After I finished the song, he gave me a lovely bracelet.
Robert Taylor became a candid camera fiend while we were making the picture, and in between scenes he would go around snapping pictures of everyone on the set. He got behind tables and up on chairs to get unusual angles, and it seemed that every time you turned around, you bumped into him taking pictures. He was having a swell time.
I kept my fingers crossed for days before the preview and during it I was so excited that I could hardly see the screen. That preview was another one of life's big moments for me.
I love going to movies and see as many as Mother will let me. I like parties, too, and we have a lot of them at home. Most of my friends used to be in vaudeville, too, and when we have parties they all get up and put on their acts and it's grand fun. I don't care for dances very much, though, because I think parties where you play games and do things are much more fun.
Ping pong is my idea of a swell game. I'm the champion ping pong player at my house and pretty soon we're going to get up a ping pong tournament, so I'm practicing all the time that I can.
Golf and riding and swimming are my favorite sports, and I'm crazy about baseball. I love going to baseball games and I generally cheer myself hoarse whenever anyone makes a home run.
I don't know if you have the same craze for roller coasters that I have. They scare me to death, but I love them. Whenever I can get someone to go down to the amusement pier with me, I spend most of the time on the roller coaster. Once my hat flew off, but fortunately the boy in back of me got hold of it as it soared over him. I hold on to the handrail so tightly that I wouldn't let go no matter what happened.
Well, I must go back on the set now, so I'll have to close this letter, but I want to tell you how much I enjoyed writing it and I do hope I hear from you in return.
Yours,
Judy Garland
If you will write to me and tell me whether you like musical pictures with singing and dancing best or if you would rather see just straight dramas or comedies without any music, I'll give ten autographed pictures of myself to the ten boys and girls who write the most interesting letters telling which type of movies they prefer and why. Miss Betty Turner and I will act as judges.
Please write to me in care of MOVIE MIRROR, Junior, 7751 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Cal., but be sure to mail your letter before December 5th, 1937.
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