A Comeback From Over the Rainbow

She keeps showing up though her name is rarely mentioned.  And that is how she prefers it. She is there in spirit.  Never an egotist, she spent her life being under appreciated, neglected, an ugly duckling (according to MGM), the girl next door, and a diamond in the rough waiting to be discovered.  Yet those qualities are what endeared her to audiences everywhere.  They could relate to her down to earth nature and innocence.

Her impact is still being felt in the world of entertainment.  Let me point out some sightings.  Last March at the Academy Awards she showed up twice (with still no mention of her name).  When they did a filmed bit featuring past Oscar song winners, a fan stated that “The Trolley Song” was her favorite as they played a clip of her singing it.  Then, at the end of the ceremony, they had a school choir from Harlem singing “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” with the backdrop of the Emerald City and the four main characters following the yellow brick road.  That was her signature song (the number one movie song of all time, by the way.)

Speaking of “Over The Rainbow”, it was used to begin Oprah’s next to last show with young Jackie Evanko wearing red ruby slippers and Josh Grobin and Patti LaBelle crooning the tune.  It was really refreshing to hear “Over the Rainbow” with a gospel touch.  It must be one of Oprah’s favorites.

Then she showed up on “The O’Reilly Factor” of all places.  They were doing a segment on immigration and interviewing residents of San Francisco and they showed a clip of her as Dorothy from “the Wizard of Oz” saying “People come and go so quickly here.”

Another time I saw a picture of her as Dorothy next to Michelle Bachmann in an article for the Huffington Post that implied that Bachmann’s candidacy was the like the man behind the curtain pretending to be a wizard.

By now you probably know I am speaking about Judy Garland.  I don’t know if America is still fascinated by her or just the 1939 movie that is shown several times a year on network TV.  Maybe it’s both. But many credible show business elites consider her to be the entertainer of the century (I would say of all time.)

I got hooked on her when I was in a record store, minding my own business and her CD popped up begging for me to hear it.  I was her fan as a child so I bought it.

I am so glad I did.  I had no idea what a great artist she was.  So now I listen to her all the time in my car.  Then I went out and rented her movies and have come to realize what a phenomenal actress and dancer she was.  Her talent far exceeds Dorothy of Kansas although that wasn’t a bad way to start her career.  She is so much more than that winsome teen of the 1930s.  I am so happy that I am rediscovering her for my own entertainment.  And now she is popping up everywhere.

Another example is the day after I received her “Carnegie Hall” CD and started listening to it in my car.  I had an appointment with my hairdresser (also a Garland fan, no surprise there.)  While waiting to get my hair done, I was reading the May edition of “Vanity Fair” and up pops an article on her Carnegie Hall concert and the making of the CD.  Seems this is the 50^th Anniversary of that event.  Coincidence?  I think not. 

There’s even a picture of her as Dorothy Gale near the front of the magazine.  The title of the article is “Over The Rainbow and Then Some!”  I learned a lot of things I never knew about Judy from that article: that she was near death two years before that due to pills and alcohol and told by doctors that she must never work again.  Well, work she did.  Some who attended that Carnegie Hall concert called it “probably the greatest evening in show business history.”

Judy also recently made a guest appearance in “Glee”.  It was an episode titled “duets” and at the end of it, Rachel and Kurt recreated a collaboration sung by Barbra Streisand and Judy from the “Judy Garland Show” in 1963 called “Happy Days Are Here Again/ Get Happy”.  Again, their names were not mentioned although Rachel wore Barbra’s same outfit.  It’s featured on YouTube and someone blogged that “Kurt was channeling Judy.”  No doubt.

Judy had some turbulent times in her life, mostly related to a drug addiction forced on her by MGM.  But after every rough patch, she kept bouncing back as she made several well documented comebacks:  The 1954 movie "A Star Is Born", her concerts at the London Palladium, her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert and tour of America.   A fellow blogger pointed out once to me that she never really left so there is no reason for a comeback.  That may be true.  As Frank Sinatra once stated:  "We're all be forgotten, but not Judy."  Somewhere over the rainbow, she is smiling and plotting where she will pop up next.