Judy Garland’s legend tarnished by shambolic 1964 Melbourne show
MUSIC lovers expected the show of a lifetime when Judy Garland came to play Festival Hall. But after a disastrous turn of events, the Hollywood legend was booed from the stage and vowed never again to sing before Melbourne audiences again.
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A MONTH before The Beatles rocked Melbourne’s Festival Hall in 1964, Hollywood veteran Judy Garland cut short a shambolic concert at the same venue that made international headlines and marked her later career.
Judy Garland was at one of her lowest ebbs after more than 30 years in show business, but a crowd of more than 7000 people that packed the House of Stoush was pugnacious as she struggled through the show, booing and jeering until she fled the stage.
Garland was coaxed to Australia by promoter Harry M. Miller for three concerts — two in Sydney and a third in Melbourne for a reported $52,000.
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She had captivated audiences as the star of The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St Louis, but those triumphs were a long way behind her by 1964.
Garland was deeply in debt, her fortune embezzled by her manager David Begelman, and she was in the grip of alcohol and barbiturates.
She enjoyed a career renaissance in the early 1960s included her own CBS variety TV series, The Judy Garland Show, a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role in the 1961 drama Judgement at Nuremberg and a Grammy for a recording of a 1961 concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
But the Hollywood legend was forced to endure a gruelling string of live performances because of her parlous finances.
When she arrived in 1964, Garland’s TV show had been axed after only 26 episodes because of poor ratings.
Her film roles had dried up. She starred in what would be her final film, I Could Go On Singing, in 1963.
And she was in the throes of divorcing her third husband, Sidney Luft.
Garland was paid a whopping $52,000 for her three Australian shows.
She charmed Sydney. She wowed the crowds and dazzled the critics at her two performances at Sydney Stadium on May 13 and 16.
But Miller recalled in his autobiography Harry M. Miller: Confessions of a Not-So Secret Agent, that cracks were appearing in Garland’s facade.
“When I saw her, she looked so bad that I couldn’t imagine how she could possibly do another concert … I felt sad, angry and somehow frightened all at once,” he wrote.
It was intended that Garland would fly to Melbourne with her future husband, actor Mark Herron, but Garland, averse to flying, chose to ride the Southern Aurora to Melbourne instead.
She arrived at Spencer Street Station looking the worse for wear on May 19.
Miller greeted the star with a white Rolls Royce that whisked her to the Southern Cross Hotel, where she bunkered down ahead of her ill-fated Melbourne show.
In his book, Miller described the scene when he visited Garland’s room on the day of the Melbourne concert.
“I popped by Judy’s suite at the Southern Cross, only to be greeted by Mark Herron,” he wrote.
“Through the slightly ajar door, he assured me Judy was fine and would perform that night.
“His words were in stark contrast to the tiny sparrow I could see spreadeagled and passed out on the couch.”
By 7.30pm, Festival Hall was packed to the rafters with fans desperate to hear the singer. The show was set to start at 8.30pm.
The crowd became restless as they waited for the tardy star.
“The crowd began to boo and catcall as the time moved on to 9 o’clock and 40 police were called inside the hall when it appeared the crowd might get out of hand,” an AAP report from the time said.
Almost 70 minutes late, Garland appeared. One report said Garland wandered onto the stage in the middle of an extended instrumental medley of her finest songs, leaving her to stand awkwardly until the fanfare ended.
Slow-clapping punctuated parts of Garland’s wavering performance.
She delivered some of her lyrics with a slur, and forgot others, leading some in the crowd to conclude that she was drunk.
Hecklers shouted abuse. At times, Garland traded verbal blows with them.
Garland struggled through to the intermission, but two songs into the second half of the concert, she left the stage. There was no farewell from Garland. No bow to the audience. It was a cold end to a lacklustre show.
News of Garland’s performance in Melbourne made headlines around the world including in the New York Times, which reported: “She kept an audience of about 7000 waiting 67 minutes and made no apology when she appeared on stage in street dress.
“After 10 minutes of the second half of the concert, she broke off singing I’ll Go My Way by Myself to apologise for an apparently bewildered orchestra.
“When the song ended she left the stage and did not reappear, even when the orchestra played Over the Rainbow.”
Scott Schechter’s detailed examination of Garland’s professional life, Judy Garland: The Day-by-day Chronicle of a Legend, recalled that she was “fighting vocal problems — and members of the audience” during her Melbourne show.
“Judy only managed to get through about half the show when she fled the stage. The cruel and outright vicious reviews would come to haunt her”.
The public reaction was scathing. Many patrons demanded their money back (they didn’t get it).
Miller was horrified. “I wanted to hide, but stood near the back of the auditorium, copping anger and abuse as the public filed out,” he wrote.
TV star Graham Kennedy, who had taken a rare night off from In Melbourne Tonight, got stuck into Garland and Harry M. Miller (who would later represent him) on IMT the night after the concert, demanding that Miller should repay disappointed patrons.
Garland missed Gra-Gra’s editorial. She was on an 8pm flight to Sydney, where she holed up in a hotel with Herron and three bodyguards before heading to Hong Kong for more concert dates.
In an interview in Hong Kong a few days later, Garland said: “I will sing anywhere in the world, but Melbourne.
“The town, the press in Melbourne were absolutely beastly to me.”
She planned to rest up and do some shopping in Hong Kong the following day, but a new crisis developed.
It was reported that Garland suffered a heart attack and spent about 20 hours in a coma before she began to recover.
Schechter, however, described the health scare as an overdose, asserting that Garland’s stomach had to be pumped. Tubes inserted into her throat damaged her vocal cords, and the singer was suffering pleuracy in both lungs. Her heart and lungs were damaged as a result of the overdose.
After a month in Hong Kong, she and Herron left Hong Kong for Copenhagen.
In August 1964, Garland made her final recording but her increasingly erratic concerts continued.
Judy Garland died on June 22, 1969, following what the coroner determined was an accidental overdose of barbiturates in the bathroom of her lodgings in Chelsea, London just 12 days after her 47th birthday.
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