Letter from Home - 2016 Wizard of Oz Schedule!

We know you have all been waiting for news of the 2016 Wizard of Oz Festival, so without much ado, here it is. The dates are:  
Thursday, June 9^th – Saturday, June 11^th.

Please note: We will put out a new schedule by May which may reflect changes, additions and/or more defined information about this even. Please stay turned. 

Thursday Eve, June 9th

                  4:00 - 5:00 - High Tea and Style Show in the Judy Garland House

                  Will include a tour of the house, fashion show with replicas of Judy's costumes   
                  and coffee/tea with pastries. Details to be announced later. 

                  7:00 pm - Josh Gallagher – Piano Jazz Concert

                  Josh Gallagher, who wowed the crowd with his amazing 
                  performance last year has been asked back. This year, for
                  the 80^th Anniversary of Judy Garland’s film debut, Josh will
                  give us a sparkling jazz tribute to Judy’s film work.

                   8:00 pm - Film - “Pigskin Parade”

In keeping with the celebration of Judy’s film career, we will be showing her first feature-length film. Made in 1936 at 20^th Century Fox when Judy was fourteen, the film also stars Jack Haley, Betty Grable and Patsy Kelly. It’s a combination college musical and football film. Judy, barely in her teens, demonstrates her already remarkable her talent. (93 minutes) 

Introduction by John Fricke & Michelle Russell

Friday, June 10^th - Judy’s Birthday!

Free Admission all day and treats (can't say what they'll be)

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 Noon – “They Remember Judy”

John Fricke shows a rare video montage with commentary. These are video excerpts and anecdotes from interviews he conducted in the 1980s and 1990s; the participants Wilma Casper (who lived with the Gumms in 1925), June Allyson, Alan King, Hugh Martin,
Norman Jewson, and many others.

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. – The “Judy Around Town” Tour 
Paul Herrick, who has spent years studying Garland/Gumm sites in Grand Rapids will conduct a tour by car and on foot, showing the sites important to Judy and her family’s life while they lived here in Grand Rapids.

4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.  – “Judy Remembers Dorothy”
John Fricke will lecture on Judy’s memories of “The Wizard of Oz,” what it meant to her and the manner in which Dorothy Gale accompanied her throughout her life. This will be a straight lecture with no video.

          8:00 p.m. – Pizza and Snack Food Truck

          (More information on this later)

           9:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. - “The Wizard of Oz”

Showing of the classic 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz" starring 
           Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr,  Margaret Hamilton 
           and Billie Burke on a JUMBO Screen outdoors.

****

Saturday, June 11^th

     10:30 a.m. – 12:00 Noon – Judy/Wizard of Oz Jeopardy

     Come play the game. Lots of fun and PRIZES!  FREE

      11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. – Emerald City Fest

      A fun event for kids of all ages at the Central School 
      in the heart of Grand Rapids.  "Horse of a Different    
      Color" carriage rights, Face Painting, Hair Chalk/Braiding,
      Tatoos, Manicures, Instrument Petting Zoo, Dress-Up for
      Photos, Wizard of Oz characters, games and more. 

      
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – Oz Trivia and Oz Anti-Bullying Talk

John Fricke gives a short, fun Oz talk for kids of all ages!

               

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – Dorothy’s Farm Animals

Judy Garland Memorial Garden – Come and see animals of all kinds: Alpacas, lambs, a calf, rabbits, goats, chickens, ducks, dog, and cat with kittens.

                 

 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. - The Best of Judy, 1965-1968

John Fricke presents and comments on clips of the best of Judy's television work across the last years of her life: dazzling solos, plus duets with Vic Damone, Sammy Davis, Jr., Perry Como and others. Includes a special showing of one of the museum's prime treasures: Judy’s famed microphone from the CBS television series and "The Ed Sullivan Show" (1965).

  

                 

                  6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  -  "THE SLIPPERS" - SPECIAL EVENT!!!

Grand Rapids' premiere showing of “The Slippers,” a Tricon Film and Television documentary about the history of the famed Ruby Slippers. Includes historic film footage, celebrity interviews, and sequences filmed in Grand Rapids. This will be a very exciting event! Director/producer Morgan White will be present to discuss the film.

5:00 p.m. social hour with live music, followed by dinner and film.

*We are trying to see if, in addition to this showing, "The Slippers" can also be shown outdoors on the Jumbo Screen. We will let you know if this can be arranged.

For more information on “The Slippers,” please watch the trailer:  https://vimeo.com/157766079

We have a few changes and refinements coming up which we will post in a new newsletter, so stay turned.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL EVENTS and INFORMATION here MAYBE CHANGED WITH OUT NOTICE.

Take the "Oz" Train

We thought you’d all like to know the latest news about Oz! Warner Bros. is trying out a new "Wizard of Oz" train -- in the fashion of their holiday-time "Polar Express" train. The Oz train began its first trips this month, and they'll continue (across long weekends) through mid-April. The train leaves from French Lick, Indianna. If you are in that area, you might like to try it!

For more information on Warner Bros. "Wizard of Oz" train, please visit:

http://www.frenchlickscenicrailway.org/Wizard-of-Oz-Train-Ride

Judy Garland - Star of the Month on Turner Classic Movies!
April means Judy Garland is Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month! For those of you who get TCM, be sure to check out the line-up of great movies.

Each Friday from 8:00 p.m. (depending on what coast you are on) until early in the morning, Judy Garland movies will be shown. As an example, on April 1st the following films will be shown:

Pigskin Parade
Listen, Darling
Love Finds Andy Hardy
Babes in Arms
Everybody Sing
Thoroughbreds Don't Cry
Broadway Melody of 1938.

In the old days, the old way for people to see these films was to wait for the networks to play them. Although now, many fans own these films, this is still a great event. A lot of people who have never seen them will be enjoying Judy, co-stars, some wonderful stories and great music.

Happy April!

Please visit our Facebook page and "Like"!

https://www.facebook.com/judygarlandmuseum/?ref=bookmarks

Letter from Home - A Trip to Hollywood - February 2016

Dear Friends:

A few days ago, the air in Grand Rapids was filled with the sounds of melting snow dripping off roof tops, forming streams and lakes in our years and roads.  Now, except for a few big piles of the white stuff, it seems early spring has arrived.

It remains to be seen whether spring is here to stay, meanwhile in this newsletter we'd like to take you out of the snow for a trip our director John Kelsch and Michelle Russell took to Southern California. This February, the pair set off for Los Angeles and Hollywood where they forged new connections for the Judy Garland Museum and explored some Judy Garland history and treasures.

A VISIT TO WARNER BROTHERS

John Kelsch seated across the street from Warner Bros where
some of the greatest films of all time were made.

One visit was to Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where, in 1954, Judy filmed one of her greatest cinematic works, “A Star Is Born.” Warner Bros. now holds the rights to “The Wizard of Oz” and all of Judy’s films. During this visit, John Kelsch was able to meet with representatives of the studio. We hope this meeting may result in more news in the future.

Like Universal Studios, Warner Bros. now has tours of its great studio which visitors to Los Angeles may want to check out! 

TWO GUMM HOMES and A HOTEL

In the books “Young Judy” and “Rainbow,” there is information about house which the Gumm family lived in 1933, after they left Lancaster. The home on Ivanhoe in the Silver Lake District was chosen by Frank Gumm himself. He didn’t feel the little house Ethel had rented was appropriate, so he scouted around until he found this house, which resembles a small medieval castle.

Michelle Russell, who authored the book, “From Tennessee to Oz” on Judy Garland’s family history and early life, was particularly interested in seeing this home. Judy’s sister, Jimmy called it “a wild house...” At the time the family lived there, you crossed a bridge to enter the first floor where there was a living room and a grand outdoor terrace. The second floor contained a kitchen, dining room and two bedrooms. The third floor had more bedrooms and a playroom. In additon, there was a floor below the living room that had a sauna and an exercise room. Finding this house was a great adventure.

Using “Siri” on an i-phone, Kelsch and Russell were guided from the Hollywood area, through a residential neighborhood to a narrow, winding hilltop area of old homes that looked like a cross between San Francisco and Italy. In many cases there was only room for one car to pass with “S” shaped winding curves as steep as one can imagine! Down the side of this hill, they ascended up another hill which finally led them to the Ivanhoe address. There was no mistaking the location with its castle turrets. A section has been added on to the house since the time Mr. and Mrs. Gumm lived there with their three daughters. The positioning of house is spectacular, with a view in three directions that includes all of Hollywood and part of the Los Angeles. Although the Gumms only lived in this home for a short time, it must have been an experience they never forgot.

The second home Kelsch and Russell visited was the home where Judy, her mother and sister, Jimmy, lived after her father, Frank Gumm, died. This home is on McCadden Place in the Wilshire District, an older, upper scale area with many lovely homes.

Judy lived in this house from the beginning of her MGM contract in 1935 – during the making of all her early films, up to and including the making of “The Wizard of Oz.” During the making of “Everybody Sing,” Judy and her mother began planning the design of her Stone Canyon home, They did not move into the Stone Canyon home until 1939, after Judy had completed work on “The Wizard of Oz.”

Ma Lawlor''s Professional School
once stood on the corner of
Hollywood Boulevard & 

On their final day in Los Angeles, Michelle Russell headed back to the Hollywood area via the new subway system which avoids all of Los Angeles’ crazy traffic. There were two stops she had in mind. The first was the site of Ma Lawlor’s School for Professional Children where Judy attended School with Mickey Rooney in the early 1930s. This building is gone and probably has been for a while. Meanwhile, there is so much construction of new, tall buildings in Hollywood, the old buildings are disappearing rapidly. 

Another important site in Judy Garland’s personal history is the St. Moritz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. This old hotel is the place the Gumm family stayed on their first visit to Los Angeles in 1926. Amazingly, this site still exists and it is still called the St. Moritz, but known as Apartments rather than a hotel. The address is: 5849 Sunset Boulevard. It’s quite amazing to imagine Frank and Ethel Gumm with their three girls, Mary Jane, 11, Jimmy, 9, and Frances, 4, residing  in this hotel so many years ago. Standing there for a few seconds you are able to travel back in time.

HOLLYWOOD TREASURES

Another place of note is the Hollywood Museum just off Sunset and Highland. This museum is situated in the old Max Factor Building. Max Factor created makeup which all the movie stars used in the old days. Factor's building was considered the height of elegance at the time. Today you can go in and see the make-up rooms where stars and others came to have make-up designed specifically for them. There are rooms for blondes, redheads and brunettes.

The Hollywood Museum contains hundreds of rare photos. It also has many costumes on loan from both classic and recent films. At this time, there are costumes on display from the films nominated for the recent Academy Awards.

Of special interest to Russell and Kelsch were some costumes said have been worn by Baby Gumm. The costumes were not marked and after further investigation we were informed by expert Woolsey Ackerman that these were worn by the little actress playing Baby Gumm in the made for TV film about Judy Garland, “Me and My Shadows.”

There were a few of Judy’s actual costumes on display, including the “Peanuts” dress from “A Star Is Born.” (The Judy Garland has on loan the hat from this costume on display here in Grand Rapids) and the wig Judy wore in “Babes on Broadway” for the “Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones.”


Coming out of the Hollywood Museum, across the street, there is a huge mural on the Hollywood High which portrays many of the stars who attended that school. The mural, which is quite stunning, shows Judy shown as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.”  

THE NEW ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES

On visiting the site where the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will stand, it was evident that construction is underway. The Museum will be located on the elegant Wilshire Boulevard in an area known as the ‘museum miracle mile.’ The designers plan to preserve the Wilshire May Company building façade – a beautiful store which opened in 1939 – an important year in film history.

The iconic entrance of the former May Company store with its many storied gold tower will create a classic entrance for the new museum. Interestingly enough, in the brochure about the new museum, there is a 1940 picture of young Judy Garland standing on the corner Wilshire and Fairfax, in front of this building! How appropriate.

John Kelsch had a very productive meeting with representatives of the museum. In the future, we hope to have some exciting news to report.

BACK TO GRAND RAPIDS and THE WIZARD OF OZ FESTIVAL 2016

John Kelsch is now back in Grand Rapids and plans are being put together for the 2016 Wizard of Oz Festival. Since this year marks 80 years since Judy Garland made her film debut, along with our celebration of The Wizard of Oz and events for children, we are working on some programs to celebrate Judy’s career and legacy. We promise to be back in touch with another newsletter within the next couple weeks.

JUST A NOTE:  Judy Garland is Turner Classic Movies APRIL STAR OF THE MONTH. Let's celebrate!   http://www.tcm.com/schedule/

Happy spring to everyone!

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