From the Archives: Catcalls and curtain calls for Judy Garland

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From the Archives: Catcalls and curtain calls for Judy Garland

On May 22, 1964, the legendary Judy Garland boarded a Qantas jet for Hong Kong, ending an Australian tour made notorious by a chaotic appearance at Melbourne's Festival Hall.

By Staff reporter
Judy Garland leaving Chevron Hotel for Mascot on May 22, 1964.

Judy Garland leaving Chevron Hotel for Mascot on May 22, 1964.Credit: Harry Martin

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 21-23, 1964

"You're late": catcalls to Judy Garland
(SMH, May 21, 1964)
Melbourne, Wednesday.

An angry crowd shouting, "you're late," greeted Judy Garland when she arrived for her Festival Hall performance before a crowd of 7,000 tonight.

She was due on stage at 8:30pm. She did not arrive until 9.30 pm.

As the minutes before she arrived ticked by. The crowd remained generally quiet.

There were a few slow hand-claps.

Then Judy Garland appeared.

She ambled slowly across the stage, smacked the conductor on the head, took his baton and conducted her 30-piece orchestra.

Sections of the crowd stamped their feet, cat-called and shouted.

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"I love you, too," Judy said.

Performing at Festival Hall.

Performing at Festival Hall.Credit: John Lamb

"You are late," someone shouted.

"I could not get out of that hotel," Judy replied.

A woman shouted: "Give her a chance."

The conductor, Mort Lindsay, pointed his baton at Miss Garland and the orchestra broke into "When You're Smiling".

Them Miss Garland sang.

Within minutes most of the audience had forgiven her.

By the end of her fourth number she was completely in control of them.

After the show, Miss Garland kept police waiting 25 minutes before she left the stadium. They had to hold crowds back from her car.

Quiet Farewell For Judy Garland: 15 Fans At Airport
(SMH, May 23, 1964)

Judy Garland, accompanied by American actor Mark Herron, left Sydney last night by Qantas jet for Hong Kong in a surprisingly quiet scene at the airport.

Only 15 fans farewelled at Mascot, but about a hundred people waited for her outside the foyer of the Chevron Hilton Hotel.

Her quiet departure last night was in contrast to arrangements made earlier in the day to get her aboard an aircraft which left Sydney for Hong Kong at 11.30 a.m.

Customs, police and airline officials took elaborate steps to ensure that Miss Garland was farewelled without fuss and with dispatch.

But she did not turn up.

Later, an announcement was made that her booking for the morning flight had been cancelled.

Fans who had waited for hours to farewell her dispersed.

It was the fourth time Miss Garland had been late for Australian appearances.

Remained in hotel

She was late for her performance in Sydney, late for her appearance in Melbourne on Wednesday night and late for her flight out of Melbourne on Thursday.

She remained in her hotel suite all day yesterday and refused to see anyone.

At 9 last night, hotel security officers were told Miss Garland would soon leave the hotel for the airport.

But it was 10 p.m., and many false alarms later, when she appeared.

People on their way to a ball in the hotel crowded the foyer waiting for her.

Finally, Miss Garland, smiling but looking drawn under a huge, floppy hat, stepped out of the lift.

She strode quickly through the crowd, clasping at the hands held but to her by dozens of people.

There were dozens of warmly spoken farewells: "Goodbye, Judy, come back." and, "We love you, Judy."

She arrived at the airport driven straight to a private reception room in the overseas terminal which faces the tarmac.

When a crowd of reporters gathered outside the room, her agent, Mr S. Field, arranged an interview with Miss Garland on condition that the reporters would leave immediately they were asked to do so.

Would Like To Come Back

In the reception room Miss Garland was seated by herself.

Miss Garland said she was leaving with good impressions of Australia.

"I would like to come back," she said. "I don't think my fans got a fair impression of me."

Asked if she had been given fair treatment by the Press, she said: "Not quite."

She said a non-committal answer to every question except whether she would return and whether she planned to retire.

To that she smiled, and said, "Oh! Are you offering any money?"

The reporters were then told the interview was at an end. It had lasted two minutes.

Miss Garland waited with friends in the reception room.

She appeared, smiling and happy, at 10.50 and crossed the tarmac to board the plane.

She posed for photographers and waved to the few fans seeing her off. She was dressed in the same yellow coat and hat she had worn when she arrived.

Miss Garland and Mr Herron were the last passengers to board the airliner, which left on schedule at 11 p.m.

NEW YORK, May 22 (A.A.P.).— Miss Garland's Wednesday concert in Melbourne and her departure from Melbourne on Thursday made headlines in the United States and the United Kingdom. "Riled Aussies hoot Judy off stage." headlined the New York "World-Telegram" in a long double column story on the front page. New York's largest circulation evening newspaper, the "Journal-American," ran the story in the middle of its front page under the black heading: "Judy Booed Off Stage."

"Curtain Catcalls"

The tabloid "Post," which carried a local headline and a picture on its front page, put the story over three columns on page three with the headline: "For Judy: Curtain-Catcalls"

In London, Miss Garland's dramatic night flight from Melbourne was told in front-page stories and pictures in several national newspapers. The five-column headline on the front pace of the "Daily Herald" said: "Tour ends with concert fiasco—and unhappy fans see her leave... Judy is dragged to her plane."

Judy Garland at Kingsford Smith Airport last night before leaving by Qantas for Hong Kong.

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