Dolls! Dolls! Dolls! by Stephen Rebello

Author:Stephen Rebello [Rebello, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

It’s Judy!

Judy Garland reported for preproduction meetings early on the morning of March 27. Despite being emotionally depleted, reeling from messed-up marriage number four with gay actor–tour promoter Mark Herron, the recent loss of her eight-bedroom Brentwood neighborhood home at 129 Rockingham Avenue, and being what daughter Lorna Luft (then virtually her caretaker) called “homeless broke,” Garland appeared lively, enthusiastic, and gracious during a day devoted to makeup tests and costume and wig fittings with, respectively, Ben Nye and Ernie Parks, Travilla, and Kaye Pownall.

For Garland’s introductory backstage dressing room scene as Helen Lawson, Travilla had created a white and red swirly-patterned ensemble featuring oversize culotte-style leg panels over matching red slacks; that costume was rejected but modified subsequently and sported by Barbara Parkins in Anne Welles’s Gillian Girl TV commercial. As an alternative, Travilla had also created the “power suit” costume seen in the film, having it fabricated in five different solid colors, including forest green and tangerine. But before Garland’s arrival, Weisbart, Robson, and Travilla had already opted for the visual exclamation point they hoped the crimson version would deliver.

David Weisbart casually introduced Garland to some of the key crew members, and she was shown to her dressing room on the set, positioned—who knows if deliberately?—directly across from Patty Duke’s identical one, which Duke described as “doghouse-sized.” Duke, “thrilled beyond imagination” by Garland’s casting, said, “The first time Judy arrived, it was like going to Mecca. She was charming and, oh, very funny. We had a few days where we had gotten to know each other. She made me laugh every time she looked at me. I worshipped her.” Reporting back to the 20th lot on April 14, Garland appeared playful, nervous, and self-conscious while filming further wardrobe and wig tests with designer Travilla and Robson. As the surviving footage shows, at least her sense of humor hadn’t failed her. For Scene 24, set in Helen Lawson’s theater dressing room, Garland, sporting a smart red jacket and skirt accessorized with a gold chain belt with suede ankle boots, gets asked by Robson to turn her face to the wall. “Without a cigarette and a blindfold?” she quips, to little audible response. She appears to be trying to personally engage the crew, but although they were polite, the mood seems strictly business, as if she and her coworkers are not exactly on the same wavelength. When the camera moves in for a closer view, she laughs, “You’ll pardon me but I do get the giggles.” For a scene set in Lawson’s apartment, Garland models a shimmery iridescent caftan accessorized with a gold bracelet and matching lavalier earrings; she wonders whether she resembles “a fiery, burning monk.” Holding a cigarette, she models the beaded paisley emerald and coppery pantsuit for Scenes 229–237, the scenes culminating in the wig-pulling blowout in the powder room of a New York restaurant.

Garland got through these preliminaries well enough, but as her filming start date approached, her old demons began pitchforking her. Patty Duke

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