Renee’s under the rainbow for Judy premiere
As a new film shows the triumph and tragedy of Judy’s last concerts, her assistant tells of the battle to coax her to perform
RENEE Zellweger certainly knew she wasn’t in Kansas any more at the soggy London premiere of Judy last night.
But the star didn’t let the dismal British weather ruin her fun and sheltered under a rainbow brolly as she posed on the red carpet.
Renee, 50, has been tipped for Oscar glory for her portrayal of tragic actress Judy Garland in the new biopic.
The Bridget Jones actress told how working on the Rupert Goold-directed film was “a joy” – even though it took 20 people to transform her into the much-loved star.
Poignantly, the premiere was held at the Curzon Mayfair
– close to where Judy performed one of her last shows. Renee portrays the actress aged 47 in 1969, months before she died of an accidental overdose.
She also sings Judy’s hits, which include Over The Rainbow – the song from 1939 classic The Wizard Of Oz, which made the then 16-yearold an overnight success.
But despite the awards buzz, Judy’s daughters have vowed not to watch the film – which also stars Chernobyl actress Jessie Buckley.
Cabaret star Liza Minnelli,
73, wrote on Facebook: “I have never met nor spoken to Renee Zellweger. I don’t know how these stories get started, but I do not approve nor sanction the upcoming film about Judy Garland in any way.
“Any reports to the contrary are 100 per cent fiction.”
Her half-sister Lorna Luft,
66, says she is “really protective” of her mother’s legacy. She added: “If you really want to know about my mom, go see her movies, go listen to her recordings and go watch her shows.”
‘Between the studio and her mother, Judy couldn’t cope. Vulnerable, she’d lost her confidence’
STANDING in the wings of London’s famous Talk Of The Town cabaret club, a nervous Judy Garland looked out at her expectant audience. She’d been a huge Hollywood icon for three decades, starring in The Wizard Of Oz, Easter Parade and A Star Is Born. But by the age of 46 and addicted to drugs and alcohol, that all seemed so long ago.
“I can’t go on. I just can’t do it,” she told her production assistant Rosalyn Wilder, at one of her shows in January 1969.
Rosalyn recalls what she would say in response: “Of course you can. You’re Judy Garland!
“I’m here and I am not going to move, so you go on and if you get into a crisis and feel like you can’t do any more, then come off because I’m going to be here and we will talk it through. If you don’t want to do any more it’s fine.”
It was Rosalyn’s job to make sure the star made it on to the stage during a five-week cabaret residency in the Leicester Square club, and she reveals sometimes it would take more than just words of encouragement.
As we sit in the very same venue where Garland performed 50 years ago, now London’s Hippodrome Casino, Rosalyn recalls she had to coax her on stage with the promise of pills – though she never once handed them over to the troubled star.
Rosalyn says: “She had this little bottle of pills and said, ‘Can I have some water?’ And I said, ‘Yes, of course you can’. Then she said, ‘I’m just going to take these’.
“But I told her, ‘I tell you what, let’s do a deal.You give me the pills and you go on, and I’ll hold the pills because you don’t really need them. You’re absolutely fine. But if when you’re on stage and you really can’t go any further without the pills, I’ve got them in my hand so you can always come back and get them’.
“So I got her on – and she didn’t need them in the end. I knew that once she got on stage the chances were that she would stay on. It was getting her on stage that was the hard thing.”
Six months later, in June 1969, Garland was found dead in the Belgravia flat she shared with fifth husband Mickey Deans.
Her tragic demise is the focus of a new film, Judy, starring Renée Zellweger as the Over The Rainbow singer and Jessie Buckley as Rosalyn.
HER former production assistant was at Talk Of The Town for 20 years, and is now a grandmother. She is one of the few people who had an intimate insight into what former child star Garland – real name Frances Etherl Gumm – was like.
“My first impression of her was that she was tiny. She was absolutely minute,” says the 80-year-old from north-west London. “This is a woman who’d been used, abused and kicked around and made to feel as if she wasn’t worth a dime.
“And she was struggling. I tried really hard to be nice to her and to be kind to her and to encourage her, to make her feel that she could do what she was here to do and in a way to believe in herself.”
Garland was in the spotlight as young as two, pushed to perform by her mother, Ethel. According to biographer Gerald Clarke, Ethel was the first person to introduce her daughter to pills – even before she had turned 10. By the age of 17, when she starred as Dorothy in the Wizard Of Oz, Garland was addicted to barbiturates and amphetamines. Rosalyn says: “Lots of people should’ve been held to account. Between the studio and her mother, Judy couldn’t cope. She was vulnerable. She had lost all of her confidence. “When people slap you down all the time and say, ‘Oh you’re drunk again’, or ‘You’re on those pills again. Look at your hair, look at this, that and the other’ you lose your confidence. The thing that makes us all feel good is when somebody says, ‘You’re looking good this morning’.
“So I thought it was important to show her kindness.”
One of Garland’s most talked-of performances was a particularly bad night at the Talk Of The Town on January 23. Garland’s doctor had advised her not to perform but, not wanting to let down her fans, she still made it to the club – albeit an hour-and-a-half late. She may have been an
‘We’re talking of a legend of light entertainment whose talent should be celebrated’
icon, but the audience was unforgiving. In an attempt to win them over she opened with I Belong To London but she was met with cruel heckles and a barrage of bread rolls and cigarette packets.
“When she was an hour-and-a-half late and they gave her a hard time, she would just shrivel and fall down,” says Rosalyn. “I could only cringe. What else is there to do?
“You can’t walk on stage and say ‘Don’t do that’. You just stand there and hope they will stop. Burt Rhodes, her musical director, would just play the music and carry on.
“When she came off after it went badly, I was never going to say to her, ‘That was dreadful’. I’d just say, ‘Are you OK?’ She never said anything afterwards if it went badly.”
But many of Garland’s shows at Talk Of The Town proved she still had that raw and special quality.
“She had an extraordinary talent, she really did, and she was a great, great entertainer.
“And she’s a still a legend because you can still listen to that voice and hear the magic.
“She did have some wonderful nights here. She enjoyed it when it went well.
“That was when you could really see what she was – inside there was still that glowing ember that was Judy Garland. She absolutely transformed as soon as she got on that stage. She’d come off and I’d say, ‘You smashed it’.” When Rosalyn was first approached by filmmakers to consult on the new Judy biopic she had her doubts. “I said: ‘Please don’t make a film exploiting her’ because she had been exploited all her life.
“Her death was the end of a terrible, terrible indictment of the way people had behaved towards a human being. It was unforgivable.”
So Rosalyn spent time on set meeting the cast and director to make sure the film did Garland justice.
She reflects modestly: “If I had any influence on the film at all, I hope it showed we were talking about one of the greatest legends of light entertainment in the 20th century, whose talent should be celebrated.”
Looking over the banister of the former Talk Of The Town, Rosalyn says: “This building is still special. It was an incredible venue and a lifestyle.
“This was my home from home – I spent more time here than my actual home. And I can still feel the magic, even now.”
●●Judy is out in cinemas tomorrow.