Judy in Baltimore in ’68: It was ‘heartbreaking’

The legendary Judy Garland clearly was not at her best.

“She had trouble getting through her first song and for that matter, getting about the stage,” Evening Sun critic Lou Cedrone wrote following her Feb. 18, 1968, appearance at the Baltimore Civic Center. “Miss Garland seemed to be as unsure of foot as she was of lyric.”

By that time in her career, the 45-yearold Garland, the subject of Renee Zellweger’s Oscar-nominated performance in

“Judy,” had become notorious for her hit-or-miss stage shows. On a good night, few could top her, with her magnificent voice and commanding stage presence, not to mention a repertoire that stretched from “Over the Rainbow” to “Get Happy” and “The Man That Got Away.”

Other times, the drinking or the drugs were too much, and their effects showed.

That February night, “She could scarcely walk; she balanced herself as on a tightrope, faltering with each step, until she reached the microphone; then she clung to that with both hands,” Gerold

Frank wrote in “Judy,” his 1975 biography of Garland.

Garland told the audience she was sick from food poisoning. Her fans tried to pull her through, gathering in front of the stage, reaching out, handing her flowers, shouting “I Love You.”

Garland managed a few more songs, exited, then came back for an encore, sitting on the stage and singing “Over the Rainbow.” “I think I finally made it,” she told the crowd when it was all over.

Frank called the evening “heartbreaking.” Garland died 16 months later.