- Greensboro Memorial Auditorium -

Judy Garland Is A Hit In Appearance Here
By Dick Owens, The Greensboro Daily News

Precious few entertainers have earned the right to be called 'fabulous.' Judy Garland is one of them. 

She has proved it time and time again, and she proved it again last night at Greensboro Memorial Auditorium.

From the time she strode on stage after the crowd of cheering, pleading fans finally let her go after encores of 'Over the Rainbow' and 'Swanee,' she held around 2,400 people in the palm of her hand.

She caressed the words of 'You are Near' and 'You Made Me Love You' and a dozen other 'love songs.' Miss Garland's way with the words of a song even brought back the original feeling to 'You Made Me Love You,' the way it was before some band leader discovered it could be made into a jerky two-step beat.

She zipped through 'Zing Went the Strings of My Heart' and a moment later was pouring her heart into a terrific arrangement of 'Stormy Weather.'

It was like that all two hours and fifteen minutes of her show. She'd tell a funny story about a newspaper woman or a Paris hair-do that went wrong-her own experiences-and then she'd belt out something like 'Come Rain or Come Shine' with a wild, bongo accompaniment to follow with something sad like 'The Man That Got Away.'

After a rousing 'San Francisco' her first act ended, and she changed from a tight black dress with a hip-length blue jacket to tight black silk trousers with what appeared to be a beaded jacket with rich, lustrous colors.

Miss Garland apologized once for having some throat trouble because she had 'picked up a strange fungi in Atlanta,' but after a drink of water and a medication like a white cough drop she dived into her program again and came out sounding better than ever.

The crowd, when not enthralled by her song-selling, seemed to be awed by her ability to give, and give some more. When Miss Garland tried to say goodnight, hundreds of people crowded around the orchestra pit to beg her not to leave.

After the two encores, many comments sounded included: 'I could stay here and listen to her all night, but she's tired and I'm not going to keep insisting.' 

In the introduction of a song early in the program Miss Garland sang 'If you feel deceived, don't be peeved.' That drew some laughter for in switching the show from the Coliseum to the Auditorium (to have a capacity crowd rather than a one-fourth capacity audience, as would have been the case in the Coliseum) there were mix-ups in seating arrangements.

She thanked the crowd for coming to the 'pretty theater' and drew another laugh when she said she went to the Coliseum first too, found herself alone and reasoned that she was in the wrong place.

The Coliseum management explained after the show that Miss Garland's management suggested the change and would make such an announcement to let it know where the responsibility lay. No such announcement was made.