- Carnegie Hall -

Judy Garland Gives Concert at Carnegie 
 By Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram

Judy Garland walked out on the Carnegie Hall stage last evening and let them have it. That is, she let them have it as soon as they let her let them have it. 

They were mostly stage people, taking in a show on their night off. And being of that particular breed, they were, of course, demonstrative, They knew Judy and she knew them, so first of all they had to stand up, clap and holler. Judy frisked about, making her hobbing bows and looking wonderful in a black dress with a short bright blue jacket.

After the audience had warmed up to its own satisfaction, the little girl with the band looked as big as homecoming day in the Big Ten was allowed to proceed.

She smacked out 'When You're Smiling' with a volume that threatened to bend her mike stand into an inverted U. She followed with 'It's Almost Like Falling In Love' at possibly a trifle higher volume.

Then she cut down sharply for 'Do It Again,' singing softly enough to sound like a vocalist. Not quite satisfied with her tone, she said she evidently had picked up some fungi and needed water. So she went to the wings and got it. She sipped a while, twinkling at us over the edge of the glass, put the tumbler on the piano and went into 'You Go To My Head.'

Arranging nine specialists of the orchestra down front, she did four jazz songs to their accompaniment, after busily helping them get their furnishings arranged and making sure the drummer had his sticks. In bits like that Judy is endearing, with a singularly easy way of implying she is behaving impromptu while making sure you know every motion is carefully rehearsed. Her professional audience ate it up.

Changing into black tight slacks and another jacket, this one looking like many metals of many hues, she got to work again, feeling so good, she grabbed her conductor, Mort Lindsey, and danced a little with him. She brought on another glass of water, told a couple of amusing anecdotes and sang and sang.

"I wish I would perspire, but I sweat," she said confidentially, using up a string of handkerchiefs. If she had started with makeup she closed without it. Nothing could resist that mopping.

Her finish built bigger, stronger, louder as she piled up 'Stormy Weather,' 'You Made Me Love You,' 'Me and My Gal,' 'Rockabye My Baby' and other favorite lung splitters. She'd wriggle and hop and wave in front of her microphone until you'd swear she was manipulating herself on a string.

She'll be back in May. Try to get tickets. Just try. This kid is still a killer.

Judy Garland's 38 years together with her past avalanche of assorted troubles seemed to have rolled away last night as she sang in Carnegie Hall to a cheering sold-out house that rose when she made her first entrance on-stage. 

Slimmer than in recent years and dressed in knee-length skirt and blue silk jacket, she was once again the wistful kid with the powerful, heartbreak in her voice.

Whether she belted out 'Who Cares,' or 'Zing Went the Strings of My Heart,' or whether she sang with a thread of voice, 'Do It Again,' or her famous 'Over the Rainbow,' she put across the old Garland magic far more successfully than when she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 11, 1959.

Then it took her until the second half of the concert even to begin to recapture her old zing and it wasn't there in full force until the evening was almost gone. Last night the magnetism was circulating from the moment she stepped on-stage.

 At the Met she was puffy, fat and self conscious but now, merely healthily plump, she was able to charm and thrill her listeners, whether she kicked up a sexy leg, or told a story on herself about the "over-weight Balenciaga model hairdo" she got in Paris, or merely confessed as she kept wiping her face, "I don't know why it is I can't perspire, I just sweat."

The haunting poignancy was back in her voice when she sang in that unique, nostalgic style a song like 'Stormy Weather,' while the old vitality zoomed out in numbers like 'San Francisco.'

This was Judy's one woman show minus the assistants she had in her Met appearance, and she seemingly mesmerized her listeners from start to finish. the continuing bravos were shouted with the frenzied intensity of a voodoo rite. She was acclaimed not only for her singing but for her jokes, for teasing her orchestra of approximately 40 pieces and for poking fun at herself.

For the second half, she appeared with an upsweep hairdo, toreador pants and a sequined jacket. For 'Swanee,' she wore the familiar topper, otherwise she was hatless. During three numbers, 'You're Nearer,' 'If Love Where All,' and 'Foggy Day,' she sat down in a chair and in a relaxed Helen Morgan manner, sang to piano accompaniment. Then she topped this sequence off by kissing Mort Lindsey, her pianist-orchestra leader, and dancing with him.

Full of tricks, she pointed suddenly down front and said, "Come on, Harold, take a bow.' It turned out to be composer, Harold Arlen, looking with his fancy mustache like a French Count.

Judy is still wacky, from the looks and sound of her last night, but there's a difference. Now she gives evidence of putting all that wonderful zany quality on-stage and leaving it there when she walks off.
 
 

There was an extra bonus at Carnegie Hall last night, Judy Garland sang. 

She didn't have to, as far as the fans jamming the walls of the hall were concerned. The very overture, involving 'The Trolley Song' and 'Over the Rainbow,' was drowned in applause and when Miss Garland appeared she got a standing ovation that went on and on and on and on. Hers was a personal triumph right there. And then she sang.

And she sang, let it be reported, as she hasn't in years -- not at the Palace and not at the Met; she sang with all the heart that has been her hallmark, but added to it is a happy self-confidence that gives new quality and depth to her performance. It's a performance that deserves all the pre-commitment her very name evokes.

There's no blatant banking on nostalgia, even though all her standards are in the program, from 'When You're Smiling' right down to 'Chicago.' But the tuxed-and-chorus boys and smudged-faced-tramp routines have been set aside; there's only some joyous heel-kicking onstage, the donning of a top hat for 'Swanee' and some sef-derogating chit-chat in Bankheadish tones and good humor.

But it's a satisfying solo performance. For Judy Garland is a gal who can belt it out right over the brassiest band and belt it strong and true. And she can sit down with the pianist and whisper it a little and get that heart-pulling quaver on just the right notes. And she can swing it out with a jazz octet with a purity of style and true tempo that verges on the classic. 

This is a stylish and poised Miss Garland, slim-legged and big bosomed, chic in black sheath and blue jeweled mandarin jacket for the first half of the program and black toreador pants and a
sequined top for the second. She also has a stylish hairdo that collapses in no time at all with all her characteristic brushing-back of her bangs and her athletic enthusiasm in the depths of song. It is a gay Miss Garland and a sure one -- with plenty of reason for her new self-assurance.

Her ingenuous warmth dominates the evening, but there is neither coyness or girly-girlishness in her approach. She can jazz up 'Puttin On The Ritz' with a fine flair, bring down the walls with 'Come Rain or Come Shine' and bring a raucous half to reverent silence with 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby.'

Well, I can't give you anything but raves, Miss Garland. And it's a pleasure to note a repeat concert is scheduled for May 21.

The religious ritual of greeting, watching and listening to Judy Garland took place last night in Carnegie Hall. Indeed, what actually was to have been a concert - and was - also turned into something not too remote from a revival meeting. 

From the moment Miss Garland came on the stage, a stage, incidentally, on which have trod before her the immortals of music, the cultists were beside themselves What Billy Graham would have given for such a welcome from the faithful!

They were on their feet even before the goddess grabbed the microphone, and by the time she had bestowed the first of those warm smiles, they were applauding and screaming "Bravo!" Miss Garland could have probably ended the concert, right there and they would still be cheering. The fact is that at least a half a dozen times more during the evening the standing ovation plus screaming took place.

Whether or not this sort of unadulterated adulation was warranted is a matter a noncultists had better not discuss in public. And whether or not so professional a performer as Miss Garland requires the ritual to put on her mettle is questionable. But on her mettle she was last night as she went through a repertoire of favorites.

Looking trimmer and a good deal more youthful than she has in years, Miss Garland was always in control of herself. She soothed the tender songs, and she projected the loud one with all the vigor at her command. With 'Alone Together' or 'The Man That Got Away' she wove enchantment. With 'San Francisco,' 'Come Rain or Come Shine' or 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love' she whipped the adherents into frenzies of exaltation.

It was to be truthful, surprising that this audience was able to muster the pandemonium it let loose when Miss Garland wound up with 'The Trolley Song,' 'Rock-a-Bye' and included among her encores 'Over the Rainbow' and 'Swanee.'

Through it all she was the usual Judy; perspiring profusely ("sweat," she said candidly and more earthily) taking the usual sip of water, standing frequently in front of the microphone letter her voice convey her emotions with a minimum of gesture or movement; other times she skipped a bit, sort of dancing lightly with the rhythm, always making her audience feel - as one listener remarked - "as if she's singing just to you."

In any case, one thing is certain: old Carnegie Hall can take it and by this morning everything undoubtedly is serene again on West Fifty-seventh Street.
 
 

NEW YORK--Judy Garland received an ovation that rocked staid old Carnegie Hall Sunday night. In some ways it was more like a revival meeting than a concert because the ovation began when Judy first poked her nose onstage and swelled as she swept through a repertoire of standard songs and numbers like 'Over the Rainbow' and 'The Trolley Song' which are particularly hers. Later that night the faithful gathered at Luchow's to celebrate this latest re-arrival of the star. Judy, looking trimmer than she has in years -- and singing better -- was radiant when she arrived at the party in her honor to renewed applause and cries of bravo. The partygoers were mostly of Broadway and Hollywood and television. It was immediately announced that the concert will be repeated here May 21 and much of the material will be utilized for Judy's CBS TV special next December. 

There was a winning simplicity to the show that may make it her finest television effort. She did none of the routines she has leaned upon in recent years - there was no clown makeup, no tramp outfit. She stood up there and sang. People such as Dore Schary particularly talked of the simplicity of the show. "She used almost no gestures, just let that voice carry the evening." he said.