- Lexington Memorial Coliseum -

Veep to Head Derby Notables
Louisville, Ky., April 29

--Ancient Churchill Downs is preparing for one of it's biggest Derby crowds Saturday - well past 100,000 if the weatherman co-operates.

Heading the list of guests for the 79th running of the Derby will be former Vice President and Mrs. Alben Barkley and Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey.

The list of governors includes Lawrence Wetherby of Kentucky, Mennah Williams of Michigan, Frank Clemments of Tennessee, John Fine of Pennsylvania, Frank J. Lausche of Ohio, Allen Shivers of Texas and Francis Cherry of Arkansas.

From filmland will come Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell, Judy Garland, Charles Coburn and Phil Regan, and singers Morton Downy and Vaughan Monroe.

Senators James Duff of Pennsylvania, Homer Capehart of Indiana, and Earl C. Clemments and John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky,  will be here from Washington, as well as the Spanish Ambassador, Jose Felix de Lequerica.

Crowds attending Derby week racing are larger for the early part of the week than in recent years, and downtown Louisville is beginning to jam up with visitors.

Restaurants and bars are doing a brisk business.  Prices are going up and portions are getting smaller.

Mint juleps, the old reliable Derby Day thirst quencher, are making their appearance earlier than usual.  Most Kentuckians, however, prefer their bourbon straight and leave the fancy stuff to the visitors.

Clyde Troutt, trainer of Royal Bay Gem, joins in the wide admiration for Native Dancer.  "Anytime a colt wins 11 for 11, he has to be something special," Troutt said.  "I don't care if it is at Wappinger Falls Fair and you can time him with an alarm clock."

There have been more requests for Derby Day breakfast reservations in the main clubhouse dining room than ever before.  Says Joe Stevens of the catering firm:  "We could sell out the place to the Texas delegation alone." 

Judy Garland, star of the Blue Grass Festival opening program Wednesday Night, will arrive this morning from Hot Springs aboard the C & O George Washington.

Miss Garland first of the festival stars to arrive, will be accompanied by her husband Sid Luft who, while here, will plan locations for the filming of a full-length movie based on the Man o'War story.

The Luft's will be guests of Mrs. Ed Moore at Circle M Farm.  Her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Cathcart, already have arrived in Lexington and are stopping at the Campbell House.  Cathcart is Miss Garland's Hollywood musical director who conducts  for her at personal appearances.

He flew to New York yesterday for a rehearsal of Vaughn Monroe's orchestra, which will play for Miss Garland.  Vaughn Monroe and his troupe will arrive here by chartered plane Wednesday.  En route, Cathcart will conduct the orchestra in a rehearsal and will conduct for Miss Garland's show Wednesday night when the Monroe orchestra will be augmented by a string section from the Louisville Symphony Orchestra.

James Colligan, New York, producer of the Blue Grass Festival program, last night announced two additional features for the Thursday night show starring Bob Hope, who is expected to arrive Thursday.  Hope will stay at the Campbell House.

The additional entertainers are Nicholas and Julia Darvas, a dance team, and Allen Dean, British singer.  Colligan said the entertainers were signed on after Morton Downey canceled his engagement here because of illness.  Marilyn Maxwell and Buddy Murrow and his orchestra also are billed for the Hope show.  In addition to Vaughn Monroe and his Camel Caravan troupe, Frank Fontaine, comedian, is slated to appear on the Judy Garland show.

Sammy Lambert arrived last night from New York to handle the staging of the two festival shows.  Lambert, who directed the summer opera at the Iroquois theater in Louisville in 1938-39-40 and was director St. Louis Municipal Opera the five years prior to that, has staged several Broadway shows, among them the musical version of "Seventeen."

Judy Garland came to town today, amid less fanfare than most visiting celebrities receive and prepared to start rehearsals for her stage show at the Coliseum Wednesday night.

The petite actress-singer was "quite impressed" by her first sight of Kentucky.  She had heard is was beautiful, she said, "but it's hard to know when people tell you how lovely it is."

Miss Garland arrived by train from White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where she and her husband, Sid Luft, have been vacationing.  She was wearing a navy blue full coat, buttoned at the neck, with the sleeves pushed way up; navy blue calf opera pumps with very high heels, and what she described as a "little navy blue faille dress with white polka dots" and white china beads.  She had a brilliant red scarf around her neck, and she was hatless.

She carried a copy of the new novel, "Corpus of Joe Bailey," on its way to becoming a best seller.  She has not finished the book, but she likes what she has read of it.

Little publicity had been released about the time of her arrival in Lexington, and the dozen or so policemen who were there to control the crowd just about outnumbered the spectators.  No autograph seekers were present.

Miss Garland was met by Mayor Fred Fugazzi.  Hugh Meriweather, President of the Blue Grass Festivals, four or five photographers and several local movie theater officials.

Miss Garland will appear at 8:30 p. m. Wednesday in the first of two shows brought here by Blue Grass Festivals, Inc., a new organization which plans to import big star entertainment to Lexington as a pre-Derby attraction each year.  Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell will appear Thursday night.

The dark-haired, brown-eyed singer is surprisingly small.  She is only five feet, one inch tall, and it's hard to believe such a little girl can have such a big voice.

She has not yet seen the Coliseum and she does not know exactly what her program will include.  There will be medleys of songs she has helped to make famous, however, and she also will sing "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby to a Dixie Melody."  There probably will be songs only - no dancing, although she is an accomplished dancer - but "you never can tell."

She planned to start rehearsals with her pianist this afternoon.  Her brother-in-law, Jack Cathcart, few to New York Monday to rehearse with Vaughn Monroe's Orchestra, which also appear on the Wednesday night program.  Cathcart will direct the orchestra when Miss Garland sings.  She has never sung with the orchestra before, but she knows Monroe and "he's a very nice guy."  A string section from the Louisville Philharmonic orchestra will augment the Monroe Orchestra for her numbers.

While she and her husband are in Lexington, they will be the guests of Mrs. Edward S. Moore at Circle M Farm.  Luft had known Mrs. Moore previously, but his wife met her for the first time today.  The man who was best man at the Luft's wedding and his wife will arrive here this week and will also be guests of the Moore's.

The Luft's will see the Kentucky Derby Saturday, Miss Garland has no betting choice, since she "doesn't know much about horses," but the Derby sounds "like fun."  She has not seen Native Dancer, but she has seen Correspondent run.

After the Derby, they will return to White Sulphur Springs to continue their vacation.  Luft is competing in the golf tournament there.

After that, they will go back to California.  Miss Garland will start rehearsals in June for her new movie, "A Star is Born," for Warner Brothers.  Her husband will produce the film, which is a remake of the story made famous by Janet Gaynor.

It will be her first film since 1950, when she made "Summer Stock."  Shooting will begin in August.

Luft is also working on a film story of the life of Man o' War.

Miss Garland recently recorded two albums for Columbia Records, which will be released in early May.  The songs are "new ones nobody has heard of," and they are her first records in about four and a half years.  Decca Records released an album of Garland songs after she did a very well received  vaudeville show at the Palace Theater in New York some months ago, but they were all old recordings.

Wednesday, by the way, will be Judy Garland Day in Kentucky.  Gov. Lawrence Wetherby has issued a proclamation marking the day in honor of Miss Garland's "charming ability to capture audiences with her superior and distinctive musical talents" and her "outstanding contribution"  to the entertainment world in which she is established as a top ranking personality.

Judy Garland, the vanguard of the stars who will appear on the Blue Grass Festival programs, arrived yesterday morning by train and, after an official welcome, went to Circle M Farms, home of Mrs. Edward S. Moore, where she will be a guest until after the Derby.

Miss Garland has top billing on tonight's show at 8:30 o'clock, first of the two-night festival at Memorial Coliseum, which also will feature Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra and entertainers Frank Fontaine, comedian.

Bob Hope, star of Thursday night's show, will arrive at 2:00 p.m. Thursday by plane.  Marilyn Maxwell, on Thursday's show, also will arrive Thursday by plane at 12:06 p.m.  Buddy Murrow and his band and the dance team, Nicholas and Julia Darvas, also will arrive Thursday.

Vaughn Monroe and his troupe are expected to reach here about 1 p.m. today aboard a chartered plane, and will leave after the performance tonight. 

Some of the stars and show executives here for the festival will remain to attend the DErby as guests of Gov. Lawrence Wetherby, one of the incorporators of the Blue Grass Festivals, Inc., and of Bill Corum, Churchill Downs President.

Among them will be Miss Garland and her husband, Sid Luft; Bob Hope; Marilyn Maxwell; James Colligan, the producer of the shows, Mrs. Colligan and their children, Saun and James Jr.; Verne Alves, Miss Garland's personal representative and Ken Morgan, her press representative.

Colligan announced last night that festival tickets will be on sale today, tonight, Thursday and Thursday night at the Coliseum in addition to the Lafayette Hotel and the Campbell House.  The box office at the Coliseum will open at 10:00 a.m.

Nostalgia was all over the place last night at Memorial Coliseum.

Judy Garland with a voice as big as the Coliseum itself, was informal, gay and wistful.  She sang the songs that made you remember the Judy of "Wizard of Oz" and "Meet Me In St. Louis."

And in the first half of the show, Vaughn Monroe and his band took it easy playing "Tenderly" and "Varsity Drag."

Judy wasn't on for very long, it seemed - it was a short second half - but the show was hers.  She wore a simple, fluttery-skirted  green dress with a black jeweled bodice, and high heeled black shoes.

The shoes came off onstage about five minutes later, with "They're new and they hurt."

The band introduced Judy with a medley of her most famous songs.  She sang a little song about coming to the Blue Grass Festival, and the Derby, and Kentucky.  Spreading expressive arms, she murmured, "Ooh, it's a big place."

She talked a while about her life's being tied with her songs, with vitality showing through a little hesitancy in her speech.

Then she sang the songs everyone remembered.

Bursts of applause greeted "You Made Me Love You," "Me and My Gal" and "The Trolley Song."  She sipped water, mopped her brow, and came back to sing "Rockabye Your Baby To A Dixie Melody."

Saying, "Let's settle down and go to work," she sang "Pretty Girl," first as an Irish ballad and then in a jazzed -up comedy version.  Then she talked, a bit breathlessly, about her run at the Palace Theater in New York.

"Let's pretend that this is the Palace - with red plush curtains and crystal chandeliers and the white and gold boxes..."  Then Judy sang again, "Shine On Harvest Moon," "Some of These Days" and "My Man."  She took impromptu dance steps with "I Don't Care" and "Liza," and then she and the band did "Get Happy" as an audience request.  Monroe said "This will be a terrible fiasco," but it wasn't.

Her famous closing number, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," is a beautiful bit of showmanship.  Looking like a wistful little girl, Judy sits on the edge of the stage, holding her knees, and you remember Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz."

Then, "Let's sing one more, huh?" and she started  "My Old Kentucky Home."  And the audience of about 8,000 joined with her in singing the second chorus.

Distractions all during the show came from the haphazard lighting and the sound control.  The first 10 minutes of the Monroe section were almost inaudible because of lack of volume and the noise of latecomers. 

Monroe opened with his "Racing With the Moon" theme.  He and the Moonmaids and Moonmen presented several numbers, then the band played "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue."  Comedian-Juggler Bobby Winter's juggling act was fine.  The band's "An American in Paris" featured some fine brass solos, with both clarity and depth.

Tickets for the Bob Hope show, at 8:30 tonight at the Coliseum, are on sale at the Lafayette hotel and at the Campbell House, and will be available at the box office tonight.  Marilyn Maxwell, Buddy Morrow and his band and dancers Nicholas and Julia Darvas will also be on the program.