- Houston Coliseum -

Judy Garland, Fans Could Sing All Night
By Mildred Stockard, The Houston Chronicle

Judy Garland returned to Houston Wednesday night to sing her heart out before a Coliseum audience of some 7,500 devoted fans and to receive the same adulation that marked her first performance here about two months ago. 

They snapped her picture. They laughed at her jokes, cried a little over her sentimental ballads, applauded when she skipped about with little dance steps, or clowned with the musicians when the orchestra was being rearranged. 

They even sang along with her when she asked.

And at the end of her two-hour performance, they rushed to the stage to be near her, to touch her and to beg for encores.

The petite entertainer with the melting brown eyes knows how to establish a rapport with her audience, so she almost succeeded in converting the huge Coliseum into an intimate theater.

Her informal manner created the impression she was not really performing, just entertaining old friends.

Yet she is a finished showman, in full control, giving just enough variety to keep her audience happy, interspersing tender ballads with torch songs, sitting beside pianist orchestra leader Mort Lindsey to sing some unfamiliar Noel Coward and Rodgers & Hart songs, or calling on the audience to sing with her.

The audience loved it all. They loved her when she whispered into the microphone "I'm going to take a sip of water - talk to each other."

They adored her when she casually asked "Do you like 'A Foggy Day?' I do," and then sang it with characteristic feeling

But they were most demonstrative over the old familiar songs, such as "San Francisco," "Stormy Weather," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "The Trolley Song," "Swanee" and of course "Over the Rainbow."

She could have sung all night, and her audience would have been right there with her.

She was brought to Houston as before, by J. David Nichols.

A couple of months or so ago, when Judy Garland sang here I reported we'd go a far piece before we'd see such audience reaction to such a great show again. 

Well, we didn't have to wait so long after all.

Judy came back last night, and the show was a carbon copy of what had gone on before. Only this time it was in the Coliseum, where more folks could attend - and they did. More than 8,000, the largest I can remember since back in the World War II days, Shen Fink's Mules could fill the Rice Stadium.

It really was a carbon copy. Standing ovation upon first arrival, several during the show, and a rush to the stage to crowd during encore period.

As a matter of fact, she still may be singing. I left at the end of "Chicago," figuring I ought to get this into the paper.

There's only one way to put it: Judy was simply great. She has a magnetism that attracts an audience, and all she has to do is to walk on stage to get the roof lifted.

It's not peculiar to Houston, either. I was at her Carnegie Hall concert in New York, and it was the same.

A traffic jam in the lobby and something ought to be done to get people through the doors quicker - held up the show until a 8:35 kick-off, making for a somewhat impatient audience.

However, when the overture ended, and Judy bounced on, the crowd belonged to her. Even mike failure didn't bother them or her. She simply started "San Francisco" over again with a new mike, and all was happiness.

Judy sang upward to 30 songs, ranging from a pin drop quiet "Do It Again" to a belting "Rockabye My Baby" that shook the fire station next door. Man, can she wham a song.

Her program this trip didn't vary, with the same songs, and the same ad lib's in the same places.

She forms her jazz group for a few, sings along with one the piano with "quiet numbers for this intimate room."

Judy's a great gal, a prime favorite, and I actually believe she could come back next week, fill the place again. - HOC.