-  Convention Hall -

Judy Garland Songfest
 Draws Capacity Crowd
 By: John L. Boucher - Atlantic City Press

Only a Garland could have packed 5,000 person in the Ballroom of the Convention Hall. You had to use a side door to get in. You couldn't use the escalators and you had to climb two flights of stairs. The applause, the cheers the bravos said it was worth climbing to the moon.

Judy, as cute a little clown with her antics and stories as she is a singer, remindful only of a Jolson, with only a backdrop and an orchestra, carried the two and one-half hours of entertainment on her small shoulders with an electric spark that tingled through the audience from the $10 seats to the standees.

She walked on stage, a tiny figure in a red blouse sparkling with sequins over a black sheath. A plaintive figure against the big red curtain she faced an audience loaded with anticipation. They gave her a standing ovation and from her opening number, 'Smile and The Whole World Smiles With You,' to the finale curtain she never let them down.

The star of countless motion pictures, the 'Easter Parade,' 'The Wizard of Oz,' 'Meet Me In St. Louis' and 'A Star is Born,' neither pretty or plain, gay rather than glamorous, cradled her rapt audience on a cloud. If you were there you could feel it even if you couldn't understand it.

It was a trip down music's Memory Lane with such haunting melodies as 'Alone Together,' 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby,' 'San Francisco,' 'Swanee,' 'Stormy Weather,' 'Rockabye Baby' and other nostalgic tunes of other days.

Judy gave out and gave all. It was a beautifully shaded performance. Volume that made you wonder where it came from in so tiny a figure. Soft husky notes and sweeping tones from a voice with a tear in it. And the audience rode with every word.

They applauded when she broke into song, they hummed the words along with her, they stood in the middle of her numbers, they shouted bravos and when each song ended there was an ovation. The girl has magic and there was no denying it. What she did in Carnegie Hall, in London's Palladium, she did in Convention Hall last night.

It took her 'Over the Rainbow' number to loosen whatever emotions that still remained pent up. A tiny figure alone in a spotlight and hunched over the apron of the stage, she sang the words with all the pathos and feeling that only a Garland can.

Crying out the numbers last few words, "Why can't I?" Garland sent shivers through her audience. There was silence, then pandemonium broke loose. If she topped this number it was with her finale when she rang down the curtain with her Jolson routine. Even the old master of 'Swanee,' 'Stormy Weather' and 'Bye Bye Tootsie' would have taken her to his heart for the way she brought his song back to life.

Sid Bernstein and his associate, John Drew, producers, can take another bow. Mort Lindsey and his orchestra earn the accolades, but the show was Judy, the one and only Judy Garland.

Who else has the magic to draw 5,000 people up two flights of stairs to pack the Auditorium Ballroom in a town that is loaded with entertainment? Who else but Judy Garland could gross $41,000 at the box office in a one-night stand-in Atlantic City?

Curtain calls - Judy could have answered them until dawn.