I don’t know much about football and I’m not crazy about brushy type so I drew some funky deco shadowy type instead for Judy’s debut feature film!
Judy, billed 13th, plays a hillbilly melon-thrower’s musical kid sister who propels a Texas college to a singing, dancing, and gridiron victory.
Judy had been signed at MGM through the interest of Louis B. Mayer’s secretary, Ida Koverman, who discovered her singing with her sisters. The studio tested her and another contract singer, Deanna Durbin, in the musical short Every Sunday, then decided to drop both. Koverman and executive Benny Thau intervened on Garland’s behalf, but with no projects under development for the pudgy 14-year-old, the studio loaned her to 20th Century-Fox, her only loan-out during her 15 years at MGM.
When the film was released, the public and press praised Judy’s talents and memorable numbers. This was the final impetus for MGM to include Judy in a film made on her home turf. That film would by Broadway Melody of 1938. More on that in just a few days!
The following is a performance from the film of what I would call her very first of many torch songs that were written for her throughout her career. (She hadn't quite mastered lip-syncing to pre-recordings yet...)
