In her new memoir, Liza Minnelli reveals that her mother, Judy Garland, once tried to have her removed from the stage.
In her upcoming memoir, “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!”, Liza Minnelli recounts that her mother, Judy Garland, once attempted to push her off the stage during a joint performance.
According to the “Cabaret” star, the incident took place during a show at the London Palladium in 1965, when she was just 18 years old. At first, her mother seemed excited about her performance, but grew increasingly dissatisfied as the show went on.
In an excerpt from the book published by People, the 79-year-old Minnelli says she could hear praise turn into complaints. “After my first song on opening night, I heard her shout, ‘That’s it, darling! Knock ’em dead!’,” Minnelli writes in her autobiography.
“After the second song, there was another ‘That’s it!’, but not quite as enthusiastic. By the third song, let’s just say the enthusiasm was already fading.”
According to Minnelli, after the third song Garland lost her patience and tried to have her removed from the stage; “I heard her whisper to our producer, Harold Davison: ‘Harold, get her off my stage!’,” she recalls in the book. “I kept singing to thunderous applause while my mother boiled with rage.”
For the “Cabaret” actress, that night Garland put her star status above her role as a mother: “I had a stunning realization,” she says. “I started the evening as my mother’s daughter. Now I was on stage with Judy Garland.”
Even so, Minnelli describes having had a very close relationship with Garland and says her mother always encouraged her to find her own path in the arts.
Judy Garland was one of the most iconic figures of Hollywood’s Golden Age; the unforgettable Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” died in 1969 at the age of 47 from an accidental overdose of medication.
Images: ElevenLabs reproduction, YouTube @AllAboutJudy. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
