Happy 100th Birthday, Judy Garland!

Judy Garland, born Frances Gumm on June 10, 1922, would have been 100 years old today!

Although Judy and Clark Gable never co-starred together, they were both on the MGM roster and Judy’s big break into stardom was because of her singing her adulation for a certain Mr. Gable.

At the beginning of 1937, 14-year-old Judy was contracted to MGM but they didn’t really know what to do with her. She was extremely talented, yes, but was too young to sing romantic songs. Judy was set to appear on the radio show “Ole Maestro,” a radio variety program run by Ben Bernie. The vintage torch song “You Made Me Love You,” written in 1913, was re-worked to be “Dear Mr. Bernie” so that is sounded like Judy was a lovestruck fan in love with Ben Bernie. Before she could appear on the program, however, the perfect opportunity to show her talent off to the MGM brass appeared. Louis B. Mayer was throwing a surprise birthday party for his number one male star, a certain Mr. Clark Gable. All the top MGM executives would be in attendance. The song was quickly re-worked to be “Dear Mr. Gable.” (Hey that’s a good name for a website….)

So, on February 1, 1937, Judy sang “Dear Mr. Gable” for the first time, sitting on a piano there on the set of Clark’s film Parnell. Judy later recalled it was her first real case of stage fright. Clark gave her a big kiss after she was finished. Mayer hugged her and immediately had dollar signs in his eyes.

From a fan magazine, February 1937:

Judy Garland sang a song called “Dear Clark Gable,” an open fan letter to Gable from a movie fan who fell in love with him on the screen. With this lead, Judy then goes into a ditty, “You Made Me Love You—I Didn’t Want to Do It,” and then back to the love letter, concluding with “You can have Tone, Colman and Taylor–compared to Gable–all they’re good for are trailers.” Given a chance on the radio or in picture, Judy Garland will be a big star. She’s the same age as Deanna Durbin.

Afterwards, Clark gave Judy a charm bracelet with a little gold bracelet charm that was engraved “To My Best Girl Judy from Clark Gable.”

I also found one mention that he gave her a gold compact inscribed “To Judy Garland, my favorite actress. From Clark Gable.” Never seen the compact so we’ll go with the charm bracelet story.

Another fan magazine mentioned:

Judy Garland won her way into the gallant Gable heart by getting up blithely on a platform at the MGM Convention Ball and singing a song which she dedicated especially to Clark. It was called “My Fan Letter to My Favorite Stars”. Gable was there—with Lombard, and so he couldn’t show his deep appreciation to Miss Garland right then.

But the other day was Judy’s birthday and Clark came through–with an enticing charm bracelet, and a lot of other gifts, among them a book with his own photograph in it. Bet Carole’s worried!

Judy sang the song a few more times for theater owners and exhibitors and at the Café Trocadero. Each time it was met with tremendous applause. Confident she’d be a hit, Judy and “Dear Mr. Gable” were given in a spot in MGM’s ensemble film The Broadway Melody of 1938. Judy was a hit in the movie, even overshadowing Eleanor Powell and Sophie Tucker. MGM never again had the problem of not being able to find Judy anything to do.

From this 1948 article, The 10 Greatest Gable Stories:

Judy Garland’s maybe Clark’s staunchest fan. When she was a pudgy kid of fifteen, she carried a torch for Gable, and Roger Eden wrote her the song called “Please, Mr. Gable.” She sang that as she’d never sung any song before, and once, Clark had her do it.

She didn’t know he was listening, or she’d have sunk right through the MGM soundstage floor. But three years later, Clark showed up at a birthday party for Judy. How he knew she was having a party or even that it was her birthday, she’s never figured.

But there he was, and she was so terrified she couldn’t even squeak “hello.” He handed her a package wrapped in ribbon. “I can’t sing or make speeches very well,” he said, “but, Judy, I’ve wanted for a long time to thank you for one of the nicest things that ever happened to me. The song—” then he turned and was gone.

“I almost dropped the birthday gift,” Judy told me once, long ago. “Glad I didn’t. It was a record. Clark had spent the whole afternoon—I found out later—making it. I sneaked away from the party to play it and it’s still my prize platter, because Clark said to the recording mike what he was too bashful to say to me.

“How nice he thought I was, how he’d watched me—known for a long time I’d make good as an actress—how he loved to hear me sing, oh, a lot of things embarrassing to tell, but very easy on my ears. I sat and played it again and again and cried and cried. What a wonderful birthday! And all the time I’d never suspected that Clark Gable knew I was alive and on the same lot!”

She sighed. “The sweetest man ever to make a picture—and one of the shyest…”

To the young stars who’ve grown up around him at MGM Gable’s been the one Hollywood hero who summed up all their hopes and ambitions.

Judy popped up again the following year to sing “Dear Mr. Gable” at Clark’s 37th birthday party on the set of Test Pilot. I wish there was video of the event but we do have a great photo of Clark grabbing Judy in a big bear hug after she sang.

In 1941, Clark Gable was pictured alongside the top MGM youngsters–Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple–on the stairs of the iconic Irving Thalberg Building on the MGM lot. (Yes it’s still there, although it says “Columbia Pictures” over the door now, sadly)

At the end of 1941, Clark and Judy were the #2 and #3 strongest stars at the box office–only trailing Judy’s frequent co-star Mickey Rooney as #1.

After years of hearing Judy sing to him on his birthday, Clark surprisingly popped up on the radio on June 10, 1942 to read a poem to Judy on her birthday. It obviously wasn’t written by him but is a sweet gesture nonetheless. And it speaks a lot that he showed up to do it in 1942, as at that point he was rarely in the public eye after the sudden death of his wife Carole Lombard.

In 1949, Clark and Judy were pictured together at MGM’s grand 25th Anniversary party.

Clark didn’t attend too many premieres in his later years, but he and the-future-fifth-Mrs.-Gable Kay Spreckels showed up for the grand premiere of Judy’s A Star is Born on September 29, 1954 at the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. (Random fact: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard attended the premiere of the Janet Gaynor version of A Star is Born in 1936!)

Clark made a point to go over to Judy and greet her in the theater.

In November 1960, Judy learned that Clark Gable had died while at her home in London, per the newspapers on November 17, the morning after his death:

LONDON–Judy Garland almost broke down today upon hearing of Clark Gable’s death.

Miss Garland, who now is making her home in London, described her once-popular song “Dear Mr. Gable–You Made Me Love You” as a high spot of her Hollywood career.

“I have lost a great friend,” she said. “He meant such an awful lot in my life and in my career.”

Sadly, Judy herself would be dead before the end of the decade, at the age of only 47.

No post about Judy would be complete without her singing what is undoubtedly “her” song. Here in 1943 on the “Command Performance” radio program.

“As for my feelings toward ‘Over the Rainbow,’ it’s become part of my life. It is so symbolic of all dreams and wishes that I’m sure that’s why people sometimes get tears in their eyes when they hear it.” ~Judy Garland