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The 1960s
- Judy returned to the screen in 1961 playing
a cameo role in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, for which she received
an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress.
- On April 23, 1961, Judy triumphed at
Carnegie Hall. Many would call her appearance there the "greatest
single night in show business history." The double-album live
recording made of the concert was a best seller (certified gold),
charting for over 90 weeks in Billboard - 13 weeks at number one
- and winning five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year
and Best Female Vocal Performance. Judy duplicated the Carnegie
Hall concert "live" over 60 times between August 1960 and December
1961, from London, Paris, and Amsterdam to the Newport Jazz Festival
and The Hollywood Bowl. (At the latter show, a record-breaking
crowd of 18,000 sat outside in a steady rain for 2.5 hours; after
four encores, they refused to let Judy leave the stage and, when
she'd run out of orchestrations, made her repeat a song from earlier
in the concert.)
- Her "comeback" to television in a 1962
special with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin won CBS a new high
in audience ratings and virtually unanimous raves. It garnered
four Emmy nominations and was repeated by popular demand.
- Judy's final starring films were released
in 1963: A CHILD IS WAITING and I COULD GO ON SINGING.
- In 1963, CBS offered Judy a $24 million,
four-year deal to produce a weekly television series, "The Judy
Garland Show." Although critically acclaimed, the series lasted
only one season and went off the air in 1964 after 26 episodes.
However, the show won four Emmy nominations.
- In 1964, Judy appeared twice at The London
Palladium with her daughter Liza, and gave more than 80 solo shows
as well between 1964 and 1966.
- On November 14, 1965, she married actor
Mark Herron (divorced 1967).
- In the summer of 1967, Judy made a final,
four-week appearance at the Palace Theatre, working 27 consecutive
evenings - during which she broke her own box office record. Additionally,
there were over 50 other concerts during her 1967 tour.
- On July 20, 1968, Judy gave her last
U.S. concert in Philadelphia.
- From late December 1968 until early February
1969, she fulfilled a five-week engagement at London's Talk of
the Town nightclub. Though frail and increasingly ill, she missed
only three shows during the 30-performance schedule.
- On March 15, 1969, she married nightclub
owner Mickey Deans.
- In March 1969, she gave her final concert
in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Album releases in the '60s included:
JUDY: THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1960), JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL (1961),
THE GARLAND TOUCH (1962), JUST FOR OPENERS (1964; soundtracks
from her TV series), JUDY AND LIZA LIVE AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM
(1965), and JUDY: AT HOME AT THE PALACE (1967).
- During the 1960s, Judy also appeared
as a special guest on more than 20 television programs, including
"The Hollywood Palace," "Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall," the Jack
Paar, Sammy Davis, Jr., Ed Sullivan, and Andy Williams shows,
among others.
- Judy Garland died in London on June 22,
1969, at the age of 47.
- In 1997, Judy Garland was posthumously
awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
- JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL was inducted into
the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998; "Over The Rainbow" (1939) and
her cast album of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) have also received
that Grammy distinction.
- "Over The Rainbow" has since been voted
Song of the Century as well as the No. 1 film song of all-time.
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