Elderly members of DL, what is your fascination with Judy Garland?

NOOOOOOOOOO. Why bring her up again?! You don't know what you've started.

I've never been a huge Judy Garland fan. I recognize that she was a great performer, but I've never felt any fascination for her. My partner, on the other hand, who is in his thirties, went through a Judy Garland fanboy period in his late teens/early twenties, and amassed a sizeable collection of Judy-related items. He's no longer as interested as he used to be, but I still wouldn't want to diss Judy in his presence.

Judy was a mentally ill, washed -up has been. She was an attention- seeking, child- abusing, drug-addicted neurotic, Most of her pain was self-induced. She wasn't the only one Mayer had on pills and they didn't end up like her. She oversung and overacted. If it weren't for the old queens who bow down at her altar because her camp repertoire appeals to their feminine disposition and her melodramatic life mirrors their own piteous existence, she'd be long forgotten.

"Elderly members of DL, what is your fascination with Judy Garland?"

Reminds me of my childhood watching her old movies on tv maybe? IIRC, The Wizard of Oz was always shown on Easter Sunday. We were Catholic, so it was kind of like "Saint Judy." Of course, I had no idea about who she was in real life.

"Does is it also bother you that her relevance even with gays is softly but steadily declining?"

Sure doesn't. No one is immortal. That's death, baby!

" I don’t believe the young gays care about her or Babs that much. They’ve been replaced by more modern Pop Stars."

Sure, the Kardashians are pop stars of a sort.

Gay men are just catty and bitchy gay men in women's body

I drunk posting must be.

Or Yoda I am.

Gay men are just catty and bitchy women in men's body

Gay men are just catty and bitchy gay men in women's body

I'm sure that makes sense to you

Garland was the Whitney Houston of the 60's. A train wreck of a woman who went from one self induced crisis to the next and ruined her talents and her life with drugs.

Mamma was shso musch fun! Yesh she wash! When we had no money for food she'd make up a song about it! It was all so swell! We'd play this marveloush game when we sshtayed in hotelshs. We'd dressch up in all out clothessh and throw our ssshuitcashes out the windowsh and walk right out the front door of the hotelsh! Oh what fun we had! And when mamma went to sleep for three daysh and sshat hershelf in bed, we'd play Slsheeping Beauty. Jazz hands!!

I was molested, Joey likes blue

Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

Rah, rah, rah, you write the same sentence every time we have a thread about the old windbag. I certainly don't identify with Judy Garland thankyou. I can't sing and I'm not a drug addict for one.

Judy loved us, she cared for us, she felt our pain! The only thing Judy Garland cared about was where the next pill was coming from!

I’ve seen you post this somewhere else but Whitney was beautiful and Garland was every bit as ugly as she was told so the comparison is poor r9

My fascination with her is her talent. I don't care about her place I'm history, or what other gays currently think of her. She was an amazing singer, and a funny raconteur.

Her relevance isn’t declining that much if she still gets a major motion picture about her life made 50 years after she died.

The kids icons today are so much more talented, and so classy....... Lezzo, TakesnkiXXXm Cardigan, just talent and class falls out of their assholes

Oh yeah, music is so much better now that it's been replaced by computer-generated noise.

What r16 said.

She was a fag hag, diva, messy, funny, sensitive - all of which came out in her music. Whitney was homophobic closeted bisexual.

[quote] What is your fascination with Judy Garland?

Because she can SING, you fat whore!

r21 Whitney was never homophobic. I never heard her say anything negative about the LGBT community and Robyn remained one of her best friends until the 2000s despite whatever issues she had excepting her own sexuality. Luther Vandross was also one of her best friends.

She did the Gay Pride parade in ‘99:

And she could dance and act.

Talent, talent, talent. Yes, Judy had more like wit, humor, empathy, relatability, endurance, perseverance, etc., etc. But the bottom line is that Judy was an extraordinary talent. And a lost talent at a relatively young age when she had endured so many challenges is irresistible to the public. Judy was one of the greats, plain and simple.

"The rest of us will be forgotten. Never Judy."

(Turns out, Frank was right. The rest haven't been forgotten, but Judy reigns above the rest.)

'The Wizard Of Oz', 'Meet Me In St Louis' and 'Live At Carnegie Hall' pretty much answer the question.

'LACH' has been called 'the greatest night in showbiz history.' The recording, and accounts I've read, most certainly back that up.

Judy's up there with all the other greats - Frank, Billie, Ella, Aretha. And holding her own, at the very least.

Why do you care what others think, OP? This post reflects more on you than it does anyone else. What's so mysterious about it? Familiarity's the word. Simple. Some day the stars of today will be forgotten like Judy. Personally? I can take her or leave her. BUT I can understand why some people still love her, even some millenials and Gen Xers that we don't know of. Stars of today just don't shine as brightly as they did yesterday. I'm talking about showmanship, fan service, star quality/the IT factor, the dedication to their craft. It's just not there anymore, but I think we're just at low point, and in the next couple of generations when the old power structures, the anti women, anti gay, pro profit industry players die off and the Millenials and Gen Xers are controlling the entertainment industry. In fact, after Weinstein's professional demise, we're already seeing the gunk and goo clearing out and making way for truly talented people. Gone are the days when the public was force fed talentless twits like Jlaw and Knightly. Now, you're gonna really to be talented to be noticed, but it's not going to be overnight. It'll take years, maybe decades. Until then, I'm just fine with Judy.

I'm almost 50 and I've never felt any connection with Judy. My Judy was Marilyn Monroe in my late teens, though. She felt like a kindred spirit, much more than any male celebrity at the time. It might've been the result of homophobic bullying I'd endured a few years earlier and made me attach myself to a safe and messed up non-sexual mother-like figure from the past whose life story served as a sort of sanctuary. And Marilyn merchandise was everywhere which made the whole worshipping thing quite easy.

I lost interest by my mid 20s but sure there's still some kind of connection after all these years. In my own way I do get why Judy and Babs mean so much to some gay men but personally I still don't feel I have anything in common with them.

I don't know her....

Wasn't Monroe dead long before you were born R29?

Nobody cares about that fat whore lipsyncher at R30.

R31, she was but I fell in love with her after reading Gloria Steinem's Marilyn: Norma Jean which had just been released. I'd been vaguely interested about Marilyn before that but it was the biography that really made her my soul sister.

Judy Garland fans are fat, bald, effeminate old queens who swan around their mothers' basement in caftans singing The Trolley Song. Imagine Nathan Lane in The Birdcage, wigcap without the wig.

HOW DARE YOU say anything derogatory about OUR Judy! She was perfect. She is a SAINT!

I’ve seen you post this somewhere else but Whitney was beautiful and Garland was every bit as ugly as she was told so the comparison is poor

I was comparing their behaviour, not their appearance, you daft cunt

She had "it." No one can define what "it" is, but she had it. She could make you laugh, break your heart, and sing her ass off. It's just talent - simple as that. Liza was the same way. Lorna had the pipes (probably better pipes than Judy or Liza), but she never had "it." At best, she was a serviceable actress and performer. You were never drawn to her the way you were drawn to her mother and sister.

Judy and Liza had something almost ethereal. Anyone who can stand on stage with just a microphone and an orchestra and keep an entire audience in the palm of their hand for 2 hours has that special kind of talent that's not handed out very often. I don't even think Streisand has it (at least not anymore). There are times when you want to nod off listening to her sing and say her over rehearsed patter. There's nothing that feels alive and passionate and from the gut. Judy and Liza were always performing from the gut and the heart.

R37. Bravo. Perfect assessment of Judy and Liza. Astonishing talents.

I disagree about Barbra and Lorna. Barbra most certainly had/has it. Lorna has it inside; but she lived through it and didn't want it as much as her mother and sister. so she pursued a calmer life.

Thank you R38. I should have probably mentioned that I do believe Barbra has that same "it" quality, but she's been suppressing it for so many years now. She seems so scared of not being perfect at all times, that she can't relax and let her natural gifts and instincts guide her performances. I'd love to see her give one final brilliant performance before she dies where she just lets it all go. Maybe she could play someone nasty and mean or someone who has no vanity.

Judy is more relevant than ever. The last time she charted a hit was in 1945 with "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe"

She's got a top ten hit on the Billboard charts this week, 12/14/19, with a remix of "The Man That Got Away."

As a kid and teenager, I could not connect the young Judy Garland of "The Wizard of Oz" with the grown-up Judy Garland on the TV shows with short hair and singing Big Band songs and stuff. They seemed like two completely different people to me.

Im 30 and I love her. LACH answers it all.