LIZA MINNELLI on JUDY GARLAND — Diva on Diva

who's this little guest of ours right here hello Liza going to shake hands with art and you're have you found any treasure yet no treasure yet uh-huh your oh oh oh where's your where's your mother your Judy Garland where's Judy today do you see yourself are in show business like your mother well the thing is I don't really want to be a star in the true sense of the star I just I like working in the theater I enjoy it and it makes me happy do you have any lessons to learn from from your mother's own working children she's taught me a great deal bet me Aguilar anything from her mistakes as well as from her achievements yes I had most of the mistakes that have been made but I've been around have not been her fault I've seen her get pushed around you know and I'm sure she doesn't want that to happen to me are you related to anyone in show business kind of mr. sir would your mother be one of the greatest singers in the history of the Capitol well you might say that well I guess we well now don't we [Music] John don't you think somebody ought to say something about the fact the cases one person listening who doesn't know what the advisor is the daughter of Judy Garland in case my father is listening in to you thank you I don't know that you were there opening night but it was darling to watch mr. Minelli on the stage singing a song and looking down at Judy in the fourth or sixth row wherever she was whenever she finished the number it was as how was that okay mom you both must have been shivering together well I don't know what she was doing but I was terrified it's funny when you're sitting under lights and it's funny talking about your mother because you feel that you oh I feel a little bit like she used to feel you owe the public a certain amount of drama and a certain amount of you know whatever about her when you're really what you really know about her is that there was that very undramatic dramatic side in other words it was it was dramatic on other people's standards but we didn't live on other people's standards nobody in Hollywood did you know it's a whole different set of rules and values and you have to take that into consideration too I don't think people want to hear necessarily sometimes about her humor I think they'd rather just know the sad side of her we always lived like we have millions mm-hmm we really had money but we that didn't seem to faze mama we just you know I've collected things now from all over the world that have been confiscated in hotels because we never paid the bill and they confiscate it so we just leave see the trick was to get out before they discovered you know that we didn't have the loot there were there all's in extremes the changes that our life had for instance if we were living one way rather than change it slightly we would change it completely totally once you got out of something start over again in a in a really new way that's one of the things she believed and that's what kept it interesting most of the time you know because one minute we'd be you know living someplace and borrowing somebody else's house for interviews bringing in all the pictures and quickly setting them up shooting the kids at home hello in a totally strange out see just with our pictures that we turn on and the next minute we'd be living you know like down at the beach I was in jeans you know it's just very inconsistent she reached every generation because of her energy and because of her level of communicating with people mama rarely and never around the kids use profanity but when she did use it it was always funny you know I don't know like well we what happened was we were in some place crazy like Lake Tahoe and we went into the ladies room there was an old drunk lady in there yeah it was just you know with the sequins traps I'm one of those Dame's and then she said Oh Judy you're a terrific yeah Judy the rain bank I'd always remember the rainbow then she went into one of the stalls the lady knocked on the door said yes said do never forget the rainbow cat it's helped me through somebody crisis isn't read each other well mama came back then she went up to it the lady went up to mom and said I just wanted to say hello and mom looked at her and said hi right which made me start to giggle now she's going on and on and on about the rainbow in about this and that and what it dear little girl and how it's there and as we're going out she had on this incredible long feather boa somebody given her as a present which was way too big for cuz she was tiny you know she came up to here on me and the last thing that this lady said again was don't forget the rainbow Judy and Mama turn and come through the bow around to something she said how can I forget the rainbow I've got rainbows up my ass I saw her once with an audience and she sat down she was very horas you know and they started over the rainbow and I thought oh it's gonna it's gonna hurt her cuz it hurts when you sing in your horse uh and she said the whole thing but like a fairy tale like she was telling the audience of story she didn't recite it she talked it to the audience not at them to them you know for them and it's incredible and then she asked them to sing and they sang it which is really L tearjerker of your dreams you know standing in the wings holding the mints and everything with my little tray waiting for her to come up and to hear an entire audience singing and see her just sitting there smiling super now the film camera in this country anyway this establish you very much as person you learn right as opposed to Judy Garland's daughter in a way yes but see I'm I never mind I'm very proud of my mom you know and being people's it sounds so ominous when somebody says people used to call you judy garland's decides like the son of director what are you talking about my mother was a genius the only thing that ever gets me upset or annoyed or even of time it's when I'm put in the position of defending her because I feel she needs no defense I think what people are saying is how much of you your mother's daughter how much of your mother's I was in you I don't even know whether you can answer that well she gave me so much as a person though because when I told her that I wanted to be in show business she said well you're on your own kid you know and really just said you have to do it by yourself and learn so she never really was there and that didn't bother her this kind of she had a sense of well it's gonna happen it's gonna happen so you've just got to realize there's a need similar in the kind of entertainment you get for people to find a very vulnerable spot to make to give you problems because it's very identifiable but she had an enormous strength and I think she passed that on to me but I wouldn't change one second of my life not one I think it was a most what about stability we had sure we had more stability than regular anybody I know today people would say but you never had a home if we were together on a plane we had a home how come because mama never left us anywhere she gave us the choice from we're all real little so now here's what we can do cuz I'm gonna have to be bombing around the world I can put you in school and come back to you every you know I'll be back here all the time I can take you with me now why don't you discuss it between the three of you and whatever you decide I'll do and we all immediately said we want to go what you do about school we went we went to school wherever we landed 22:22 school yeah she never left us anywhere that we were always together I mean English and full of love and laughter for each other it was very important she's terribly witty she's one of those brains that just thought in a different pattern that like knows how hard for you to be mama - mama no we had a deal you know what's called hey by the way if I fall down would you mind picking me up and the people then I'll do this anyway noodle chat yeah but that's okay but mama would never work with me on my craft because she wanted me to do it by myself whatever I learned from mom I learned from watching a genius liza minnelli is a star and a big one in her own right she is no longer just Judy Garland's daughter and yet much of Judy Garland is in Liza as it is with Judy's other children Lorna and Joey loved they are a great deal to their mother and they are deeply devoted to her even though their life with mama was a whirlwind of different homes different places different people but Liza Minnelli told me even with all the instability there was always somehow security in the family let's just take it hypothetically if it is true that she was bananas you know Laura and I and Joe should be in a nuthouse somewhere and we're not we're I think rather happy I know stable and enthusiastic kids and that's because of her so she must have done something right that's the point she must have done some she must have somehow put you in such a cotton batten of love did you knew pretty much who you were along the way and intelligence she gave us a great sense of thinking things out of what how would help you through your life what would give you the courage the sustenance the mind energy and the humanity to keep going Liza who knew your mother best well everybody thinks they knew her best every single person that she ever came in contact with thinks that they are really the only person that ever knew her but did they know her no well she was a kaleidoscope you know and she was very material she could she was one way with one person and a completely different way with another person she knew herself do you think I think she probably knew herself better than anybody else Newark Jack Kennedy and she apparently were good friends yeah and I mean just good friends yes was family friends you know the whole look we spend a couple of summers and we spent actually just one sentence in Hyannis Port with all of the kids and all of the sisters and brothers and our our family and we and when he was president she used to talk to him on the telephone once a week or so probably once a week it was he was dear with her and she was terrific with him and at the end of the conversation you don't say ok sing me the last 8 bars and she'd sing the last eight by zip over the rainbow and he'd say all right I can go on you know seriously very very sweet to her and she never made that public because she didn't want to you know cash in on anything like that Lisey you said that she needed someone to cry over her never saying that hmm really she said a great thing one of her phrases that she said to me was attention must be paid and I think that's probably the best way of explaining it she gave so much up on that stage you know she she gave everything she had and she need to be revitalized by people paying attention to her because Liza's mother was the first father super super super stars [Applause] Lycidas said she has a good story good story involves kind everything because as you know mama was the original Dorothy in the movie now my husband's father was the original Tin Man so I you know it's daughter of Dorothy son of 10 men now Jack comes in to New York and he wants to go and see the Wiz and he said to his father come on you got come with me and his father had a reaction that was not uncommon no he's you know he was in there he was in the the real thing he said I'm not gonna go see anything I'm you know the only thing was the movie in a big that's great what are they doing so for the rock music in this method I'm Jack dragged in there kicking and screaming just really just wow now he's sitting there and he's not just the show he really starts to like but Jack has to translate all the street talk to million seniors one of the all-time great so by his boots translate into his dad at the end of the show they cut him up on this stage yeah and he merged up and they said tonight ladies and I was so proud to have the original Tim men from the film was abuzz with us Jack Haley well the place of and he walked out and just was so proud and he did a marvelous thing he said you know this was the last year that I played him these were the last boards I was on but I played over the 46th Street there I played the majestic and I was at the apparent for a while though and he made everything in all this shows so I feel like I've got rights to pass judgment I'm old enough and cranky enough this shows terrific my Jack is saying how's he gonna get off cuz he's a writer Renzo what's he was and he said something wonderful he said I know that Marvin Laura is coming and I know that a lot of people from me have been here and he said I'm only sorry that uh Bert and Judy didn't just walk [Applause] I remember being with my mother once and she was she just hated then she especially hated believing waiting backstage let's not go back she said we have to my nerves were shrieking jingle offended what is she gonna say because she could sell out spoken during the whole thing in the audience to me and we got back then she said how do you do it every night my mother gave me my guts my father gave me my dreams and the combination seems to work you know by guts I mean she gave me a go do you can do it encouragement both of them always encouraged me but she gave me feminine strength and my father gave me a world of colours my mother took me and I was 13 and I saw Bye Bye Birdie and they were all kids up there on this stage and they were dancing and they were singing and it looked like so much fun that's what I decided that's what I wanted to do so my my original ambition was to be a chorus dancer and then I found like I said before that you can't in America you can't get a chorus job unless you can sing and act so I had to learn how to sing because I didn't have my mother's gift of a natural voice but at that time my mother was lonely and she wanted me to stay she wanted me to come home and it was just at the time in my life when I couldn't go home i I I had to do it and I said mama I have a contract I've signed a piece of paper and she said break it and I said I can't do that too many jobs depend on it what about the other people and then she said uh-huh you make me mad but I admire you laser is guru Susan a didn't it that yeah really no bomb meeting of some Swiss on the cat I'm rotten on dates no of course much but tell me what happened whatever I do what was the wrong bit enough son yeah alone Oh pallid young oh yes yes ESCA city Lee la première fois googoo shonky a big good for me we never what it was a wonderful experience wonderful the whole thing was wonderful you know the press have always tried to make it sound like my mother and I were you know like what most mothers and daughters go through which is rivalry maybe I can put it a simpler way it takes usually in Europe is different but in America with all of this women's lib and this this whole thing usually a mother and a daughter goes through three or four years of I'm gonna do what I wanted to but for God's sake no you know it's that thing of a woman that when the mothers realizes that the girl is a woman and she views her as another woman it's it's a lot to take for a mother I I went through four years in two hours on that stage with my mother we got it all out of the way it was all it was like I went through that whole terrible period that people go through four years in two hours I went through with my mother and it ended up beautifully and I had more fun and she loved it and she was she touched me so much because she was such a mother she was such a beautiful mama and so caring about all of us my sister my brother and I and I'm her first child she's always said you know that you're my first um you know whatever and whatever rivalry we ever had only demonstrated itself in our own minds on that stage nobody in the world saw it but the two of us went through it so every time that the press has ever said we were rivals or like before you said their mother didn't want you to do carnival and this that and the other was it - it's a different thing it's a different thing she she had magic and she realized that she had infused that magic in me as she had said look at that sunset my God look at that moon Jesus look what a beautiful sky that is and I'd understood that and she was a little surprised that I'd understood about the you know the the vibrancy of life and it all came out and at the end she ended up being terribly proud and happy see I grew up with my mother constantly teaching me about her fears she once said to me watch me and when I get upset when I get depressed when I get disillusioned learn from it you know I'm the best example of what I don't want you to do and I always respected that how the the press and various people have tried to make me sound like I frivolous or even promiscuous and I'm not I was instilled with probably the highest moral values that I've ever heard of by my family and I've stuck to them but I learned another thing from my mother one time I was on the school bus I was going to school and I passed a newspaper stand and I looked at the window and it said Judy Garland runs naked through her house trying to kill herself and all of the children on the school bus started to laugh at me you know and I I knew that wasn't true because I'd been with her and I went home and I was crying because the children had been so mean and I said mama it's not true you have to tell them you have to you have to tell them it's not true so that they can write it differently in the paper so that so that they won't misunderstand and she said no let them build a legend I'll live by my own morals how do you feel about the constant paracin how do you feel about the fact that almost everything that's written in any depth about you has something to say about that the relationship between you and your mother the fact that you are your mother's daughter the fact that she was who she was and then you became who you well it's kind of stopped as you know now around but at first it was heavy because at first I wasn't very good I mean I grew up I had to develop in front of everybody kind of you know see I grew up in a very demonstrative family mama was constantly telling us that she loved us cuz there were hard times when she didn't have time to so when she did have time there was a lot of touching a lot of hugging a lot of I love yous we could make such beautiful music together where do you think the image the public image of you came from the image of the dilettante the image of the the woman who begins her evenings at 2:00 in the morning in in Studio 54 or some other club some other disco and some other city where did that that tinsel image come from I inherited a little bit from my MA you know who also was not what people thought I mean she was one of the funniest most optimistic brightest people that I've ever known and anybody you talked to who knew her will tell you that she was the kind of woman and again this is may disappoint people but it's the truth she just synched inner singing somewhere over the rainbow and we were in some theater when she was doing that huge concert to her you know why oh why can't I and the curtain came down and she's just trailing forehead shop and I walked out to kind of help her up and she said do you want Chinese food and when I would always in school you know in school kids are mean you know they can be very vicious and they kind of repeat sometimes with their parents said so if they would say oh your mother is a you know or drunk or your mothers of this that I'd come home and tears and she'd say tell them that they're a big square and then tell them and then don't say anything she said let the legend build let it build it doesn't matter you and I share interesting phenomenon which are a lot of phenomena but we shoot we share an interesting one and that is we are constantly forced by the nature of the way people probe our lives to face the same questions I mean I get what's it like to be blind every day somebody says that and you get you know what was it like to be quote the daughter of right Knight Vincent and Judy and so for those folks who don't really understand give me your sketch of your mom nobody else's just yours just what's difficult about it what's difficult about trying to tell people about it is that it was perfectly normal to me because I had no basis of compare that was your frame of reference yes everybody else was somebody else's son or daughter where I grew up everybody was somebody famous as son or daughter so it seemed perfectly normal to me and it's hard to make it about understood to the public but it was just like nothing else cuz they wanted to be dramatic and it wasn't tell me fun things just fun stories more words that you shared that you wrote that you I remember things about my childhood that was special tell me special stories was special stories come on I like to cook she hated to clean up right right but when she cooked everybody had to leave the kitchen except me you were the cleaner and she cooked she was like a short-order cook she'd cook a shepherd's pie but I'm telling you the kitchen would look like a hurricane it hit it after she was finished and I remember those days you know when she'd would decide to cook they're very clear in my mind she said where's the wooden spoon where's the spatula now watch this I think we'll put corn in it this time I'd say I'm saying corn so yes it'll taste great don't worry about it and then we would sit down and have this beautiful meal and of course she had sent the cook home and she never made if we can afford it was a good time good time everybody would eat and we and they go in and watch TV and I knew it was my job to go but I didn't mind because I loved watching her do it and she had such fun doing what she have people come to that or was it just something yes damn one and it was just family you did yeah Laura Joe and man and that was it you know she did it for us in further obviously these are terrific things and and every person hopes for moments like that that they can treasure people because of the nature of our business have made much too much out of the negatives but they were there like in anybody's life do you have feelings about that stuff now I mean in retrospect about the the anguish that you did see your mom go through no my feelings are I really gonna talk about it I agree I'm really talking about and I'm bored with people and making people through talking about it get off on somebody else's anguish mm-hmm that's not what I'm about mm-hmm and that's not what she was about and life goes forward not backward and and in the end is it fair to say that for good or bad times you you in the sense benefited from all of that Oh indeed I did is there a perspective that people should have so we can put this stuff away and deal with Liza Minelli greatest female talent on earth is there a perspective yes there is tell me the perspective is that they should just look at any of her films look at the stars born look at the Wizard of Oz look at meet me in st. Louis listen to Judy at Carnegie Hall remember what that tiny woman because she was only you know fired from one person could give and what did what she did give to them and the immense enjoyment that she gave to the world I think and that's it Bennett should be put away that's what she left she left her love here and she touched anybody everybody in the world she touched my hasn't seen the Wizard of Oz the now legendary girl in Minnelli duo in 1965 on London's Palladium were you on that stage with mama or were you on that stage with Judy Garland star well halfway through it changed it started that was on the stage with my mother Joan she was darling to me and I was just darling to her and we were having a wonderful time together and I knew she was very nervous it was you know that first time that she performed in quite a while that was the only reason I was there and everything was just fine and suddenly it shifted on me and I thought I'm on stage [Music] [Music] Oh Kevin crowd I can be lonely [Music] and I kept up because I have that kind of spirit that was you know she gave me that kind of spirit and it was I'll never be afraid to be on stage with anybody as long as I live after that [Music] [Music] it's not easy to have grown up being Judy Garland's daughter but take it from me it wasn't easy growing up not being really about it wasn't I don't think it's growing it's easy growing up being anybody's daughter do you know what I mean it's just that the whole world happens to to say to you what if if you weren't a famous person's daughter what would happen in a small community it just Ted the community happens to be the world in this case she didn't give you any handouts oh no not at all and she always told me that she didn't because I didn't need them I've always had the feeling that you loved every single minute of it all things you know being equal and that you wouldn't have missed being Judy's pal for the world is that true yes it's true I think a lot of that bill and hindsight and again china isn't b-level here I think I put some of that on even when I didn't like it I think I said I did because I thought I felt you know people are always trying to make it a heavy duty load to carry and as long as I could believe that it wasn't that heavy I was all right so you start to just fight back a little bit more as people keep saying gee but wasn't it often you want to say no you know and you end up saying it like that you know no it wasn't awful when you're really in reality when I mean what you want to says yeah I was a little hard but it was okay do you ever wish the press and the public would leave the garland myth alone and leave you alone well that's her problem it's not mine she dealt with it fine you know it's it's not my responsibility anymore it's not my problem okay Liza you have tamed that little girl in you you're making her understand that's not your problem have you done that a lot a lot of hard work and a lot of soul-searching and a lot of mistakes and a lot of lying to myself and and paying the consequences for it Jack Paar once said something that just absolutely dazzled me he was talking about your mother's funeral and he said Liza took care of everybody and made everybody feel the loss a little easier she took care of everybody but herself how come Liza you couldn't make it easier for yourself when you were so good about everybody else I didn't have time it just wasn't time you know and things kept getting me angry but like I would go up in the elevator after coming back from the funeral home or whatever I was you know trying to organize and the elevator man was saying my nerves and I said stop it everybody did my grieving for me I mean nobody once said and I'm not really complaining cuz I understood nobody once said I do okay except for my family and my godmother came and people were closed but in general people were so upset that I wasn't any room for me to be upset you know well did you feel any guilt now this is gonna sound like a classic analytical quip didn't do you feel any guilt that your mother was dead and you were alive and you had to justify being one to stay on this earth no none of that no I didn't go I missed that one see I should think about that good no I did miss that I got around that because um I know how my mom felt when I look at my brother and sister and she's say this to all of us that we were the proof that she had lived that she was a good woman and that she counted and she left all of us with that mm-hm she left you with something else she left you with very cemented ties to your brother and your sister Barry what do you think it was that your mother did that kept you guys so close together Lorna joeys you just with her you know we grew up together we weren't farmed out we weren't we didn't have to talk to other people we were a unit family unit and I know how important that is if I could walk you down your mother's old yellow brick road take you to the wizard what would be the one wish for yourself that you'd make that you wouldn't ask me another question about my mother [Music] you [Applause] when you were growing up your mother had some health problems - did your relationship with your mother give you any insight into the way you should play this role I remember times I was able to draw on sometimes when I was growing up of making it okay of making a bad day better of thinking of something to make her laugh it's just the way like her I try and entertain PD in the in the film when I was little my parents both worked at MGM right and I would go there to visit them after school and it was really boring watching like movies being done because it's tedious they do close-ups and then they do over the shoulders and so watching any of the acting was dull but I found my way into the rehearsal halls so I could watch Gene Kelly and I could watch and it was this high you know I could watch Cyd Charisse and I could watch these people moving and that attracted me the movement and the energy and the music and it looks so joyful and they looked like they were having such a good time here you want hartney Liza with your mom at age what hours in the good old summertime so you're what four or five here you were in the film right everything since then has it come back right so you were surrounded then by but you're very honest - safer to a kid this was boring it's tedious the take stop action start fix the set sit in the dressing room boring yeah it's amazing so wonder you didn't get turned off all together look at I wanted to be an ice skater but then I saw Bye Bye Birdie I came to New York with my parents and I I saw those kids up there dancing and I thought oh no no wait a minute maybe that's what I really want to do maybe that's what I really want to do yes Liza I was wondering used to not sing your mother's music and lately you have begun doing some of her pieces what is the reason for that well actually I haven't um it's so funny but I get annoyed if I hear anybody else singing her songs it makes me crazy I think it does I mean she's saying it so brilliantly it's just the second-best version to me and the one great lesson she taught me I think besides many great lessons was always try and be a first-rate version of yourself as opposed to a second-rate version of somebody else so I'd remember that [Applause] what was it growing up like what was it like growing up with your wonderful mother it was terrific and um it's always hard for me I know that it's hard for other people to understand that it was it was normal because it always sounds so glamorous but everybody else's family was famous too you know I mean all of my childhood friends everybody went to the same factory so everybody's parents were equally as famous so there was no basis for comparison so we weren't isolated and we didn't feel special and we didn't you know get all snobby and everything because everybody was in the same boat but it was extraordinary growing up with that kind of wit and intelligence and humor it was great you must be at least somewhat aghast at the number of Mommy Dearest books now I mean everybody got and you're what please to step forward and say there is no such book in you and would be no evidence for anything like this Burt Reynolds gave me a great compliment he's he's a good friend and he's he gave me something I really treasure he said she loved her parents before it was popular about you well now what parent wouldn't like that said about their child how did your mom do it now for those guilty working women out there yes your mother was on the road a lot I assume there was shooting in Europe England and other places sure and you grew up without any feeling of oh where is she she did you know you know you don't even seem to have an innocent analytical longing for the possibility that your mother was in there at every moment how did you and your mother work that out cuz you had to write that book we went with her she she gave us the choice my sister Lorna my brother Jordan myself she sat us down said look I got to go to work cuz we got to eat and we have no money and I can do it if I do concerts I can make money but it means we're gonna have to travel so I want you to sit down with each other and really think about this you can go with me or you can stay here and stay in school and it can be normal and I'll get back here every chance I can but really talk about it together and think about it and we talked about it and everything and then we just the three of us just watching the room said when do we leave [Applause] hi Liza I think your mother was terrific and I take to show that you and the two of you did together on channel 13 and I would just like to know how did you like working with your mother oh it's wonderful it was scary but it was one I think it once she worked with my mother you can work with anyone you know nobody ever scared me since then do I let me ask you about was the Palladium not a kind of little Liza's no longer little and if I understand your mother's response to seeing you work right next to her on the stage of the Palladium you scared the hell out of her in the sense that she said holy cow if she is good do I have this right isn't that what she essentially said yeah it was like we we went through in two hours life was always speeded up in my family we went through in two hours but most mothers and daughters go through four years which was that sense of wait a minute you know there's competition here and it it was funny because when that show started I never done anything I didn't really know why she wanted me there but she didn't want me there and so I went and I thought well I'll sing this and I'll do that and I had nothing to lose so I had no fear she was the one who was nervous so it starts out and I hear to say ladies and gentlemen Liza Minnelli in a great proud voice and I come on and I sing and the audience really likes it and I hit her back so he's going can I sing the second song and there's more applause yeah I thought keep going Minnelli keep going by the fourth song I just glanced in the way said can I stand up for a minute and she was going okay okay okay now my mother walked off the stage Judy Garland walked back on the stage and then we and it was like competition but with enormous love but with this sense of I'm dealing with a power out here from both of us you know it was extraordinary you must be proud of your mother for saying this out she talked about she talked about everything you know she did and she taught us to do that before you were her daughter and okay and and then I'm at that moment on the on the stage of the Palladium what a story this is yeah she says holy cow she is good isn't that interesting because she was and I was I was 17 so she was proud but there must have been that threat at the same time and and I'd like I said I had nothing to lose so I could you know it was terribly funny at the end cuz we walked off the stage together and she said great baby that was just great and she patted my behind she said I'll see you in the dressing room and I started to walk and I turn around in time to see her running back out on stage for nothing pal and I went and we'll be back with Liza Minnelli [Applause] you great thing about my mother was her she was so intelligent and they're terribly sensitive to other people's thoughts and and to other people's feelings about what they needed from her and one time I said she was laughing at something but I said why did so many people think you're unhappy mama and she said because they need to as she knew exactly what she was doing when you were a kid you worked here with your mom at television city yes you know there's a gal I told you to break is a lady who works her name and Nelson who's been here for a century and she told a story didn't they have like a yellow brick road from the stage to your mom's trailer they didn't have they had build your lovely trailer and they you know put a yellow brick road and everything I thought it was corny of course that was 16 and I was doing a show called best foot forward an off-broadway show in New York and she said come on out here and do my show I said why mama nobody knows me she's I like in you're good come on out and this was like only a year after I left so to come back and do that whether it was great fun what are the only real TV show I ever did with her once we sang together at the Palladium but my father came to see it filmed and everything it was terrific I love this building what is it like having Judy Garland as your mom Vincente Minnelli as your dad I mean no but but you're the keeper of a legend I mean your your your only girl what's your the keeper of a legend I know but I don't feel like that I feel like they were my mother and father and it's on that show in fact that I did with mama here somebody says to me Wow what does it feel like to call mama Judy Garland or to drown her mom and I said no what are you talking about how can you call Judy Garland mama that's mama that's not and it was funny cause it was all you know it was a bit that was tough but I like the way you say some [ __ ] I like the way you say somebody says to me yeah take the guy out of New York would you thank you do you remember the first time you were onstage performing oh yeah yeah oh it's for people in the audience not good well no my mama was playing at UH at the palace and she thought it would be kind of amusing to get her daughter up there yeah and my mom is when we didn't was very funny that she is to say to me was dance so I did say come on out lie saying you know it's 7:00 and I'd stand then she'd say I'll sing swanee dance you did I did and there's one terribly funny time when I went back to the microphone because learning from the best people in showbiz second oh yeah this is way you go back and you do the Big Finish together and I went well I should dance now did you watch the A&E Biography of your mom that two-hour special they did I think it's wonderful doing it in beautiful yes please me cry yeah see you little girl in there girl put your mom on the Shelf yeah I loved it I loved it too yeah must be very heartwarming to see to be able to have her still with you in that way on video and film and all of the work that she did it is and it see that's my mother that's not a lot of Judy Garland that's your mama that's my mom right and so that all of the things that people say when they talk about competition or they talk about these deep-seated weird feelings which I'm really sorry don't exist but they don't my mom was too much of a friend of mine and she was too funny and she was great to be around and she was my friend and when I see her and that's my mom up there I realized that what everybody else says this stuff they're going through nut stuff I had to go through exactly [Applause] they have [Applause] I know you sang one of your mom's song I think for the first time publicly recently on the stage of the life yeah well it's your 71st fifth birthday and I went I love Sam Harris so much and I know you do a marvelous show there's some wonderful shows on Broadway but there's one in particular that I sang on the original record before they got like regular singers to sing it before the cast to do it and I had the pleasure of singing the song that sim sings in the show and it was the day after they'd lost the Tony I know what it's like cuz you gotta go out there and be just as good and just just but there's some little part of your heart that goes oh [Laughter] yeah and all of a sudden I said but why did she I said one day I want to sing that song myself and he said what about tonight and I'm so used to taking instructions being a director story I said okay thinking what am I getting myself into really but it was thrilling and I did get to sing with Sam who's just actually crazy I couldn't think of a way to say thank you to the to all of those kids on Broadway ents into the audience and I thought well I made my mom this promise when I was 16 that I would never sing her songs that I wouldn't use her and it was a big deal for us and she was terribly proud that I never did it but I thought maybe it was time to break that promise I couldn't think of any other way to say thank you and Billie stretch got up and played it was sighs they ruled a piano mat and it was it was wonderful in never having sung it it's very it's emotional you know I own new people who are in the audience who told me they were sobbing really yeah well I was there as well because oh I know you know I would have been I'm gonna do it now thinking about it yeah but you know how often do you get to really say thank you to your parents when they leave you yeah um that's a very interesting way to put that is it speak of that with my psychologist we didn't talk about that but we're fine and we're performing and life is good let's talk a little bit about your mother it's a joy to talk about her painful to talk about her no it's a it's a it's a joy to talk about it it always has been when I'm common nobody's put me on the defensive what did you understand about her addiction I didn't understand it until I was about 12 or 13 and then I had a doctor explained it to me and that is as much as she will say on the subject nobody will ever get me to say anything about anybody else's private problems I just at this age adamantly what she gave me was a performer hood spa and she did she gave me a sense of humor about it you said you was not saying a mother's song yes exactly be consistent nobody sang them better what dial did you have to turn in your own heart and heart to be able to perform your mother's yes come from my father's point of view and that point of view is found in his movie which always have a happy ending and where her mother is young and beautiful sober and serene you know you sing the boy next door [Music] and I hear in my ear your mother singing the boy next door do you hear that in your ear as you're singing no no I see my father's [Music] she is aware that like her mother before her she takes on to the stage the audience's fascination with her personal lives but if she feels that her troubled mother is at the heart of her demons she does not say so she was a wonderful mother where she wonderful no absolutely wonderful she didn't absolutely everything that she could and I had the best experiences of the world but you understand for people who now know or think they know a lot about the mother the suicide attempts the despair that the unhappiness it's hard for people to believe that that didn't somehow affect you we knew that's a different show dad's from Italian garland this is Minelli and Minelli or the other do Minnelli I'm gone Lucy but of all the things to inherit for people to concentrate on alcoholism that's really strange to me look at the talents I inherited people who have inherited that that disposition yes that's well it's it's a predisposition to it but yeah but that's saying they know but that the point that I'm making like that's that why not stress the other thing there's a there's quite a few people you know millions of people in this country have alcoholism but there's not a whole lot of people who can get up on that stage and do it I was the other stuff I got from my parents I'm gonna do it there every night darling at the end of it when you sing with your mother you sing batali selling with your mother yes now there were many years when you didn't want to do any songs of your mother's well no because I it always bothers me when I see other people do they [Laughter] [Applause] with pictures of Mama yes and then you're singing with it what does that take you to do it well it took me to really realize that probably the best loved and some of the most memorable visions of my mother are my father's and that were this show that's right you know and if it hadn't been for meeting me in st. Louis I wouldn't be here I mean that's within MIT and that's such a wonderful song and I've always loved it we used to see it you know on the way to school in the in the car when mom would drive us to school and my father was terribly proud of that sequence and I wanted I just I wanted the audience to have such a good time it means a lot to a lot of people in this country how was the Michael Jackson concert I hear that you all it was farm I heard you're amazing that you did over the rainbow no that's what everybody keeps saying but you know I wouldn't do that I promised my mom I wouldn't do that so I get a call from the producer of Michael's concert David guessed right who is this wonderful man I must say very attractive and I mean very attractive we're talking a trail okay and David said on the phone he said and then this will happen and this will happen I'm thinking this is marvelous he said and then you'll come out and you'll sing over the rainbow and I thought I said can I call you back yeah yeah um I'll call you right back so I did 14 tours of my apartment thinking I promised my mother I'd never sing that song I can't but I mean it's for such a good cause and I thought use your brains that's what they're there for right your mother gave you a great set of brains and your father come on come on let's go so I called him back and I said David I don't know you well enough so can I call you David he said yes that was the beginning I said I said listen listen to this and see how this sounds and what I did I said I don't want to ruin it he'll kill me if I no no but right but a little I sang never never left which is the song about Michaels house you know is he's named his home never Neverland so I sang never never left and then right at the end I tagged on what I think is the most beautiful part of my mom's my beautiful mother's song over the rainbow anyway which is the tag it's quite something and I watched later in my little hands were going like this yeah sure yeah I thought they were just going a little bit there going I was so nervous singing even that much of her song but it was for Michael and some wonderful causes when you when I would sing it again today all over the world I'd sing the whole thing if you wanted me today to do that but I'm not no I mean that I'd do anything just like the rest of us would I mean that's why you called me because we do anything you've done everything really look at this you're not letting it go downhill you're keeping it the way it has to be because we're America and that's the way we are and nothing is gonna beat us I know that promise that you made to your mother and the fact that you would even say that is very overwhelming I'm here to tell you about a wonderful called me in st. Loup and it's my favorite holiday movie my favorite movie is my mom you believe the romance of the boy Dexter daddy made the sequence which you'll notice that was about her caption the trolley pan he didn't catch it and she was worried if he was going to show up so that there was always an internal tension and all these everyday life things and then when he shows up at the end [Music] she was she said it's a young girl I'm tired you know my mom I don't want to grow up so she came on the set she started to kid all the lines in other words say them like with a hit of wicked or not and daddy said because he said you know you have to believe it and she said welcome and he said no in spite of everything that you do it's gonna be the most important thing that's ever happened to you in your life you have to care passionately where the audience actually thought about in front of that and as she listened to him talk she told me she fell in love he was just crazy about her after if you noticed throughout the phone she's always photographed in the frame in the window you know the boy next door I got another time in the window when she's singing you have yourself a merry little Christmas [Music] but it was so important that it was just the right tone in the film and of course the way the longing and I am not caring about her little sister what she say is everything you've ever wanted your big sister people we've all wanted somebody that our lives that would understand biggest feel better personally I think that it's so appealing to all of us because I think we'd all like that it just amazes me I'm not bragging about my parents fungineer why don't you just watch it enjoy [Laughter] I'm Kiran you [Music] now take a look tell us what this is this is this facility right here this was taken in the Ed Sullivan Theater is that correct right here yeah and this of course is Ed Sullivan and I'm thinking I asked you you look like you're probably 16 15 or 16 years old as and this is your mother Judy Garland there and this was the and my mom was in the audience watching what was that like to go through something like that on national live television show and your mom's right there did that was that supportive or make you extra nervous or what was the first time the two of you work that you can remember take together where you were part of the what she was doing or vice versa I remember driving to school and on the way to school she would teach us all songs my sister my brother myself and I remember thinking this is what I want to do you know because it was so much fun and then I had never seen a Broadway show and when I did I thought oh I you know cuz Hollywood to me seemed like it was boring making movies but I saw gypsy you know and I I went nuts but my mom was always with and tell us about at that time when you move away from home your relationship with your mother how was that then oh it was wonderful she was always so she's so different than everybody thinks she was because she was funny and so smart and so hip Joe there was nobody really funnier than she was and I can remember coming home from school and saying everybody keeps saying you're you know you're unhappy and you're this you're that and she said well it's none of their business what goes on in this house and this house we laugh but nobody needs to know that yeah yeah they'd like to think what they like to take some leave them alone and could you just have regular mom daughter conversations all the time about anything especially when fewer separated like that a year in New York City and she certainly knew everything there was to know about show business so she can help you out I guess huh but you know something there's one story I wish I could have told and that was the the story of the night that I did that show lisen with this he it was just once through just once through one hour a concert television 1972 yes and it was eight cameras and Bob Fosse had done it and Freddie wrote it and they had it was all special and we were Hurst for six weeks and then we rehearsed up until the last hour you know and there was no time to go home and to get change didn't come back just had to go do it well not really I thought well what I gotta take a shower and I said there's a hotel across the street why don't I go to the you know I'll go to the hotel across the street so I rushed over the hotel across the street with a hairdresser and their makeup lady you know Tina and I get in the elevator and right before the door shuts another couple get in and I look and there's a very very tall woman with feathers and shorts and lay stockings and boots and a whip hello and where there is a little man who's trying to disappear into the water I was in a hooker hotel but I went upstairs and I you know I was laughing about it and at the last minute I I looked out the front window and I looked down and there are all of these people sipping champagne and getting ready to go in to see Liza with a Z this Bob Fosse production that was also football and there I am in a hooker hotel and that it's the story of life [Applause] how did you acquire your name liza from the song that the Gershwins wrote liza my my mother and father always told me that they've been trying to think of a name it was a girl and my mother sat Bull upright one night and said finish it wake up liza minnelli it'll look great on a marquee and went right back so did your mother and father ever talk baby talk to you no they were wonderful with me my mother gave me my drive and my father gave me my dreams and the combination of the two was so wonderful you know because my mother's sense of humor was hilarious you know I can remember as a kid saying you know Mom and nobody they don't know you're so funny and she said they're not supposed to know so this is for uh this is a family thing that I'm funny they want to hear over the rainbow and so forth I said but you're really funny she said it's okay sweetheart there's that's that's for the stage at home we can be whatever we want to be you know one of the things that I respect most about Liza is her response when people plead with her to sing her mother's songs what's your answer when they do they've been sung and my mother said to me she said you never have to sing my songs ever you just tell people and you remember this too you want to be a first-rate version of yourself not a second-rate version of somebody else and then that was wonderful what a gift huh yeah and your mother gave you your drive you said yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's a performance you did with her here in London Palladium in 63 only time we ever worked on stage together ever was that Mike was in London oh it was terrific what was it like being on stage with her well it was very funny because she was in the wings right and there a Mike I get on there and I assumed my first song and she's standing right when she's going it's great get him and I can hear you and I sing the next song and the public goes wild right really liked it and she went yeah baby you get you get yeah the third song there was even more applause I think they were relieved but there was more pus and I heard this yeah yeah girl Eliza yeah by the fifth song I turned her and she was putting on her lipstick in the wings like oh and my mother did not come back on stage Judy Garland came back on stage [Music] hello [Applause] [Music] you yourself have said that you had to mother her when you she was on tour staying at Elif to tell and so on so forth I didn't really what I want to ask what does that leave you with a sense of poignancy for a sense of sadness or because she was in trouble and you were with her and you were in the positional a daughter but looking after her well that wasn't very often but when it did happen occasionally she was very open and she would talk we talked his friends you know always and she'd say man you know and she complain about what was wrong and we just talked you didn't get through it get three stuff that's what she taught me you get through it and nobody knows what you're talking about or what's bothering you it's not their business their business is what you're doing the stage I said the moment I went to school on a bus the other day and I let my past of pasteboard things like Judy Garland runs naked around the house screaming she said I said mom we just finished having a boiled egg together she said they're gonna say what they're gonna say don't you understand she said that's not happening this is what I want to talk about yeah because she worked through her problems she was a woman who really knew how to do that and she taught me how to do [Music] I remember asking my mom once where does what happens after happily ever after and it was this pause and she said you'll find out was she a good mother the best really because we or she did not leave her kids for a second or a second she was always there for us oh my sentence really did to my brother and sister would appreciate your asking to it was an industry town you were on schedule your parents got up had breakfast and went to work they came home at a certain time you know when you're a younger you had dinner before them they kissed through the night and it was very very organized so it wasn't anything that was glamorous it was just organized do you recall cuz you were a kid but did they talk show business a lot or was no other things they were talking about no when they came home the last thing they talked about was show business it was a day's work were you aware at from a young age what hard work that was that they how hard they worked oh yes this has spent so much time there yeah you know and it wasn't just they did something and moved on mm-hmm it was take after take you know first it was the main angle and then the medium sauce and then the close-ups and then they over the shoulder shot and it was I thought it was so slow it's just slow right at what point did you really realize that your parents were famous I mean you were kind of you were famous from the time you were born yeah everybody yes you were just used to that as part of the man you know we live next shortest Humphrey Bogart and Betty would call and Sammy Kahn lived across the street and Lana Turner lived over here and that's it was an industry town so I didn't realize it until I moved away mm-hmm then I remember when I came back I thought oh my god look at this it was like three years there's ice Mike look at these houses cheering Christmas this is so luxurious I grew up here I was living in a really small apartment mm-hmm in New York and that's it it really threw me now did you watch your mother work very often fun films.com well I loved watching the pirate uh-huh you know that was super and that was your dad directing yeah dude oh it was just wonderful because it took two years to make that movie because you know he wanted it perfect and he he loved photographing mom there were sequences where he would just let her roll he said this is what I'd like to get out of it I'd like you to be here when we start go over there and I and arrive here and she'd say and and he said and do it you do and she she that big fight with Gene Kelly but she breaks all the furniture perfect one tape perfect and that captures her humor on film I think as well as any movie ever did yes you know her her sense of humor I shall see you late [Music] get over here with us he won't get away with us Mariah you know there was a movie called the clock which is so brilliant and Momma didn't like the way it was going and she said I want Vincente Minnelli and we should also add in here that this is like the first movie she'd ever done where she doesn't sing this is like a straight dramatic role so this is a very important film for her huge yeah and it wasn't going well so she said I want Vincente Minnelli and they brought him in and what he did and she told me was this was he said there can't be just two characters we need a third character so the third character is going to be the city New York and that became such a wonderful idea and then all of the characters that he put like the milkman yes like this happening and this happening you know and you just bought it mm-hm and there are moments like I mean when they watched those people get married after they'd been married you know by a judge who's on his way home husband and wife may god bless your Union yeah you take and when they pass by a church and these people are getting married in a beautiful gown and they're just standing there it's heartbreak and this is all just one weekend in the life of these two people that have just met that's it yeah yeah it's a wonderful move back to the MGM days we talked a lot about your father and going on the sets to do on your mother sets for you oh yeah well the time and what did you learn from her how real she was you mean how real she could be on camera yes yeah it always sounds so real and I asked her how come it sound so real and she said because you have to figure out why that person is saying that and if she wasn't saying just that what else would she say I said like what do you mean and she was working on a scene for something she said okay you be me then I was her and she read and gave me the cues and I read her part she said now don't say those words but answer the question with different words I said all right and like she'd say so how are you feeling today and the answer was fine and I said really good yeah and in other words she told me don't see what you're really thinking see what you should say and let everything that you should be thinking go on up here in the eyes and all that your mother was always so much better activists than she ever got credit for being she was brilliant yeah she really was sometimes I hate promises to stop and then watching and waiting to see it begin again well my heart goes out to him because he tries he does she was brilliant you know amazing did you ever talk to you about acting once you became an actress not very often but I can remember her sitting with her for a couple of hours once and talking about it then she sent me - ooh - Hagen in New York City who is just a brilliant teacher what she knew I said if I was even gonna try it she wasn't gonna let me get into anybody's hands she wasn't good and she kept saying you sure you want it well she also you know she'd had a she had a long long career I mean so long hard fight for her career and everything like that so it be natural she wouldn't necessarily want her daughter to be that but I didn't want that I want him Broadway so when she had problems that she went through and all of that were you aware that or was that kind of kept away from all of you oh no I was aware of it and did it bother you howdy how do you handle those right there have you held that when your folks are going through problems like that look every other kid you tried help you try and be there you don't talk about her outside the house none of us did mm-hmm and you just try and be there do you remember the first time you saw the Wizard of Oz no I really don't I think I saw it again in a big theater but I can't remember cuz it frightened me there was this little girl who I didn't know yeah did you relate to her at all that that was your mother no had nothing to do is this little girl and these monkeys flew away with her it just doesn't like it spooky then I saw two crows much later I thought how the hell did they do that yeah I found that there were five directors it took years to make and I got interested in the process yeah enchanting movie yes do you have a favorite movie of your mother's and of your dad's oh that's tough well I'm sitting here because of meet me in st. Louis so I have to say that right because the one that brought them together for the first time [Music] now you did a show in honor of your father on Broadway Manila Nellie which is a big success for you yes done at the palace wonderful show thank you you've never really done one on your mother is there a particular reason for that well I haven't done it yet when I can think of the right way to do it and to say what I want to say which is first of all to not be maudlin and second of all to be completely honest and truthful I'll figure it out so we have to wait and see you performed with your mother and the lady 'im talk just a little about that the experience of performing with your mother she said I want you to come and do the Palladium with me and I said no she said oh please I said for God's sake Margot you know Franco dinner um Peggy later there's all these people she said I know I I'm pleased I want you I said all right but if I'm gonna do it mom I'm gonna do it my own way she said okay I'm coming on but you have to sing five songs first or I'm not gonna she said really I said yep this is okay I said I'm gonna come on and sing five songs okay I said then we'll close the first steps yeah she said well what are we sing we don't have any music I said I have all that music from your TV shows we'll find something we'll put something together all right so fun I said now the second act and I wrote you know where she sings lies and you know to get back honor to get us together second acts fine we roll it all out everything's great so now I meet Chris and Peter Allen well Peter and I immediately get along immediately and he's starting to change certain things musically for me they're a better in my own stuff then with duets with Mama he's giving me notes they're better for me for harmonies for her because I can hit certain things that will give her a better note and sound better for me so it's all going fine so we do it and they go nuts I come on and I'm singing and I look in the wings and after the first song they're so surprised that I'm any good at all that they're like I see my my look out for the way she goes second so they go even more nuts yeah baby that cyst third song that said get on girl get him fourth song uh-huh uh-huh fifth song let's take and Judy Garland walk back on the states what's her mama I thought oh Christ said just keep up there was no rehearsal for choreography so ever she went I kept up I just kept up that's what I did it was frightening certainly it was frightening but it was also fun yeah it was fun we had a good time afterwards what do you miss most about your mother oh your humor I know and under support most my parents unlike everybody else has lost their parents yeah yeah they were great yeah but this is there's one song on there on such a night as this you mentioned Judy Garland who of course is your mom and when I first heard it I said did she say Judy Garland so I rewound it again yes she said Judy Garland so I'm wondering do you have a favorite memory of your mom you know because for us Judy Garland is Wizard of Oz and Dorothy but of course to you she was mom do you have a favorite memory of judy judy garland your mother as a little girl and then as an adult that's not sure I mean I just liked it when we made taffy happy oh it was funny how does everything got stuck to everything we would laugh so hard yeah and I loved it when she drove me to school uh-huh she was my mom yes in that song I'm saying that because I was written for myself believed in her and Jeanette MacDonald and it was about people who lived underground in a studio yeah the older people they came out and this lady is showing me around the studio yeah so the lyric just says on such a truss such a night as this when Judy Garland swore I just adore him how can I ignore the boy next door on such a night did Gershwin writes his Rhapsody so there are all these bits and pieces of this lady's memory yeah and I just think it was lovely and indeed it was written for me when I was 16 no I just love that image of you and Judy Garland making taffy I got to sit with just a second I mean you grew up in a showbiz family clubs here your mother's Judy Garland Jimmy was they they never said I'm going to show business no those know it nobody ever talked about it now my parents really wanted me to do what I wanted to do except I think they were hoping I was okay because they were in Hollywood yeah and I went to New York to be on Broadway mama always kept us with her right she gave us a choice you know my sister and brother and said you look you should have a normal life but your normal life is right they sent you and you can't or you can come with me and we'll do the best we can you know we all said we're with you

Channel: Cliporama

Views: 537,562

Rating: 4.813179 out of 5

Keywords: Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, Liza, Judy, Judy Liza, Liza Judy, diva, divas, divaondiva, mother, daughter, discuss, singers, interview, talks about, Palladium, Together, gay, gay icons, icons, remember, tribute, compliation, remembers, memories, diva on diva

Id: fuzb9LmIZE0

Length: 95min 37sec (5737 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 12 2018