Arts & Entertainment Celebrate Judy Garland at New West show

NaveenaVijayan nvijayan@newwestrecord ca

For those who still rely on aWizard of Oz rewatch to perk themselves up, here’s an event that might seem more exciting than the sight of a rainbow.

OnThursday, June 22, MasseyTheatre’s Eighth and Eight Creative Spaces will host an evening dedicated to TheWizard of Oz star and entertainment icon Judy Garland with a 135-minute presentation of clips from the star’s movies, musicals and vintage television shows carefully curated by film historian Michael van den Bos

The tribute show debuted at theVancouver In- ternational Film Festival Centre in 2022 to mark Judy Garland’s 100th birthday and was presented at the Kay Meek Arts Centre inWestVancouver before making its way to NewWest.

Van den Bos went through memoirs, biographies and vintage interview clips of the Hollywood sensation to bring out a tight narrative that fits within it Garland’s career starting from Garland’s days as a child artist (her parents were vaudeville performers), to her years at Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) making movies like TheWizard of Oz, her work with actor

Mickey Rooney, musicals with actors Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, followed by the work she did with her then-husband and di- rector,Vincent Minnelli, on films such as Meet Me in St Louis and The Pirate

The first half of the presentation ends at the point where Garland splits from MGM in 1950, breaking her ties with the production behemoth that had catapulted her name to the top of Hollywood.

What follows is a short intermission, where the audience can buy a Ruby Slipper cocktail and chocolate cake, before coming back for the second half that will focus on Garland’s comeback on concert stages, on television, in films like A Star is Born atWarner Brothers and more

“She only lived to be 47, but she packed a lot in, that’s for sure She had several marriages and three children, but never- theless, it’s just the talent itself that just transcends time like Frank Sinatra, or the great Louis Armstrong, or Bing Crosby,” said van den Bos, a diehard Garland fan

He had first seen the actor in TheWizard of Oz in his mid-teens, when the movie made its television airings in the ’70s.

“I couldn’t get enough of it I just fell in love with it on my little TV screen,” said van den Bos, who also teaches animation history at Capilano University

The movie was more than just a one-time binge;

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