JUDY HOLLIDAY - #74 JUNE/2024 BHC

Hello Body House Members;

I’m down in Florida and let me tell you it’s HOT! Most of our neighbors have gone up north for the summer. That’s a great idea. I’ve never lived this far south before and other than the 90+ temperatures and 90% humidity… it’s a fabulous place to live.

Now that we are sliding into June, we have the very lovely, funny and intelligent Judy Holliday as our featured star!

Although her life was cut short because of cancer, she managed to squeeze in an acting career which consisted of 6 Broadway shows and 8 Hollywood feature films. This included an Academy Award for Best Actress and A Golden Globe Award.

HERE IS A SHORT OVERVIEW OF JUDY HOLLIDAY’S LIFE….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZMQIO7Pam8

Celebrate vintage sensuality with us on Substack here… https://bodyhousechronicles.substack.com/

Now… Let’s discover more about JUDY HOLLIDAY!

Judy Holliday (born June 21, 1921, New York, New York, U.S.—died June 7, 1965, New York City) American actress noted for her distinctive voice and her warm, intelligent portrayal of funny and endearing “dumb blondes” onstage and in film.

Judy Holliday also had a genius level I.Q. of 172, but was best known for playing characters who were, we could say, ‘ditzy.’ Most notably was her portrayal of Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, (see below for a clip). Holliday won her an Academy Award for this role in 1950.

The public conflated Judy with this beloved character.

The 1950s was the age of McCarthyism and The Red Scare.

It was at a fever pitch between 1950 and 1954. Famous movie stars, musicians, writers, directors, producers and others in the entertainment industry were being hauled into Congress. They were made to testify as to whether they had an interest in Communism or know someone who did.

It successfully killed careers and forestalled many more for years.

So, when Holliday was called before the Senate Internal Subcommittee, she used the public’s perception of her through her Billie Dawn role, to avoid implicating herself or naming names of fellow actors.

Holliday was a born and bred New Yorker and her family reflected that. Her father was a respected New York civic leader; her mother was a music teacher; and her uncle, Joseph Gollomb, was a writer.

She took her stage name from the English translation of her family name, Tuvim.

Tuvim is the Hebrew word for holiday.

After working briefly as a switchboard operator for Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre ensemble, she joined with several friends to form a comedy sketch troupe in 1939. Called The Revuers, the troupe (which included Betty Comden and Adolph Green) began performing at cafés and cabarets in New York City

Later they hit Los Angeles and went on the radio too.

As a result of the Revuers’ success, Holliday signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox and played bit parts in three feature films in the mid-1940s.

Below is the audio only version of The Revuers in 1939 with Leonard Bernstein playing piano accompaniment… his very first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMPOD4mBc1A