This is not a collection of Judy Garland's greatest heists. You will look in vain for "Over the Rainbow," "On the Atchison [sic], Topeka and the Santa Fe," or "The Trolley Song." What you will discover, however, is a prize culling of some of Judy's choicest and rarest vocal treasures, most of which have been out-of-print for two decades or more. Furthermore, you will hear for the first time on LP the two earliest selections of Judy's to reach the record-buying public back in 1936, and have the joy of discovering the bubbly effervesce of a stunningly gifted fourteen-year-old, who had not yet appeared in motion pictures.
    Frances Gumm was born on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Michigan [incorrect!], were her father managed a local movie house and her mother carefully plotted a vaudeville career for her daughters. Not quite three, baby Frances ran onstage during an amateur night and startled the audience with a spontaneous chorus of "Jingle Bells." Somewhat more sedately, she made a formal debut with her sisters, Virginia and Mary Jane, in 1927, after the family moved to the West Coast.
    For a time, Frances appeared with the popular Meglin Kiddies, a group of performing moppets who played the theatre circuits on the Coast, and with whom she reportedly made a screen debut in an early film short.
    During the early 1930's, the Gumm sisters toured the country in an act that was rehearsed by their mother. As every fan knows by now, the decided to change their name when they discovered themselves billed on a marquee as the "Blum Sisters." They took the name of Garland at the suggestion of George Jessel (a friend of columnist Robert Garland); and Frances decided to call herself Judy after the title of Hoagy Carmichael's popular song it of 1934.
   With Shirley Temple rated the top box office attraction of 1935, Hollywood was eagerly searching for other talented youngsters. Judy was spotted during an engagement at Lake Tahoe and signed by MGM to one of those classic long-term contracts.
    Wallace Beery, a top Metro star, introduced Judy to the public on his NBC radio program, Shell Chateau, on October 26, 1935. Her performance of "Broadway Rhythm" on that broadcast virtually defies belief; for Judy's poised assurance, effortless vocal control, sense of dramatic dynamics, pathos, and skill at syncopation were as fully developed as they ever would become. At the age of thirteen, she was a consummate performer, in need of but the few tricks of style which she learned from Roger Edens and Kay Thompson during her Metro years.
    Though she was quickly signed to a Decca recording contract, MGM found nothing better for Judy than a hastily made two-reeler, "Every Sunday"(1936), in which she co-stars with another young singer, Deanna Durbin. Judy's first record appeared during the summer of 1936; and, despite its success, she continued to languish at MGM. The truth is that she was a personal favorite of studio head, Louis B. Mayer; and, as Judy informed this writer the year before her death, the staff producers were afraid that if her first appearance in one of their pictures failed, their heads would roll. For this extraordinary reason, Judy was loaned-out to Twentieth Century-Fox, for whom she made her feature film debut in Pigskin Parade (1936).
     While not attending classes on the lot, Judy was expected to sing at the parties of the top MGM stars. For Clark Gable's birthday party, Roger Edens composed the famous version of "You Made Me Love You," which Judy later sang in The Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937). It was in this all-star backstage musical that MGM finally cast her, a full two years after she joined the studio. Stealing the picture easily from such experiences pros as Sophie Tucker, Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor, Judy's popularity soared, aided by her Decca Records and frequent radio guest spots.
    Still uncertain about how to cast her, MGM turned their youthful starlet into a utility performer and cast her in a succession of low budget family comedies, including the popular Andy Hardy series. Her only major production of 1938 was Everybody Sing, in which she shares top billing with Allan Jones.
     In planning The Wizard of Oz (1939), MGM had hoped to borrow Shirley Temple from Fox and W.C. Fields from Universal for the title role of the wizard. When these plans fizzled out, Frank Morgan was cast as the bumbling, old charlatan; and the prize role of Dorothy fell to Judy Garland. Despite some grumbling that at sixteen, Judy was too developed physically fro the part of a tiny child, she banished all doubts in mid-1939 with the release of the Technicolor classic.
    For the first time, Judy was offered choice vehicles, tailor-made for her skills. Often cast as an aspiring actress, opposite Mickey Rooney, her airy vitality and charms helped to brighten those early war years. Her first adult screen kiss, to George Murphy in Little Nellie Kelly (1940), shocked her fans; and her dramatic scenes in For Me and My Gal (1942) sent the critics cheering to their typewriters.
   The recordings on this album were taken from those happy years of Judy's career. Eight of her films are represented: Though"Buds Won't Bud" was finally dropped from Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940), just prior to release; and, although Judy appears in Ziegfeld Follies (1946), fred Astaire and not she introduced "This Heart of Mine."
     Quite a few songs come from non-Garland films. Alice Fay, for example, introduced "You Can't Have Everything." "No Love, No Nothin'," and "A Journey to a Star." William Gillespie first and "Blues in the Night," and Ivie Anderson led a huge chorus in "All God's Children Got Rhythm" in A Day at the Races (1937). Naturally, many are simply popular tunes of the day, brought timelessly to live by Judy's special kind of freshness.
     It is surely her uninhibited ardor in performance which elicited the kind of passionate audience reaction Judy found wherever she went. When, during one of her curtain calls at the Metropolitan Opera House, she called out "Do you want more," four thousand frantic worshippers screamed back "yes" so loudly that the walls of the ancient temple of music shuddered from the shock.
    Judy Garland evoked a kind of adoration that is unique in the history of theatre. Lillian Russell, Al Jolson, Lily Langtry, and Edmund Kean were all adored; but the intensity of Judy's following was matched only by her won intensity as an artist. It is unlikely that she will ever be forgotten.