WORKSHEET CUTTING
Biographical Program
DIRECTIONS: Program means the splicing of two or more different pieces of literature. There are many different forms of putting programs together. It works well to use at least two genres of literature spliced together in a theme, argument, or style. The entire program should flow smoothly from one piece to the next, without losing the style of the literature. In a way it is like a puzzle. There are different subjects for programs. This worksheet discusses the biographical program. A biographical program focuses on a person such as Jim Henson, Billy Holiday, or Mae West. They are usually ordered chronologically. They could be around an event such as a funeral or tribute. The following biographical program explores the life of Judy Garland. After you read the example of Judy Garland, you will need to do one on one of the topics listed below:
JUDY
____1___ Judy: (sings) "There are smiles that make us happy
There are smiles that make us blue
There are smiles that still away the teardrops
as the sun beam steals away the dew..."
____2___ Judy: My mother taught me early to smile, even when I didn’t feel like it. "I think smiles make a woman beautiful, don’t you?" Now Marilyn Monroe, she was beautiful. (beat) You know, I can understand how such an accident could happen to such a beautiful woman. You take a couple of sleeping pills, and you wake up in twenty minutes and forget you’ve taken them. So you take a couple more, and the next thing you know, you’ve taken too many. That’s an accident for anyone so beautiful.
____3___ Introduction: She became the symbol of innocence in The Wizard of Oz. An entertainer of magical power. Toward the end of her life, Judy Garland tried to tell her own story. Through letters and audio-tapes she tried to unmask the mystery of her relationship with her mother and father; it was an effort to expose the truth about her unforgettable life. POETRY: An Illusion and My Love Is Lost- All by Judy Garland DRAMA: Judy by Allen Grim PROSE: magazine articles from Modern Movies, Modern Screen, and Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland by Gerald Clarke SONGS: "Smile"; "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"; and "Get Happy!"
____4___ Judy: I always wanted to grow up to be beautiful. When Mamma would be getting me ready for an audition she’d tell me "You’re ugly when you don’t smile. You’re an ugly daughter who doesn’t love her mother." (beat) I did love her. Really. Sometimes I think she’s right though. I knew I probably wouldn't be beautiful when I was old. (showing herself) You tell me. But I do try. I still take awfully good care of myself. I don't ever smoke or drink - I hate anything that has even the littlest fizz to it, even Coca-Cola. Isn't that silly?
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____5___ Newscaster/ Reporter: In an open letter from Judy Garland, printed in Modern Screen, she expressed her gratitude to her audience. It was clear that in the last few days she no longer had the energy to stand on a stage and conjure up the beauty that had been Judy.
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____6___ Judy: You are my dear friends. This is a thank-you note. (beat) I hope to bounce back, but I think the spring is shot. So I want you to know: although I've been gossip's victim, you have stood by me. I won't ever forget that. You have always loved me. Rather than let you be misguided by nonsense printed about me by reporters who know none of the facts, let me tell you the truth.
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____7___ Newscaster/ Reporter: It was one of her last performances. What the audience did not know was that her costume hide a wasted body, thin and emaciated. The life she had led had made her the oldest woman in the world. By her own reckoning, she was four hundred and twelve. An old woman who was forever treated as a child.
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____8___ Judy: When I was a child, more than anything else I wanted to be loved. Mostly by my parents. I guess, really, just my mother. I didn’t have to seek Daddy’s love. Some would even say Daddy and I had a love affair. But with Mamma.... She didn’t have to prod me to perform. I liked it since I can remember. To sing was to be loved; it was as simple as that. What I didn’t like was singing to all the executives every day. They didn’t care. That’s when it really started, I think. When I sagged, Mamma gave me pep pills. Not a big deal since she’d done the same with my sisters. But then I couldn’t sleep at night. They kept me awake. So Mamma gave me some sleeping tablets. Our friend Dorothy told Mamma she shouldn’t do that-
____9___ Mamma: "Babe Gumm is gonna be bigger than Shirley Temple. My Babe’s gonna be a star! No stopping her! Not now! I’ve gotta keep her going. All the way to the top!"
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____10___ Judy: You’re wondering why Mamma did it? I think the better question is Why Daddy let Mamma do that? She defeated him, you know. And he was a very strong man, my father! Very strong. There was nothing weak about him at all. Well, most of the time. (beat) He was very weak in the end. My second appearance on the Shell Chateau Hour, I sang my Daddy’s favorite song. You see, he was in the hospital. I sang for him. He had the radio right next to his bed. That’s what the doctor told me. I knew Daddy wasn’t doing well. He’d been sick for.... I knew that night... I knew he’d never hear me again. I sang my heart out for him.
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____11___ Newscaster/ Reporter: Frank Gumm never heard the song. He went into a coma before she went on the air. (beat) The next afternoon he died at three o’clock.
Judy: And Mamma? She didn’t seem affected at all. At the time I remember thinking, "Now, there’s no one on my side."
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____12___ Newscaster/ Reporter: My Love Is Lost- a poem by Judy Garland
Judy: My love is lost.
I held it as a handful of sand, clenching my fist to hold it there.
Yet, bit by bit, it slipped through my fingers.
Now, nothing but memories of every smile, every kiss,
and every word. For it was not into my ear you whispered
but into my heart. And when I opened my tired hand and found my love was gone, I trembled and died. I struggle to hide my deadness.
To conceal the emptiness in my eyes,
that sparkle with tears always so close but never come.
My handful of existence has vanished.
My love is lost. My love is lost.
[page break]
____13___ Judy: My mother married Gilmore, my step-dad, the same day that my daddy died. When I heard, all I could say was, "Aw, Ma!" That never stopped her, but I said it anyway. She was never affectionate to anyone. I mean, even hugging wasn’t her way of doing things. Love us; love me? (shrugs) When I wanted to change my name. I had to fight my Mamma. She hated the idea, but finally she agreed. You see, I was born Frances Gumm, but when our agent at the time signed us, my sisters and I- the Gumm Sisters, he wanted us to change our last name to Garland. And I went him one better. I switched my name to Judy. I had to since I was going to be a star. As Gumm we never got any bookings; as Garland, the jobs never stopped. Luck?
[page break]
_____14___ Newscaster/ Reporter: Call her lucky! Judy Garland is the luckiest girl in Hollywood. She not only lives in a wonderland, but she is a bit of a wonder child herself. That’s right! She was selected her for the prize-plum part of Dorothy. She’s is beaming, not only because the part is wonderful, but because she is going to wear a blonde wig with golden curls.
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____15__ Judy: Did you know that originally they had me in a blonde wig, with lots of make-up. When Mr. Fleming came in he took that away and put my hair in pigtails. (beat) Mr. Fleming, often said, "Obstacles make for a better picture." And The Wizard of Oz had many. While the rest of the cast suffered from their heavy costumes, I was in some discomfort too. Beneath my gingham dress, my breasts were bound. For fifteen hours! I’m lucky I got what I got now! (beat) Another obstacle was the army of little people. To get all of them together for a shooting, the studio had to send security guards out with butterfly nets. They were trouble. I think just putting up with them won me the Oscar- I call it "The Munchkin Award." I mean, after one of the male midgets fell into a toilet bowl, they had to have big people help the tiny folk perform their natural functions. (She bursts out laughing and can’t stop.) Stuff like that just kept me giggling. I used to have these giggle fits, and oh, they’d get in the way. Once I was supposed to box the Cowardly Lion’s ears, but I started one of these fits. Victor, I mean, Mr. Fleming, didn’t know what to do, so he slapped me. Hard. When we did the take I didn’t laugh. I hit Bert Lahr- the lion. Hard. I was angry! (then giggle) Although when he said, "Ya didn’t have to go and hit me, did ya? Is my nose bleedin’?" I cracked a smile. (giggle) You can still see it in the movie.
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_____16__ Newscaster/Reporter: There were early signs of her bipolar disorder. Happy to sad, playful to mean. Such dynamics helped her on the set and hurt her in life. In Judy’s case, drugs exacerbated her illness. She used pills, morphine and heroin. These were found in her garage after she died. But more potent than the most powerful drug for her was anger. She used anger and drugs to fuel her illness.
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____17___ Judy: Used! My mother used me! And that’s made me an angry lady! I’ve been insulted! Slandered! Humiliated! I wanted to believe, and I tried my damnedest to believe in that rainbow that I tried to get over- and I couldn’t! So what! Lots of people can’t.... I hate anybody’s guts who used me, because all I wanted ... I wanted to be a nice girl! (beat) It was after the final cast party for The Wizard of Oz, I guess I was worn out. I wished Daddy could have seen it all. I don’t know why, but I started sobbing. Right there in front of everyone. "Why can’t it be like the good old days with Daddy? Why can’t it be like those days?" And you’d think Mamma would touch me? She said nothing. Maybe that’s when the illusion started to die.
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____18__ Newscaster/ Reporter: An Illusion by Judy Garland
Judy: How strange when an illusion dies
It's as though you've lost a child whom you've cherished and protected
Against the wilds of the storms and hurts in this frightening world.
Your child is dead. Your precious dream has been taken.
Next a morose loneliness descends- You're a pitiful stumbling creature
Lost in the forest.
[page break]
____19__ Judy: Being old is like being lost. I’ve always thought I'd age gracefully - you know. The kind of woman who has three children and doesn't look it! But then... I have too many... loves and pains. I love peanut candy and I hate the noise; I stuff cotton in my ears... on rare occasions. My idea of a great time is to scatter records on my living room floor, turn up the volume deafeningly, and sing to everything. (beat) I hate the "details" of living. All of them. Here’s a secret: I loathe talking on the telephone. I’ve even made shocking excuses not to have to look up numbers in the phone book. Once I called information and told them ‘I have no hands... Please tell me the number to...’ Silly, I know. My greatest fear... I’m nervous about staying in a house alone. Yet that’s where I find myself most of the time. Alone.
[page break]
____20___ Newscaster/ Reporter: The headlines read: Judy Garland is single again! The world was shocked when Judy got married the first time. "That infant!" it said. It didn't know that side of her. Then came her separation and her divorce. Then her second and third. Judy's own explanation of why her marriages continue to fail is revealing when you think about it. She told me that they just didn’t have any scenes; they just needed to be edited out. So they were.
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____21___ Judy: Did you know that they wanted to cut "Over the Rainbow"? Without that song, the movie makes no sense. I allow jokes about everything, but not that song. Rainbow has always been my song.
(sung) "When all the world is a hopeless jumble,
and all the raindrops tumble all round,
heaven knows there’s a magic place
When all the clouds darken up the skyway
there’s a rainbow highway to be found;
Leading from your window pane
to a place beyond the sun,
just a step behind the rain..."
Judy: I get emotional- one way or the other about Rainbow. I want you to know, I never shed any phony tears about it. Everybody has songs that make them cry. It’s my sad song.
[page break]
___22___ Newscaster/ Reporter: London was her swan song. The morning after her final concert Judy was in the bathroom. The door bolted from the inside. Her husband Mickey had to break down the door. He found her sitting on the toilet.
[page break]
___23___ Judy: I'm just going to relax, and regain my peace of mind. I’m not taking a break from entertainment because I’m ill.
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___24____ Newscaster/ Reporter: Apparently she was ill or asleep. Her head slumped forward, and her hands on her knees.
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____25___ Judy: My health is fine....
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____26___ Newscaster/ Reporter: Mickey lifted her up and was reassured to hear a moan.
[page break]
____27__ Judy: My outlook is optimistic....
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____28__ Newscaster/ Reporter: What he actually heard was the last bit of air escaping from her lungs.
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____29__ Judy: Oh, I have suffered. I thought no one really cared about me. Why? I certainly don't know. I've got thousands of friends. These depressions of mine used to worry me, and the more I worried about them, the lower I felt.
[page break]
____30__ Newscaster/ Reporter: As he raised her farther, he saw that her skin was yellow and blood was dribbling from her mouth and nose.
[page break]
____31___ Judy: Anyway all of that is gone. My best work lies ahead of me. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably make the same choices, and the same errors. It a part of living.
[page break]
____32___ Newscaster/ Reporter: She had been dead for eight hours. Accidental barbiturate poisoning.
[page break]
____33__ Judy: Basically, I am still Judy, a plain American girl. So, what can I say? It can probably best be sung-
(sung) "Forget our troubles and just Get Happy
You better chase all your cares away
Sing Hallelujah, come on, Get Happy
Get ready for the judgment day."
Judy: Thank you again. Judy
THE END