Celebrity
Judy Garland starred in a Christmas film in 1944. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, said a song from the movie makes her cry to this day.
Liza Minnelli said she revisits a Judy Garland holiday song every year. It has become one of her favorite Christmas carols and she said that it never fails to make her cry. Her father also had some involvement with the song.
Liza Minnelli said a Judy Garland song makes her cry
As Minnelli prepares for Christmas, she said she looks forward to spending time with her family. This was not something she was able to do often at the height of her career.
“Holidays are always spent with family and loved ones. Finally!” she told People. “Today, I have that luxury. For years, I lived on the road and was traveling for most of them … I missed so much. That doesn’t happen anymore.”
Each year, she likes listening to the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which her mother, Garland, sang in the film Meet Me In St. Louis.
“My favorite Christmas Carol is my mother’s version of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,’” she said. “Mama got the song rewritten and Papa directed the film [Meet Me In St Louis]. It’s a family tradition that makes us all laugh and cry.”
Liza Minnelli shared what it was like to grow up with Judy Garland
Minnelli followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming an actor, singer, and dancer. She said that while she was a child, her mother never treated her like a child.
“I was always treated like a grown-up,” she told The New York Times. “There was no baby talk — ever. My mother said, ‘Why start out on the wrong foot? Enough people are going to say goo-goo, ga-ga, when you’re older. In other words, they’ll double-talk you when you’re older. So, I’ll talk to you straight when you’re young.”
She also said that her life was in frequent upheaval.
‘There were no middles, no times when I was just tranquil,” she said. “I was used only to screaming attacks or excessive love bouts, rivers of money or no money at all, seeing my mother constantly or not seeing her for weeks at a time.”
She said she had a happy childhood
While Minnelli admitted her childhood was turbulent, she felt happy. She didn’t think that people would ever believe her, though.
“There’s nothing I can say to convince people that I had a happy childhood,” she explained. “They don’t want to believe that, and part of the reason for that is because Mama said, ‘I don’t want them to believe that I’m happy or else they won’t cry when I sing ‘Over the Rainbow.’”
She said Garland made sure she was happy.
“She ensured my happiness as a kid,” she explained. “I know what happened to me, and I know that I’m fine — you know, working and going forward. And I’m sorry — I’m terribly sorry if I’m not unhappy. It’s not my fault I’m happy and I have been for most of my life.”
