Judy Holliday: The Smart Blonde

Judy Holliday was born Judith Tuvim on June 21, 1921. She grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in New York City. Her mother, Helen, was an occassional music teacher and her father, Abe, was a fundraiser for Jewish organizations.

Judy's parents divorced when she was six years old and her grandmother and uncle helped to fill the void her father had left. Everyone in the family doted on her and had big plans for her future. She was an extremely bright, serious child with a genius level (172) IQ.

In 1938, Judy applied for Yale drama school, but she was rejected because she fell short of the age requirement. Assuming that she would be rubbing elbows with theater owners John Houseman and Orson Welles, she decided to take an operator job at the Mercury Theater. She was disappointed when she ended up spending all of her time alone at the switchboard instead of making connections that could advance her writing and directing ambitions.

Judy never wanted to be an actress, she fell into it accidently. One day, when she stepped inside The Village Vanguard Club to wait out a rainstorm, she met owner Max Gordon. She watched poets reading for a howling audience and told Max that her friends could put on a better show. She introduced him to Adolph Green, whom she had met doing theater at an adult summer camp. He recruited his friends Betty Comden, Alvin Hammer, and John Frank. They called their group The Revuers. Though she was strongly resistant to becoming a performer, they finally convinced Judy to join them on stage.

The group had a rough start. The patrons of the Vanguard missed having poets to heckle. However, they kept putting on shows and gradually The Revuers built a following. Soon they were being written up in local columns. From the start, Judy was the most popular member of the group.

The Revuers eventually graduated to larger venues, but these shows were not as successful. The group's humor played best to locals in small rooms, not to tourists in fancy nightclubs. While they were on an equally unsatisfying road tour, they received an offer to appear in a Hollywood movie.

By the time The Revuers arrived in Hollywood, the proposed movie had been cancelled. They found work in local nightclubs. Through these performances, Judy alone received offers from studios. She was determined to remain loyal to the group, and despite the group's protests, she turned them all down. Eventually, she made a deal for all of The Revuers to perform a series of sketches in Fox's Greenwich Village(1944).

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