Stalking Judy Holliday Over the Holidays: The Smartest Dumb Blonde in 1950's Hollywood



If you like Reese Witherspoon today, try checking out her smarter and more political 1950's counterpart.



This holiday season I have been stalking the dear departed genius of the dumb blonde comedy gag, Judy Holliday, who was reputed to have the highest IQ in all of Hollywood (172, actually a genius), subtly advancing a proto-feminist progressive democratic (lower-case "d") and populist politic within disarming self-deprecating humor. Thanks to typecasting, blacklisting, and breast cancer, she is less well-known than she should be.



Before I delve into Judy, I give special thanks to blogger Laura of Interesting Monstah for turning me on to the Holliday thrill (and inspiring me to start blogging, by the way).



Laura has fished out a poignant Judy quote circa June 15, 1951, on conflict and Amercanism:



    We are going through a period of tension and conflict, during which we must soberly and carefully analyze those forces which represent good Americanism as against those which do not.



    -- From Judy Holliday's sworn statement to the FBI, when faced with charges of promoting Communism before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).



Judy Versus the Senators: How She Was Smart and Played Dumb But Still Got Herself a Little Blacklisted



Here is a little Judy Holliday biography at the JHRC (Judy Holliday Resource Center), including this about her testimony before HUAC (note: Billie Dawn is her dumb blonde character in the subversive Born Yesterday - which criticizes government corruption in Washington, DC):





  It became apparent that Judy used her dumb blonde image to her advantage, skirting a couple of questions and subtly mocking the outlandish proceedings in a Billie Dawn-like manner.



    Question: Are you sure Betty Comden and Adolph Green do not have Communist records?



    Answer: "I am as sure of that as I can be of anybody who isn't me."



    Question: What about the Communist-front records Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein?



    Answer: "I am sure that they got into it the same way I did, because I am sure none of them are Communists. I mean if you are a Communist, why go to a Communist-front? Why not be a Communist? Whatever you are, be it."



    Question: Did any of your friends ask you to have that photo taken with the strikers?



    Answer: "They must have because I wouldn't wander off over to strikers and ask to have my picture taken."



  Her "performance" at the hearing only served to raise the ire of her detractors even more. Even though she was essentially cleared of all wrong-doing, the stigma of the scandal kept her name on the blacklist. Judy worked very little in the 2 years following her Oscar-winning performance {in "Born Yesterday"}.



They failed to get her to denounce a single other person, despite repeated harassment and investigation.



A little tiny memo started the beginning of her blacklist on April 7, 1951, nine days after she won the Best Actress Academy Award for "Born Yesterday"- her first starring role in a feature film, beating out other divas of the day at the peak of their careers, such as Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, one of the great upsets in Academy Award history. Her career never recovered its momentum after the blacklist.



Here is the list of alleged subversive elements with which our heroine associated. It includes the National Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions.



Judy died June 7, 1965, two weeks short of her 44th birthday (mistakenly reported as her 42nd due to her misreporting of her birth year). She died of cancer which returned after a mastectomy in October, 1960. She faced breast cancer in a time when the disease was so taboo that she kept the nature of her mastectomy surgery secret, and when her diagnosis became terminal, her doctors and family kept the dire prognosis secret from her. Her death's cause was reported to be throat cancer, because breast cancer was not then considered socially acceptable as a cause of death.



The Holidays Are Over But Judy Holliday is Always As Near As Your Video Store:

A Selection of her Major Films



Adam's Rib - her first major film role, a landmark 1949 feminist vehicle for Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn- Judy was handpicked for her role by the costars who had seen her stage performance in her comedy troupe The Revuers and other stage appearances.



Born Yesterday - the 1950 subversive comedy critical of political corruption in post-war Washington, DC. The highest peak of Judy's film career.



The Marrying Kind - a 1952 blue-collar comedy written specifically for Judy H.



It Should Happen to You - This 1954 movie presents a reversal of Jenny Holzer's 1980s anonymous billboard actions (which in part critiqued how women do, and don't, occupy public spaces), instead positing a situation where a woman puts only her name up on billboards-- and then has to battle the unfortunate manipulations of men when she tries to sell that name. Jack Lemmon's film debut, third billing behind our heroine, the headliner, Judy H.



Solid Gold Cadillac - a fabulous and more populist 1956 version of the Hudsucker Proxy.



Full of Life - to my eye nobody among the costars shines as brightly as Judy in this 1957 schlocky comedic piece, but it could be her most serious role- she gets to talk about birth control and religion from the perspective of a very pregnant but assertive, independent and mature woman. And she gets to sing a beautiful Italian aria with an opera star bass making his film debut!



Bells Are Ringing - her last movie, and a brilliant one too-- made in 1960 during her triumphant return to the theater stage. Some say this movie was her finest hour in film.



Some More Remarkable Tidbits About Judy Holliday



The most remarkable thing for me to observe is that every one of these movies that I've seen (which is all of these except The Marrying Kind) meet the lesbian movie standard, a standard that modern mainstream movies almost never fulfill. What is the lesbian movie standard? To have at least two women characters who have at least one conversation about something other than a man. A set of 1950's movies with a diva comedienne at the helm that meets the lesbian movie standard? If this amazes you too, it's time for you to put a little Holliday in your VCR!



Another surprise is that Judy has an amazing, sweet singing voice.. She fell in love with sax player Gerry Mullligan (who appears in Bells Are Ringing as Judy's blind date) and was happily involved with him until her death, reputedly one of her life's most satisfying loves. She made a record of love songs with him (including four songs written by Judy) in 1961 which was only released in 1980- Holliday With Mulligan. You can listen to a RealAudio clip off the album here.



Two other little surprises about our lady Judy: she was at least a little bit bisexual, having a romance with a woman at the age of 18 (although never self-identifying as bi, and partnering with men throughout adulthood), and she was also an inventor. LIFE magazine reported that she was working on a way to make edible teaspoons out of Bisquick pancake mix.



The Judy Holliday Resource Center (JHRC) is a great place to learn about this doe-eyed genius of the stage, if you have a hankering for some more Holliday.



The Reel Classics Judy Holliday site has a few more useful links to explore, good for folks who don't know where to begin searching in the JHRC archives. It also features an MP3 clip of one of Judy's song from Bells Are Ringing.



This little article gives more details and anecdotes about her early acting life, including a story about being chased and pawed by a Fox movie mogul, causing one of her falsies to pop out of her dress. She's reputed to have said "That's all right... it belongs to you."