A Garland of roses, a Garland of thorns

Sorry I snoozed through the 50th anniversary (April 23) of Judy Garland’s comeback concert at Carnegie Hall, which she prepped for with winning performances in Charlotte and Greensboro.

In Charlotte she helped hasten demolition of the classic but run-down Southern Railway passenger station, remarking that it was “a helluva station…. What happened to it?”

Four years later, however, a badly diminished Garland bombed at a Democratic Party benefit at the Charlotte Coliseum. “Can you people hear?” she asked the skimpy crowd of 4,000. “Trouble is, I can hear, too, and it isn’t too good.”

Link dump survives another week on ‘Idol’

— “Like no-one else’s, Mr. Taylor’s music distills a primal American yearning that can never be completely satisfied….”

Descendant adds color to “Arrangement in Black and White.”

— “He will not be hanged until the mail train comes through tomorrow.”

Lost Cause was lost on W. J. Cash.

— “We left Wilmington… to witness and, if allowed, to participate in the bombardment of Fort Sumter”….  Road trip!

No charity needed for ‘Carnegie Hallbillies’

“[In 1961 Patsy Cline] was invited to appear on the Grand Ole Opry at Carnegie Hall, the first full-fledged country production at that cultural bastion….

“Dorothy Kilgallen, who wrote the syndicated ‘Voice of Broadway’ column for the Journal-American and was featured on CBS’s ‘What’s My Line?’,  took cheap shots almost daily at the coming of the ‘Carnegie Hallbillies.’

“On stage in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Patsy had a few words for Kilgallen:  ‘We’re gonna be in high cotton next week — Carnegie Hall. That ole Dorothy Kilgallen wrote, “Everybody should get out of town because the hillbillies are coming!” At least we ain’t standing on New York street corners with itty-bitty cans in our hands collecting coins to keep up the opera and symphonies.’ ”

— From “Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline” (1993) by Ellis Nassour