La Collectionneuse: Judy Holliday

Judy Holliday was considered one of the greatest comic actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. George Cukor, who directed her five times, held her acting in high esteem and considered her 'a master of comedy' and a 'true artist'. He declared, "Like all the great clowns, Judy Holliday could also move you. She made you laugh, she was a supreme technician, and then suddenly you get touched. She could interpret a text with the subtlest detail, her pauses would give you every comma - she’d even give the author a semicolon if he’d written one. And vocally, she was fascinating, she had a way to hitting the notes like a bull’s-eye, and the slightest distorsion in the recording meant that you lost something". Jack Lemmon, who played opposite her in It Should Happen to You (1954) and Phffft (1954), allegedly said of her: "She was intelligent and not at all like the dumb blonde she so often depicted. She didn’t give a damn where the camera was placed, how she was made to look, or about being a star. She just played the scene, acted with, not at. She was also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met".


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2992. Photo: Columbia CEIAD.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. D12. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Beginnings in show business

Judy Holliday was born as Judith Tuvim on the 21st of June 1921 in New York, into a Jewish family active in leftist circles.

She graduated from the Julia Richman High School in 1938 and briefly worked as a telephonist for Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre Group.

She allegedly made her screen debut as an extra in the short Too Much Johnson (1938). It was directed by Orson Welles and was intended to be part of a stage production. Finally, it was never publicly screened and was believed to be lost until a print was found in 2008.

In 1938, she joined a group of performers called The Revuers. They played engagements in nightclubs, had their own radio show on NBC for several weeks in 1940 and recorded a 78-rpm album.

Two other Revuers members would later also make good: Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who became famous musical-comedy composers, lyricists and writers.


Spanish postcard, no. 2547. Judy Holliday and William Holden in Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950).

Most Promising Female Performer

After The Revuers had played at the Trocadero in Los Angeles, 20th Century Fox showed interest in Judith, signed her and changed her name to Judy Holliday.

She appeared as an unbilled extra in Greenwich Village (1944) and had another uncredited bit role in Something for the Boys (1944).

She finally got a more substantial part in George Cukor’s Winged Victory (1945), as a U.S. Air Force pilot’s wife.

After she allegedly had refused Darryl Zanuck’s sexual advances, she was released from her contract.

She was soon noticed on Broadway in 'Kiss Them for Me', which ran from March to June 1945 and earned her the Clarence Derward Award for Most Promising Female Performer. Her part would be later played by Jayne Mansfield in the 1957 movie version.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 494. Photo: Columbia. Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950).


American Kodak postcard.

Born Yesterday

In 1945, Garson Kanin wrote the play 'Born Yesterday' for Jean Arthur, who opened with it in New Haven on the 20th of December 1945.

The ever-insecure Arthur quit in Boston on the 1st of January 1946, pleading health reasons, and was replaced by Judy Holliday, who quickly learnt her lines to be ready for the Philadelphia opening on the 12th of January.

The leading character of the play, Billie Dawn, is a former chorus girl who has become the mistress of a corrupt junkyard tycoon. Embarrassed by her dumbness and ignorance, he hires a journalist to educate her so that she can become more socially acceptable. In the end, Billie turns out smarter than everybody gives her credit for.

'Born Yesterday'was a huge hit on Broadway, where it opened on the 4th of February 1946, and made Judy famous. She gave her final performance in the play on the 24th of May 1949. After she left, ticket sales fell off and 'Born Yesterday' finally closed on the 31st of December, after a lengthy run of 1642 performances.

Judy Holliday received rave reviews for her clever portrayal of a dumb broad who awakens intellectually, morally and politically.


American postcard by A B-H Publications, Los Angeles. This postcard was issued on the occasion of the Academy Awards Ceremony, which took place on the 29th of March 1951. The winners in the acting category were Judy Holliday (Best Actress for Born Yesterday), Josephine Hull (Best Supporting Actress for Harvey), José Ferrer (Best Actor for Cyrano) and George Sanders (Best Supporting Actor for All About Eve).

Best Actress Oscar

Columbia bought the film rights of 'Born Yesterday' at a high price in September 1947, planning it as a vehicle for their nr 1 female star, Rita Hayworth. But it was bad timing: she met Aly Khan in 1948, married him in 1949 and temporarily left the screen.

Columbia’s boss, Harry Cohn, was not keen to allow Judy Holliday to appear in the film version and began searching for other actresses to cast as Billie Dawn. However, Garson Kanin was sure she would be the right choice.

So, when he and his wife, Ruth Gordon, wrote the screenplay of M.G.M.’s Adam’s Rib (1949), a Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy vehicle directed by George Cukor, Judy Holliday was encouraged to tackle the key role of jilted wife Doris Attinger. Katharine Hepburn notably championed her generously and saw to it that the film would be a showcase for Judy’s talents. Cukor, who was a big fan of Judy, also lent his expertise to give her the most exposure.

In view of her performance in Adam’s Rib, Harry Cohn relented and signed her. He didn’t live to regret it, as Born Yesterday (1950), again directed by George Cukor, was commercially and critically successful.

In 1951, Judy Holliday was, against all odds, awarded the Best Actress Oscar, notably facing strong competition from Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. She also got a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy.


British postcard issued by the “Evening Argus”. The “Evening Argus” was a local newspaper based in Brighton and Hove.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A1352. Photo: Columbia Pictures.

A Columbia star

Judy Holliday made a brief return to Broadway in May 1951 in a revival of 'Dream Girl', for a limited engagement of two weeks.

George Cukor then directed her again in The Marrying Kind (1952) and It Should Happen to You (1954).

In addition to Cukor, she was on familiar ground, as the first film was written by Gordon Kanin and Ruth Gordon and the latter by Kanin on his own. Such a partnership was a great asset to her career.

Next came Mark Robson’s Phffft (1954), written by George Axelrod, who called Judy 'one of the finest comedy technicians in the world'. The movie earned Kim Novak, who was groomed at the time as Columbia’s newest sex symbol, a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

She ended her stay at Columbia with two films directed by Richard Quine, The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) and Full of Life (1956).


Italian postcard by Vetta Traldi, Milano, no. 3.

A wave of anti-communism

At the beginning of the 1950s, a strong movement against leftist ideas and an anti-Red craze threatened to break Judy Holliday’s career. In 1950, her name was mentioned in the publication 'Red Channels', which listed so-called communist sympathisers in the entertainment industry. Her family history and her support of left causes made her an ideal target.

She appeared before Senator Pat McCarran’s Internal Security Subcommittee on the 26th of March 1952. She was advised to act as a dumb blonde, in the Billie Dawn mould, and she played it to the hilt.

She confused the interrogators by displaying double-talk, invoking memory gaps, pretending not to understand some of the questions, pleading ignorance in political matters and playing up the idea that she was a gullible woman. She admitted to shallow thinking and to having been irresponsible regarding her civic activism. But it should be noted that, during her hearing, she carefully and adroitly avoided naming names, a feat which she was understandably proud of.

She was such a good actress that her ploy of passing for a slow-witted, naive, scatterbrained and easily swayed person worked. In the end, the Committee could not find any evidence of close ties to the Communist Party and dismissed her.

In truth, Judy was far from being dumb and was no stranger to political and social issues. For example, she had sent a telegram of protest to Washington when concert-goers were attacked by racist and anti-communist rioters in Peekskill in 1949, in relation to African American singer Paul Robeson’s recitals.


Italian postcard by Edizioni S.I.P.Ci, Milano. Photo: Columbia CEIAD. Judy Holliday in The Marrying Kind (George Cukor, 1952).


Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 46.

Another Broadway hit

Judy Holliday made a triumphant comeback on Broadway with 'Bells Are Ringing', which she played from November 1956 to March 1959. It won her a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

She also starred in the film version, M.G.M.’s Bells Are Ringing (1960), opposite Dean Martin.

In 1960, she started out-of-town tryouts on 'Laurette'. The play never made it to Broadway, as she had to leave the production following serious health problems.

She appeared on the Great White Way for the last time in 'Hot Spot', which was a flop and closed after 43 performances in 1963. The review in 'Billboard' read: "Predictions of failure did precede the show and these were confirmed when the New York Critics' Circle passed a unanimous negative judgment".

Judy Holliday died from cancer on the 7th of June 1965. She had married musician David Oppenheim in 1948, but the marriage ended in divorce. They had a son, Jonathan, in 1952. From 1959 on, she had a long-term relationship with jazzman Gerry Mulligan.


West German postcard by Ufa /Film-Foto (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3589. Photo: Columbia Film.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.