Celeb Watch: Minnelli's Memories Embody Showbiz History; Video
Inducted in Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, Minneli takes walk down memory lane.
June 24, 2008— -- NEW YORK — Sunday marked the 39th anniversary of Judy Garland's death, and her eldest child, Liza Minnelli, was reminded of her mother over the weekend as she was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.
She was about 15, she thinks, when her mother performed one of her final shows at the Bowl. "They built this ramp that went over the pool — or whatever that is in the front — and she was so scared to walk out there to the end," she recalls. "So she's halfway there, and she says, 'Liza, I'm going to fall,' and I remember jumping up" to help.
The Tony/Oscar/Emmy/Grammy winner, 62, also remembers her first visit to the landmark amphitheater, which is tucked away in the Hollywood Hills.
"I was little — I guess about 4," Minnelli says. "I sat on my dad's lap, next to Mama. And it was my godfather, Ira Gershwin, who was being honored there. So they played all the wonderful Gershwin songs."
As a teen, Minnelli says she sat up high on the lawn — in the Bowl's cheap section. "That's when you go with a boy and hope he's going to put his arm around you," she recalls with a hearty laugh.
Minnelli, who received a Tiffany-designed glass sculpture in the shape of the Hollywood Bowl, joins such previous Hall of Fame inductees as Frank Sinatra, George Harrison, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder and Placido Domingo.
On Friday, she performed at the Bowl for the first time. She had been rehearsing vigorously with her best friend and choreographer of 38 years, Ron Lewis, who accompanied her to the Tony Awards.
Before heading west, Minnelli stopped at New York's Tavern on the Green, where she and fourth husband David Gest courted before their lavish 2002 wedding. Some thought was even given to holding the ceremony here.
Minnelli shrieks when asked about the possibility of a fifth marriage, much like the reaction often given by close friend Elizabeth Taylor.
"I'm not going to get up to that number — what is it, 18?" Minnelli cracks, with her signature guffaw. (Eight, actually.) "Marriage is not right for me. I'm so happy now. I feel like my feet are on the ground and my head's in the sky."
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