Richard Skipper Celebrates The Life of Judy Garland with John Meyer 6/22/2022

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John received national attention when Judy Garland sang his songs on The Tonight Show just a few months before she died. Before connecting with Judy, John wrote special comedy material for Lily Tomlin, Linda Lavin, and Eartha Kitt. His comedy number about a girl who fell in love with Mr. Clean attracted the attention of a famous ad agency, BBD&O, and he was offered a high-paying copywriter’s position. But, after a few weeks, John, feeling stifled, left the agency to make his way as a pianist, playing the songs he’d always loved -in clubs, at resorts, on the QE2 and even on a luxury train like the Orient Express. As a writer, collaborating with director Paul Bartel, John wrote the screenplay for a movie, Not For Publication and also the script for an episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories; he also provided the musical scores for each of these with orchestrator Larry Hochman. With co-producer Bobbie Horowitz, John traveled to London to produce his own, film-noir satirical musical, The Betrayal of Nora Blake. “Funniest show of the year” said the reviewers. Most appropriately, today, we must mention the memoir John wrote about the thrilling eight weeks he spent as Judy Garland’s boyfriend, manager and songwriter.