JUDY HOLLIDAY: SHE WASN'T
BORN YESTERDAY

(No writing credit listed)
From "Quick" magazine February 19, 1951

For over three years sharp-witted, squeaky-voiced Judy Holliday was the darling of Broadway in Born Yesterday. She played luscious Billie Dawn, a rich man's pet whose stalled brain ("I'm stupid and I like it!") begins working like a well-oiled piston when a new boyfriend winds it up. Last year, Judy took Billie to Hollywood for the film version of Born Yesterday. This currently is a critical and box-office favorite across the nation.

Judy vs. Radio

By last week, Judy seemed certain to take Billie Dawn with her on another jaunt--this time into a regular radio show. Judy, a veteran of night clubs (where she wrote her own material) as well as Broadway, knows a good thing when she's got it. She admits: "I've been searching for a good radio show for that dumb bunny for two years."

What suddenly got radio executives hot on the idea was the public response to her tangling with Tallulah Bankhead on two recent appearances with NBC's Big Show.

Judy vs. Tallu

She complimented Tallu's enacting of a death scene: "That's a great coughin' routine y'got there." She reacted to Tallu's claim of being married to her career with: "You should get a divorce and marry a fellow. You can't warm your feet on the back of a microphone." And she advised Tallu: "Use perfume. A fellow likes to sniff around." Judy, it seemed, finally had a scriptwriter who knew Billie Dawn as well as she does.

Judy vs. Change

     Combine the pretty appeal of a helpless child with a steel-trap mind and stubborn individuality, and you have Judy Holliday. Through all the hoopla about her success, she has gone on living with her husband and a spoiled pet cocker in an old N.Y.C. apartment. It's crammed with early American furniture acquired at hundreds of auctions. She's fiercely determined not to "make like an actress," go Hollywood or anything that will rob her of her treasured independence.

     Of all the things she shuns, TV heads the list. She explains: "See how fat I am now? That's because I love to cook and then I love to eat what I've cooked. But when I was doing Born for Columbia, I had to diet for months. And I had to show up at the studio every morning two hours before we started shooting."

     "From 7 to 8 a.m. they worked on my hair. From 8 to 9 they worked on my face. And they bleached me every other day. If I went on television I'd have to be on the diet and beauty treatments all the time. You think I'm nuts? I like living too much for that!

JUDY HOLLIDAY: SHE WASN'T BORN YESTERDAY

Judy vs. Radio

Judy vs. Tallu

Judy vs. Change

JUDY HOLLIDAY: SHE WASN'T
BORN YESTERDAY