Announcer: A little girl, a warm voice, she captured the movie audiences of the 30s and the 40s, the television fans of the 50s and 60s. The Palace Theater in New York City became Judy’s castle. She became a legend in show business that few can challenge. It started with a hop and a skip down a yellow brick road.
Judy Garland was dead in 1969. What made her what she was? Ray Bolger, ‘The Scarecrow’ who searched for a brain in the 'Wizard of Oz', tried to say.
Ray Bolger: “It’s impossible to believe, it’s just a little, little girl gone from your life, if you knew her. Sometimes cynical about the wound that she lived in, but always looking for the joy, always joyous, always -- she was the happiest person when she was happy, and like Liza said, Eliza said, she was the saddest person when she was sad.
"There is only one person like Judy; Judy was unique, Judy was a star. There are only one of each kind. It says in the theatrical contract involved (ph) many years ago, where they were very discriminating, that you are unique, extraordinary, and cannot be duplicated. That was a star, and that was Judy. Who is going to be another Judy? Who is going to think like she thinks? Who is going to have that tear in hear voice like she had? No one.”
Announcer: The most widely spread rumor in 1969 was that one of the Beatles was dead. His fans pointed to circumstantial evidence; symbolic and otherwise, on record jackets and in the songs the Beatles sang. They said it all proved one thing, Beatles Paul McCartney was dead.
Paul McCartney: “Anyway all of the things that have been, that have made these rumors, to my mind have very ordinary, logical explanations. To the people’s minds who prefer to think of them as rumors, then I am not going to interfere, I am not going to spoil that fantasy. You can think of it like that if you like.
"However, if the end result, the conclusion you reach is that I am dead, then you are wrong, because I am very much alive, I am alive and living in Scotland.”
Announcer: But death did come to some in 1969; it came to actors Boris Karloff and Robert Taylor, Journalist Ralph McGill, Westbrook Pegler, and Drew Pearson.
Leaders of many and few, such as Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol, Allen Dulles, Moise Tshombe, Everett Dirksen, Tom Mboya, John L. Lewis, and Joseph Kennedy Sr., and death came to a great American, Dwight David Eisenhower.
Richard Nixon: "Some men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead powerful nations. For eight years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither commanded an army nor led a nation; and yet he remained through his final days the world's most admired and respected man, truly the first citizen of the world."
Announcer: Dwight David Eisenhower, the Grand General of World War II, the popular war hero who became President in 1952, is gone. His death was not sudden; it came after he had suffered his seventh heart attack in fourteen years.
A State funeral was held in Washington. Leaders from around the world gathered to pay their respects to the man they called Ike.
Announcer: The former President’s body lay in state for three days; then it was taken to its final resting place, Ike’s hometown of Abilene, Kansas.
Richard Nixon: "I know Mrs. Eisenhower would permit me to share with you the last words she spoke to him on the day he died. He said, 'I've always loved my wife, I've always loved my children, I've always loved my grandchildren, and I have always loved my country.' That was Dwight Eisenhower."
