LIZA MINNELLI Memories of MY MAMA

THE ENTERTAINER REMEMBERS THE PLEASURE AND PAIN OF GROWING UP WITH JUDY GARLAND

- Amanda Champagne-Meadows

Judy Garland led the standing ovation at the opening night of Flora, the Red Menace, a 1965 musical starring her 19-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli. “Can you believe that’s Liza up there?” Judy gushed

to the show’s costume designer. “You got her up there looking the way she does. And I got her up there because I’m her mother and conceivably her inspiration — the heck with her motivation.”

Looking back at her childhood, Liza, 77, admits she was motivated to succeed by her mother. “She had drive and she had guts. She had huge ambition, a great sense of resilience, and a simply wonderful sense of humor. I like to think she passed those three traits on to me,” said Liza.