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[movie reel whirring, buzzing]
[gentle music]
-[nostalgic music] -[crew chatting in background]
I love it when the camera's a little higher,
just a little.
Sorry.
I may be my mother's daughter,
but there's a lot of my father in it.
[Liza scatting]
Oh, Lenny, it's great.
[gentle nostalgic music]
Can you get this?
Okay.
I wish you had a light that went right in my face.
[gentle piano music]
Okay, a little bit higher.
I'm talking to you.
-Is that perfect? -That was perfect.
-That's what I always say. -[Liza laughing]
[crowd cheering, applauding]
On the schnoz too. [laughing]
[nostalgic music]
[Director] Let's all settle down, please.
-Shut the fuck up. -Shut the fuck up.
[Liza laughing]
-[clapper board clicking] -[dramatic drum roll music]
[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Liza Minnelli.
[dramatic performance music] [audience applauding]
Yes.
♪ Say yes ♪
[man] Iconic.
[woman] One of the biggest stars in the world.
Talent beyond belief.
-Liza Minnelli. -Liza Minnelli.
-The one and only Liza.
♪ When opportunity comes your way ♪
-Films. -Concerts.
♪ Wondering what to say ♪ -Broadway.
[Oprah] Tonys, a Grammy, an Emmy, even an Oscar,
she has done it all.
♪ There's mink and marigold right outside ♪
[Interviewer] People think that Liza was born
in a red sequin dress, belting out a tune.
[Interviewer] She's weathered some hard times,
both personally and professionally.
♪ Yes, I'm alive ♪
♪ Yes, I say ♪
[Interviewer] She has achieved that rare status
where only a first name is necessary.
I'm a star.
-♪ And yes, I'm going ♪ -She's simply the best.
-Liza! -♪ On ♪
♪ Yes ♪
Yes.
[audience applauding, cheering]
[chimes music]
[phone ringing]
[pensive music]
["Over the Rainbow"]
[Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
here is young Liza Minnelli.
-How am I doing, Mama? -Oh, fine, Liza, keep going.
[Interviewer] Judy and her daughter Liza
at the London Palladium.
♪ Hello, Liza ♪
[phone ringing]
-Hello? [ring tone sounding]
[somber music]
-[Reporter] Thousands of people lined the streets
outside the funeral chapel on Manhattan's Upper East Side
to pay this last tribute
to a woman they had known since her childhood.
[somber music continues]
-Is that Mama?
No!
My mother? Nah.
She's never gonna pass.
And I believed it.
I started crying and I didn't stop for about eight days.
It just was devastating to me
and I was in charge of so much.
-[Reporter] Her family, her three children,
Liza Minnelli, Lorna and Joey Luft attended the services.
[man] It's hard to imagine what would've happened with Liza
if her mother hadn't passed away at that moment in her life
because it's kind of a before and after.
Her mother's passing was a catalyst.
[somber music]
-She took that period of time to hone the craft
that her mother had given her,
the legacy she had passed on to her.
She took the grief as a period of incubation.
-I think when her mom died, there was of course sorrow.
Her mother was a massive person in her life,
but I think there had to be an element of,
I don't have to worry anymore,
because I mean, her mom was a worry.
-So what's next?
Her mom has died, she's grieving, and at the same time,
she's thinking about her own life.
She's 23, what's she gonna do in her career
because there was so much expected of her.
[upbeat music]
♪ Oh, sweet kindness ♪
♪ A little magic, a little kindness ♪
-She is a talented dancer,
a talented singer, a great actress,
but these things all need to be developed.
So she found friends and mentors who helped her.
-What I was really good at
was picking the people to be around.
I had a good eye.
I think I still do.
♪ Don't let Annie hear it ♪
♪ We don't believe in the Jezebel spirit ♪
-It was now or never, so she set out to create the person
that she wanted to become.
[upbeat music fades]
[chimes music]
-Kay.
♪ Come along and join a Jubilee ♪
-How smart of you to show me this right now.
It's giving me courage too.
-[Director] In what way?
-Because it's fun
and I'm nervous so it helps that.
-The minute her mother died,
Kay Thompson comes back into Liza's life
as her quirky godmother who took her under her wing
and gave her this sort of life wisdom.
-Liza called Kay, who was in Rome.
Kay immediately flew to New York and took over.
What are you gonna wear?
What's the casket?
Kay said We need a white casket.
The funeral home said we don't have white caskets.
And Kay said, "We're from MGM. Spray it."
[lion roaring]
Kay really started to mentor Liza
at a time when Liza didn't know who she was.
Was she Judy Garland's daughter?
Who was she supposed to be?
-Her fight was to find who she was, not her mother.
She knew who her mother was.
She didn't wanna be her mother.
-Kay Thompson is always referred to as larger than life,
but Liza was also larger than life
and Liza became larger than life because she watched Kay.
♪ Kay Thompson, Kay, Kay Thompson ♪
♪ Hello hello ♪
♪ We're having a birthday party ♪
♪ A lot like Jubilee time, a lot like Jubilee time ♪
-Kay Thompson was a singer, a vocal arranger,
a composer, a lyricist, a cultural icon,
a fashion icon, an author of the Eloise books.
Kay supposedly created the character of Eloise
patterned in part after Liza.
She became a mentor musically first to Judy Garland,
and then to Liza Minnelli.
-Hi.
Bonjour Paris.
I'm heavenly. Hi, there.
-There was this deep bond
where they were like two girlfriends
and shared this spiritual life together
and Kay opened up the world to Liza
to have a different perspective,
an off kilter perspective, a kooky perspective of life.
-[Kay] With pleasure, my darling.
We're both from the Virgin Islands, so let's go.
-Okay, thank you. -I love you sweat tears.
Is that from the Virgins?
[Liza and Kay singing in foreign language]
-[Liza] Kay wrote that, I love that song.
-I was really happy to be invited to be in a show
that ended up being called "Liza's at the Palace."
We toured for three years, ended up on Broadway.
It was interesting that after much touring
and some illnesses, Liza took this return to Broadway
as a celebration of Kay Thompson.
-She was so original, the way she would teach you stuff.
I mean, when my parents were gone, she never left my side.
We were so close, I was such a fan.
She was it.
She was it for me.
She understood my fears and what worried me
and she always knew what to say.
I got the jitters.
-Don't have. -Just a little.
-Oh, well, a little is great.
-When you get up there,
you suddenly realize what's expected of you
and you get scared.
-[Kay] But I think we get that way
because we think we have to do more than we can do,
which is the dumbest form of insanity in the world.
You can only do what you can do, no more.
-That's true.
The most important thing, and Kay told me this,
don't go around with people you don't like.
Or even if you're curious about people you don't,
don't do it.
-[Kay] And if I get killed in an elevator tonight,
don't waste your time with dull people.
-Okay.
-[Kay] It's like an emery board
going over you all the time.
[Liza laughing]
It's terrible and you become dull yourself.
All right, now what you can do is turn around
so that's because what you've got in back of you.
[Kay speaking in French]
-She taught me everything.
She taught me how to live life,
how to appreciate everything that we were going through.
♪ People to be ♪
[upbeat jazzy music]
♪ What some people and me ♪
Give me more level.
Does it sound good back there?
-[Kay] Beautiful sound.
-Wish I could give myself just a little more.
She'd seen me start to shake, so I was putting my makeup on
and she'd say...
♪ Happy days are here again ♪
♪ The skies are bright ♪
You know.
She'd kept me singing, I'd relax.
-The theater is beautifully perfect acoustically.
And this sound is heavenly.
What more can I say?
-She would stand backstage with me sometimes
and she'd slap me on the behind and say, "Go!"
I went "Wow!" I was on stage. [laughing]
-So I mean, honey, you're in, you know?
Hi, there.
-How do I wanna say that?
Kay never felt particularly attractive.
She said she had a new face made of old material.
Great line.
She had a real feeling of being less than,
and then moving to Hollywood
where everyone is beautiful must have been crushing.
So I think that's perhaps where some jealousy came from.
She was the one with the talent
and she was coaching all of these other people
to do what she did.
So there were a couple withering comments here and there
from Kay that I know would hurt Liza.
There was a lot of jealousy in Kay Thompson.
♪ All kinds of weather ♪
♪ What if the sky should fall ♪
♪ I don't know ♪
♪ [indistinct] ♪
♪ Where we going ♪
♪ It doesn't matter ♪
-During the last years of Kay's life,
Liza took care of her in her own home,
round the clock staff, the best food.
Liza gets her star in heaven
for treating her so beautifully.
-And the last words she ever said to me were these.
"Goodbye, darling.
Happy everything!"
[audience applauding] [gentle music]
-I think Kay, the mentor, made Liza the superstar possible.
[chimes music]
-Hi, I'm Liza.
When I was 18,
I went in New York one night to the Ambassador Theater
and there I saw something that I'll never forget.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have brought you a present from France.
Charles Aznavour.
Charles Aznavour changed my life.
He changed my entire life.
I don't think I'm a real good singer,
but I can act some.
♪ So we are alone again tonight ♪
♪ I read a book, you watch the fight ♪
♪ Stifled you on a can of beer ♪
♪ What an enthralling atmosphere ♪
♪ And yet the sight of you this way ♪
♪ Helps me say what I must say ♪
[Liza chuckling]
Which was written by Charles Aznavour.
-She'd learned a lot from Aznavour.
I mean, it all paid off.
-I see her taking the advice of Charles Aznavour
very seriously with lyrics and interpretation.
-Aznavour is one of the most beloved
iconic French singers/songwriters/performers
who was mentored by Edith Piaf,
with whom he had a relationship very early in his career.
-[Reporter] He personified French culture to the world.
-[Reporter] Aznavour sold 180 million records.
-[Reporter] The French Frank Sinatra.
[upbeat music]
[Charles singing in French]
-[Interviewer] Tell us all you have to know.
-First of all, to be honest with the public
and to be kind of an actor on stage,
much more than to open the mouth and throw a voice out.
[Charles singing in French]
-When you see Aznavour perform, even if it's in French
and you don't understand what he's saying,
he has that same ability to communicate
and make you feel the gamut of every emotion.
[Charles singing in French]
[Liza singing]
When Liza saw Aznavour, she said, "That's it. That's it."
It was different from what her mother did
and Aznavour was this embodiment
of not only the show business part and the vocal part,
but the grittiness of life.
[Charles speaking in French]
[Liza speaking in French]
[Charles speaking in French]
[jazzy music]
-Charles Aznavour is the person Liza has credited
with being one of the architects of helping her find
her own voice.
[jazzy music continues]
-The creative part of their relationship
was really good for Liza because I remember Frank saying
about Liza when she started out, he said,
"Not everything has to be the national anthem."
And I knew what he meant, but I didn't say anything.
Aznavour, I think from Aznavour,
she saw a way of delivering the song in a way
that was closer, closer to the heart.
She can do the big stuff
and her mom always did the the big stuff too,
but I think being able to do both
is something that she showed more of after Aznavour.
[gentle music]
[gentle music continues]
[chimes music]
[playful music]
-I always wanted to dance.
It was the first thing I could do.
I loved it.
I danced before I sang, before I did anything.
I wanted to be in a dance company, you know?
'Cause what I loved so much was...
♪ I want a natural ♪
Cut and go to the clip.
♪ I want a natural man ♪
♪ I want a natural man, yes ♪
-Liza grew up surrounded by dance.
♪ Shout hallelujah, come on get happy ♪
♪ You better chase all your cares away ♪
-Not only because of her mother,
but also because of her father
-Out in the audience, Vincente Minnelli.
[buzzer buzzing]
-Quiet! Roll sound.
-Vincente Minnelli was a true Hollywood visionary.
He was an extraordinary director of iconic musicals,
American in Paris and The Band Wagon, and GiGi.
And he had this eye for perfectionism
and that is the thing that Liza inherited
and that's one of the most important traits in who she is.
-Well, my father inspired me with everything,
especially art, and from watching him direct everybody else,
he was a tyrant, you know.
Come here, camera.
I don't want it straight away or down, I want it there.
Now tilts It, too far, there, that's the angle.
Vincente Minnelli's daughter,
what are you gonna do? -I know.
-[Liza] I just loved hanging out at the studio
where my father and mother worked,
especially when my father was directing dance sequences.
-Sometimes she would come on the set
and I said, "Who is that girl?"
He said, "That's Vincente's daughter."
She'd sing a little number and she'd do a little dance step.
Great enthusiasm.
[movie reel clicking]
-I learned by watching.
You know.
[upbeat music]
There was something about movement,
the choreography that thrilled me,
to move through the air.
I just knew I had to do it.
I didn't have the classic dancer's body.
I discovered that I had scoliosis
and one leg went higher than the other.
I was really insecure about this,
but I had to learn to deal with it.
Emphasize what you think is good,
and what you don't like, change it.
[upbeat music]
-There was a sense that Liza needed to take
all of this raw dance talent
and channel it into something bigger,
something greater that she was feeling.
So on the scene comes a dance legend
who would channel her talents and change her life.
-You know me.
I directed the show's "Pippen" and "Chicago"
and the films "Cabaret" and "Lenny,"
but still people don't know my face.
[lively drum beat music]
-Bob Fosse started out dancing
as a young boy in his native Chicago.
He moved to choreography on Broadway,
becoming one of the biggest in the business.
Later directing shows
and then eventually inevitably to directing motion pictures.
-Bob Fosse to work with was very precise and humorous.
-He was a perfectionist in terms of the choreography.
Do it one more time.
You didn't do, you didn't, do, jip, boo. [chuckling]
-A signature Bob Fosse move would be his hands,
the hips,
the tilt of the head.
And it's the simplicity of the move that is so powerful.
It's not the cartwheel, the split,
and the jump and the bang, bang, bang.
No, it's a quiet moments.
Little things like a flick of a head,
a look.
These are Fosseisms.
-I think we should mention somewhere in here
about my audition for the Broadway show of "Cabaret"
and not getting it.
-Ah, baby.
-Originally when it was conceived for Broadway,
I lost the role.
It was something I always wanted to do.
I always wanted to do Sally Bowles.
And then when they made the film,
I just petitioned for it, I fought for it.
I wanted to sing it, that's all.
Is that too simple an answer?
So I finally got the role
and Bob Fosse was gonna direct.
Oh my God.
We met at the Waldorf coffee shop.
I must have made him nervous or something
because he suddenly got vaguely defensive.
He suddenly said, "How do you feel about going topless?"
I said, "I won't do it."
There's always a way around it.
And he said, "All right, I was just wondering."
Right away we clicked.
He was some kind of sexy and wacko
and had this great sense of humor.
-When Liza talks about Fosse, she always says,
"I'm a director's daughter.
I understood how to deal with him."
-The Liza-Fosse combination.
I always felt that Liza knew how to get the most out of him.
♪ Money makes the world go around ♪
♪ The world go around ♪
♪ Money makes the world go around ♪
♪ It makes the world go round ♪
-I was not a trained dancer.
Liza was much more so,
and she would always say, "It's gonna be fine.
Ssh, don't say anything.
Shut the fuck up." And I did.
♪ And you haven't any cold stove ♪
♪ And you freeze in the winter ♪
♪ And curse through the ceiling ♪
-Liza's feet were bleeding,
so I went to Bob and said, "Her feet are bleeding.
I don't think she can dance."
And he said, "Yeah, she can.
She's getting paid a lot of money and that's what she does."
-Okay, can we do that once more?
A few more lines than before.
-She was totally in awe of him.
She did whatever he wanted.
-Something happened during the shooting of a scene
and Fosse was blaming her
and after the shoot was over, he said,
"Liza, I wanna see you in my office right now."
She said, "No, Bobby, we'll talk about it tomorrow."
He said, "Right now."
And she said, "No, Bobby, if I go in there now,
you're gonna say things to me that are gonna be so horrible
that tomorrow morning you're gonna send me flowers.
So we'll talk about it tomorrow."
I think it's so revealing and so smart.
[pensive music]
-I remember going to rent the movie
and being so in love with this chick
that was playing Sally Bowles.
I was just like, she's hot, she's sexy, she's weird.
-She had that fierceness and also so much vulnerability.
-Sally Bowles to me was a woman of life
and yet a tragic expression of life
and I think that Liza identified with the silent part
of herself that the public didn't know
and she had a chance to express it through Sally Bowles.
-So I went to my dad and I said,
"Well, do I have to dye my hair blonde
and pull out all my eyebrows?"
And he said, "No, no, no darling."
And he showed me Lya de Putti
and he showed me Louise Brooks.
And he said, "There's a way to do this
and you'll figure it out."
You have to be absolutely concentrate on what you're doing
and who this person is
and what happened to her to become this person.
One day I went into this store
and this wonderful lady called Christina Smith
was selling these enormous eyelashes,
and I thought that would be good for her
because she wants to look special.
She's not trying to be beautiful.
-I made those lashes by hand.
They're long in the center and that lowers.
Of course, she had naturally big eyes.
I just enhanced them.
-The Liza lashes are iconic on their own terms,
but never more than as Sally Bowles
where it seems like each lash
has like a black pearl at the end or something.
It adds to the hyperrealism of the movie.
-She needed to be special.
She needed to be special.
-[Announcer] Sally Bowles!
[audience applauding] [upbeat music]
-When you think about Liza as a dancer
before she worked with Fosse, she was girlish.
If you look at footage of her on the Ed Sullivan Show-
-Liza Minnelli. -She was clearly
very talented, but she was kind of gangly
and all over the place.
Fosse brought a kind of discipline
and focus to her dancing
that made her just shine like a jewel.
-I have a a back problem.
Every time I pick anything up
and have to be very kind of calm,
it would go [imitating back vibrating] like this.
They had to glue everything down
for me so it wouldn't rattle.
-Sometimes the muscles would tremble even from the rear.
You know, she'd be acting very calm
and you look at her rear...
[all laughing]
-Fosse was such fun to work with
and a marvelous director, just knew what he wanted.
Plus he knew what I could do.
[upbeat music]
-He was smart enough to recognize
what a hard worker she was,
how the talent just oozed from her.
♪ Have to understand the way I am, mein herr ♪
-He used the quirkiness of her body movements,
the quirkiness of her torso to her advantage
and presented her really in a new and fascinating way.
♪ Bye-bye my leiberherr ♪
♪ Farewell my lieberherr ♪
♪ It was a fine affair ♪
♪ But now it's over ♪
-She has this enormous amount of talent
that all you have to do is push a button
or make a slight suggestion and she said,
"Oh, I know, I know."
Or she's overdoing something
and I think sometimes Liza tends to be over emotional.
You just have to say, "Liza, pull back a little."
And it's just like some beautiful machine.
She just knows how much to pull back.
♪ The continent of Europe is so wide, mein herr ♪
♪ Not only up and down, but side to side, mein herr ♪
-There's definitely the times when she lets the tidal wave
flow and it's thrilling, but in this very controlled way.
♪ But I do what I can ♪
♪ Inch by inch, step by step ♪
♪ Mile by mile ♪
-When she gets to the like "man by man"
and it's just so like lascivious.
♪ Man by man ♪
-I mean it's Liza doing
what Liza does that no one else does
and it's Liza doing it better than Liza has ever done.
[upbeat music] [actors singing]
[audience applauding]
-Divine decadence. I'm Sally Bowles.
-You worry for her because she's making mistakes
and making demands of herself
and others that are going to just lead to a bad place.
-Brian.
I really do love you.
-I think you do love me.
-But you're never fed up with her.
You never stop worrying about her and you never stop caring.
♪ What good is sitting alone in your room ♪
♪ Come hear the music play ♪
[camera shutters clicking]
-The film comes out, it's universally acclaimed
as great art immediately, immediately,
and the film becomes a tremendous box office success.
♪ The book and the gloom ♪
♪ It's time for a holiday ♪
♪ Life is a cabaret ♪
-Liza Minnelli. -[audience applauding]
♪ Come to the cabaret ♪
-I would like to thank Mr. Fosse
and Fred Ebb and John Kander.
Thank you for giving me this award.
You've made me very happy.
[Liza singing]
-She was immediately then a huge star after "Cabaret."
That was like everybody wanted to be with Liza.
[upbeat music]
Everybody wanted her at their parties.
She was getting offered better and better movies,
better boyfriends. ♪ Cabaret ♪
-It was a big deal. [audience applauding]
[chimes music]
-[Director] Let's talk about relationships, marriages.
-Give me a gay break, will ya? [laughing]
I'm sorry, cut that.
Well, I feel wonderful about love
because I wanted to be like it was in the songs, you know?
-Okay, I think we should talk about men in our past lives.
She's had a lot of men.
-How about you? -Excuse me.
-No, I had men that nobody knew about.
I knew about all her men.
-And some of them weren't men at all.
[all laughing]
-I have to be careful here 'cause Liza
doesn't wanna talk a lot about her relationships.
It's a very private thing for her,
yet many of these liaisons were very public.
-She was taught by her MGM parents
how to make things sound fantastic.
Liza will never go on camera and talk about the dirt.
-I can only say that she wanted to consume
the fullness of life.
I don't think she has any regrets in that area.
[upbeat music]
-She loses all of her bearings
and all of her judgment.
This person, this is great, this is gonna be great.
This is it.
[upbeat music continues]
-She gets very into people very quickly
so she's had some really unique relationships
lasting a short period of time.
She throws herself into the relationship
with the same passion that she throws herself into a song,
but then just like in a song,
you then go on to the next song.
-My engagement to Desi Arnaz has,
well, the relationship has been deteriorating for some time.
There is no more engagement, that's all called off.
I also met a man called Peter Sellers
and fell in love with him
and a very pleased to say that he fell in love
with me too. [laughing]
-When you do get married,
you'll be the fourth Mrs. Peter Sellers.
Does this thought bother you at all?
-Oh no, four is my lucky number, my dear.
-Liza has acknowledged
that she didn't always make the greatest decisions
in relationships and laughs about it
because there was genuine love, deep love in every one
of those relationships in different ways.
-And she said, "I wanna take a picture just for us."
I said, "Okay, sure."
So we got off my shirt she took off her blouse
and we took the shot.
What the photo is saying is exactly what was in my mind.
I got you.
Then next thing I know, it was in "Newsweek."
Next thing I know it's [laughing] all over the world.
I'm sure a lot of society was shocked,
but it never entered our bubble.
It was two people were sharing a moment in time.
It didn't stop to say,
well, what does that white guy think about it?
Or what's that black guy going to think about it?
We didn't care.
It was in our world.
-No, you didn't.
-Wow.
Wow.
Excuse me.
I guess you'd call it love.
I love Liza.
That's my baby.
-Some of these relationships didn't last as relationships,
but many of them are long-lasting friendships
over the years.
♪ Maybe this time ♪
♪ For the first time ♪
♪ Love won't hurry away ♪
-I tell you my favorite song
that she sings is "Maybe this Time,"
and you felt when she was singing it, you know,
you hoped that maybe this time would be the time
because she sure deserved it.
♪ It's gotta happen ♪
♪ Maybe sometime ♪
♪ Maybe this time ♪
♪ Real ♪ [grand music]
[audience applauding]
-Now been married twice with one divorce behind you,
and yet I wonder how you really have survived
and how you really cope.
-I was expecting all the pretty things that I'd heard about
and I got a lot of them.
-One time Judy Garland was on stage
and somebody yelled out, "Marry me,"
and Garland said, "Marry you? With my track record?"
And that's kind of like Liza, the way she jokes.
It's like, you know, my track record.
[intense music]
-Peter Allen was so hilarious
and so much fun to be with and he was so great on stage.
-When Liza talks about Peter Allen to this day,
she always talks about his talent, his incredible ability
as a musician, as a composer.
She was deeply in love with him
and they in a certain way remained in love with each other
for the rest of his life.
-The happiest I saw her with somebody in her private life
was with Peter Allen.
But, you know, there were other elements.
-She was truly devastated when she discovered Peter
in a compromising situation with another man.
And people always say, "How could she have not known?"
She didn't know.
I absolutely believe that.
-I think that he felt restricted.
He needed literally to come out.
Oh, Jack.
[people chattering in background]
-When Liza married Jack Haley Jr,
there was all this talk about the daughter of Dorothy
marries the son of the Tin Man
and they were a perfect match for each other in the sense
that they both grew up in Hollywood
and they had beautiful shorthand when they were together
and had a great deal of fun.
♪ When love comes in and takes you for a spin ♪
[both speaking gibberish]
-Larger than life, loved to have a good time,
loved to hear wonderful stories, loved to gossip.
He really, really loved my sister.
-I mean, I love Jack and all,
but I didn't think Jack was a good match for her, frankly.
-In many ways, Mark Gero was Liza's most solid husband
because Mark wasn't in show business.
Mark was a sculptor and he was solid.
He was a solid rock.
-Mark was soulful in a way and Mark was quiet.
I think that Mark was a form of stability that she needed.
[playful music]
-That last husband of hers,
I was at the wedding, oh my God.
-When Liza met David Gest, we were with her.
It was during a period of time in Liza's life
when she wasn't doing so well physically.
She'd gained a lot of weight
and David Gest charmed her and romanced her.
David Gest had a gift of gab, nothing was real,
and basically for a while, took over her life.
He took everybody in her life out of her life.
-I never, I did not know him.
I didn't know him and so I don't have a lot to say about him
'cause I didn't know him.
-It ended when Liza went on tour and she came back
and David Gest took everything out of the apartment,
left her with a bed and a lamp.
There's a bed and one lamp.
-Every picture was off the wall, everything was gone.
-He took every picture, every piece of furniture,
put it in storage.
-Even her record albums.
-Well, you know, he's not around anymore
and I don't wanna speak ill of the dead.
-Betty Davis said you should only speak
good about the dead.
Well David Gest is dead, good.
[gentle music]
-Ladies and gentlemen, not only the most talented
and marvelous person I know,
but my best and dearest friend,
and if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here, Mr. Fred Ebb.
-Fred Ebb.
[gentle music]
-I think Fred really invented me.
He really did.
He knew me so well and so deeply.
[audience applauding]
[jazzy music]
♪ For every man there's a woman ♪
♪ For every life there's a fan ♪
-Was she like everybody who starts, I think was,
was imitating everybody and not,
she needed a style of her own.
So out of that came my opinion that she
should just be who she is, which is terrific.
-He was a complicated guy.
He was wonderful.
He was incredibly funny, he was acerbic.
He could have very dark sense of humor
and his alter ego was Liza.
He helped to expand things in her
that she didn't even see in herself.
-And it really started with a song, the first piece
of a special material that Freddy ever wrote for me
with Johnny, John Kander.
Of course it was "Liza with a Z."
-I mean, he wanted to be Liza in a certain way.
I mean, he wanted to be that persona.
He wanted to be that performer
and he was able to channel certain aspects
of himself through her.
-Would you sing it? -Me?
-Oh yeah. Freddy, everybody.
-You sing it. -Yeah.
[audience applauding]
♪ It's Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S ♪
♪ 'Cause Lisa with an S goes /s/, not /z/ ♪
♪ It's Z instead of S, Li instead of Le ♪
♪ Simple as can be, see Liza ♪
♪ Now if my name were Ada ♪
♪ I'd be Ada even backwards I'd be Ada ♪
♪ Or if my name were Ruth ♪
♪ Then I'd be Ruth because it's Ruth ♪
♪ What can you do ♪
♪ Or Sally or Margaret or Ginger Mofet ♪
♪ But when you're a Liza ♪
♪ You always have to say ♪
♪ It's Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S ♪
♪ 'Cause Lisa with an S goes /s/, not /z/ ♪
[Liza laughing]
[Liza singing]
-It's a whole song about how people say your name wrong.
-That's right, guys. [audience laughing]
♪ Or Minoli or Miniola or Mineli or Minelai ♪
♪ So is it a wonder I very often cry, sing it ♪
[Fred singing]
-[Liza] The way Freddy wrote his lyrics,
it was like somebody talking to you.
♪ Liza Minnelli ♪
♪ It's Italian, blame it on Papa ♪
-And I know how to do a lyric.
The words are so important.
[gentle music]
-Fred and I were brought together, I guess it was 1962,
by our publisher and our backgrounds were very different.
I come from Kansas City and a family background
which was considerably more placid.
That being said, when Fred and I went in the room to write,
we immediately became one person
and that was true really till the day he died.
-[Host] Here are the composer and lyricist,
John Kander and Fred Ebb. [audience applauding]
-They were professional,
but they were also godfathers kind of to her.
I mean, they were really close and key in her creative life
and therefore, you know, in in her heart and soul.
[jazzy music]
-Liza first came into our lives on a cloudy afternoon
when we were working on the score
for "Flora the Red Menace."
We were very close to casting
and that afternoon the doorbell rang
and there was this person.
-And I came in and said,
"Do you have any songs that I could sing, please?
So may I please sing some of your songs?"
-That's right, I remember what you wore.
-What did I wear? -Jeans,
and an old ratty sort of turtleneck, a black turtleneck
and it had a hole in it, which I stared at.
[Liza laughing]
And you were biting your nails
and I said, "God, she's cute."
-Just for fun, we went through all the songs in "Flora"
and she nailed it instantly
and she became right then and there the person
that we wanted to play that part.
She never stopped being a major player in both of our lives.
♪ Some peppy melody about rainbows blending ♪
-Liza had a lot to learn,
but she had the thing that you can't teach.
-She just gave her all to Freddy,
and in doing so, she blossomed.
-Well, he was also very parenting to Liza.
And he would tell her if she did something wrong,
he didn't hold back.
He would say, "You can't do that."
-My friend, my big brother.
He bawled me out when I needed it, you know?
And he told me how to sing a lyric
so that it was believable.
You could just be yourself.
That's all you had to be.
And Freddy taught me that.
He said, "The minute you think you're acting,
then people think you're acting."
I said, "Yeah, you're right."
-There's nothing about you that's unattainable
which is why I think you're as great a star as you are.
All those people care about you and your vulnerability
and there's a humanity about you when you walk out.
♪ When you see me ♪
♪ Hobbin nobbing on the top of the town ♪
♪ My emeralds weighing me down ♪
-And I would do something and Freddy would put up his hand
and they'd cut.
And Freddy come over and whisper to me,
"Hold your head up a little higher
like you were saying something really important."
I'd go, "Mm-hmm." [laughing]
And then I'd hold my head up higher.
-With Fred, it was a very close offstage relationship
and a very close professional relationship
and the two very much melded together.
-So he would steer me away
from talking about my mom too much.
He said because when that happens,
they think about her and not you.
-[Reporter] Liza, I realized you must have learned
a lot of things by watching your mother.
-She was very proud of her mother,
but it was such a complicated relationship.
-Liza used to talk about being at the London Palladium
with her mom in '64.
That was a defining moment for her.
[audience applauding]
She came on stage and she started
to get this extraordinary reaction from the audience.
[Liza singing]
[audience applauding]
Her mom got pissed.
[Liza and Judy singing]
Judy's pushing the microphone up to Liza's face to show
that she's the professional and Liza's the amateur.
And suddenly Liza said,
"My mother went from being my mother
and turned into Judy Garland."
That was a defining moment for Liza.
-Fred understood being always compared to Judy
made her feel terrible.
-Give me your sketch of your mom.
-Your mother. -Your mother.
-Your wonderful mother.
-If I could walk you down your mother's
old yellow brick road, take you to the wizard,
what would be the one wish for yourself that you'd make?
-That you wouldn't ask me another question about my mother.
[Liza laughing]
[audience applauding]
-I think it was the night of her club act
that we did for her.
[audience applauding] [grand music]
Because I can remember Liza sitting in front of the mirror
and she was terrified because Judy
was coming out to the show
and it was Liza at her most unhappy and insecure.
And Judy is there telling Liza how wonderful she is,
but also patting her on the legs saying,
"This is what we've always wanted, isn't it baby?"
And I cannot explain to you why that was the wrong thing
to say, but it took the evening away from Liza.
[somber music]
-Fred helped her evolve from the daughter
of Judy Garland legacy
to the sequin amazing performer on her own.
You can see the beginnings of all of that
in "Liza with a Z."
[horn music]
-I was asked to do a television special and Fred Ebb said,
"I wanna do the first concert for television.
It's never been done before and I want Bobby to do it."
-This is a concert in the medium of television,
the small screen, which it could be dangerous, you know,
in that some entertainers are not good on television
because they're larger than life on stage.
[audience applauding]
-It was for one night, it's one shot only.
It was amazing, it was nerve wracking.
I walked out there like I didn't have a care in the world
and I don't know where I got the bravado.
I don't know anything except that I was felt safe.
♪ I gotcha, uh-huh ♪
♪ You thought I didn't see you now, didn't ya, uh-huh ♪
♪ You tried to sneak by me now, didn't ya, uh-huh ♪
♪ Now gimme what you promised to me ♪
♪ Give it to me, come on ♪
-I thought it was absolutely phenomenal.
Definitely a new way of doing things.
[audience applauding]
♪ Blackbird ♪
-So the Liza in "Liza with a Z" certainly has elements
of the real Liza, but the Liza with the hat
and with the sequin and this certain kind of persona
is a character who is Liza,
but also is a different person.
♪ Where somebody waits for me, Sugar's sweet ♪
♪ So is he ♪
-What Fred Ebb did in collaboration with her
is to take anything that was unpolished
and awkward about Liza, Judy's daughter
trying to make it in show business,
and either polish it or embrace the vulnerabilities.
[playful music]
[hands tapping]
And she knew exactly how to mine that
for everything it's worth.
♪ Fly little blackbird, bye ♪
-When she worked with Fred Ebb,
he rehearsed her where every single speech
and every single thing she said on stage was rehearsed,
even though it sounded incredibly spontaneous.
-The one time that I got a little snippy,
I was sitting around, I said, "I don't wanna do that,
I don't wanna do this tonight," or something like that.
And Fred Ebb said, "Liza, just remember,
you're a figment of my imagination."
And it just so happens that I told a couple of friends
of mine this truly terrific, absolutely true story.
And it just so happened
these friends of mine are songwriters.
-Any singer knows you got to tell the story
in your singing.
♪ Gather around I got a story to tell ♪
♪ About a Manhattan lady that I know very well ♪
♪ She lives at 5 Riverside ♪
♪ Her name is Shirley Divor ♪
♪ And she traveled round the world ♪
♪ To meet the guy next door ♪
-She's done up in Halston,
who's not just making her look fabulous,
but making her look iconic.
I mean really capturing what will be Liza's look
for the rest of her life.
♪ Ring that bell ♪ [grand music]
[audience applauding, cheering]
-Liza proved with "Liza with a Z"
that she was equally iconic on the small screen.
And she did that with Fred Ebb.
[grand music] [audience applauding]
-[Liza] It was like living in the inside of a diamond.
We won the Emmy for "Liza with a Z,"
the Oscar for "Cabaret."
It was a very good year.
[audience applauding]
[lively piano music]
[audience applauding]
["New York, New York"]
♪ Start spreading the news ♪
♪ I'm leaving today ♪
♪ I wanna be a part of it ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ These vagabond shoes ♪
♪ Are longing to stray ♪
-Liza chose to make a film called "New York, New York,"
which is a more traditional musical
that is an homage to the 1940s, directed by Martin Scorsese,
co-starring Robert De Niro.
♪ Cream of the crop at the top of the heap ♪
♪ Those little town blues ♪
-And it was De Niro who heard the first version
of "New York, New York" that Kander and Ebb wrote
and said, "Nah, I don't like that.
Go back and write something else."
And can I tell you how pissed John Kander
and Fred Ebb were that Robert De Niro
is telling them they have to write another song?
And out of anger, they wrote this second song
that became the iconic "New York, New York" that we know.
-In case you don't know this, folks,
this little girl did this song before anybody did this song.
It's true, she really did. [audience applauding]
And I had to stick my nose in it.
[upbeat music]
[chimes music]
Jack and I got stuck in here once.
-[Speaker] Looks like one of those outer space things.
-What? Stand on that?
Like I always get off an airplane like that, huh?
Oh my God, we're somewhere, let's put it that way.
-[Reporter] Hey, Lisa, Lisa.
-It's Liza, you guys, it's Liza.
[upbeat music]
-When she went to Europe in the 1970s after "Cabaret,"
after "Liza with a Z,"
she was so busy working so hard and did so much,
people couldn't get enough of her.
-[Reporter] Liza Minnelli, queen of the glitter
and the glamour of the Hollywood, New York, European world.
Wherever she goes,
there are people smiling, flash bulbs popping.
[people chattering]
A certifiable superstar.
[Liza panting]
And still the gossip people persist.
[people chattering]
-Oh no, we can't. -Over there, over there.
-Let me go, Freddy. [people chattering]
-Liza has always said, "I was born, they took a picture,"
so she understood how to deal with the press
from a very early age.
It's one of the loveliest thoughts
any woman could ever hold.
I'm not, but I hope with all my heart that I will be soon.
-Let me go in front here.
-Why don't you just wait a minute.
-Well, there's different degrees of ugliness, isn't there?
And
I don't really care.
You know, when I'm on stage, I just do my job.
-Liz Minnelli has lived her life so much in public.
The burden of that must be profound.
There's the demand she must show up as Liza Minnelli.
-I am really thrilled that they're all here.
It's a little bit scary though.
-I remember talking to her after a party
that she had been to and I said, "How was the party?"
And she said, "Oh, it was okay. They wanted her."
And I said, "What do you mean?"
She said, "You know, the sequin girl.
I just wanted to be, you know,
the nice lady at the dinner table and they wanted her."
[people chattering]
-After the press, the photographs, the concerts,
the rehearsals, being on stage is her safety zone.
She is most comfortable there.
[Liza singing]
♪ And as for me, ha ♪
[audience applauding]
-Jesus, man, I wonder if they like it.
-Are they still yelling? -They're still screaming.
-Isn't that swell?
-There's nobody leaving the theater at all.
-[Speaker] They are just standing there, stomping.
You gotta go out and listen.
-Liza needs the audience to love her.
[audience cheering]
Maybe in someone else's hands that would be offputting,
but with Liza, it's that need
and that herculean effort to make the connection with us.
♪ I need your love ♪
♪ That's true, yes, I do ♪
♪ Indeed, I do ♪
♪ You know I do ♪
-[Liza] How long have you been out there?
-Six hours. -Six hours?
♪ What I cry for ♪
♪ You know you got that kind of lovin' ♪
♪ That I starve for ♪
♪ You know you made me ♪
♪ Love ♪
♪ You ♪
[audience applauding]
[dramatic music]
[chimes music]
[gentle piano music]
-Liza deeply, deeply cares about friends.
If you need something, she is there for you on a level
that is rare.
She flew from Rome for two days to Los Angeles
to record a duet with me on one of my early albums
because she wanted to be there for me.
-[Liza] We're backstage at the Muni.
I'm going to see Michael.
Hans Christian Anderson. It's so exciting.
And this is a closeup, I promise you.
-It was something that was difficult
and it was at great financial expense,
but she was there because that's what a friend does.
It's that sort of thing that she will do anything
for you if you need it.
[gentle piano music]
I met Liza Minnelli through her godfather, Ira Gershwin.
When I met Liza,
it was very much like meeting a long lost cousin
or a sibling or a family member.
[gentle piano music continues]
I remember when we met at her father's house, she said,
"You know, from now on we're joined at the hip."
-[Liza] This is fabulous, oh, honey.
-I think if the public sees Liza as a barrel
of sequins and glamour, they've got her wrong.
Her friends, or the thing that those friends get right,
is Liza's vulnerability, her kindness,
and her desire for you to be friends with her.
-Liza, can make you feel like
the most important person in the world.
Her gaze is so fixed on you.
I don't know if it's her need to be loved,
but it's shocking 'cause that's an unusual quality
in somebody in show business.
[upbeat music]
-[Announcer] "Chicago," starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera,
and Jerry Orbach, directed by Bob Fosse.
-In "Chicago," Gwen Verdon had to
take a six week leave of absence to have some surgery
and it looked as if maybe the show might have to close.
-And everything's going well, how are you?
And Fred said, "We're in terrible trouble."
I said, "I'll fill in for her."
-And it was the first time in Broadway history
that a major superstar acted as a substitute
for a another star that left.
-They actually discovered her and said, "You're a star.
You can't be a substitute. You can't be an understudy."
And she says, "I wanna do it. I wanna save the show."
And she did, she saved the show.
-The people who wrote that show
are Fred Ebb and John Kander.
And as you know, they're my best friends
and Fred Ebb has guided my career since I've been 17.
It's really saying, "If you need somebody, I'm there."
-Liza learned that entire part in one week,
and I'm telling you one week.
-But she said, "You don't say my name.
I don't want publicity about that.
I want word of mouth.
And when people go into the theater,
I just want an announcement."
-I'm sorry, tonight the role of Roxy Hart,
usually played by Gwen Verdon, audience, "Oh.."
Will be played by Liza Minnelli.
Roars of excitement.
And Liza was fucking brilliant in the part.
[upbeat music]
What motivated her to do it,
I can only say is like the best part of Liza.
I think she did it as a favor and she saved the show.
[audience applauding]
-And the only reason she would do that
is because it was for her friends.
[upbeat music]
-When we met Liza, I was a dentist in New York.
Arlene was a housewife.
It was a dinner party at Elaine's restaurant
and we just hit it off.
It was a great chemistry, I would say.
-We just had a connection that we felt
great being with each other
and the conversation just kept flowing.
-49 years later, we're still best friends with her.
When she meets somebody, she is so warm to them
and friendly that people will meet her once or twice
and come away feeling she's their best friend.
-It's so real. I mean, she doesn't think
of herself as being a star.
She thinks of herself as the people around me made me a star
because I picked talented people.
She's really modest that way.
[computer ringing]
-Hi, Liza, it's me. -Baby!
-I hear you had a party last night.
I wish I could have been there,
but I'm in Connecticut still, as you know.
-Oh no, but when you come out here, you're living here.
-I will be there. I will stay with you, of course.
It'll be like old times.
-We've been joined at the hips forever.
-We were in the same preschool,
but we really came together again as friends
when we were about 15.
[upbeat music]
We were in this photo shoot for "17 Magazine."
After the photo shoot, I was exhausted
and wanted to go get an ice cream cone or something.
Liza was going to her dance class.
She knew at 15 that this is what she wanted to do.
She wanted to sing, she wanted to dance.
She was gonna be a great actor.
Movie stars at the time, they didn't look like Liza,
but she never doubted that this is what she was gonna do.
She was goal-oriented.
[upbeat music continues]
I know a lot of people who've been through a lot of stuff
and people get cynical, people get angry,
but Liza's the same pure person inside.
I've not heard her say bad things about anyone,
not in any gratuitous way.
She trusts way beyond what is rational.
There is a purity of heart that's unmistakable.
-Bye, darling.
[upbeat music in background]
-So I'm out with my wife, Michael Feinstein,
Mitzi Gaynor, and Liza fucking Minnelli.
Michael goes, "Let's play a song."
And so he plays one and I sing a tune.
[group singing]
And then it was Liza's turn.
This is like incredible, I'm sitting with this icon
and it was beautiful what she sang.
[Liza singing]
At the end of the night, she's grabbing everybody
and just saying, you know, this was, I can't do,
I'm not gonna do a Liza impersonation,
don't make me do that. But she, you know,
she's grabbing everybody and goes, "This was great.
This is great. This is the gang now, this is the gang."
And when she left I was like, "I'm in the gang now?
It's amazing." And then I went,
"How many people has she said that to?"
I just like the idea that she just made us feel so special.
I so enjoyed that sentiment of this was a good hang.
-It's gonna take a miracle.
Tina. -Yeah?
-Gotta perform a miracle on my fache.
-Liza and I became very close friends
because my husband and I went on tour with her
and of course they did many movies with her
and you couldn't help with Liza.
You became very close with her.
Liza always liked to surround herself with her friends.
Liza wouldn't do the show unless they hired me.
I wasn't in the union, they didn't let me in.
They didn't have women makeup artists
so Liza stood up for me
and I was one of the first women makeup artists ever.
She was very loyal to her friends
and they were loyal to her.
-Are you committed now to settling down?
-Yes. -Well, tell me about it.
-I desperately want a family.
I...
I really want a family.
[somber music]
-We have been with Liza at all of her emotional setbacks,
like miscarriages.
-[Arlene] She was all in,
she was all prepared, it was very sad.
-Can't hear you, what'd you say?
-[Allan] If she had to pick one thing
that she's disappointed in her life
and that's not being a mother.
She would've been a great mother.
-[Arlene] She would've been terrific.
-She has so much to give.
-She's always had a lot of love to give.
-[Allan] She's been so wonderful with our children.
We have a picture when our daughter was three years old
around a Christmas tree, Liza hugging her,
and then 35 years later when our daughter had a 3-year-old,
we have a picture around that same Christmas tree.
-Three generation's, the same picture.
She taught our daughter when she was about six years old
how to sing "Liza with a Z" quickly and sing every lyric.
Our daughter was so proud to sing it
and sang it all over the place and for everybody.
-She would've been an incredible mother
and life wasn't perfect. -Right.
-But she moved on and she's become part of our family.
I think that's part of our attraction for her,
that we've kept this bond.
We're sort of the family she didn't have.
-Even though she wasn't able to have children of her own,
she seems to have created her own family
through all the children who came into her life
and all the godchildren.
-I mean, she's godmother to my twins who are 50 now.
I mean, and she's never missed a birthday, anything.
-She's a godmother to one of my sons.
I was pregnant on tour with her.
Liza was so protective of me
and I ended up in the hospital after I had him
and she was there all the time
and she brought Sammy Davis the tap dance for me.
[upbeat music]
I think she feels safe with people that take care of her.
And she still calls me like two or three times a week
just to talk.
I have children, she doesn't.
I think she gets lonely.
She doesn't say that, but I feel that, but I would too.
I don't know what else to say that I just love her so much.
It makes me cry
'cause I just think that she did a lot for all of us
and at a time when things aren't good,
she always came through.
[chimes music]
[upbeat music]
-My father started as a costume designer,
so when I was little I was surrounded by fashion.
But the truth is, as a teenager,
I didn't care much about clothes.
No, 'cause I dressed like everybody else, mini skirts
and this, that and the other, and all the wrong things
at that point.
Once I started doing more one-woman shows and concerts,
I saw how fashion could be part of the stories
that I would tell in the songs.
I knew I needed a new look that I could call my own,
one that would reflects me and connect with the audience.
Halston I met through Kay Thompson.
-They were at Bergdorf Goodman.
Liza sees a dress on a mannequin
and says, 'Oh my God, look at the cut.
Look at the style of that dress."
She said, "That is brilliant. Who did that?"
And Kay Thompson said, "It's Halston, let me introduce you."
And she takes Liza upstairs and introduces her to Halston.
-For me, being around Halston was as if I were around
a religious entity, a pope, a king, a god.
-[Announcer] The most successful single individual
in the history of American fashion.
[energetic music]
-I think what influences design most
is the people that you dress
and they tell you pretty much what they want
and what they need.
Know yourself, know what suits your purposes
to make you more attractive and more comfortable.
-When we speak about the '70s style,
American fashion coming into its own,
Halston is at the forefront of that.
He grew up in the Midwest
and he started his career by making hats.
He became famous when he designed
Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hat.
Soon though, he moved on to design clothing.
-The beauty of Halston was
that it was architecturally amazing and it functioned.
-[Halston] In other words,
I think people have to work harder
so they need clothes for those different occasions.
-Clean, simple.
It's even more complicated when you have simple.
When I first came to work for Halston, it was taught to me
that fabric needs to talk to you.
How does a fabric talk to you?
[gentle music]
We would literally take fabric and put it on a mannequin
and sometimes look at it for three days and things appear
when you keep looking at them, it starts talking to you.
And in a sense, it'll tell you what it wants to do.
The cuts are simple
because the fabric is left to do what it wants to do
and that was the genius of Halston.
-Halston was a very down to earth, practical,
funny man, which I have not seen depicted recently.
Underneath all of the darling this and darling that,
there was a real wonderful guy who found his way
to create his own paradise
and he was able to do that with Liza.
-I met Halston when I was 19
and I had no idea how to look,
you know, it affects not just how you dress,
but how you feel, how you perform.
He was the first one that gave me confidence.
I had the eye to know what was good
and what wasn't that great, but he knew what to do.
-When she met Halston,
he gave her an entire sense of self.
-Halston was able to take what she considered
to be negatives about her body and her self-image
and turn them into positives.
She had scoliosis.
She felt that her body was not symmetrically perfect,
all these things that she was insecure about, he used.
-Technically, Halston paid very acute attention
to Liza's clothes.
Halston was the one who said to Liza,
"Since you're perspiring so much on stage,
let's make all of your wardrobe in sequins."
So with the sparkle, you can't see
where the perspiration starts and stops.
And also because Liza's weight would often fluctuate,
Halston would often make two and three
or sometimes four of the same garment in different sizes
so he would be prepared with her current figure.
Liza went from a pretty little girl
representing mainstream fashion
overnight to the chicest girl in the world.
-The adoration that Liza and Halston had for each other
was always palpable when I was in the room with them.
They had this deep, deep love and shared the humor
and the irony of life together.
[gentle music]
-I never performed, gave a party
or made any real major important decisions in my life
without my friend, Halston.
When we were together, it was heaven.
You know.
I'm so lucky and I know that.
-When Liza and Halston were together,
it's like nobody else was in the room.
They were so comfortable with each other.
They would hug and kiss and cuddle
and just cling to each other in a way
that was so beautiful.
-When Liza would arrive at Halston's office,
she brought that zest, the two of them,
they had nicknames for one another,
usually perverse nicknames.
It was a brother and sister relationship.
It was also very paternal on his side.
They brought each other to life.
-And having lunch with Halston and her,
we would have conversations of the next show she's doing
and what are we gonna design,
and there were nights that we would all go
to Studio 54 together.
♪ Freak out ♪
-Studio 54 is probably the Mount Olympus
of the disco world.
♪ Freak out ♪
-It was like the circus pulled into town.
-They're the inspirational people.
-Did that involve a lot of things?
Yeah, that's been documented.
-I mean, you had quaaludes, you had poppers, cocaine.
-Hold it, it wasn't that wacko.
And as far as drugs was concerned, nobody did drugs.
They just didn't.
-Liza is reluctant to talk about Studio 54
because everybody focuses on the excess and the basement
and the debauchery and all that.
For her, studio 54 was a cultural thing.
-What happened with Studio 54 is Halston
used to give these wonderful parties
and around 11 or 12 o'clock at night,
he didn't know how to get rid of people.
He would say to his guests, let's all go to Studio 54
to get 'em out of the apartment.
-I would just let the doormen know.
So they would just be alerted to them
because it was a sea of people.
You can't even believe the whole block
sometimes were filled.
[people chattering]
And then they would go
and escort them in if they needed to,
and the seas would part.
[upbeat music]
-They would have some banquettes in the center
of the dance floor and Halston would hold court with Liza
and Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger.
-Liza used to love rum and coke.
Halston used to smoke.
She used to smoke cigarettes.
But all I remember is being with Halston and being with Liza
and all of us having the best happy times.
[upbeat music]
-He wasn't just a friend
and a party buddy at Studio 54.
They were each other's muse.
-You think of what Halston got from Liza
and what Liza got from Halston
and obviously Studio 54, talk about genius branding.
-Liza became so much of the female figure
that allowed women to see
how extraordinarily wondrous Halston was.
Liza was a blueprint for Halston,
Halston was a blueprint for Liza.
-The mythology of Studio 54 depends upon its associations
to cultural icons who themselves were seen
as figures of excess,
and Liza Minnelli, the company of Halston,
is in some sense one
of the most sequined figures for that era.
-Can I say one more thing?
The very first collection
that Halston showed at the Olympic Tower was mind boggling.
[grand music]
[camera shutters clicking]
Liza closed the show.
She came out on the runway
with the most extraordinary black crepe back satin dress
with nude shoulders.
And she walked the runway carrying one rose.
At the end of the runway,
she presented it to Elizabeth Taylor.
Halston came out and they came down together.
To watch them, was so touching.
They worked together, they were in love together,
and they represented a moment that is unmatched
in American fashion history.
[chimes music]
[gentle music]
-[Reporter] Legendary actress and singer
Liza Minnelli has checked into rehab.
-[Reporter] The veteran entertainer is getting treatment
for a substance abuse issue at a Malibu facility.
-[Reporter] A much publicized personal battle
against tranquilizer addiction.
-[Reporter] A disease that she says nearly killed her.
-Honestly, how lucky I was to have gone through
all of the bad stuff that I've gone through
because it prepared me for the rest of my life.
It made me understand a little bit more about myself.
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
-We're gonna sell out this evening.
-Oh, fabulous.
-The enormity of Liza's success
certainly was a factor with the incredible pressures
of life and of show business
and becoming a commodity for so many people
that she's supporting financially took its toll.
-How you doing? -Terrific.
-Hmm? -Fine.
I was the kind of person that never fell down.
I never missed work.
I never did any of the things that you think of
when you think of somebody being a real mess,
but inside, I felt so weird.
I was taking Valium, prescription drugs,
but I really didn't feel like I had a drug problem.
And I'd drink silly drinks like rum and coke.
I started to notice
that drinking made me feel better for a minute.
It's really that simple.
And then of course, it turned on me like it always does.
And people who have been through
all the things I'm thinking about,
know what I'm talking about.
-I never got drunk anywhere. [laughing]
I would like to have, but I can't.
It makes my stomach sick.
I know in the '70s, I used to tell interviewers
that I was terrified of drugs and didn't even take aspirin.
Well, kids, that's called denial.
I didn't want anyone to know that I was less than perfect,
that I was under stress.
I always wanted to be the hero.
[somber music]
-She has this incredible strength that I'm gonna do this.
I can do this, and at the same time,
she has this vulnerability,
she has nervousness, she has fear.
-The dark stuff, the drug stuff, whatever it was,
she thought that being alive
and open and playful and sexy and all of those things,
she inherited some of that from her mom.
-When Liza became more vulnerable
and at times in her life, I was surprised
because she better than anyone knew
and had vowed, you know, never to be anything less
than the totally sharp, responsible person.
-But I was very worried
'cause I thought she was making some wrong moves personally
and I loved her and she was like my baby sister.
-Watching my mom,
I swore on my life that I would never take drugs
until I realized I was doing it.
You know, being Judy Garland's daughter
is not a lot of laughs.
♪ Life is just a bowl of cherries ♪
♪ Some take it serious ♪
♪ Life's too mysterious ♪
♪ You work, you say ♪
-So we hear stories of what it was like to grow up
with a mother who was both so unbelievably talented,
but also who's had, you know, her demons,
struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
And Liza Minnelli tells stories
of her mother locking herself in the bathroom
and threatening to commit suicide.
-Her mother was a person
who deeply, deeply loved her daughter.
She famously said, "I'm giving up drugs and pills
and I'm going to be a good mother for my daughter."
But she couldn't sustain that because she was addicted.
♪ It's just a bowl of cherries ♪
♪ So live and laugh at it all ♪
-She became incredibly protective
of her mother at a very early age
because she understood her mother.
-She's taught me a great deal.
-[Interviewer] Have you learned anything from her mistakes
as well as from her achievements?
-Yes, I have.
Most of the mistakes that have been made
that I've been around have not been her fault.
♪ So live and you laugh at it all ♪
-The relationship was complicated,
and yet when she sees her mom on TV, she melts.
She just admires that talent and that person and that soul.
-Fred Ebb really taught me about sobriety
because he started to notice
that I was getting a little fuzzy on stage.
I was doing too much.
And somebody would say, "Have a drink.
It'll make you feel better."
So I took advantage of that. [laughing]
[intense music]
-Liza knew that she came from certain genes
which are addictive and she needed help.
[intense music continues]
-When Liza Minnelli went to the Betty Ford Clinic,
this was in the newspapers,
but one of the things that's distinctive
about her relationship to having been in some sense
outed as a celebrity with a substance abuse problem
is that she didn't run away from that.
She wasn't closeted about her struggles
in a way that so many other celebrities had been.
-I think that there are a lot of people
who don't know that they had a problem
like I didn't know until I got so physically weak.
All prescription drugs are the same.
They're insidious.
And at first they do do what you take them to do with it.
They hold a very busy life together.
But then if you don't stop taking them,
you just keep merrily going on thinking
that they can't hurt you.
Eventually become toxic.
-And I think that was very brave of Liza to do
and I think it was welcomed despite the shock
because I think people were happy to see her not following
that footstep of her mother's,
as in just being a hopeless case.
-But it took a lot of guts for you to decide to go public
because you put yourself in the inevitable position
of them saying, "Well, she's gonna follow
truly in her mother's footsteps."
-I really believe
in saying when something's wrong and fixing it.
Again, it didn't have anything to do with my mother.
-She spoke so frankly about alcoholism
and about addiction that I thought
was the most courageous thing she had ever done.
-There's thousands of people out there
who are having the same problem.
The knowledge that you're not alone
is the first step to getting better.
-She became a champion of AA
and other treatment programs,
and even though she had continued struggles
for different reasons through a number of years,
she never gave up.
-She's a survivor.
She's come through all that with her heart and soul intact.
[people chattering]
-Liza. -Hello.
Hello. [people clapping]
-It's my agent, you don't have to applaud.
-So, in aftermath of her mother's death,
a long decade of the '70s, Oscar, Emmy, Tony,
a fixture in the cultural scene in newspapers
and tabloids, this would be an extraordinary record
of achievement over an entire career,
let alone stuffed into a decade.
-Imagine that. -You were one
of the [indistinct]. -Thank you.
I'm glad you liked it.
-She did it.
This young girl who was born into show business royalty
had to invent herself who had these challenges.
She knew what she needed.
She built this loyal, loving family of friends and mentors
and followed this sort of intuition
to become this iconic person.
-Listen!
[people chattering]
To the band that made me feel like the best
band singer in the world,
I can't tell you what it's like singing in front of you.
-She could have died like her mother. She hasn't.
-[Speaker] We'd like to thank the orchestra
that worked with us. -People respond to that.
I think they see the vulnerability.
-[Speaker] Really do think you were terrific,
probably the best orchestra they have.
-They see somebody not unlike themselves,
who knows rejection, sorrow, and loss,
and they see her courage to get up on a stage
and put those sequins on.
She's brave, she pushes on, you know?
-Yay! [all clapping]
-[Liza] Thank you, you're so terrific.
[all clapping]
-[Speaker] Well said. [all clapping]
[gentle music]
[audience cheering]
[audience chanting]
[audience cheering]
-Let's try one, what the hell.
[gentle piano music]
♪ Sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're sad ♪
♪ But the world goes round ♪
♪ And sometimes you lose ♪
♪ Every nickel you had ♪
♪ But the world goes round ♪
♪ Sometimes your dreams get broken in pieces ♪
♪ But that doesn't matter at all ♪
♪ Take it from me ♪
♪ There's still gonna be ♪
♪ A summer, a winter, a spring and a fall ♪
♪ Oh once a friend starts treating you bad ♪
♪ For the world goes round ♪
♪ And sometimes your heart breaks ♪
♪ With a deafening sound ♪
♪ Somebody loses and somebody wins ♪
♪ And one day it's kicks ♪
♪ And it's kicks in the shins ♪
♪ But the planet spins ♪
♪ And the world goes round and round ♪
[man] Can you think of a star who's managed
to equal a famous parent?
Well, one who did is Liza Minnelli,
the daughter of a superstar, Judy Garland.
-It's Lonely at the top.
-And Academy Award-winning
film director Vincente Minnelli.
Liza has become a superstar on her own.
♪ Round ♪
[grand music]
[upbeat drumbeat music]
[upbeat drumbeat music continues]
-No? All right. -Put a mark on her face.
-Aw. -CB that was marvelous.
-Did you like that?
Now, let's take it again from the top.
[device beeping]