La Jollans will be treated to the performance of Oscar-winning actress-singer Liza Minnelli when she headlines “Symphony at Salk: A Concert Under The Stars” on Aug. 28. One of the most-applauded performers of our time, Minnelli is the daughter of MGM film director Vincente Minnelli (“Meet Me In St. Louis”) and screen legend Judy Garland. Minnelli is one of a few performers to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar (Rita Moreno is another). Minnelli was born March 12, 1946 and made her film debut as a baby in her mother’s musical film “In The Good Old Summertime” in 1949. The tot was star-struck from that time on. After attending La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York, she got her first stage role at 17 in an Off-Broadway revival of “Best Foot Forward.” Garland then invited Liza to perform with her on stage at the London Palladium. The audience loved the young performer and helped launched her professional career. When Minnelli returned to New York, she was cast in “Flora The Red Menace, ” for which she won a Tony at age 19 — the youngest actress to do so. Her success on Broadway led her to be signed by Capitol Records. Minnelli made several albums that are selling to this day. She moved on to films for her first credited role in “Charlie Bubbles” in 1967 with Albert Finney. This was followed in 1969 by “The Sterile Cuckoo,” which won her the first Academy Award nomination. That same year, Paramount arrived on the shores of La Jolla, where it set up cameras and lights for Minnelli’s off-beat film, “Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon,” as directed by Otto Preminger. Scenes were shot at La Jolla Cove and at the cave store. This reporter was lucky to have been chosen as an extra for the film and was sufficiently starry-eye to appear in some scenes. The most famous film Minnelli appeared in was the adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories” as the musical “Cabaret.” She won the Oscar as Best Actress in 1972. After appearing in the flop “A Matter of Time” with Ingrid Bergman — a movie also directed by her father, Vincente Minnelli, the indestructible star recovered to make the musical “New York, New York” in 1977 with Robert DeNiro. Out of that film came her biggest song to date and subsequently her signature song. Frank Sinatra also had a hit with it, but Minnelli introduced it. In 2000, she suffered a severe case of viral encephalitis, from which she wasn’t expected to recover. The doctors said she’d never walk or talk again. But she was determined to overcome its effects — and she did. She wowed them in the stage show “Liza’s Back” in 2002. Her summer tour began in June, after which she will appear in La Jolla with Maestro Thomas Wilkins. Proceeds benefit the Salk Institute for Biological studies. Tickets are available by calling (858) 453-4100, ext. 1262.
