It was March 30th, 1955.  That was the day it happened — and in full view of millions of Americans, glued to their TV sets.  It was shocking, it was unexpected, it was cruel.  It was the day that Judy Garland lost the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

That was what Groucho Marx called it.  “The greatest robbery since Brinks” he tried to console Judy in a telegram the next day.  (And in case our younger readers don’t get the reference, Brink’s refers to the January 1950 armed robbery of the Boston Brink’s building, which at the time was the largest robbery ever in the history of the United States).  And Groucho said what many others believed, too.  Judy Garland in A Star is Born had given the best performance of her career, and one of the best screen performances ever, in the movie with music that marked her screen comeback.

Not that the other actresses nominated weren’t good.  Some were probably even great:  Dorothy Dandridge for the title role in Carmen Jones, Jane Wyman for Magnificent Obsession, Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina, and Grace Kelly for The Country Girl.  But compared to Judy’s gut-wrenching, breathtakingly honest, funny, vulnerable and musically triumphant turn as Esther Blodgett, the talented band singer who becomes successful movie star Vicki Lester, just as her mentor and loving husband Norman Maine’s career is in decline…well, they’re not in the same league.

There was a general feeling that Judy deserved the Oscar (even though she had previously graciously complimented Grace Kelly on her performance), and as the date for the ceremony approached Judy had more than awards on her mind; she had gone into premature labor and delivered her son just two days before the ceremony.  Judy’s hospital room was invaded by TV crews prepping for a live remote feed in case she won.  But when William Holden announced that his The Country Girl co-star Grace Kelly had won the award, the shock was palpable.  (Judy's co-star and Best Actor nominee James Mason didn’t win either, but at least he lost to Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront.)

Why had Judy been passed over?  There are plenty of theories.  First, that maybe Grace Kelly was better.  It didn’t hurt that her role included the time-tested method of de-glamorizing herself, as she appeared nearly sans make-up and often wearing a drab little sweater to play alcoholic Bing Crosby’s stalwart wife.  Or maybe execs from Judy’s old studio MGM banded together to blackball her, to get back at her for leaving the fold.  Or was Hollywood as an industry teaching her a lesson, showing her that her artistic temperament and its attendant bad behavior — as in tardiness — weren’t going to be rewarded?  It was such a snub, such a surprise that conspiracy theories had to arise.  There was just no other way to explain it.  And why had Warner Bros. refused to place ads for the film, to campaign for a win?  Well, the movie was too long, too unwieldy for multiple daily plans at the nation’s theaters.  Inconveniently long, A Star is Born was an artistic and critical triumph that just didn’t quite fit the mold.  Nobody at Warner’s had anticipated they’d have a masterpiece on their hands, and they weren’t in the mood to make exceptions.  And so they cut it to fit. 

The TV crew cleared out of Judy’s hospital room just moments after the announcement, leaving the new mother and Best Actress nominee — now loser — to her own thoughts.  Audiences and film fans have had over fifty years to contemplate that loss, and especially after the restoration of the movie some years ago, putting back the half-hour or so of cut scenes and lost musical numbers that had only been seen in a very few screenings before Warner Bros. took the scissors to the movie.  As good as the movie had in the incarnation most of us grew up with, the longer version was beyond amazing, and the nearly inconceivable knowledge that Judy hadn’t won the Oscar for her performance in the movie seemed even more absurd than ever.

But time has a way of sorting things out.  A Star is Born is a true classic, an immortal film, a work of genius and timeless appeal whose luster will never dim.  Judy’s performance is the one that we remember always.  She was unforgettable. 

She should have won the Oscar.