Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

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.

Oh, Lenny, it's great.

Can you get this?

Okay.

I wish you had a light that went right in my face.

Okay, a little bit higher.

I'm talking to you.

-Is that perfect? -That was perfect.

That's what I always say.

On the schnoz too.

Let's all settle down, please.

-Shut the fuck up. -Shut the fuck up.

Ladies and gentlemen, Liza Minnelli.

Yes.

Iconic.

One of the biggest stars in the world.

Talent beyond belief.

-Liza Minnelli. -Liza Minnelli.

-Liza Minnelli. -The one and only Liza.

-Films. -Concerts.

Tonys, a Grammy, an Emmy, even an Oscar,

she has done it all.

People think that Liza was born

in a red sequin dress, belting out a tune.

She's weathered some hard times,

both personally and professionally.

She has achieved that rare status

where only a first name is necessary.

I'm a star.

Yes.

Ladies and gentlemen,

here is young Liza Minnelli.

-How am I doing, Mama? -Oh, fine, Liza, keep going.

Judy and her daughter Liza

at the London Palladium.

Hello?

- 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.

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.

- Her family, her three children,

Liza Minnelli, Lorna and Joey Luft attended the services.

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.

-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.

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.

-It was now or never, so she set out to create the person

that she wanted to become.

Kay.

-How smart of you to show me this right now.

It's giving me courage too.

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."

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 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.

- 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?

- 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.

- 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.

- And if I get killed in an elevator tonight,

don't waste your time with dull people.

Okay.

It's like an emery board

going over you all the time.

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.

She taught me everything.

She taught me how to live life,

how to appreciate everything that we were going through.

Give me more level.

Does it sound good back there?

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...

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.

-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.