Judy Garland One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood’s golden era, Judy Garland, was the star of many classic musical films and was known for her tremendous talent and troubled life.

Born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Ethel Marion (Milne) and Francis Avent Gumm, her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled “The Gumm Sisters”, along with her older sisters Mary and Virginia. Together they travelled across America where they would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theatres.

Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother’s drive for her to succeed as a performer, however, in September 1935, Ethel’s prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular ‘30s song “Judy” and film critic Robert Garland.
With the arrival of the talented Deanna Durbin at MGM, the studio devised a short entitled Every Sunday (1936), which would be the girls’ screen test. However, Judy’s career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs, “You Made Me Love You”, at Clark Gable‘s birthday party in February 1937. MGM executives were so charmed by her rendition that she and the song were added to the film Broadway Melody of 1938. Garland recorded the “Gable” version on September 24, 1937. It was released on Decca 1463. MGM released the song as a A-side and B-side”B-side in 1939, opposite Garland’s recording of “Over the Rainbow” for The Wizard of Oz.

Following her rendition of “You Made Me Love You”, MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This soon produced the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction. From 1938, MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of what were known as “backyard musicals”. The duo first appeared together as supporting characters in the 1937 B movie Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry. They teamed as lead characters for the first time in Babes in Arms, ultimately appearing in five additional films, including Hardy films Andy Hardy Meets Debutante and Life Begins for Andy Hardy.
In 1939, Judy finally shot to stardom with The Wizard of Oz, in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, ‘Over The Rainbow’, earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29 February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for meatier adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14. She was now taking an interest in men, and after starring in her final juvenile performance in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to bandleader David Rose in May 1941. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married during the early hours of the morning on 28 July 1941 with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her ‘inhumane actions’. The couple separated in January 1943.

By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (1942) with Gene Kelly. In 1944 Garland made Meet Me in St. Louis. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met Garland on the set and later married her. It was the second-highest grossing picture of the year, only behind Going My Way. Garland debuted the standards “The Trolley Song“, “The Boy Next Door”, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, all of which became hits after the film was released.
Vincente began to mould Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945), and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9 January 1945. On 15 June 1945 Judy made Vincente her second husband, tying the knot with him that afternoon at her mother’s home with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away. They spent three months on honeymoon in New York and afterwards Judy discovered that she was pregnant again.

On 12 March 1946 in Los Angeles, California, Judy gave birth to their daughter, Liza Minnelli. It was a joyous time for the couple, but Judy was out of commission for weeks due to the caesarean and her postnatal depression, so she spent much of her time recuperating in bed. She soon returned to work, but married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy’s mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade (1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy’s health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation centre, which caused her much distress.

She soon regained strength and was visited frequently by her lover Frank Sinatra, but never saw much of Vincente or Liza. On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also Liza’s film debut, at the age of 3. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again before making her final film for MGM, entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was soon dissolved.

Having taken up with Sidney Luft, Judy travelled to London to star at the legendary Palladium. She was an instant success and after her divorce to Vincente Minnelli was finalized on 29 March 1951 after almost six years of marriage, Judy travelled with Sid to New York to make an appearance on Broadway. With her newfound fame on stage, Judy was stopped in her tracks in February 1952 when she became pregnant by her new lover, Sid. At the age of 30, they married on 8 June 1952. Her relationship with her mother had long since been dissolved by this point, and after the birth of her second daughter, Lorna Luft, on 21 November 1952; she refused to allow her mother to see her granddaughter. Ethel then died in January 1953 of a heart attack, leaving Judy devastated and feeling guilty about not reconciling with her mother before her untimely demise.

In December 1952, George Cukor was approached by Sid Luft, who proposed the director helm a musical remake of the 1937 film A Star is Born with his then-wife Judy Garland in the lead role. Filming soon began, resulting in an affair between Judy and her leading man, British star James Mason. After filming was complete Judy was yet again lauded as a great film star. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but when it came to the Academy Awards, a distraught Judy lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954). Continuing her work on stage, Judy gave birth to her son, Joey Luft, on 29 March 1955. She soon began to lose her millions of dollars as a result of her husband’s strong gambling addiction, and with hundreds of debts to pay; Judy and Sid began a volatile, on-off relationship resulting in numerous divorce filings.

In 1961, at the age of 39, Judy returned to her ailing film career, this time to star in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but this time she lost out to Rita Moreno for her performance in West Side Story (1961). Her battles with alcoholism and drugs led to Judy’s making numerous headlines in newspapers. In 1963, Judy and Sid finally separated permanently, and on 19 May 1965 their divorce was finalized after almost 13 years of marriage. By this time, Judy, now 41 had made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963). She married her fourth husband, Mark Herron, on 14 November 1965 in Las Vegas, but they separated in April 1966 after only five months of marriage. She then settled down in London after their affair ended, and she began dating disk jockey Mickey Deans in December 1968. They became engaged once her divorce from Herron was finalized on 9 January 1969 after three years of marriage. She married Mickey, her fifth and final husband, in a register office in Chelsea, London, on 15 March 1969.

She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London, that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her much of her life, on 22nd June 1969 at the age of 47. She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939); Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), and A Star Is Born (1954). Movie Great Wizard of Oz – Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history. Directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left production to take over the troubled production of Gone with the Wind), the film stars Garland as Dorothy Gale alongside Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton with Terry (billed as Toto). Legendary for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and memorable characters, the film has become an icon of popular culture. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two other categories: Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow” and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. While the film was considered a critical success upon release in August 1939, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release. Film critic Roger Ebert chose it as one of his Great Films, writing that “The Wizard of Oz has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them.” Renee Zellweger is now playing the show business legend Judy Garland in “Judy”, a biopic from Pathé, BBC Films and Ingenious Media. Principal photography is now underway on the picture, which is being shot in London. The movie is set in the late 1960s as Garland arrives in the British capital for a run of sell-out concerts.
Source: www.imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.warnerbros.com and www.variety.com
George Georgiou