from Lindsay

Judy Garland

Judy Garland, was born “Frances Ethel Gumm” on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota to a family that were frequent involvers in the community theater. By the age of 2 and a half she was already singing “Jingle Bells” in a handsewn dress by her mother, on the stage where her family performed. She become known as “Baby Gumm”, and formed a group with her two sisters, called the “Gumm Sisters”. The family moved to California in 1926 to pursue their careers. Frances decided to change her name to Judy, which was a popular name during that time and got her last name of Garland when, “According to legend, a reporter once told her she was "as pretty as a garland of roses."
From then on Garland signed with MGM in 1935 as well with Decca in 1937. Her first movie was in 1929, even before she signed with MGM, singing in a revue “The Good Old Sunny South.” She was in 4 more films before she landed the role of Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” in 1939, and she was not the studios first choice. They had originally wanted Shirley Temple to be the part, but she was under contract at another studio, and couldn’t be used. Judy was the third girl in line for the part, and during the filming she was forced to wear a special corset, and tape to bind her breasts in order to make her appear younger than she was. The famous blue gingham dress was especially used because it made her image less adult like and had a kind of blurring affect to her body. The studio also made her take pills that would boost her energy and help her control her weight, which she became extremely reliant on, and struggled with for the rest of her career. The studio also tried to get her to see psychiatric help, but it was impossible to do it secretly and Garland’s mother would have nothing of that. But, reviews of Judy’s work in the move was extremely positive, one reviewer said that her portrayal was “A pert and fresh-faced miss with the wonder-lit eyes of a believer in fairy tales.” Judy went on to have other successes in movie musicals like “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “Babes in Arms”, as well has having a extremely successful television show, which would later have episodes of the very young and talented Liza Minelli singing with her mother, but unfortunately her young death stopped her from being able to continue her career.
Garland would go on to have 4 unsuccessful marriages, the third one producing the very famous Liza, but by the 2nd marriage, Garland was emotionally starting to break down. Exhausted from all her work and medicinal abuse, she started gaining a Hollywood reputation of being “unreliable and unstable”. MGM dropped her in 1950 due to her physical and emotional difficulties, mainly her experience as being in the movie of “Annie Get Your Gun”, and it was then that her life and career starting taking a downward toll. In 1967, Garland went to London due to the fact that she was in monetary trouble as well as personal trouble, and due to the performances there, it was clear that she wasn’t in very good shape. Garland died in London on June 22, 1969 from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, when she was only forty-seven years old. Many reports believe that her suicide stemmed from her unhappy family like that she enduring growing up. Her parent’s relationships impacted her a lot, especially when her father died of spinal meningitis, but her parent’s relationship was already rocky before that with reports of her father being unfaithful with members of his own gender. Her mother who traveled with the Gumm sisters as agent and manager, found it unacceptable, and tried living vicariously though her children, which therefore helped to alienate Judy from her mother. Judy herself said, “Mother was the real-life Wicked Witch of the West…Mother…Was no good for anything except to create chaos and fear. She didn’t like me because of my talent…She had a crude voice and my sisters had lousy voices too…When I review my financial problems, I have to admit they began with mother.” Garland and her mother stopped speaking before the death of Mrs. Gumm in 1953. Garland even before that attempted to take her life when her career started getting rocky and attempted suicide by slashing her throat with a piece of glass. It would not be her first attempt. One of her downfalls would also be the fact that she was terrified to not be able to keep audiences engaged, a fear that started all the way back in the 1940’s. Co-star Ray Bolger said after Judy’s death, “Judy didn’t die of anything except wearing out. She just plain wore out.”
Judy’s legacy will always be a part of little girl’s lives even decades after her death. The song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is one that is just as common as most Christmas songs. Judy was just as famous decades after her death. “The Wizard of Oz”, is still playing on TV. and you can catch most of her movies playing nightly on any late night channel. She even won an academy award for the movie after her death as a special kind of award. The name Judy Garland is still a common name as it was 60 years ago. Fan sites are still incredibly popular on the Internet as well as many published biographies on her short life. There are also many recordings of her concerts as well as the soundtracks form the movies she was in. One of her biggest selling nights, as well as CDs, was Judy at Carnegie Hall, which is “described as the greatest night in show business history. A two-record recording of it sold an unparalled two million copies.” She was a vocal legend, her voice was unparalled during her career, as well as her vibrant personality. Judy Garland will forever be remembered though as the young woman in the gingham blue dress with her adorable puppy Toto, going on a wild adventure over the rainbow.
But, what is probably Judy’s biggest legacy is her children, Liza Minelli and Lorna Luft, half sisters from their mother’s different marriages. Both would follow in their mother’s foot steps and be involved and successful in both show business as well as drug addictions. Lorna would clean up her act only to help Liza clean up hers. Minelli is best known for her academy award winning performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, but was showing prominent talent when she was making appearances on her mother’s TV. show at a young age. Youtube videos can be seen now of the two and the incredible talent and personality that was captured on the tv screen in the 1960’s. Luft on the other hand also had a career in show business being in shows such as “Promises, Promises”, and the revival of “Guys and Dolls”. Liza’s looks and vocals rivaled her mother’s as a young girl and she even said during her time on the Judy Garland show, she said it wasn’t even performing with her mother, but with the legend Judy Garland itself, Judy felt the competition between her and her daughter at an early age. But, it was said that Judy loved her children more than her mother was capable of.