Judy Garland
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 - June 22, 1969) was a American film actress who is considered one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywood's Golden Era of musical film.
Child star
Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, she was born into a family of vaudeville players. One year, her parents and her two older sisters were performing in a Christmas show. Young Frances got on the stage and stole the show with a rendition of Jingle Bells; she was two and a half years old. The family soon moved to Lancaster, California and the Gumm Sisters began work on stage and in movies. Frances was soon known as Baby Gumm.
In 1934, the Gumm Sisters were performing in Chicago with George Jessel. Jessel encouraged the group to choose a less humorous name. They settled on the Three Garlands, and young Frances chose the name Judy.
Garland was signed at the age of 13 by Louis B. Mayer to a contract with MGM without a screen test. At the age of 16, she got the role of Dorothy in the film of The Wizard of Oz (1939), and was forever afterwards associated with the song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". After Oz, Garland became one of MGM's most important stars, proving particularly popular when teamed with Mickey Rooney in a string of "let's put on a show!" musicals.
Movie star
Throughout the 1940s her films increased in popularity, the most critically and financially successful being Meet Me in St. Louis, in which she introduced three classics standards: "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Her other famous films include The Harvey Girls (1946) (in which she introduced "On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe"), Easter Parade (1948), A Star Is Born (1954), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). She received an honorary Academy Award for her performance in The Wizard of Oz, and was nominated for Best Actress in A Star is Born, and Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg.
Renewed stardom in television
When her MGM contract was terminated in 1950, Garland turned to television and live concert appearances. Throughout the 1950s and most notably in the early 1960s she made enormously successful appearances in both mediums. Her appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many the "greatest single night in show business," and the live recording made of the event was a best seller and won Grammy Awards as the Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year. She had a critically praised if short-lived television series in 1963-64.
Untimely death
The shortcomings of her childhood years became more apparent as Garland struggled to overcome various personal problems, including weight gain, heavy drinking, and drug addiction. Her children were Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, and Joey Luft. Of Garland's five marriages, the first four marriages all ended in divorce. She died in 1969 at the age of 47 in London from an accidental overdose of barbiturates. Garland was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
Legacy in gay rights
A gay icon, Garland always had a large fan base in the gay community. Her funeral in Manhattan resulted in an outpouring of New York City fans, with more than 20,000 coming to view her body - including hundreds of gay men. Five days after her death, mourning gay fans fought back against police during a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, which set off several days of "gay liberation" riots. Garland's death is often noted as a cause of one of the key events of the modern gay rights movement.
According to a book of David Shipman, Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend (ASIN 0786880260) she was bisexual herself, and was in intimate relationship with her (female) secretary.
Marriages
- David Rose (1910-1990; married 1941-1945)
- Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986, married 1945-1951)
- Sidney Luft (1951-1964)
- Mark Herron (1928-1996, married 1964-1967) (might not have been a legal marriage, as it is unsure whether the divorce from Luft was yet effective and the marriage was under dubious circumstances)
- Mickey Deans (née Michael DeVinko, 1934-2003) (married 1967-1969)
Filmography
- The Graduate 1967
- Valley of the Dolls Red Lion/Fox, 1967
- Harlow Electronovision, 1965
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown MGM, 1964
- Irma la Douce 1963
- It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 1963
- Judgment at Nuremberg UA, 1961
- South Pacific Fox, 1958
- The Three Faces of Eve 1957
- Carousel 20th Century Fox, 1956
- A Star Is Born Warner Bros, 1954
- Show Boat MGM, 1951
- Annie Get Your Gun MGM, 1950 (replaced by Betty Hutton)
- The Barkleys of Broadway MGM, 1949 (replaced by Ginger Rogers)
- Easter Parade MGM, 1948
- Meet Me in St. Louis MGM, 1944
- Girl Crazy MGM, 1943
- Hold Back the Dawn Paramount, 1941
- Babes in Arms MGM, 1939
- The Wizard of Oz MGM, 1939
- Love Finds Andy Hardy MGM, 1938
- Silent Night MGM Christmas Trailer, 1937
- Bubbles Vitaphone short subject, 1929
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