As Judy Garland worked at MGM, she earned the famliy’s money; she was a source of income for family’s benefit. Like many children stars, as minors, their parents signed their contracts and watched their finances. When Garland started at MGM in 1935, it was the height of the Great Depression; many people were living in Hoovervilles (shack houses). During this era, about $75.00 per week was considered allot (http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm), Garland was paid $100.00 per week starting salary at MGM. However, she earned more money than the average worker, like most child stars did not manage her own money. Since her mother signed her contract, Judy’s salary would go straight to her mother. Like many young stars whose parents control their finances, Garland’s mother would use her daughter’s money and spend it on unnecessary items for herself. With all the money Judy Garland earned, she never truly learned to manage her own money. This became a problem when she came of age, she too like her mother spent it unnecessarily. When she died in 1969, she was $4 million dollars in debt.
This relationship between Judy Garland and her mother was nothing to be desired. She pushed her daughter into show business at a young age, took the money she made, never taught her to use money, allowed the studio to drug and over work Garland. Judy Garland grew to resent her mother, and she tried hard to get away from her mother’s dominance over her life. Her mother tried to sue Garland for not supporting her. In an interview, Ethel Gumm (Garland’s mother) said “Judy has been selfish all her life that all she ever wanted was to be a actress, never my daughter.” (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 123) Though their relationship was strain, Garland was still grief and guilt ridden, when her mother died in 1952; she felt guilty because she felt she was wrong blaming her mother for everything that was bad in her life.
With coming of age, the affairs of the heart became an issue. Like how Garland controlled her finances, her love life was unsettled. In her life time she had five husbands. At the age of 19 she married, the English band leader named David Rose. She only married him to get away from her mother’s clutches and Louis Mayer’s dominance over her life. The marriage lasted eight months, not including the time he spent in the war (World War II). Both worked, and often their schedules would conflict with each other. He worked nights with his music and she worked days with acting. During Garland’s marriage with Rose, this was in the time Rose was away at war, she started and affair with the director Vincente Minnelli; they met on the set of “Meet Me in St. Louis.” When Rose came back from the war, they ended their marriage, and Garland married Minnelli. They had one child, the famous Liza Minnelli; for a time since Liza was born Garland stopped using drugs. Garland met another man, that man was Sid Luft, and she divorced then Vincente Minnelli. Luft became her business manager; he managed finances, and decided what films she should do. Their children were named Joey and Lorna Luft. As time wore on, both Luft and Garland grew miserable, both started to have affairs. Garland did not want to divorce because of her children and he was her manager. Luft did not want to divorce only because of their children. In 1962, she divorced Luft, though it was not finalized until 1964. In 1965, she married Mark Herron, a young American actor. Six months later they separated, after a violent, drunken brawl the two had. In 1967, she started a friendship with a night manager of St. Mortiz Hotel in New York, his name was Mickey Dean. This man was her final husband and in 1969, they were married.
All of the children Garland had from her various husbands, lived a life similar like Gypsy Rose, living on the road with their mother. Garland children shared a similar fate as their famous mother. Liza Minnelli became a legendary singer and actress; her most remembered role was in “Cabaret.” Lorna Luft also became an actress and a concert singer, though not as famous as Minnelli, she has gained some renown; she calls herself “Judy’s other daughter.” (http://www.lornallupt.com) And Joey Luft is currently a freelance photographer. Each inherited many of Judy Garland’s vices. All of Garland’s children were addicted to narcotics. The daughters were the one mainly addicted to drugs, Joey Luft became an alcoholic. Also Garland’s daughters both had a weight problem also, like Garland; this problem also led to use more drugs.
Everything Garland had been through in her life affected her career, sometimes it was for the best but that was not always the case. She was controlled by her mother and “Uncle” Mayer on the set and off. They gave her drugs to make her look more attractive to the public and to keep her working. When she was married to Rose they did not permit her to have a child. It was believed that girls in the 1940s could not maintain a career and a baby at the same times; they made her get an abortion. Her marriages left her miserable, to the point she would escape the work to get away from her husbands. Although, that was part of the reason one of her marriages ended. And her other husbands were partially involved in her career, getting away was not always possible. Finally, what affected her career was depression.
Though out Garland’s life, she went in and out of depression. She was not mentally ill, but emotionally harmed by all that went around her. Such times of depression fallen upon Judy was when Garland’s mother died and when Liza Minnelli was born went through depression. The was way she approached this depression that hung over her, she tried to kill herself. Once she tried to ram a piece of broken glass through her neck. For herself, she was sent to clinic to deal with her emotional state. She even had a psychiatrist follow her around when she was on set. She kept on going in and out of clinics for her depressions; it started to show in her work. She began not going to work on time or not at all. MGM gave her roles to other actors, her looks were fading, and ultimately MGM felt that they had to terminate her contract in 1951. (http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm)
On a Saturday of June 22, 1969, Judy Garland dies in her and Mickey Dean’s mews house in London. On that night, Dean tried to give a call to Garland from California, since the bed was empty he checked the bathroom. It was locked; he was frightened, when he knocked nobody answered, that something had happened to her, he went through the window. He found Garland dead sitting on the lavatory. The coroner wrote (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 156) “accidental death by incautious dose of barbiturates,” she died of a overdose of drugs. Though the coroner stated she died of an overdose, there are speculations on whether she ultimately died of a overdose. She did contract hepatitis in 1958(http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm) And Philip Lebon, a Harley Street Surgeon, said eight prior to her death he found that she had chronic cirrhosis in the liver. He gave her five yearsto live, after being diagnosed the extra three years he described as “Borrowed time.”(, Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 157) Over 21,000 paid their last respects to the fallen singer; it was in New York at the Campbell Funeral Chapel on June 27, 1969.
The cost at which Judy Garland gained her fame was high: drug addition, depression, finance troubles, and her family were in shambles. All these problems Garland had was the price she paid for her ticket in the spot light. The crooner Frank Sinatra said “All the rest of us will be forgotten soon after we die, but never Judy.” (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 158) And Sinatra was right, Judy Garland is still remembered to this day. All the stars during Garland’s time has been forgotten through the generations. Not many could recall Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers dancing the night away in “Swing Time” or “Top Hat,” or Ava Gardner singing her heart out in “Showboat.” However, what was remembered through the generations by the people, was a girl form Kansas wanting a better life “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Work Cited
John Fricke(nd). Retrieved: April 22, 2008, from http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm.
Sherida Morley & Ruth Leon(1999). Judy Garland Biography: Beyond the Rainbow. Arcade Publishing Inc., New York.
Lorna Luft(nd). Retrieved: April 22, 2008, from http://www.lornaluft.com/
This relationship between Judy Garland and her mother was nothing to be desired. She pushed her daughter into show business at a young age, took the money she made, never taught her to use money, allowed the studio to drug and over work Garland. Judy Garland grew to resent her mother, and she tried hard to get away from her mother’s dominance over her life. Her mother tried to sue Garland for not supporting her. In an interview, Ethel Gumm (Garland’s mother) said “Judy has been selfish all her life that all she ever wanted was to be a actress, never my daughter.” (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 123) Though their relationship was strain, Garland was still grief and guilt ridden, when her mother died in 1952; she felt guilty because she felt she was wrong blaming her mother for everything that was bad in her life.
With coming of age, the affairs of the heart became an issue. Like how Garland controlled her finances, her love life was unsettled. In her life time she had five husbands. At the age of 19 she married, the English band leader named David Rose. She only married him to get away from her mother’s clutches and Louis Mayer’s dominance over her life. The marriage lasted eight months, not including the time he spent in the war (World War II). Both worked, and often their schedules would conflict with each other. He worked nights with his music and she worked days with acting. During Garland’s marriage with Rose, this was in the time Rose was away at war, she started and affair with the director Vincente Minnelli; they met on the set of “Meet Me in St. Louis.” When Rose came back from the war, they ended their marriage, and Garland married Minnelli. They had one child, the famous Liza Minnelli; for a time since Liza was born Garland stopped using drugs. Garland met another man, that man was Sid Luft, and she divorced then Vincente Minnelli. Luft became her business manager; he managed finances, and decided what films she should do. Their children were named Joey and Lorna Luft. As time wore on, both Luft and Garland grew miserable, both started to have affairs. Garland did not want to divorce because of her children and he was her manager. Luft did not want to divorce only because of their children. In 1962, she divorced Luft, though it was not finalized until 1964. In 1965, she married Mark Herron, a young American actor. Six months later they separated, after a violent, drunken brawl the two had. In 1967, she started a friendship with a night manager of St. Mortiz Hotel in New York, his name was Mickey Dean. This man was her final husband and in 1969, they were married.
All of the children Garland had from her various husbands, lived a life similar like Gypsy Rose, living on the road with their mother. Garland children shared a similar fate as their famous mother. Liza Minnelli became a legendary singer and actress; her most remembered role was in “Cabaret.” Lorna Luft also became an actress and a concert singer, though not as famous as Minnelli, she has gained some renown; she calls herself “Judy’s other daughter.” (http://www.lornallupt.com) And Joey Luft is currently a freelance photographer. Each inherited many of Judy Garland’s vices. All of Garland’s children were addicted to narcotics. The daughters were the one mainly addicted to drugs, Joey Luft became an alcoholic. Also Garland’s daughters both had a weight problem also, like Garland; this problem also led to use more drugs.
Everything Garland had been through in her life affected her career, sometimes it was for the best but that was not always the case. She was controlled by her mother and “Uncle” Mayer on the set and off. They gave her drugs to make her look more attractive to the public and to keep her working. When she was married to Rose they did not permit her to have a child. It was believed that girls in the 1940s could not maintain a career and a baby at the same times; they made her get an abortion. Her marriages left her miserable, to the point she would escape the work to get away from her husbands. Although, that was part of the reason one of her marriages ended. And her other husbands were partially involved in her career, getting away was not always possible. Finally, what affected her career was depression.
Though out Garland’s life, she went in and out of depression. She was not mentally ill, but emotionally harmed by all that went around her. Such times of depression fallen upon Judy was when Garland’s mother died and when Liza Minnelli was born went through depression. The was way she approached this depression that hung over her, she tried to kill herself. Once she tried to ram a piece of broken glass through her neck. For herself, she was sent to clinic to deal with her emotional state. She even had a psychiatrist follow her around when she was on set. She kept on going in and out of clinics for her depressions; it started to show in her work. She began not going to work on time or not at all. MGM gave her roles to other actors, her looks were fading, and ultimately MGM felt that they had to terminate her contract in 1951. (http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm)
On a Saturday of June 22, 1969, Judy Garland dies in her and Mickey Dean’s mews house in London. On that night, Dean tried to give a call to Garland from California, since the bed was empty he checked the bathroom. It was locked; he was frightened, when he knocked nobody answered, that something had happened to her, he went through the window. He found Garland dead sitting on the lavatory. The coroner wrote (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 156) “accidental death by incautious dose of barbiturates,” she died of a overdose of drugs. Though the coroner stated she died of an overdose, there are speculations on whether she ultimately died of a overdose. She did contract hepatitis in 1958(http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm) And Philip Lebon, a Harley Street Surgeon, said eight prior to her death he found that she had chronic cirrhosis in the liver. He gave her five yearsto live, after being diagnosed the extra three years he described as “Borrowed time.”(, Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 157) Over 21,000 paid their last respects to the fallen singer; it was in New York at the Campbell Funeral Chapel on June 27, 1969.
The cost at which Judy Garland gained her fame was high: drug addition, depression, finance troubles, and her family were in shambles. All these problems Garland had was the price she paid for her ticket in the spot light. The crooner Frank Sinatra said “All the rest of us will be forgotten soon after we die, but never Judy.” (Morley and Leon, 1999, pg 158) And Sinatra was right, Judy Garland is still remembered to this day. All the stars during Garland’s time has been forgotten through the generations. Not many could recall Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers dancing the night away in “Swing Time” or “Top Hat,” or Ava Gardner singing her heart out in “Showboat.” However, what was remembered through the generations by the people, was a girl form Kansas wanting a better life “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Work Cited
John Fricke(nd). Retrieved: April 22, 2008, from http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm.
Sherida Morley & Ruth Leon(1999). Judy Garland Biography: Beyond the Rainbow. Arcade Publishing Inc., New York.
Lorna Luft(nd). Retrieved: April 22, 2008, from http://www.lornaluft.com/
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