Majestco con brio: the wizard and drugs

In the entertainment industry, actors and actresses compete for roles for movies. Before Durbin moved to Universal, she and Garland were rival. As mentioned before, in the end Judy Garland won and it secured her job but not every role she audition for. Like in the movie she stared in “The Wizard of Oz” almost never was for Garland. Meaning Garland almost did not get the part, and the song “Over the Rainbow” probably would not have had the same touching effect as it was with Garland. The role was truly meant for America’s Sweetheart Shirley Temple. Which was understandable since Temple was still young and innocent which the role of Dorothy Gale called for. Fortunately for Garland, the studio that held Shirley temples contract did not allow her to leave the studio.
By this time, the child labor laws and most standard work and labor regulations had already been established and were set up to hold any type of working indecencies against workers. In Hollywood however, it seem as if that these laws did not apply to the famous, especially to child stars. Instead of working eight hour work days, Judy Garland and other child stars would work seventy-two hours, that is three days straight, without rest. it is , the movie industry was going against federal law. However, the entertainment industry did more than industry did more than just overwork the children. It was also a common occurrence for a child star to take drugs to maintain their performance. To keep these young stars on track with their rigorous work schedules , they would give the stars anfedimine pills to keep them awake and active, sleeping pills to calm them and help them to sleep. And in Judy Garland was given her those two types of pills plus weight reduction pills called Bensendrine. When Louis B. Mayers’ said “Fire the fat on,” he truly meant she was overweight. They started giving her the weight reduction pills before the production of “The Wizard of Oz.” The weight pills gave her insomnia; with the sleeping pills, she would overdose on them. In Garland’s own word she decirbed how it was for her when she took the pills, “Sometimes I would get to bed at two in the morning and [to] be awaken at five”( 1999,Morely and Leon, pg 56). These action reaped by effects on these stars on their bodies but also made many of them life time drug addicts.