Monday, April 14, 2008

Safe

Though the group broke up, Judy’s mother continued pushing her towards a life of entertainment. October 1, 1934 she signed a contract with MGM Studios, but even though the company signed her, they were unsure of what to do with her. The studio already had several child stars such as Jackie Cooper, Freddie Bartholomew, Deanna Durbin, and Mickey Rooney. The need for another young star in the studio was, in there thoughts, a waste of time and money. Louis B. Mayer felt that he had to fire Garland in order to keep the profits up. In “Beyond the Rainbow” a biography of Judy Garland by Morley and Leon it said that Mayer told his associates to “fire the fat one”(1999,Morley and Leon, pg 21). When he said this he meant Garland because at the time she was consider bigger than most girl stars her age. Luckily for Garland she was roughly the size of Deanna Durbin, another child star, with that the due to the vagueness of the demand (Mayer never said which girl to fire) Durbin was fire. The fact that MGM lost Durbin and year after she made a hit with Universal Studios infuriated Mayer. He kept Garland in spite of what he did, though his intention to fire her in the first place, because of what happened he was determined to make Garland a star to amend his bad choice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love both Judy and Deanna in EVERY SUNDAY. I have also created a website as a tribute to Deanna:

www.deannadurbin.org

Very best wishes,

Alex.