Reflection

Looking back on writing this biography on Judy Garland, I am proud to say that I finished it. This research project was an enriching experience; it helped me prepare for college in a different way than what is normally taught in high school. I have learned APA-style references and in-text citations, but more importantly, a more efficient method of researching. It took over three months to complete this biography; I know I did not give a complete tale of Judy Garland but that was not my goal. My goal was to write about how fame affected Garland’s life and the obvious and hidden trials in her life. The research was extremely tiresome because I had to find the credibility of all of my sources in order to provide my readers with the most accurate and trustworthy information. I saw who sponsored these cites and figured out the several different factors that could bias or alter a website’s information. Then after completing my researching process, I wrote up my ten-page extended biography on Judy Garland. I held myself to a strict standard when revealing information to the reader. I didn’t want to overwhelm them; therefore I only introduced the events in her life that I thought necessary for the readers’ knowledge. The editing was the worst, because I do not have the best grammar so I always had a friend and teacher at my disposal (thank you Kyle, YOU ARE THE BEST!). I even created a presentation of Judy Garland’s life at my schools Museum Night. That part was the easiest, because after three months of study on her life I was able to answer the many questions that were thrown at me. Some even reflected on how they watched her movie every year since television came out. But my most favorite part of the night was my catch phrase; I made a hook to grab the audience into wanting to hear what I had to say. It was “You know the rumor of how Elvis Presley died on the lavatory of an overdose, well Judy Garland actually did die on the toilet.” Of course I did not mean that is a terrible way to die but I found it funny and so did my audience. Now that I am done I feel that research assignments will be easy from here on out.

decrescendo, sportsando, y fine: will always be remembered

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/

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.

From: http://www.jgdb.com/

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.

Crescendo: A star is born

Judy Garland was raised in the spotlight and never experienced the normal childhood of going to school or playing with friends. She was born on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and under the name of Frances Ethel Gumms. Her parent, Ethel and Frank Gumm were vaudevillians, so it was common for Garland to be on the stage with her parents. Garland was in an act with her sisters, Mary-Jane and Virginia Gumm; they performed as the “Gumm Sisters”. For those who saw the sisters’ act instantly fell in love with the young Judy because she had already developed a soulful, jazz-esque, deep voice at such a young age. As time moved on and Judy’s voice continued to develop, she was able to sing at a comparable level to many adults, even though she was only ten years old.
It was at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1934 that the comic George Jessel suggested that if the girls change their last name to Garland they would get better ratings for their act. The name Garland derived after a drama critic Robert Garland and from that day on, the whole family changed their name to Garland. However they all changed their first names to have official professional names. Mother Garland gave the young Judy her first name from her favorite Hoagy Carmichael song, “Judy”. A year later the Gumm Sisters group broke up because the eldest sister was getting married.

Introdution

“She’s [Judy Garland] the greatest all-round performer living. She can break your heart in one minute and leave you laughing the next.” These were words spoken by the famous Gene Kelly, describing the performance of famed singer Judy Garland. Her phenomenal singing voice brought many things like fame, fortune and many troubles. Stardom brought many things for Garland, but at what cost? Like many stars, she had to struggle with media over-exposure, public opinions, and job opportunities when it came to her self image. Was that fame truly worth the chaos that was brought to her life?