She is a child, her family's capital, who was never allowed to be a child. Her mother was afflicted with a terminal illness: the disease of making her children famous...
She was born as Frances Ethel Gumm in Minnesota in 1922, as the third child of a family that did not want any more children. Her mother was suffering from a terminal illness: the disease of making her children famous. She was 2 years old when she first appeared on stage as 'Baby Gumm' and sang the song 'Jingle Bells'.
Shortly after, she took part in the 'Gumm Sisters' trio created by her mother and has never left the stage since the age of three. The family moved to California in 1926, and mother Ethel arranged many stage jobs and films for her daughters, acting as their manager. She was none other than their mother who gave her daughters amphetamines in the morning so that they would be energetic and wake up early, and sleeping pills in the evening so that they could sleep.
Star Is Shining
The three sisters began using the name 'Garland Sisters in 1934, and Frances Ethel chose the name 'Judy'. With her big eyes, innocent face, and talent for acting, Judy Garland was brighter than her sisters. A year later, her mother signed the contract that would change Judy Garland's life with MGM. 1935 was also significant as the year Judy's father left the world.
The story that seems like the birth of a child star is the tragedy of a woman who was made addicted by constant drug use and whose personality and youth were wasted. When she signed the contract with MGM, she was neither a child nor a young girl anymore, but the studio wanted her to look like a child. New drugs were added to her amphetamines and sleeping pills to prevent her from gaining weight, she was forced to go on a strict diet, and she was made to wear tight corsets that suppressed her breasts. When she gained great fame with the movie 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939) at the age of 17, the burden she carried on his soul and body had already become heavy.
Early Motherhood
At the same age, she met the love of her life, David Rose. Her first pregnancy was terminated in an illegal clinic at the urging of her mother and the studio. She married David Rose two years later to escape the pressure of her mother and the studio, who constantly made her do things she didn't want. Her mother and the studio had already objected to her getting married because it would harm the "innocent girl" image she achieved with the movie "The Wizard of Oz". However, she could not find the peace she was looking for and they officially divorced in 1944. Thanks to the psychotherapy she started a year before the divorce, Judy recovered herself and got rid of her addiction.
'Meet Me in St.' with director Vincente Minnelli, who is said to be gay. They met while filming the movie Louis (1944), and they turned a deaf ear to the rumors and got married in 1945. Her first child, Liza Minnelli, was born a year later, and life was peaceful for a short time until she made a quick return to MGM's studios. Judy Garland, who was asked to lose weight again, fell into the grip of addiction again. In those years, she began to be remembered with adjectives such as irritable, unbalanced, unreliable, and undisciplined, which got in his way in his career and private life. She was not even 30 years old when she appeared in the newspapers with her deep depression, severe anxiety, and suicide attempts. Judy Garland, who was fired by MGM in 1950, divorced her director husband a year later.
She soon made her third and longest-lasting marriage, with Sidney Luft. Sydney would also be the father of her other two children (Lorna and Joseph). Sidney Luft became Judy's manager and her break from the big screen ended with the movie 'A Star Is Born' (1954). The 1950s were the period when Judy Garland sang more and took part in musicals. The drug addiction she acquired at a young age ruined both Judy's private life and her career, and after her mother, who caused this addiction, died of a heart attack in the parking lot, she took refuge in drugs to relieve her pain.
Wrong Choices
Alcohol, drug addiction, lack of money... She was quickly thrown away from the mountain of fame that she rose from when she was a child. She couldn't make the right choices in her private life either. Sidney Luft, who also physically abused Judy, was on the Academy's banned list because he tried to sell his wife's Oscar statue. Her fourth marriage, with Mark Herron, also ended in great disappointment. And her fifth husband, Mickey Deans, to whom she was married only for the last three years of her life...
A father who is claimed to be bisexual, a mother who turned her children into capital, a stage career full of cruelty and bullying, loneliness at the top, violent husbands, some of whom are secretly gay, nervous breakdowns, suicide attempts, a famous son who closed the door on her... Judy Garland is one of the characters in Hollywood tragedies. A wounded soul who has every cliché in her life...
The life of Judy Garland, who made even a stone cry with her song 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow', ended with an overdose in a hotel room. She was honored and rewarded many times after his death. Her tragic life was a warning to those who sought fame and tried to make their children stars.