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Garland, Judy
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Frances Ethel Gumm was born June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She and her two sisters performed at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago with George Jessel. He encouraged the sisters to change their name so that the audience would not laugh at them; the sister from then on went by “The Garland Sisters”. After the last name change, Frances decided to go by ‘Judy’.
After MGM executives heard Judy sing at Clark Gable’s birthday party, she was signed to a contract at the age of 13. She was cast in a few minor roles before landing the leading role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. After her major role debut, she stared in more than 9 films with Mickey Rooney. She was considered to be the most critically and financially successful female musician and actress of that time.
By the 1950’s Judy’s early stardom caught up with her, as she became more and more unreliable when making movies. She ended her contract with MGM and blamed them for stealing her childhood. She began to tour and appear on different variety shows on television, and in 1954 she made a big screen comeback with the classic film, A Star is Born. Her appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23,1961 has been called by many the greatest single night in show business and the album recorded that night won 5 Grammy’s including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year. It also stayed on the Billboard charts for 3 weeks and was number 1 for 13 weeks.
Because of the busy childhood she had with making movies, she was given amphetamines and Barbiturates to help coop with the stress of the business. This led her into a life of addiction that she battled all the way until her untimely death.
Throughout her career, Judy Garland stared in more than 45 films and made 11 albums. She received an honorary Academy Award for her performance in The Wizard of Oz and was nominated for Best Actress for A Star is Born and Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg.
Best known for: “Over the Rainbow”, “You Made Me Love You” and “The Man That Got Away” |
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