Sad life story of Judy Garland!
Judy Garland has become a Hollywood diva and is remembered by many for her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but her private life was hell.
The career of Hollywood diva Judy Garland was marked by the role of Dorothy in the film 'The Wizard of Oz', which she played back in 1939. Sadly, she tragically passed away at the age of 48. It was this musical that became a cult and in 2007 UNESCO included it on the World Heritage List. Judy, whose real name was Frances Ethel Gumm, started dancing at the age of six and performed with older sisters Suzanne and Dorothy at their father Francis cinema.
They did not have a normal childhood but fulfilled the ambitions of their parents. But when it was discovered that Judy’s father had romances with young men in Michigan, people boycotted his movie theater. So the Gumm family moved to Los Angeles in 1926. In time, Judy was forced to perform alone, and her mother did not allow her to return home from the tour but locked her in a hotel room. This impaired her mental health and she later visited a psychiatrist who told her that the result was a fear of abandonment and an inferiority complex. The actress called her mother in interviews an evil witch. Judy achieved great success in 1935 when she signed a seven-year contract with the film company MGM and CEO Louis B. Mayer provided her with $ 100 a week to have full control of her life. That year was also a turning point for her because her father passed away.
"It’s the scariest thing that has happened to me because no one was with me anymore," the actress commented on her loss.
The American media wrote that after the death of Judy's father, Mayer took over that role and that he used his power. Namely, he allegedly loved very young girls, and they were not allowed to turn him down if they wanted to have a career in Hollywood. Louis pointed out that Judy was singing from the heart and he loved to put his hand on her chest to feel the strength of her voice.
"Luckily I didn't sing from another part of my body," the actress once said.
She has suffered torture since the age of 14 at the expense of her appearance. Namely, she was 151 centimeters tall and was expected to be thinner, which is why she took various pills and amphetamines and she always was on a diet. Charles Walters who directed several films in which she is an actress revealed that she went to school with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, and Elizabeth Taylor. They were real beauties. Judy made a lot of money and she was very successful, but she was considered an ugly duckling. He thinks that had a very detrimental effect on her and that was the reason she felt bad for the rest of her life. Judy was on a strict diet and mostly ate chicken soup so she was often hungry. Throughout her life, she struggled with weight and had periods in which she would gain pounds and then lose up to 20 pounds. During the filming, she was forced to wear corsets, and she also wore dental implants and her nose was reshaped with rubber.
At 16, she played the role of Dorothy who marked her career, playing an 11-year-old girl. The budget of 'The Wizard of Oz' was then a whopping $ 2.7 million. It was filmed by as many as 600 actors and four directors. However, in the end, Victor Fleming signed on for the film, which became a hit. Also because of the musical, the world fell in love with the song ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ received six Oscar nominations, and Judy took home the one in the youngest actress category.
Although she had to hide her private life, it was known that the actress lost her virginity at the age of 15. In addition, it was leaked to the public that Garland became very close to eight-year-older Tyron Paul at a party after the Oscars.
They had a brief romance, but it ended with divorce. Judy gained confidence through her relationship with Paul and the public began to see her as a seductress. She found a new love in director David Rose, whom she married in 1941, although her mother and MGM leaders opposed it. Judy believed that marriage would give her control of her life, but she was wrong. During the filming of the musical ‘Babes on Broadway’ she revealed that she was pregnant and MGM and her mother ordered her to have an abortion. She did so with a surgeon who worked for a film studio, and the public was told that the actress had tonsil surgery. It was only then that she became aware that neither her husband could help her with her mother who was spending her earnings, nor with Mayer. She was the highest-paid actress at the time, but behind a dazzling and successful career, she felt only deep pain and she was very unhappy.
She divorced David in 1944 and tried to find happiness in casual adventures with men and women. She fell in love with screenwriter Joe Mankiewicz and he is often referred to as the love of her life. He was the first to try to protect her from Mayer and he was thrilled when she got a role in the film 'Presenting Lilly Mars' instead of Lane Turner.
Still, she continued to suffer and took various pills, such as sleeping pills, and struggled with nightmares and insomnia. She begged MGM to allow her a one-year break so she could go to treatment, but they did not allow her to do so. When the psychiatrist did not call her one night, she drank a bottle of vodka and sedatives. The film studio didn't bother too much with that but called it her first fake suicide attempt.
Judy said the fateful ‘yes’ again in 1945 when she married 19-year-older Vincent Minnelli. The following year they had a daughter, Lisa Minnelli, today well-known music and acting diva. After her birth, Garland struggled with postpartum depression and became increasingly addicted to pills. She also had periods of paranoia that were mostly focused on her husband.
As a result, she ended up in a psychiatric clinic, and her mother got her into trouble because she did not pay taxes but spent her money on bad investments. In addition, her husband Vincent did not want to bring their daughter Lisa to visit.
Her marriage was falling apart and she found solace in actor Yul Brynner. The public then learned that Judy was addicted to pills, and she also had problems at work. MGM suspended her because she was late and behaved inappropriately during filming.
She suffered condemnation and also was declared a drug addict and alcoholic. So she tried to end her life with a piece of glass, and MGM terminated her contract in 1950. They did not give her severance pay or say goodbye to her, even though she earned them more than $ 80 million during all those years of work.
After the divorce, she fell in love at first sight with businessman Sidney Luft, whom she married in 1952. They had a daughter, Lorna, and a son, Joey, and returned to the scene during her marriage to him. But her mother made her life miserable and sued and demanded alimony, but failed to achieve anything because she died in 1953 after a heart attack. Her family showed how stingy and insensitive they were when she died. Namely, after one year she was buried in a tomb in Ferncliff Cemetery in New York because no one wanted to pay the expenses.
