Most of the world was introduced to Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. There are few roles as iconic and even fewer with as many catchy lines that are STILL repeated today!
Unfortunately, Garland’s life was far from wonderful. Drugs, failed marriages, and an unsustainable lifestyle led to her early death at the age of 47.
Let’s look at some of the most tragic aspects of her life and maybe learn a lesson or two on the way.
1. She passed soon after her fourth marriage
Her fifth and final husband, Micky Deans, met Garland when he was managing a nightclub in NYC.
Deans had compassion for Garland when a friend asked him to deliver drugs to her suite and attempted to help her start on a new path.
Garland claimed she was finally happy:
“I finally got the right man to ask me, I’ve been waiting for a long time.”
Unfortunately, Deans would find Garland on their bathroom floor, dead from an overdose.
2. She lived her last years virtually homeless
When the late 60s rolled around, Garland had alienated most of her family from her life. She was so desperate that she had to rely on fans to live with, often sleeping on their couches and traveling with her things in old paper bags.
3. She got a book contract but never finished it
Getting a book contract is one thing, finishing the manuscript is another.
In 1959, she was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver when Random House approached her with a contract of $35,000 for her autobiography.
She made 65 pages worth of tape recordings but never finished after she returned to LA.
4. She was fired from Valley of the Dolls
Garland was slated to play Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls after signing a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1967.
Although it was never known exactly why she was fired, she refused to come out of her dressing room with some speculating she wasn’t able to perform due to her drinking.
5. She threw a knife at her kid
Lorna Luft, Garland’s youngest daughter, began caring for her mother when her full-time caretaker got married. She had to repeatedly talk down her mother from suicide threats and other mental health episodes.
During one of the episodes, Garland threw a knife at her son, Joey. At the time, she was reportedly taking Ritalin and amphetamines at 20x the recommended dosage!
6. Her daughter left her
Garland’s substance abuse was consuming her, all the while her teenage daughter, Liza Minnelli, took care of the household. She would repeatedly save her mom from overdoses and attempted suicide.
Soon, she couldn’t take it anymore and left. She then refused to answer the phone when her mom called, and even banned her mom from her apartment.
7. Her fourth husband slept with her son-in-law
Garland developed a reputation for getting into relationships with gay men. Her fourth husband, Mark Herron, was openly gay.
Liza Minelli, Garland’s daughter, later found her own husband, Peter Allen, in bed with Herron.
8. Her third husband spent her fortune
Garland was heading in a downward direction career-wise when she met Sidney Luft.
Luft was a New Yorker involved with the film industry and the two married in 1952. Their marriage turned out the Acadamy Award-nominated film A Star is Born.
But Luft was a gambler and alcoholic who eventually spent most of Garland’s money. They later divorced and Garland took him to court, winning $60k in damages.
9. She found her second husband in bed… with another man, again
As we mentioned, Garland had a thing for marrying gay men.
Vincente Minnelli had a reputation in New York that was relatively ignored in Los Angeles. Garland and Minnelli married in 1945 and had their daughter, Liza Minnelli.
They ran into relational problems, however, and Garland eventually found her husband sleeping with a male employee.
10. Her first marriage was an attempted shield from her mom
Garland’s mother was domineering and a bully. When Garland was 19, she thought that the best way to get away was to marry a man to protect her. That resulted in her first marriage with a man named David Rose.
She soon became pregnant but was convinced to have an abortion. The two then separated only a few months later.
11. She was forced to smoke and drink on the set of Oz
Many of Garland’s problems could be tied to her debut in The Wizard of Oz. MGM execs would take away her food so she would keep her shape while keeping her on a diet of black coffee (and, reportedly, 80 cigarettes a day).
She was also given drugs (both stimulants and depressants) to keep up with their promotional schedule.
Her co-stars didn’t help, either. They shunned her for being a young star.
12. She was verbally and physically abused at MGM
Louis Mayer, the studio head at MGM, would refer to Garland as “My Little Hunchback” and touch her chest as he said she “sang from the heart.”
Garland finally confronted him and Mayer acted like he was just playing a fatherly role in her life.
13. She dieted and tried to modify her body in others ways to appear young
We already saw the diet that she was kept on by MGM, but that is only part of it.
MGM demanded that she maintain her childlike look as long as possible, even going as far as binding her chest to flatten it.
14. Her parents didn’t have a happy marriage
Her father, Frank Gumm, and mother, Ethel Marion Milne, were performers that likely married for the value it brought to their musical duo, not for love.
Gumm was reportedly bisexual and would make advances on teenage ushers at his shows.
15. Her mother dominated her childhood
Garland’s mother, Ethel Milne, almost had her aborted but was talked out of it. She eventually gave birth and forced her daughter on stage when she was only two.
Soon, she was moving Garland around and getting her as close to film and entertainment people as often as she could.
Garland would eventually refer to her as “the real Wicked Witch of the West.”
It’s never easy to hear about a child’s hard circumstances.
While Judy Garland long seemed like American’s Sweetheart, she was suffering in silence.
It’s no surprise she was never able to overcome that trauma of her early life.
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