A star was born

A was born.. Star

Aubrey Malone chronicles the troubled life of Judy Garland who would have been 100 this year

Judy Garland entered the world 100 years ago as Frances Ethel Gumm. She didn’t remember that but she did remember her “second” birth – the one in the world of film. ‘I was born,’ she said once, ‘at the age of 12 on the MGM lot.’ In many ways the studio was her home. She had a troubled relationship with her mother. Her father died in 1935 when she was only thirteen.

Garland had a stellar career as a child, appearing with her siblings the Gumm Sisters in a succession of stage acts. She also appeared with her friend Mickey Rooney in films that gave American audiences the escapism they craved in a time of war. She took that success into adulthood but it came at a price. The studio denied her food in their determination to keep her thin. It was also responsible for her early introduction to tablets – both to suppress her appetite and to keep her energy levels up when she was called on to work beyond the level of any normal star.

In some ways the Wizard of Oz star was never allowed to leave the yellow brick road. A part of her always remained Dorothy. Her pill-taking intensified as she grew older. So did the demands of the studios. Her moods fluctuated as such demands increased. All that mattered was to get the films out. Garland was the forgotten quantity.

She married band leader David Rose in 1941 but divorced him three years later. She then married the director Vincente Minnelli. He’d directed her in one of her non-singing roles, The Clock. He was rumoured to have had gay tendencies. She learned she was pregnant on their honeymoon. This was the happiest time of her life. She stopped taking pills and stopped making films. Instead she busied herself around the house, engaging in the kind of behaviour of most women her age, behaviour that had been denied to her in her upside down life thus far.

Wedding day with Vincente Minnelli. He’d directed her in one of her non-singing roles, The Clock. He was rumoured to have had gay tendencies.

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The baby was born. It was a girl. They called her Liza. Garland was unprepared for motherhood. She went through bouts of post-natal depression which made her seek leave from the studio at various times.

She was put into another film directed by Minnelli, The Pirate. It was a swashbuckling musical in which she played a young woman from a sheltered background who falls in love with Gene Kelly.

She’d put on a lot of weight during the pregnancy. Having to take pills so she could lose it again for the film meant she was sickly for a lot of the shoot. Kelly felt sorry for her. He knew she was going through a tough time. Occasionally he feigned sickness so the set would have to be closed down and she’d get a break.She developed paranoias. One of them was that Minnelli was having an affair with Kelly. There was no talking her out of it, not even when she visited a psychiatrist.

Her appearance suffered. One writer said she looked ‘visibly strung out, barely in control of her voice and movements, almost anorexic in her appearance.’

Minnelli found himself slotted more into the role of analyst than director as time went on. He knew Garland could act. He knew she could dance. But could she function? Getting her to the set proved to be a chore. When she got there she threw tantrums. A decade of marching to the beating drum of tough directors with even tougher shooting schedules had taken its toll. MGM’s most prized possession was finally revolting from all the years of what can only be called child abuse. The studio slave was breaking out of her chains.

Minnelli put up with Garland’s tantrums as best he could. For him they were the price he had to pay for being married to a sensation.

Somehow they bulleted their way through it. She looked forward to the day when it would be in the can. Before that happened, however, there was a shock in store for her. One day Minnelli left the set early. So did she. When she got home she saw the worst sight of her life. He was in bed with another man. She ran into the bathroom and slashed her wrists. Fortunately the wounds weren’t severe. When she arrived at the studio a few days later her bandages weren’t too noticeable. The story was concealed from the press but she revealed it to a work colleague. The colleague said, ‘You should have slashed Vincente’s throat, not your own wrists.’

She got on with her life. When you were Judy Garland that was what happened. You carried on through the madness. The Pirate opened to poor reviews. One critic wrote, ‘Would have fallen asleep were it not for all the noise.’ Garland became even more depressed. Arguments with Minnelli were followed by the inevitable trip to the pill box – or the liquor cabinet. That provided a different kind of solace. Tales began circulating about her abuse of prescription tablets. Minnelli tried to keep such rumours from the papers. Her psychiatrist recommended that she attend a clinic to recover from the stress of the film.

A few days after it was released she entered a sanatorium in Los Angeles. It steadied her but as soon as she came out the problems that put her in there started again. Her next film was Easter Parade. It was to be directed by Minnelli. She didn’t think this was a good idea. Why bring her problems with him onto the set?

He was replaced with Charles Walters as a result of her intervention. Minnelli didn’t know about it until later. Producer Arthur Freed was the man who gave him the bad news. ‘Judy’s psychiatrist’. he said, ‘thinks it would be better if you didn’t direct the picture.’

With her daughter Liza Minelli

With Fred Astaire in the 1948 smash hit Easter Parade

With Mickey Rooney with whom she starred in a number of Hardy family films

Minnelli couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His shock at being dumped from the production was doubled when he learned that Garland was behind the decision. Why hadn’t she told him directly? Weren’t married couples supposed to discuss these kinds of things together?

The film was a huge success, becoming MGM’s biggest hit of 1948 and one of its most revered films. It was released before The Pirate even though it was made after it. The Pirate was relegated to the second half of a double bill in some cinemas. Garland claimed MGM had promised her a holiday after Easter Parade. She was shocked when she was informed she was lined up for another film. It paired her with Fred Astaire and was called The Barkleys of Broadway.

She burned herself out on it. At times she couldn’t sleep. At other times she couldn’t stay awake. She dieted to get in shape for it but couldn’t bring her weight down enough. She was also suffering from terrible headaches that the pills she was taking failed to alleviate. The studio kept delaying the scenes she was in until she was well enough to play them.

She missed so many days on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway that she was eventually fired. Ginger Rogers took the part instead. It wouldn’t have happened with Louis B. Mayer. Dore Schary had taken over as production head. He had no sentiment for Garland and apparently no memory of how much money she’d made for the studio. His philosophy was, ‘You’re only as good as your next film.’ Instead she made Words and Music and In the Good Old Summertime. She should have used the break to recharge her batteries instead of going back into the fray. It was always her problem. She tried to take too much out of herself. It made her tense on the set and fractious with Minnelli at home.

Arguments between them were often followed by one or other of them leaving the house. It was no environment for Liza. They realised they’d have to do something more permanent to give her stability.

By the time Good Old Summertime was in the can, Garland and Minnelli had gone through two trial separations. Shortly afterward they declared, ‘We’re happier apart’. Except she wasn’t too happy. Another spell in a sanatorium was recommended. This time it was in Boston.

‘I can’t stand it here,’ she told a doctor at the clinic, ‘It’s too quiet.’ He replied, ‘When you don’t have a lot of noise around you, the noise inside you becomes overwhelming.’ The wheels of activity started to roll again when she came out. MGM immediately put her into Summer Stock. She’d gained weight in hospital so a diet regime began, one of those endless ones that had been her lot since her first days in the studio. Summer Stock was followed by Royal Wedding. It was Stanley Donen’s first solo directing job.

With James Mason in A Star is Born

home informing her that she was being suspended once again. When she read it she ran to her bathroom screaming, ‘I want to die!’ After locking herself inside she smashed a glass. She tried to cut her throat with the shards. Minnelli broke down the door. He stopped her doing more damage to herself than she’d already done. She was rushed to hospital.

News men besieged her as she recovered. She was inundated with bouquets of flowers. The Broadway star Ella Logan decided amusement was the best reaction. ‘Dear Judy,’ she cabled, ‘So glad you cut your throat. All the other girl singers needed this kind of break.’

Even though she wasn’t seriously injured, the fact that the incident hit the papers was damaging to the studio. There had been one too many incidents. The headline ‘Judy Cuts Throat Over Lost Job’ now made her a liability in MGM’s eyes. In the September of that year she was released from her contract. She’d spent fifteen years at the studio. Now it was all over. ‘My life sentence had been commuted,’ she told friends, ‘for good behaviour.’

She tried to look on the bright side. She’d have more time at home now, more time to try and build a relationship with Liza. Garland spent so much time in hospital, the young Liza became accustomed to not having her around. When she was with her she tried to make up for lost time. Memories of her own traumatic relationship with her mother made her determined history wouldn’t repeat itself with Liza. As problems with Minnelli increased, her closeness with her daughter became more important to her than he was.

Garland instituted divorce proceedings against him three days before Christmas in 1951, charging mental cruelty. She demanded custody of Liza. Minnelli didn’t contest it as he was allowed as much access to her as he wished. Garland was given both of the homes they owned and $500 a month alimony. They made several attempts at reconciliation over the next few years. In most newspaper reports Minnelli was seen as the main cause of the break-up.

Garland now went to New York. There she met Sid Luft, a promoter who arranged an engagement for her at the London Palladium. Her divorce came through in 1952. Afterwards, Liza commuted between her mother and her father. The times she spent with Minnelli were more normal. When she was with Garland she was often woken in the middle of the night when Garland had to make a sudden flit from a hotel due to her inability to pay the bill.

Garland asked Liza how she’d feel about her marrying Luft. She said she wasn’t sure. She was worried it would lead to her seeing less of her father. Garland told her she could have a baby brother or sister if she married him. That changed her attitude considerably. When they had this conversation, Garland was already pregnant with a child by Luft.

They got married shortly afterwards. Liza wasn’t at the wedding. She learned about it from a television report she watched with Minnelli. They’d married at a private ceremony in San Francisco. Garland told her she’d intended to tell her about it soon. She was disgusted the press got wind of it first. The baby, a daughter they called Lorna, was born in 1952. She brought Garland stability. Her career revived by the concerts, she received a new three-picture deal from Hollywood, winning an Oscar nomination for the first of these, A Star is Born.

Buoyed up by success in England, she continued her live performances in the U.S. Luft negotiated an engagement at the Palace theatre in New York. By now she had problems remembering her lines. Unpunctuality also continued to be a problem. Sometimes she was booed. Sometimes rotten fruit was thrown at her.

Mary Astor thought her downfall was the fact that she didn’t know how to say ‘No’ to people. Burning the candle at both ends was second nature to her. Maybe it was all she knew since she first set foot on a stage or a film set.

She divorced Luft in 1965. Afterwards she married Mark Herron, divorcing him in 1969 to marry Mickey Deans, her fifth husband, the same year. She invited Liza to the wedding. Liza replied, ‘I’m sorry I can’t make it, Mama, but I promise to be at your next one.’

She died later that year of a barbiturate overdose. Those in her inner circle weren’t surprised. For them she’d been an accident waiting to happen for many years now.

In some ways the Wizard of Oz star was never allowed to leave the yellow brick road. A part of her always remained Dorothy.

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Poem by Rosaleen Linehan

So.. I fell into a gene pool, Came out all parts in place My father’s nose, My mother’s lips, Aunti Rosie’s oval face. My mother’s father’s curly hair My granny’s ample thighs My sense of humour from the Hunts*, My dark side from the Creans*. This God who bragged a man’s free will, Knew nothing about my genes

*Relatives