What I remember most is how she used to love to laugh. She was full of laughter. And pep.
-Jack Haley
Judy Garland was born Frances "Baby" Gumm on June 10, 1922 to Frank and Ethel Gumm. Judy performed for the first time on stage at the age of 2 1/2 with her two older sisters, Mary Jane and Dorothy Virginia, and delighted the audience with several renditions of the song "Jingle Bells" while her father Frank watched from back stage and her mother Ethel watched from the audience.
In 1934, the Gumm sisters performed at the World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. As they were announced, George Jessel told the girls they may want to change their last name to Garland. Shortly thereafter Frances changed her name to Judy, the name that she carried through till her death in 1969.
In 1935, Judy Garland signed with MGM without a screen test and was given a contract with options to renew for up to 7 years. Later that year, while getting ready to perform on the radio, Judy heard news that her father was in the hospital. Encouraged to go through with her performance as her father laid in a hospital bed barely responding, Judy sang while a tear ran down her father's cheek. The last thing that Frank Gumm ever heard was his daughter's voice on the radio. He died before Judy could finish the show and say goodbye to her father. She was metaphorically reunited with her father on her 16th birthday when MGM told her that they had bought the script for The Wizard of Oz for her and wanted her to play Dorothy. This was an incredibly moving even for Judy since that was the same story her father would read to her as a young girl.
Judy married Vincente Minnelli in 1945 and had her first daughter, Liza Minnelli, in March of 1946. After divorcing her first husband in 1951, she married Sid Luft and had two children, Lorna and Joseph. This marriage, along with her marriage to Mark Herron, also ended in divorce. Finally, she married Mickey Deans on March 15, 1969.
In 1951, Judy reopened the Palace Theatre in New York with a vaudeville show that lasted over 21 weeks. She was able to break all attendance records with this series of performances, which boosted her career and lead to a contract with Warner Brothers, a concert tour (during which she performed at Carnegie Hall), and eventually her own show, The Judy Garland Show (that was canceled due to low ratings because the show aired at the same time as Bonanza).
Throughout her life Judy Garland used pills to stay thin, give her energy, and help her sleep. This addiction started at an early age due to the pressure of her mother Ethel to be thin and full of energy. On June 21, 1969 Judy took her normal dose of sleeping pills before going to bed. Upon waking up in the middle of the night, she took another dose because she thought that the original dose had worn off. This mistake would cost Judy Garland her life, for she never awoke after taking that second dose of pills. On June 22, 1969 Judy Garland was found dead.
Terry J. Brown
Copyright © 2001 by University of North Texas.
All rights reserved.
Revised: 27 Aug 2001 10:27:09 -0500
The rest of us will be forgotten, never Judy
-Frank
Sinatra
How strange it is when an illusion dies. It's as though you've lost a child.
-Judy Garland
Digital Bibliography
Return to Judy
Garland Index