Judy Garland

Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is now a museum dedicated to her life and career.

Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.[7] She was the youngest child of Ethel Marion Gumm (née Milne; 1896–1953)[8] and Francis "Frank" Avent Gumm (1886–1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts. She was of Irish, English, Scottish,[9][10] and French Huguenot[11][12] ancestry, named after both of her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church.[13]

"Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters)[14] shared her family's flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two, when she joined her elder sisters Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells".[15] The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years, accompanied by their mother on piano.[14]

The family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926, following rumors that her father had homosexual inclinations.[16] Frank bought and operated another theater in Lancaster,[17] and Ethel began managing her daughters and working to get them into motion pictures.

Garland sings "The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Garland starred in three films which were released in 1940: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band and Little Nellie Kelly. In the last, she played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. Little Nellie Kelly was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her to display both her audience appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss and the only death scene of her career.[53] Her co-star George Murphy regarded the kiss as embarrassing. He said it felt like "a hillbilly with a child bride".[6]

During that time, Garland was still in her teens when she experienced her first serious adult romance with bandleader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner.[54] Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose and, on her 18th birthday, he gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because, at the time, he was still married to actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce to become final. During that time, Garland had a brief affair with songwriter Johnny Mercer. After her breakup with Mercer, Garland and Rose were wed on July 27, 1941.[55] "A true rarity" is what media called it.[6] The couple agreed to undergo a trial separation in January 1943 and they divorced in 1944.[56]

Garland was given the Hollywood "glamor treatment" for Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

In 1941, while she was pregnant with Rose's child, Garland had an abortion at the insistence of her mother and the studio executives because the pregnancy wasn't approved of. She had a second abortion in 1943 when she became pregnant during her affair with Tyrone Power.[57]

In her next film, For Me and My Gal (1942), Garland performed with Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was given the "glamor treatment" in Presenting Lily Mars (1943), in which she was dressed in "grown-up" gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared on screen or in photographs, she was never confident about her appearance and never escaped the "girl-next-door" image that the studio had created for her.[58]

One of Garland's most successful films for MGM was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". This was one of the first films in her career that gave her the opportunity to be the attractive leading lady. Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct and he requested that make-up artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways, they included extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs and dental caps. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.[59]

Around the same time, Garland had a brief affair with actor and film director Orson Welles, who was then married to actress Rita Hayworth. Garland and Welles ended the affair in early 1945 but remained on good terms afterwards.[60]

During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, Garland and Minnelli had some initial conflicts, but they entered into a relationship and they got married on June 15, 1945.[61] On March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born.[62] The couple got divorced in 1951.[63]

The Clock (1945) was Garland's first straight dramatic film; Robert Walker was cast in the main male role. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. She did not act again in a non-singing dramatic role for many years. Garland's other films of the 1940s include The Harvey Girls (1946), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" and Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).[64]

During the filming of The Pirate, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and she was placed in a private sanatorium.[65] She was able to complete filming, but in July 1947 she made her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass.[66] During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.[67] The Pirate was released in May 1948 and it was the first film which did not make a profit since Garland had starred in The Wizard of Oz. The main reasons for its failure were not only its cost, they also included the increasing expense of the shooting delays while Garland was ill, as well as the general public's unwillingness to accept her in a sophisticated film. Following her work on The Pirate, she co-starred for the first and only time with Fred Astaire (who replaced Gene Kelly after Kelly had broken his ankle) in Easter Parade (1948), which became her top-grossing film at MGM.

Garland in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Thrilled by the huge box-office receipts of Easter Parade, MGM immediately teamed Garland and Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway. During the initial filming, Garland was taking prescription barbiturate sleeping pills along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine.[68] Around this time, she also developed a serious problem with alcohol. These, in combination with migraine headaches, led her to miss several shooting days in a row. After being advised by her doctor that she would only be able to work in four- to five-day increments with extended rest periods between, MGM executive Arthur Freed made the decision to suspend her on July 18, 1948. She was replaced in the film by Ginger Rogers.[69]

When her suspension was over, she was summoned back to work and she ultimately performed two songs as a guest in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music (1948), which was her last appearance with Mickey Rooney. Despite the all-star cast, Words and Music barely broke even at the box office. Having regained her strength, as well as some needed weight during her suspension, Garland felt much better and in the fall of 1948, she returned to MGM to replace a pregnant June Allyson for the musical film In the Good Old Summertime (1949) co-starring Van Johnson. Although she was sometimes late arriving at the studio during the making of this picture, she managed to complete it five days ahead of schedule. Her daughter Liza made her film debut at the age of two and a half at the end of the film. In the Good Old Summertime was enormously successful at the box office.[70]

Garland was then cast in the film adaptation of Annie Get Your Gun in the title role of Annie Oakley. She was nervous at the prospect of taking on a role strongly identified with Ethel Merman, anxious about appearing in an unglamorous part after breaking from juvenile parts for several years and disturbed by her treatment at the hands of director Busby Berkeley. Berkeley was severe with Garland's lack of effort, attitude and enthusiasm. She complained to Mayer, trying to have Berkeley fired from the feature. She began arriving late to the set and sometimes failed to appear. At this time, she was also undergoing electroconvulsive therapy for depression.[71][72][73] She was fired from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton, who stepped in to perform all the musical routines as staged by Robert Alton.[74] Garland underwent an extensive hospital stay at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, in which she was weaned off her medication and after a while, was able to eat and sleep normally.

Garland returned to Los Angeles heavier and in the fall of 1949, she was cast opposite Gene Kelly in Summer Stock (1950). The film took six months to complete. To lose weight, Garland went back on the pills and the familiar pattern resurfaced. She began showing up late or not at all. When principal photography on Summer Stock was completed in the spring of 1950, it was decided that Garland needed an additional musical number. She agreed to do it provided the song was "Get Happy". In addition, she insisted that director Charles Walters choreograph and stage the number. By that time, Garland had lost 15 pounds and looked more slender. "Get Happy" was the last segment of Summer Stock to be filmed. It was her final picture for MGM. When it was released in the fall of 1950, Summer Stock drew big crowds and racked up very respectable box-office receipts, but because of the costly shooting delays caused by Garland, the film posted a loss of $80,000 to the studio.[75]

Garland was cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She failed to report to the set on multiple occasions and the studio suspended her contract on June 17, 1950. She was replaced by Jane Powell.[76] Reputable biographies following her death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken glass, requiring only a Band-Aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat.[77] "All I could see ahead was more confusion", Garland later said of this suicide attempt. "I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me."[78] In September 1950, after 15 years with the studio, Garland and MGM parted company.[79][80]

Garland was a life-long and active Democrat. During her lifetime, she was a member of the Hollywood Democratic committee and a financial and moral supporter of various causes, including the Civil Rights Movement. She donated money to the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson II, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace.[120]

In April 1944, Garland escorted Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. to a reception honoring the general at the home of Ira Gershwin. Davis, the first Black general and highest-ranking Black officer in the U.S. military, was in Los Angeles for the premiere of Frank Capra's documentary about Black Americans serving in World War II. In September 1947, Garland joined the Committee for the First Amendment, a group formed by Hollywood celebrities in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives led by J. Parnell Thomas. HUAC was formed to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having communist ties. The Committee for the First Amendment sought to protect the civil liberties of those accused.[121]

Other members included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Dandridge, John Garfield, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, John Huston, Gene Kelly and Billy Wilder. Garland took part in recording an all-star radio broadcast on October 26, 1947, Hollywood Fights Back, during which she exhorted listeners to action: "Before every free conscience in America is subpoenaed, please speak up! Say your piece! Write your congressman a letter – air mail special. Let the Congress know what you think of its Un-American Committee."[122]

Garland was a friend of President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy and she often vacationed in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The house she stayed in during her vacations in Hyannis Port is known today as The Judy Garland House because of her association with the property.[123] Garland would call Kennedy weekly, often ending her phone calls by singing the first few bars of "Over the Rainbow".[123]

On August 28, 1963, Garland and other celebrities such as Josephine Baker, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Paul Newman, Rita Moreno and Sammy Davis, Jr. took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a demonstration organized to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. She had been photographed by the press in Los Angeles earlier in the month alongside Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston as they planned their participation in the march on the nation's capital.

On September 16, 1963, Garland – along with daughter Liza Minnelli, Carolyn Jones, June Allyson and Allyson's daughter Pam Powell – held a press conference to protest the recent bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that resulted in the death of four young African American girls. They expressed their shock and outrage at the attack and requested funds for the families of the victims. Pam Powell and Liza Minnelli both announced their intention to attend the funeral of the victims during the press conference.[124][125]

In 1963, Garland sued Sidney Luft for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. She also asserted that he had repeatedly struck her while he was drinking and that he had attempted to take their children from her by force.[126] She had filed for divorce from Luft on several previous occasions, even as early as 1956, but they had reconciled each time.[127]

Mickey Deans and Garland at their London wedding in March 1969, three months before her death

After her television series was canceled, Garland returned to work on the stage. She returned to the London Palladium performing with 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert was also shown on the British television network ITV and it was one of her final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Garland guest-hosted an episode of The Hollywood Palace with Vic Damone. She was invited back for a second episode in 1966 with Van Johnson as her guest. Problems with Garland's behavior ended her Hollywood Palace guest appearances.[128]

A 1964 tour of Australia ended badly. Garland's first two concerts in Sydney were held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the overflow crowds who wanted to see her. Both went well and received positive reviews. Her third performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000 was angered by her tardiness and believed that she was drunk; they booed and heckled her and she fled the stage after 45 minutes.[129] She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish".[130] Garland's Melbourne appearance gained a negative press response.[131]

Garland's tour promoter Mark Herron announced that they had married aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong. However, she was not officially divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed.[132] The divorce became final on May 19, 1965,[126] and she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965; they separated five months later.[133] During their divorce, Garland testified that Herron had beaten her. Herron claimed that he "only hit her in self defense".[134]

For much of her career throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, husband Sidney Luft had been her manager. However, Garland eventually parted ways with Luft professionally, signing with agents Freddie Fields and David Begelman. By the fall of 1966, Garland had also parted ways with Fields and Begelman. Fields's and Begelman's mismanagement of Garland's money, as well as their embezzlement of much of her earnings, resulted in her owing around US$500,000 (equivalent to $3,240,000 in 2021) in total in personal debts and in debts to the IRS. The IRS placed tax liens on her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, her recording contract with Capitol Records, and any other business deals from which she could derive an income.[135]

Garland was left in a desperate situation that saw her sell her Brentwood home at a price far below its value. She was then cast in February 1967 in the role of Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls by 20th Century Fox.[136] According to co-star Patty Duke, Garland was treated poorly by director Mark Robson on the set of Valley of the Dolls and was primarily hired to augment publicity for the film.[137] After Garland's dismissal from the film, author Jacqueline Susann said in the 1967 television documentary Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls, "I think Judy will always come back. She kids about making a lot of comebacks, but I think Judy has a kind of a thing where she has to get to the bottom of the rope and things have to get very, very rough for her. Then with an amazing inner strength that only comes of a certain genius, she comes back bigger than ever".[138]

Returning to the stage, Garland made one of her last U.S. appearances at New York's Palace Theatre in July 1967, a 27-show stand, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. She wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour; the pantsuit was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.[139] Garland earned more than US$200,000 (equivalent to $1,260,000 in 2021) from her final run at New York's Palace Theatre from her 75% share of the profits generated by her engagement there. On closing night at the Palace, federal tax agents seized the majority of her earnings.[140]

By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run[141] in which she was paid £2,500 per week,[107] and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969.[142] After her divorce from Herron had been finalized on February 11, she married her fifth and final husband, nightclub manager Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15.[143]

Garland's grave at the Ferncliff Mausoleum before she was moved to Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2017

On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead in the bathroom of her rented house in Cadogan Lane, Belgravia, London.[4] At the inquest, Coroner Gavin Thurston stated that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten 1.5-grain (97 mg) Seconal capsules.[144] Thurston stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and no evidence suggested that she had intended to kill herself. Garland's autopsy showed no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue in her stomach, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in a single dose. Her death certificate stated that her death was "accidental".[145] Supporting the accidental cause, Garland's physician noted that a prescription of 25 barbiturate pills was found by her bedside half-empty and another bottle of 100 barbiturate pills was still unopened.[146]

A British specialist who had attended Garland's autopsy stated that she had nevertheless been living on borrowed time owing to cirrhosis, although a second autopsy conducted later reported no evidence of alcoholism or cirrhosis.[147][148] Her Wizard of Oz co-star Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out."[149]

After Garland's body had been embalmed and clothed in the same gray, silk gown she wore at her wedding to Deans, Deans traveled with her remains to New York City on June 26, 1969, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up to pay their respects at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan, which remained open all night long to accommodate the overflowing crowd. On June 27, 1969, James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, an Episcopal service led by the Rev. Peter Delaney of St Marylebone Parish Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans, three months earlier.[150] "Judy's great gift", Mason said in his eulogy, "was that she could wring tears out of hearts of rock... She gave so richly and so generously, that there was no currency in which to repay her."[151] The public and press were barred. She was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, a town 24 miles (39 km) north of midtown Manhattan.[152]

Upon Garland's death, despite having earned millions during her career, her estate came to US$40,000 (equivalent to $230,000 in 2021). Years of criminal mismanagement of her financial affairs by her representatives and staff along with her generosity toward her family and various causes resulted in her poor financial situation at the end of her life. In her last will, signed and sealed in early 1961, Garland made many generous bequests that could not be fulfilled because her estate had been in debt for many years. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, worked to pay off her mother's debts with the help of family friend Frank Sinatra.[153] In 1978, a selection of Garland's personal items was auctioned off by her ex-husband Sidney Luft with the support of their daughter Lorna Luft and their son Joey. Almost 500 items, ranging from copper cookware to musical arrangements, were offered for sale. The auction raised US$250,000 (equivalent to $830,000 in 2021) for her heirs.[154]

At the request of her children, Garland's remains were disinterred from Ferncliff Cemetery in January 2017 and re-interred 2,800 miles (4,500 km) across the country at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.[155]

With Bob Crosby in Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

Garland possessed a contralto singing voice,[156][157][158] described as brassy,[20] powerful, effortless and resonant,[159] often demonstrating a tremulous,[160] powerful vibrato.[161] Although her range was comparatively limited, Garland was capable of alternating between female and male-sounding timbres with little effort.[162] The Richmond Times-Dispatch correspondent Tony Farrell wrote she possessed "a deep, velvety contralto voice that could turn on a dime to belt out the high notes".[158] Ron O'Brien, producer of tribute album The Definitive Collection – Judy Garland (2006), wrote the singer's combination of natural phrasing, elegant delivery, mature pathos "and powerful dramatic dynamics she brings to ... songs make her [renditions] the definitive interpretations".[163]

The Huffington Post writer Joan E. Dowlin called the period of Garland's music career between 1937 and 1945 the "innocent years", during which the critic believes the singer's "voice was vibrant and her musical expression exuberant", taking note of its resonance and distinct, "rich yet sweet" quality "that grabs you and pulls you in".[163] Garland's voice would often vary to suit the song she was interpreting, ranging from soft, engaging and tender during ballads to humorous on some of her duets with other artists.[163] Her more joyful, belted performances have been compared to entertainers Sophie Tucker, Ethel Merman and Al Jolson.[162] Although her musical repertoire consisted largely of cast recordings, show tunes and traditional pop standards,[164] Garland was also capable of singing soul, blues and jazz music, which Dowlin compared to singer Elvis Presley.[163]

Garland always claimed that her talent as a performer was inherited, saying: "Nobody ever taught me what to do onstage."[165] Critics agree that, even when she debuted as a child,[164] Garland had always sounded mature for her age,[166] particularly on her earlier recordings.[163] From an early age, Garland had been billed as "the little girl with the leather lungs",[165] a designation the singer later admitted to having felt humiliated by because she would have much preferred to have been known to audiences as a "pretty" or "nice little girl".[167]

Jessel recalled that, even at only 12 years old, Garland's singing voice resembled that of "a woman with a heart that had been hurt".[165] The Kansas City Star contributor Robert Trussel cited Garland's singing voice among the reasons why her role in The Wizard of Oz remains memorable, writing that although "She might have been made up and costumed to look like a little girl ... she didn't sing like one" due to her "powerful contralto command[ing] attention".[159]

Garland with Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Camille Paglia, writing for The New York Times, joked that even in Garland's adult life, "her petite frame literally throbbed with her huge voice", making it appear as though she were "at war with her own body".[162] Theater actress and director Donna Thomason stated that Garland was an "effective" performer because she was capable of using her "singing voice [as] a natural extension of [her] speaking voice", a skill that Thomason believes all musical theater actors should at least strive to achieve.[159] Trussel agreed that "Garland's singing voice sounded utterly natural. It never seemed forced or overly trained."[159]

Writing for Turner Classic Movies, biographer Jonathan Riggs observed that Garland had a tendency to imbue her vocals with a paradoxical combination of "fragility and resilience" that eventually became a signature trademark of hers.[160] This signature style of her performances used to be marked with power in her voice, pronounced enunciation and projecting a sense of vulnerability through her singing and body language.[168] Michael Bronski writes in his book, Culture Clash,

There was a hurt in her voice and an immediacy to her performance that gave the impression that it was her pain.[169]

Louis Bayard of The Washington Post described Garland's voice as "throbbing", believing it to be capable of "connect[ing] with [audiences] in a way no other voice does".[170] Bayard also believes that listeners "find it hard to disentwine the sorrow in her voice from the sorrow that dogged her life",[170] while Dowlin argued that, "Listening to Judy sing ... makes me forget all of the angst and suffering she must have endured."[163]

The New York Times obituarist in 1969 observed that Garland, whether intentionally or not, "brought with her ... all the well-publicized phantoms of her emotional breakdown, her career collapses and comebacks" on stage during later performances.[20] The same writer said that Garland's voice changed and lost some of its quality as she aged, although she retained much of her personality.[20] Contributing to the Irish Independent, Julia Molony observed Garland's voice, although "still rich with emotion", had finally begun to "creak with the weight of years of disappointment and hard-living" by the time she performed at Carnegie Hall in 1961.[171]

Similarly, the live record's entry in the Library of Congress wrote that "while her voice was still strong, it had also gained a bit of heft and a bit of wear"; author Cary O'Dell believes Garland's rasp and "occasional quiver" only "upped the emotional quotient of many of her numbers", particularly on her signature songs "Over the Rainbow" and "The Man That Got Away".[172] Garland stated that she always felt most safe and at home while performing onstage, regardless of the condition of her voice.[173] Her musical talent has been commended by her peers; opera singer Maria Callas once said that Garland possessed "the most superb voice she had ever heard", while singer and actor Bing Crosby said that "no other singer could be compared to her" when Garland was rested.[166]

Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls (1945)

Garland was known for interacting with her audiences during live performances; The New York Times obituarist wrote that Garland possessed "a seemingly unquenchable need for her audiences to respond with acclaim and affection. And often, they did, screaming, 'We love you, Judy – we love you.'"[20] Garland herself explained in 1961: "A really great reception makes me feel like I have a great big warm heating pad all over me ... I truly have a great love for an audience and I used to want to prove it to them by giving them blood. But I have a funny new thing now, a real determination to make people enjoy the show."[174]

The New York Times writer described her as both "an instinctive actress and comedienne". The anonymous contributor commented that Garland's performance style resembled that of "a music hall performer in an era when music halls were obsolete".[20] Close friends of Garland's insisted that she never truly wanted to be a movie star and would have much rather devoted her career entirely to singing and recording records.[167] AllMusic biographer William Ruhlmann believes that Garland's ability to maintain a successful career as a recording artist even after her film appearances became less frequent was unusual for an artist at the time.[164]

Garland has been identified as a triple threat due to her ability to sing, act and dance,[175] arguably equally well.[176] Doug Strassler, a critic for the New York Press, described Garland as a "triple threat" who "bounced between family musicals and adult dramas with a precision and a talent that remains largely unmatched".[177] In terms of acting, Peter Lennon, writing for The Guardian in 1999, identified Garland as a "chameleon" due to her ability to alternate between comedic, musical and dramatic roles, citing The Wizard of Oz, The Clock, A Star is Born and I Could Go On Singing – her final film role – as prominent examples.[178] Michael Musto, a journalist for W magazine, wrote that in her film roles Garland "could project decency, vulnerability and spunk like no other star and she wrapped it up with a tremulously beautiful vocal delivery that could melt even the most hardened troll".[179]

Selected studio albums

• Judy Garland Souvenir Album (1940)
• Judy Garland Second Souvenir Album (1943)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• Miss Show Business (1955)
• Judy (1956)
• Alone (1957)
• Judy in Love (1958)
• The Letter (1959)
• That's Entertainment! (1960)
• The Garland Touch (1962)

Garland was nearly as famous for her personal struggles in everyday life as she was for her entertainment career.[162] She has been closely associated with her carefully cultivated girl next door image.[171] Early in her career during the 1930s, Garland's public image had earned her the title "America's favorite kid sister",[165] as well as the title "Little Miss Showbusiness".[180][181]

In a review for the Star Tribune, Graydon Royce wrote that Garland's public image remained that of "a Midwestern girl who couldn't believe where she was", despite having been a well-established celebrity for over 20 years.[173] Royce believes that fans and audiences insisted on preserving their memory of Garland as Dorothy no matter how much she matured, calling her "a captive not of her own desire to stay young, but a captive of the public's desire to preserve her that way".[173] Thus, the studio continued to cast Garland in roles that were significantly younger than her actual age.[173]

According to Malony, Garland was one of Hollywood's hardest-working performers during the 1940s, which Malony claims she used as a coping mechanism after her first marriage imploded.[171] However, studio employees recall that Garland had a tendency to be quite intense, headstrong and volatile;[165] Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend author David Shipman claims that several individuals were frustrated by Garland's "narcissism" and "growing instability", while millions of fans found her public demeanor and psychological state to be "fragile",[180][171] appearing neurotic in interviews.[173]

MGM reports that Garland was consistently tardy and demonstrated erratic behavior, which resulted in several delays and disruptions to filming schedules until she was finally dismissed from the studio, which had deemed her unreliable and difficult to manage.[171] Farrell called Garland "A grab bag of contradictions" which "has always been a feast for the American imagination", describing her public persona as "awkward yet direct, bashful yet brash".[158] Describing the singer as "Tender and endearing yet savage and turbulent", Paglia wrote that Garland "cut a path of destruction through many lives. And out of that chaos, she made art of still-searing intensity."[162] Calling her "a creature of extremes, greedy, sensual and demanding, gluttonous for pleasure and pain",[165] Paglia also compared Garland to entertainer Frank Sinatra due to their shared "emblematic personality ... into whom the mass audience projected its hopes and disappointments", while observing that she lacked Sinatra's survival skills.[162]

Despite her success as a performer, Garland suffered from low self-esteem, particularly with regard to her weight, which she constantly dieted to maintain at the behest of the studio and Mayer;[165][171][179] critics and historians believe this was a result of having been told that she was an "ugly duckling" by studio executives.[163] Entertainment Weekly columnist Gene Lyons observed that both audiences and fellow members of the entertainment industry "tended either to love her or to hate her".[180]

At one point, Stevie Phillips, who had worked as an agent for Garland for four years, described her client as "a demented, demanding, supremely talented drug-addict".[171] Royce argues that Garland maintained "astonishing strength and courage", even during difficult times.[173] English actor Dirk Bogarde once called Garland "the funniest woman I have ever met".[170] Ruhlmann wrote that the singer's personal life "contrasted so starkly with the exuberance and innocence of her film roles".[164]

Despite her personal struggles, Garland disagreed with the public's opinion that she was a tragic figure.[173][178] Her younger daughter Lorna agreed that Garland "hated" being referred to as a tragic figure, explaining, "We all have tragedies in our lives, but that does not make us tragic. She was funny and she was warm and she was wonderfully gifted. She had great highs and great moments in her career. She also had great moments in her personal life. Yes, we lost her at 47 years old. That was tragic. But she was not a tragic figure."[178] Ruhlmann argues that Garland actually used the public's opinion of her tragic image to her advantage towards the end of her career.[164]

Mickey Rooney watching Garland put her handprint into concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 1939

Star for recognition of film work at 1715 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: She has another for recording at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard.

By the time of her death in 1969, Garland had appeared in more than 35 films.[20] She has been called one of the greats of entertainment and her reputation has endured.[182][183][184][185] In 1992, Gerald Clarke of Architectural Digest dubbed Garland "probably the greatest American entertainer of the twentieth century".[166] O'Brien believes that "No one in the history of Hollywood ever packed the musical wallop that Garland did", explaining, "She had the biggest, most versatile voice in movies. Her Technicolor musicals... defined the genre. The songs she introduced were Oscar gold. Her film career frames the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals."[163]

Turner Classic Movies dubbed Garland "history's most poignant voice".[160] Entertainment Weekly's Gene Lyons dubbed Garland "the Madonna of her generation".[180] The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest female stars of Golden Age Hollywood cinema.[186] In June 1998, in The New York Times, Camille Paglia wrote, "Garland was a personality on the grand scale who makes our current crop of pop stars look lightweight and evanescent."[162]

In recent years, Garland's legacy has maintained fans of all different ages, both younger and older.[178] In 2010, The Huffington Post contributor Joan E. Dowlin concluded that Garland possessed a distinct "it" quality by "exemplif[ying] the star quality of charisma, musical talent, natural acting ability and, despite what the studio honchos said, good looks (even if they were the girl next door looks)".[163]

AllMusic's biographer William Ruhlmann said that "the core of her significance as an artist remains her amazing voice and emotional commitment to her songs" and believes that "her career is sometimes viewed more as an object lesson in Hollywood excess than as the remarkable string of multimedia accomplishments it was".[164] In 2012, Strassler described Garland as "more than an icon... Like Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball, she created a template that the powers that be have forever been trying, with varied levels of success, to replicate."[177]

Garland's live performances towards the end of her career are still remembered by fans who attended them as "peak moments in 20th-century music".[165] She has been the subject of over thirty biographies since her death, including the well-received Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir by her daughter, Lorna Luft, whose memoir was later adapted into the television miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which won Emmy Awards for the two actresses who portrayed her (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).[187] Strassler observed that Garland "created one of the most storied cautionary tales in the industry, thanks to her many excesses and insecurities that led to her early death by overdose".[177]

Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.[188] Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[189] These include "Over the Rainbow", which was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Songs" list. Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (No. 76), "Get Happy" (No. 61), "The Trolley Song" (No. 26) and "The Man That Got Away" (No. 11).[190]

She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy)[191] and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).[192] While on tour in 1964, Garland identified "Over the Rainbow" as her favorite of all the songs she had ever recorded, to which Trussel observed that "Her career would remain inextricably linked".[159] Garland would frequently use an overture from "Over the Rainbow" as her entrance music during concerts and television appearances.[159]

According to Paglia, the more Garland performed "Over the Rainbow", the more it "became her tragic anthem ... a dirge for artistic opportunities squandered and for personal happiness permanently deferred".[162] In 1998, Carnegie Hall hosted a two-concert tribute to Garland, which they promoted as "a tribute to the world's greatest entertainer".[162]

Subsequent celebrities who have suffered from personal struggles with drug addiction and substance use disorder have been compared to Garland, particularly Michael Jackson.[163] Garland's elder daughter Liza Minnelli had a personal life that was almost parallel to that of her mother's, having struggled with substance use disorder and several unsuccessful marriages.[171] Paglia observed that actress Marilyn Monroe would exhibit behavior which was similar to that which Garland had exhibited a decade earlier in Meet Me in St. Louis, particularly tardiness.[165]

On June 10, 2022, the anniversary of her centennial, she was honored with a perfume named after her entitled "Judy — A Garland Fragrance" created by Vincenzo Spinnato.[193]

• List of recordings by Judy Garland

• Steiger, Brad (1969). Judy Garland. London: Ace. p. 88. OCLC 2577482.

• Official website
• The Judy Room
• Judy-Garland.org Archived December 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
• Judy Garland Museum
• Judy Garland at IMDb 
• Judy Garland at AllMovie
• Judy Garland at The Biography Channel
• Judy Garland at the TCM Movie Database
• Judy Garland at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judy Garland: By Myself Archived November 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine American Masters special