Judy Garland

By Tom Kirvan

A singing wiz as a young girl, Judy Garland catapulted to stardom at the age of 17 when she appeared in the 1939 blockbuster movie “The Wizard of Oz,” a timeless classic that was reimagined in the 1978 film “The Wiz” and connected with “Wicked,” both a Broadway and recent 2024 film hit.

Born with the name of Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minn., Garland was one of three daughters who performed in their youth as the “Gumm Sisters.” She underwent a name change after being discovered by Louis B. Mayer of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio. Her big break came when she was cast in the lead role of “The Wizard of Oz,” portraying Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in Kansas who gets whisked away by a tornado into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow.

Garland’s poignant performance as the young darling and her singing of what became her signature song, “Over the Rainbow,” earned Garland a special Oscar statuette in 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Her fame continued to grow for her roles in such films as “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Easter Parade,” and “A Star Is Born.” But her popularity came at a price, as several failed marriages, multiple affairs with some of Hollywood’s leading men, and a lifelong battle with drug addiction ultimately took a deadly toll as she died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969 at the age of 47.

Judy Garland*

And yet for all her fame and resulting troubles, Garland remained one of Hollywood’s most enduring and endearing figures, snagging Oscar nominations for her performances in “A Star Is Born” (1954) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961).

Her daughters, Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, both enjoyed their own share of acting success on stage and the silver screen, while her son, Joey Luft, preferred a career behind the camera, often recounting some of his mother’s famous quotes:

“I was born at the age of 12 on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot.”
“Behind every cloud is another cloud.”
“If I am a legend, why am I so lonely?”
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.”

*Eric Carpenter (1909-1976) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons