Judy Garland | Artist

Frances Ethel Gumm aka Judy Garland was an American actress and singer born 1922 in Grand Rapids Minnesota. With a career spanning four decades, Garland was known for her artistic range and strong contralto voice, working in a variety of genres including musicals, comedies, and dramas. Her career and personal life, marked by both public fascination and private struggle, made her a cultural icon. Both her children, Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, also became actresses and singers. Garland was the youngest child of vaudevillians Ethel Milne and Francis Gumm who operated a movie theater showcasing vaudeville acts. Sharing 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 and Dorothy Virginia on the stage of her father's theater during a Christmas show to sing a chorus of "Jingle Bells." The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years, accompanied by their mother on piano. Garland's music career was kickstarted with her signature song "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. Between 1939 and 1962, her albums Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and Miss Show Business (1955) peaked in the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200, while Judy (1956), Alone (1957), and The Garland Touch (1962) reached the top 40. Her live album, Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961), made her the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Also in 1961 she became the first female recipient and youngest honoree of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. At the age of 13 Judy and her father were brought for an audition at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, at the request of film mogul Louis B Mayer. Judy performed "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and "Eli, Eli", and was immediately signed by the studio. MGM found a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of what were known as "backyard musicals". Garland stated that she, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly prescribed amphetamines to stay awake and keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another, and were given barbiturates before going to bed so they could sleep. This regular use of drugs, she said, led to addiction and a life-long struggle. In 1938, when Garland was sixteen, she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. She sang the song with which she would be constantly identified afterward, "Over the Rainbow." In 1939 Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms. After The Wizard of Oz, Garland was one of the most bankable actresses in the United States. As a recording artist, Garland is credited with 30 studio albums, 17 live albums, and a slew of early Singles dating back to the late 1930's. Standouts include The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet me in St Louis (1944), A Star is Born (1954), Miss Show Business (1955), Judy That's Entertainment! (1960) and Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961). From her teenage years onward she faced health challenges, exacerbated by studio pressure. She developed dependencies on prescription medications that affected her physical and mental well-being. Financial difficulties, including tax debts, added to her burdens. She died from an accidental barbiturate overdose at age 47 in 1969. In 1997 she was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked her the eighth greatest star of classic Hollywood cinema.

Artist Website: judygarland.com

Featured Albums: Judy Garland

Related Artists: Liza Minnelli, Gene Kelly