Random Tragic Stories From The Life Of Judy Garland (15 items)

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  (#3) She Was Forced To Diet And Modify Her Body To Appear Childlike

  After their arrival in California, the Gumm Sisters decided to change their names. How this actually occurred is a subject of debate, but the trio became the "Garland Sisters" and Frances picked the name Judy.

  In 1935, 13-year-old Judy Garland signed her first contract with MGM. Because Garland was more wholesome than the studio's "bombshells," she was given roles that perpetuated a childish, teenaged appearance. She was paired with Mickey Rooney in several popular and lucrative films, and the studio demanded that she maintain an immature appearance for as long as possible. She was forced to constantly diet and her chest was bound to keep her looking less developed.

  Throughout this process, her mom, who served as both her guardian and manager, was quite comfortable with the studio's abusive control of Garland's physical appearance.
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  (#8) Her Third Husband Drank And Gambled Away Most Of Her Money

  Garland's career was in decline when she met Sidney Luft, a tough New Yorker involved in the fringes of the film industry. The couple married in 1952, and Luft assumed the role of Garland's manager. Their partnership resulted in the acclaimed A Star Is Born, a film that re-ignited Garland's career and earned her an Academy Award nomination. But Garland lost out to The Country Girl's Grace Kelly, and Warner Bros, canceled Luft's production contract that called for Garland to appear in two more pictures.

  Things weren't easy at home, either. Luft was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic who burned through most of Garland's sizable earnings. She finally divorced him in 1960 after realizing she was broke.

  In 1993, Luft tried to sell Garland's 1939 honorary Oscar and the replacement statuette she had received after claiming the first one disappeared. The Academy took Luft to court, and he was forced to pay $60,000 in damages.
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  (#13) She Got A Book Contract In 1960 But Never Finished The Manuscript

  In 1959, Garland was recuperating from hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver in a Manhattan hospital when she was visited by Random House editor Bennett Cerf. He offered her a $35,000 contract for her autobiography, a memoir that she promised would be a frank and open tell-all about her turbulent career and emotional life. She made it through 65 pages of tape recordings before returning to Los Angeles, but the book was never completed.

  In 1966, desperate for a payday, Garland approached Random House, hoping to rekindle the deal. The publishing house declined the offer. The $35,000 was long gone, like most of her assets at the time.
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  (#5) She Had To Smoke And Take Drugs While Filming 'The Wizard of Oz'

  Garland was 17 when she starred in MGM's 1939 technicolor fantasy The Wizard of Oz. While this film catapulted her to stardom, Garland paid a very heavy personal price.

  With an intense focus on this major production, MGM executives were especially strict in their continued efforts to control the actress's physical appearance and diet. Garland had minders who snatched plates of food from her at the studio commissary, and she was encouraged to keep to a diet of black coffee and as many as 80 cigarettes a day. Garland was also given an assortment of stimulant and depressive drugs to help her finish the film and complete an exhausting promotional road show with her frequent on-screen companion Mickey Rooney. This practice likely kickstarted the substance abuse problem that perpetually plagued her and ultimately led to her demise.

  You might think her co-stars would help, but even they reportedly ignored and ostracized her. They were adults who didn't want to be upstaged by a teenage actress who was getting the star treatment as well.
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  (#12) She Was Fired From 'Valley of the Dolls'

  In February of 1967, Garland signed a contract with 20th Century Fox to play Helen Lawson in the film adaptation of Valley of the Dolls. The character was an older woman with a nasty temper.

  Although Garland was able to get through wardrobe tests and pre-recorded a song, trouble started when the filming of the movie began in March of 1967. Garland refused to come out of her dressing room, with some sources claiming Garland was never really comfortable with the role or the film. Whatever the reason, Garland was very publicly terminated by the end of April of 1967, receiving a settlement payment of $37,500, half of her intended salary.
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  (#2) Her Parents Had An Unhappy Marriage Of Convenience

  Frances's father, Frank Gumm, was also a vaudevillian. His marriage to his wife cemented their song-and-dance duo, if nothing else. But as biographies have detailed, Gumm was reportedly bisexual, and began making sexual advances to the teenage male ushers and students who frequented the movie theater the family owned. According to some sources, the rumors of Gumm's affinities were what ultimately drove the family to move to California.

  Her parents' troubled relationship hurt young Frances. She later said, "As I recall, my parents were separating and getting back together all the time. It was very hard for me to understand those things and, of course, I remember clearly the fear I had of those separations."

  Garland's father died in 1935, shortly after she signed with MGM.

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