Judy Garland's Birthday

On June 10, 1922, in the city of Grand Rapids (Minnesota, USA), a third daughter was born in the family of vaudeville artists Francis Avent Gumm and his wife Ethel Marion (née - Milne). The girl was named after her parents - Frances Ethel. She gained worldwide fame under the name Judy Garland.

Ethel Marion, being a very ambitious lady and at the same time very gifted at playing various instruments, came to the idea that her youngest daughter would become a star when she was only two years old. It so happened that when the eldest daughters of the Gumm's family - Mary Jane and Virginia - performed a duet from the stage of the song "Jingle Bells" during the Christmas holidays, the baby herself climbed onto the stage and joined her sisters. For a long time they could not pull her, screaming and kicking, off the stage. But the girl's parents realized that their youngest daughter simply could not live without a stage, and organized the show "The Gumm Sisters", in which all three of their daughters participated.

With this show, the Gumm's family wandered around the cities and towns of the USA, and the reason for regularly moving from place to place was not only and not so much the specifics of the profession of vaudeville artists, as the special inclinations of Francis Avent. Simply put, he was bisexual, and his periodic affairs with men in puritanical America at that time often ended in scandals, because of which the family had to leave the place and move away from the wrath of the guardians of morality. But, oddly enough, wandering around the country was built into the strategy of Ethel Marion, who sought to introduce her daughters, and, first of all, the youngest, to as wide a circle of potential admirers of her talent as possible. In these wanderings, the show "The Gumm Sisters" often performed not only in theaters and concert halls, but also in nightclubs, bars and other bohemian and seedy places. Eventually, these wanderings brought the Gumm's family to Lancaster, California. At that time, Lancaster was a suburb of Los Angeles, which means it was in close proximity to Hollywood. Thanks to this neighborhood, the show "The Gumm Sisters" got into several short film reviews shot in 1929-1930. And in 1935, Ethel Marion's prayers were answered: not anyone signed a contract with her 13-year-old youngest daughter, but Louis Bart Mayer himself, co-founder and co-owner of the MGM film company, as well as one of the founders of the American Film Academy. Around the same time, Frances Ethel Gumm changed her name to the stage name "Judy Garland". It is believed that the name was taken from a popular song at that time, and the surname was from a famous film critic at that time.

However, the conclusion of Judy's contract with the MGM film company did not bring immediate prosperity and well-being to the Gumm's family. Moreover, shortly after this event, the family suffered a misfortune: the head of the family, Francis Avent, died of meningitis. And Judy had a competitor who had every chance to oust her from the position of a young promising starlet. That competitor was Deanna Durbin. The management of the film company decided to hold a kind of battle: a short musical "Every Sunday" was filmed, in which both promising stars played and sang. The winner had to be determined by the audience. Judy won. Thanks to this victory, Judy Garland got a role in the film "Pigskin Parade" in 1936. The role is not the main one, but significant. However, neither the film itself nor the role of Judy Garland in it gained any success, and this almost became the end of Judy Garland's film career. Salvation came in the form of Clark Gable's birthday party, held in February 1937. L. B. Mayer was present at this party, and Judy performed the song "You Made Me Love You" - This performance finally convinced the movie mogul of the talent of the 15-year-old beginning actress. Judy got roles in several movie musicals at once.

However, all the events that fell on the head of the young starlet in a short period could not pass without a trace. She had a serious nervous breakdown. Doctors, who sought to return the young actress to the system as soon as possible, actively used psychotropic drugs. The consequences took their toll many years later. Meanwhile, Ethel Marion and the MGM film company exploited Judy's talent to the fullest. During the period from August 1937 to September 1939, 7 films with the participation of the young actress were released. And among them is the movie "The Wizard of Oz", which brought the actress a golden Oscar statuette as the most outstanding minor actress, and with it worldwide fame.

Fame, and even more so, worldwide, is the hardest test. Judy Garland continued to actively act - during the period from 1940 to 1962, she starred in 25 full-length feature films, mainly musicals. But it was her professional activity that was interspersed, and sometimes receded into the background before what is commonly called a "stormy personal life." This facet of her life included a huge number of affairs, fleeting relationships, marriages, pregnancies, abortions, divorces, accompanied by scandals... And, as often happens with such an active professional activity in combination with a stormy personal life, alcohol and drugs were used to relieve stress.

The last film starring Judy Garland - "I Could Go on Singing" - was released in 1963. 6 years later, she was found dead in the bathtub. The cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates, to which she had been accustomed since 1937. During her short, only 47 years, but bright creative life, Judy Garland has played in 33 full-length feature films. Of these 33 films, 2 pictures were included in the Golden Thousand: the aforementioned "The Wizard of Oz", as well as Stanley Kramer's film "Judgment at Nuremberg", the role in which, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of Judy Garland's dramatic talent. With this in mind, Judy Garland is included in the list of the 100 most beautiful and sexy Actresses of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.

For a long time, the name Judy Garland remained unknown to the wide Soviet moviegoer. Films with her participation were not shown in Soviet cinemas. In 1989, the star Judy Garland, who had already left this world 20 years ago, shone with a reflected light for Soviet cinema lovers: this year, 17 years after its creation, Bob Fossey's movie masterpiece "Cabaret" reached the cinemas of the USSR, where the magnificent Liza Minnelli shone. Captivated by her talent, the audience rushed to find out who created this miracle, and learned the name of her mother: Judy Garland. And soon, with the collapse of the USSR, ideological barriers collapsed, and films became available in the post-Soviet space, which previously could only be found out from press reports about international film festivals.

In commemoration of the birthday of the great Actress, I want to remind fans of her work of footage from the best films with her participation.