Judy Garland Part 1

40:20 Friday continues once again Barbara Walters millions of little girls have dreamed of walking in Judy Garland's shoes you know those ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz that made our wishes come true Judy Garland was one of the greatest talents of all time but her own wishes didn't come true her own life was dramatically and disturbingly different tonight the story she never got to tell before she died including spellbinding audio tapes that she made and the autobiography she never finished they capture some of Judy Garland's darkest days Joel Siegel has the untold story of this legend being a Judy Garland quite a shot this is a Judy Garland you've never heard before the Judy Garland no one has ever heard before she recorded these tapes to help write an autobiography she never finished these weren't delusions she was broke when she recorded this and not movie star down to my last rolls-royce broke homeless broke no money to buy food break leave me when I thought Oh Lorna Luft was one of the few who did listen but she was too young to be able to do much about it I'm quoting from Warren his book me and my shadows I wasn't much more than 12 but it was up to me to take care of momma and Joey we'd start running out of food and money regularly me my life was sort of like this beautiful beautiful ball of yarn that started to unravel and nobody knew what to do The Wizard of Oz made Judy Garland a legend this is why she's still a star more than 30 years after her death she died overdosed in a cheap London flat she was 47 years old what's unique about this telling of the Judy Garland legend is that much of it's told in her own voice from the tape she recorded and researching his new judy garland biography get happy author Gerald Clark discovered this manuscript of a Judy Garland autobiography no one had seen before buried in an archive at Columbia University it was like open King Tut's tomb the excitement I felt it's wonderful it's in her own words sometimes funny stories sometimes tragic the tragedy started early even before Frances Ethel Gumm was born her parents were vaudevillians her father and a theater in Grand Rapids Minnesota her mother didn't want a third child and tried to abort her her father had a wayward eye for young men he was told in a polite way I think that they had to leave town the family moved west to Lancaster California her mother drove her sometimes dragged her to every studio in nearby LA in the 1967 interview with Barbara Walters not even this great actress could disguise the anger she still felt her mother she would stand in the wings you get out of the singer I'll wrap you around the bedpost and break you off short something she didn't tell Barbara Gerald Clark learned from a childhood friend that young judy always suspected her mother traded sex for favors with producers and studio execs September 1935 Judy signed with MGM the biggest richest most star-studded studio in Hollywood judy was everybody's favorite girl next door but the studio's other starlets had an almost patented long leg MGM look she didn't fit into the so now imagine being told that out loud when you're 13 12 years old this is a terrible age to be anyway absolutely and you're told you're look funny this you're a hunchback your nose isn't right this is what what's not going to do to your confidence Louie be mayor who was just a bit more uncompromising in the way he ran MGM then Mussolini was in the way he ran Italy did call Judy my little hunchback this was the song that made Judy Garland a star Judy Garland will become an overnight sensation the price she'd worked non-stop today a star makes one film a year in her 10-year career at MGM Judy made 10 films with co-star Mickey Rooney alone that's how the studio system worked when she made the Wizard of Oz Judy Garland was paid $500 a week the only named player paid less the care interior who played toto he got 125 and he didn't have to fend off mr. Mayer Judy Garland's own words he'd say this girl is great and the reason is that she sings from the heart and with that he'd always find my left breast with his hand I often thought I was lucky that I didn't sing with another part of my anatomy and though part of the garland myth is that it was the studio that started her on pet kills and diet pills and sleeping pills to come down Clark learned she'd started on pills long before she started at the studio the mother was the one who really got her hooked on drugs at the age of eight or nine amphetamines first to get her up going and then barbiturates when she was up and going I had to sleep at night to be on stage the next day her mother looked upon her I'm sorry to say really has meal ticket what do you do when you love somebody so much they don't even know you're around in her first films Judi never got the guy MGM knew an on-screen romance would be bad for her image off screen she'd have romances with Tyrone Power Orson Welles Frank Sinatra and at 20 married composer David Rose troubled from the start the marriage was doomed when Judy got pregnant she wanted a baby but a pregnancy would have cost MGM Millions the studio convinced her husband and of course her mom though written in the third person these are Judy Garland's words where are we going never mind said mother you'll see they drove for about a half hour and pulled up in front of a dreary little establishment outside of town her mother took Judy by the hand led her inside to a shabby little office in a few minutes David her mother and MGM were satisfied off-screen the pills got Judy through the depression and the nonstop workload at least four doctors were writing prescriptions but on screen the drugs didn't show yet and Judy Garland became MGM's biggest star fell in love with director Vincente Minnelli on the set of meet me in st. Louis this time MGM said yes to a baby she was pregnant in this scene from - the clouds roll by little Iser would happen in 1946 but the studio demanded her back to work too soon her weight fluctuated wildly and the almost constant drug abuse started to show first off-screen then on

Channel: berkon123

Views: 2,180,306

Rating: 4.7652426 out of 5

Keywords: judy, garland, gerald clarke, get happy, lorna, luft, Joel Siegel, Ned Berkowitz, Barbara Walters, rainbow, audio, liza, minelli

Id: p0gDW_EW8Ro

Length: 7min 33sec (453 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/Diogenes__The_Cynic]

She was a mess throughout her adult life. Its almost as if treating people with medication without addressing underlying issues may not work well.

[u/PaperShadowBox]

Every time I hear something about Judy Garland I'm sent straight back to watching her heart wrenching rendition of 'Over The Rainbow'.

[u/Liz-B-Anne]

...and not for the treatment of ADHD either. The speed was to maintain her brutal performing schedule and lose weight, while the barbiturates were used to counteract the speed and induce sleep. She would eventually die of a barbiturate overdose at 47.

Great parenting.