Judy Garland Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

How Her Incredible Career Belied Her Personal Tragedies

Judy Garland was one of the greatest and most troubled superstars of her time. Propelled to global fame after playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she won a legion of fans with other cinematic hits such as Easter Parade and A Star Is Born. But behind closed doors she was in the grip of drink and drugs, and struggling to be a good mother to her three children.

The astonishing thing is that The Wizard of Oz was actually Judy’s seventh movie. Born Frances Ethel Gumm, she was just two-and-a-half when her mother Ethel put her on the stage. Judy performed with her two sisters in hundreds of variety and local radio shows before signing with MGM aged 13.

Arguably, this is where Judy’s addiction problems began. It’s been said that Ethel would stand in the wings during shows and threaten her young daughter before plying her with sleeping pills to help her nod off while on the road. Things didn’t improve once she began working for MGM either. Its chiefs were worried about her weight and encouraged her to take amphetamines to keep her slim.

“We love you, but you’re so fat you look like a monster,” one MGM chief told the young star.

To play the part of Dorothy, Judy was forced to wear a steel corset to make her look thinner while her breasts were strapped down to make her look younger than her 20 years. This left a humiliated Judy wondering why she had been chosen for the part in the first place.