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Monday 23 March 2015

Judy Garland

Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on June 10, 1922.

Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, now a museum

Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts.

Frances Gumm's first appearance came at the age of one-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas talent show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells". She was billed as Baby Frances.

A 12 year-old Frances Gumm sang on Wallace Beery’s NBC radio show on October 26, 1935. Four years later she was renamed as Judy Garland.


MGM studio placed 16-year-old Judy Garland on a diet of chicken soup, black coffee, cigarettes, and amphetamines to keep her appetite under control and prevent her from looking chubby.

She was paid $500 a week when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

Judy Garland and her daughter, Liza Minnelli appeared together at the London Palladium on November 8, 1964. The program was shown on U.S. TV; and the album Live at the London Palladium became a classic on Capitol Records.

Judy Garland died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47 on June 22, 1969  The day she died, there was a tornado in Kansas.

Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, was married to Jack Haley Jr., the son of Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.

A reward of $1 million has been offered for any information that leads to the return of one of the pairs of famous ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard Of Oz. They were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Michigan in 2005.

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