Another question about JUDY GARLAND

She was in such bad shape (ritalin, heroin, liquor - you name it) in her later years. Why didn't her managers,producers cancel the shows? Was it because money would have to be refunded? Is that why they let her go on in such sorry shape? A friend saw her in concert at Keil Opera House in St. Louis and Judy fell asleep during one of her numbers. This was late 1968 I believe.

• Heroin? I've never heard that before.

• Presumably for the same reasons managers encourage Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and (previously) Amy Winehouse to keep working instead of putting all their energy into getting clean...

• R1-I believe it was mentioned in the David Shipman bio.

• Re-visit the Michael Jackson comeback concert tour he was working on at his death. Same situation.

• Judy Garland never did heroin. Fuck you, op.

• I was reading up on Garland, and Liza Minnelli apparently made a comment that Judy was better when she was working.

• She never had any money. It was simply another symptom of having been an "MGM" girl. The stars never learned to manage their own money. Never wrote a check. Never paid a bill. There are stories of LOTS of stars, of both genders who never were the same after MGM let them go. Look at the financial messes that Debbie Reynolds has been into, for instance. Many starts were ripped off royally by bad spouses, bad managers, bad business deals. Judy was also a drug addict and trusted all the wrong people. She NEEDED to work to pay her bills and to carry a lot of other people. They pushed the poor thing onstage if she could even marginally stand upright. It was all about money.

• Um, not exactly. Judy Garland was BROKE, really broke, for the last five years of her life, and everyone knew it. Homeless even. Her mental illness on top of the pills and booze didn't help. It had very little to do with being a pampered star 20 years earlier by that time and there are no reasonable excuses.

• from what I've read, she really skidded downhill after her divorce from Sid Luft. He might have been a leech himself, but he seemed to keep her from self destructing and provided some stability for her and the kids. Of course he stole from her too, but being a compulsive gambler, he lost it all. And this was in the 50's when she was making very good money. After her network show ended, it was pretty much over. Her agents set a new low for how they treated her. Begelman was a sociopath and liar and thief who eventually killed himself after being exposed for other thefts. He and Freddie Fields bled her dry and then abandoned her for greener pastures. She let it happen, but she was from another era where it wasn't ladylike to handle finances. But she was so doped up that she didn't know who was good for her and who was not. When she died she was in millions of dollars of debt, and basically had left the country to escape the bill collectors.

• Yes, exactly, r8. Judy WAS broke and a mess but she never was a good businesswoman or good with money and really just wanted to perform. MGM and her husbands took care of her finances and then Sid Luft and then those awful crooked managers and various piranha and hangers on who exploited her. She got herself in that predicament, ultimately, of course. She used to sneak out of hotels to avoid paying the bill, for chrissake. Not passing the buck to anyone else and making Garland out to be a victim but her lack of concern for money really started with her stage mother and MGM. They just kept her onstage, in front of the cameras and pumped full of pills. Judy was responsible for her own life, of course. But she never got any early training on how to deal with money shrewdly. And she was not raised exactly "dirt poor" either, so there was no "fire in her belly" like other stars, namely Joan Crawford, to never be poor again. Judy's dad ran a theatre and they had a solid middle class home in Grand Rapids. Her childhood memories were of endless PERFORMING, not starving.

• I like the white dragons, Mama!

  Joey%20

• The book "Get Happy" states that Garland did heroin. Was she on it when she infamously gargled "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with a mouth full of traveling salesman's cum?

• Yeah, I don't think she was ever on heroin. But the years of speed, barbiturates and booze were plenty enough. It's a miracle she lived as long as she did.

• Some WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE [gargle gargle] ovah THE raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaainbooooooooooow [gargle gargle] blue birds flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! [gargle gargle]

  Judy%2C%20slumped%20on%20a%20toilet%2C%20shitting%20%26%20vomiting%20barbiturate

• you're all going to Hell! Don't you cunts know Judy died for our sins!"

  J.%20Fricke%20on%20his%20knees%20with%20a%20mouthful%20of%20cum

• and r9 Liza paid back everyone of those debts.

• would have loved to see her in Vally of the Dolls.

• Judy was fine until she came of age and started managing her own affairs. Then the mess really began and never got better. She died broke because she hadn't paid the IRS since 1953. She was making up to $100,000 a night by 1963 and not paying her taxes.

• Gays only like their idols to be drugged-out, alcohol-soused pathetic ghosts of a real human being. It's the "drama" of it all and then there's the requisite "tragic ending"..gone so young(Dean), gone but so talented(Judy), gone but so misunderstood(MM)...the list is endless isn't it? I can see why someone like Celine Dion is so despised by so many gays.

  M. Clift

• R5 [quote]The book "Get Happy" states that Garland did heroin

• DL has gotten so stupid it's amazing that nobody has posted about Judy using "heroine." Oh well, give it time.

• r17 It would have been sad to hear her deliver the booze and dope line.

• What's this about a travelling salesman and a mouthful of cum?

• true r22 and It is suppose to be a joke r23

• Some fictional tale of Judy giving blow jobs to pay a debt. It's silly and false.

• So disrespectful, even if we were talking about an ordinary person. Evil cunts, the lot of you.

• I read the Gerald Clarke "Get Happy" bio last year (first JG bio I've read) and I'm pretty sure heroin wasn't mentioned as one of her several deadly habits. It does relate a story similar to R12's but it wasn't a traveling salesman, just a trick of hers who wanted to hear the classic song sung with a load of his jizz in her throat. Delightful.

• I believe the heroin habit was mentioned in the David Shipman biography on Garland.

• Her enormous talent survives every kind of abuse including her own.

• The heroin story is from the Shipman, alleged by a house worker of Judy's who found the drug paraphernalia. Other points, even though I know in today's thinking "an addict is an addict is an addict." 1) Judy was started as a teen or pre-teen on her drugs by the adults in her life, including her mom, during a time when they didn't know how incredibly addictive they were or what the long term harm would be. 2) She took the drugs (or was told to take the drugs) to GET THE WORK OUT. She really did keep a backbreaking schedule during those MGM years, and yes, her pictures were more physically taxing than those of a lot of their other female stars. 3) As previously noted, the MGM schoolhouse didn't teach her how to mind her business. She always, always had someone other than herself living off her performing income: at first her family, particularly her mother; then by the time her mother died, she'd had a child to support and soon three children and a husband. So there were always obligations to others beyond a simple meal and a modest roof over her head. What if she'd had the savvy and business acumen that Barbra seems to have possessed from the beginning? 4) Starting with Sid Luft and progressing through Begelman and Fields, Group IV, and her last two husbands on a progressive slide downward, she really did fall in with bad companions. Lots of bad business decisions, bad advice, people not really looking out for HER (as a person) but looking out for how they could get the most money out of her in the least amount of time. A lot of times it must have seemed that there was no way out. If she was working so hard, why didn't she have any money? It's not that she, personally, lived beyond her means. But who, in her circle, could have swooped in and fixed it all? Kay Thompson? Leonard Gershe, I believe, said she was not an extravagant woman and that she commanded as much money as anyone in those days, often more...so where was the money? So between the drug problem, the money problem, and just the kind of artist she was, circumstances collaborated to lead her to the ending. I don't think of her as tragic though. She probably could have been helped even after the TV series; but it was an era where people just didn't have public knowledge of celebrity problems like they do today--except people back then DID know about her addictions, at least on some level. The late 60s were an odd time for celebrities like Garland. Crosby and Sinatra survived through diversification and investments, whereas most of Judy's money was made by the sweat of her brow. The only part of her life I see as tragic is the very, very end (1968-69). She really was basically broke and in debt, homeless, and an addict--and despite the legions who loved her, nobody stepped up: there was no organized intervention, they didn't have Kickstarter to start a public campaign and take up a collection for her. The irony is that she continues to be a draw, and the sales of her work continue to make money for other people.

• Do Judy's children get any money off of royalties for her work?

• "....But who, in her circle, could have swooped in and fixed it all? Kay Thompson?" No one could have helped her by the mid-1960s. By the last few years, Garland have alienated virtually everyone in her life. She was a drug addict; drugs came before her family, friends, career. The problems were deeper than a lack of money. Judy Garland was hardly the only woman from that era, in and out of show business, who had a husband handling the family money. It's amazing that her network TV series turned out so well--critically, if not in the rating. The people who worked on that weekly 1963-64 show deserve a huge amount of credit for getting her to perform at such a high level.

• "weep no more my ladies......."

  shesdeadgetoverit

• [quote]They pushed the poor thing onstage if she could even marginally stand upright. It was all about money. This is what happened to Whitney Houston.

  http://www.diamandagalas.com/houstonstatement.htm

• This guy gargles "Over the Rainbow" with a mouth full of cum-

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DlDqzHGLR6tk%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded

• I saw her in concert in 1974 and she was TURBLE. Just TURBLE!

• Is it still primetime if it is 24/7?

• [quote] I can see why someone like Celine Dion is so despised by so many gays. People despise Celine because she's a screechy hag and a robot. She could not, if called upon to do so, exercise the vocal restraint or phrasing Garland was a master at, and she could never put anything resembling the emotions that were a hallmark of Garland music.

  Maryest%20Mary%20Who%20Every%20Mary%27d

• [quote]I saw her in concert in 1974 and she was TURBLE. Just TURBLE! Not surprising, since Judy died in 1969.

• June 22nd Today is the anniversary of Judy's death. On this day in 1969 she locked herself in the bathroom of her flat in London and took an overdose of sleeping pills. we miss your sunshine Judy. John Fricke's bio about Garland BY MYSELF will be shown tonight on PBS American Masters series.

• June 22, 1969 Not sure if she took an overdose, or forgot how many were already in her system. Given the way she was living, it's the same thing.

• Judy bump

• R41, since Judy was more or less anorexic, it was only a matter of time. There's a most horrible photo of her getting out of a car with stick legs, all exposed in her 1969 mini dress -- like she though she looked good. Additionally, it may be news to some of you, but EVERYONE was instructed to take pills for weight control. Every MGM star was supplied with Benzedrene among other medications. Add to this, very few women of any kind handled their own finances in those days. Male performers left it to others too. Even Streisand said she didn't know how much money she made until the 1970s. Judy's main issue -- the issue that destroyed her -- was the mental illness no one wants to talk about. She was textbook bi-polar. Undiagnosed, untreated.

• She had to keep going on stage because she was broke, owed a ton of money to the IRS and no producer would hire her for film work because she was such a fuck up. Apparently she didn't even leave enough money for a proper funeral. Frank Sinatra gave Liza money to bury her mother.

• "Get Happy" the bio of Judy by Gerald Clarke is a piece of shit: poorly written and largely inaccurate. Clarke is a big, ol' Judy queen; he takes everything the drug-addled, mentally ill Garland said as gospel truth, especially the irrational hatred she had for her mother. On a tv show he said that Ethel Gumm was shoving pills down her talented baby girl's throat when poor dear little Judy was only ten years old. Where does he get that shocking revelation? Why, from Judy herself, of course! Not long before her death Garland had an autobiography in the works; she finished a few pages and made some tapes. That is where Clarke got that info, and he swallows it hook, line and sinker. He doesn't mention that on the tapes Judy rants incoherently and claims that she is NOT a drug addict or alcoholic! So I guess Judy Garland's credibility can be called into question. A better Judy biography is "Judy" by Gerold Frank. Another good one is "Rainbow: the stormy life of Judy Garland: by Christopher Finch. Skip "Get Happy"; it's nothing but trash.

• "no producer would hire her for film work because she was such a fuck up" She couldn't pass the insurance physical -- that's the reason people like her can't get film work. (I have no idea how Lindsay Lohan works things out). Plus, what parts would she play? She looked like absolute hell. R46, Clarke also homophobizes a story that was originally a joke Judy use to tell about lesbians in a public bathroom. You know those evil lesbians. Is there an eldergay who can tell us about Judy's numerous lesbian affairs? The Gerold Frank book okay, but it is so dated Mark Herron is straight in it.

• "I don't mind giving you head, but a gal needs to be fucked now and then!" -- Judy Garland to Frank Sinatra

• And who was in the room to get that quote, R47? Sounds like more queen's wish-it-were-true bullshit.

• "Judy gives the best blow jobs"

  Frank%20re%3A%20Judy%2C%20in%20his%20valet%27s%20book%20MR%20S.

• I've read em all. Agree about RAINBOW. It is very good as is Gerold Frank's book. You don't hear much anymore about Anne Edwards biography JUDY GARLAND. That was one of the first ones to come out after her death.

• "Fuck Liza.. this one (Lorna) is the one who will make money and support me." Judy after seeing Lorna in a high school musical.

• I often wondered why Liza wasn't involved more with taking care of Judy in the later years. Liza was 22/23 at that time and surely she had some sort of say in what was going on in the life of "Mama", or did she? Lorna and Joey were a little too young to be of any influence and were they living with Sid Luft at that time?

• Hmm. Filthy anti-Garland stories and filthy anti-gay freepers invading DL at about the same time. Coincidence?

• Yes R34 they pushed Judy and Whitney on stage praying they wouldn't keel over but they also did it with Michael Jackson and are currently doing the same with poor, talentless Britney Spears. With the exception of Whitney, who persued a career in show business because she wanted to, the other 3 should be a warning to horrible stage parents everywhere about what happens when you make your child live out your dreams instead of the their own.

• "I often wondered why Liza wasn't involved more with taking care of Judy in the later years." Liza, who was making a very nice living as a performer, distanced herself from Judy. Being close to Judy was hazardous to your health; Lorna, who was still a child herself, had a nervous breakdown trying to look after her drug-addicted mother AND her "special" little brother. Both she and Joey went to live with Sid Luft because living with their mother was living in insanity and neglect. They were the children of one of the MGM's biggest stars and there was frequently no food in the house! According the Gerald Clarke's sleazy bio, Judy became lovers with somebody named Harry Rubin, a guy she and Sid had hired to supervise the electrical renovation of their new house. Supposedly she told this guy her views on oral sex ("It's really healthy!") and commented on her lover Frank Sinatra "I'm worried about Frank...all he wants is blow jobs." Rubin said "what's wrong with that?" And Judy replied "Well, you've gotta fuck once in a while, too, you know." Clarke goes on: "When Rubin informed her that he heard she was involved with another woman, her response was uncharacteristically vague. "You know," she said, "when you've eaten everything in the world there is to eat , you've got to find new things." Women were, in any event, never more than a side dish on Judy's menu--men were always her main course--and although a few always followed her around from city to city, she was not drawn to lesbians. One, in fact, gave her a possibly lasting fright by trying to rip her clothes off in a restaurant lavatory--she actually succeeded in tearing Judy's blouse--and Judy was saved from further trauma only by the intervention of Rubin and the restaurant manager." I don't know how much of that, if any, is true. Clarke's bio is full of tawdry, unsubstantiated stories about Judy's wild sex life.

• Is Marti Stevens the lesbian with studio connections that Shipman refers to in his section on Judy's later life? He doesn't say by name...and Stevens is still alive. The recent Kay Thompson and Lena Horne bios both insist that they weren't really lesbian either, and makes no mention of either of them dallying with Judy, but all three were at MGM at the same time. A lot of Clarke's stuff on her sex life is copied over-the-shoulder from the Shipman.

• I'm watching this PBS program--they talk to whole time about how miserable she was--when it's clear that she LOVED performing. Lots of people are exploited by their bosses and have to work hard--MGM wasn't much different from any job in that respect, except it paid a hell of a lot more. At some point along the line, I think she learned to think of herself as a victim.

• Mama wash the world'sh greatesht entertainer and a shpectacular, marveloush mother. *hic*

  Lizsha with a Zsheeee

• The Gerald Clarke bio is lurid trash. The Gerold Frank bio is marvelously written and sourced. [quote]The Gerold Frank book okay, but it is so dated Mark Herron is straight in it. Remember, all five of Judy's husbands were alive at the time he wrote it (1974). I'm sure the threat of libel altered the specifics of Frank's book.

• I was molested.

  Lorna

• [quote]The Gerald Clarke bio is lurid trash. I couldn't finish this one-and I though his Truman Capote biography was excellent.

• By 1969, Liza was very much on her own. She did BEST FOOT FORWARD in NYC in 1963 (age 17) and at age 19 in 1965, she won her first Tony for FLORA. CHARLIE BUBBLES came out in 1967, the same year she married Peter Allen. 1969 is the year STERILE CUCKOO came out. Liza's 3 Capitol records studio albums were recorded between 1964-66. Point being, when Judy was in true decline (66 or 67 to the end) Liza had clearly broken free. She was married, had a Tony for her stage work, was starring in movies and had several albums to her credit. Her career, in all media, was on the upswing--she didn't really have time to stop her life and take care of her mom. That said, after Judy died, she took it upon herself to pay off all her mother's debts.

• My guess is that working hard was not the problem for Liza Minnelli. She would have made time if her mom was still trying to salvage her life. The sad truth is Judy Garland had all but given up at least a year or more before she died. I did see Judy perform in Dec. 1967 (eighteen months before her death)in NYC; she still had more than I expected as a singer, but Garland didn't like the venue and talked about it way too much.

• Its like mama alwaysh shaid... "Liza.... CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!"

  LM

• [quote]That said, after Judy died, she took it upon herself to pay off all her mother's debts. Guilt.

• BUMP-O

• R62, only Lorna was around to watch her pill intake in 1967. Mickey Deens didn't know how to do it in 1968-69.

• I watched the loooooong min-series with Judy Davis. What wasn't clear to me was why Garland had such a bad time of it once free of MGM. She had several big TV specials in the 1950s. I got the impression that she wasn't working like a slave anymore. Had the drugs just fucked with her brain chemistry? Had she a pervasive undiagnosed mental health problem?

• Judy was mentally ill, probably bi-polar. Everyone at MGM took pills and didn't end up like her.

• I forgot to add that many people like to think MGM and her mother permanently "wrecked her"; they don't like any other theory. the original one is so sad and so romantic.

  R70

• Had Judy lesbian tendencies? What do you think and what do you know?

  http://www.allposters.com/IMAGES/LIFPOD/5502386.jpg

  Anonymous