'She could wring tears out of hearts of rock'
SHOWBIZ LEGEND JUDY GARLAND WAS FOUND DEAD AT HER LONDON FLAT 50 YEARS AGO. MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT THE LIFE OF A TRAGIC HOLLYWOOD ICON
SHE followed the yellow brick road and proudly wore her ruby red slippers, but there was no fairy tale ending for Judy Garland.
The Wizard Of Oz star once sadly asked: “If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?”
Shortly after her fifth marriage, she was found dead on the bathroom floor of her London home in Belgravia on June 22, 1969, from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. She was just 47 years old.
“I’ve always taken The Wizard Of Oz very seriously, you know,” she once declared. “I believe in the idea of the rainbow and I’ve spent my entire life trying to get over it.”
Judy’s funeral and memorial service at the Frank E Campbell Chapel in Manhattan was paid for by her daughter Liza Minnelli and was attended by Judy’s other two children Lorna and Joey Luft.
More than 20,000 people filed past her glass-enclosed casket to pay their respects. Hollywood stars like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Burt Lancaster, Sammy Davis Jr and Katharine Hepburn attended the service along with Over The Rainbow songwriter Harold Arlen and Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz.
Liza originally wanted her mother’s long-time co-star Mickey Rooney to deliver the eulogy, but feared it might prove to heartbreaking for him so James Mason, who co-starred alongside Judy in A Star Is Born, stepped in.
He told mourners: “Judy’s great gift was that she could wring tears out of hearts of rock. She gave so richly and so generously that there was no currency in which to repay her.”
The service ended with a rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the funeral cortege included a hearse, three limousines and a flower car. The casket itself was covered in yellow roses.
Born Frances Gumm, Judy came from a vaudeville family and was just two years old when she made her stage debut in a Christmas show singing Jingle Bells.
She later performed with her older siblings as The Gumm Sisters and in the 1930s was signed up by movie mogul Louis B Mayer. She caught his attention when he heard her singing You Made Me Love You for Clark Gable’s birthday party on the film lot in 1937.
Her name was changed to Judy Garland and a child star was promptly born. She went on to appear in 10 movies with Mickey Rooney, including Strike Up The
Band and Babes In Arms. Mickey once said: “I made all these great musicals with Judy Garland. It was all about me going into a barn and saying ‘Let’s put on a show’. That’s what me and Judy did.”
The Wizard Of Oz brought her international fame, although film bosses had Shirley Temple in mind for the role of Dorothy at one point and the movie’s famous song, Over The Rainbow nearly ended up on the cutting room floor.
Judy was every inch a performer and used to say: “I was born at the age of 12 on an MGM lot.” But fame came at a high price, with broken marriages and a battle against dependence on pills among the struggles she faced. As film roles started to dry up, she returned to the stage and appeared with her daughter Liza several times.
She once said of her famous mother: “She was a friend of mine, a trying friend, but a friend. That is what I tell myself. She did everything she ever wanted to do.”
Judy’s other daughter Lorna Luft reflected: “My mother was a phoenix who always expected to rise from the ashes of her latest disaster. She loved being Judy Garland.”
Judy gave her final public performances in London at popular Talk Of The Town venue in January 1969 just a few months before her death and her final concert took place in Copenhagen on March 25.
Her legacy lives on and Renée Zellweger will portray the Hollywood icon in new movie Judy later this year. The film charts the singer’s arrival in London in 1968 for a string of sell-out concerts.
Judy herself admitted it was sometimes difficult living in the glare of publicity and said: “I’ve never looked through a keyhole without finding someone was looking back.”
Her sudden death in London sent shockwaves through Hollywood and co-star Mickey Rooney said: “I think without a doubt there will never be a voice like Judy Garland.”
British actor Richard Attenborough, who was a friend of the American star, unveiled a memorial to her at the London Palladium a year after her death. It simply read: “In loving memory of the incomparable Judy Garland – Miss Showbusiness.”