Judy Garland: 3 Career-Defining Performances
When Judy Garland performed, her eyes drifted beyond the camera, beyond the set, beyond the stars. Her arms were often thrown up like a storyteller’s, stretched out, reaching for something unseen. She would grab songs and stories, and she would bring them to life like few others. That is why people piled in to see her.
In a little theatre in Minnesota on the 10th of June 1922, Frances Gumm was born. Under two former vaudevillian parents, she debuted as a performer at just two-and-a-half years old. Garland once mused that she “was born at the age of twelve on an MGM lot.” And, without a screen-test, she became a contract player for them in 1935. That is where Gumm became Garland.
During her adolescence, her rosy-cheeked innocence and quavering tones propelled her to notoriety. With an upward glance of her doe-eyes, songs from films like Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) became hits. Her on-screen partnership with Mickey Rooney added further hits to her portfolio and secured her image as a doting romantic. But it was the musical-comedy Everybody Sing (1938) that granted Garland the role of a lifetime, a Kansas girl with big dreams. Garland then stepped into adulthood with her sparkling talent, her special Oscar clutched tightly in her hand.
The 1940s saw twenty-one new Garland releases, such as Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). And after making more than $100million for MGM, Garland was let off from her contract early. She took time to return to the world’s stage, but her comeback was encapsulated by her performance in another film, A Star Is Born (1954).
When many think of Judy, they remember her tragedies. Garland was often mistreated by the industry she worked hard in; she endured strict diets, endless comments about her appearance, and was given stimulants to ensure energetic performances. All of what she suffered, however, only strengthened her resolve to give audiences what they craved. And, whilst her personal tragedies greatly afflicted her, it never eradicated her immeasurable drive to do what she loved.
Later in life, Garland kept up her appearances, proving her versatility in a subdued performance in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961). Even after doctors said that stress could hinder her, she kept returning to the stage. This led to a best-selling album, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1961, as well as various performances on TV talk shows. Her final film was the semi-autobiographical I Could Go On Singing (1963). Garland would die only 6 years later in 1969, at the age of just 47.
Judy Garland once famously said “I’m a woman who wants to reach out and take 40 million people in her arms.” Throughout her career, she proved it was never about singing in the right octave or hitting the right steps – it was about pure emotion, and it was all for her audience to keep. In the three films selected here, this unforgettable talent gifted us stories we have been telling for lifetimes. These are the three career-defining performances of Judy Garland.
1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
In the juvenile stages of Judy Garland’s career, her innate naivety drew tender smiles from both audiences and critics. She was born onto our screens in the technicolour bliss of The Wizard of Oz, coming to life like a damsel from a fairy tale, her face the vision of pure-hearted innocence. As Dorothy, Garland became a household name, ensuring her a position as one of the most profitable actresses in Hollywood’s golden age.
The much-celebrated musical, directed by Victor Fleming, stars Garland as Dorothy Gale, an imaginative girl living on a Kansas farm. When Dorothy is caught in a tornado, she awakens in a strange land known as Oz. She learns that the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Margaret Hamilton) is after her, and to get home she must journey to Emerald City to find the fabled Wizard of Oz. After encountering a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a Tinman (Jack Haley) and a Lion (Bert Lahr), Dorothy journeys down the yellow brick road in the hope of making her dreams come true.
Dorothy’s blushing complexion and ribbon-tied pigtails became synonymous with Garland’s image. In her first scene, she strolls around the farm, her dog Toto clutched in her arms. When he is almost taken away from her, she cries and speaks to him like a confidant. Her sensitivity ripples from her porcelain face; its girlish demeanour incites compassion for the lost girl from Kansas. But it is the mature wisdom Garland brings to the performance that ultimately set the industry’s eye upon her.
Amongst the vaudevillian antics of Bolger, Haley and Lahr, Garland held her own with heart and curiosity. Her almost motherly approach to their characters showed Garland had an emotional intelligence beyond her years; whilst Dorothy puts her troubles on hold, she takes her ruby slippers to their woes with gentility. It was this balance between childlike incredulity and mature understanding that led her to be called “America’s favourite kid sister.”
Whilst the absurdity of Oz was difficult for some critics to swallow, Garland’s talents were too sweet to ignore. Writing for The New York Times, Frank Nugent called Judy Garland’s Dorothy “a pert and fresh-faced miss with the wonder-lit eyes of a believer in fairy-tales.” Soon after its release, Garland became one of the most profitable actresses in the US. Her performance also won her the only Academy Award she would receive, a special juvenile Oscar at the age of 17.
2. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis was Judy Garland’s chance to show the world what else she could be, besides beyond a rainbow. Well into the adolescent phase of her career, she was budding like a pink rose, which director Vincente Minnelli drew upon. And with this chance of reinvention, Garland proved herself to be a maturing figure of romance.
Minnelli’s musical, set in Missouri 1903, focuses on the Smith family, who await the coming year’s World Fair. Esther Smith (played by Judy Garland) is a doting sister to her four siblings, most of all her youngest sister Tootie (Margaret O’Brien), but her attention lies on the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake). When her father (Leon Ames) announces their move to New York, the family mourn the charms of St Louis, and the love they found within it.
Vincente Minnelli knew he had a ruby starlet before him, and he had to make it glow. So, he softened the lights, filled the Smith household with flowers, and let Garland’s magic sparkle. Under his direction, she embodies the love-sick teenager we’ve come to know and enjoy in this film and many more. She plays the usual games of courtship with a frivolous quality, feigning disinterest when needed. Esther’s range of emotions are well-captured by various songs: “The Trolley Song” brought out a fizzing puppy-love within the film’s many viewers, whereas Garland captured a divine melancholy in “The Boy Next Door.”
With co-stars around her age, Garland was given a lot to work with. A lesser performance would’ve been drowned out by this, but Garland brought an unfamiliar fire to the role. When Garland sings “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” to a weeping Tootie, the performance is cemented in film history. In her red velvet gown and cold-bitten nose, Garland’s soothing lilts forge a snow-globe memory for an entire culture.
Garland’s performance drew high praise, with Richard Schickel describing it as “sweetly unneurotic”. The role required nuance – Esther was a pining romantic, a mother-hen to her sisters, yearning and protective, poetic yet fierce. Garland captured this with a tenacity that few her age could have mustered. It was the imperative step-up from Oz, to prove that she could hit so many notes.
3. A Star Is Born (1954)
Judy Garland’s career stagnated in the early 1950s. Her struggles with drug addiction led to professional instability, which in turn led to the premature conclusion of her contract with MGM in 1950. But, when producer Sidney Luft took a gamble on her unquestionable talents, Garland staged a legendary comeback; she returned to our screens with a vengeance and proved herself to be a fully-fledged performer for the ages.
This classic tale, now four times reincarnated, ran many direct parallels to Garland’s own life. In A Star Is Born, she plays Esther Blodgett, an aspiring singer performing with a band. After saving a drunk former actor, Norman Maine (played by James Mason) from humiliation, he seeks her out. When Norman hears Esther’s potential, he becomes set on making her a star. In the film, Esther learns the complications of stardom, as her and Norman become close.
It was as though A Star Is Born was written for Judy Garland. The role of Esther Blodgett represented her hard-earned transformation from child star to true professional. Throughout the film, she is given technically-difficult musical numbers, as well as hard-hitting emotional material, but no matter the note director George Cukor strikes, Garland harmonises with it. This was a life she had lived, and you can still feel it.
In an almost three hour showcase of her talent, Judy Garland performs with reanimated life. It never mattered if it was a jazz club, a coffee table, a theatre – whatever stage Garland sang upon, you were listening. Encased in the richly emotive MGM sets, Garland almost seems to burst with the stories of her songs. Sitting cross-legged during “Born In A Trunk,” her eyes glisten as her belts rebound within your chest. She knew she had to reclaim her image, and she grabs her viewers by the throat to do so.
Whilst the flashy musical numbers entertain, Garland’s emotional range catches the uninitiated viewer off guard. This was obviously fuelled by the character of Norman Maine and his alcohol addiction; it acted as a mirror to Garland’s own struggles. When delivering a monologue about him, Esther’s words transcend the façade of a script; “I hate me because I’ve failed too,” Garland says, the lines between Esther and Judy blurring. But, when a grieving Esther has to return to the stage in the film, Garland’s own comeback manifests. In spite of all she endured, she could still stand on a stage and enrapture. The little girl from Kansas had grown into a woman of unending emotion.
Heartbreak was in store for Garland when she did not win a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, despite a nomination. The role did, however, earn her unanimous critical praise; Time even went so far as to judge that her performance was “just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history.” A Star Is Born would be known as her official comeback to the silver screen, which she made glitter gold.
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Judy Garland was a performer, a dreamer and a visionary. Her performances shaped musical history; she defined an entire genre with a simple change in note. She proved it took brains, heart and courage to pursue a dream that, at times, felt impossible. So what was it her eyes sought, as they drifted beyond the camera? Well, what we all look for… the hopeful promise of a dream.
Written by Bella Madge
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