Judy Garland at MGM: The Voice, the Diets and the Studio's Control

You probably know Judy Garland best as Dorothy, singing her way through The Wizard of Oz. The 1939 film made her face familiar far beyond the MGM lot. Behind that performance was a teenager whose working life, food and appearance were subject to studio control, according to her later account. Her voice brought her opportunities. It didn't give her much say over the conditions around her.

A contract came before Dorothy

Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Minnesota in 1922 and performed with her sisters as a child. The Judy Garland Heirs Trust's biography dates her MGM signing to autumn 1935, when she was 13. That was her entry into the studio, several years before The Wizard of Oz reached cinemas. Signing a contract and being cast as Dorothy were separate steps in her career.

The studio watched her plate

In recollections reproduced by PBS's American Masters, Garland described being ridiculed about her appearance and having her food restricted. She recalled studio chief Louis B. Mayer ordering the commissary to give her chicken broth regardless of what she requested. It's a grim detail: a young performer could earn a studio's attention with her singing, then find even lunch subject to its instructions. These are Garland's accounts of her treatment, rather than a medical assessment of her health at the time.

Success brought more work

The Academy honored Garland with a special juvenile award at its 1940 ceremony, recognizing her screen performances during 1939. The work kept coming. Her MGM films included Meet Me in St. Louis in 1944 and Easter Parade in 1948. Garland also recalled being given stimulants to keep working when exhausted, followed by sleeping pills. Her description ties those drugs to the demands of the job; it doesn't make every later difficulty in her life traceable to one film.

There was a career beyond Oz

Garland went on to earn Oscar nominations for A Star Is Born and Judgment at Nuremberg. She performed in concerts and on television, too. The familiar Dorothy images capture one role in a much longer working life. Her personal life included five marriages and three children, and she died in London on June 22, 1969, aged 47. You can admire the performance while also listening to what the performer said about the work behind it.