60 Fun Facts About Judy Garland

What was Judy Garland's birth name?

She was named after both parents and called 'Baby' by the family; the Gumm Sisters became the Garland Sisters in 1934.

In which state was Garland born?

Her vaudevillian parents ran a movie theatre in Grand Rapids; the family moved to Lancaster, California, in 1926.

Which song did two-year-old Garland sing with her sisters in her first performance?

The Gumm Sisters played her father's theatre for years with their mother on piano.

Which entertainer urged the Gumm Sisters to change their name in 1934 and later claimed credit for 'Judy Garland'?

Legend says a Chicago theatre once billed them as 'The Glum Sisters'; Jessel gave at least three different origin stories.

Frances took the first name 'Judy' from a popular song by which composer?

The Garland Sisters broke up in 1935 when Suzanne eloped to Reno with a bandleader.

Which two songs did the 13-year-old Garland sing at her impromptu MGM audition in 1935?

The studio signed her on the spot, reportedly without a screen test, then had no idea what to do with her.

How tall was Garland?

MGM had her wear caps on her teeth and rubber discs to reshape her nose; Louis B. Mayer called her his 'little hunchback'.

Garland got MGM's attention singing 'You Made Me Love You' at whose birthday party?

She repeated it in Broadway Melody of 1938, singing to his photograph.

Garland's MGM 'backyard musicals', starting with Thoroughbreds Don't Cry, co-starred whom?

They made nine films together; Rooney later denied MGM had given her any drugs.

When Garland ordered a regular meal, the MGM commissary was instructed to serve her only what?

Her weight was healthy, but the studio demanded constant dieting; she said the amphetamines and barbiturates began then.

Which child star did Louis B. Mayer first try to borrow from Fox to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?

Fox declined, Deanna Durbin was unavailable, and Garland got the part at 16.

What was Garland initially made to wear as Dorothy before producers dropped the idea?

Her blue gingham dress was chosen because it blurred her figure and made her look younger.

Which honour, given to only 12 actors ever, did Garland receive for The Wizard of Oz?

It was her only Oscar; the film did not turn a profit until its 1940s re-release.

Which bandleader broke the teenage Garland's heart by eloping with Lana Turner in 1940?

She married bandleader David Rose the following year, at 19, despite MGM's disapproval.

Whose first screen appearance came opposite Garland in For Me and My Gal (1942)?

They reunited for The Pirate and Summer Stock, her last MGM film.

Which three standards did Garland introduce in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)?

Make-up artist Dorothy Ponedel remade her look for the film and was written into her contract for the rest of her MGM career.

Whom did Garland marry in June 1945 after clashing with him on the set of Meet Me in St. Louis?

The director became father of Liza, born in March 1946.

Which Oscar-winning song did Garland introduce in The Harvey Girls (1946)?

The Clock, her first straight dramatic role, came out the year before; fans wanted her to sing.

Fred Astaire replaced whom as Garland's co-star in Easter Parade (1948)?

It was Hollywood's highest-grossing musical of the year and their only film together.

Who replaced Garland when MGM suspended her from The Barkleys of Broadway in 1948?

She was missing days with migraines, barbiturates and morphine pills; the film reunited Rogers with Astaire.

Garland was fired from playing which title role in 1949 and replaced by Betty Hutton?

She was undergoing electroconvulsive therapy and feuding with director Busby Berkeley at the time.

Which number, filmed last after she lost 15 pounds, did Garland insist on adding to Summer Stock?

Summer Stock was her final MGM picture; delays she caused left it $80,000 in the red.

Which friend brought Judy Garland onto his radio show in 1950, telling listeners 'she needs our love'?

'And she came out and that place went crazy. And she just blossomed'; eight appearances that season relaunched her.

At which London venue did Garland say 'Judy Garland was reborn' in April 1951?

She played complete shows as tributes to Al Jolson there and at the Palace in New York later that year.

For what did Garland get a Special Tony Award after her record 1951 run at the Palace Theatre?

The engagement was called 'one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history'.

Whom did Garland marry in June 1952, her tour manager and later producer of A Star Is Born?

They had Lorna and Joey; she sued for divorce in 1963 citing mental cruelty.

Which medley was inserted into Garland's 1954 A Star Is Born at Sid Luft's suggestion, over Cukor's objections?

After first-run engagements Warner cut about 30 minutes; the film still lost money and Garland got nothing from it.

Who beat Garland to the 1954 Best Actress Oscar, with a TV crew already set up in her hospital room?

Groucho Marx wired her that it was 'the biggest robbery since Brinks'; the crew packed up before Kelly reached the stage.

Which co-star of A Star Is Born later gave the eulogy at Garland's funeral?

'She could wring tears out of hearts of rock,' he said.

For which 1961 film did Garland earn a Best Supporting Actress nomination?

I Could Go On Singing (1963), with Dirk Bogarde, was her final film.

How much per week was Garland paid at the New Frontier in 1956, making her the highest-paid entertainer in Las Vegas?

When laryngitis struck, Jerry Lewis filled in for one show while she watched from a wheelchair.

In 1959 doctors treating Garland for acute hepatitis told her she probably had how long to live?

She said she felt 'greatly relieved' because 'the pressure was off me for the first time in my life', then returned to the Palladium in 1960.

Garland's April 1961 concert at which venue was called 'the greatest night in show business history'?

The live album spent 13 weeks at number one and won four Grammys.

The two-record live recording of that 1961 concert made Garland the first woman to win which Grammy?

The same year she became the first woman and youngest recipient of the Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award.

CBS scheduled The Judy Garland Show against which NBC hit, helping doom it after one season?

The 26 episodes still earned four Emmy nominations; she took the deal because she owed the IRS hundreds of thousands.

Which actor sat front row at her TV tapings during a six-month 1963 affair, ending it when she wanted to marry?

His son Peter called him a notorious womaniser but credited him with one of her steadier late relationships.

How did Garland reportedly end her weekly phone calls to President Kennedy?

She holidayed in Hyannis Port, where the house she used is now called The Judy Garland House.

In which Australian city did a crowd of 7,000 boo Garland off stage in 1964?

Her two Sydney Stadium shows had gone well; she called the Melbourne crowd 'brutish'.

From which 1967 film was Garland dismissed after being cast as Helen Lawson?

Patty Duke said she was hired mainly for publicity and treated badly by director Mark Robson.

How many times was Garland married?

David Rose, Vincente Minnelli, Sidney Luft, Mark Herron and Mickey Deans.

Which two agents' embezzlement left Garland owing about $500,000 to the IRS and creditors by 1966?

The IRS put liens on her Brentwood home and her Capitol contract; she sold the house far below its value.

Garland's fifth husband, Mickey Deans, whom she married in London in March 1969, was what?

They wed at Chelsea Register Office; he found her dead three months later.

In which London district was the rented house where Garland died in June 1969?

The coroner ruled 'an incautious self-overdosage' of barbiturates, stressing it was unintentional; she was 47.

How old was Garland when she died?

Ray Bolger, her Scarecrow, said at the funeral: 'She just plain wore out.'

Roughly how many people lined up to pay respects at Garland's New York funeral chapel?

She was dressed in the grey silk gown from her wedding to Deans.

In 2017 Garland's remains were moved from Ferncliff Cemetery in New York to which Los Angeles cemetery?

Her children requested the 2,800-mile move.

What was the value of Garland's estate at her death, despite earning millions?

Liza Minnelli paid off her mother's debts with help from Frank Sinatra.

Where does 'Over the Rainbow' rank on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie songs?

'The Man That Got Away' is 11th, 'The Trolley Song' 26th and 'Get Happy' 61st.

Garland has appeared on two US postage stamps: as Dorothy in 1989 and as which character in 2006?

A perfume called 'Judy—A Garland Fragrance' marked her centenary in 2022.

Which actress won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy?

Anne Hathaway had been slated for a shelved Harvey Weinstein project based on the biography Get Happy.

Which opera singer said Garland possessed 'the most superb voice she had ever heard'?

Fred Astaire called her 'the greatest entertainer who ever lived—or probably will ever live'.

The Gumm Sisters made their 1929 film debut in a short subject called what?

They got there via Ethel Meglin's dance school and the Meglin Kiddies troupe they had joined the year before.

Garland played her first adult role, a dual mother-and-daughter part, in which 1940 film?

MGM bought the property from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her; it was one of three Garland films released that year.

Which 1945 film was Garland's first straight dramatic role, opposite Robert Walker?

It was praised and profitable, but audiences wanted her to sing, and she avoided non-singing drama for years.

Garland's 1955 Ford Star Jubilee debut, CBS's first full-scale colour broadcast, drew what Nielsen rating?

The triumph led to a three-year $300,000 CBS contract for further specials.

How many weeks did Judy at Carnegie Hall spend at number one on the Billboard album chart?

The gold-certified double album charted for 95 weeks in all and won four Grammys.

In 1947 Garland joined which group formed by Hollywood celebrities to support the Hollywood Ten?

The group sought to protect the civil liberties of those accused before J. Parnell Thomas's HUAC hearings.

How much per week was Garland paid for her five-week 1969 run at London's Talk of the Town?

Her final concert appearance came in Copenhagen that March, three months before her death.

Garland's fourth husband Mark Herron said they first married aboard a freighter off which coast?

She was not yet divorced from Sid Luft, so the couple legally married again in November 1965.

Garland's early-1940s partner David Rose used the back yard of their Bel Air home to build what?

The composer was 12 years her senior; MGM disapproved and allegedly tried to separate the couple.