Background
Famed actress Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, to Vaudeville performers Ethel Marion and Francis Avent Gumm. According to Imdb.com (2016) “Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old. when Baby Frances repeatedly sang "Jingle Bells" until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled "The Gumm Sisters", along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm.” Often when they were on tour as ‘The Gumm Sisters, Judy’s mother would give the girls pep pills to keep up the punishing
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schedule and maintain their performances (Norman, 2010). In 1935, Frances Gumm (now Judy Garland) signed her contract with the film studio MGM at the age of 13 (Imdb.com, 1990-2016). Later that year in November her father became sick with Spinal Meningitis and passed away the same evening Judy was performing “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” for a radio show. Garland suffered a great personal loss when her father Frank died of spinal meningitis (Biography.com Editors, n.d.). She was in a car accident where she broke several ribs and punctured a lung at the age of 14 (Dowlin, 2011). In 1938 Garland was cast in the role of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and was forced to lose weight to fit in the role. According to a Daily Mail article interview Garland herself described her early experiences with drugs provided by MGM studios, “They'd give us pep pills. Then they'd take us to the studio hospital and knock us cold with sleeping pills. After four hours they'd wake us up and give us the pep pills again. 'That's the way we worked, and that's the way we got thin. That's the way we got mixed up. And that's the way we lost contact (Howe, 2014)”. Despite the drugs, Garland received a special Academy Award for her portrayal of Dorothy (Biography.com Editors, n.d.). Judy Garland had five divorces, and six marriages total before her death in 1969. Starting in 1941, Judy married her first husband David Rose at age 19 and they got pregnant shortly after in November 1942, her mother and the studio forced her to have an abortion. This is what is attributed to the fall of their marriage and divorce shortly after in June 1944. A short year later Garland married her second husband and soon to be father to her first child, Vincente Minnelli. They married in June 1945 and had their first child Liza Minelli on March 12, 1946. She suffered from postnatal depression and spent most of her time post birth recovering in bed. In 1947 while they filmed the movie The Pirate together, Judy's mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare (Imdb.com, 1990-2016). In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, after several suicide attempts. She was under a lot of pressure from the studios to produce movies, and eventually walked off the lot and was subsequently suspended declared unfit for work. In 1950, MGM dropped her from her contract (Biography.com Editors, n.d.). Shortly after Judy and Vincent divorced in March of 1951. In June 1952 she married her second husband Sidney Luft. They had 2 children together, Lorna Luft (November 21, 1952 (Editors, 2016)) and Joey Luft (March 29, 1955 (Imdb.com, 2016)). Near the end of 1959, publisher Bennett Cerf visited Garland in her room at Manhattan's Doctors Hospital where she was recuperating from hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver that doctors predicted would permanently derail her career (Howe, 2014). Garland refused to let this stop her, in 1961 Garland was connected with an agent named Freddie Fields. Fields had her tour the United States singing her music. According to her second daughter Lorna that during this period of her life that “She was as sober as she could be. Instead of two or three Dexedrine, there was one (Kaplan, 2011).” Garland’s marriage to Sidney was her longest lasting nearly 13 years at the time of their divorce in May 1965. In November of 1965 she married Mark Herron and they were divorced in January 1969. Judy Garlands final marriage was to Mickey Deans which lasted until her unexpected death on June 22,1969. Her funeral was held in Manhattan hosting a total of 22,000 visitors who attended over a 24-hour period.
Her body had been stored in a temporary crypt for over one year. The reason for this is that no one had come forward to pay the expense of moving her to a permanent resting spot at Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, NY. Liza Minnelli had the impression that Judy's last husband, Mickey Deans, had made the necessary arrangements but Deans claimed to have no money. Liza then took on the task of raising the funds to have her properly buried (Imdb.com, 1990-2016). The cause of death was determined to be an overdose of barbiturates. Judy Garland was an incredibly troubled and talented actress. She made more tha(n) 35 films, once set a New York vaudeville record with an engagement of 19 weeks and 184 performances, cut numerous records and in recent years made frequent television appearances (The New York Times, …show more content…
1969). I chose Judy Garland because I have always loved the movie The Wizard of Oz. As a child I watched the VHS tape so much it unraveled. I can quote the move line for line and even sing every song from memory. I figured that I could use this project to learn about my favorite actress. Psychodynamic Alfred Adler Alfred Adler emphasis on the importance of human culture and society. Social interest refers to that urge in human nature to adapt oneself to the conditions of the social environment. It expresses itself to the conditions of the social environment (Engler, 2009). Judy was forced comply to her environment at a very young age, from traveling to give performances as part of “The Gumm Sisters”, to maintaining her weight for the studio requirements. Adler believed that there was importance in the birth order among siblings. Judy was the youngest daughter of vaudeville performers. She fits well into the definition of last-born children. According to Adler “Last-born children are more sociable and dependent, having been the “baby” of the family. At the same time they may also strive for excellence and superiority in effort to surpass their older siblings (Engler, 2009)”. Judy’s older sisters weren’t competition per say but she definitely strived to become more famous and better than the station of her parents. To be better than the other actors, and actresses in her studio. You could even say that was why she followed the directions of her mother and studio staff when she was given pep pills and sleeping pills so close together when filming movies, and even why she didn’t insist on being with her father as he passed away. Karen Horney Karen Horney describes her basic concept of Neurotic Needs which are used to minimize feelings of anxiety and to assist us in effectively relating to others (Engler, 2009).
Judy had a total of six marriages in her lifetime, and according to Horney’s neurotic trends, had an exaggerated need for affection and approval. She married and divorced 5 very different men throughout her life many back to back. She was rarely single for long, as an example her second child was born four months into her marriage to Sidney Luft.
Judy Garland also struggled with an exaggerated need for social recognition and prestige, along with ambition for personal achievement. She always did her best, sang her hardest and worked until she couldn’t do it any longer, despite even being told in 1959 that her cirrhosis of the liver could kill her if she worked too hard. She was on a major tour just 3 years later, performing every night for hundreds of
people. Erich Fromm Fromm identified three common mechanisms of escape from freedom. These mechanisms do not resolve the underlying problems of loneliness; they merely mask it. One of these three mechanisms is, destructiveness, which offers escape from the problem of freedom through the elimination of others and/or the outside world (Engler, 2009). Judy struggled with suicide attempts, post-partum depression and hallucinations following the birth of her first daughter in 1946. Judy is quoted saying; I felt humiliated and unwanted. All my newfound hope evaporated, and all I could see ahead was more confusion. I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to hurt myself and others. Yet even while I stood there in the bathroom with a shattered glass in my hand, and Vincent and my secretary, Tully, were pounding on the door, I knew I couldn't solve anything by running away - and that's what killing yourself is (Howe, 2014). She shut the world out trying to cope with her depression and illnesses. This didn’t make her feel better just enhanced the sense of lonliness. Fromm says that a person’s character is determined in large measure by the culture and its objectives; thus it is possible to speak of social character types or qualities that are frequently shared by the people of a particular culture (Engler, 2009). Garland was a marketing personality she was raised as a commodity on the market. She changed her colors and values as they perceived the forces of the market to change (Engler, 2009). Judy struggled with her decisions in November of 1942. She was a newlywed who had just found out about her first pregnancy, and was directed by her mother and studio producers at MGM to have an abortion because they believed that a pregnancy at age 19 would end her career as an actress. This caused her intense pain and caused her first divorce. Gordon Allport The discontinuity theory suggests that in the course of development an organism experiences genuine transformations or changes and consequently reaches successively higher levels of organization (Engler, 2009). In other words, inputs are introduced, and accumulate over time. Judy Garland started taking pep pills while touring with her mother, and continued at least into her career with MGM. Her own daughter is quoted saying that she was still taking pills in the 1960’s. She used these drugs to get through life, to fake energy (amphetamines), to mellow out (barbiturates). She eventually succumbed to an early death from a barbiturate overdose at age 47. In conclusion Judy Garland, was made stronger for her birth order, she used this to become a marketing personality, which unfortunately led to her exaggerated for affection, approval, social recognition, prestige, strong ambition, and personal achievement. She often felt that she wasn’t quite good enough which left to her self-destruction with the drugs that were introduced into her life at such a young and impressionable age.
Ella was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917. When alled “The First Lady of Song” by some fans. She was known for having beautiful tone, extended range, and great intonation, and famous for her improvisational scat singing. Ella sang during the her most famous song was “A-tiscket A-tasket”. Fitzgerald sang in the period of swing, ballads, and bebop; she made some great albums with other great jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong. She influenced countless American popular singers of the post-swing period and also international performers such as the singer Miriam Makeba. She didn’t really write any of her own songs. Instead she sang songs by other people in a new and great way. The main exception
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California at 9:00 p.m - a time significant to her because it told her she would always have a bit of catching up to do if she wanted to be on time for dinner (Black 5). As the youngest child and only girl in her family of five, she was her mother’s pride and joy. She had two supportive parents, Gertrude and George, and two older brothers, Jack and George Junior. Gertrude Temple was a stay-at-home mom while George went to work as a bank teller, which played in Shirley’s favor when she needed someone to manage her money later in life (Blashfield 55). Gertrude Temple has been called the first stage mother (Blashfield 22) for good reason. Shirley Temple was acting before she could read, so her mother helped her memorize her lines. Temple’s mother served as her private costume designer, and never failed to make the young star’s performance her best yet, by encouraging her to “Sparkle, Shirley Sparkle!” (David 2).
...rk's Carnegie Hall again. Due to previous experience, she was nervous about how the audience and critics would perceive her. Josephine received a standing ovation before the concert began. The happy welcome was so heartfelt that she cried onstage. On April 8, 1975 Josephine preformed at the Bobino Theater in Paris. Different celebrities came to see 68-year-old Josephine perform a mixture of routines from her 50 year career. The reviews were outstanding. However, days later, Josephine slipped into a coma. She died from a cerebral hemorrhage at 5 a.m. on April 12.
Judy is now married to George Cooper, who is also a writer. Judy currently has three grown up children. Judy has a single grandchild which makes her a grandmother. Judy lives on the east coast. Judy has a blog, her last post talked about her experience with breast cancer. Judy still get mails from fans and reads them all.
At the age of nineteen she met and married Louis Jones. Together they had two children Gail and Teddy (who later died in 1970 from kidney failure). While trying to get used to raising a family and having a career, she received a call from an agent, who had seen her at the Cotton Club, about a part in a movie. Her controlling husband allowed her to be in “The Duke is Tops” and also the musical revue “Blackbirds of 1939."
Angelou faced many obstacles but still was able to accomplish many things. Did she ever think she was going to get this far, leaving an impact on many people lives, such as Oprah Winfrey, President Obama, former president Bill Clinton and overall the general public? Perhaps, she did know. In her 20’s the public icon, met Billie Holiday, who told her, “You’re going to be famous. But it won’t be for singing.” Angelou is a three time Grammy winner who was also nominated for a Tony, a Pulitzer, and an Emmy for her role in the 1977 miniseries “roots.”
According to American National Biography, Marilyn Monroe was formerly known as Norma Jeane Mortenson. She was an American actress and model. Her mom, Gladys Pearl Baker was a flapper, and was unstable and was not ready for a child so she had financial problems with Marilyn Monroe. After Monroe's birth, Baker placed monroe with Ida and Albert Bolender. They raised their foster kids with a strict Christian perspective. When her mom felt stable enough and decided to take Monroe back and live in Hollywood, until she had a psychotic breakdown and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After her breakdown Baker spent the rest of her life in and out of institutions and
Ella was born on April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. In school, she sang in glee club, but her passion was to rather dance. In the 1920s and early 1930s , jazz began to sweep the nation. In 1932, Fitzgerald’s mother was killed in a car accident. After her mother’s death, the two sisters were shifted among her family members and Ella became a restless, unhappy teen. She usually w...
helped support the struggling couple. They divorced in 1942. She lived in Carmel Valley, CA after and died February 8, 1983.
Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan Gough on April 7th, 1915 was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She was raised primarily by her mother Sadie Fagan, Holiday’s father, Clarence Holiday was teenage jazz guitarist in Fletcher Henderson’s band, and he never married her mother and left while his daughter was still a baby. Her mother was also a young teenager at the time, and in 1927 Holiday dropped out of the fifth grade and moved to Harlem with her mother. She helped her mother with domestic work as a cleaner at a bordello, which led to her discovery of jazz, in particular Bessie Smith and Louie Armstrong. Soon she began prostitution with her mother for additional income, and at the age of fourteen, she was arrested along with her mother for prostitution.
Before and during her rapid rise to Hollywood stardom, Temple’s family played an important role in her childhood. Born in Santa Monica, California on April 23, 1928, Temple was welcomed into the world by her parents and two older brothers. Mr. George Temple worked as banker while Mrs. Gertrude Temple devoted her time to nurturing her baby girl, since her two older sons, George Jr. and John, were already independent teenagers (Dubas 7-8). ...
June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California Norma Jeane Mortenson was born. She never knew her father and her mother is Gladys Baker, Gladys has psychiatric problems and was placed into a mental institution. One of Monroe's earliest memories of her mother is Gladys trying to smother her with a pillow in her crib (“Marilyn Monroe.”). As she grew up, she spent most of her time in eleven foster homes and one orphanage. (“18 Things...Monroe.”). Until she was seven she was in foster homes until her mother got her back but soon after her mother was declared insane and had to go to a psychiatric hospital (Bradshaw, Lauren). While Monroe was in foster homes she was sexually
People are influenced by everything from jobs, music, fashion, certain people, even to different cultures. Chefs never seemed like the group of people one would expect to have an impact on the world, but they do. They change the way people see food and show that it is far more than just a way to stay alive it is sort of like a new way of life to say. There was one woman who changed the scene entirely, by graduating from the Parisian cooking school Le Cordon Bleu, publishing 19 books, airing 13 television shows, and having 8 DVD releases. Julia Child has been an inspiration for many cooks but has also influenced society as a whole while changing the way people thought about food and at the same time, revolutionizing the professional cooking industry for women.
Grace Hopper was a very important figure and leader in relation to the early beginnings of computing and programming languages. Grace has a very wide range of work experience, including being a prominent educator, working on subroutines for the Mark 1 computer (which ended up being used as calculations for the Manhattan Project), is credited with being the designer of COBOL (the first versatile programming language capable of running on many different computers or hardware configurations), and invented the compiler, “that allowed the computers to, in effect, help program themselves” (301). Grace is also known for her role of bringing programming into a more gender neutral practice, rather than something seen as a male-only activity. I decided
...n divorced Arthur Miller. Later in the same year she was reported to be having an affair with John F. Kennedy. She was also reported to have an affair with Bobby Kennedy, the Attorney General. Soon after in 1962, Marilyn began seeing Joe DiMaggio frequently during this time and had finally agreed to remarry him. The wedding date was set for August 8, 1962. Fox rehired her on August 1 to complete "Somethings Got to Give" with a salary of $250,000, which was two and a half times the original amount. On August 5, 1962, she was found dead of an overdose of sleeping pills at the early age of 36. There has been much speculation about the events surrounding Marilyn’s death. "The drug overdose was probably accidental and possibly administered by someone other than Marilyn."(MarilynMonroeBiography,-http://tombtown.com/bios/marilyn.htm.) In conclusion, Monroe’s was a tragedy in which her public, the media, and the Hollywood power brokers all share blame.