Judy Garland: The Making of a Star

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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 …show more content…

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…

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

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