Welcome to Errattic! We encourage you to customize the type of information you see here by clicking the Preferences link on the top of this page.
‘The Wizard of Oz’: Judy Garland’s Mother Allowed Her Daughter to Be Subjected to This Abuse on the Film’s Set
Discovering what took place behind the scenes of our favorite films can either be fascinating or it can be heartbreaking.
In the case of international star Judy Garland, it is the latter.
Only 16 when she took on the role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, the actor was endured abuse throughout the making of the film, with her mother’s full knowledge and consent.
Garland’s mother, Ethel Gumm, according to the biography Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland by Gerald Clarke, was a combative and harsh stage mother. She plied her daughter with pills as young as age 10 — stimulants to keep her up and then sleeping pills when she wasn’t needed on the set.
Gumm sanctioned the appalling diet the studio required of her daughter in order to make her look as young as possible: chicken soup, black coffee, 80 cigarettes, diet pills, and amphetamines. Garland was addicted to prescription pills for the rest of her life.
‘The Wizard of Oz’: Judy Garland’s Mother Allowed Her Daughter to Be Subjected to This Abuse on the Film’s Set