Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows
Encyclopedia
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows is a 2001
2001 in television
The year 2001 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2001.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:*Meet the Press .*Candid Camera .*CBS Evening News ....

 television film based on the memoirs of Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft is an American television, stage, and film actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and the half-sister of singer and actress Liza Minnelli.-Biography:...

, the daughter of Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

. The production is notable for its meticulous recreations of her films and concerts, and verisimilitudinous
Verisimilitude (literature)
Verisimilitude, with the meaning "of being true or real" is a likeness or resemblance of the truth, reality or a fact's probability. It comes from Latin verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar.-Original roots:...

 impressions of her by Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...

 and Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

.

The film, which chronicles Garland's life from her first public performance in 1924 until her death in 1969, is divided into two parts: the first part depicts her rise to fame in the 1930s, her descent into drugs, and her fall from grace in the 1950s. The second part of the drama begins with her marriage to Sid Luft
Sidney Luft
Sidney Luft was an American show business figure best known as the third husband of iconic American actress and singer Judy Garland.-Early life:...

, and proceeds to chronicle her successful return to movies with A Star is Born
A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born may refer to:* A Star Is Born , starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, directed by William A. Wellman* A Star Is Born , starring Judy Garland and James Mason, directed by George Cukor...

, her personal issues and her death at the age of 47.

Part One

Christmas 1924: Two-year-old Frances Gumm performs in public for the first time, singing "Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...

". Her mother, Ethel, watches from the audience while her father, Frank, watches from backstage. Ethel is unhappy with her marriage because of her husband's homosexuality. To help herself cope, she moves the family to Hollywood with the hope that her daughters will break into the movie business.

1935: Frank Gumm takes Frances, now using her stage name of "Judy Garland," to the studios of Metro Goldwyn Mayer to audition. MGM chief Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

 is not impressed with her rendition of "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart', but when she sings a different song an impressed Mayer says, "Little girl. Big voice." Thirteen-year-old Judy signs an MGM contract but, because of her age, the studio does not know what to do with her and keeps giving her radio appearances. Tragedy strikes one night when she is told her father has been rushed to the hospital. She is also told that doctors have put a radio beside his bed, so he will be listening. While Suzy and Jimmie are in tears over their ill father, Ethel shows no emotion at all. He dies the next day.

1938-1939: Judy's movie career is now blooming. Now sixteen (played by Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...

), she finds herself in competition with MGM's new glamorous star, Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

, who is everything she is not: tall, thin, and blond. Judy also becomes jealous as Lana steals everybody's, including Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

's, attention on her birthday.
MGM purchases the rights to L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

's classic children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...

. Rumors spread that Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...

 might be playing Dorothy, but when 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

 refuses to lend her out to them, Judy is cast. She is prescribed some pills to help her sleep and to give her energy to work, and she is also forced to lose weight. She is then seen filming the "Yellow Brick Road
Yellow Brick Road
Yellow Brick Road may refer to:*Yellow brick road, the road of yellow brick in The Wizard of OzIn music*Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, an album by Elton John**"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" , a song from the album...

" dance with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. On the first take, they all close in and shut her out, prompting director Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...

 to yell "You three dirty hams! Let that little girl in there!" The film turns out to be a huge success and she is catapulted to international stardom.

Early 1940s: Judy begins a romance with bandleader Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....

, who has already been married and divorced twice. This causes much concern, especially for Ethel, who has now remarried. She continues to see him and is shocked when he elopes with Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

, leaving her heartbroken and reluctant to return to the studio since she feels she has to compete with all the goddesses. While filming the "I Got Rhythm
I Got Rhythm
"I Got Rhythm" is a song composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and published in 1930, which became a jazz standard. Its chord progression, known as the "rhythm changes", is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes such as Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop...

" sequence for Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy
Girl Crazy is a 1930 musical with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and John McGowan. Ethel Merman made her stage debut in this musical production....

, she is continually being reprimanded by her director, the no-nonsense Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...

, over not putting enough energy into her performance. Eventually, she collapses on the set and is granted three weeks rest, despite the doctor's instruction that she needs six. Aged just nineteen, she marries composer David Rose
David Rose
David Rose was a British-born American songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist, and orchestra leader. His most famous compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings", and "Calypso Melody"...

, but the marriage lasts only eighteen months.

1944: Judy (now played by Judy Davis) meets Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...

 (Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...

), who is the director of her next film, Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904...

. She is then shown filming the "Trolley Song
The Trolley Song
"The Trolley Song" is a song written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis...

" sequence. She and Vincente married in 1945. On their honeymoon, she tells him she plans to quit MGM when her contract expires. She also says she is pregnant, throws away a bottle of her pills, and vows never to take them again.

1947: Now mother to Liza
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

, Judy is forced to renew her contract with MGM. While filming The Pirate
The Pirate
The Pirate is a 1948 American musical feature film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With songs by Cole Porter, it stars Judy Garland and Gene Kelly with co-stars Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, and George Zucco.-Plot:...

, she has a mental breakdown and Vincente finds out she's taking the pills again. The marriage spirals downward from there.

1950: Judy is suspended indefinitely and tries to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by slashing her throat with a broken glass. She is fired by MGM and her marriage to Vincente falls apart due to his exhaustion of her mood swings. During this time, she meets Sid Luft
Sidney Luft
Sidney Luft was an American show business figure best known as the third husband of iconic American actress and singer Judy Garland.-Early life:...

 (Victor Garber
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...

). He helps her with her show business comeback at the Palace Theatre on Broadway.

Part Two

Early-1950s: Judy marries Sid in 1952 and a few months later she gives birth to a second daughter, Lorna
Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft is an American television, stage, and film actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and the half-sister of singer and actress Liza Minnelli.-Biography:...

. In 1953, her mother, Ethel, dies in a parking lot after suffering a heart attack. Initially, she does not react to the news, having been estranged from her for years, but while filming "The Man That Got Away
The Man that Got Away
"The Man that Got Away" is a popular song, published in 1953 and was written for the 1954 version of the movie A Star Is Born. The music was written by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin...

" sequence for A Star is Born
A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born may refer to:* A Star Is Born , starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, directed by William A. Wellman* A Star Is Born , starring Judy Garland and James Mason, directed by George Cukor...

, her first film since MGM fired her, she misses her mark, and starts crying in her dressing room, not exactly sure if she is upset over her mother's death. She receives an Academy Award nomination for her performance. In 1955, a day before the 27th Academy Awards
27th Academy Awards
The 27th Academy Awards honored the best films produced in 1954. The Best Picture winner, On the Waterfront, was produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by Elia Kazan...

, she gives birth to a son, Joey, but on the night she loses the award to Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...

, much to the shock and disappointment of her friends.

Late-1950s: Judy is now struggling with debts, her weight has ballooned, and at this stage, her marriage to Sid is starting to crumble.

Early-1960s: After overcoming a life-threatening illness and slimming down, Judy tours America, the high point being a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

. As her marriage to Sid continues to collapse, she wins custody of their two children.

Mid-1960s: Judy gets her own television series
The Judy Garland Show
The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star...

, but she is forced to go on the road again after it is cancelled. Things start out fine, but her concert in Melbourne, Australia ends on a sour note when she stumbles on stage and the audience poke fun at her before walking out while she flees the stage in tears. She later marries for a fourth time, this time to Mark Herron
Mark Herron
Mark Herron was an American actor best known as the fourth husband of singer and actress Judy Garland. He appeared in films such as Federico Fellini's 8½ and Eye of the Cat....

. This marriage lasts a mere five months as he turns out to be gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and is discovered in bed with a male pool cleaner, and she throws him out. Lorna begins to understand the connection between her mother's erratic behaviour and her medication. She reconciles with Sid, who books her at the Palace Theatre, this time with Lorna and Joey. He gives Lorna some instructions on how to take care of her mother. However, life with Judy (which included constantly—and secretly—moving from one place to another because of her inability to pay bills), and looking after her mother and brother becomes too much for fourteen-year-old Lorna, who collapses from exhaustion. Fearing for his children's safety, Sid takes them to live with him in Los Angeles.

1969: Judy marries for a fifth and final time. Her new husband is Mickey Deans
Mickey Deans
Mickey Deans a musician and entrepreneur, was the fifth and last husband of Judy Garland.-Early life:Born Michael DeVinko in Garfield, New Jersey, on September 24, Deans was a discothèque manager....

. They settle in London. Liza, Lorna, and Joey call her on her 47th birthday on June 10, and say they will come and spend the summer with her when school finishes in two weeks. Twelve days later, on June 22, she dies from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. A hysterical Lorna sobs in her father's arms. The film ends with Judy performing "Get Happy
Get Happy (song)
"Get Happy" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler.It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930....

".

Cast

  • Judy Davis
    Judy Davis
    Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

     as Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

  • Hugh Laurie
    Hugh Laurie
    James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...

     as Vincente Minnelli
    Vincente Minnelli
    Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...

  • Victor Garber
    Victor Garber
    Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...

     as Sid Luft
    Sidney Luft
    Sidney Luft was an American show business figure best known as the third husband of iconic American actress and singer Judy Garland.-Early life:...

  • John Benjamin Hickey
    John Benjamin Hickey
    John Benjamin Hickey is an American actor with a career in stage, film and television. He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart....

     as Roger Edens
    Roger Edens
    Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".-Early career and work with Judy Garland:Edens was born in...

  • Sonja Smits
    Sonja Smits
    Sonja Smits is a television actress who has played roles in many television series, including Falcon Crest, Airwolf, Odyssey 5, The Outer Limits, Street Legal, Traders and The Eleventh Hour.She also played Bianca O'Blivion in the David Cronenberg horror movie, Videodrome.Sonja went to Bell High...

     as Kay Thompson
    Kay Thompson
    Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...

  • Alison Pill
    Alison Pill
    Alison Courtney Pill is a Canadian actress best known from her roles in Milk, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Midnight in Paris.-Life and career:...

     as young Lorna Luft
    Lorna Luft
    Lorna Luft is an American television, stage, and film actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and the half-sister of singer and actress Liza Minnelli.-Biography:...

  • Tammy Blanchard
    Tammy Blanchard
    Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...

     as young Judy
  • Aidan Devine
    Aidan Devine
    Aidan Devine is a Canadian film actor. He was born in England and immigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 15. He studied at Dawson College's Dome Theatre in Montreal, Quebec and began his acting career in Montreal. He would later relocate to Toronto. His 1993 breakout role came in...

     as Frank Gumm
  • Marsha Mason
    Marsha Mason
    Marsha Mason is an American actress and television director.She received four Academy Award nominations as Best Actress for her performances in Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh. She is also known for starring in the 1986 film Heartbreak Ridge.-Life:Mason was...

     as Ethel Gumm
  • Lindy Booth
    Lindy Booth
    Lindy Booth is a Canadian actress who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She's best known for playing Riley Grant on the Disney Channel series The Famous Jett Jackson and Claudia on Relic Hunter. She also portrayed A.J...

     as Lana Turner
    Lana Turner
    Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...

  • Al Waxman
    Al Waxman
    Albert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage...

     as Louis B. Mayer
    Louis B. Mayer
    Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...

  • Dwayne Adams
    Dwayne Adams
    Dwayne Paul Adams is a Canadian actor, currently in Toronto, Ontario.Adams is best known for playing actor-comedian Mickey Rooney in the first half of the miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Adams also starred as the voice and body of C.C...

     as Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney
    Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

  • Jayne Eastwood
    Jayne Eastwood
    Jayne Eastwood , also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress most famous for appearing in the 2002 film Chicago. She was one of the original cast members of the Toronto branch of The Second City, and was a semi-regular on SCTV...

     as Lottie
  • Brandi Ward as Liza Minnelli
    Liza Minnelli
    Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

     (age 23)
  • Martin Randez as Mark Herron
  • Hume Baugh as Mickey Deans
  • Cynthia Gibb
    Cynthia Gibb
    Cynthia Gibb is an American actress and former model who has starred in film and on television. She is 5'-2" tall.-Biography:...

     as Narrator

Won

  • Broadcast Film Critics
    Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2001
    The 7th Critics' Choice Awards, honoring the best filmmaking of 2001, were given on 11 January 2002.-Top 10 Films:#Ali#A Beautiful Mind #In the Bedroom...

    :
    1. Best Actress - Best TV Movie (Judy Davis
      Judy Davis
      Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

      )
    2. Best TV Movie
  • Emmy Awards:
    1. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Judy Davis
      Judy Davis
      Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

      )
    2. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Tammy Blanchard
      Tammy Blanchard
      Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...

      )
    3. Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
    4. Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
    5. Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Pamela Roth)
  • Golden Globe Awards:
    1. Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Movie (Judy Davis
      Judy Davis
      Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

      )
  • Satellite Awards:
    1. Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Movie (Judy Davis
      Judy Davis
      Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

      )
    2. Best Miniseries
  • Screen Actors Guild Awards
    Screen Actors Guild Awards
    A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...

    :
    1. Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Movie (Judy Davis
      Judy Davis
      Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....

      )
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK