And this, maybe more than any of the things they had in common, might explain why Garland developed a desperate crush on Mickey Rooney. On their first Andy Hardy film together, Mickey gave Judy the most important acting advice she'd ever receive.
Like Monroe, Garland passed away from a drug overdose. Schulman pointed out that Garland reflected on her haunting encounter with Monroe in a 1967 article for Ladies Home Journal. "I knew Marilyn Monroe and loved her dearly," Garland told the outlet.
Now, a new book, C'mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock by Fantle and Tom Johnson, tells the story behind the film and shares new details of Judy and Gene's special friendship. Judy first laid eyes on Gene singing and dancing in Pal Joey, which debuted on Broadway in 1940. She was very impressed.
Judy Garland Said She and Mickey Rooney Took So Many Drugs They 'Were Hanging From the Ceiling' - IMDb. The first half of the 20th century is often referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood. But this distinction overlooks the abusive conditions forced upon actors of all ages.
In 1966, according to Deans' book Weep No More, My Lady, he met the actress and singer Judy Garland at her hotel in New York City. A mutual friend of theirs asked Deans to deliver a package of amphetamines to Garland's room in the St. Regis. He was dressed as a doctor, and he gave Garland her “medicine."
But also, it wasn't a stretch for her to feel these feelings: the troubles Judy's characters had to deal with in these movies plagued the actress off screen as well. Her love for Rooney was unrequited: Just like Andy Hardy, he saw Judy as his soul mate but couldn't see her as a romantic or sexual prospect.
But her addictions, which had plagued her since her days at MGM, would have a lasting effect on her health; one contemporary article noted that she suffered from “exhaustion, kidney ailments, nervous breakdowns, near-fatal drug reactions, overweight, underweight and injuries suffered in falls.” On the morning of June ...
Mickey Rooney, who co-starred with Miss Garland in the Andy Hardy films when both were young, appeared briefly at the funeral home, evoking gasps and cheers from the spectators. He was not among the 200 people who remained for the service.
In 1972, Minnelli recalled being the “calm center in the vortex” after her mother's death. “When she died, I almost knew why,” she told TIME. “She let her guard down. She didn't die from an overdose.
What was the age difference between Mickey and Judy Garland?
Mickey Deans
In 1966, according to Deans' book Weep No More, My Lady, he first met Garland at her hotel in New York City. A mutual friend of theirs asked Deans, who was 12 years younger than the icon, to deliver a package of amphetamines to the singer's room at the St. Regis.
"People were looking for some sort of rivalry between us. And when they couldn't find anything, they made it up. I found Judy to be completely generous," she writes. Instead of rivals, Garland and Streisand became friends.
But Gene Kelly—Garland's co-star in For Me and My Gal, The Pirate, and Summer Stock—was not there, it appears. Based on the widely circulated account of Garland's funeral (see above image), Kelly—along with Grace Kelly and Louis Armstrong—sent his condolences via telegram.
But her most well-known romance was arguably with Arthur Miller, the playwright, which lasted six years until 1961. They were seen as something of an odd couple at first; the bookish, literary great and his glamorous film star partner, but it ended up being one of the most important love affairs of her life.
Luft also writes in the book about the times Monroe would visit their house and talk to Garland. “She'd sit by the fire, not talking much, a quiet presence,” he recounts. “Marilyn was sweet and very unhappy. She'd chat with Judy and play with the children, hang out.
“My very favorite person and I love her as a person as well as a singer, I think she's the greatest and that's Ella Fitzgerald,” Monroe once said. Monroe's close friend Amy Greene recalled the time that the famous Mocambo club wouldn't let Fitzgerald perform because of her race and appearance.
The first film that he directed, Cabin in the Sky (1943), was visibly influenced by the theater. Shortly after that, he directed I Dood It (also 1943) with Red Skelton and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), during which he fell in love with the film's star, Judy Garland.
The problem of streamlining Judy was to be compounded by still another unwelcome heritage [in addition to the scoliosis]. . . the tendency to put on all additional weight above the waist—which only exaggerated the top-heaviness of her fi g- ure, the more so because her legs remained re- markably slender.
And though Kelly wasn't a fan of the script, he jumped at the chance to help out Garland. As he'd later put it, “We loved her and we understood what she was going through, and I had every reason to be grateful for all the help she had given me.” In many ways Kelly was just returning a favor.
Judy Garland leaves the Little Church of Flowers in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Ca., Jan. 8, 1953 after attending a private funeral service for her mother, Ethel Milne Gilmore, 56. Garland is accompanied by her husband Sid Luft, left, and Luft's business associate Vernon Alves. (AP Photo)
