Born: June 10, 1922
Died: June 22, 1969
Little Frances Gumm of the Gumm Sisters Trio is a “natural.” She fools everybody with her matured voice and sings quite as lustily as her two sisters twice her size. The Long Beach Sun, Long Beach, California, August 10, 1933
Little Frances Gumm was none other than little Judy Garland. She was 11 when this story was printed and was singing and dancing with older sisters, Mary Jane and Dorothy. The terrific trio’s parents, Francis and Ethel Gumm, were vaudevillians who eventually settled in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (where Garland was born). They ran a movie theater that also hosted vaudeville acts. This is where the Gumm Sisters first performed and honed their act before the family moved to Los Angeles.
Click here to see the Gumm sisters in action.
Francis Gumm was from Tennessee. He wrote a letter to one of his hometown newspapers, The Rutherford Courier, Smyrna, Tennessee, that was published on April 27, 1934 …
Since leaving Murfreesboro in 1908 I have traveled far and wide across the continent; lived 12 years in northern Minnesota and for the past seven years in California … My daughters, Mary Jane, Virginia, and Frances Ethel, are billed as “The Three Gumm Sisters, the Trio Unusual,” and they do harmony syncopated dancing. Just now they have completed a successful tour of the Pacific Coast cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane and intervening cities where they appeared on the stage of the representative theaters. During the coming summer they will go East to Chicago and New York. The youngest girl, Frances, who is 11 years old, is a big sensation, and a brilliant career is predicted for her as she will shortly be featured with many of the prominent stars of the screen.
At some point during their 1934 summer tour, the Three Gumm Sisters became the Garland Sisters. According to legend, famed vaudevillian and actor George Jessel suggested they change their name to something more appealing. He had a point. Frances became Judy, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song by the same name.
[Judy] Garland, the youngest member of the Garland Sisters, almost stopped the show on its first performance with her impersonation of Helen Morgan sitting on a piano and singing “Bill,” and then repeated later before a microphone with “Little Man, You’ve Had A Busy Day.” The girl has personality, as have her sisters, not to neglect them, and the act gets loud and long applause. The Kansas City Star, September 30, 1934
Helen Morgan was a torch singer and actress who starred in the original Broadway production of Show Boat (1927). And it did seem as though Mary Jane and Dorothy were neglected by the press, as Frances/Judy received all the accolades. I wonder if there was any sibling jealousy?
… Frances, the youngest of the trio, is about as talented an entertainer as one could imagine, and is a show in herself. Illustrated Daily News, Los Angeles, May 31, 1935
Miss Garland, who recently signed with M-G-M studios is hailed as one of the brightest juvenile stars. San Pedro News-Pilot, California, November 12, 1935
Francis Garland died on November 18, 1935, from spinal meningitis, and never had the chance to see his daughter become a movie star.
Garland had a small role in Pigskin Parade and made a bit of a splash in Broadway Melody of 1938 …
Judy Garland just about steals the audience’s attention in this picture, and that is quite a feat, for, like a three-ring circus, the audience is very busy giving attention to many entertaining things. Judy Garland is a 15-year-old girl who sings popular songs in a very powerful voice, ranging from “hot” rhythmic music to a meltingly sentimental love ballad. This little girl wins attention not only for her singing, but also for her exceedingly mature and intelligent acting as she sings. When she sings “Everybody Sing,” she very nearly whips the audience into a mood of community song; and the sequence in which she sings the old song, “You Made Me Love You,” to a photograph of Clark Gable is one of the most intense bits of acting seen this year. The Sydney Mail, Australia, December 15, 1937
Click here to watch Garland sing to the photo of Clark Gable.
Australians weren’t the only ones who loved to hear Garland sing. Here’s a funny story …
Judy Garland Thanked By Parking Lot Boss
This was the headline for a story that ran in The Boston Globe on September 10, 1937. It seems that Ed Oland ran a parking lot outside the M-G-M studios and …
…has been losing money daily because his lot is not conveniently near the front of the studio. Only recently he noticed that his lot was filling up with cars and, oddly enough, the occupants stayed in their machine and just rolled down the windows.
Soon he discovered the reason. By parking on his lot the motorists, mostly out-of-town visitors, found they could listen to Miss Garland rehearse her songs for “Broadway Melody of 1938.” Gratified at the sudden spurt in business he sent Miss Garland a note saying that both she and her mother could park their car on his lot free of charge for the rest of their lives.
Garland’s next film, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, also released in 1937, teamed her with Mickey Rooney for the first of many times.
Occasionally an unpretentious little picture turns out to be better entertainment than many a lavish epic, and … It exploits perfectly the talents of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland … The Sacramento Union, California, December 12, 1937
Production of The Wizard of Oz began in October 1938 and the iconic film was released in August 1939.
A new experience and a new thrill dawned in Hollywood last night for the motion picture devotee … The plaudits can, indeed, be opulently bestowed on “The Wizard” on … Judy Garland – for her unflagging sincerity in the interpretation of Dorothy and the fact that she is able to elicit the tear in the final sequences, because you are so definitely “with her” in all her experiences, especially those in a well-nigh supernal. The Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1939
A star was born … and Garland would go on to star in A Star Is Born (1954). She was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Esther Blodgett and lost to Grace Kelly (The Country Girl).
Click here for my story on Judy’s daughter: Liza Minelli.
From Unknown To Famous 