Discovering Judy Garland - How I Began the Journey

Judy Garland was and is, arguably, the greatest entertainer who ever lived. Without a doubt, she was the most loved. Beginning her career at the age of two and a half on the stage of her father’s theater, The New Grand in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, by the age of twelve, she was a veteran performer. She could make an audience laugh and she could bring tears to their eyes. Above anything she might have learned in her young years, she had a voice that was a gift from heaven; it was a voice that touched the heart in a way one never forgot.

Like thousands of others, I was touched by Judy Garland at a young age when I witnessed her on our black and white television, with a basket under one arm and a dog under the other, trying to push her way though the gate to her home in the midst of a tornado. Judy was Dorothy in The Wizerd of Oz. Dorothy was someone I recognized, connected with and loved.

Through the years, I learned to love Judy as Andy Hardy’s best friend, a funny teenager with an infectious giggle, who wrinkled her nose when she laughed. And I was inspired by her beauty as one of MGM studio’s greatest stars, a singer who could belt out a song like nobody’s business. My mother told me Judy had problems with drugs, but that didn’t matter. Judy died when I was fifteen, but she was in my heart forever.

Moving to Hollywood at the age of eighteen, one of my biggest goals was to meet someone who had known Judy. I couldn’t meet her, but I could come close to it. In time, I met many, many people who had known Judy Garland, as well as her children, a former husband and other extended family. I also met people who had known her at three, at six, at ten and at the end of her life. Meeting the people who had known Judy before stardom was especially important to me. Talking to them allowed to me see Judy as a real person, not just a magical movie star.

Eventually, I moved from Hollywood to New York and pursued my own career. Many things happened and, though I always loved Judy’s music and films, I went on with my own life. Then, in 1992 one of my best friends, Robin Weiss, passed away, leaving me a great deal of her Garland collection. One of her dreams had always been to visit Grand Rapids, Minnesota and the house where Judy spent her early years. A few years after Robin’s passing I learned that that home had been moved and there were plans to turn it into a museum.

 

The summer of 1995, I traveled to Grand Rapids for the grand opening of the Judy Garland Birthplace. Late on a June afternoon, a large group of eager fans stood in the heat, with dragon flies flitting around, waiting for the doors to be opened to the public for the first time.  Someone said to me, “There’s someone you should meet over there,” and escorted me to a little lady bent over with osteo-arthritis. This lady met me with a beaming smile. She was my first real connection to Baby Gumm. Wilma Hendriks Casper had lived with the Gumms when Judy was three. While attending high school, she helped Judy's mother, Ethel, with the housework and took care of Mary Jane, Jimmie and Baby Frances while the Gumms were at the theater.



Wilma Hendriks Casper with Michelle Russell in 1995



Over the next three days at the Festival, Wilma and her wonderful husband, Bob, and I became friends. I just loved Wilma. She was sweet, but she was also feisty. She suffered greatly from her illness, but she put her faith in God. She and Bob were still very much in love and could not say enough nice things about each another. They were an inspiration.

On the last day, Wilma and I went into the house by ourselves. The upstairs was as yet not restored, but as we went through the house Wilma shared her memories. Some were dim, but some were quite clear, taking me into the past with Ethel and the girls. Although I didn’t know it, those shared memories were the beginning of my book. For the first time, I saw Ethel as a real person and for the first time, I saw Judy (Frances Ethel Gumm) as a real little girl, running around, giggling, getting into mischief and singing with that incredible voice of hers. “She was the most darling little girl,” said Wilma. “I never forgot her. Later, when she had become famous, and I saw her in the movies, I was so proud of her.”

This began my journey with Judy Garland. In the coming blogs, I will take you on my adventurous journey, writing the book “From Tennessee to Oz” and finding out about Judy Garland and her Gumm family.

The Judy Garland Birthplace, Grand Rapids, MN as it appeared in 1997.
A Museum has since been built. (c) M. Russell