Hello, it's Beckett, welcome to The History Jix.

The following minicast is an accompaniment to episode 37, The Wizard of Oz.

It covers three of the major stars of the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz.

And let's start with the biggie, Judy Garland. I will tell you, it is hard to be

this compact with Judy Garland, but here we go. Judy was born as Francis

Ethel Gum in 1922 to two Vod Villians, Ethel and Francis. Her parents owned a theater in

Grand Rapids, Minnesota, not exactly the place you'd expect to start to come from, but there was

a huge scandal where Papa was accused of being forward with some male employees, and the family

had to move. Papa found another theater for sale far, far away in Lancaster, California,

which is just outside of Los Angeles. Judy and her two sisters, Susie and Jimmy, which was

short for Virginia, were an act. They were the Gum sisters, and Mamagum, natural sage mother,

that she was, and here they are, so close to Hollywood, started the machine, you know. They were

in an area where a lot of education for dance and singing and performing was available to them,

so she put them in classes, and Baby Gum, as she was known, that's just a lovely name.

Was in her first movie at seven. The Gum sisters, soon to change to the Garland sisters, which is

much lovelier, were in more movies, and Big Vodville shows until Sister Susie broke up the act

in 1935, by aloping with a musician. Shades of Gypsy Rosalie. That she did. But not long after that,

Judy became a solo act, and at 13 she signed with MGM, but at 13, you know, she's not really a

child actress, although she's as small as a child at 4 foot 11, but she's not, you know, a glamour

sleeping lady. They kind of had a problem placing her, but at least they had her under contract,

so no one else could take her away. She had a girl next door image that they created for her,

which worked great when they paired her with Andy Rooney, who was also not a very tall person,

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