Judy Garland Said She and Mickey Rooney Took So Many Drugs They ‘Were Hanging From the Ceiling’

The primary half of the twentieth century is sometimes called the Golden Age of Hollywood. However this distinction overlooks the abusive situations compelled upon actors of all ages. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney got massive quantities of medication to maintain up with their intense taking pictures schedule once they had been nonetheless youngsters. Each actors had historic careers in the business, however they had been additionally broken by these experiences in heartbreaking methods. 

Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney had been MGM’s premier baby stars

(L-R): American actors Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland hug and have a look at the digital camera with stunned expressions, in a promotional portrait for director George B. Seitz’s movie, ‘Love Finds Andy Hardy.’ | Hulton Archive/Getty Photos

Rooney appeared in his first movie position at 6 in the quick movie To not be Trusted. He quickly rose to prominence. Rooney’s early huge roles embody the titular character in the comedy collection Mickey McGuire and the 1935 adaptation of A Midsummer Evening’s Dream. 

Garland (born title Frances Ethel Gumm) was ready for stardom from the age of two. She carried out along with her two sisters on the Vaudeville circuit. (Her mom Ethel, a former performer herself, would typically play the piano for them.) 

The 2 each signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as preteens and starred in various musicals collectively. Garland and Rooney first appeared on display as a pair in 1937’s Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry. They would go on to star in seven extra motion pictures collectively. Three of those are the Hardy Household motion pictures, with Rooney as Andy Hardy and Garland as his good friend Betsy Sales space. 

The vital top of their pairing was in Babes in Arms in 1939, the place each actors acquired Academy Award nominations. Rooney (19) is the second-youngest Finest Actor winner ever, and Garland was nominated for the defunct Juvenile Oscar for her twin performances on this and The Wizard of Oz. They collaborated for the ultimate time on Phrases and Music, a 1948 musical. 

Judy Garland detailed how the studio compelled her and Mickey Rooney to take capsules

Loads of motion pictures from the early days of Hollywood are price watching to this present day. However as this History article explains, many stars from that interval labored unreasonable hours attributable to a rigorously structured system that included the use of medication. 

Children weren’t exempt from this course of. And a few dad and mom had been far too determined to see their progeny on the huge display. At the behest of her mom and MGM, Garland took “pep pills” (aka amphetamines) to keep up an lively efficiency throughout manufacturing and sleeping capsules when the studio deemed it acceptable to relaxation.  

“They’d give us pills to keep us on our feet long after we were exhausted. Then they’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us out with sleeping pills – Mickey sprawled out on one bed and me on another,” Garland stated. “Then after four hours they’d wake us up and give us the pep pills again so we could work 72 hours in a row. Half of the time we were hanging from the ceiling but it was a way of life for us.”

As Garland turned an even bigger star, MGM docs additionally prescribed fat burners to manage weight. The studio additionally satisfied her to get an abortion when she was 19 so they may proceed to make use of her prepubescent “girl next door” picture. 

Egregious use of capsules was widespread in Hollywood, the army, and as a weight-reduction plan instrument up till 1970 when the Managed Substances Act was handed and the studio system started to lose its energy over the labor power. 

Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney led storied careers marred by drug issues

Rooney and Garland weren’t simply co-workers. They had been kindred spirits. Each delighted audiences regardless of MGM’s cruelty. And, given their circumstances, each handled drug and alcohol habit early in life. 

Rooney was lucky to outlive these demons, overcoming habit in his 70s. He continued to behave into his 90s. Rooney died of pure causes in 2014.

Garland was a lot much less lucky. She turned to substances to assist take care of the deep-seated ache in her private life, her profession as an grownup veering from transient highs and despairing lows. Garland died in 1969 after an unintended overdose of barbiturates. 

Rooney shared how this impacted him. “She was like my sister,” he instructed Vanity Fair. “She was my friend. It hurts too terribly to talk about it.” There was a time of their lives when the actor believed Garland had a crush on him. Rooney at all times regretted that he by no means gave her an opportunity. Possibly issues might’ve been completely different in the event that they had been by one another’s facet by all of it. 



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