Actress, singer and old Hollywood icon Judy Garland is perhaps best known for her role as the happy-go-lucky Dorothy in the colorful 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” But a far darker story played out behind the scenes — Garland was repeatedly sexually harassed by the men playing the munchkins, according to a posthumously published memoir from her ex-husband.
“They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress,” he wrote. “The men were 40 or more years old. “They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small.”
The book, called “Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland,” by Sid Luft will not published until March 1, but the excerpts were published in People Magazine Tuesday.
Garland had previously spoken about lewd behavior from the men who played the munchkins, fueling rumors about rampant alcoholism on set and orgies at their hotel.
“They were very tiny, they were drunks,” Garland said in 1967. “They put them all in a hotel in Culver City, and they got smashed every night, and they had to pick them up in butterfly nets.”
Garland was only 16 years old when she starred as Dorothy in the film, but she had previously spoken about receiving unwanted attention from the little people.
“One of them, who was a gentleman of about 40, asked me out to dinner,” she said. “I couldn’t say I didn’t want to go out because you’re a midget, so I just said ‘No, my mother wouldn’t like it’, but he said to bring her too.”
The behavior and the salaries of the actors has been a contentious topic ever since the film was made, with the men playing the munchkins disputing claims of their debauchery.
“How could you get drunk on $50 a week?” said actor Jerry Maren, who is still alive at 97 years old.
“There were a couple of kids from Germany who liked to drink beer,” he added. “They drank beer morning, noon and night, and got in a little trouble. They wanted to meet the girls, but they were the only ones.”
After “The Wizard Of Oz” was released, Garland continued to have a troubled life. She struggled with drug addiction and attempted suicide, which Luft chronicled in the memoir. The pair were married from 1952 to 1965. Garland passed away only four years after they divorced. Luft died in 2005.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
