But I was not prepared for its current shabby condition, the effect of its juxtaposition with the sweet and impressive buildings surrounding it, or the overwhelming emotions that would envelop me as I walked from Knightsbridge tube towards my destination. I looked in to see that the entire inside had been gutted. But going through life as a symbol was corrosive. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. That countless other people would have lived there since her death, and numerous alterations would mean that little of ‘her’ remained in its physicality – whatever that might mean anyway. Take that, put it in front of a live audience, and you’ll get the series of London performances she did in 1969. Judy's gut wrenching final scene features Garland performing at her concert one last time, after closing her tenure early. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. Lots of people can’t.” She begs to no one in particular, “Don’t make a joke of me anymore. It was imagining Judy walking in and out of the door, down the lane, maybe to the shops. “She couldn’t rely on it like she once had. They make others – like me – even more fascinated with this enthralling woman. Garland’s first marriage was essentially a bid for freedom. While filming the 1948 film. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised: I know that Judy Garland always moves me. “She was commissioned to write her biography and kind of endlessly missed the deadline, so they ended up bringing her a tape recorder, and said, essentially, ‘Look, just press play and start talking, and we’ll type it up,’” explained Judy screenwriter Tom Edge (The Crown) of one of his most invaluable—but disturbing—research sources. In one tape, available online, she confesses, “I’m an angry lady. The address may seem swanky (just around the corner from Gucci, Chanel, Hermes and the like) and the lane it stands on full of the cutest mews cottages, but Judy Garland’s last abode is a sad little thing. Gumm’s mother, Ethel, quickly tried to shape her daughters into stars. According to Gerald Clarke, Garland's biographer, she was frequently approached for sex as a teenger. It was thinking of what happened to her inside, in that bathroom. Her last concert was on March 25, 1969 in Copenhagen. All rights reserved. In 1926, the Gumms left town to escape scandal and headed to California. Frances gave herself the new name “Judy” after. This practice wasn’t uncommon. “Actors live in a queer sort of double world. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. Rather than imitating the famous actress and singer. Her whole life she has worked and worked and worked, [yet] she finds herself $4 million in debt to the IRS.”, “They are hard to listen to, honestly, because there’s so much fury there mixed in with just an incomprehension of how all this is coming to pass,” said Edge. Judy Garland lived, loved and died in a tiny mews house in Belgravia. Her contract tied her to MGM for seven years. I’d been there a while when I noticed a gap at the side of the curtain on the front window. I didn’t get why people could experience her and not feel exactly the same sense of awe, wonder, fascination and sweet pathos. Our critic says Joaquin Phoenix towers in a deeply troubling film— Lori Loughlin finally gets a win. It appears the news of its demise was misinformation – planning permission has been given to tear down two other houses on the lane, but not Judy’s – but the prefab-looking shack where Judy spent her last few months looks like it should be razed. Ethel, a controlling stage mom, was the first person to put 10-year-old Frances on a diet of pills: Amphetamines in the morning, sleeping pills at night. © 2020 Condé Nast. This little, odd house is being renovated after all. A year prior to her death at age 47 due to an accidental overdose of barbiturates, Judy Garland was living in the glare of the media spotlight as she had done for almost her entire life. In the late ‘60s, when Garland was in her 40s, she was, Her life as a byproduct of the Hollywood machine was hard, as she freely. And it was there that Hollywood uber-legend, Judy Garland, died, suffering heart failure after her tiny, frail body finally gave out from too many pills. These facts make some Judy fans wince. There’s a really palpable sense [that] she can’t quite believe that she’s been working since she was two years old, and she held this studio movie career, and was a well-paid actor….