Divine Madness
Chapter One
Judy Garland
Under the Rainbow
Judy Garland was locked in the bathroom, lying on
the floor, refusing to respond to any of the desperate calls from her
hotel bedroom.
"Mama," her daughter Liza Minnelli screamed through the door.
"Mama, are you OK in there?" She banged louder, knowing that
something was seriously wrong. Liza was certainly the only kid she
knew who had to travel with a stomach pump in case she had to save
her mother from another drug overdose, which was occurring with
frequent regularity. More than once, she'd had to crawl through the
window of a bathroom like this in order to revive her mother's unconscious
body, lying in a pool of vomit.
It was the early sixties. Judy's career was on the skids. Again. She
was losing her voice. No producer would agree to work with her after
the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio canceled her contract. She had tried
television next, but The Judy Garland Show was being creamed in the
ratings by Bonanza. It was then considered the most expensive production
mistake in ... read full excerpt from Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle ebook
