Judy Garland worked for nearly 45 of her 47 years. She made 32 feature films, did voice-over work for two more, and appeared in at least half a dozen short subjects. She received a special Academy Award and was nominated for two others. She starred in 30 of her own television shows (the programmes and Garland herself garnering a total of 10 Emmy Award nominations). Between 1951 and 1969, she fulfilled over 1100 theatre, nightclub and concert performances, winning a special Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award.

She recorded nearly 100 singles and over a dozen record albums; Judy at Carnegie Hall received an unprecedented five Grammys in 1962 (including Album of the Year) and has never been out of print.

Garland was born as Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Her parents were former vaudeville performers who bought a theatre and settled in Grand Rapids. She was the third of three girls.

Garland made her show business "debut" during a Christmas show at her parents' theatre on December 26, 1924 (she was 2½ years old). Her elder sisters were already performing as a singer-dancer duo at the time. The sisters became a trio shortly after Garland's debut. They were billed as "The Gumm Sisters", and appeared at theatres and social functions in and around Grand Rapids. The family eventually moved to California.

Garland was signed by MGM in 1936. Unsure of her talents, MGM loaned her to 20th Century Fox where, ninth-billed in Pigskin Parade, she stole the show, and returned to MGM triumphant, and was cast as Dorothy.

The Wizard of Oz became a phenomenon when it was released in 1939. After "Oz" Garland was just about the most popular young actress on earth. Oz is certainly her best remembered film today (it has been seen by more people than any other film ever made), but many of her films have become classics and now rank among the best movie musicals ever made (including Meet Me in St. Louis, Easter Parade, The Harvey Girls, A Star Is Born, In the Good Old Summertime and The Pirate).

MGM, however, couldn't see beyond the "adorable little-girl" image, and insisted upon casting her as a child until her marriage to composer David Rose in 1941.

Unfortunately, Garland developed an increasing prescription drug dependency, which affected her work. She also began drinking heavily, and her marriage to Rose deteriorated. After an attempted suicide in 1950, Garland was fired by MGM.

Her acting was increasingly inconsistent. A long period of inactivity ended when she began the weekly The Judy Garland Show in 1963, but its success was short-lived, and it was cancelled after a year.

The diva found herself financially in ruins with her health failing rapidly. She continued to perform at concerts, at nightclubs, and on an occasional TV programme. But her life seemed to spiral out of control as she married and remarried within a period of three years, broke many concert and night club engagements, and was often in court battling over lawsuits with night club owners and producers. Most of the money she did make was seized by the IRS for back taxes. Finally, her home was seized by the IRS, and she found herself homeless. She had to work just to survive, but she was really too ill to perform.

Garland finally found the ultimate peace on June 22, 1969, less than two weeks after her 47th birthday. She was found dead in her rented home in Chelsea, London. Judy Garland made one last "comeback" as more than 22,000 people paid their respects at her final appearance at Campbell's Funeral Chapel in New York on June 27, 1969.

One of the world's most beloved personalities had come and gone in less than a lifetime of most of her fans. But the "girl with magic shoes" had left ineradicable footprints on show business history.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent