Judy Garland vs. Lana Turner

[bhryun]

I was wonderng if anyone had any insight of what Lana Turner thought of Judy Garland after her premature death. The reason I ask this is because I was reading "Get Happy," a biography of Garland, and was depressed to read how bad Judy's self-esteem was in her MGM days. Especially when she compared herself to Lana Turner. It seems that Turner had the annoying habit of stealing many of her potential boyfriends. I wonder how Judy could feel so inferior to someone who was clearly not nearly as talented as she was. I love Turner, but Garland had more talent in her finger than Turner had in her entire (very lovely) body.

[richardny4me]

I don't know about how they viewed each other's many publicized incidents as their lives progressed, but though it has been a long time since I read Lana Turner's autobiography I do recall her writing that she was envious of those with specific musical talent, though she did not mention Garland by name, it seemed pretty obvious she was talking about her. I remember thinking it was so ironic, each was envious of the other.

[d120421]

I don't know what Turner thought of Garland after Judy's passing,but I recall reading a comment from producer Joe Pasternak (I think) about their years at MGM that went something like this:

 

[Judy] used to think of herself as a little homely girl compared to all the beautiful girls at MGM like Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford and Elzabeth Taylor, and it never occurred to her that they might be envious of her. One day Lana turned to her and said, "I'd give all the beauty I have for your talent. The expression on your face, your singing."

 

I can easily understand why Judy might be jealous of Lana. Although Lana was only two years older than Judy, her image was always, even from her earliest most "G" rated films, that of a beautiful, sexy, voluptuous and desireable "babe," while Judy's was that of the good-hearted, loyal "Girl that No One Whistled At" (as one Garland commentator put it.

 

The same was true, apparently, offscreen. Reportedly while Lana's entrance on a movie set would incite wolf whistles and applause from male crew members, Judy's entrance would inspire cheerful calls of "Hiya, Judy!"

 

I find it interesting that Lana Turner was Judy Garland's physical ideal of "beauty." Not that Lana wasn't a beautiful girl, but there were others (e.g., Gene Tierney, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, etc.) whose beauty was generally considered more extraordinary/exotic than Lana's "all A,merican curvaceous Hollywood cutie" blonde looks.

 

I suspect that Judy's admiration/eny of Turner went beyond mere "looks" to the sexy, provocative, physically desireable image that Turner projected on and offscreen. It was the type of sophisticated image/lifestyle to which Judy (and most other "Girl Next Door" actresses) eagerly aspired, and Judy apparently made no secret of that fact.

 

From what I've read about Judy, I also get the impression that she tended to define herself primarily as a "performer" first, and a "person" second. She seemed to be constantly trying to dissasociate herself from "Frances Ethel Gumm" (her real name) and to give primacy to "Judy Garland" (her stage name/image) and that must have created a great many problems for her.