Judy Garland was apparently molested on the set of “The Wizard of Oz,” and this breaks our hearts
Even though there are many great movies, it’s hard to think of one that impacted our childhoods as much as The Wizard of Oz. Which makes the following news just…absolutely crushing.
According to her ex-husband Sid Luft, Judy Garland was molested by several fellow actors —specifically the ones who played munchkins — on the set.
We know; that sentence is hard to process, especially when we remember that Garland was just a teenager at the time. But it’s seemingly a truthful accusation, as Luft revealed this deeply upsetting and confusing news in a posthumous memoir called Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland.
He recalled, “They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress…The men were 40 or more years old.” SO MUCH UGH.
There is currently only one surviving munchkin named Jerry Maren, who recalled that there were a few guys from Germany who drank a lot of beer and “wanted to meet the girls.” It’s just simply devastating that most of the group can’t be held accountable for these actions, and that Garland isn’t around to explain how the events transpired.
At the time that the film was made (Hollywood’s “golden age”) it was much less common to speak up about this kind of treatment, and we can only imagine how confused and hurt Garland must have been when this happened to her as a young girl.
UGH, it makes our skin crawl because this kind of behavior should never be tolerated under any circumstance. Needless to say we won’t be watching The Wizard of Oz the same way again anytime soon, but we might pick up a copy of that memoir to learn more about who Garland was in her life outside of the spotlight.
