"We had such fun because she was so funny. She was funny, and she loved her kids so much. She was protective and very strict. She wanted you to do the right thing, like any mother. It’s that simple," said Minnelli.
In 1939, singer and actor Judy Garland shot to immense fame with her portrayal of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Since then, she'd been stealing hearts of fans all around the world with films like A Star is Born, Meet Me in St. Louis and Judgment at Nuremberg. And then in 1969, she left us with nothing but her legacy. But while she may have been an Academy Award-nominee legend to people around the globe, to her daughter, Liza Minnelli, she was just mom. While Minnelli may have followed in her mother's footsteps and become a talented singer and actress herself, she knows that she got there because her mom was her biggest support.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about my mama is that she didn’t provide me with a happy childhood,” said Minnelli to Vogue. “There were highs and lows for sure, but I can say I was very happy. If people choose to believe that or not, it’s up to them, but I know I was happy.” Despite their unconventional dynamic where Minnelli played carer to Garland due to her extravagant schedule and the fact that there was a 24-year gap between the two, they were friends. And their life was not something that the Cabaret actress ever saw as negative.
“My fondest memory of my mama was the conversations we had,” said Minnelli, who admitted she had trouble maintaining friendships due to constantly moving schools as a kid, especially that of "Judy Garland." “As I became a teenager, I became her best friend and confidante. We would laugh and talk for hours. Sometimes in person, sometimes on the phone, depending where we were. As I grew up, we became incredibly close.”
Her mom was her inspiration though she does credit her success to her own hard work. “Mama wasn’t one for lessons and advice,” she said. “Even when I went out into the business, she didn’t set things up for me – I just got on with it. I am sure that producers and directors were intrigued as to who Judy Garland’s daughter was and I am sure that helped me, but I went and done it all by myself.” And she gained even more success than her mother by achieving an EGOT status — an Emmy, a Grammy Legend Award, an Oscar, and four Tony awards.
But as the New York New York actress's fame shot up, so did interest in her personal life. And then came the comparisons. According to Variety, when asked about what the hardest part about being in show business was, the singer replied, "The hardest part was getting to be known as myself as opposed to somebody’s daughter. I remember Mama saying, 'Now don’t get upset because of the way they may compare you to me because you’re an entertainer too.' I said, 'Oh, I won’t.' And then she reads something where they compared me to her. She said, 'How dare they? You’re your own woman. Dammit! Can’t they see?' And she’d throw it down in the trash. She was wonderful and so overprotective. She tried saving us from any of the stuff that other people said, except the great stuff."
She also told the magazine that she loved spending time with her mom. "We had such fun because she was so funny. She was funny, and she loved her kids so much. She was protective and very strict. She wanted you to do the right thing, like any mother. It’s that simple." And during moments she missed her mother, she said, "When I call on her, she’s there, and I call on her a lot. She’ll say, 'Ignore it' a lot. She’ll say, 'It’s one opinion. Who cares? Just keep going.'"
Minnelli, now 73, wouldn't wish for her life to be any other way. Despite losing her mother at the age of 23, she was glad she got to be her mother's daughter. “I got my drive from my mama and my dreams from my father [Vincente Minnelli],” she explained to Vogue. “She had drive and she had guts. She had huge ambition, a great sense of resilience, and a simply wonderful sense of humor. I like to think she passed those three traits on to me. It wasn’t and isn’t easy to live a so-called normal life. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. You don’t ask a princess what it feels like to be a princess, because she doesn’t know anything but being a princess. I didn’t know anything but being Judy Garland’s daughter.”
References:
https://en.vogue.me/entertainment/interview-liza-minnelli-judy-garland-wizard-of-oz/
https://variety.com/2020/film/features/liza-minnelli-judy-garland-bob-fosse-rehab-1203490846/
