“Over the Rainbow” is just the beginning of the story.
Today, Garland remains a symbol of vulnerability, emotionality, and authenticity.
“Her image was that she was very ordinary,” Dyer tells EW.
Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz’.Everett Collection
“And then she had all these problems that became known, and she suddenly appeared not ordinary.
She was a misfit.
In a way, that is the gay biography growing up.
Judy Garland in ‘Summer Stock’.Everett Collection
You’re brought up ordinary, and then you realize that you’re not.”
“She compared herself to a wind-up doll, manufactured by adults for their entertainment,” he says.
“So she was never able to really be herself.
And yet, when she performed, she exhibited this level of authentic emotion.”
“But she herself had a camp sense of humor.
Camp is both emotionally vulnerable and making fun of itself for being emotionally vulnerable.
It’s not surprising that she does camp.
Another complicated component of Garland’s status as a gay icon was her own intimacy with gay men.
Both Dyer and Frank say Garland was aware that many of her fans were gay.
And she didn’t convey homophobia or transphobia in any explicit way, either.”
It’s also well-catalogued that Garland had personal relationships with several gay men.
Years later, it’s a story that can’t be proven, nor dismissed.
In Dyer’s estimation, Garland’s concerts were occasions for a rare breath of freedom.
He chalks it up to her unique place in time.
She’s at that moment of transition, and that’s why she is so particularly important."
“Each generation looks anew at what symbols are important to them,” says Frank.
“And I have been heartened to see that Judy Garland makes the cut again and again.”
