Liza Minelli has written a ‘new and exciting memoir’ Kids, wait until you hear this! about his extraordinary, damaged upbringing with his mother Judy Garland, from whom he inherited an addictive streak and a penchant for falling in love with gay men.
Garland struggled with serious addictions and mental health issues, as the MGM studio system (and, Minnelli believes, Garland’s own mother) pumped her full of weight-loss, stimulant, and sleeping drugs from the early days of her career, when she starred in The Wizard of Oz at just 16 years old. Minelli clearly adored her mother, whom she describes as “funny, wise and magnificent,” even if she was bombarded with her mother’s “scary” and unpredictable screams. fits; and his jealousy at having dragged her on stage as support and having discovered Liza earned enthusiastic applause. Garland died at age 47 from an overdose.
Liza married a composer at the age of 21 whom she surprised in bed with another man; then a television director whom she cheated on with Martin Scorsese and Mikhail Baryshnikov; sculptor Mark Gero; and ‘a monster’ in David Gest with a romance with Peter Sellers, among others, along the way.
Throughout her loud, talented, award-filled career, she has struggled with many health issues: scoliosis, miscarriages, encephalitis, crushed discs, and hip replacements.
Born on March 12, 1946 at 7:58 am in Los Angeles, she has a Pisces Sun in an erratic, restless, independent-minded square to Uranus and trine a horrible assembly of Mars, Saturn and the Moon in Cancer. His father was unavailable and his mother was unfair to the point of cruelty, angered and made him feel guilty. As expected, he had a fearsome Pluto in his 4thth childhood home. she 6th house of health and work has Jupiter, planet of luck and excess, and Neptune for a delicate constitution that would not welcome its addictions. His Chiron was also in his 6thth hinting at a split between her body and spirit, having difficulties in relationships, and all too often making her feel inferior or a servant, which she certainly was with her mother.
Judy Garland, June 10, 1922 6 a.m. Grand Rapids, Minnesota, had a creative and erratic 12th house Gemini Sun opposite Mars in an explosive square to Uranus conjunct his Midheaven; with his Uranus at the apex of a yod conjunct Neptune sextile Jupiter. Such a yod would make her stand out from the crowd, be contrary and rebellious, cheerful and unconventional. she 4th The house Saturn square Pluto on his Ascendant hinted at a bleak childhood. She also had her Moon in her 6th health house. If ever a couple should have avoided drink and drugs, it was this one with health sensitivities so marked on both charts.
In some other respects they were similar with the hard excitable aspects of the Sun, Uranus, a strong sense of emotional deprivation of the Moon and 4th house, both with Jupiter in Libra and neither with any practical or grounded planet Earth.
His relationship chart was emotionally cold (partly due to Judy’s professional commitments) with a composite Venus square Saturn. Angry with the Moon conjunct Mars; and subject to constant upheaval and turbulence with Uranus square Pluto; with an underlying hint of a one-on-one fight from Pluto square Jupiter.
A sad and tragic life in many ways, but Liza survived to the age of 80 as a soldier.
