Understanding this icon’s early years doesn’t just explain the brilliance that later captivated the world; it exposes the dark machinery of old Hollywood, the pressures that shaped her adulthood, and the wounds that never fully healed.
From a very young age, this girl who would one day follow the Yellow Brick Road was already performing. Born in Minnesota, she made her stage debut before she was even three.
Her home life, however, was anything but magical. Her mother had reportedly wanted to end the pregnancy but was unable to, and the family was shaken by ongoing rumors about the father’s secret relationships with teenage boys and young men.
In June 1926, the family quietly relocated to Lancaster, California, after whispers about her father’s personal life began to spread.
Her parents, who worked as vaudeville entertainers, had a marriage that was a constant cycle of breaking apart and coming back together, something she remembered vividly.
”It was very hard for me to understand those things and, of course, I remember clearly the fear I had of those separations,” she said.
