Judy Garland got her start in films not at MGM as most people assume, but years before when she was 7 years old.
When sound films became the rage in the late 1920's, the studios cranked out shorts that featured known and unknown stage acts. Kiddie acts were always popular, and some of the most prolific came out of Ethel Meglin's Los Angeles school for show business children.
Her mother, Ethel (Piper Laurie) is trying to organise her three daughters – known as the Gumm sisters – for a road trip to sing at four singing.
Judy and her sisters were a part of Meglin's school for a few years, appearing mostly in stage acts that opened the program at movie theaters. Lucky for us, the popularity of early sound films prompted the studios to seek out new talent, giving us a record of not only Judy's early years (and film debut) but also the only surviving film footage of many famous stage acts.
The Warner Archive DVD series includes several multi-disc releases featuring many of the surviving shorts. They're fascinating to watch, and well worth purchasing.
As noted below, most of these early sound films had their audio recor