1939

1935

Singer and actress Judy Garland (neé Frances Ethel Gumm) was discovered while headlining with her two older sisters at the Cal-Neva Lodge at Lake Tahoe in Nevada.

Theatrical agent Al Rosen was in the audience when The Garland Sisters sang, their mom Ethel on the piano. “Get that kid over here,” Rosen told the casino manager, Elmer “Bones” F. Remmer, referring to Judy (Los Angeles Times, June 14, 1982).

Rosen instructed the youngest sibling to sing Dinah to assess her chops, and Judy did. After, Rosen told Ethel, “I want to sign her.”

Subsequently, Rosen had Judy study with a Jewish cantor to develop soul, he said — “that’s how she could sing Over The Rainbow.”