Free Mark Griffin by A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life, Films of Vincente Minnelli

to save both of them, but in the end, it proved to be the one MGM production that was missing the studio’s essential component: a happy ending.

    Vincente and Judy in the late 1940s. PHOTO COURTESY OF PHOTOFEST
    “Looking back on it, I think that marriage was just too much for both of them,” says MGM publicist Esme Chandlee:
    Of course, Minnelli was not the strongest figure in the world. Judy was tempestuous. He wasn’t. Though in some ways, you had two personalities that were so completely alike because they were both terribly nervous people. You could always sense the nervousness about Minnelli when you were talking to him. I think maybe Minnelli was “both ways” and that really tolled on him. It was always kind of odd that he got married and had a child to begin with. And with all that was going on with Judy, I don’t think that marriage was the happiest time of his life, either. Though I never heard one of them ever say a bad word about the other. Ever. I think they respected one another—both professionally and as people—but eventually, they realized that being married to each other just didn’t work. 8
    Given his introverted nature and a need to frequently escape into his own inner world, Minnelli found himself overwhelmed by the torrent of emotion and expectation that his wife sent flowing in his direction every day. Despite Judy’s incomparable talents and widespread acclaim, Minnelli would recall that “her desire for constant approval was pathological.” 9 How could Vincente ever provide all of the validation and reassurance Judy required? At times, it seemed as though Minnelli was tasked with undoing the years of psychological and emotional damage that had been done to Garland—by her mother, Mayer, the studio, and the vagaries of a life lived in the glare of the spotlight. No matter how much tenderness, support, and understanding Vincente could have offered, it would never be enough.
    Eventually, both husband and wife were harboring deep-seated resentments. To Minnelli, the fact that Garland lied to her psychiatrists (according to Vincente, she had seen as many as sixteen) was unforgivable. “Our relationship was drastically damaged,” he recalled. 10 To Judy, the fact that Vincente seemed to side with the studio during her battles with Metro’s front office offered damning evidence that Minnelli wasn’t really married to her but to his own career.

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    Almost Like Being in Love
    WHEN GEORGETTE MAGNANI was introduced to Vincente Minnelli by composer Vernon Duke, she was in her early twenties, newly arrived from France, and almost always referred to as the “Sister of Miss Universe of 1953,” Christiane Martel. Georgette had come to California to look after her sister, who even at the tender age of seventeen didn’t seem in dire need of an escort. After her beauty-pageant triumph, Christiane was being courted by Universal Pictures. She was engaged to marry Ronnie Marengo, heir to the Marengo department store fortune. Being constantly referred to as an appendage of Miss Universe may have prompted the equally photogenic Georgette to attempt to forge her own identity—one that had nothing to do with her much-discussed sister. Suddenly items about “Christine’s Sis” began appearing in print. Columnists described Georgette as though she were the Second Coming of Sophia Loren: “She’s the same height as Christine [ sic ]—5 feet, 6 inches. Other statistics: waist 23, bust 35, hips 35.” Va-voom.
    Beyond the vital stats, Minnelli maintained that he was attracted by Georgette’s “open manner” (the same quality he said had drawn him to Judy), her “Latin temper,” and her French-Italian ancestry, which (more or less) matched his own. After they began a whirlwind courtship, rumors were circulating that Judy Garland’s ex was preparing to tie the knot again. When queried about his matrimonial intentions, Vincente told columnist Harrison Carroll, “We aren’t definite on our plans.