Product Description

Judy Garland, the girl with the pigtails in THE WIZARD OF OZ, was an entertainer of almost magical power. The woman of half a dozen comebacks and a hundred heartbreaks. To tell her story, Gerald Clarke took ten years, travelled thousands of miles across two continents, conducted hundreds of interviews, and combed through mountains of documents, many of which were unavailable to other biographers. Combining a novelist's skill and a movie director's eye, Clarke re-creates the golden age of Hollywood with cinematic urgency: Louis B Mayer, the patriarch of MGM; sexy Lana Turner, Judy's friend and idol, who had a habit of trying to snatch away any man Judy expressed interest in; clarinettist Artie Shaw, handsome Tyrone Power; boy genius Orson Welles and brilliant director Vincente Minnelli, who fathered her first child, Liza. Towards the end of her life, Garland tried to tell her own story. With access to her tape recordings - and her revelatory unfinished manuscript - Clarke is able to tell Judy's story as she herself might have told it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17860 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'[A] masterful biography.' SUNDAY TIMES 'A Hollywood biography in the classic mould...[it is the] deep insecurity allied with greatness that Clarke explores so well. This is a sympathetic biography in that it seeks explanations, although Clarke properly makes no attempt to gloss over the Garland excesses.' GLASGOW HERALD 'This biography carries us through Garland's show-stopping highs and pill-popping lows in high style, showing her considerable wit and glamour as well as the misery of a young performer manipulated by the studio...Clarke's biography whips smoothly through the years with minimal hyperbole and his subject emerges triumphant.' OBSERVER 'There have been plenty of books on Judy, but Clarke is the only writer to have access to her 68 manuscript pages of her unfinished biography. Drawing on a remarkable number of sources, he has produced the definitive life.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'I am not generally a huge fan of biographies as they tend to drive me crazy with their desire to shock and reveal or-worse- do a gloss job on some star's life. But GET HAPPY does neither...written in a detailed, direct and honest way, giving no real opinion but telling her story.' SUNDAY HERALD, Books of the Year 'A clear, documentary style and the simple appraoch of a start, middle and end makes this book quite a new wheel rather than the reinvention of an old one.' IRISH TIMES 'With the same empathy he brought to his extroardinary biography of Truman Capote, he gives a warmly witty account of another mismanaged genius that leaves on hungry to revisit her legacy of films and recordings.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'An interesting vignette of life behind the Hollywood scenes.' GAY TIMES

About the Author
Gerald Clarke is the author of CAPOTE, the much acclaimed bestselling biography of Truman Capote. He has also written for many magazines, including ESQUIRE and TIME, where for many years he was a senior writer.

Customer Reviews

Not for first-time Garland biography readers.
What more can be said about the life of Judy Garland, beyond the material on her life that is already available? Based on this biography, the answer it would seem is very little, which perhaps explains the author's choice of central theme with which to peddle his wares: Garland's alleged sexual behaviour and history. This is not to say that the book as a whole is unworthy, as it otherwise overflows with first-hand accounts and relevant information on the life of this most paradoxical and iconic of entertainers. It's just that most of this same information is already available elsewhere.

The author's focus on the sexuality of Garland, and those that surrounded her and influenced her throughout her life, flows throughout the entire book, to the extent that, if this element were removed, it would weigh in at significantly less than it's current size. The only people to escape scrutiny it would seem, are Garland's two youngest children, Lorna & Joey Luft, as even first born Liza Minnelli's husband is brought under the microscope. There is one particular account, which is so shockingly graphic and wholly unnecessary, that it makes you wonder how it was allowed into the book in the first place. The source quoted in the book for said 'information' has, of course, requested anonymity. This unrelenting focus begs the question: Is anything new really brought to this historical account, other than that which will give pain to her family and injure the memory of the woman herself? It would seem not.

Otherwise, the book is an interesting and comprehensive account of Garland's life, particularly of her early years and tenure at M-G-M, that is spoiled by the point already mentioned. If you are a first time-time reader of the life of Judy Garland, I would suggest this book were probably best avoided in favour of one of the other biographies available.

Judy is a STAR
When ever people mention Judy Garland, you think of the Wizzard of Oz and not of the troubled woman she became. This booked touched many strings of my heart as I read of how hard she worked as a child and was never allowed to be herself, always performing. The pictures inside the book told a thousand stories, and I found "Get Happy " well written, and and very informative. Infact it did bring on many emotions. I could not put it down. "Get Happy" is a must for all Garland fans.

An insight into the highs & lows Judy Garland
This book doesn't just give you an insight into the life of the legend & the reasons for her downfall. It also gives you some gossip about the stars that Judy worked with at MGM, which also makes for some interesting reading. You experience her highs and her lows & end up wishing that someone could have nipped her self-abuse in the bud, rather than letting it carry on her whole life. It definitely makes you want to listen to her old recordings & watch her films. The message throughout the book is that she was a lady with amazing talent who was mistreated and then mismanaged throughout her life. A must if you are interested in Judy or indeed that era. The first chapter or so is a bit heavy going giving a detailed explanation of Judy Garland's family, it is however quite relevant. Once you get to the point where little Frances Gumm arrives the book really livens up. People who don't want to spoil their memory of her beware: not all you will read is complimentary of Miss Garland, there is an emphasis on presenting the facts whether good or bad. All in all, it is a very insightful book. I couldn't put it down.