Gerold Frank has taken a subject of innumerable facets, a larger-than-life personality, and an almost indescribable talent and has put the history of her life to words as no writer before or since has been able to accomplish. Judy Garland, one of the silver screen's most beloved stars, is accurately and honestly conveyed in this biography. Frank's style is unique: when he tells of the tradgedies or failures of the star, he is not incriminating against the subject. Frank's book is one as written by an observer, sometimes voyueristically so. His thorough research bring Garland through in all her glory: as the vaudeville headliner, the little girl on the rise to stardom, the MGM superstar, loving wife and mother, and the sometimes self-destructive woman, taken from this earth too soon by the disease brought on by a lifetime of pills, but most of all, the woman trying to find her place in the world and the love she always craved and needed. Judy Garland is a human being, not a media figure, in this book. Gerold Frank is to be well commended for his excellent portrayal of Judy Garland, and readers will also be delighted or surprised by the informative tidbits along this Yellow Brick Road into the life of the great Judy Garland. Judy
There won't be any point in anyone writing a biography of Judy Garland ever again, because Gerold Frank has outdone them all with "Judy", which is undoubtedly the finest marriage of biographer and subject that I have ever read. Here is Judy Garland, in all her colors and facets, revealed in an outstandingly candid and refreshingly honest story that dispels all the false rumors spread over the years and will be read with surprise, warmth,love, pity but more often joy, as we meet Judy Garland through the pages of "Judy".Born Frances Ethel Gumm, Judy Garland was a vaudeville headliner at ten years old, was a signed player at MGM at thirteen, and achieved immortality at seventeen in "The Wizard of Oz". From there on, the superstar endured a blockbuster-after-blockbuster decade at MGM, surviving on various prescribed medications that she soon came to depend on just to get out of bed in the morning. For the next twenty years of her life, Garland performed in thousands of live concerts, television shows, and engagements. In the midst of all this, Garland was married five times, had three children, and was hailed as one of Hollywood's greatest tragedies at the time of her death.But all that changes here: Frank captures Garland's wry wit, her ability to laugh at the world, her bitterness when she was wronged, to be a "tragic clown", to love passionately, and to exhaust endlessly. Frank captures with a poignant honesty the Garland whose exasperating mood swings, brought on by pills and barbiturates, exhausted those closest to her, but never stopped loving her. You will become a person who tries to keep Judy happy but doesn't know to keep her happy, just keep loving her, through Frank's recreating of events and times in her life. He captures the Judy who loved her children desperately, who loved to be loved, and was sometimes selfish and manipulative, but ultimately, was a warm, funny, glorious treasure, just a beautiful lady with a very mixed-up life. Garland's life was filled with so much emotion, so many ecstatic joys and bitter disappointments, and she vented the emotions in many different ways, depending on her mood and the people around her. Frank also captures the people who knew Judy best, like her father Frank Gumm, her beloved mentor Roger Edens, her dear friend Kay Thompson, her third husband Sid Luft, and her children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft. These were the people to whom Judy meant the most, and they became a part of the whirling maelstrom of love and erratic behaviors, and the harsh realities and unbelievably wonderful times that loving Judy Garland meant. They never stopped loving Judy, or she them, but the inevitable was Garland's lapses of reality, or refusing to believe reality, admonishing it, or laughing at it. They saw all facets of Judy Garland, and they learned to live with her and love her, no matter what.Frank writes convincingly and digs deep into Garland's depths. For the people who say, If only she had been loved more, she would have lived, if they read this book, they will realize just how easy it was to fall in love with Judy, but they will also find out exactly how exasperating and horribly difficult it was sometimes to hold Judy up. But again, this book is not tragedy: Even the tragedy and gossip hunters will be enthralled with the Garland who could love and laugh as no one could, and celebrated here is also the love and admiration that so many different people held for her. The contents of the book are also overwhelming in their scope: the author held countless interviews with many individuals closest to Garland, includes hundreds of little-known details, and also had access to audio tapes that Garland used to write her never-finished autobiography. These reveal Garland most tellingly, and most poignantly. For those who want to know all about Judy Garland, this book does even better: after reading it, the reader feels that they actually knew Judy Garland, and loved her. It is an extraordinary book, a spectacular book. Any reader can take delight, Garland fan or not, in "Judy", the capital biography that the world's greatest entertainer has long deserved.
This is a very well written book. There is a lot of interesting and detailed information that I have not heard about before. This book sets the facts straight through primary sources. Gerold Frank spoke to Judy's children, husbands, friends, fellow cast members, and even to her doctors. He is the only author that Judy's family and friends completely cooperated with. This was very informative; and it is a real page-turner, unlike so many biographies that merely present fact after fact, or promote fictitious legends. This book sorts through all of this. It is, I believe, one of the best biographies yet written about Judy Garland. A definite must have:) - Classic Movie Actresses - Drug Abuse - Judy Garland - Singer'
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