Judy
by Gerold Frank

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780306808944
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Judy

Book Review: THE GREATEST BIOGRAPHY OF THE GREATEST ENTERTAINER!
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Summary of Judy

Entertainers Books

• Books > Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature
• People, A-Z > ( G ) > Garland, Judy
• Specific Groups > Women
• Humor & Entertainment