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Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42164092
EAN: 9780385335157
ISBN: 0385335156
Label: Delta
Manufacturer: Delta
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: March 06, 2001
Publisher: Delta
Release Date: March 06, 2001
Studio: Delta
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Editorial Review:
Like his renowned Capote, Clarke's Get Happy is an addictively readable bio of an addict genius. We learn that it wasn't just the Hollywood moguls who mangled Judy Garland's soul. Yes, MGM's Louis B. Mayer did paw her teenage breasts, exacerbate her insecurity by calling her "my little hunchback," feed her uppers and downers ("bolts and jolts"), and repel the U.S. drug czar's personal attempt to get her into rehab. But the true villain was Judy's diabolical stage mom, Ethel Gumm, who fed her pills at age 9. Judy's heart belonged to her daddy, a kindly theater owner cursed with pederastic yearnings that evidently got the family run out of various towns, once by a man named Doc Savage. Daddy died young, and Judy kept hooking up with older men, including two probably gay husbands, one of whom cheated on her with her daughter Liza's husband. Her first best girlfriend in Hollywood (and probable lover) turned out to be a studio spy. She knew at least one of her agents, nicknamed Loeb and Leopold, robbed her blind, but since betrayal was everybody's way of life, she just laughed it off--and died dead broke. Judy cheated on Liza's dad (and her own great director) Vincente Minnelli, with still-handsome Orson Welles, who was cheating on Rita Hayworth. "People like me don't grow up easily," Judy once said. Most people in this book deserved to go up in flames, but only nice Margaret Hamilton, playing the Wicked Witch of the West, actually did so in a filming accident. She recovered; Judy didn't. It's fascinating to read about Judy's self-immolating life. But for a jolt of joy afterward, I prescribe the CD Judy at Carnegie Hall. Clarke lets you know what the songs cost, and what they mean. --Tim Appelo
She lived at full throttle on stage, screen, and in real life, with highs that made history and lows that finally brought down the curtain at age forty-seven. Judy Garland died over thirty years ago, but no biography has so completely captured her spirit -- and demons -- until now. From her tumultuous early years as a child performer to her tragic last days, Gerald Clarke reveals the authentic Judy in a biography rich in new detail and unprecedented revelations. Based on hundreds of interviews and drawing on her own unfinished -- and unpublished -- autobiography, Get Happy presents the real Judy Garland in all her flawed glory.With the same skill, style, and storytelling flair that made his bestselling Capote a landmark literary biography, Gerald Clarke sorts through the secrets and the scandals, the legends and the lies, to create a portrait of Judy Garland as candid as it is compassionate. Here are her early years, during which her parents sowed the seeds of heartbreak and self-destruction that would plague her for decades ... the golden age of Hollywood, brought into sharp focus with cinematic urgency, from the hidden private lives of the movie world's biggest stars to the cold-eyed businessmen who controlled the machine ... and a parade of brilliant and gifted men -- lovers and artists, impresarios and crooks -- who helped her reach so many creative pinnacles yet left her hopeless and alone after each seemingly inevitable fall. Here, then, is Judy Garland in all her magic and despair: the woman, the star, the legend, in a riveting saga of tragedy, resurrection, and genius.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Betrayed Again--A Biography As Unbalanced as Garland
This biography of one of the truly great talents of the modern era wobbles precariously between being informative and insightful on one hand, and salacious, tawdry, and inappropriately speculative on the other.
Garland remains both a cautionary tale and the first genuine multi-media superstar of "our" time: a furiously monumental talent who conquered film, radio, stage, recordings, television, and the popular imagination in ways that do indeed (as the author notes) place her in a class ... Read More
Rating:  - Come On, Get Crappy
I agree, this is a mean-spirited book. I use it occasionally for reference, since it is one of the most modern issues on Judy's life... But I think it says more about the author than his subject. I have a problem with someone who needs to tear women down. I get no sense of compassion from Clarke for the performer whatsoever. Further, the writing approach is clinical and nasty (which some people enjoy). I felt that was the focus, and it overlooked some valid points contributing to who Judy was. ... Read More
Rating:  - authentic personality portrait
This was a powerful book, skillfully written. I cannot verify that all of the facts are accurate, and I did wonder how the author found out so much about Mr. Gumm's private life, for example. What struck me as completely authentic is the author's portrayal of Ms. Garland's personality and behavior--mainly because he does not take the step of analyzing it in the psychiatric sense. I personally think that her behavior is a fairly classic case of bipolar disorder, exacerbated by the pills she took and the ... Read More
Rating: - Gripping read could benefit from a photo insert or two
It's all here: the tumultuous and suffocatingly pressure-ridden childhood; the tragic and naive crushes on gay (or unavailable) men; the fantastic, stellar performances; the unstoppable addiction to pills and alcohol--all in one neatly compact, albeit somewhat gossipy, read. This book is well researched and accessibly written, and gives a fair nod to Judy's roots, delving ever so lightly into her background, and her parents (as well as grandparents). My only complaints are there should be more photos ... Read More
Rating:  - A model of extreme economy
I normally don't write short reviews, but this biography, without question, is the most finely written work of its genre ever written. I have read several thousand books, and in this book I would cut only two words. There are very few big words (shades of Hemenway), because there doesn't need to be.
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