Judy Garland : A Biography

Judy, Judy, Judy, the entertainer extraordinaire,greatly loved: movie star and stage performer. In this book, Anne Edwards suggests, think Judy, think "Eternal Victim." But that was the view held in the 70's, shortly after Garland's death: it may not be the most useful to us. This biography is an oldie but a goodie. Edwards, who was English, was a London neighbor of Judy's: she treats Judy with respect, affection, and sympathy. She's decent; discreet about some sad episodes of Judy's life about which we don't really need to know; she takes Judy's word on things. Almost all the books written about Judy up until Edwards' focused on Judy's use of booze and drugs, her scandals. Edwards was the first to try to convey the complexity of the woman, the heart and soul of this great talent. If you want a better, later, more complete chronicle of Judy's career, you might want to read John Fricke's "Judy Garland, Art and Anecdote." But Edwards' book stands on its own; it captures the warmth, the essence of this remarkable performer. Edwards has written several show business biographies, of Katherine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh, among others. She may not rake all the dirt that's to be found, but she's consistently compassionate, interviews many people, and writes smoothly and well. So, Judy Garland,born Frances Gumm, sang "Jingle Bells" on the vaudeville stage at two 1/2 years old, and was greeted rapturously. She was supporting her family by the time she was four. She wasn't born a beautiful child, but she was born with a great big beautiful voice. She was born to Ethel, who would be a strong candidate for worst stage mother ever. Her father, Francis, was a weak and charming Irishman: later Judy was to bring up suppressed memories of finding him engaged in homosexual activities. At the age of twelve, an overweight, not very pretty Judy sang "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart" to the terrifying Louis B. (LB) Mayer, tyrant of the powerhouse film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He signed her, but didn't quite know what to do with her until he decided to try pairing her with the equally young Mickey Rooney. Starting with "Love Finds Andy Hardy," she made a string of popular depression-era movies with Rooney, who was paid better than ten times her salary. (LB, Judy's mother Ethel, and Judy's tame agent seemed to keep setting her salary very low, during all the years Judy was making a fortune for them.) Edwards states that young Judy was 5'2"; Judy's fans say she was 4'9". Thinking she should weigh no more than 98 pounds, the studio put her on a starvation diet, including drugs. Soon they would discover that the easiest way to enable her to work the long hard hours they demanded was to put her on more drugs, uppers and downers, to wake and to sleep. She was to struggle all her life with weight, and drug issues; ballooning to 150 pounds, then shrinking to frightening frailty. Over the years, she would require quite a few expensive hospitalizations fo