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Always for Judy: Witness to the Joy and Genius of Judy Garland

2014
Author(s): Coulson, Joan Beck
Illustrator(s):
Publisher(s): Yarnscombe Books
Genre(s): Biography

Comments:
To understand a person, we have to look at their parents and their background. In Judy's case, vaudeville and her early years of life in Grand Rapids and Lancaster are examined because those are the formative years. Author Michael Apted used the film study 7Up as a basis for research to prove the Jesuit saying: Give me the child until he is 7 and I will show you the man. Her MGM years are divided into three 3 segments. (a) The teenaged years after Judy was discovered around 13 years old and her many movies with Mickey Rooney. She made fifteen films in five years and most of them musicals. (b) The glamorous years, becoming a young woman and her marriage to David Rose. She made ten films in six years, again mostly musicals: loosely 25 films in ten years. We must not forget her recording career at Decca. (c) By the time Judy married Vincent Minnelli she was becoming disenchanted with Hollywood. She wanted to perform in a show on Broadway, but she became pregnant with Liza and so back to Hollywood she returned. She made five films in her final two years with MGM. When Judy was released from her contract with MGM in 1950, she took off for London and started her concert career at the Palladium in April 1951. After this great success, Sid Luft, who became her manager and later her husband, arranged for her to perform at the Palace in New York for 19 weeks. She married Sid Luft, went back to Los Angeles and made A Star is Born. Her children Lorna and Joey were born during the years they lived in Holmby Hills. Judy returned to London in 1957 to the Dominion for a 4-week run. During 1958-59 she gave more concerts in the US and became very ill with hepatitis. Judy returned to London in 1960. She performed again at the Palladium; this is the first time Judy admitted on stage: "This is my home now". She returned to the States, signed with Creative Management Associates and performed her Palladium concert at Carnegie Hall in April 1961. Judy returned to London in 1962 to make her last movie, I Could Go on Singing. Breaking away from Luft and CMA, her successful television special with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin leads to the CBS Television Series 1963-64. When the television series is over, Judy leaves with Mark Herron to tour Australia and does concerts in Sydney and Melbourne. They return to London for 6 months at the end of 1964. They return again to the States with more concerts and television. Judy marries Herron, this marriage only lasts a few months. Breaks with Herron in April 1966. Returns to London for the last time and performs at Talk of the Town and marries Mickey Dean. Judy died in London on June 22, 1969 from an accidental death from an incautious overdose of barbiturates.