Rating: 
Summary: Get Happy:A Great Way to Get Angry
Review: Unfortunately, Get Happy did little more than help me to get angry.I had two basic problems with this biography: First, the quality of the writing was spotty at best, ranging from good to down-right pretentious. To be fair, much of the text was easy enough to follow, but, at times, I felt that some of his phrasing was over-eloquent, perhaps to impress the readers with his writing skill. I found this distracting. In this collection of stories and recollections of one of our greatest entertainers, the author, as so many others have done, concentrated almost entirely on the negative aspects of Judy Garland. He often accused many of the people involved in Miss Garland's life of doing little more than exploiting her and her talent. Much of this may have been true. But, without providing us with a fair balance of the good and bad, that every human being experiences throughout their lifetimes, I feel the author accomplished little more than exploitation himself. When I finished this book I was left angry that yet,again, someone else got their "claws" into poor Judy, and I supported it!
Rating: 
Summary: Judy Forever
Review: It's always difficult to try and write the story of a legend, particularly as legends tend to either be completely vilified or canonized. In the most recent biography of the extraordinary Judy Garland, author Gerald Clarke takes an honest but compassionate look at the person that was Judy. Without whitewash, Mr. Clarke tells the familiar (to us Judy buffs) tale of a genius life gone wrong. There are those that will tell you that Judy would have had the same sad life without the career, but since we'll never know for sure, we can at least rely on writers of integrity like Mr. Clarke to tell us the story as it happened without philosophizing and without a hint of rancor, as some celebrity biographers like to do. That Judy Garland was gifted with genius is unquestioned. That she was also human is something that is sometimes overlooked. Mr. Clarke manages to carefully convey the complicated person that was Judy with a neatly flowing narrative coupled with a journalist's knack for concise reporting. This is an interesting read that is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: So Many Thunderclaps--So Few Rainbows
Review: If you are looking for a chirpy 'lil biography--this is not it. Clarke's masterly biography draws on extensive interviews and Garland's unpublished memoirs to recount a life as woeful as Job's. With an overbearing mother who hooked young Judy on pills, and a studio (MGM) that mercilessly assaulted her self-image and privacy -- even as she captured the public's adoration as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz -- Garland never developed personal responsibility or sound judgment. That led to sexual libertinism, hopeless affairs with married men (Tyrone Power, Orson Welles) and bad marriages (two of her five spouses were gay, including director Vincente Minnelli; her fourth, Mark Herron, had an affair with Peter Allen, daughter Liza's first husband). Clarke unflinchingly details Garland's mood swings, from desperately needy to monstrously selfish. Yet her resilience was astonishing: triumphant comebacks in A Star Is Born (quickly ruined by bad editing) and in concerts during the '50s and '60s at the London Palladium and Carnegie Hall. Her final years -- estranged from her children, financially strapped, overdosing on pills -- approach great tragedy. Even knowing how it ends, one can't look away. Sad, yes, but we can all learn from Ms. Garland's unsettled yet fascinating life.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Happy a Misnomer
Review: Having literally just put this book down, I've got to say I agree with the negative reviews. The author dwells almost totally on Judy's insecurities and the neverending parade of people who manipulated and/or abused her. It is a totally one-dimensional portrait, interspersed with tawdry sexual details that should have been left out. After reading it, I felt like locking myself in the bathroom!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Beginning - Vague End
Review: Mr. Clark does a fantastic job from the beginning, thru the MGM years and the 1950's. But I found the downward spiral years of the 1960's to be almost scanned upon and lacking in detail. For example, he states Liza was making $400,000 per year while Judy was broke, but were they estranged? Judy ended up homeless. What was the relationship with her son Joey and Lorna. What about Vincente and Sid's whereabouts while Judy was marrying and divorcing Mickey Deans and Mark Herron? Her relationship with people in her life seem to completely dissolve when she moved onto the next person. But what happened to her family during the 1960's? The book is still a great read. However, the most troubling times and the end is barely touched upon. I would have liked to know more about the Valley of the Dolls disaster and the stealing of the wardrobe, were movie posters printed with Judy's name instead of Susan Heywards? Unfortunately, if you are looking for answers to the 1960s rumors, you won't find them in the book.
Rating:
Summary: What I think....about 'Get Happy'
Review: I was a bit unsure as to whether I should read 'Get Happy' I am a doting Judy fan and had read about the controversy the book caused in America. I thought the book would paint a terrible picture of such a talented woman but I bought it because I felt could not judge with out knowing a bit about the book. I think That Gerald Clarke was very sympathetic towards Judy, you can see that he genuinly try's to put himself in her position. I am not saying That i take everything in the book as gospel. I dont believe many of the story's in it. (for example the story about her and Tom Green, was dismissed by Green himself recently) whenever gerald clarke mentions something Judy did, he gives very good reasons a to why she did it. It is by far the saddest book I have read about Judy, he details all of her unhappiness, which makes the reader feel like reaching out and hugging her. I would recomend the book to Judy fans, aslong as you remind yourself not to believe eveything.
Rating: 
Summary: Genius Destroyed
Review: Being probably the biggest fan of Judy Garland under the age of twenty-five, I found the story of her life fascinating. It was not only a surprising account of events that everyone believed had transpired fifferently it had the effect of being sort of human and awful. Judy genius is untouched by today's pop culture. No oine will ever bea ble to captivate and audience thae way she did in the past. Gerald Clarke gives his readers, not only a glimpse it what made her such and unforgettable talent, but also what destroyed her. There has never been a more accurate account of such tragic events. Searching for a savior, Judy only found that no one had enough love in them to save her. Clarke shows thia in disturbing detail. He points out her betrayals and insecutiries that bring her closer to her audience. This explains why her never truly extinguished, but merely lost her.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, but sad look at a lengend's life.
Review: What an amazing feat. Gerald Clarke has done what other authors of Garland biographies have failed to do: provided a fascinating and well written tale of the Judy Garland that others didn't see. He certainly did make his ten years of research well worth the effort. In response to other reviewers' complaints about Clarke writing mostly about her dark side, what's the point in writing a biography if an author sugar-coats everything? Clarke does write about the many high points of her life, unlike other Garland biographers who focused totally on her bad side. Clark's version of Garland's life is a must-read for all Wizard of Oz fans who only know Judy from the movie.
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Summary: Engrossing account of Garland's life is anything but happy
Review: According to Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, Judy at one point looked at the doctors who were treating her for drug abuse and declared, "There is something you fools do not understand. I am an addict. And when I want something, I can get it." Unfortunately, between her celebrity status and her appetite for self-destruction, this comment proved all too true. Men, drugs, food, and (though one wouldn't think this would be desired) people who belittled, cheated, and abused her--she had it all, which probably accounts for her death at age 46. Gerald Clarke admirably details Garland's life from its beginning, when she was born Frances Gumm and indoctrinated into the family showbiz act commandeered by her mother, to its sordid end, where she was on her fifth marriage and died of an accidental overdose. Clarke often adopts a sob-sister tone when deconstructing Judy's career--he is given to extensively quoting John Milton, and he calls one of Judy's manipulators an "artful Iago." But he succinctly catches Judy's appeal to vast audiences (some of them blatantly gay) and shows that in the destruction of the phenomenon called Judy Garland, Judy was as much to blame as anyone. The book also provides a nice mini-bio of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio where Judy toiled for 15 years and was robbed of her childhood. A must-read for Garland fans and show-biz buffs alike.
Rating:
Summary: no stars--error-filled, insulting, poorly written
Review: Don't buy this book! First of all the writing is terrible. Mr. Clarke thinks that using words no-one ever heard of is good writing (but it ain't!) Second of all, he includes a lot of details about Judy Garland that are salacious, to put it mildly; also, some of these details have been revealed to be untrue. Third of all, his claim of "opening King Tut's tomb" by "finding" Judy's autobiographical notes and tapes is untrue. This information has been available for a long time, and some of it (because Judy put it down at a low point in her life) puts an unbalanced negative slant on her life. Fourth, Mr. Clarke didn't even interview Judy's children for this book (they had the good sense not to talk to him). So, if you are looking for a believable tome, skip this one. Finally, Mr. Clarke shows no respect for Judy Garland by using material she never wanted to share with the world.
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