Rating: 
Summary: Get Happy, Get Dirt
Review: Judy Garland was an original. Apparently Gerald Clarke has aproblem with that in consistently portraying Judy as victim and loser.On the contrary, she was a legend, one who could captivate us totally. While nobody is perfect, her voice was perfection. She leaped off the stage and screen and wrapped you in heaven. What a shame Mr. Clarke could not have focused on her talent and accomplishments rather than the Hollywood cheats and crazies that tarnished her life. However interesting or revealing the dirty tidbits about a person's life, they do not deserve the importance Clarke gives them. Mr. Clarke sees the young Judy as Dorothy who gets drugged and slapped and pawed on the movie set. Her fans see her in Carnegie Hall and the Palace as the songbird she was and will always be. Judy's own autobiography would have been more worthwhile reading than this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Clarke-- Get Lost
Review: The author thinks quite highly of himself, I suspect. He wrote a bio of Judy Garland. This would not be the book I would write. Nothing original here, except some sordid details which are no one's business or concern. He misses the whole point of Judy's life and tragic death. The greatest entertainer ever--Judy Garland--deserves a much better legacy than this. Shame on you, Gerald Clarke.
Rating: 
Summary: Clarke is one biographer on Judy's side.
Review: Clarke must have meant the title of his biography, which conjures up images of Judu Garland performing that rousing number, to be ironic. Clarke gives Judy's life the scope and scale of a Greek tragedy without thinking that she was necessarily all that tragic. Exhaustively and, seemingly, thoroughly researched over a ten year period (with access to tape recordings Judu made in preparation for an autobiography she never finished) and with the cool and keen eyes and observational skills of a fine journalist, Clarke seems to be on Judy's side, and separating the facts from the myths and legends surrounding Judy's turbulent life must have been an impossible job. Still, a few things are clear. Mother Ethel Gumm was a Stage Mother From Hell who saw Judy not as a daughter, but as a bullet of talent and a Golden Goose, and bastardly L.B. Mayer felt he owned Judy, and every other MGM star, body and soul. Mayer eventually realized what evil he had done to her and tried to help her too late in the game; much damage had already been done and much of that damage was irrepairable. Judy's heart belonged, forever and always, to her adored and adoring father Frank Gumm. Frank was a rather reckless and not too discreetly "in the closet" gay man who, unfortunately, died too soon to protect Judy from what lay ahead. For the most part, (until the final horrifying chapters) Clarke portrays Judy as a vibrant, vital, fun-loving person. Judy may have felt unattractive next to Lana Turner at MGM, but she was attractive enough, in both body and spirit, to have enchanted five husbands, as well as Johnny Mercer, Tyrone Power, Joe Mankiewicz, and many others. The miracle of Judy's life is that, despite her large inferiority complex and endless emotional and psychological turbulences, she somehow managed to fight her inner demons and give awe-inspiring performances on screen and stage. Clarke admires her for this, but in a curiously haphazard way. After writing a devotional chapter on Judy as Dorothy in "The Wizard Of Oz," he ignores her delightful performance in "The Harvey Girls," and thoughtlessly dismisses "The Pirate" as a celluloid disaster. But Clarke writes eloquently of Judy's magic triumphs at London's Palladium and New York's Palace and Carnegie Hall; concerts that left Judy's audiences, as well as Judy herself, spirtually and emotionally transfixed and transformed. Judy will ALWAYS fascinate us because she was so contridictory and complex, as Clarke captures here. Joesph Mankiewicz put it best: "...I don't think anybody's going to close the book on Judy Garland." Clarke's book on Judy Garland is a recommended, absorbing, and highly addictive read... but not without kleenex and a clear head, as some of Clarke's conclusions are alternately heartbreaking and suspect. Clarke's intelligent narrative and interpretations are marred only by the fact that he can't resist taking too many peeks into too many private bedrooms.
Rating: 
Summary: Ironic title
Review: Accord to Gerald Clarke's biography, Judy Garland managed to get everything BUT happy. She got shafted (by pretty much everyone in Hollywood), she got stoned (a lot), she got fired, she got praised, she got even, she got weird, she got crazy, she got laid (boy, did she get laid!)...but happy? I don't think so.GET HAPPY may be the ultimate Garland biography because it's so much like Judy Garland. It's funny and bitter, it's caustic and warm, it's full of questionable stories and insider gossip, yet at the end, it somehow fails to live up to the promise of "what might have been". Mr. Clarke is no doubt a huge fan of Judy Garland, but sadly I believe that a better biography could have been written by someone who didn't love her quite as much.
Rating:
Summary: Multiple personality?
Review: The latest in a long list of books about Judy Garland has one thing in common with all the others: It gives still another set of facts (?) about this legendary entertainer, so one wonders if some of the "actual incidents" are true or just gossip from some of the author's sources. Well written, and seemingly well documented in spots, it unfortunately goes into graphic detail about the sex lives of almost everyone in the text. I don't want to know most of those things about anybody and it surely adds little or nothing to this story. I'm just halfway through the book--yes, it is a good read--but I want to correct the author on at least one point: "The Pirate," which he brushes off as a disaster of a movie, is actually an incredibly beautiful and funny film. Garland and Gene Kelly and the supporting cast are incredible. It's entertainment at its best and one of my very favorite films of all time. Sadly, the video is out of print, but you can catch it on Turner Classic Movies from time to time and see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine attempt to tell a difficult story
Review: I've read many reviews that say how poorly Mr. Clarke has handled the story of the great and wonderful Judy Garland. Those of you who've said so, why don't you try to write a book about a legendary person? Try and write a book about anything, let alone a legend. Any writer will tell you it can be a frightening, overwhelming process.For ten years of research, I'm pleased with Clarke's efforts to tell Garland's story. Her life may not have been easy, but it is not painted as the tragedy that so many writers have misconcepted. Garland herself said, "What I've had may shock some people, but I've had an awfully nice life." Clarke documents thoroughly (although goodness knows, sometimes quite a bit too thoroughly, to the point where he delves into things we just don't need to know about) Garland's life, from her little girl years performing in vaudeville, to the teenage rising star trying to find her way and find love by any means (reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe?), the MGM superstar, the loving mother (and much-married one), the concert performer, and overall, the star. People who read this book and say, "Oh, what a terrible life she led..."...they're looking at this book through the wrong eyes. Judy Garland was a very loving, personal, troubled, talented individual... and it is through these eyes that Clarke sees her, God bless him. This book is not tragedy... it is truth. And I sincerely hope that if you read this intensely crafted book, you see that, too. God bless Gerald Clarke and God bless Judy Garland.
Rating:
Summary: A STAR IS TORN
Review: What is almost completely lacking in Clarke's book is an informed discussion of Garland's art. He seems to be so wrapped up in describing which pills she took and which men she bedded that he misses her lasting achievements--the moments preserved in movies and recordings that show why she was a star. (In my experience, geniuses often have bad behavior that is overlooked in favor of their talents.) And it is inexcusable to discuss A STAR IS BORN and not mention Ronald Haver's restoration of the film (see his book A STAR IS BORN: THE MAKING OF THE 1954 MOVIE AND ITS 1983 RESTORATION). After reading Clarke's book, see the restored A STAR IS BORN, watch MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, screen THE WIZARD OF OZ, or listen to JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL, and you'll find the art that he misses.
Rating:
Summary: TAWDRY and DISRESPECTFUL
Review: Even as a summer read (I read it at the beach), this book is shameful. Rather than focus on the many interesting aspects of Ms. Garland's life it could have, this book wallows in the distasteful - how many men (and women) she (might have) had sex with (a comment about "Over the Rainbow" in this regard still sits with me, and not in any pleasant way), how many drugs she took, how many times she was late, or sick, or tried to kill herself. The writing style is poor, sensational, and at times a lot of "they must have been thinking" worthlessness. Ms. Garland deserves much better. This could have been a book of her triumphs mixed with the disappointments and been a much more involving story. It, unfortunately, seems to have little on its mind but to degrade her (as it insists others did all her life).
Rating:
Summary: Won't we ever learn?
Review: Won't we Americans ever learn to separate the talent of performers from the personal life they lead? Judy was apparently as psychotic as they come, but what does that have to do with her being at the same time one of the greatest entertainers in the history of Show Biz? And can't we agree that she didn't CHOOSE to be psychotic , for God's sake? Her failure to take any of the blame for all her problems simply portrays a state of denial that she never was able to deal with despite all the psychiatrists she paid a fortune to to bring her into reality. Let's take a look at Sinatra, whom biographers tell us treated virtually everyone with contempt and cruelty. Why then can we so enjoy the man's music without condemning him for his inexcusable personal behavior? Why do we admire Marilyn Monroe without verbalizing that she slept with anyone and everyone she thought could advance her career in Hollywood? My suggestion is that Judy had to endure the curse of Dorothy Gayle from Kansas. Most of us in 1939 and later may have assumed that since Dorothy was a pure and virginal creature in a checkered dress, Judy must be too. So because we all fell in love with Dorothy, we generalized that Judy Garland must be just like her. Instead, she was a psychotic whose dissimiarity to Dorothy probably compounded all of her other problems... perhaps she longed to be Dorothy in order to live up to her fans' image of the character she portrayed. So if you want to worship Dorothy, buy Judy's early videos and recordings. If you can respect Judy as a billiant artist but a flawed and psychotic human being, then you will probably learn something of value from this book. If you can't, don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: "Get Better"
Review: I'm not saying that the book is bad, just that it's predictable. There is a MINIMAL amount of new information which is surprising considering that the author had access to the tapes that the late Ms. Garland made in the sixties, when she contemplated writing an autobiography. Instead of going in-depth with her personal views, he just sort of glided over the taped information, using it several times for reference, only. Huh? The tapes held HER OWN WORDS! Wouldn't you think that people buying the book would have wanted to read more of what SHE felt about her own life, rather than the author's brief and edited version? In that sense, the book was a great disappointment and as I said earlier, there was very little of anything "new" in the book. Quite a disappointm from his other books. Buy at your own risk. I gave mine away.
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