Product Details

• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mpi Home Video
• VHS Release Date: October 25, 1994
• Run Time: 47 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301038916
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,897 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A 46-minute retrospective, The Judy Garland Scrapbook gathers movie trailers, still photos, posters, and some rare clips to celebrate the career of one of America's greatest entertainers. Among the rare items are a performance of "Over the Rainbow" for Armed Forces Screen Magazine, March of Dimes spots with Mickey Rooney, and a wardrobe test for Valley of the Dolls. The original highlight on this 1988 video was two scenes Garland filmed for Annie Get Your Gun in 1950 before she was removed from the picture due to her personal problems. These scenes are quite grainy, though, and can be seen to much better advantage as supplements to the 2000 video and DVD releases of the final version of Annie that starred Betty Hutton. (The clip of "I'm an Indian Too" is longer here, however.) Other quibbles with this collection might be the overreliance on trailers at the expense of film clips (though it could be argued that trailers are in fact more rare) and a heavy focus on the early MGM years with significantly less attention on the later period (no mention, for instance, of For Me and My Gal, Easter Parade, or Summer Stock, although the later concert years and A Star Is Born are covered). And while the narration claims to merely offer a film scrapbook of Garland's achievements "rather than make judgments," it clearly opines that the hectic studio life was a major cause of her personal problems. --David Horiuchi

From the Back Cover

The Judy Garland Scrapbook traces the life of the cabaret and film star from her entry to show business as Francis Gumm - through her hallmark performances, the grand musicals, The Wizard of Oz and her personal dramatic triumph, A Star Is Born. In our homage to Judy Garland we take an affectional look back at Judy's personal life as well as her screen career. Newsreel footage focuses on her teen years, when she made countless personal appearances with her contemporaries, most notably, Micky Rooney. Included in our program is incredibly rare footage from unreleased Garland performances - edited into proper sequences for the first time. You'll also see screen test footage form Judy's aborted role in "Valley Of The Dolls." The Judy Garland Scrapbook is a must for any and every Judy Garland fan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buried treasure, August 8, 2000

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Judy Garland Scrapbook [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A scrapbook is, by definition, a subjective collection of memorabilia, so the appropriate title for this study of Judy Garland. Our unctuous narrator prefaces what is to follow by stating that previous efforts have concentrated on Judy's unhappy private life and ignored her prestigious body of work, so the aim then is to demonstrate that they don't make `em like Judy anymore. What does follow however will not satisfy those seeking a definitive portrait. We see a lot of studio photos, stills, trailers for her films with Mickey Rooney, one for Meet Me in St Louis (in black and white!), a radio broadcast of her singing Over The Rainbow, her wardrobe tests for Valley of the Dolls, and the Who and Look for the Silver Lining numbers from Till the Clouds Roll By. (It amuses me to think that the exertion of her dancing in the Who number while pregnant combined with her pill-taking produces a Liza Minnelli). There is no footage of The Wizard of Oz, A Star is Born is only covered by the newsreel of the opening, nothing on The Pirate, Easter Parade, Get Happy or Summer Stock, no footage of her concerts or TV series, and no mention of A Child is Waiting and I Could go on Singing. A still from Judgment at Nuremburg used out of context in the discussion of her marriage to Vincente Minnelli is particularly irkesome. However, what redeems this video is the surviving footage from Annie Get Your Gun that Judy was fired from - I'm an Indian, Too and Doin' What Comes Naturally. Indian appears the same as it did in the MGM doco When the Lion Roars, though here the colours are blurier. Having not seen the Betty Hutton eventual film, since it has been unavailable for years, I can only go by the cast recordings I have heard where the number is definitely longer. The sequence here, as in the Lion Roars, feels abbreviated. It is said that the number was incomplete, whether due to the removal of director Busby Berkelely or because of Judy's troubles. Either way, it does contradict the myth that Berkeley was not serving the material well, since it is remarkeable. Most of it is in one take and features more than 20 dancers, which would explain the length of time taken to film it. The same thing appears to be true for Doin' What Comes Naturally, which is preceded and followed by dialogue. Here again Berkeley has used an uninterrupted take. This time it is more obvious that Judy is not well. She wears a wig to disguise the fact that her hair was falling out, but despite her condition and the fact that she did not get along with Berkeley, here is the proof that they don't make `em like Judy anymore. Here is the essence of Garland as performer, a showbiz avatar. The real tragedy of Garland leaving MGM is what she may have achieved if she had been inclined to stay. In spite of the myth that she herself perpetuated, she wanted out of her contract, when the studio agreed to let her go. The point is made that the evolution of her films with Rooney showed her eclipsing him, and she did salvage her career by re-inventing herself as a live performer. But she was always a fine actor and the performance we see as Annie Oakley shows her in a very different light. Vincente Minnelli said that Hollywood had barely scratched the surface with her, and this makes the footage saved for this video all the more invaluable.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good But Not Highly Recommended, July 30, 2007

By 

D.J.L - See all my reviews

This review is from: Judy Garland Scrapbook [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This was the first Judy Garland Video Biography I ever got. I received it as a gift many years ago. I got it when I was trying to research information on Garland on my early days of being a fan of hers. I learned a lot from this video. It basically gives you the HIGHLIGHTS of Garland's life.

This video pretty much just cuts to the chase of her life. Where than most biographies of Garland today by A&E and The Biography Channel don't just cut to the chase of everything. They gave you every specific detail a Garland fan would want in a 1 - 2 hour video. But this video fails to pursue that.

The only time I would recommend this to any person is if they are a NEW fan of Judy Garland. But if you are like me currently, and have been a fan of Judy for at least few years of Judy, this is HIGHLY NOT recommended to you then.