get happy: the life of judy garland [Import] [Hardcover]

gerald clarke (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First edition. edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316855952
• ISBN-13: 978-0316855952
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,909,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Garland, Judy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Get Happy? Sure wish Judy could have done that...., April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Hardcover)

I have no idea why I wanted to read about Judy Garland's life again.

After reading Lorna Luft's ME AND MY SHADOWS, as well as various other tidbits over the years, I'd concluded that Judy's story is undoubtedly one of the most tragic and sad ever to come out of Hollywood. This book left me feeling no different, and I can't say that I necessarily learned anything particularly new or revelatory about Judy. Her life was spent under the control of so many others that her life just isn't all that interesting. All the problems she had have been so well reported that alot of what's here is just a rehash. As far as the sexual element to this book, even her daughter's bio made a few allusions to Judy's sexual appetite. Not a shock there.

In any event...I did find the book interesting enough to get through in about three days. All in all, the book is very personal, and alot of the sections with "iffy" proof are hard to swallow as reality. It just left me feeling so sad for this immensely talented woman, who deserved so much better for what she gave us than what she got.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is amazing!, April 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Hardcover)

As an avid reader of biographies, this book seemed tempting and fulfilled its promise. Not only did I devour it in two sittings, I found Clarke's telling of Judy Garland's life compelling, rich in detail, and extremely fair. I found myself following along in the notes to see who Clarke had interviewed, and was amazed at the roster of people he talked to. I have read other Garland biographies, and felt that this book captured her life in all its ups and downs most eloquently. The book was engrossing from the get-go, and Mr. Clarke has done an admirable job capturing the greatest entertainer of our time.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Superficial But With Interesting Side Lights, May 12, 2002

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Paperback)

Written in a decidedly gossipy and occasionally mean-spirited tone, the much anticipated GET HAPPY comes no where near unseating Christopher Finch's RAINBOW as the ultimate biography of entertainer Judy Garland, nor does it contain the exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) detail of Gerald Frank's JUDY; still, it does offer a number of interesting sidelights into Garland's life that previous biographers have elected to either downplay or ignore.

It is in this area that GET HAPPY excells. Instead of merely acknowleding that Garland's father was homosexual and that this played a major role in family difficulties, Clarke is extremely explicit on the point; he also delves further into Garland's own sexual escapades with such figures as Artie Shaw, Betty Asher, and Tyrone Power than most biographers have dared, and he gives the fullest portait of the Garland-Rose marriage thus far offered in print. But when Clarke stumbles, he stumbles badly. Like many another before him (Anne Edwards is a classic case in point), Clarke tends to rely upon Judy Garland herself as the ultimate authority--and since Garland was notorious for re-engineering the truth to make a good story or to justify her own excesses, this is a serious mistake. Many of the ensuing errors (such as acceptance of the Garland-perpetuated myth that the "Munchkin" midgets were drunken deviates) may seem slight, but they raise questions about the depth of Clarke's research. More damaging to Clarke's credibility, however, is the light in which he casts such figures as Garland's mother, Ethel Milne Gumm, and MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, which harken back to Garland's own sometimes hysterical self-justifications rather offering carefully balanced accounts.

Ultimately, GET HAPPY seems one third standard mythology, one third gossip column, and one third fact--and as the book progresses one begins to wonder about how much Clarke himself likes Judy Garland either as a person or a performer. Even so, it does make for an interesting read, at least as long as you don't take it too seriously, and it really should be read in light of more balanced and expert research--again, such as Finch's RAINBOW, which is sadly out of print but still widely available as a used book from various Amazon.com vendors.