Get Happy

I just finished reading a biography about Judy Garland, aptly titled Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. Now, I knew that Garland had a fairly messed up life. Anyone who has five husbands has got to be troubled (just look at Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elizabeth Taylor, and the current star heading that way, J-Lo), but I didn't realize the depth of her problems. The book is a quick read -- despite its 500+ pages, I managed to read it in an evening. It just reveals so much about Garland, but doesn't seem to verify any of the details. The author has extensive footnoting, an enormous bibliography (including several books I've read!), and a large list of people that he has interviewed in order to write the book, but it didn't seem to ring very true with me as I was reading it. I believe the general outlines of his work -- Garland was so troubled, and her childhood problems with her closeted gay father and her demanding mother must have created some of the issues she had with sex.

I read a biography of Garland years ago -- back when I became an old movie fan -- and I remember feeling sorry for Garland. Her life story made me cry. But now, over ten years later, I don't have as much sympathy for her. Her life was awful, yes. She was controlled with pills given to her by her boss L.B. Mayer and her mother. But it seems as though she never really took responsibility for very long. She reinvented herself, became Judy Garland III and conquered the stage -- but it never lasted long enough. She seems to fit the stereotype of the old Romantic poets -- they had to die young, or else they would become irrelevant. Garland had to have drama in her life or else it wasn't worth living.

File under: Biography; Books on Film