Gerald clarke judy garland
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By JANET MASLIN
GET HAPPY The Life of Judy Garland. By Gerald Clarke. Illustrated. pp. New York: Random House. $ |
hat do Odysseus, Sir Galahad and pigtailed little Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" have in common? Answer: lonely quests through hostile territory. But this is no parlor game. It's the high-minded desperation that serves as ballast for "Get Happy," Gerald Clarke's scandal-seeking yet curiously wan biography of Judy Garland. In the long shadow of the author's splendid portrait of Truman Capote, "Get Happy" recalls James Agee's complaint that "The Clock," a Vincente Minnelli film in which Garland starred, "inspires ingratitude for not being great."
Clarke puts himself at a serious disadvantage in moving from a fresh, witty, reasonably unexamined subject like Capote to a woman whose entire adult life unfolded in a climate of sob-sis
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Instant Bestseller!
(The New York Times, Sunday, April 22, )Praise for Get Happy
"We asked Biography Book Club members what they wanted to read next and we got our answer loud and clear. More than 35% of you voted for our June selection, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, by Gerald Clarke."
Biography Magazine, June
"a phenomenal job chronicling Garland's 47 years on EarthClarke describes Garland's glorious voice and natural ability on screen and on the concert stage so vividly that you can hear her singing as you readIt's a triumph of Get Happy that Clarke makes you care about Garland even when you want to slap her around. He has written a compelling, tragic book, a story like a runaway train that you ride to the end, knowing it's going to crash, unable to jump off."
Ellen Jaffe-Gill, Hollywood Reporter, April 17,
"Judy Garland—again? Is there really anyone left
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Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
biography bygd Gerald Clarke
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland is a biography of entertainer Judy Garland. Published in , Get Happy is author Gerald Clarke's follow-up to his biography of Truman Capote. Clarke conducted some interviews,[1] including some with subjects who had not previously spoken about Garland, and also drew upon tape recordings that Garland had made in the s for an autobiography.[2] He funnen Garland's unpublished page manuscript in the Random House archives.[3] Clarke spent ten years on the book, and only made his final decision to write about Garland after reading the extant biographies. "I did not want to write a book about her if the definitive book had already been writtenSo, inom sat down and inom read the biographies that had already been written and came up with no real impression of JudyThere was a disconnect between the woman who emerged from the pages and the woman inom saw in the movies