Judy Garland

By Paul Donnelley

Judy Garland was one of the greatest performers of the 20th century, whose fame and popularity have long outlasted her early death in 1969 at the age of only 47. Forever associated with the role of Dorothy in the film The Wizard of Oz and the song she sang in it, ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’, the demands first of her ambitious mother and then the studio bosses effectively robbed her of a normal childhood whilst at the same time forcing her to maintain her ‘girl next door’ image and a punishing work schedule with near-starvation diets and amphetamines, resulting in a dependence on drugs and alcohol which finally ended her career and her life, when she died of a drug overdose in a flat in Chelsea.

This new illustrated biography gives the full story of her treatment at the  hands of the studios, and how widespread and critical success and devotion of her many fans failed to keep the demons in her soul at bay.    

‘Paul Donnelley’s concise but informative text illuminates the superb black and white photographs that illustrate this masterful introduction to a woman who paid the price of others' greed and folly. A cautionary tale that demonstrates how fame truly is a hollow victory.’

QX International

          Paul Donnelley is a journalist, TV writer and author who has written extensively on show business and cinema subjects. His books include TV Babylon, Julia Roberts Confidential: The Unauthorised Biography, a biography of Marilyn Monroe, and the bestselling Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries, now in its third edition. He has a website: www.pauldonnelley.com

MEN WHO MADE JUDY A MONSTER
Judy Garland was a huge hit as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

By Helen Dowd

A NEW book reveals how Hollywood turned Judy Garland from sweet film icon into drug-addled victim...

Her daughter famously recalled how she learned to dial for room service at a young age. It was that, Liza Minnelli said, or go hungry. It’s hardly the mark of a dedicated mother.

Judy Garland, her children have said, hardly gave them much of a childhood. She dragged them from hotel to hotel, often flitting out under cover of darkness without paying her bills, and subjected them to her repeated suicide attempts and a string of disastrous relationships.

And, as a new biography explains, it was the men with whom she surrounded herself who truly drove her over the edge.

In the Andy Hardy movies, in which she starred alongside Mickey Rooney, she won over the public with her image as the good-hearted girl next door, while in The Wizard Of Oz the role of Dorothy cemented her status as an icon of sweet innocence and guileless charm.

 Beneath the surface, however, all was not well. “From childhood Judy was placed on drugs – to lose weight or to go to sleep or to wake up,” recalled Lauren Bacall. A

'And once you get hooked on pills… it obviously affected her.”

Daily Express

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