Judy Garland has been the subject of many biographies. Since her death in 1969, she has been the subject of over two dozen books. The first of these was The films and Career of Judy Garland by Morella and Epstein, published by Citadel Press. It was the only book published before her death. The second was Brad Steiger's Judy Garland, published shortly after her death, which includes information on Garland's astrological chart, analysis of her handwriting, numerology and biorhythms. Most of the books are entirely about Garland, but some, including Patricia Fox-Sheinwold's Too Young to Die, Some Are Born Great by Adela Rogers St. Johns and Jane Ellen Wayne's The Golden Girls of MGM, merely feature a chapter about her. Two volumes, Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show by Coyne Steven Sanders and Mel Tormé's The Other Side of the Rainbow: On the Dawn Patrol With Judy Garland, focus on Garland's television series, The Judy Garland Show . Garland's last husband, Mickey Deans, co-authored an early biography in 1972 and Garland's daughter Lorna Luft wrote a family memoir in 1988.
Garland has been profiled on-screen several times. The earliest known film biography was a 1961 installment of the syndicated television series Hollywood Hist-o-rama, which covered her career through the filming of A Star is Born . Garland was the subject of episodes of the British series Omnibus , 60 Minutes , Biography and the E! True Hollywood Story . Her life story was fictionalized in Rainbow in 1978 and in 2001 in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows , based on daughter Luft's memoir. On stage, Garland is a character in The Boy from Oz , a 1998 musical based on the life of former son-in-law Peter Allen, and the 2006 play The Property Known as Garland, based on tape recordings made prior to her last concert appearance.
Author | Title | Publication date | Publisher | ISBN | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
John Briggs | Judy Garland: Little Woman, Big Talent | 2014 | Atombank Books | 0990516024 | The first children's book about Judy Garland |
Gerald Clarke | Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland | 2000 | Random House | 0375503781 | Harvey Weinstein optioned Get Happy with plans to produce a stage show and film based on it, starring Anne Hathaway. [1] No such production has materialized. |
Emily R. Coleman | The Complete Judy Garland: The Ultimate Guide To Her Career in Films, Records, Concerts, Radio, and Television, 1935-1969 | 1990 | Harper & Row | 006016333X | |
David Dahl and Barry Kehoe | Young Judy | 1975 | Mason/Charter | 0246109173 | |
Mickey Deans and Ann Pinchot | Weep No More, My Lady | 1972 | G. K. Hall | 0515029890 | Co-authored by Garland's last husband. |
Al DiOrio, Jr. | Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland | 1973 | Arlington House | 0340207477 | |
Paul Donnelley | Judy Garland | 2007 | Haus | 1904950817 | |
Anne Edwards | Judy Garland | 1975 | Simon and Schuster | 9780671218454 | |
Christopher Finch | Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland | 1975 | Ballantine | 0345251733 | |
Patricia Fox-Sheinwold | Too Young to Die | 1979 1982 | Bell Publishing Company | 0517391376 | Includes a chapter on Garland |
Gerold Frank | Judy | 1975 | Harper & Row | 0060113375 | |
John Fricke | Judy Garland: World's Greatest Entertainer | 1992 | Henry Holt & Co. | 1567312047 | |
John Fricke | Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art & Anecdote | 2003 | Bullfinch | 0821228366 | Includes a foreword by Lorna Luft |
James Juneau | Judy Garland: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies | 1974 | Pyramid Communications | 0515034827 | |
Lorna Luft | Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir | 1988 | Simon & Schuster | 0283063203 | Written by Garland's daughter. Served as the basis of an Emmy award-winning television film. |
David Melton | Judy: A Remembrance | 1972 | Stanyan Books | 0709152574 | |
John Meyer | Heartbreaker: A Memoir of Judy Garland | 1983 2006 | Doubleday Citadel Press | 0806527544 (Citadel) | Story of the two months John Meyer spent with Judy Garland |
Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein | Judy: The Complete Films and Career of Judy Garland | 1969 | Citadel Press | 080651017X | |
Rita E. Piro | Judy Garland, The Golden Years | 2001 | Great Feats Press | 0970626177 | The only biography to include a detailed family tree and history provided by Garland's maternal family. |
Rita E. Piro | Judy Garland: In Celebration | 2003 | Great Feats Press | 0970626134 | |
James Adam Richliano | Angels We Have Heard: The Christmas Song Stories | 2002 | Star Of Bethlehem Books | 0971881006 | Includes a chapter on Garland's involvement in the making of the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas |
Coyne Steven Sanders | Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show | 1990 | William Morrow & Co. | 0821737082 | Focuses on Garland's television series, The Judy Garland Show |
Scott Schechter | Judy Garland: The Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Legend | 2002 | Cooper Square Press / Rowman-Littlefield | 0815412053 | |
David Shipman | Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend | 1993 | Little Brown and Company | 0786880260 | |
Lorna Smith | Judy, With Love: The Story of Miss Show Business | 1975 | Robert Hale and Co. | 0709152574 | |
James Spada, with Karen Swenson | Judy and Liza | 1983 | Doubleday & Company, Inc. | 0385182023 | |
Adela Rogers St. Johns | Some Are Born Great | 1974 | Doubleday & Company, Inc. | 0385087691 | Includes a chapter on Garland |
Michelle Russell | From Tennessee to Oz - The Amazing Saga of Judy Garland's Family History, Part 1 & 2 | 2009 & 2011 | Catsong Publishing | 0980064228 | The story of Judy Garland's paternal ancestry in Tennessee, beginning in 1793. |
Brad Steiger | Judy Garland | 1969 | Ace Books | OCLC 2577482 The first biography published after Garland's death | |
Mel Tormé | The Other Side of the Rainbow: On the Dawn Patrol With Judy Garland | 1971 | W. H. Allen | 0883651815 | "Tell-all" book written about Tormé's time as musical director of The Judy Garland Show |
Ethlie Ann Vare, ed. | Rainbow: A Star-Studded Tribute to Judy Garland | 1998 | Boulevard Books | 157297334X | Collection of previously published material about Garland. Foreword by Michael Musto. |
Thomas J. Watson and Bill Chapman | Judy: Portrait of an American Legend | 1986 | McGraw-Hill Book Company | 0070684871 | |
Jane Ellen Wayne | The Golden Girls of MGM | 2003 | Carroll and Graf | 0786713038 | Includes a chapter on Garland |
Year | Title | Series | Network | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1961 | Judy Garland | Hollywood Hist-o-rama | Syndicated | Syndicated television short covering Garland's career through A Star is Born, glossing over any mention of Garland's problems. |
1972 | Judy: Impressions of Garland | Omnibus | BBC | |
1975 | Judy/The Ultra Secret | 60 Minutes | CBS | The Garland segment was one of two in the episode. "The Ultra Secret" was a segment about World War II code-breaking. |
1978 | Judy Garland | The Hollywood Greats | BBC | |
1978 | Rainbow | — | NBC | Biopic focusing on Garland's early years. Andrea McArdle played Garland. [2] |
1985 | Judy Garland: The Concert Years | Great Performances | PBS | Nominated for an Emmy award for "Outstanding Informational Special". [3] |
1997 | Judy Garland: Beyond the Rainbow | Biography | A&E | Expanded two-hour episode. [4] |
2001 | Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows | — | ABC | Two-part biopic based on the Luft memoir. Garland as a child was played by Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis played Garland as an adult. The mini-series was nominated for 13 Emmys, [5] and won five, including awards to both Blanchard and Davis. [6] |
2001 | Last Days of Judy Garland | E! True Hollywood Story | E! | |
2004 | Judy Garland: By Myself | American Masters | PBS | Won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming; [7] nominated for three more. [8] |
2019 | Judy | — | — | Theatrical film directed by Rupert Goold starring Renée Zellweger as Garland, who earned the Academy Award for Best Actress. |
Year | Title | Author | Starring | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | The Boy from Oz | Nick Enright (book) Peter Allen (music and lyrics) | Chrissy Amphlett (1998 Australian production) Isabel Keating (2003 Broadway production) | Musical based on the life of Peter Allen in which Garland is a character. Amphlett reprised her role for the 2006 Australian arena tour. [9] |
2005 | End of the Rainbow | Peter Quilter | Caroline O'Connor (original Australian run) Tracie Bennett (2010 London and 2012 Broadway productions) | Covers the period leading up to Garland's 1968 concert tour of England. [10] |
2006 | The Property Known as Garland | Billy Van Zandt | Adrienne Barbeau | Based on tape recordings made by Garland on the night of her final concert appearance, in Copenhagen in 1969. [11] |
2010 | The Judy Monologues | Darren Stewart-Jones | Various | Based on tape recordings made by Garland in the mid-1960s for her never-written autobiography. [12] |
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. She attained international stardom and critical acclaim as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 1961 live recording titled Judy at Carnegie Hall.
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is one of the very few performers awarded a non-competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
Raymond Wallace Bolger was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and stage performer who started his movie career in the silent-film era.
Lorna Luft is an American actress, author, and singer. She is the daughter of Judy Garland and Sidney Luft and the sister of Joey Luft and the half-sister of Liza Minnelli.
"Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy Gale. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song.
The Judy Garland Show is an American musical variety television series that aired on CBS on Sunday nights during the 1963–1964 television season. Despite a sometimes stormy relationship with Judy Garland, CBS had found success with several television specials featuring the star. Garland, who for years had been reluctant to commit to a weekly series, saw the show as her best chance to pull herself out of severe financial difficulties. Despite it being cancelled relatively early on, it is now revered and considered an important piece of television history.
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). An adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind. It stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, while others made uncredited contributions. The music was composed by Harold Arlen and adapted by Herbert Stothart, with lyrics by Edgar "Yip" Harburg.
Michael Sidney Luft was an American show business figure, the second husband of actress Lynn Bari, and later the third husband of actress and singer Judy Garland.
A "friend of Dorothy" (FOD) is a euphemism for a gay man, first used in LGBT slang, and is more broadly used to describe any LGBTQ person. Stating that, or asking if someone is a friend of Dorothy, is a furtive way of suggesting sexual orientation while avoiding hostility. The term was likely based on the character Dorothy Gale of the Oz series of novels, which have been interpreted as including much queer subtext. Actress Judy Garland, who portrayed Dorothy in the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, is considered a gay icon. Writer and critic Dorothy Parker is thought to be another potential origin of the term. The "friend of Dorothy" euphemism was commonly used throughout the 20th century, but its use has declined in recent decades as LGBT acceptance has advanced.
David Begelman was an American film producer, film executive and talent agent who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970s.
Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir is a 1998 memoir written by Lorna Luft, the daughter of singer-actress Judy Garland.
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She rose to prominence for her role as teenage Judy Garland in the critically acclaimed television film Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her other notable film roles were in The Good Shepherd (2006), Sybil (2007), Into the Woods (2014) and The Invitation (2015).
Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows is a 2001 American two-part, four-hour biographical television miniseries based on the 1998 book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir written by Lorna Luft, the daughter of legendary singer-actress Judy Garland. The miniseries was directed by Robert Allan Ackerman and originally broadcast in two parts on ABC on February 25 and 26, 2001.
Rainbow is a 1978 American made-for-television biographical musical drama film which chronicles the early years of singer-actress Judy Garland, portrayed by Andrea McArdle. Directed by Jackie Cooper, it was written by John McGreevey based on the 1975 book Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland by Christopher Finch. It originally aired on NBC Monday Night at the Movies on November 6, 1978. The casting of McArdle as Judy Garland was heavily criticized at the time, as the actress did not resemble nor sound remotely like Garland.
American actress and singer Judy Garland (1922–1969) is widely considered as a gay icon. The Advocate has called Garland "The Elvis of homosexuals". The reasons frequently given for her standing as an icon among gay men are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles seemed to mirror those of gay men in America during the height of her fame, and her value as a camp figure. Garland's role as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz is particularly known for contributing to this status. In the 1960s, when a reporter asked how she felt about having a large gay following, Garland replied, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people!"
End of the Rainbow is a musical drama by Peter Quilter, which focuses on Judy Garland in the months leading up to her death in 1969. After a premiere in Sydney, Australia in 2005, the show has played on the West End in London and a Broadway production opened at the Belasco Theatre in 2012. The award-winning 2019 film Judy starring Renée Zellweger is a screen adaptation of the play for which Zellweger won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Garland.
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland is a biography of entertainer Judy Garland. Published in 2000, Get Happy is author Gerald Clarke's follow-up to his 1988 biography of Truman Capote. Clarke conducted some 500 interviews, including some with subjects who had not previously spoken about Garland, and also drew upon tape recordings that Garland had made in the 1960s for an autobiography. He found Garland's unpublished 68-page manuscript in the Random House archives. 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 written....So, I sat down and I read the biographies that had already been written and came up with no real impression of Judy....There was a disconnect between the woman who emerged from the pages and the woman I saw in the movies and heard on the records....I knew that the book had not yet been written."
Judy is a 2019 biographical drama film based on the life of American actress Judy Garland. Directed by Rupert Goold, it is an adaptation of the Olivier- and Tony-nominated West End and Broadway play End of the Rainbow by Peter Quilter. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell, and Michael Gambon. It was Gambon's final film appearance before his death in 2023.