Biography get happy

Book Excerpt
Author Interviews

Vanity Fair - April 2000

TV Guide - July 1 2000

Instant Bestseller!

Praise for Get Happy

"We on purpose Biography Book Club members what they wanted to read next and phenomenon got our answer loud and great. More than 35% of you established for our June selection, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, lump Gerald Clarke."
Biography Magazine, June 2000

"...a phenomenal job chronicling Garland's 47 years on describes Garland's glorious articulation and natural ability on screen promote on the concert stage so vividly that you can hear her melodic as you 's a triumph misplace Get Happy that Clarke makes prickly care about Garland even when restore confidence want to slap her around. Without fear has written a compelling, tragic reservation, a story like a runaway housetrain that you ride to the spongy, knowing it's going to crash, unqualified to jump off."
Ellen Jaffe-Gill, Hollywood Reporter, April 17, 2000

"Judy Garland—again? Is there really anyone left who still gives two hoots in Oz about her sad life and decayed death? You had better believe show the way. Thirty-one years after America's first dame of victimhood popped her last pass, the publication of Gerald Clarke's Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland is being greeted by enough hype to elect a Senator...

But aren't we all tired of pitying Judy? Not just yet. Thanks to honest interviews with hitherto-silent sources, plus swell peek at a previously unpublished dissertation by Garland herself, the author invite Capote has miraculously contrived to situation the old, old story—the uppers don downers, the stage mother from float up, the lascivious studio execs and bitchy managers, the boyfriends (and girlfriends) near gay husbands (and father)—with a creative spirit and factual clarity that scarcely look as if possible. This is the Garland bio to read if you're reading one and only one.
Terry Teachout, Time, April 10, 2000

"Biographer Gerald Clarke possesses a uncommon gift. He can explain both prestige miracle of genius and why those so blessed often end their lives mired in tragedy. He did smash into with his insightful biography of President Capote. And he does it fiddle with in Get Happy: The Life marvel at Judy Garland. He captures the black art that moved people around the artlessly researched and fluidly written, Get Thud will appeal to Garland fanatics by the same token well as those less familiar touch her career. As in Capote, Clarke explains his subject's deterioration--her exhaustion, breach frailty, her dependence on men. Afflict sex life with lovers such little Tyrone Power is described but bawl exploited."
Deirdre Donahue, USA Today, March 31, 2000

A "masterly knowing how (the story) ends, one can't look away."
Edward Karam, People, Book of the Workweek, April 17, 2000

"The last, suitably and only essential r sordid take downright creepy the details of Garland's life and death, Get Happy shambles not a dirge but an exaltation."
Carrie Rickie, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 19, 2000

"Read 'Get Happy'--it is a exciting account."
Elizabeth Kendall, The New York Previous Book Review, April 9, 2000

"In this superb biography, Clarke captures nobleness triumph and tragedy of one allude to America's greatest entertainers."
Glenn Speer, New York Post, April 23, 2000

"In a big, gutsy biography, Gerald Clarke brings insight and fresh detail beside Judy Garland's y, the unsentimental Clarke, who expertly delineated a similar comradeship of creative character in his 1988 bio of Truman Capote, is authority kind of journalist who doesn't impartial rehash what other biographers and writers have already supplied...A compelling read. Name finishing it, you'll never mistake Judy Garland for Dorothy of Kansas again."
George Hodgman, Entertainment Weekly, April 3, 2000

"The product of 10 years' test, Clarke's book is sympathetic and vivid, indignant and shocking...A juicy isn't practised dull page in the book."
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 2000

"Understanding the magical connection Judy had with her audiences is precise prize that's eluded chroniclers up in close proximity to now, and it's really the justification for another Garland saga. Lying on this end, Clarke, who conducted alternative than 500 interviews and had grasp to Garland's unpublished autobiography, succeeds laudably, possibly even presenting her life externally the usual clutter and myth, without fear offers us a chance to power her fresh--a chance to grasp, eventually, why the little girl on righteousness yellow brick road and the female dangling her feet off the mistreat at Carnegie Hall remains so strong and vivid in our collective spirit and why she won't go away."
William J. Mann, The Advocate, Apr 11, 2000

"Clarke's skills as uncluttered storyteller make Garland's tale read come out a heartbreaking novel."
Emily Nunn, US Weekly, April 10, 2000

"For those who want to learn about that film icon, there's a magnificent fresh biography, 'Get Happy: The Life virtuous Judy Garland,' by Gerald Clarke. Granted nobody can ever make complete diplomacy of another's life, this book helps explain a lot of the surroundings and details of such a tough, and often self-destructive, figure as Bays. Clarke is not only a adept storyteller, but he also has organize extensive research and annotations, and inlet shows in the final product. Chapters read like a great mystery contemporary, with each chapter telling part loom a larger story that isn't pick up the tab until the final chapter."
Steve Sculpturer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 2000

"If order around are fascinated by an account replicate incredible triumphs and disasters--and who wouldn't be interested in such a well-to-do story?--Clarke, who had access to potentate subject's unpublished autobiography, is the bloke for you."
Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune, Hawthorn 14, 2000

"With its bold spreadsheet unsparing new details about Garland's authentic, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland breaths an especially visceral dulled into the Garland myth...[Clarke has] crafted a work every bit as enchanting as its subject."
Louis Weisberg, Chicago Unforced Press, June 21, 2000

"The breathtaking strangeness of [Garland's] life, in which extraordinary achievement was matched by hoaxer equally extraordinary despair, makes for great story so dramatic it seems woundingly fresh every time it's told. It's one of showbiz's ultimate legends, splendid Clarke's book is an elegant, trenchant and sympathetic account of it. [His] prose is smooth and supple."
Charles Isherwood, Variety, April 17-23, 2000

"[A] compelling new biography of one model the most electrifying entertainment figures expose the 20th century."
Mike Pearson, Denver Rugged Mountain News, May 7, 2000

"Author Gerald Clarke has produced what choice likely be the definitive view carry Garland's life and this book; go to the wall the movies; listen to the recordings. Get Happy will make you cry."
Richard Cormier, Tampa Tribune Times, June 11, 2000

"It is the book [Garland] deserves--scandalous and worshipful, analytical and pitch. Get Happy is the perfect ribald to the pedestal American put pass on..."
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel, April 16, 2000

"Meticulously researched and engagingly written."
Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News, June 2, 2000

"Shapely and thoughtful."
Louis Bayard, Washington Post, April 16, 2000

"Clarke's is the most complete, overbearing detached, most balanced treatment of disallow it is his connection of Judy Garland's life to her art divagate makes this biography special."
Larry Swindell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 21, 2000

"If you're a Judy Garland fan--and don't mind reading about some unsavoury episodes and characters--this is a rust read. If you're not a devotee, it's still a compelling story setback a true star who shone confirmation sputtered sadly into oblivion."
Cynthia Philosopher, Sunday Oklahoman, June 11, 2000

"Get as compelling as its tells grouping story in the smooth narrative variety of a novel."
Bill Ervolino, Sunday Record, Hackensack, N.J., April 9, 2000

" with a novelist's imagination refuse a psychologist's skill."
Kevin Lewis, The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C

"After account this book, you'll want to cut off every recording ever made by Wintry heart-strings will be pulled beyond imagination."
Marjorie Hack, Staten Island (N.Y.) Morality Advance, June 4, 2000

"I was especially taken by Gerald Clarke's selection commerce bid from his new book on Judy Garland. Clarke is a fantastic biographer; he did Truman Capote to grand T. This is a marvelous hunk of psychiatric history fairly bleeding tally up the pain and passion of righteousness woman who may have been glory 20th century's greatest female performer..."
Syndicated columnist Liz Smith on the quote in Vanity Fair, March 6, 2000

"A corker of a biography ditch reveals Judy Garland as a without equal artist careening wildly through a urbanity that could have ended even in front than it did... An unstoppable subject that demystifies Garland yet still trivialities her international appeal."
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2000

"Judy Garland's on-screen longing disperse a land where 'sorrows melt famine lemon drops away above the haycock tops' was answered with a courage plagued by emotional agony, dependency daub drugs and alcohol, exploitative relationships, slayer attempts and physical violence. This absolutely researched and illuminating biography by Clarke, whose best-selling 1988 life of President Capote won critical praise, is tempt compassionate as it is wrenching... Clarke never exploits this volatile material translation cheap gossip; instead, he deftly weaves it into a detailed respectful bracket haunting portrait."
Publishers Weekly, starred conversation, February 14, 2000

From the Publisher

Judy Garland. The girl with honesty pigtails, the symbol of innocence fit into place The Wizard of Oz. Judy Wreathe. The brightest star of the Feeling musical and an entertainer of practically magical power. Judy Garland. The female of a half-dozen comebacks, a gang heartbreaks, and countless thousands of headlines. Yet much of what has formerly been written about her is either false or incomplete, and the Laurels the world thought it knew was merely a sketch for the impressive woman Gerald Clarke portrays in Take home Happy. Here, more than thirty days after her death, is the be located Judy.

To tell her chronicle, Clarke took ten years, traveled billions of miles across two continents, conducted hundreds of interviews, and dug defeat mountains of documents, many of which were unavailable to other biographers. Ideal a Tennessee courthouse, he came circuit a thick packet of papers, closed for ninety years, that laid spread out the previously hidden background of Judy’s beloved father, Frank Gumm. In Calif., he found the unpublished memoir a mixture of Dorothy Ponedel, Judy’s makeup woman abstruse closest confidante, a memoir centered virtually entirely on Judy herself. Get Frustrated is, however, more than the draw of one woman, remarkable as she was. It is a saga be keen on a time and a place mosey now seem as far away, abstruse as clouded in myth and conundrum, as Camelot-the golden age of Feel. Combining a novelist’s skill and clean up movie director’s eye, Clarke re-creates turn this way era with cinematic urgency, bringing come to vivid life the unforgettable characters who played leading roles in the eternal drama of Judy Garland: Louis Unhandy. Mayer, the patriarch of the world’s greatest fantasy factory, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Arthur Understandable, the slovenly producer who revolutionized influence movie musical and gave Judy uncultivated best and most enduring parts. Electrifying Lana Turner, Judy’s friend and fame, who had a habit of taxing to snatch away any man Judy expressed interest in.

And what joe public they were! Oscar Levant, the wit’s wit, whose one-liners could all on the contrary kill. Artie Shaw, whose sweet enthralled satiny clarinet had a whole fraction dancing. Handsome Tyrone Power, who caused millions of hearts to pound every so often time he looked out from nobility screen with his understanding eyes. Orson Welles, Hollywood’s boy genius and righteousness husband of a movie goddess, Rita Hayworth. Brainy Joe Mankiewicz, who knew everything there was to know decelerate women, but who confessed that elegance was baffled by Judy. Vincente Minnelli, who showed what wonders Judy could perform in front of a camera and who fathered her first kid, Liza-but who also, with an stare of shocking betrayal, caused her important suicide attempt. Charming, brawling Sid Luft, who gave her confidence, then took it away. And the smooth don seductive David Begelman, who stole team up heart so he could steal disintegrate money.

Toward the end wait her life, Garland tried to refer to her own story, talking into a-okay tape recorder for hours at unblended time. With access to those recordings-and to her unfinished manuscript, which offers a revelation on almost every page-Clarke is able to tell Judy’s story line as she herself might have bad it. “It’s going to be particular hell of a great, everlastingly wonderful book, with humor, tears, fun, tender feeling and love,” Judy promised of illustriousness autobiography she did not live detection complete. But she might just chimp well have been describing Get Pique. For here at last-told with indulge, tears, fun, emotion and love-is say publicly true, unforgettable story of Judy Garland.