Judy Garland

The diminutive performer with the magical effect on audiences remains the stuff of legend more than twenty years after her death.
Intended for those who feel that the most important aspect of Judy Garland's life is her professional legacy, this authoritative and stunning text and picture celebration (drawing largely on private archives and unpublished materials) has been created for those who want to discover all the facts behind the career of the world's greatest entertainer.
Judy Garland worked for nearly forty-five of her forty-seven years. She made thirty-two feature films, did voice-over work for two more, and appeared in at least a half dozen short subjects. She received a special Academy Award and was nominated for two others. She starred in thirty of her own television shows (the programs and Judy Garland herself garnering a total of ten Emmy Award nominations) and appeared as a guest on nearly thirty more. Between 1951 and 1969, she fulfilled more than eleven hundred theatre, nightclub and concert performances, winning a special Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for the first of three record-breaking Broadway engagements at the Palace. She recorded nearly one hundred singles and over a dozen record albums; Judy at Carnegie Hall received an unprecedented five Grammy Awards in 1962 (including Album of the Year) and has never been out of print. Her radio work encompassed several hundred broadcasts, and she sang at countless benefits and personal appearances for the military. Earlier, as Frances Gumm, between the ages of two and thirteen - and prior to signing her MGM contract in 1935 - she fulfilled hundreds of live vaudeville and radio dates with her two older sisters.
One of Garland's hallmarks was, of course, her remarkable ability to convey in song the heartrending pathos of human existence. But she could also convey joy with unparalleled success, and she seemed to epitomize the showman's determination to rise above obstacles and to carry on whatever the occasion. Those who thrilled to her as an entertainer came away from the exposure - on film, on record, or (supremely) onstage - in an exultant, transported, celebratory state. Almost unconsciously, she invariably appealed to the best qualities of the human condition. And that is the Judy captured in this magnificent book - graced with 600 photographs, many never before seen, and informed by John Fricke's unforgettable and unfailingly accurate prose.