Lorna Luft Books

This is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book about the life and career of "Miss Showbusiness" Judy Garland. This was the first real book on Judy I read and what an excellent way to begin. I had vagually known that the many stories about Judy were disgusting lies. Now John Fricke (after his other great book) now puts Judy in her proper place, I wanted to get to know the woman better and this book did better than that. I actually felt that I was there with Judy, experencing her warmth, joy and laughter with her in her personal life and watching her perform on the sets of films, live in concert and on her tv series. I actually got to know Judy from this book and I loved her.

Stories about Judy are often innaccurate but this book (and a few others) are the real deal. Most biographers like to think that Judy was a tragic figure and her life was a hopeless ride to despair and degredation.

But this book changed all that, Fricke brilliantly captures Judy Garland as her friends, family and co-workers knew her, as a bright, intelligent, witty human being and also a affectionate, kind and caring lady who happened to be one of the most talented performers to grace this earth.

Well done, Mr. Fricke and thank you.

As a relatively new fan to Judy, I bought this book mainly due to the positive reviews here on Amazon, and Amazon writers never fail. This book is truly fantastic. With more rare pictures than you can shake a stick at, most of them at better-than-good quality, too. These pictures, complete to extensive captions and quotes by the people who knew Judy, span her entire lifetime. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and indeed these pictures speak more plainly to the reader than even the most comprehensive biography. Judy Garland was a phenomenal talent, and what a pleasure to have such a wonderful book devoted to this true star.

The rare photographs in this book are worth the purchase price alone! John Fricke seems to know more about Judy Garland than probably most of her family and friends. You'll come away with a new appreciation of this talented and troubled woman.

This book is a must-have for all Garland and Oz fans!!

This book gave me a refreshing and rare look at Judy Garland's life through pictures. The most interesting ones were of her behind the scenes, with family or rehearsing. These are ones of her behind the scenes laughing and dancing with people like Gene Kelly. So any fan of the classic musicals would enjoy these photos.
You get to be a witness to what an extraordinary person she was not only on the screen, but off, and in person. There are great quotes from people who knew her, all of them saying how she really was unique and a one-of-a-kind class act. She did have a hard life but I like the way this book doesn't seem to focus on that at all. The focal point of this book is to show the great points of her life that fans will enjoy seeing and that's good enough for me.
It's great to see her in her prime and with some of the top stars of the day. It shows the excitement in Hollywood and their lives in that era, and how she was in the very midst of all of it.
Any Judy Garland fan, really anyone, will enjoy this look at Judy Garland's life through photos. It really is a book that makes you want to look at it over and over again.

She's reviving her career, she's in London with a troubled marriage that's fodder for the tabloids...no, we're not speaking of Liza Minnelli, mega-talented daughter of "Dorothy Gale from Kansas," but of "Baby Gumm," Frances Gumm, who you might have heard of as Judy Garland.

In a memorable scene from the 2001 miniseries "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," a frustrated Garland, played to perfection by Judy Davis, shouts into the phone, "Yes, I've heard how difficult it is to work with Judy Garland. Do you know how difficult it is to be Judy Garland? I've been trying to be Judy Garland all my life!" In the foreword to Judy Garland: A Tribute In Art And Anecdote, Garland's daughter Lorna Luft echoes this sentiment in as loving a tribute to her mother as the miniseries, based on Luft's own published memoir, and as reverent yet observant as John Fricke's stunning, definitive, human, glowing, not-in-the-least-fawning encomium on Garland's life. You'll love the posters, photographic portrait of entertainment history, drawings, and "home movie" photos of the private Garland. Garland's children, flawed and loving, gave her added complexity as a working mom heroine. To quote the title of one of her movies, "I Could Go On Singing." In Fricke's book, she does just that.

I recently read this book. Although it is not the best autobiography I have ever read it is not the worst either. It is a good interesting read. Ms. Luft is honest and straight forward with how she saw things. I have read other posts blasting her for false statements. And I have to ask those blasting her: Where you there? Did you live it?

One reviewer is under the mistaken idea that Judy was forced to live in London at the end of her life. Not so. She went there quite often to do concerts and I believe was there to do a concert when she passed away. No one forced her out of the country if you read the book no one forced her to do anything no one dared!

Frankly if you want to know the real Judy read this book from someone who loves and cares about her and was there with her constantly. As for cashing in on her mother I don't find that is the case here. I think she just wants to tell her side of the story. After all most books about Ms. Garland are full of false stories and written by people who really did want to cash in on her name. One that comes to mind is her last husband Mickey Deans, who only knew her for a few months not years. Talk about a garbage book.

I didn't find that she was trashing her mother at all on the contrary she was trying to set the record straight. I had no doubt while reading this that she loved her mother very much. It had to be very painful to write this book. On many occasions in the book she says her mother was a great mother. These people blasting Ms. Luft are obviously people who have never lived with someone this dependant on drugs and this mentally affected by those drugs. As one reviewer says "sure she could be difficult, what addict isn't?" Difficult? She threw knifes at people on at least two occasions! This is a reviewer who has never had to deal with this type of problem. Thirty years of the volume of drugs Ms. Garland ingested is going to generate someone that is more than just difficult.

To get on Ms. Luft's case for moving in with her father 10 months before the death of her mother is ridiculous. To say, as one reviewer did, at least the "sleazy hanger-on" were there at the end is ludicrous. Ms. Luft was a teenager. She should not have had to continue to live in that environment. It was not her responsibility to take care of her mother at that age. She did for many years, but it took its toll on her. It showed great strength to walk away.

Reading some of these scathing reviews leads me to believe the people didn't really read the book. They are just Judy fanatics that cannot stand that there icon was not a saint. She was human with human frailties.

Another reviewer blasts Sid Luft and his treatment of Judy and how he pushed her too hard. The book clearly says that Sid Luft did not want to be her manager that Judy wanted him to manage her, so he did. The book also states he watched out for her and monitored her pill intake so she would not take more than perscribed. From what is decribed in the book he had nothing but her best intrest at heart and would not do anything to hurt her.

Everyone has a point of view. Growing up my memories are not the same as my sisters or brothers, but that does not make mine or their memories false just a different point of view. This is true of all families, whether you are famous or not, so the same holds true for Ms. Luft's memories of her family. She was there. This is her point of view on actual events that occured in her life; the reviewers here were not there, so if you want to learn about the real Judy Garland as seen through the eyes of someone very close to her read this book.

What is incredible about this book is Lorna Luft's first becoming acquainted, in her mid-thirties, with the theory of alcoholism as a family disease.

It brings to mind Liza Minnelli's appearance on "Inside the Actors Studio" a year or two ago. She told the audience to look up alcoholism, because it actually is a disease!

It makes one wonder whether these two were living under glittery, spangled rocks, or something.

The book is an interesting read, but the many, many pages devoted to Ms. Luft's late-in-life revelations about her mother's and her sister's addictions are like patiently watching a child play with color crayons: You know you're doing the polite thing, but Gawd, it's boring.

Finally, I wonder who edited this book. "Me and Joey," and "Me and Mama," and "Me and Liza," and so on. After the first few dozen, it's like reading a letter from camp.

Is it to remind the reader of the title of the book he already has in his hand, or is it just plain bad grammar?

This is a great book and being a Judy Garland admirer, nothing about her life would make me not be a fan but it's more refreshing to hear what happened from someone who was there instead of a biographer who "makes up" stories of what he/she has heard.

This is a great book - it's truthful, compassionate and real.

Its difficult to believe that anyone anywhere would get anything out of this auto biography. her whole point seemed to be that Sid Luft was the greatest man and has gotten a bad rap . Her book vindicates him, and she has a way of portraying her mom as a nightmare without actually coming across as being a rotten daughter. Very clever of her but unfortunately her book isnt as clever or well written to make up for the denial and genuine lack of insight or honesty in the book.
Talking about your drug problems is NOT honest. its just common knowledge and quite acceptable in todays society.
Lorna seems to reduce everything in her life to addiction, her mothers, her own and her sisters.
As for Liza, well, i agree with another review, Lorna manages to talk alot about Liza's addiction while glossing over her own.
And as for the quote on the back of her book
" Lorna is the most talented of us all"
Judy Garland
well, i dont want to state the obvious but
We know who we're talking about when we say
JUDY or
LIZA
how many trys would someone have to come up with when they heard
Lorna
before they said Luft?

I read Luft's version of her own mothers story. A very good book, told from someone close enough to feel the total pain and agony that the rest of the world felt- only amplified as her daughter.
Luft's book does paint a little fairy tale into the mix, but is a shocking story of watching your mother slip down a long dark slope.
Luft tells about Judy's start in Hollywood which is equally as interesting as the photo's in the book. Luft paints that love story between her mother and father and leaves you feeling his loss for her.
She also explains the relationship between her and sister Liza Minelli.
It's a great boigraphy.