A serious look at Judy's life.

I really wanted to write about something else Judy related today, but apparently people want to know more about the book.  Oh well, tomorrow with the funny story then! 

         I feel my background in social science and anthropology enables me to look at Judy’s life from a different perspective from many of the other booka which have been written.  Digging back into my anthropology theory, in “The Personal Document in Anthropological Science,” Clyde Kluckholm points out, “life events have meaning only in their context.  This context is, in part, created by the contemporary situation of the subject and by the sequence of experience which are peculiar to him as an individual” (1945, p.122).  Therefore it is necessary to place the life of Judy Garland among the era in which she grew up; in the vaudeville stages where she witnessed hundreds of acts and performed herself; the sound studios where she recorded songs; MGM sets where she where she sang, danced and acted as she grew up.  I want to understand why and how this special person evolved; what were her challenges; how and why she dealt with the chaotic of her life; her loves; and most importantly,  what damage was done to her in those years being continually forced to audition as a child.  I hope to explain some of her actions and incorporate my experiences at concerts and meeting Judy.     
            As we will see from Judy’s life patterns she knew the drugs that she had been habitude to were not good for her but she was not able to break the pattern.  Many times she admitted herself into hospitals trying to get free of the drugs and get well.  But because of how she was programmed-to entertain, the pattern that had been imprinted on her by the age of seven, she was not able to break this pattern.  

            Now it is easier for young actors to control their careers because they are not tied to 5-year contracts with studios and are able to further their education; attend college; learn to analyze their job opportunities and gain confidence in dealing with people in positions of power such as heads of studios and defend their choices as to what type of work they want.  Judy never had that opportunity.  She was the bread winner and she had to do as she was told.  

           This book is for Judy fans and I have included many of the stories which have been related to me through the years from people who witnessed her perform and met her.  I want to capture her charm, grace, wit, artistry, and most of all show how she was a thoroughly nice woman.   

            I’m particularly grateful to Michael Apted, filmmaker, who graciously allowed me to use his documentary UP Series, which looks at lives of people over the years, as a frame work for my analysis of Judy’s life and to prove the Jesuit saying, “Give me the child until he is seven, and I will show you the man.”