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 Bernadette-Fanatic
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Registered:
6/11/2002 | posted: 11/12/2007 at 2:02:28 PM ET
I can't believe no one has posted in here since September! Wow!
Anyway, does anyone know the name of the CD that was released maybe 5 years ago of Judy Garland's spoken memoirs? It was just her speaking into a microphone, and I remember reading on talkinbroadway that it was released, but I don't know where to find it. Ring a bell with anyone??
| Karen
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5/3/2002 | posted: 11/12/2007 at 3:46:19 PM ET
It's called Judy Garland Speaks. It's tapes she made in the mid-sixties when she was thinking about writing an autobiography. It's pretty disturbing to listen to because her state of mind was not good at that point (to put it mildly).
I have it. I can make you a copy if you'd like. Just let me know.
| Witch From The Wood
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Registered:
10/4/2007
From:
America | posted: 11/12/2007 at 9:00:47 PM ET
What sort of stuff does she talk about?
|  GYPSY1527
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2/20/2004
From:
New Jersey
Fav. BP Song: With So Little to be Sure of
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| posted: 11/12/2007 at 9:13:45 PM ET
As a Judy Garland fan it is heartbreaking to hear. I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone. There are a few sites you can find excerpts if you were "Judy Garland Speaks".
| Karen
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Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 11/12/2007 at 11:42:05 PM ET
It's a long series of angry, self-pitying, alcohol-fueled ramblings. A lot of it is about how much she hates Sid Luft, how exploited she feels, and how mad at the world in general she is. In between these, she tries to offer unconvincing reassurances that she's just your ordinary, churchgoing housewife who loves her kids and doesn't drink at all. Listening to it now is chilling of course because you know that she'll be dead of an overdose in a few years. When I listened to it I wondered if she would have done better in her life if she had been more honest with herself or if that really wouldn't have made any difference given her bipolar disorder and her addictions in a time when there weren't good treatments. She was such a pathological liar and such a fantasist, just like Liza is now. The kind of person I feel sorry for but frustrated by.
Some of Judy's fans hate that it's available and think that it's basically immoral to listen to it. However my curiosity exceeds my scruples.
| Witch From The Wood
Registered User
Registered:
10/4/2007
From:
America | posted: 11/13/2007 at 10:02:11 PM ET
I'd always thought she was a great entertainer. If she didn't want people to hear these tapes I could usnerstand why her fans my think it disrespectful in a way to listen to them.
At the same time, curiousity can not be ignored, and had I my chance, I would listen to it. I've always been very itnerested in what people think about. Nosey I suppose might be the right word for it.
|  BleuTwinks
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Registered:
12/14/2003
From:
Arizona | posted: 12/10/2007 at 12:30:09 AM ET
I would strongly not recommend the Judy Speaks CD to anyone but the most devoted Judy fans who respect her as a human being, and have the intelligence and open-mindedness to understand what Judy was going through when she made these recordings. She was going through a major custody battle over her children during one of the periods and about to lose her home over tax issues during another period of the recordings. Both the result of misjudgement and trusting the wrong men with her business and personal affairs. Yes, Judy was probably under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at the time but she did remain intelligent and focused. I know that if I were about to lose my children or home I would not be nearly as focused or eloquent in speech as she was on those tapes.
Karen, you are right about one thing in your post...Judy suffered from an addiction (that was really nobody's fault especially not hers) in a time when almost nothing was known about treatment and there were no treatment centers that utilized the methods that now are known to be somewhat successful. Lying is a symptom of addiciton. Stating that Judy was a pathological liar and fantasist is pointless and will just draw people to remember her as a crazy drug addict. Yes, like all addicts she was in denial about her addiction and relationships with men but she was honest about a lot of things.
I understand the topic of this post is 'Judy Speaks' but why focus on something so negative about Judy. For anyone interested in Judy I would recommend reading Steve Sanders "Rainbow's End" or John Fricke's "World's Greatest Entertainer" and "Judy: A Portrait in Art and Anecdote" both thoroughly well researched books filled with interviews with Judy's friends, family, and co-workers with stories about how professional, loyal, intelligent, and funny she was as a coworker, friend and human being. I know I am one of the devotees but there are so many rumors and inaccuracies out there that have seriously tarnished Judy's reputation, and the repsonse Karen gave seems to add to that. Of course she was a drug addict, she told lies, and was capable of crazy behavior at times, but is that what people should remember her for? What about all of the beautiful positive things and the amazing body of work that Judy has left behind...check out any of the work by John Fricke, Judy's greatest biographer and you will see what a wonderful, professional, intelligent human being she was. 20,000+ people attended her funeral, there is a festival held annually in honor of Judy and a postage stamp last year...I think that says something.
Sorry for the long rant...I feel very strongly about Ms. Garland, and about the Judy Speaks tapes, it really takes a little bit of understanding and thinking outside the box to understand what Judy was going through, not from a 2007 perspective but from a 1960s perspective. And for those of you who want to listen to those tapes for pure, sensationalized, entertainment of hearing a "crazy drugged Judy" then you join the likes of Howard Stern because that is exactly what he did.
| Karen
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Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 12/10/2007 at 11:02:14 AM ET
Actually, she shouldn't have had custody of her children from Luft. She was incompetent as a parent. They would have been much better off with Luft, and in fact, that's where they eventually ended up anyway for the last couple of years of Judy's life. I don't think she even really wanted custody at that point. She just felt obligated to pursue it for her public image (like Britney Spears now). She was never the same after her disastrous 1964 Asian concert tour and the heart attack/overdose. That really destroyed whatever was left of her brain. After that she was just spiralling down very rapidly.
I agree that in an earlier period of her life she was intelligent and funny, but she lost those qualities through drug and alcohol abuse. As far as being professional or loyal, I don't see that she was ever either of those things--at least not by my notion of what those mean. We'll never know if Judy would have been better able to control her addictions and stabilize her mental health in today's world of modern treatment. Liza hasn't been able to, so maybe that's a clue--or maybe not.
I think most people remember Judy as one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century and at the same time as an incredibly messed up person. I really don't think that's unfair or unrealistic.
| BleuTwinks
Registered User
Registered:
12/14/2003
From:
Arizona | posted: 12/12/2007 at 2:31:52 AM ET
"She was one of the most cooperative people I have ever worked with. She would try anything. She'd come out and kick the fire out of you; I don't think she said no to anything I've wanted to do. I've worked with some very cooperative people. But Judy worked. And she listened. And she would try anything. And she didn't just try it-she committed. She went out there like a little bantamweight fighter."
- George Schlatter, Producer
"But I think she was the most loyal person and the greatest entertainer in the world. And the first thing you think of is the great warmth of Judy, the great, giving, little person that she was. Her heart was bigger than all of her put together. She was just one great big heart."
- June Allyson
"And she really, actually tried to interview me; she did a professional job of trying to be Barbara Walters. And even though she was frightened to death, she just brought out the best in me because she was so warm. And she was so human. What I saw was a real professional trying to do her best, even when she was out of her league; yet she did a really nice job- we had quite a lot of fun."
- Rex Reed on Judy's Dec 1968 gig as guest host
of Merv Griffin
| BleuTwinks
Registered User
Registered:
12/14/2003
From:
Arizona | posted: 12/12/2007 at 2:42:52 AM ET
"As a parent, she was the best parent she knew how to be. And she always seemed to me to be ahead of her time, because we always knew how much she cared about us-my brother Joe, my sister Liza, and me. No matter what happened to her, no matter how difficult some moments might be or how angry she might be about something in her life, she always made it clear that those moments were not about us. We always knew we were loved. She was also a great one for believing in personal, human values; that's what she taught us--both by her example and by her instruction. We were told: Be kind to people not as fortunate as you are. Don't brag. Always sign the autograph. And always, always say 'please' and "thank you.' We were shown that it was very important to try to be kind and good human beings-because that's what she was. There have been so many legends about the professionally 'difficult' Judy Garland. As much as she had that reputation among some people that wasn't what I ever saw as her daughter-whether in the midst of our incredibly fun times or in her really low moments. Those stories always seemed exaggerated to me...especially now when I hear about moments when I was there and I know the events didn't happen as they're sometimes 'remembered' by others."
- Lorna Luft
"I have served as musical director for a number of artists. It would not be demeaning or belittling to them to state that Judy Garland was head and shoulders above them all. She was as warm and generous as she was talented. Her sense of humor was fantastic. In short, it was an honor, a vital experience, and a privilege to make music with her."
-Mort Lindsey
| BleuTwinks
Registered User
Registered:
12/14/2003
From:
Arizona | posted: 12/12/2007 at 2:46:24 AM ET
"All I can say is that, even at the very end of her career (despite all the illness and problems) Judy was still the ultimate professional. Out there on the stage, she was magic! Alert and alive, as much a part of the orchestra as she was a part of the audience, she never missed a cue and she never hit an unmusical note. Even at her very last concert, Judy Garland was still quite simply the Greatest."
- Tony Osborne, musical conductor
| BleuTwinks
Registered User
Registered:
12/14/2003
From:
Arizona | posted: 12/12/2007 at 2:59:44 AM ET
Judy made 32 films, starred in 30 of her own television shows, guest starred on almost 30 others, fulfilled more than 1100 theater, nightclub, and concert appearances, recorded more than a dozen singles and more than a dozen albums, and appeared on over 300 radio broadcasts. If Judy was truly as sick as the press made her out to be she coudln't have completed that much work. Of course there were the disastrous appearances (which people love to focus on so much) but they are very small in number compared to the successes. I agree that Judy's condition began to rapidly decline after the Hong Kong incicent but she never lost her sense of humor or her magic with live audiences. Watch her June 1968 Johnny Carson appearance. Her speech had slowed down somewhat but her stories were as funny as ever and she had not lost her charm. In most of Judy's 1967-1969 concerts you can hear the incredible rapport she had with audiences. Her wit and spontinaiety were there. MOST of the time (but not all of the time) Judy was still brilliant in her declining years.
Why come down on Judy and Liza because they suffered from a DISEASE that was not their fault? Judy was not a bad person with bad intentions and niether is Liza. I agree that it was not in Lorna and Joe's best interest to live with Judy by the mid 1960s. But like you said they ended up with their father, that was inevitable. Judy loved her children more than anything in the world (as all 3 children and many friends have stated) so I don't think she was pursuing them for her image. She did the best she knew how at the time. That's the best any of us can do. I can't compare Judy to Britney Spears because I don't follow Britney's career or tabloid drama (simply because she has no talent as a performer in my opinion)
we obviously have different perspectives and I respect your opinion. Yes Judy was very messed up but she was also a warm, loving human being most of the time and not the monster people make her out to be.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 12/31/2007 at 10:09:47 AM ET
Just spotted this thread ... I fell in love with the voice of Judy Garland when I was about three years old, having just watched an old Judy movie on TV. I believe she had more acting and singing talent in her little finger than most performers have in their entire body. I also believe that if she had experienced a better start in life then she may have been more equiped to shrug off the troubles that beset her in her adult years.
While male singers of that era (Sinatra, Crosby, Martin, et al), are still applauded and celebrated for their work, with their personal failings long forgotten ... why then do we still have to dwell on the sadder side of Judy's life? She was, arguably, the most talented of them all, isn't that what's worth remembering ... and celebrating?
"There’s a lot in the world for us to turn our attention to — helping people, helping animals, and helping animals help people." ... Bernadette Peters, August, 2007
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