Get Happy

To tell Judy Garland's story, Gerald Clarke took 10 years, travelled thousands of miles across two continents, conducted hundreds of interviews, and dug through mountains of documents. He re-creates the golden age of Hollywood with cinematic urgency, bringing to life the characters who played leading roles in the unending drama of Judy Garland: Louis B. Mayer, the patriarch of MGM; sexy Lana Turner, Judy's friend and idol, who had a habit of trying to snatch away any man Judy expressed interest in; clarinetist Artie Shaw; handsome Tyrone Power; boy-genius Orson Welles; and brilliant director Vincente Minnelli, who fathered her first child, Liza. Toward the end of the life, Garland tried to tell her own story. With access to her tape recordings - and her revelatory unfinished manuscript - Clarke is able to tell Judy's story as she herself might have wanted to.