American Masters Judy Garland: By Myself (1985– ) Online

Director Susan Lacey made this film for the Public Broadcasting Corporation's American Masters series. I saw it tonight at the Jacob Burns Film Center in the Westchester (N.Y.) County village of Pleasantville. The director engaged in a spirited conversation with the audience after this fine documentary was shown.

I've always been a fervent Judy Garland fan. She was one of the most talented actresses and singers ever produced in this country. I have seen all of her films, I own some on VHS or DVD, and I have a number of CDs of her singing. Her legendary Carnegie Hall concert is the highlight of my collection of this "take no prisoners" stage giant.

"Judy Garland - By Myself" is aptly titled. As a child she was more or less separated from any normal life by mogul Louis B. Mayer and made a contract slave to the studio system, in this case the property of MGM. I'm not stretching the analogy to indentured servitude at all. As shown here with stills, film clips and spoken narration she was put into an inhuman pressure cooker where every last bit of pressure was exerted and all possible profit was extracted by a heartless machine.

As a teenager scoring one success after another she was given pep pills to make her work harder and longer followed by sleeping pills so she could get some rest before the cycle repeated itself the next day. Any studio trying that with a kid today better have a legion of very good criminal defense lawyers.

As shown in this penetrating biography, Judy Garland was recognized for extraordinary ability almost from the get-go with, of course, "The Wizard of Oz" propelling her to world acclaim.

In the process she slowly began to lose her sense of self, succumbing to studio entreaties (and when that failed, threats did the job). She became involved in one doomed relationship with a man after another disappointing one, a lifetime pattern. Sickening and chilling is the account of how both Mayer AND Judy's mother virtually forced her to abort her first pregnancy because it was the "wrong" time for her to have a child.

There are many clips of her powerful acting and incredible singing in this almost two-hour film. While sympathetic to her travails, Ms. Lacey deserves credit for showing the price she paid, a price that ended in her death at age 47 from the very drugs she depended on for decades to get her through an up and down career.

Until the fatal end Judy Garland wasn't simply a survivor, she was a hugely talented and ambitious woman who, like water, carved out a new course when an earlier one was blocked. To her fans she seemed irrepressible and the film makes the point that the people who made up her audience were her principal motivator. She's quoted as saying she knew she always wanted to please audiences and fans. It's truly tragic that so many in show business who profited from her incomparable talent didn't have the decency to want to please her. And, probably, save her life.

A terrific addition to one of PBS's best series.

10/10

Watching the opening scenes of Susan Lacy's magnificent documentary in which a black and white sequence shows us Judy Garland singing "By Myself" shows a vulnerable woman giving her all to a song that expressed how, perhaps, she felt at that time of her brilliant, but short career.

Judy Garland had it all; she was a natural. From the start, she clearly demonstrates what a tremendous talent she had. In those early vaudeville film clips we watch a bubbly girl who could charm anyone who was lucky enough to be in the audience. She was destined for greatness, and yet, as we see in this sad account of her life, everything conspired against her.

When Ms. Garland arrived at MGM, she was put under contract and was given all the privileges. She was sadly given medication to make her sleep, as well as for waking her up. She was a commodity that the studio exploited as it saw fit. After all, she was making tremendous amounts of money for MGM. This, in the long turn, ruined her life because the drugs created a dependency she was never able to shake.

The film helps illustrates how everything conspired against Ms. Garland in some of the choices she made, as was the case with "A Star is Born". The film that had all the right elements going for it, proved to be one of the things that broke her spirit, at a time when she needed all she could to make it big, after having left MGM. George Cukor and Ms. Garland were made for one another, yet, Warner Brothers decided to chop the film, perhaps robbing her of an Oscar she deserved.

CBS didn't do better for her. Her variety show was an excellent program, but because of the time slot, it never got the ratings that were expected. The cancellation of the show was a mortal blow to her heart. Judy Garland's descent into the end of her life is one of the saddest things in the history of show business.

In a way, watching the opening number kept reminding us of another tragic singer, Edith Piaf. Both Judy Garland and Ms. Piaf, knew despair, and loneliness in their short lives.

Having watched this for the third time, it kills me to think what Jusy Garland went through to amuse and entertain us. Judy got the applause and the studios got the money and the public was entertained, but at what price? Would Judy have been better off being a waitress in St. Paul Minnesota married to the corner pharmacist? Would she have traded the stage for a normal life free of the pills and drugs that fueled her and ultimately led her to an early death? You keep asking yourself, was she ever really happy? Watch the pictures of her with her babies and it sure seems she would have been very happy just being a mom.

I love bio documentaries such as these because you see more than just what is on the screen or read in People magazine. This is a pretty good doc though some things are left out or underplayed (her father and husbands sexual orientation) but you can always read a Garland biography for those details; books don't give you the film clips the show does.

Louis B. Mayer gets the bad guy treatment. But would MGM have been as successful as it was without Mayer making the decisions he did? Would the movies we all love have been as good as they were without him? Yes, Mayer did not always have the best interests of the talent in mind, but again,is this the price of success?

Sonmeone like Bette Davis was strong enough to fight the studio system and win, but Judy, being younger and dominated by her mother and Mayer, never was strong enough to stand up for what was best for Judy. But like Bette, she never seemed to know how to pick a husband. If anyone needed the safety net of a good marriage, it was Garland.

The saddest part for me was when she got fired from Annie Get Your Gun. The studio was pushing her so hard that she eventually cracked. MGM bled her dry and then blamed her for not being a bottomless tank of gas.

Isabel Keating does a great job impersonating Garland, reading from Garland's own writings. Since Garland never got to publish her autobiography, this is the closest we get.

For anyone that questions what Judy had, this is a good primer. The great nature vs. nurture debate gets a big vote for nature since Judy caught lightning in a bottle with her talent but her sisters never were close to her level.

When she dies at the age of 47 (47 for goodness sake) she left behind a legacy of entertainment that is unmatched by anyone over such a relatively short time. But if her goal was always to entertain us, are we partly responsible for her early death? Would we give up her movies and songs if it meant she would have lived a normal and long life? Rest In Peace, Judy.

Done with great care, Judy Garland: By Myself (2004) underscores the fact that her legacy is on film. Some really wonderful musical moments are included in this film. The narrations were well done. As I watched performance after performance, I realized no one could tell Judy's story like Judy -- her songs tell it all! This film also touched on one of Judy Garland's greatest joys: motherhood. Some of my favorite moments in this film was the scenes with her children, they were so touching. Also, the unsuccessful string of marital relationships were alluded to, but, not elaborated on (perhaps that was a touch of discretion on the part of the film makers).

I saw the Wizard of Oz (1939) on TV when I was a kid. I continued to watch her movies on TV down through the years, growing to appreciate her performances more and more. I loved it when Judy Garland paired up with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Watching these show biz heavy weights on film together, it was magic! And, viewing her later performances, one could see the fire still in her eyes, she was such a fighter! This film gives an apt representation of Judy Garland's career; her ups and her downs, her victories and defeats. It even touches on how the industry ravished Judy Garland's genius to their own selfish ends. Despite being at the mercy of the entertainment system and a stage mom who allowed the abuse to go on (over work, drug abuse & etc), Judy Garland was able to give timeless performance after performance.

I do not think that you can do justice to her life's work in two hours, but, this film does her life's work some justice.

The life and career (the high-highs and low downs) of versatile, charismatic actress-singer-dancer Judy Garland is profiled in this informative, well-researched and produced segment for "American Masters". While eventually not quite the thorough examination of the iconic performer one might have hoped for, this comes as close to revealing the real Judy as any other film biography to date. Using old photographs--and Isabel Keating's uncanny readings of Judy's unfinished memoirs--we get a good sense of what Garland thought of herself, and why she became addicted to those pep pills and weight loss techniques from her youthful years at MGM. With focused narration and voice-tapes from others in Judy's life, director Susan Lacy is able to put into perspective the ill-fated early marriages, the on-set troubles, and the succession of comebacks. Still, once Lacy makes headway into Garland's fascinating movie career, she has a tendency to then double-back and give us more of the old stuff. We are to understand that the Garland-Gene Kelly musical "The Pirate" was a box-office flop, but are then told a moment later that Garland was nothing short of movie-gold. Her later marriages are ignored, as is the birth of her son Joey, but we are shown a plethora of lost or unused footage, lots of song numbers from Judy's unjustly-neglected television show for CBS, and moving newsreel footage of Garland's funeral procession in front of thousands. For fans, it's a must-see.

Let me start by advising: if you like celebrity documentaries; if you are comfortable with what that implies, then this will be something special. At the very least, it has what might be the best opening possible for such a thing.

We have three overlapping things that are introduced in the first minute. We have Judy singing a song about herself, and how it is just her alone singing to us. The song is intensely personal and the direct connection between her and us individually is explicit. The song itself is a biography.

Weaved into this, moving into the foreground soundwise is a tape recording Judy made toward a written biography that never happened. What she says is equally naked and direct. Her audience in both cases is disembodied -- I think the singing was on her TeeVee show. But the connection with us is visceral. Overlain in both the singing and tape are words that tell us that Judy left these tapes and notes toward a biography and the implication is that what we will see is what she indicated. More, that what we see will be as if she herself were making the documentary.

(It is never clear whether the voice we hear narrating is genuinely Judy's voice or an impersonator reading or reinterpreting her words. The ambiguity is deliberate.) This mix of her uniquely direct, open and vulnerable manner, the personal words to the song and the conceit that we are hearing something directly from offstage Judy makes this something unlike any celebrity voyeurism you will experience. The construction and particularly the editing are expert.

But here's the thing. This woman is damaged, damaged in such a way that when she reaches out, she reaches from the deepest part of her soul, without the protections we usually have. And without the normal intellectual shapes that help us register our partner. She just is there, completely open.

That's why we come to her, in her various performance modes.

Now this, which is a strange, strange mix. It has one foot in those performances, and they're really wonderful to see bits and pieces strung this way. But the other half is the story of the performer, mentally ill, doped up, full of demons, the very demons that make her attractive.

And we have the designated bad guy, Louis Mayer and the studio system that exploited her. But that's too patent. He was just one in a short chain of market forces that connect our consumption of her to the rape. We can tut tut about all those bad people When she was alive, it was us, and it still is.

So this is strange, so very strange. It is as if we owned slaves whose job was to amuse us in ways that make us question slavery and we respond by creating isolating middlemen and continue to gawk. A sort of powerporn that allows many of us to be closed to life. But even those it awakens suffer.

Its a dilemma in our souls, one that makes me question the very nature of film experience. If the thing is true, and some new light appears within us and some unknown turbine in our deepest selves stirs to life -- can we make it worth it if in the process a fairy dies each time our match is lit?

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Just watched this on disc 2 of the Easter Parade DVD set. Judy Garland was always that something special-a singer who began in vaudeville as a young girl, grew up before our eyes on the M-G-M movies, then continued to triumph at concert tours. All while also suffering many off-screen troubles with her employers, husbands, and her own self-esteem which often went up and down and was related to her drug problems she went through most of her life. The failure of her TV show may have been the last straw for her but Ms. Garland was always a trouper as evidenced by all those clips of her performances. All I'll say now is this is perhaps the best documentary I've seen yet of Ms. Judy Garland. Highly recommended!

This is a VERY unusual episode of "American Masters" because it was included as a DVD extra for an MGM film and it's NOT from PBS video. It's a PBS biography of Judy Garland and is on disc two of her musical "Easter Parade". It's also a bit unusual because in addition to interviews, you 'hear' from Judy and other dead people by having modern voice actors read their actual words.

As far as biographies go, this one is what you'd expect--a discussion of the childhood, career, personal life and death of the subject. However, and this is important, at almost two hours long, there is lots of time to explore her life. It's not rushed and you get some interesting insights into Miss Garland. One of the saddest things about her you see in the film is how so many people used her. The worst case was when she first got married and her mother and new husband pushed her to have an abortion she didn't want--all so they could keep riding the Judy Garland gravy train! And, throughout the whole film, you get a strong sense that she gave to others but was left with little in return.

The only thing the film didn't explore that I wished it had was looking at the psychological patterns in her life. It mentioned how her father way gay but failed to mention the strange recurring pattern in her marriages, as she married two other gay men in an apparent symbolic attempt to somehow connect with her long-dead father (he died when she was quite young). As a trained psychotherapist, I find this aspect of her life the most fascinating (as well as her daughter Liza also following a similar pattern). Still, overall it's the best biography on Judy I have seen. It will impress you and sadden you as well--about what you'd expect in the story of her life.

Judy Garland: By Myself (2004)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

American Masters entry tells the story of Judy Garland and pretty much fills up the entire 114-minute running time. We get all sorts of clips from her films but we also get a lot of footage from her Gumm Sisters days as well as concert clips and footage from her television series. The documentary pretty much bounces around and I wish it would have focused a tad bit more on Garland's many personal issues but that's the only problem I have here. For the rest of the time this is a very solid documentary that shows how Garland was selected by MGM and how they pretty much threw her away like trash at the age of 28. We get to see her several comebacks including A STAR IS BORN, which some believe she should have won an Oscar for had it not been for theater owners demanding the studio cut the film to pieces. The documentary has some audio clips from Garland who was planning on writing a biography when she died. We get to hear her discuss all sorts of issues including her self doubt due to MGM thinking her nose didn't look right and how they were constantly telling her she was fat even though she was only 105-pounds. This is what I found so shocking. MGM was extremely mean and hateful to her yet she was there number one star. I really wonder if they dared treat Gable or Tracy this way. I guess this says more on how a studio was willing to treat a female star compared to her male stars. Various other audio clips are done with stars such as June Allyson, Jackie Cooper and George Cukor. The clips from her television series were a lot of fun especially the one teaming her with Mickey Rooney. All in all, this is a very entertaining and packed documentary that fans will certainly want to check out.

This is one of those documentaries which I came out of thinking, "Well, that was interesting." Judy Garland's life deserves more than a documentary. It needs a multimedia epic lasting well over two hours and covering every fascinating facet. Unfortunately, such a spectacle is impractical and impossible. The closest thing we have is a combination of a good book and our imaginations. Therefore, I suggest reading a good biography (I suggest Gerald Clarke's "Get Happy") and watching her films as an alternative to this dry, unimaginative film, whose only moments of true glory are when it shows clips of Garland's performances, and even then, they talk over it! Still, if you like documentaries, it's a good one.

(A reformatted copy of this is being E-mailed to my Congressional representative as we speak; watch this biographical documentary--my Exhibit A--again, and I'm sure you'll want to contact YOUR Congress person, Prime Minister, head sheikh, etc., as well.) I just finished reading a message board thread titled "Traci . . ." for the Afterdark Horrorfest cheapie CRAZY EIGHTS, discussing whether one-time (or 200-time, depending on who's counting) child porn star Traci Lords--who appeared in CRAZY EIGHTS long after she reached "legal age"--was exploited by the porn industry (or vice versa). Watching JUDY GARLAND the same week as CRAZY EIGHTS, I cannot help being struck by the parallels between Lords' infamous early work (none of which I've seen) and Garland's--especially the WIZARD OF OZ, my all-time favorite movie.

Since Judy's beloved dad died days after her mom signed her life away to MGM, Judy viewed studio head Louie B. Mayer as her surrogate father. How did "dear old dad" respond to this "in loco parentis" role? By constantly calling Judy "my little hunchback," surrounding her with "real beauties" on every set (including Billie Burke as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in OZ), whose role in her films (from her Andy Hardy work with Mickey Rooney through OZ to EASTER PARADE, etc.) was to make her a miserable wreck till the final frames. Meanwhile, behind the scenes she was made to submit to a daily regimen of uppers and downers to keep awake for double shifts, and each time she went to detox she had to PAY HER OWN WAY, and as soon as she came back to the studio "clean," her bosses said, "Judy, you fat little pig, you're topping the scales at 105 pounds--pop some diet pills right this instant!" Even as she merged into "adulthood," she retained the psyche of the emotionally crippled perpetual child MGM had made her, down to allowing studio flacks to arrange for the abortion of what would have been her first-born.

Since this child abuse started when Judy was in her early teens, and since the U.S. government ALWAYS has applied censorship and kiddie porn laws RETROACTIVELY, the availability of Louie's exploitation films all over the internet (and even in the local "Family Video" store) makes a mockery of the American penal code. Do you think the Italian government would leave the Sistine Chapel standing if it were documented that Michaelangelo had painted with the blood of murdered virgins? Would Egypt tolerate the Pyramids if evidence proved they were made entirely from the teeth of slaughtered Jewish slaves? This JUDY GARLAND testimony proves that all of her MGM work is indelibly tainted with sadistic exploitation just as reprehensible as the foregoing hypothetical examples. Yet the heirs to MGM's copyrights still reap millions annually from little Frances Ethel Gumm's blood, sweat, and tears. It's long past time to stop this madness. Please join me in helping to stamp out this torture porn--NOW!