Judy Garland's "other daughter" Lorna Luft began her professional career with high hopes, a knockout body and a powerhouse voice. That was in the mid-70s. Skip to the late 90s and the parade passed her by. What to do? Join the parade of stars' offspring who never quite made it: Christina Crawford (Joan's brat), Maria Riva (Marlene Dietrich's daughter), B.D. Davis (Bette's ungrateful daughter) et al. Although Luft constantly points out that Judy was a loving mom and several reviews point out that this is no "Mommie Dearest" memoir, it is ironic that Lorna's tome closely resembles the harsh bio of Joan Crawford. The scary "night visits" to the kids' room, the tantrums, drunken rages, nagging and narcissism. There is also the tacit undertone that the raising of children was never the first thing on Garland's mind. Still, Lorna nudges us, Garland wasn't bad, just merely had problems.

Her worst problem, if you know much about Judy, was her penchant for marrying men who worked for her. Her first two husbands, David Rose and Vincente Minnelli, were famous in their own right. After that, Judy married three men with no talent or visible means of support other than being Judy's 24-hr. gofer. Sid Luft was the first of these. Lorna describes her father as a "producer" but the record speaks for itself. To date, Luft has produced two films- a cheapie for Monogram called "Kilroy was Here" and, of course, the wonderful Garland remake of "A Star is Born." Luft was, in fact, an opportunist who lived off of dancer Eleanor Powell, then actress Lynn Bari, and then Judy. One could arguably say that Luft has not earned one dime since 1951 that did not involve the marketing of Judy Garland, even after their divorce and her death. Craftily, Luft impregnated Judy to ensure their marriage. The result was Lorna. So while it is true that Sid Luft was capable of producing sperm, it is quite a stretch to refer to him as a producer. This is merely one fact that Lorna prefers not to address. The saddest issue that Lorna broaches is that her brother Joey was born mentally out-of-kilter because of the drugs her mother took during her pregnancy with him. Lorna
mentions Joey's troubled brain yet claims- presumably with a straight face- that Judy was not to blame because the role of the placenta was not known in 1955! (Lorna does admit that
she hated school and played a lot of hooky. Believe it!)
Much later, Lorna informs us, that a stoned Judy even tried to impale Joey with a knife, too zonked out on speed to recognize her own son. But, if we're still with Lorna, Judy really, REALLY tried her best. That is the schizophrenic nature of Luft's story, page after page. Drug addiction, boozing, screaming knife-throwing rages, totally selfish, irresponsible and over-the-top behavior that makes Courtney Love seem like Shirley Temple... oh, but aside from that, life with Judy was just dandy. So... is Lorna's book to be believed? The question is: does Lorna even believe what she tells us?

I loved this book. Although i wasn't really a fan of Judy Garland's (i had only ever seen her in The Wizard of Oz), i was by the time i finished this book. This book is beautifully written, and i thought the mini-series was fantastic. Lorna writes honestly, covering both the good and bad points of Judy's -as well as her own- life. It is particularly sad at times, but there are some happy, joyful memories that Lorna has of her mom. As Lorna once said, 'I didn't know her as a legend, I didn't know her as an icon, all i knew her as was my mother', a mother who loved her children fiercely, even in her final years of addiction. There is no doubt that Judy Garland was a brilliant and gifted performer - and if she had not had the tradgies of being co-dependent on her pills, or if addiction had been more understood - she would still be alive today, instead of being alive only in the memories of her loved ones.

I thought this book was fantastic. All true Judy Garland fans should read this because it is brilliant. Luft seems to tell the whole truth and it does contradict some other books which makes me feel a lot better.
In Anne Edwards book "Judy Garland Biography" it says that L.B. Mayer hated Judy Garland. It says he treated her like rubbish and didn't care about her at all but then in Lufts book it says Mayer loved Judy like a daughter and she never once complained about him. Although Luft probably does exaggerate some of it and she probably can't quite remember everything so she has to do her best, even if its not true, it is still a fantastically detailed review of the ups and downs of Judy's and the family's life.
At one point Luft says that the night of Judys funeral, she was on the balony looking at the stars and she felt her mothers presence. I thought that was lovely and it really touched me. All the things about Judys ghost haunting Liza is absolute rubbish from the press. I don't know how some reporters can be so harsh and not even seem to care. As Lorna said, if her mother was "haunting" Liza, it wasn't "haunting", she was simply trying to comfort her because she is her daughter.
I love Judy Garland and hope wherever she is that she is very happy and has finally found piece.
This book is fantastic and, as I said before, any fan of Judys should read it and if you still come of loving her as much as you did when you started the book, or more, then you are a true fan of a fantastic legend.

The book starts off with the story of Lorna Luft's grandparents (Judy's parents) Frank and Ethel Gumm and tells the story about how they met and the family they raised. The book then goes into the story of Lorna's mother Judy Garland growing up baby Frances Ethel Gumm. Lorna tells how her mother loved to perform and loved living in Grand Rapids, Minnesota (were she was born) and hated living in Lancaster, California where they moved when Judy was 4.
Lorna then goes into the story of the MGM years of Judy's life going from a radio singer to the star of The Wizard of OZ, one of the greatest hits of MGM's history all in the space of a year. After that, it was all pretty much down hill as far as MGM goes for Judy according to Lorna. Judy started on drugs to help her lose weight and help her sleep, and they soon controlled her life. Lorna tells that when Judy was 18 she got married to David Rose and after only a short period of time divorced him. She did this to get out of Ethel's hair because she could not stand being near her after the death of Frank, and Ethel's marrying a man exactly four years to the day after her father's death.
Lorna then goes into the sorted affair that was Judy's marriage to Vincent Minnelli and the birth of their daughter Liza. After only a few years though they divorced and Lorna goes on to talk about the next man in Judy's life, Lorna's father Sid Luft.
Lorna tells the story about her father being raised by a bon-vivent and a Russian Jewish designer in New York City. Lorna also tells a ridiculous story that her father once heard his father tell his mother about a mysterious note a woman wrote to him when his family was in Europe one summer.
Lorna tells about her parent's early relationship and how she never knew that she was actually on the way when they decided to get married. She describes the story about her early years in the house and then the hubbub of having little Joey come into the world. Lorna also writes about how when Joey was a little boy she actually went into his crib and scratched him so hard that to this day there are still scratch marks on his face, because she did not want him in the house anymore
This leads into the story about Lorna's own life. She writes about her early life at first staying at one house, but by the age of nine being shuffled from England to New York to California. She then elaborates about her parents separation and how a Psychiatrist used Lorna's fear of needles to get her to admit that she did not want to live with her dad, that she did not even love her dad. After this thing got a little better but she was still going from one step-father to another constantly moving, never being able to see her father, until at the age of 15 she moves in with her dad and several months later finds out that her mother was dead.
After her mother died, Lorna moved to New York to work in plays and things and had some love affairs (one with Barry Mataloe.) She tells about her dabbling with cocaine for several years and the diabolical that was her relationship with Burt Reynolds until she found the absolute wrong man for her-her husband Jake Hooker.
Lorna vividly details her relationship of almost 20 years with her husband. She tells about at first they were fine, and then after their son was born it was more like they were client and clientele instead of husband and wife and their daughters birth only made it worse. She details how their marriage broke up when their daughter was an infant and how only a week later she met the next man she was to marry.
Last, but not least Lorna describes her relationship with her sister Liza Minnelli. She tells that because Liza was seven years older than her she does not really have any memories of her when they were young, but she has a lot when they were older. Lorna details the struggle Liza had with drugs that culminated in Lorna virtually kidnapping her sister and taking her to the Betty Ford Center in about 1984.

Oh my. As a long-standing Garland fan, far be it from me to knock one of her kids. But this reads like fantasy! Tremendous chunks have been left out of this book, and Lorna reminds me, sometimes, of B.D. Hyman: the perfect daughter who held it all together and blames everyone else. Yeah, Lorna whines a lot, and yes there is "name dropping", but on the whole, the book is flat. What I would like to know is why Judy Garland, the most celebrated entertainer of the 20th century, died broke. It doesn't make any sense to me at all. Didn't Lorna ever ask her father (the strongest man in the world, according to her), "Daddy, what happened to all of Mommy's money??????" No biographer has yet to uncover this mystery. Where did all her money go? Films and TV and radio and smash-success concerts and record albums....... where did all the money go????? And why doesn't Lorna discuss her "Great Performances" program, or the restored version of "A Star Is Born" (she was there at Radio City; has the pictures to prove it). You'd think that these would be milestones in the rememberance of her mother. And as for her career, which, supposedly she has, why can't I find a "Lorna Luft Live" album, or her "Songs My Mother Taught Me" album? As for her stay at Betty Ford, well, she makes it seem like she had brief visitation rights. Liza gets slammed in this tome (unfairly, too). But hey, what's a sister for? Yes, its readable, but I certainly couldn't call it the whole story.