Lorna Luft - A Star Is Born (Turner Classic Movies): Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away

I PURSUED THE IDEA OF THIS BOOK TO CELEBRATE MY FAMILY TREE a tree of entertainers, that begins with my grandparents owning the only movie theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and whose branches grew all the way to my sister and myself. These branches have spread throughout my mothers legion of fans, from ages eight, to eighty, and beyond. Millions have been mesmerized, awed, and entertained by her movies, recordings, television shows, and concerts. And by her earth-shaking talent, charisma, and artistry.

Our family tree is a vision of beauty, strength, love, commitment, and resilience. It has also been a lightning rod for tragedy and sadness. More than anything however, this tree has always been a beacon of hope for myself, my children, my grandchildren, and for everyone that can look up toward the sky and experience A Star Is Born.

My coauthor, Jeffrey Vance, and I have been working on this project on and off since 2010. As a film historian and author of several books on the history of film, he is the perfect person to explain the genesis of A Star Is Born and how this book came about, which you will find in the Introduction.

LORNA LUFT, RANCHO MIRAGE, 2018

A CAREER IS A CURIOUS THING, NORMAN MAINE TELLS ESTHER Blodgett, brilliantly portrayed by Judy Garland, early in George Cukors A Star Is Born (1954). Talent isnt always enough. You need a sense of timingan eye for seeing the turning pointfor recognizing the big chance when it comes and grabbing it. A Star Is Born depicts the perfect storm of a great chance and the luminous talent to realize it. But despite the confluence of genius and ambition that find themselves simultaneously portrayed and manifested within A Star Is Born, the film failed to achieve the Hollywood apotheosis desired by its star, Judy Garland and its producer, Michael Sidney Luft (known as Sid Luft). This book tells the compelling story of the making of A Star Is Born, the film that was to be Garlands crowning achievement but insteadand undeservedlymarked the end of her great career as a motion picture star.

The main focus of our book recounts the behind-the-scenes narrative of the making of Judy Garlands A Star Is Born, and explores the films successes and failures. It has been a long gestating project for Lorna, who visited the film set as a baby, and jokes that A Star Is Born is the closest her parents ever came to making a home movie. Lornas informal conversations with the films costar, James Mason, augment memories and tales of the production heard from her parents. Newfound information has been culled from the massive amount of documentation that survives in the Warner Bros. Archives held at the University of Southern California and the many relevant collections of papers (including those of director George Cukor) held by the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. My collaboration with Lorna began in 2010, when she encouraged me to interview people associated with Judy Garland and A Star Is Born, including the various notables who attended the films extraordinary star-studded Hollywood premiere. Over the next two years, I was able to speak with thirty people. Over a third of these interview subjects have since passed on. Those precious interviews, whether referenced or not, have informed the text in myriad ways.

The books illustrations draw mainly from Lornas own extensive collection, and many have never before been published. The majority of these photographs derive from a complete keybook set of all the behind-the-scenes stills taken by the films unit photographer, Pat Clark. Important images from special shoots by celebrated photographers Robert Bob Willoughby, Sanford H. Roth, and John Engstead supplement Lornas materials, along with classic scene stills, frame enlargements, and ephemera, to chronicle the A Star Is Born story both in words and images.

A Star Is Born is a film with a rich history and one of Hollywoods favorite stories since 1932, when the precursor film, George Cukors What Price Hollywood?, was released to theaters. Director William A. Wellman did his own version in 1937, rechristening it A Star Is Born, and actress Barbra Streisand produced her own rendition in 1976. I have included essays on all of these productions, to provide context for Judy Garlands film.

Even when What Price Hollywood? was conceived in the early sound era, movies about the movies were nothing new. Hollywood always has been fond of self-regard, and, sometimes, self-flagellation, reflecting back its own image comically, tragically, andwith the advent of talkiesmusically. In the ancien rgime of Hollywood, Charles Chaplin conjured comedy shorts such as the one-reel