Rainbow: The stormy life of Judy Garland

by Christopher Finch

The biographer pays special attention to Judy Garland's evolution as an artist as well as the ties between her emotional make-up and her performance.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, LGBT, History, Music, Film

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Christopher Finch was born in Guernsey in the British Channel Islands, and now lives in Los Angeles. He is an artist and a photographer who has had one person shows in New York and California, and he is the author of almost thirty non-fiction books including the best sellers Rainbow: the Stormy Life of Judy Garland, The Art of Walt Disney, Jim Henson: the Works, and Norman Rockwell's America. Recently he has embarked on a series of noir-inflected mystery novels set in New York in the late 1960s and featuring the private investigator Alex Novalis. The first of these, Good Girl, Bad Girl, is to be published by Thomas & Mercer in 2013. These books draw on his own experiences in the New York art world at a time when today's SoHo was an urban wilderness with rats frolicking in the gutters and artists eking out a living in barren loft spaces. He is married to Linda Rosenkrantz, an author and a co-founder of the website Nameberry.

Reviews

[Peter M. B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

After I decided I wanted to read a bio of Judy Garland, I chose this one after reviewing some reviews of several other possibilities. I obtained a hardcover version from 1975 and was not disappointed.

The book is very well written and thoroughly researched. The author really tries to get to the truth beneath the myths. But he does allow multiple viewpoints on the events in Judy Garland's life to be heard so even though the author definitely has a point-of-view, you learn enough to know that Judy, herself, may have felt differently.

A bonus are the large and plentiful photographs from throughout Judy's life. I heartily recommend this book.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite biography of Judy Garland. I read this to pieces when I was a teenager; my copy has fallen apart from repeated rereadings. Filled with marvellous photographs and gives a real sense of the power of her talent, the overheated pressure-cooker of MGM in which she grew up, and the sadness with which it all ended. Finch is quite fair in his depiction of her relationship with her mother, whom Garland and some of her biographers have demonised. He pulls a few punches in depicting some of the less savoury aspects of her behaviour, but not too many, really. Very, very good.

[Nick Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good bio on Garland. I've read the Gerald Clarke book and the David Shipman one, too. Shipman's is okay-juicy a times-but I found the Finch book an excellent take on her life as a star in the Hollywood firmament. It touches on Garland's relationships with gays but doesn't mention that Vincente Minnelli was most likely gay-he was still living when book published which may have been the reason for it's reluctance to tackle that subject. Written and published in the mid to late 1970's, it therefore is one of the earlier works about her life. Recommended.

[Rick Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written and fast moving account of Garland's early life, her triumphs, her descent, and her early death. It dismisses much of the accepted Hollywood gossip and provides information supplied by the sister who survived her of their early life and the change that she underwent as she became Judy Garland, the movie star. It is a sad tale, for sure, but a more balanced look at her life and more unwilling than most to cast her solely in the role of victim. (The photos are a nice addition as well.) She was a great talent, but her insecurities )and dependence on pills and alcohol which fueled those insecurities) put a not so abrupt end to a legendary career.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book on one of our greatest entertainers and how she lived her life.

[Maegan Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh how do you even rate a book like this? Poor Judy. She had so many troubles and got little help for them :(

[Cathy Berey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read about Judy Garland after seeing the movie and this book came up as one that gave you the true story of her life...not what MGM or anyone else wanted you to hear. The only issue is that it is almost like a textbook thanks to the copious level of detail. If you are looking for a titillating book about the dark side of Judy and her affairs, this isn't it. This book takes you from her childhood up to her death and is very honest about the highs and lows in Judy's life.

[Lynsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was an interesting read. I thought the author could have been a bit more sympathetic to Garland. Also there was a ton of information about her life as a child, and barely any about her last few years. I wanted to know more about the latter half of her life.

[Bonsai]

Best one yet.

[Susan]

Ex-library copy

[Zentopia Designs]

photos are great