by Lorna Luft
The following year, it was reported that Clint Eastwood, Bill Gerber, and Jon Peters were in the midst of planning a new version, to star Beyoncé Knowles, with Eastwood directing. Later, it was reported that Beyoncé withdrew from the project. In 2015, it was publicized that Bradley Cooper was to make his directorial debut with a new take on A Star Is Born. Lady Gaga and Cooper were to play the leading roles and production commenced in 2017 with significant footage shot at the Coachella Festival and featuring songs written for the film by Gaga, Cooper, and a handful of artists. Cooper plays seasoned musician Jackson Maine, while Lady Gaga portrays Ally, a struggling artist, with Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, and Sam Elliot among the supporting cast. Another announcement came in 2017: Bill Condon was signed to develop a Broadway musical version of A Star Is Born based on the 1954 screenplay and music. I look forward to seeing the result of these efforts, and wish these talented artists all the best as they travel the illustrious road of A Star Is Born.
ONE LINGERING OBLIGATION I HAD TOWARD MY MOTHER INVOLVES HER final resting place. I was only sixteen when she died. Rather than her own children, Mickey Deans, as widower, had the legal authority to make all the decisions. Liza was consulted, but Joe and I were not, and ultimately Deans decided that my mother should be buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, about twenty-five miles north of Manhattan. Over a year after she died (at Liza’s expense) she was interred in the Ferncliff Mausoleum, unit 9, alcove HH, crypt 31, on November 4, 1970, in a beige polished marble vault carved with the inscription, “JUDY GARLAND 1922–1969.” I never went to the cemetery, as it didn’t mean anything to me. I had no emotional attachment to the location and neither did my mother. I remember Peter Allen encouraging me to believe that Ferncliff wasn’t where she really was anyway, and to think of her as always being with me. Nevertheless, the way it was handled always bothered me. But as long as Mickey Deans was alive, I had no recourse. When Mickey died in Cleveland, Ohio in 2003, my family was empowered to make a change. We felt that Hollywood Forever Cemetery should be the final resting place for Mama, so as next of kin I took it upon myself to spearhead the moving of my mother to Hollywood. As Liza, Joe, and I all live in Southern California, the location made sense to everyone. We all agreed and officially signed off on it. With the help of Tyler Cassidy at Hollywood Forever, as well as Michael Feinstein, who was an enormous help with the legal and logistical issues involved, we brought Mama home to Hollywood.
I worked on the colors of the stone and the inscription. I put a great deal of thought into what my mother would have loved—as opposed to what me or my sister or my brother would want. This was her place. I selected a rose-colored marble with her name in a chocolate brown color: “JUDY GARLAND JUNE 10, 1922–JUNE 22, 1969.” Her favorite song was “Through the Years,” and the lyric, “I’ll come to you smiling through the years.” I knew that was perfect with her name. I was able to make certain everything was the way Mama would have wanted.
In January 2017, my mother’s earthly remains were removed from Ferncliff and flown to Los Angeles. On Saturday, June 10, 2017, what would have been her ninety-fifth birthday, a small ceremony was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where her body was interred within the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum, in a newly named private section called the Judy Garland Pavilion.
Hollywood Forever kindly closed the whole cemetery so that our family could have a private remembrance. I arranged for a small service to commemorate the reinterment with my husband Colin, my best friend Kate Johnson, Michael Feinstein, my two children, and my grandson Logan. Gabriel Ferrer, son of José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney and an Episcopal priest, officiated. The whole service was half an hour from beginning to end, but it was an important time, especially for my children. They had never known their grandmother, and this was a moment of connection. And, of course, there is space in the Pavilion for all the family: Liza, Joe, myself, and my children and grandchildren. As for Liza and Joe, they wanted to visit by themselves and have their moment alone with Mama. Later that evening, Hollywood Forever opened and held an outdoor screening of The Wizard of Oz, which drew 4,000 fans. I loved my mother more than anyone in the world and respected her artistry and genius. I’m incredibly grateful to be her daughter. The overwhelming knowledge that my parents loved me and loved us more than life itself fills my heart with happiness in every moment of my being.
Sharing the family memories and photographs from A Star Is Born as well as moving my mother to Hollywood Forever are major events of closure for me. This closure has been empowering. Ironically, I find that the more I let her go, the more I realize she is always with me. A book and a cemetery plot are nice, but as Peter Allen told me nearly fifty years ago, she’s not really there. She’s no place and she’s everywhere. The closest you’ll ever get to meeting the adult Judy Garland is by watching A Star Is Born. It is, in every sense of the word, a comeback. No matter how many times she’s down, she will always come up. The optimism and hope—what we associate with the best of ourselves—will always be there.
Acknowledgments
I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE SUPPORTED me in writing this book. First and foremost, my children: my son, Jesse Cole Richards, and his wife, Jaimee Richards, and my daughter, Vanessa Jade Richards, and her partner, Patrick O’Neill; my grandchildren, Jordan Eloise Richards, Luke Kanan Richards, and Logan Jake O’Neill. To my husband, Colin R. Freeman; my gorgeous chocolate Labrador, Lowe; my sister, Liza Minnelli; my brother Joe Luft; my manager Garry Kief and everyone at Stiletto Entertainment; my agent Alan Nevins and everyone at Renaissance Literary & Talent; my publicist Victoria Varela. To my treasured friends: Barry Manilow, Michael Feinstein, Terrence Flannery, Kate Edelman Johnson, Joe Benincasa and the Actors Fund of America, John Fricke, Kevin and Brent Bass, Scott Nevins, Marc Hulett, Dr. David Agus, Dr. Philomena McAndrew, Dr. Ray Chu, Dr. Behrooz Hakimian, Dr. Gerald Steiner, Liz and Alan Wyatt, Charles Hart, Nigel and Stacey Green, Shirley and Ramon Greene, Alan and Arlene Lazare, Rob Bagshaw, and the late Robert Osborne.
Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the encouragement I’ve received from the Actors Fund of America, Ben Mankiewicz, and Turner Classic Movies, and the many fans of A Star Is Born who have written to me or approached me on the street to share with me how much they love my mother’s film.
—LORNA LUFT, Rancho Mirage, California 2018
I CAME TO TRULY APPRECIATE A STAR IS BORN (1954) AFTER BEING REINTRODUCED to it in 2005 by a person whom, at the time, I was quite enamored with. Like many before me, I learned the same hard lesson that Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester learned. Sometimes love isn’t enough. However, A Star Is Born remains a sentimental favorite for precisely this reason and I was honored to be asked by Lorna Luft to undertake the project. I thank her for the opportunity.
A special debt of gratitude is due to Jon S. Bouker, my oldest friend and attorney, who went above and beyond serving as an editor and advisor. A special thank-you to Manoah Bowman. His insight and efforts on this book and others remind me how much time has actually passed: twenty years and counting. I am grateful to Sloan De Forest for her help shaping the text, Matt Tunia for assuming the responsibility for all the book’s photography, Frank Vlastnik for his assistance with images, and Allen London, who served as the book’s researcher. Also, a special thanks for two individuals who are no longer with us: Robert B. Cushman and David Shepard. Their loss was felt throughout the process of writing this book but their memories and love for this film contributed to its creation.
I am grateful to the staff of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library for their help, in particular Jenny Romero, Stacey Behlmer, and Louise Hilton; Miles Kreuger of the Institute of the American Musical; Sandra M. Garcia-Myers and Edward Comstock of the USC Cinematic Arts Library and George Feltenstein and Ned Price of Warner Bros. At Running Press I’d like to thank our editor Cindy De La Hoz and designer Susan Van Horn. Their contributions were essential to bringing this
book to life.
Finally, I would also like to express my particular appreciation for the support I have received in friendship, interest, and encouragement, from Frank Bowling, Bill Daly, Vincent De Paul; Kim A. DeGiralomo; David Eaton, James and Kristine Hall; Frank Labrador; Paul Lekakis; Randal Malone; John Martens, Brandon MacKay; Sean McHugh; Kevin and Michelle Murphy; the late Coyne Steven Sanders; Tracy Terhune; and George Thomas Vance. Finally, a heartfelt thank-you to my sister, Megan Vance, and my mother, Sandra B. Vance.
—JEFFREY VANCE, Los Angeles, California 2018
Photo Credits
All photographs courtesy Lorna Luft and Independent Visions, except as follows:
Matt Tunia Collection: Here, here, here, here
WENN Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo: Here
John Engstead/mptv: Here, here, here
Sandford Roth/mptv: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Bob Willoughby/mptv: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
John Engstead, Sandford Roth, Bob Willoughby, and Independent Visions are exclusively represented by mptv. For more information regarding licensing or purchasing images from mptv, please contact mptvimages as www.mptvimages.com.
While every effort has been made to identify the proper photographer and/or copyright owners, some images had no accreditation. In these instances, if proper credit and copyright is determined, credits will be added in subsequent printings.
What Price Hollywood? © Warner Bros. Entertainment
A Star Is Born (1954) © Warner Bros. Entertainment
A Star Is Born (1976) © Warner Bros. Entertainment
Notes
INTRODUCTION
1. Judy Garland, as told to Joe Hyams. “The Real Me,” McCall’s 84, no. 7 (April 1957): 174.
2. A Star Is Born (1954) pressbook.
3. “A Star Is Born,” Variety (September 29, 1954): 6.
4. “New Day for Judy,” Life 37, no. 11 (September 13, 1954): 163, 165.
5. “The New Pictures: A Star Is Born,” Time, October 25, 1954: 86–87.
6. Bosley Crowther, “Sizing the Entries: Some Current Candidates for the ‘Best Films,’” New York Times (December 5, 1954): X5.
CHAPTER ONE:
THE BEGINNINGS: WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? (1932) AND A STAR IS BORN (1937)
1. Gary Carey, Cukor & Co.: The Films of George Cukor and His Collaborators (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1971), 28.
2. Louella O. Parsons, “Star Is Born Shows Hollywood as It Is,” Los Angeles Examiner (April 21, 1937).
3. Ring Lardner Jr. to Ronald Haver in a letter dated June 1992, Ring Lardner Jr. papers, file 42, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
4. William Wellman Jr., Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel (New York: Pantheon, 2015), 328–329.
5. David Thomson, Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 217.
6. Gavin Lambert, On Cukor. Edited by Robert Trachtenberg (New York: Rizzoli, 2000), 41.
7. See David O. Selznick in a memorandum to Daniel T. O’Shea, assistant to Selznick and Secretary of Selznick International, dated January 7, 1937 in Rudy Behlmer, ed. Memo from David O. Selznick. (New York: Viking Press, 1972), 108–109 and Wellman Jr., 332.
8. Daniel Selznick, interview with Jeffrey Vance, 2010.
9. William Wellman Jr., interview with Jeffrey Vance, 2010.
CHAPTER TWO:
A STAR IS BORN (1954): THE FILM THAT GOT AWAY
1. Mickey Rooney, interview with Jeffrey Vance, 2010.
2. Judy Garland famously shared this anecdote on The Jack Parr Program, which aired on NBC on December 7, 1962. See Randy L. Schmidt, ed., Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2014), 307.
3. Adela Rogers St. Johns, Some Are Born Great (New York: Doubleday, 1974), 47.
4. “Judy Garland Slashes Throat After Film Row,” Los Angeles Times (June 21, 1950): 1.
5. Ronald Haver, A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 37.
6. Steven Bach, Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 313.
7. Judy Garland, “Judy Garland’s Own Story: There’ll Always Be an Encore, Part I,” McCall’s 91, no. 4 (January 1964): 142.
8. Gene Allen interview with Jeffrey Vance, 2010.
9. George Cukor in a letter to Katharine Hepburn, George Cukor papers, file 232, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This letter is quoted in Haver’s history of the film as well as Gerald Clarke’s biography of Garland.
10. Jeff Wise and Robert Smith, “An Interview with George Cukor” in Robert Emmet Long, ed., George Cukor Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001), 90–91.
11. Schmidt, 210.
12. James Mason, Before I Forget (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981), 251.
13. Ibid., 252.
14. Gavin Lambert, On Cukor. Edited by Robert Trachtenberg (New York: Rizzoli, 2000), 53–54.
15. Haver, 158.
16. Lambert, 53.
17. George Hoyningen-Huene, “Color Is Used to Suggest Mood in A Star Is Born,” New York Herald Tribune (December 19, 1954).
18. Mason, 248.
19. Gerold Frank, Judy (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 377.
20. Hedda Hopper, “Curtain Going Up to Profile Selwyns,” Los Angeles Times (July 12, 1954): B6.
21. John Gillett and David Robinson, Sight and Sound interview with Cukor from 1964, in Robert Emmet Long, ed., George Cukor Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001), 10.
22. George Cukor in a letter to Moss Hart dated August 18, 1954, George Cukor papers, file 232, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
23. “New Day for Judy,” Life 37, no. 11 (September 13, 1954): 163–166, 168, 170.
24. The complete film documenting the Hollywood premiere is part of the Warner Home Video DVD/Blu-ray release of A Star Is Born published in 2010.
25. Frank, 389.
26. “The New Pictures: A Star Is Born,” Time 64 (October 25, 1954): 86–87.
27. Edwin Schallert, “Star Is Born Hit at Lavish Premiere,” Los Angeles Times (September 30, 1954): A1.
28. Bosley Crowther, “The Rebirth of A Star,” New York Times (October 17, 1954): X1
29. Abel Green, “A Star Is Born,” Variety (September 29, 1954): 6.
30. Noël Coward, The Noël Coward Diaries. Edited by Graham Payne and Sheridan Morley (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982), 248–249.
31. Liza Minnelli, interview with Jeffrey Vance, 2011. Minnelli shared the same memory with Ronald Haver. See Haver, 214.
32. Judy Garland as told to Joe Hyams. “The Real Me,” McCall’s 84, no. 7 (April 1957): 175.
33. Lauren Bacall, By Myself and Then Some (New York: HarperEntertainment, 2005), 247–248.
34. Aline Mosby, “Judy Feels ‘Grateful’ Over Oscar Condolences,” New York World Telegram (April 12, 1955).
35. Anthony Holden, Behind the Oscar: The Secret History of the Academy Awards (New York: Plume, 1993), 206.
36. Christopher Finch, Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975), 201.
37. Lambert, 39.
38. Sid Luft, Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2017), 410.
39. Frank, 488.
40. Finch, 217.
41. Dirk Bogarde, Snakes and Ladders (London: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1979), 260–261.
42. A printed copy of Mason’s eulogy is in the collection of Lorna Luft.
CHAPTER THREE:
BARBRA STREISAND’S A STAR IS BORN (1976)
1. Marie Brenner, Going Hollywood: An Insider’s Look at the Power and Pretense in the Movie Business (New York: Delacorte Press, 1978), 73. See also John Gregory Dunne, Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne (New York: Thunder’s Mouth
Press, 2006), 38.
2. “Third Time Around for Star—WB to Remake,” Variety (August 24, 1973): 1.
3. Barbra Streisand commentary track to the Blu-ray release of A Star Is Born (1976), Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2004.
4. Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson. The Films of Barbra Streisand (New York: Citadel Press, 2000), 134.
5. Frank Pierson, “My Battles with Barbra and Jon,” New York (November 15, 1976): 49.
6. James Spada, “On Location: Streisand and Kristofferson Stage a Freak-Out in Phoenix for the New Star Is Born,” In The Know (July 1976): 8.
7. Ibid., 10.
8. Dave Paulson, “Story Behind the Song ‘Evergreen,’” Tennessean (July 10, 2015).
9. Barbra Streisand’s commentary track to the Blu-ray release of A Star Is Born (1976), Warner Bros. Entertainment, 2004.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Lawrence B. Eisenberg, “Barbra Streisand: Tough, Temperamental, Tremendous,” Cosmopolitan (March 1977): 189.
13. James Spada, Streisand: Her Life (New York: Crown, 1995), 357.
14. A Star Is Born Warner Bros. press release dated March 12, 1976.
15. Frank Pierson, “My Battles with Barbra and Jon,” New York (November 15, 1976): 60.
16. Charles Champlin, “Barbra Stars in Star,” Los Angeles Times (December 21, 1976): G1.
17. Vincent Canby, “A Film Is Reborn,” New York Times (December 27, 1976): C16.
18. Pauline Kael, “Contempt for the Audience,” The New Yorker (January 10, 1977): 94.
19. Neal Gabler, Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2016), 178.
