Lorna Luft, daughter of late entertainment icon Judy Garland, is set to publish A Star Is Born: Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away, a new book due out this fall exploring the history of one of her mother’s greatest screen performances. The book will hit shelves September 18 from Running Press.
Luft collaborated with film historian Jeffrey Vance to add another dimension to the creation of A Star Is Born, which was produced by her father, Sid Luft, as a major comeback for her mother. A Star Is Born: Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away will include never-before-seen family photos that capture Garland on-set and off. The 248-page book also includes essays on the various abbreviated cuts of the film that were released and restored over the years.
A Star Is Born has had four film adaptations—including the upcoming Lady Gaga–Bradley Cooper version—but none as iconic or ambitious as director George Cukor’s 1954 musical masterpiece that starred Judy Garland in a major career comeback alongside James Mason. The Garland-Mason A Star Is Born is the first remake of the 1937 original that starred Janet Gaynor and Frederic March.
Garland received an Academy Award nomination for performance as Vicki Lester in the movie musical that introduced songs that defined her career, including Harold Arlen’s “The Man That Got Away,” and the “Born in a Trunk Sequence,” a number inspired by Garland’s own life that was added into the film months after shooting had concluded. Her loss to Grace Kelly for the Oscar is among the greatest upsets in Oscar history.
The shooting and production of A Star Is Born were beset with problems—among them Garland’s own unpredictability—and numerous versions of the film were tested and released by nervous Warner Bros executives who feared audiences would not sit for a nearly three-hour film.
The shooting and production of A Star Is Born were beset with problems—among them Garland’s own unpredictability‑and numerous versions of the film were tested and released by nervous Warner Bros executives who feared audiences would not sit for a nearly three-hour film.
