New John Fricke Book Due August 23

Wow! With the exciting Judy Garland London Outtakes and rarities CD and this new book by John Fricke coming out it looks like it is going to the summer of Judy!

This item is available for pre-order just by clicking on the heading of this post.

Judy: A Legendary Film Career
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Running Press (August 23, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0762437715
ISBN-13: 978-0762437719

Onstage, she was renowned as "the world's greatest entertainer." On records, they defined her as "Miss Show Business." On television, she was nicknamed "The Legend." And on radio, her most frequent performance partner christened her "the perfect illustration of the one hundred per cent professional."

But it was as a motion picture star that the incomparable Judy Garland first rose to international fame. From her feature film debut in 1936 through the omnisciently titled I Could Go On Singing in 1963, she lit up the screen with a magic uniquely hers -- and dazzled world-wide audiences of all ages. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a Garland movie performance was her ability to inspire cinema patrons to applaud as if they were watching a live show.

Judy Garland starred in two dozen of the all-time classic motion picture musicals, among them A Star is Born, Meet Me in St. Louis, Easter Parade, Babes in Arms, For Me and My Gal, The Pirate, and The Harvey Girls. Dramatic turns in Judgment at Nuremberg, The Clock, and A Child is Waiting won for her a new level of accolade. And perhaps most unforgettably, she played the role that is now regarded as the single most recognizable actor/character combination in film history (in the best loved movie of all time): Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.

Garland's film stardom bridged decades and crossed generations. Today, she is one of the few stars of Hollywood's Golden Age whose luminosity and fame have never dimmed. Judy: A Legendary Film Career tells the story of her movie work in unprecedented detail: over five hundred illustrations (many of them never-before-published); newly-assembled contemporary review quotes and comments from her costars and coworkers; cast, staff, and musical number listings; synopses, and production histories. The book is highlighted as well by a concise, definitive biography; an examination of Judy's appearances in short subjects; details of the movies she began and was unable to complete; and an enthralling compendium of the film projects for which she was supposedly considered or rumored.

Judy! The Legendary Film Career is the work of author/historian John Fricke, whose past Garland journalism and productions have won him two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award nomination. This is his sixth book, and it celebrates as never before the heart, humor, and incandescent motion picture achievement of the one-and-only Judy Garland.

[Note: Amazon now has the correct cover art and pre-order information, but their description of the book is -- for some reason -- totally skewed. The preceding is the correct copy and accurate summation of the book's contents.]