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WhenLorna Luft read the early reviews ofA Star is Born, starringLady GagaandBradley Cooper, she was “jumping up and down with excitement,” she says. “They’ve picked up the torch of one of the greatest love stories ever told on film and brought it to a new generation.”
Luft, 65, the daughter ofJudy Garland, who starred in the 1954 version of the film, andSid Luft(who produced the film) describes it as her mother’s greatest role—and greatest disappointment in a new book,A Star is Born, Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away, cowritten with film historian Jeffrey Vance, which includes rare photos and behind the scenes anecdotes. (Garland had three children, Liza Minnelli with second husband Vincent Minnelli, and Lorna and her younger brother Joey Luft.)
“The film’s story and its underlying messages about fame hit too close to home,” writes Luft, who describes how the same themes of stardom, addiction, and self destruction all played out in Garland’s turbulent life.
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“It was sort of life imitating art in imitating life,” Luft tells PEOPLE.
As Luft says, “It’s her talking about her life. In a way, it was my mother’s story.”
Garland’s path to self destruction had begun in her early studio days at MGM as a young actress when she was given amphetamines to lose weight.
“MGM was a factory,” explains Luft. “They had the greatest faces on film, Hedy Lamar, Lana Turner, Katherine Hepburn. They had a look. Mom didn’t fit into as a kid.”
“They didn’t know the damage to the psyche of a child, binding her because her bust was getting big onThe Wizard of Oz,” she says. “All they knew was that everyone on the lot was taking what they called ‘pep pills’ to give people energy and it didn’t make them hungry. And the word came down to the commissary that whenever Mama went to lunch, she was to be given consomé. While Mickey Rooney was eating a cheeseburger.”
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The “pep pills” Garland took, were amphetamines, which led to a life long struggle with alcohol and pills, ending in her death in 1969, at age 47, from an overdose of barbiturates.
Garland was hoping for a comeback whenA Star is Bornpremiered to great acclaim. But at 181 minutes long, the studio decided it was too long and several scenes were cut, bringing it down to 154 minutes.
“They cut it up and it cost her the Oscar,” says Luft referring to the 1954 Best Actress award which Garland lost to Grace Kelly forA Country Girl.
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Afterwards it was difficult for Garland to watch the film. Says Luft: “It was heartbreaking for her because she knew what she had made.”
“It’s cruel,” she says, “but it’s also one of the great stories of the movie industry and that’s why I call it ‘the film that got away.'”
Luft’s book also tells the film’s history, beginning with the 1932 movie,What Price Hollywood?which became the inspiration for the 1937’sA Star is Born, starring Janet Gaynor, the 1954 version with Garland, and the 1974 rock and roll version, starringBarbra Streisandand Kris Kristofferson.
She’s excited to seeLady Gaga, as the singer who becomes a superstar. “I think it’s going to make me think of my mom but I think it’s also going to make me incredibly proud. The way she andBradley Cooperhave written the music together, is just fantastic. They got to make their movie. Nobody took this away from them.”
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Now a mom of two daughters and a grandmother to three, Luft is happy her mom’s music lives on. “Look at the million of children all over the world who loveThe Wizard of Oz, and all the people who loveA Star is Born.”
Each October brings another reminder. “Every Halloween, I see kids dressed in blue gingham dresses and red slippers and I think to myself ‘Who else gets to have that?’ And I am grateful.”
source: people.com
