Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir

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Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir is a memoir written by Lorna Luft recounting her mother Judy Garland's life, Luft's life with mother and dealing with life after her mother's passing. Published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster Inc, the book was a success and later translated into an ABC television miniseries totaling 170 minutes (a little over 3 hours) and later released as a DVD.

In the docudrama, Judy Davis plays the celebrated entertainment legend Judy Garland throughout her adult life and times as a stage, screen and film star. The memoir compiles some of Garland's early day concerts and television performances. It's no great wonder what made Garland one of America's most sought after voices and Hollywood greats. Lorna Luft's tribute is a willful and cathartic revelation; for those who already adore Garland, they are blessed with re-creations of many of her performances.

Narrated by Luft, the memoir includes recreations of experiences with Garland's third husband Sid Luft, son Joe Luft, critic George Jessel, and colleague Mickey Rooney. Lorna Luft makes a cameo appearance as well during the "Star is Born" theatrical picture release/grand opening sequence. Me and My Shadows pays homage to the star of such numbers such as "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody", "Swanee", and crooning her trademarks "The Man That Got Away" and "Over the Rainbow".

Garland fans cheered Me and My Shadows. She was born Frances Ethel Gumm and became Judy Garland, a troubled young woman who started out her career in the hands of a stage mother and passed along to a "star-maker" studio; who went through five husbands, all whom were tested, tried and lost; a battle with chemical dependency and addictions and burnout. Garland is portrayed as a woman who self-destructed time and time again, only to arise again and again.

The film combines fact and fictional accounts with a self redeeming heart to picture all that embodied the Garland legend. Tammy Blanchard plays the young Garland. Judy Davis becomes the title role during the "filming" of Meet Me In St. Louis, playing Garland from her middle twenties until her death.

Lorna Luft notes on her mother's performance in another interview: "There's one song that truly belongs only to my mother..." Garland became the song she sang and sadly enough was unable to see herself climbing the parable of the rainbow. She had often said that she couldn't believe in the "rainbow" but friends and family recapped later that she was too busy living it.[citation needed]

Also from another interview, Lorna says warmly: "I think what Judy Garland loved most of all was that people wanted to hear her sing... and they always will."[citation needed]