Randy L. Schmidt

Excellent compilation of interviews conducted by various magazines with Dolly Parton with the first one from 1967 and the last from 2014. By reading you can see her develop from a singer to a well informed business woman. She seems like she had a path planned for her life, with lots of ambition, and has been able to achieve the success she has longed for. While not a true autobiography, you do learn about her early life as well as her relationship with her husband Carl Dean. I came to admire her more and more as I read each interview (although in many things were repeated) as she is an independent lady who has such a positive attitude. From this book you come to admire her confidence in the day after she was the first of her family to graduate high school, she left for Nashville; her belief in herself for standing up to Porter Waggoner who tried to suppress her style; her talent as not only is she a great singer and songwriter but she is an actress, author of books, and working on a Broadway musical; her philanthropy in providing not only to jobs to those in Sevier County, Tennessee but also each child born in the county receives one book a month until they turn 5 years of age in order to promote reading; her business acumen in realizing the publishing rights to her music were valuable and not allowing even Elvis to infringe on them as well as expanding her reach from country to pop to bluegrass to rock; her commitment to family where she raised her younger siblings and has been married to the same man (who she met on her very first day in Nashville since 1966); and her translating her faith to life in not judging people who are not like her. A great book for any fan of Dolly Parton. Her frustrations that she has reached an age where the radio stations are not playing her songs anymore shows how even someone with her talent has problems in the industry.… (mais)

Unfortunately for me, Judy Garland on Judy Garland is probably far more fascinating if you already know the basic facts of the actress’s life. (I wasn’t very versed in Garland lore.) She’s remembered, of course, for The Wizard of Oz, the songs she performs in that movie, and a handful of lesser (but by no means mediocre) films. The structure of the biography is carefully curated interviews with or writings by Garland, with some limited context by the editor Randy Schmidt. The limited context is the problem. Many major events in Judy’s life, such as her pill abuse, are referred to only in passing in the interviews, and often as something better left as “the past”. Judy’s public thoughts of herself are dug into (I must have read that she went into show business at the age of two fifteen times), but the truth from those surrounding her is not.

I found the interviews that dig deeper into Judy’s ideas of life and existence the most fascinating. She was so clearly not a vapid, innocent actress, an idea of her that’s perpetrated even to this day largely due to the continued popularity of The Wizard of Oz. For example, the writing by Garland where an “anonymous celebrity” meets a soldier and realizes the reasons for fighting the war (Lonely Girl: A Story by Judy Garland). Or This is What I Believe, a fascinating piece where she puts down her philosophy on a few topics such as religion, immortality, and war.

In the context of her whole life, you can tell Judy had an inner turmoil of thoughts. How many times did she tell herself that a man would make her happy? At least four. After each marriage there’s an interview where she describes her current husband as the only time she’s ever truly loved. Almost certainly the last marriage would have ended the same as her others: in private bitterness and a public grimace. Though all, though, radiates Judy’s genuine love of her children, and her craft of film and music. In the end, her legacy is one of innocence and joy.

I’d underline:

• There are lonely moments in all lives.


• I am an inveterate reader.

… (mais)