Sid ‘One-Punch’ Luft, amateur-boxer, producer and Judy Garland’s third husband was the one man in her life who stuck around, helping her achieve a meteoric comeback in the 1960s. It was Luft who reversed the fortunes of an apparently faded career, seeing her triumph at Carnegie Hall, in ‘A Star Is Born’ and ‘The Judy Garland Show’.
Previously unpublished, Sid Luft’s intimate autobiography tells their story in hard-boiled yet elegant prose. It begins on a fateful night in New York City when the not-quite-divorced Judy and the not-quite-divorced Sid meet at Billy Reed’s Little Club. A straight-talking sharp shooter, Sid fell for Judy hard and fast and the romance persisted through separations, reconciliations, and later divorce. However, her drug dependencies and suicidal tendencies put a tremendous strain on the relationship.
Sid did not complete his memoir; it ended in 1960 after Judy hired David Begelman and Freddie Fields to manage her career. But Randy L. Schmidt, acclaimed editor of
Judy Garland on Judy Garland, seamlessly pieced together the final section of the book from extensive interviews with Sid, most previously unpublished.
Despite everything, Sid never stopped loving Judy and never forgave himself for not being able to save her from the demons that ultimately drove her to an early death at age forty-seven in 1969. Sid served as chief conservator of the Garland legacy until his death at the age of eighty-nine in 2005. This is his testament to the love of his life.
‘In prose so brassy that it bruises the sensibilities, Luft… illuminates the dark side of life in the spotlight and dispels any sentimental illusions about the glories of show business in Hollywood’s classic age.’ – The New Yorker
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