To tell Judy Garland's story, Gerald Clarke took 10 years, travelled thousands of miles across two continents, conducted hundreds of interviews, and dug through mountains of documents. He re-creates the golden age of Hollywood with cinematic urgency, bringing to life the characters who played leading roles in the unending drama of Judy Garland: Louis B. Mayer, the patriarch of MGM; sexy Lana Turner, Judy's friend and idol, who had a habit of trying to snatch away any man Judy expressed interest in; clarinetist Artie Shaw; handsome Tyrone Power; boy-genius Orson Welles; and brilliant director Vincente Minnelli, who fathered her first child, Liza. Toward the end of the life, Garland tried to tell her own story. With access to her tape recordings - and her revelatory unfinished manuscript - Clarke is able to tell Judy's story as she herself might have wanted to.