Sid Luft was responsible for the gambling debt, but he was still alive when Lorna's book and the subsequent miniseries were made and Sid threatened lawsuits if his gambling addiction was mentioned.
Then there were Fields and Begelman. You can read the late Coyne Steven Sanders informative and entertaining book "Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show" for eye-popping details on the financial fraud perpetrated on Judy as well as other stars by her managers Freddie Fields and David Begelman.
Among other swindles, Begelman told Judy, while she was negotiating for her TV show with the very staid and conservatives at CBS, that a nude photo existed of her getting her stomach pumped in a London hospital after a drug overdose. He said that blackmailers were demanding $50,000 to turn over the picture and all negatives and that she should pay.
After his suicide years later, it was discovered that there had been no blackmailers. The $50,000 had gone to one of his accounts.
The miniseries was unable to pin any blame on Begelman and Fields either, because Freddie Fields was still alive and exercised enormous power until the day he died.
Devout practitioners of Judy-ism believe that there is a special corner of hell reserved for Sid Luft, David Begelman and Freddie Fields in which the bongos-only track of Judy's arrangement of "Come Rain or Come Shine" is played, incessantly, at great volume.
Updated On: 12/14/14 at 02:49 PM
