PORTLAND, Maine — Decades ago, when he was only 11 or 12 years old, Lawrence Schulman became fascinated by Judy Garland.
"I can remember getting up at two in the morning to watch her movies from the '30s and '40s on the late show, the late, late show," he said.
Long before then, at the very beginning of her career, talent scouts had recognized that Garland was special. Born in 1922, she was just a teenager when she signed a movie contract with MGM, the movie studio whose slogan was "more stars than there are heaven," and a recording contract with the Decca label. Too young to drive, she was a star.
Schulman, who lives on Mount Desert Island, has written a two-volume book called "Garland – That’s Beyond Entertainment," a study that focuses not on her acting, movies, or turbulent private life, but on her music. His aim is to analyze rather than idolize.
"She touched us all,” he writes, "and her importance to American popular music is fundamental and timeless."
The books track Garland’s music in depth, with more than 500 pages of notes, interviews, criticism, observations, and appreciations. There’s a lot to cover from a recording and performing career that spanned more than three and a half decades.
"Among all the remarkable vocalists who left their mark on American popular music in the 20th century," Schulman writes, "she was unique in her ability to put over a song, make it hers, and make it for the ages."