Lorna Luft considers having Judy Garland as a mother both a blessing and a curse

June 1, 1999
Web posted at: 11:31 a.m. EDT (1531 GMT)

In this story: 'Did I want to be different? What do you think?' Book didn't help frayed relations with family Singing duets with mom RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Paul Clinton
Turner Entertainment Report Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- "It's huge to be the daughter or the son of legendary entertainers or legendary politicans, or somebody. You're always being introduced as the daughter of or the son of -- whatever -- that's a really huge thing to be around you all the time," says Lorna Luft.

Luft has lived with "that really huge thing" her entire life.

For years she's retreated from the stigma of being the daughter of one of the most famous, talented, beloved, and -- ultimately -- most tragic entertainers of all time. If that weren't enough, Luft has endured being referred to as "the other daughter."

Not only is Luft the daughter of the late singer Judy Garland and her third husband, businessman/producer Sid Luft, she is also the half-sister of entertainer Liza Minnelli. Minnelli has enjoyed superstar status of her own and owns an Oscar as well as both Tony and Grammy awards.

MULTIMEDIA

Lorna Luft rehearses for her stage show Full audio performance: 950k MPEG-3 Audio clip: 375k WAV Video clip: 2.2Mb QuickTime Lorna Luft rehearses "Come Rain or Come Shine" Full audio performance: 1.6Mb MPEG-3 Audio clip: 350k WAV Video clip: 2Mb QuickTime

But Garland's second daughter seems to have made peace with the legend that is her mother and is demonstrating that accomplishment in a highly visible way.

Luft launched a national tour on May 28 at the Hilton Hotel in Atlantic City. Called "Songs My Mother Taught Me," the tour will cover dozens of major cities and will continue into the year 2000.

On stage, Luft tells the story of her mother's career, sings some of her most famous songs and even sings along -- via film clips -- with Garland.

"I did everything I could, (to be different)," Luft muses during a break from rehearsal at a studio in Burbank, California. "I dyed my hair purple and sang backup on Blondie records. Did I want to be different? What do you think?"

Luft has enjoyed her own measure of success over the years. She's appeared on various TV shows, on Broadway, and in such movies as "Grease II." But she's never experienced the type of fame that would allow her to stand apart from the other famous women in her family. The label "the other daughter" seemed to stick like glue.

Last year Luft went on the record, faced her demons, and documented her feelings about her famous family in a book called "Me and My Shadow: A Family Memoir." That action caused a breakdown in her relationship with her father and deepened an already major rift with her sister.

ABC plans a TV movie based on the book to star Australian actress Judy Davis as Garland. Lorna will play herself in performances at the beginning and ending of the picture.

The film isn't likely to improve Luft's already frayed relationships within her family -- especially if it explores certain touchy areas of their history: Both Liza and Lorna have fought very public battles with alcohol and drug addiction. Lorna says she's been clean and sober after undergoing treatment at the high-profile Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California.

But despite the family tensions, Luft, 46, is continuing her attempt to take charge of her life -- including facing her mother's legend head-on. "It took me awhile to become friends with the legend, to find myself and to know this would be something I would really, really want to do and something she would really have liked for me to have done."

INTERACTIVE:

Browse through some photos of Lorna Luft, her friends and her family

In the show, complete with orchestra, she sings many of her mother's most famous songs -- songs her mother taught her -- with the same arrangements Garland used. Two of the numbers are sung in duet with a recording of her mother, with Garland's image projected on a huge screen.

While other singers -- notably Natalie Cole and Hank Williams Jr. -- have already tried this technique with their own famous-but-deceased parents, Luft's duets are only part of an entire theatrical experience based upon her mother's incredible career and their relationship as mother and daughter.

Written by Ken and Mitzi Welch, the show begins with Luft talking about her mother's birth in a trunk backstage at her parents' theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Using her mother's songs as a thread, Luft takes the audience through Garland's life -- including her contract years with MGM, her marriages, and the births of each of her children. The onstage journey concludes with her mother's triumphant concert years at places such as the Palace Theater and Carnegie Hall.

Comparisons will be made between Luft's voice and her mom's. Not to worry, says Luft, who credits a new sense of confidence.

"I don't even think about it," she claims. "I literally just sing. Whatever comes out, comes out. I have to keep the same time as the charts do, but I don't think about sounding like her or anything. That's just the way it comes out."

Luft has already played to an impressive audience, a run-through performance in Los Angeles for close friends including Barry Manilow, Lani Kazan, Sally Kellerman, Phyllis Diller, Samantha Eggar and Broadway playwright and actor George Furth. It was an afternoon of standing ovations, tears, and perhaps even amazement at seeing Judy's little girl finally embracing her heritage.

Clear-eyed, determined and seemingly totally at ease, Luft provided an explanation for the importance this show holds both for her -- and for her own children. "I'm at a point in my life where my children, Vennessa and Jesse who are 15 and 9 ... want to know about their grandmother, and I just realized that there are two generations of people who only know her as Dorothy."

"I feel a responsibility to ... educate a generation and maybe two generations as to who she was and what she gave us and what she left us musically."

There is plenty to choose from. "What's extraordinary is the strong body of work she had," comments Luft. "When she was 37 years old she had done 39 movies, 1,275 concerts, and over 300 radio shows. What's extraordinary -- when you look at it -- she was here for like that," she says, snapping her fingers. "But what she packed into (her life) is extraordinary. She worked so hard."

In 1969, Garland died alone at the age of 47 in a London hotel bathroom from an alleged overdose of prescription drugs. At the time of her death, almost a year had passed since Luft had seen her mother. Being caretaker to the volatile star had caused the then 16-year-old daughter to have a nervous breakdown. Her final phone conversation with her mother took place just days before her death.

Luft speaks candidly about the experience. "I can't beat myself up about that," she says. "And believe me, I did for a long time. And you go through that and work through, and you realize you have to say, 'I had no control over that.' So you have to learn to let that go and learn to appreciate the time you did have with someone."

Luft is choosing to focus on happier times, times which apparently were not in short supply. Luft used many of them in fashioning her show. "When she would drive us to school," Luft remembers with a smile, "she would teach us songs in the car and she was a wonderful teacher -- terrible driver. She'd be teaching a song, and we'd be weaving all over the road. It was great."

"I am extremely proud to be her daughter," says Luft, "and I'm very grateful to her as a parent for what she taught me." It may been a long time in coming, but Luft finally may have found a rainbow all her own.