Heartbreaker: Two Months with Judy Garland

Heartbreaker: Two Months with Judy Garland

A Play With Music and Lyrics by John Meyer

John Meyer

128 pages

6 x 9 size

ISBN 9798887719535 paperback

ISBN 9798887719542 hardback

Part biographical sketch, part autobiography, part tragicomedy, part romance, part song-and-dance, “Heartbreaker” will have you riding the highs and lows, the love and despair — of living for two months with Judy Garland.

— Bonnie J. Ross, The Post-Star

John Meyer’s book, when all is said and done, is a love story, albeit a heartbreaking one. Garland died at the too-young age of 47. She may have sung about a mythical happy place somewhere over the rainbow, but she never stepped foot onto this peaceful plateau during her lifetime. Few know this sad fact better than Meyer.

—Dan MacIntosh, popmatters

John Meyer (1937-2024) was a man of many hats: composer, lyricist, author, playwright and pianist. His affair with Judy Garland in late 1968 lasted two months. When Meyer met her in New York, she was in dire straits. Homeless, broke and hopelessly addicted to Seconal and Ritalin, she was counting on the kindness of strangers and living a disheveled life wherein she typically, Meyer once observed, had Ritalin and vodka for breakfast. When he came down with the flu just as she needed help to appear on three TV shows, she turned to Micky Deans, who became her fifth and last husband. She died in London in 1969 of “barbiturate poisoning (quinabarbitone) incautious self-overdosage,” according to the coroner. Forever present in his mind and spirit, the two months he spent with her marked him for the rest of his life. They resulted in his memoir Heartbreaker, published in 1983, and the play derived from Heartbreaker, which ran at the Adirondack Theatre Festival in 2013 starring Christine Andreas as Garland. It is here published for the first time along with many songs, words and music by Meyer. His other books, plays and songs show him as a multi-talented artist of great creativity, but his relationship with Judy Garland touched him more deeply than any other and was central to his life. Heartbreaker, the play, is a celebration of those two months of intense joy and productivity.