A controversial aspect of modern stamp issues is issuing stamps not just of a country’s statesman, but cultural figures, even low culture. Some collectors avoid this by ending their collection at World War II. Not here at The Philatelist, where with Judy Garland we get to learn about soaring movies like Wizard of Oz, Meet me in Saint Louis, and A Star is Born filled with sad heart strings songs Garland later sang at swank dinner clubs on two continents. Part of the story also though is multiple marriages, affairs, abortions, breakdowns, drug abuse, tax leins, suicide attempts, and an early death. Maybe the traditional stamp collector has a point sticking with Queen Victoria and George Washington. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
In her teens, Metro Golden Mayer studios marketed Judy Garland as the girl next door going so far as having her diet and exercise to prevent curves from forming on her under five foot frame. Garland rebelled against that and after the success of The Wizard of Oz she was allowed to glamourize and appear in a successful string of musicals aimed at adults. A portrait from this period is perhaps how Garland would want to be remembered and what the United States Postal Service offered.
Todays stamp is issue A3117, a 39 cent stamp issued by the USA on June 10th, 2006.The date would have been her 84th birthday. It as a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 1$ unused.
Judy Garland was born into a vaudeville performing musical family in 1922. Her birth name was Francis Ethel Gumm. Beginning at age two, she performed with her sisters as the Gumm Sisters with her mother accompanying on piano. Their manager thought that Gumm Sisters sounded too much like Glum Sisters, and Judy picked Garland after her manager said she was as pretty as a garland of flowers. The family relocated to southern California when she was thirteen and now Judy Garland was signed to MGM studios after being spotted singing Yiddish songs in a Vaudeville style revue. Her first movies were semi successful and often paired her with boy actor Mickey Rooney.
The biggest success of her life came at age 17 playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. It came at a troubled time in her personal life. Her first chosen affair ended badly after her intended eloped with Lana Turner. On her 18th birthday, she attempted to announce an engagement to her new musician fellow, but he was still married to Ethel Merman. The studio convinced Judy to wait a year until his divorce went through and also to abort his child to not complicate her film schedule. No surprise that marriage didn’t last.
Her success earned her more adult roles and she married Vincent Minnelli, her frequent movie director. By this point she was taking heavily barbiturates and morphine. When the first of her films failed at the box office, MGM let Garland go not willing to put up with the expensive delays that happened when you hired her. She had a mental breakdown and cut her neck and wrists in a suicide attempt. This story got out and Garland was highly embarrassed thinking that everyone was looking for her scars.
She did find a new success away in London performing musically live both her movie songs and her earlier vaudeville material at the London Palladium. This was quite lucrative but her now third manager husband was not making sure her taxes were being paid and her big payday was seized by the IRS. The success however lead to her last big movie musical, a remake of A Star is Born. The production of the movie was as troubled however as her late MGM work.
After a brief American variety TV show that had Garland singing with Frank Sinatra and Robert Goullet was cancelled, to was shown opposite Bonanza, Garland was back to London trying to recreate her live success from years before. Her performances were hit or miss. She by now was on her 6th husband and her health was failing. She died at age 47 of a barbiturate overdose complicated by scerosis of the liver. The death was ruled accidental because though she had 10 barbiturate capsules in her system, her jar was still half full and she had another unopened jar with 100 capsules.
Well my drink is empty. Learning about this type of person with super high highs and deep lows takes it out of you. Come again next Monday for another new story that can be learned from stamp collecting.