Issue Date: June 10, 2006
City: New York, NY
Quantity Issued: 75,000,000
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America for Sennett Security Products
Printing method: Lithographed
Perforations: Serpentine die cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored

 

Judy Garland (1922-69) was born Frances Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the daughter of vaudeville performers. After the family moved to California in 1927, Garland made hundreds of live vaudeville and radio appearances with her two older sisters. In 1935, she auditioned for MGM and was signed immediately.

 

The teenage Garland won a special Oscar for her portrayal of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). She starred in several other musicals and in the Andy Hardy film series with Mickey Rooney.

 

Garland said, “[MGM would] give us pep-up pills to keep us on our feet long after we were exhausted. Then, they’d take us to the studio hospital and knock us cold with sleeping pills....They’d wake us up and give us the pep-up pills again so we could work another 72 hours in a row.” This constant dose of drugs led to a lifelong struggle with addiction and later claimed her life.

 

Garland left MGM in 1950 for a successful concert career, giving over 1,100 performances. She returned to films in A Star is Born (1954). Her role in that movie earned her an Academy Award nomination.

 

Famous for her husky, trembling singing voice, Judy Garland is the twelfth honoree in the United States Postal Service’s Legends of Hollywood Series.