USPS Judy Garland Legends of Hollywood Stamp

Jul 24, 2010
Tim Rich

The U.S. Postal Service honored actress and Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland with the 12th stamp in its Legends of Hollywood commemorative stamps series.

On 10 June, 2006, the U.S. Postal Service added another collectible postage stamp to its Legends of Hollywood commemorative stamps series with their dedication of the first class 39-cent Judy Garland stamp. Garland appears on the 12th stamp in the Legends of Hollywood stamp series.

The Career of Judy Garland

According to the Judy Garland bio on Internet Movie Database, Frances Ethel Gumm, later known as Judy Garland, was born on 10 June, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Garland began her Hollywood career in Bubbles (1930). Most Judy Garland movie roles were due to her voice, with the pinnacle of her success coming in her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In 1954, Garland gave another of her most memorable performances in A Star is Born.

Although Garland made 32 feature films, her talents weren't limited to the silver screen. Her success in movies was nearly matched by her success in music. Over the course of her musical career, Garland released more than a dozen albums and almost 100 singles, with the pinnacle of her music career occurring at Carnegie Hall.

According to the USPS Press Release, her 1961 performance at Carnegie Hall was heralded as "the greatest night in show business history." The recording of this performance topped the charts for 13 weeks, earning five Grammy Awards. Following her Carnegie Hall success, Garland appeared in a musical variety show on CBS entitled The Judy Garland Show (1963-1964).

Judy Garland died on 22 June, 1969, in Chelsea, London, England .

USPS Judy Garland Stamp Design

As told in the USA Philatelic: Beyond the Perf, Issue 008, art director Ethel Kessler and artist Tim O'Brien, after designing a painting that depicted Garland as a young actress, were asked by Judy Garland's family to portray her as a more mature woman on her Legends of Hollywood stamp. They eventually settled on a portrait drawn from a publicity photo for A Star is Born (1954).

The selvage photograph (or the art in the surplus margin around the sheet of stamps), shows Garland in her signature role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Stamps in the Legends of Hollywood Series

The USPS Legends of Hollywood series of United States stamps began in 1995 with the release of the Marilyn Monroe stamp and continues to be one of the longest-running and most popular stamp series in USPS history. As of 12 May, 2010, there are 16 stamps in the Legends of Hollywood series, with no end in sight. The current list of Legends of Hollywood stamp subjects can be found below. For those interested in postage stamp collecting, the Scott catalog number is listed beside each stamp.