Judy Garland

TL;DR -- Bunker Hill West has a lot of history that we must not forget. Fortunately, a few Facebook groups are helping by providing period photos. One of these showed Judy Garland in 1939 working in her flower shop in LA. The photo was from the time that she was filming her famous movie. Her mother thought that she ought to have a Plan B.   

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For the most part, we will be looking at LA, in particular Bunker Hill West. I saw a photo recently that showed Bunker Hill in the late 1800s and recently from nearly the same view and will use it in a future post. The theme is the long reach of New England using the west coast as a focus as we look at families that went west leaving traces across the country. 

As is obvious the culture in the west differs from that of New England, many ways. There are huge similarities, too, which we can discuss. The 400ths might have shown up, but coming up shortly will be the 250th of the U.S. Western settlements started as colonials moved away from the coast. The interior had major activity early on, where St. Louis became the organizing point for bringing points west into the fold. 

Photos became almost regular around the time of the Civil War. What one is seeing now on social media is old photos being uploaded. FB has innumerable groups whose main meme is that. We have mentioned California many times. Several sites showing photos are covering the west coast. And, as mentioned, many times, new photos of the same view, or taken near by, allow us to consider the history. 

We will look at San Francisco, as well, including the Presidio. That goes with our interest in New Spain. 

Now, to Judy Garland (Wikipedia, WikiTree) who was a household name, at one time. She was born in Minnesota which came out of the Northwest Territory. And, she has a southern New England pedigree. See the WikiTree information on her. 

As we go forward, given the 400th and technology's support for research, we can use Judy's pedigree to help study northern and southern New England's relationships. Some of our earlier posts have started to address that topic. Many are about families from the north and the south meeting as they transitioned west through generations after the Revolution. 

According to FamousKin, Judy is related to the Gilman/Ladd (and Dudley) family of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. But, the tie-in is prior to the migration. The site used Alan Ladd, the actor, as the focus. 

What caught our eye on FB was Judy working in a flower shop. The photo was on a FB page devoted to Relics of  LA which we have referenced before. There, also, is a florist's site that has a post titled Did you know that Judy Garland was a florist? She worked in her shop during the time that she was filming the Wizard of OZ.  

Her shop was on Wilshire Blvd; she started it when she was 15 years old. As she became more involved with entertainment, her florist activities went to naught. 

She is a good example for Women's History month. Her mother got her involved with flowers as a Plan B in case entertainment didn't work out. 

May 16, 1939:

Quote - Judy Garland News and Events: The photo and caption above appeared in the papers throughout most of 1939 and into early 1940, promoting Judy and her alleged business, “Judy Garland Flowers,” supposedly opened by Judy and her mom, Ethel.  The photos were all posed and shot by an MGM studio photographer, possibly on January 22, 1939.  Obviously, Judy was too busy at the studio to spend any real-time arranging flowers at the shop’s location on 5421 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.  The location was eventually turned into a bakery.  The building was torn down in the 1980s and a Staples store now occupies the space.

Remarks: Modified: 03/30/2024

03/30/2024 --