Name	Judy Garland
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	June 10, 1922
Place of Birth	Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA
Famous for

Born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Frances Ethel Gumm was the youngest child of former vaudevillians Frank Gumm and Ethel Marion Milne. Named for both her parents and baptized at the local Episcopal church, "Baby" (as Frances was affectionately called) shared the family's flair for song and dance. "Baby" Gumm's first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half, when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane ("Suzy") and Dorothy Virginia ("Jimmie") on stage for a chorus of "Jingle Bells" in a Christmas show at her father's theater on December 26, 1924.

In 1934, the sisters, who were touring the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters", performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after "Gumm" received small laughter from the audience. They settled on "The Garland Sisters", and young Frances soon afterward picked the name "Judy" after a popular song of the day by Hoagy Carmichael.

A rumor persists that Jessel came up with the last name Garland after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century, which was playing at the Oriental; another rumor is that the sisters came up with the surname Garland after drama critic Robert Garland,[1] though Lorna Luft stated in her book Me and My Shadows that her mother chose the name when Jessel announced that the trio of singers "looked prettier than a garland of flowers". Still another variation would surface in 1963 when Jessel guested on Garland's television show. He claimed on air that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland" and it stuck in his mind; Judy agreed. However, it's entirely possible that after twenty-nine years, even Jessel and Garland may have forgotten exactly how she was named.