Intro

From reading the excellent reference information put together by RR Auction, PSA and the UACC (links below), it is clear that Judy Garland is a very tough autograph to authenticate. Her autograph changed a lot over the years, she had several secretaries who did a pretty good job of signing on her behalf and her autograph is certainly desirable enough to fake.

Despite all this uncertainty, I have acquired two Garland autographs over the last five years or so. They are not dated but I believe that one is from around the time of Wizard of Oz (say 1938-40) and the other from around two years later (say 1941-43).

Based on the examples I've seen, I have more faith in the earlier example than the later one but I think/hope that both are OK. I explain why below:

A. 1938-40 example

Here is the front and back of this one (jpg of front also attached):

My faith in this one is based on the fact that:

1. It is similar to a PSA-passed example from the same period (though I'm not actually sure whether mine has an upper or lower case "G" as it is so messy at this point).

2. It is made out to a South American periodical. I realise that a secretary could also sign photographs for publication of course.

3. It was in the collection of journalist Mary J. Spalding, who worked at least part time for South American periodicals and received other autographed photos from stars of this calibre (I also have a Vivien Leigh inscribed to her).

4. I cannot find a secretarial signature in this exact same style.

B. 1941-43 example

Here is the front and back of this one (jpg of front also attached):

The plus points for this one seem to be as follows:

1. It is similar to some other exemplars that have been attributed to this period (the movie came out in April 1941 but it was probably signed after the U.S. entered WWII in December that year - see 4 below).

2. It is on an exhibition quality double-weight photograph stamped by a well known Hollywood photographer. It is more likely that better quality photographs would have been signed by the star herself. 

3. It carries quite a long inscription and the handwriting is similar to some other examples on the internet, though the letters seem a bit higher than most, if not all, of the other examples.

4. The inscription is to the U.S. Navy. Hopefully, Judy would not have delegated such an important inscription to a secretary, particularly if the Navy was already involved in WWII at the time. 

5. I cannot find a secretarial signature in this exact same style.

6. It comes from a large collection that was formed over many years. This is obviously no guarantee that the collector had things checked out of course.

The minus points are:

1. The inscription and signature seem almost too neat and choppy. Hopefully this is just because the surface was tricky to write on or because Judy took more time than usual to make things legible.

2. Some of the letters look a little atypical (e.g. the "g" and "d" of Garland). 

C. My questions

1. Do you think both are real?

2. If you think either is secretarial (I am fairly confident that they are not outright fakes) could you post another example of the particular secretary's work.

3. Could anyone pinpoint the date of each example?

4. Has anyone seen either example published anywhere?

5. Does anyone have further examples to share (from any period). I searched all the "Judy Garland" threads on here and found no examples that were universally regarded as real.

6. A long shot, but did anyone meet or see Judy perform live? What was she or her performance like?

Wrap-up

Here are the links I mentioned:

https://d9qs7xii78j0x.cloudfront.net/content/pdf/Autograph_Magazine...

https://www.psacard.com/autographfacts/actors/judy-garland/188

http://uacc.org/garland_study.php

I am attaching jpgs of the two signed photos and the PSA example I mentioned under A1 above.

Apologies for the length of this post. Hopefully, at least the links will be helpful to others.