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Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film directed primarily by Victor Fleming from a script mostly by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, with uncredited contributions by others. It was based on the 1900 novel of the same name by L. Frank Baum, who died twenty years before this film was released.[1] It features Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr and Frank Morgan, with Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Grapewin, Clara Blandick and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins. Notable in its use of special effects, use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling and unusual characters, The Wizard of Oz has become, over the years, one of the best known of all films. Its impact, however, was not nearly as strongly felt at the time of its original release.
In the story, Dorothy Gale, a 12-year-old Kansas farmgirl, is knocked unconscious during a tornado. She, her dog Toto, and the farmhouse are apparently transported to the magical Land of Oz, where she sets out on the yellow brick road to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz to return her to Kansas. During her journey, she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, who join her, hoping to receive what they lack themselves (a brain, a heart and courage, respectively). They are pursued by the Wicked Witch of the West, who wants her dead sister's magic ruby slippers, now worn by Dorothy. At the end of the film, Dorothy finds herself back in her own bed at the farmhouse, but in Kansas, where her aunt tries to convince her that she dreamt her adventures in Oz.
Initially, The Wizard of Oz made only a small profit due to its enormous budget, despite largely favorable critical reviews. "Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the film itself received several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Telecasts of the film began in 1956, and because of them the film has found a larger audience—its television screenings were once an annual tradition and have re-introduced the film to the public, making The Wizard of Oz one of the most famous films ever made.[2] The Library of Congress named The Wizard of Oz as the most-watched film in history.[3] It is often ranked among the top ten best movies of all-time in various critics' and popular polls, and it has provided many memorable quotes.

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[edit] Plot

Twelve-year-old orphan Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) lives in rural Kansas with her Aunt Em (Clara Blandick), Uncle Henry (Charles Grapewin), and three farm hands, Hickory (Jack Haley), Hunk (Ray Bolger), and Zeke (Bert Lahr). When irascible townswoman Miss Almira Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) is bitten by Dorothy's dog Toto, she gets a sheriff's order and takes Toto away to be euthanized. The dog escapes and returns to Dorothy. She runs away with Toto to protect him.
Dorothy soon encounters a fortune teller named Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan in the first of five roles he plays in the film). He guesses Dorothy's situation. He commands her to close her eyes so that he can tell her fortune. While her eyes are shut, Professor Marvel sneaks a look at a photo of Dorothy and Aunt Em. He tells Dorothy that Aunt Em has fallen ill from grief, causing her to rush back to the farmhouse just as a sudden tornado rolls in. Unable to join her family in the locked storm cellar, she takes shelter inside the house and is knocked unconscious by a window which comes loose.
Dorothy discovering that she is no longer in Kansas
Dorothy apparently awakens to discover the house being carried away by the tornado, with her and Toto inside. It eventually drops back down on the ground intact. Opening the door and stepping out of what was up to then a sepia-toned black-and-white film into full three-strip Technicolor, Dorothy finds herself in a strange village. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke), arrives magically via a bubble. She informs Dorothy that she (or rather her falling house) has killed the Wicked Witch of the East.
The timid Munchkins come out of hiding to celebrate the demise of the Witch by singing a medley that includes "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead". The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton again) magically appears and tries to claim her sister's powerful ruby slippers. However, Glinda uses her powers to transfer the slippers from the dead witch onto Dorothy's feet and reminds the Witch of the West that her power is ineffectual in Munchkinland. The Witch vows revenge on Dorothy (uttering her famous line, "I'll get you, my pretty. And your little dog, too!") before leaving the same way she arrived. Glinda advises Dorothy to seek the help of the mysterious Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, which she can reach by following the yellow brick road. She warns Dorothy never to remove the slippers or she will be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch.
On her way to the city, Dorothy meets a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger again) with no brain, a Tin Man (Jack Haley again) with no heart, and a Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr again). The three decide to accompany Dorothy in the hope that the Wizard will also give them their desires. Along the way, they behave in ways which demonstrate that they already have the qualities they believe they lack: the Scarecrow has several good ideas, the Tin Man is kind and sympathetic, and the Lion is ready to face danger, even though he is terrified.
After Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion nearly succumb to one of the Witch's traps, they enter the Emerald City. They are given an audience with the Wizard of Oz, who appears as a disembodied and imposing head. In a booming voice, he states that he will consider granting their wishes if they bring him the Wicked Witch's broomstick.
They set out for the Witch's castle, but she detects them and dispatches her army of flying monkeys; they carry Dorothy and Toto back to her. When the Witch threatens to drown Toto, Dorothy agrees to give up the slippers, but a shower of sparks prevents their removal. While the Witch is distracted, Toto escapes. The Witch says that the shoes cannot be removed unless Dorothy dies; she leaves to ponder how to accomplish this without damaging the shoes.
Toto finds Dorothy's friends and leads them to the castle. After ambushing some of the Winkie guards, they disguise themselves in the guards' uniforms, enter, and free Dorothy. The Witch and her soldiers pursue and corner the group on a parapet. Then the Witch sets the Scarecrow's arm on fire. When Dorothy throws water on her friend, she accidentally splashes the horrified Witch. To everyone's surprise, the Witch melts away. The soldiers are delighted. Their captain (Mitchell Lewis) gives Dorothy the broomstick.
Upon their triumphant return to the Emerald City, Toto exposes the Wizard (Frank Morgan again) as a fraud, opening a curtain and revealing a non-magical man operating a giant console of wheels and levers. They are outraged, but the Wizard solves their problems with common sense and a little double talk. He explains that they already had what they had been searching for all along and only need things such as medals and diplomas to confirm it. The Wizard reveals that he too was born in Kansas and that he was brought to Oz by a runaway hot air balloon. He offers to take Dorothy home in the same balloon, leaving the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion in charge of the Emerald City.
Just before takeoff, Toto jumps out of the balloon's basket to chase a cat. Dorothy follows him, and the wizard, unable to control the balloon, leaves without her. She is resigned to spending the rest of her life in Oz until Glinda appears and tells her that she has always had the power to return home. Glinda explains that she did not tell Dorothy at first because she needed to find out for herself that she doesn't need to run away to find her heart's desire. Dorothy says a tearful goodbye to her friends and then follows Glinda's instructions, closing her eyes, tapping her heels together three times, and chanting "There's no place like home."
The film reverts to sepia tone and Dorothy awakens in her bedroom in Kansas, surrounded by family and friends, suggesting she was unconscious the whole time. She tells them of her journey. Aunt Em tells Dorothy that it was all a dream, but she pleads otherwise. In any case, Dorothy promises everyone that she will never leave home ever again, for she loves them all, and there's no place like home.

[edit] Differences from the original novel

Many details are omitted or altered, while many of the perils that Dorothy encountered in the novel are not even mentioned in the feature film. The Good Witch of the North (who has no name in the book) and Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, are merged into one character. To take advantage of the new vivid Technicolor process, Dorothy's silver shoes were changed to ruby slippers for the movie.[4][5] Due to time constraints, a number of incidents from the book, including the China County and the Hammerheads, were cut. The role of the Wicked Witch of the West was also enlarged for the movie (in the book, she is only present for one chapter) to provide more dramatic tension throughout the film. The novel also never depicts Dorothy as a damsel in distress to be rescued by her friends, but rather the reverse, with Dorothy rescuing her friends. Nevertheless, the film was far more faithful to Baum's original book than many earlier scripts (see below) or film versions. Two silent versions were produced in 1910 and 1925 and the seven-minute animated cartoon in 1933 (the 1925 version, with which Baum, who had died six years earlier, had no association, made Dorothy a princess of Oz, rather like the later sci-fi TV miniseries Tin Man). The 1939 movie interprets the Oz experience as a dream, in which many of the characters that Dorothy meets represent the people from her home life (such as Miss Gulch, Professor Marvel and the farmhands, none of which appear in the book). In L. Frank Baum's original novel, Oz is meant to be a real place, one to which Dorothy would return in the author's later Oz books and which would later provide a refuge for Aunt Em and Uncle Henry when unable to pay the mortgage on the new house that was built after the old one really was carried away by the tornado.

[edit] Cast

In the film credits, all actors with more than one role are listed only as their Kansas characters, not their Oz characters. The dog Toto is listed as having been played by himself, not by Terry, her real name. Uncle Henry is the only character to appear in Kansas without appearing in Oz (Aunt Em appears in Oz in the hourglass scene).

[edit] Production

[edit] Color and sepia

The Wizard of Oz was filmed in 3-strip Technicolor. This scene depicts the group's first sighting of the Emerald City.
All of the Oz sequences were filmed in three-strip Technicolor.[6][7] The opening and closing credits, as well as the Kansas sequences, were filmed in black and white and colored in a sepia tone.[6] Publicity for the film (as well as its opening credits) mentioned the Technicolor but not the black-and-white or sepia, thus making it sound as if the entire film had been made in color. Sometimes color and sepia would be juxtaposed in the film within seconds of each other. At one point, Dorothy sees her Aunt Em on the Wicked Witch of the West's crystal ball; she is then replaced by a vision of the Witch. Aunt Em appears only in sepia-toned black-and-white, while the Witch appears in the crystal ball in full Technicolor.
In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Kansas is described as being in shades of gray. Dorothy lived inside a farmhouse which had its paint blistered and washed away by the weather, giving it a gray look, which was situated in the middle of prairie fields where the grass was burnt gray by the sun, and her family members were gray with age. The usage of monochrome for the Kansas sequences was a stylistic choice to represent the novel's description, and to contrast her home for the bright colors of Oz. Because Technicolor favored some hues over others (for example, most yellows turn into green) the art department spent nearly a week to find the right yellow for the Yellow Brick Road.[8]

[edit] Development and pre-production

Development of the film started when the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs showed that films adapted from children's stories and fantasy films could be successful.[6][9] In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to the hugely popular novel from Samuel Goldwyn, who had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor, who was under contract to the Goldwyn studios and whom Goldwyn wanted to cast as the Scarecrow.[6]
The script went through a number of writers and revisions before the final shooting.[7] Originally, Mervyn LeRoy's assistant William H. Cannon submitted a brief four-page outline.[citation needed] Because recent fantasy films had not fared well at the box office, he recommended that the magical elements of the story be toned down or eliminated. In his outline, the Scarecrow was a man so stupid that the only way he could get employment was to dress up as a scarecrow and scare away crows in a cornfield, and the Tin Woodman was a hardened criminal so heartless he was sentenced to be placed in a tin suit for eternity. The torture of being encased in the suit had softened him and made him gentle and kind.[citation needed] His vision was similar to Larry Semon's 1925 film adaptation of the story, in which the magical element is absent.
After that, LeRoy hired screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz to work on a script. Soon, Mankiewicz delivered a 17 page script of the Kansas scenes and a few weeks later, he handed in a further 56 pages. Noel Langley and poet Ogden Nash were also hired to write separate versions of the story. Neither of the three writers involved knew anyone else was working on a script, but it was not an uncommon procedure. Nash soon delivered a four page outline, Langley turned in a 43-page treatment and a full film script. He turned in three more, this time incorporating the songs that had been written. No sooner had he completed it than Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf submitted a script and were brought on board to touch up the writing. They would be responsible for making sure the story stayed true to the Baum book. During filming, Victor Fleming and John Lee Mahin revised the script further, adding and cutting some scenes. In addition, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr are known to have written some of their own dialogue for the Kansas sequence.
The final draft of the script was completed on October 8, 1938, following numerous rewrites.[10] All in all, it was a mish-mash of many creative minds, but Langley, Ryerson and Woolf got the film credits. Along with the contributors already mentioned, others who assisted with the adaptation without receiving official credit include: Irving Brecher, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, E. Y. Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Jack Mintz, Sid Silvers, Richard Thorpe, George Cukor and King Vidor.[6]
The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; therefore, it was re-conceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream. Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the script originally featured a scene with a series of musical contests. A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz had outlawed all forms of music except classical and operetta and went up against Dorothy in a singing contest in which Dorothy's swing style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize. This part was initially written for Betty Jaynes.[11] The plan was later dropped.
Another scene, which was removed before final script approval and never filmed, was a concluding scene back in Kansas after Dorothy's return. Hunk (the Kansan counterpart to the Scarecrow) is leaving for agricultural college and extracts a promise from Dorothy to write to him. The implication of the scene is that romance will eventually develop between the two, which also may have been intended as an explanation for Dorothy's partiality for the Scarecrow over her other two companions. This plot idea was never totally dropped, however; it is especially noticeable in the final script when Dorothy, just before she is to leave Oz, tells the Scarecrow, "I think I'll miss you most of all."[12]

[edit] Casting

Mervyn LeRoy had always insisted that he wanted to cast Judy Garland to play Dorothy from the start. However, evidence suggests that negotiations took place early in pre-production for Shirley Temple to play the part of Dorothy, on loan out from 20th Century Fox. A persistent rumor also existed that Fox was in turn promised Clark Gable and Jean Harlow as a loan from MGM. The tale is almost certainly untrue, as Harlow died in 1937, before MGM had even purchased the rights to the story. Despite this, the story appears in many film biographies (including Temple's own autobiography). The documentary The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic states that Mervyn LeRoy was under pressure to cast Temple, then the most popular child star; but at an unofficial audition, MGM musical mainstay Roger Edens listened to her sing and felt that an actress with a different style was needed. Newsreel footage is included in which Temple wisecracks "There's no place like home," suggesting that she was being considered for the part at that time.[13] A possibility is that this consideration did indeed take place, but that Gable and Harlow were not part of the proposed deal.
Actress Deanna Durbin, who was under contract to Universal, was also considered for the part of Dorothy. Durbin, at the time, far exceeded Garland in film experience and fan base and the two had co-starred in a 1936 two-reeler called Every Sunday. The film was most notable for exhibiting Durbin's operatic style of singing against Garland's jazzier style. Durbin was possibly passed over once it was decided to bring on Betty Jaynes, also an operatic singer, to rival Garland's jazz in the aforementioned discarded subplot of the film.
LeRoy and company also considered actress Bonita Granville, but passed on her due to the fact that she had never made a musical.[citation needed]
Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man
Casting The Wizard of Oz was problematic, with actors shifting roles repeatedly at the beginning of filming. Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen (later famous for his role as Jed Clampett on the popular 1960s TV show The Beverly Hillbillies) was to play the Scarecrow.[10] Bolger, unhappy with his role, convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him as the Scarecrow. Ebsen did not object; he recorded all of his songs, went through all the rehearsals as the Tin Man and started filming with the rest of the cast.[14] However, nine days after filming began, Ebsen suffered a reaction to the aluminum powder makeup he wore; the powder he breathed in daily as it was applied had coated his lungs. Ebsen was hospitalized in critical condition and left the project. MGM did not publicize the reasons for Ebsen's departure until decades later in a documentary about the movie and even his replacement, Jack Haley, did not initially know the reason. The book The World of Entertainment (1975) by Hugh Fordin, written with the full cooperation of uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed before his death, is said to suggest[citation needed] that Fleming fired the actor when he took over as director. In a later interview (included on the 2005 DVD release of Wizard of Oz), Ebsen recalled that the studio heads initially did not believe he was ill. No footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has ever been released — only photographs taken during filming and test photos of different makeup styles remain.
Despite his near-death experience with the makeup, Ebsen outlived all the principal players by at least sixteen years (Bolger, who died in January 1987 was the last surviving major cast member to die), although his film career was damaged by the incident. Because of his illness, followed by his subsequent service in the Coast Guard, his career did not fully recover until the 1950s, when he began a string of popular film and TV series appearances that would continue into the 1980s. Although his lungs had presumably recovered from the effects of the powder makeup, he eventually died of complications from pneumonia on July 6, 2003 at the age of ninety-five.[15]
The makeup used for Haley was quietly changed to an aluminum paste, with a layer of clown white greasepaint underneath to protect his skin; although it did not have the same dire effect on Haley, he did at one point suffer from an unpleasant eye infection from it.
Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch. She became unhappy when the witch's persona shifted from sly and glamorous (thought to emulate the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) into the familiar "ugly hag." She turned down the role and was replaced on October 10, 1938 by Margaret Hamilton. Sondergaard said in an interview for a bonus feature on the DVD that she had no regrets about turning down the part and would go on to play a glamorous villain in Fox's version of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird in 1940. Margaret Hamilton played a remarkably similar role in the Judy Garland film Babes in Arms released that same year. She is a busybody social worker who wants to remove Judy Garland's character from the custody of her parents, much as Almira Gulch wants to remove Toto.
On July 25, 1938, Bert Lahr was signed for the Cowardly Lion; Charles Grapewin was cast as Uncle Henry on August 12.
W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the role of the Wizard, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over his fee. Instead, Frank Morgan was cast on September 22. According to Aljean Harmetz, when the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Morgan, they decided that they wanted a once elegant coat that had "gone to seed." They went to a second-hand shop and purchased a whole rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department and director Fleming chose one they thought had the perfect appearance of shabby gentility. One day, while he was on set wearing the coat, Morgan turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had once belonged to Oz author L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had indeed once belonged to the writer. After filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum. Baum biographer Michael Patrick Hearn disbelieves the story, it having been refuted by members of the Baum family, who never saw the coat or knew of the story, as well as by Margaret Hamilton, who considered it a concocted studio rumor.[16]

[edit] Filming

Filming commenced October 13, 1938 on the MGM Studios lot in Culver City, California, under the direction of Richard Thorpe (replacing original director Norman Taurog, who only filmed a few early Technicolor tests and was then reassigned). Thorpe initially shot about two weeks of footage involving Dorothy's first encounter with the Scarecrow as well as a number of sequences in the Wicked Witch's castle. However, the sudden medical departure of Buddy Ebsen caused the film to shut down while a new actor was found to fill the part. LeRoy had taken this time to review the already shot footage and felt that Thorpe seemed to be rushing the picture along, creating a negative impact in the actors' performances. Thus LeRoy decided to have Thorpe replaced.
George Cukor temporarily took over. Initially, the studio made Garland wear a blond wig and heavy, "baby-doll" makeup and she played Dorothy in an exaggerated fashion. Cukor changed Judy Garland's and Margaret Hamilton's makeup and costumes and told Garland to "be herself." This meant that all the scenes Garland and Hamilton had already completed had to be discarded and re-filmed. Cukor did not actually shoot any scenes for the film and, because of his prior commitment to direct Gone with the Wind, he left on November 3, 1938, at which time Victor Fleming assumed the directorial responsibility.
Ironically, on February 12, 1939, Fleming replaced Cukor in directing Gone with the Wind. The next day, King Vidor would be assigned as director to finish the filming of The Wizard of Oz (mainly the sepia Kansas sequences, including Judy Garland's singing of "Over the Rainbow"). In later years, when the film became firmly established as a classic, King Vidor chose not to take public credit for his contribution until after the death of his friend Fleming.
Filming was a long and cumbersome process that ran for over six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Most of the actors worked six days a week and had to arrive at the studio as early as four and five in the morning, to be fitted with makeup and costumes and would not leave until seven or eight at night. Cumbersome makeup and costumes were compounded by the fact that the early Technicolor process required a significant amount of lighting to be used, which would usually heat the set to over a hundred degrees. According to Ray Bolger, most of the Oz principals were banned from eating in the studio's commissary due to their costumes. Margaret Hamilton's makeup could not be ingested and so she practically lived on a liquid diet during filming. Jack Haley's aluminum paste makeup caused the actor to receive a severe eye infection. Additionally, it took upwards of 12 takes to have Dorothy's dog Toto run alongside the actors as they skipped down the Yellow Brick Road.
Filming could also prove to be chaotic at times. This was most evident when trying to put together the Munchkinland sequences. MGM talent scouts searched the country far and wide to come up with over a hundred little people who would make up the citizens of Munchkinland. According to Munchkin actor Jerry Maren, each little person was paid over $125 a week for their performances. Munchkin Meinhardt Raabe, who played the coroner, revealed in the 1990 documentary The Making of the Wizard of Oz that the MGM costume and wardrobe department, under the direction of designer Adrian, had to design over one hundred costumes for the Munchkin sequences. They then had to photograph and catalog each Munchkin in his or her costume so that they could correctly apply the same costume and makeup each day of production. For years, many exaggerated rumors circulated about the wild behavior of many of the Munchkin actors. One of the most famous claimed that the completed film shows an actor who played one of the Munchkins committing suicide by hanging in the background of one scene. This has been shown to be false; the object in question is actually a wild crane used in the forest scene.[17]
Filming proved to be dangerous at times. Margaret Hamilton was severely burned in the Munchkinland scene. There was a little elevator that was supposed to take her down, with a fire erupting to dramatize and conceal her exit. As told by Hamilton in archival audio included on the DVD commentary, the first take went smoothly, and that was the one eventually used in the film. For the second take, the timing was off, and she was exposed to the flames. Her copper-based makeup had to be completely and quickly removed before her face could be treated. Her hands were also burned. When she returned from the hospital, Hamilton refused to do the scene in which she flies on a broomstick which billows smoke, so the directors chose to have stand-in Betty Danko perform the scene instead. Danko was severely injured doing the scene due to a malfunction.
Principal photography concluded with the Kansas sequences on March 16, 1939; nonetheless re-shoots and pick-up shots were filmed throughout April, May and into June. At this point, the film began a long arduous post-production. Herbert Stothart had to compose the film's score, while A. Arnold Gillespie had to perfect the various special effects that the film required, including many of the rear projection shots. The MGM art department also had to create the various matte paintings for the background of many of the scenes. One significant innovation for the film was the use of "stencil printing" which was used for the transition to Technicolor. Each frame was to be hand-tinted to maintain the sepia tone. However, because this was too expensive and labor intensive, it was abandoned and MGM used a simpler and less expensive variation of the process. Instead, the inside of the farm house was painted sepia and when Dorothy opens the door, it is not Garland but her stand-in, Bobbie Koshay, wearing a sepia gingham dress, who then backs out of frame. Once the camera moves through the door, Garland steps back into frame in her bright blue gingham dress [as noted in DVD extras).
Test screenings of the film began on June 5, 1939.[18] Oz initially was running nearly two hours long. LeRoy and Fleming knew that at least a quarter of an hour needed to be deleted to get the film down to a manageable running time, the average film in 1939 running just about 90 minutes. Three sneak previews in Santa Barbara, Pomona and San Luis Obispo, California helped guide LeRoy and Fleming in the cutting. Among the many cuts was "The Jitterbug" number, the Scarecrow's elaborate dance sequence following "If I Only Had A Brain", a reprise of "Over the Rainbow", and "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead", and a number of smaller dialogue sequences. This left the final, mostly serious portion of the film with no songs, only the dramatic underscoring.
One song that was almost deleted was "Over the Rainbow." MGM had felt that it made the Kansas sequence too long, as well as being far over the heads of the target audience of children. The studio also thought that it was degrading for Judy Garland to sing in a barnyard. Producer Mervyn LeRoy, uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed, and director Victor Fleming fought to keep it and eventually won. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song of the Year. In 2004, the song was ranked #1 by the American Film Institute on AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs list.
After the preview in San Luis Obispo in early July, The Wizard of Oz was officially released in August 1939 at its current 101-minute running time.

[edit] Release

[edit] Theatrical

A memorial commemorating the film's premiere at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939
The Wizard of Oz premiered at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939,[3] and Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The New York City premiere at Loew's Capitol Theater on August 17, 1939 was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They would continue to perform there after each screening for a week, extended in Rooney's case for a second week and in Garland's to three. The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.
The film grossed approximately $3 million (equal to $46,990,384.62 today) against production/distribution costs of $2.8 million (equal to $43,857,692.31 today) in its initial release. It did not show what MGM considered a large profit until a 1949 re-release earned an additional $1.5 million (equal to $13,689,075.63 today).
Beginning with the 1949 reissue and continuing until the film's 50th Anniversary VHS and laserdisc release in 1989, the opening Kansas sequences were printed and shown in ordinary black-and-white, not sepia tone, and so TV viewers saw them in black-and-white for more than thirty years. This was done despite the fact that sepia tone had been specifically chosen for the picture to help mask the switch to Technicolor. The actual switch occurs before the door is opened from the transported house onto the Land of Oz. In the sepia prints, one doesn't notice any color until that door is opened, because the door itself is a shade of brown which matches the sepia tone. In black-and-white, one cannot help but notice the switch to color before the door is opened, which was precisely what the film's producers wanted to avoid. For the film's 50th anniversary restoration, the sepia tone was brought back to the opening Kansas scenes and beginning in 1990, the film was shown on CBS television nationally as originally released in 1939. It was also very common (and even an FCC requirement for early color broadcasters) for TV stations to turn off the color portion of their transmission when broadcasting a black & white show or movie. This was because unusual colors or "color noise" could be seen during the showing of black-and-white programming under some conditions. Though the opening Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz were meant to be shown in sepia and though the sepia was restored to the film in 1989 for the film's 50th anniversary VHS and laserdisc reissue, a few local CBS affiliates still showed the sepia portion of the film with the color signal disabled for many years.[citation needed] Most of these were small market affiliates that ran some syndicated black & white shows as these stations were used to turning the color modes off during black & white programming. One CBS affiliate, WGNX, transmitted the opening Kansas scenes in black-and-white as recently as its 1996 showing because this station was an independent station that ran a moderate amount of black-and-white films before becoming a CBS affiliate.
1955 saw the release of a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio version to theatres, with portions of the top and the bottom of the film removed via soft mattes to produce a widescreen effect. The re-release trailer falsely claimed "every scene" from Baum's novel that was in the film, including "the rescue of Dorothy", though there is no such incident in the novel.
The MGM "Children's Matinees" series re-released the film twice, in 1970 and 1971.[19]
In 1986, the film was acquired by Turner Entertainment as part of a deal involving a majority of MGM's pre-1986 library. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, and since then Warner Bros. Pictures has been handling distribution for all media on Turner's behalf.
The film was re-released again in U.S. theaters by WB on November 6, 1998. The version was a new remastered print which contained the Warner Bros. '75th Anniversary' logo at the beginning and restoration and sound remixing credits at the end (none of these extra credits have appeared on any video release).
In 1999, the film had a theatrical re-release in Australia, in honor of the film's 60th Anniversary.
On September 23, 2009, The Wizard of Oz was re-released in select theaters for a one-night-only event in honor of the film's 70th Anniversary and as a promotion for various new disc releases later in the month. This event also marked the first time the film was shown in theatres in High-Definition (it had already been telecast in High-Definition).[20] An encore of the high definition 70th Anniversary edition was shown in theaters on November 17, 2009.[21]

[edit] Television airings

Main article: The Wizard of Oz on television
The film was first shown on television November 3, 1956 on CBS, as the last installment of the Ford Star Jubilee. The Oz scenes were shown in color (posters still exist advertising the broadcast and they specifically say in color and black-and-white), but because most television sets then were not color sets, few members of the TV audience saw it that way. An estimated 45 million people watched the broadcast. However, it was not rerun until three years later. On December 13, 1959 the film was shown (again on CBS) as a two-hour Christmas season special and at an earlier time, to an even larger audience (commercial breaks were much shorter then, enabling the film to run in a two-hour time slot without being cut). Encouraged by the response, CBS decided to make it an annual tradition, showing it from 1959 through 1962 always on the second Sunday of December. The film was not shown in December 1963 as might have been expected, perhaps due to the proximity of the John F. Kennedy assassination, which occurred on November 22 of that year and plunged the U.S. into a period of mourning. Others say that there was no room on the schedule, due to the fact that by then there were other Christmas specials on television, though not nearly as many as there would be in later years (A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Frosty the Snowman, all first shown on CBS in the 1960s, were still more than two years away).
Whatever the reason, the telecast was moved from December 1963 to January of the following year. The 1964 broadcast marked the end of the Christmas season showings, but The Wizard of Oz was nevertheless still televised only once a year for nearly three decades. Beginning in 1967, showing of the film was moved to February, and after that the date of the showings would constantly shift, rather than always occurring in the same month. That same year, the film was bought for annual TV showings by NBC, whose telecasts of it began in April 1968, but by 1976, it had reverted to CBS. CBS dropped its broadcasts of the film in 1998; the rights are now in the hands of Turner Entertainment (through Warner Bros. Television), and the film is now shown several times a year (rather than annually) on or just before several notable holidays (including Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and/or Christmas). Turner Classic Movies cable channel, TNT and the TBS Superstation now often show the film during the same week "in rotation."[22] For the film's first nine telecasts, on the CBS TV Network, the film featured on-camera celebrity hosts, who provided commentary (often comic) and information about the making of the film. The hosts for these telecasts were Liza Minnelli, Bert Lahr, Justin Schiller ("Oz" historian and the founder and first president of "The International Wizard Of Oz Club"), all hosting the first telecast, Red Skelton and his daughter Valentina, (the second telecast), Richard Boone and his son Peter (the third telecast), Dick Van Dyke and his children (the fourth and fifth telecasts), and Danny Kaye (the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth telecasts).[23][24][25][26][27]

[edit] Video

The Wizard of Oz became the first videocassette released by MGM/CBS Home Video in 1980; all current home video releases are by Warner Home Video (via current rights holder Turner Entertainment). The first laserdisc release of The Wizard of Oz was in 1982, with two versions of a second, (one from Turner and one from The Criterion Collection with a commentary track) for the 50th Anniversary release in 1989, a third in 1991, a fourth in 1993, a fifth in 1995 and a sixth and final laserdisc release on September 11, 1996.[28] The first DVD release of the film was on March 26, 1997 by MGM and contained no special features or supplements. It was re-released by Warner Bros. for its 60th Anniversary on October 19, 1999, in snapper case packaging with its soundtrack presented in a new 5.1 surround sound mix. The monochrome-to-color transition was more smoothly accomplished by digitally keeping the inside of the house in monochrome while Dorothy and the reveal of Munchkinland are in color. The DVD also contained an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic, produced in 1990 and hosted by Angela Lansbury, which was originally featured in the 1991 "Ultimate Oz" laserdisc box set release. Despite being a one-disc release, outtakes, the deleted "Jitterbug" musical number, clips of pre-1939 Oz adaptations, trailers, newsreels and a portrait gallery were also included, as well as two radio programs of the era publicizing the film.
In 2005, two new DVD editions were released, both featuring a newly restored version of the film with audio commentary and an isolated music and effects track. One of the two DVD releases was a "Two-Disc Special Edition", featuring production documentaries, trailers, various outtakes, newsreels, radio shows and still galleries. The other set, a "Three-Disc Collector's Edition", included these features as well as the digitally restored 80th anniversary edition of the 1925 feature-length silent film version of The Wizard of Oz, other silent Oz movies, and a 1933 animated short version.
The Wizard of Oz was released on Blu-ray Disc on September 29, 2009 for the film's 70th anniversary in a four-disc "Ultimate Collector's Edition", including all the bonus features from the 2005 Collector's Edition DVD, new bonus features about Victor Fleming and the surviving Munchkins, the telefilm The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story and the miniseries MGM: When the Lion Roars. The Blu-ray Disc version of Oz features a significant picture quality increase over all previous home video releases due to Warner commissioning a new transfer at 8K resolution from the original film, requiring 22 GB of disc space. This restored version also features a lossless 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track.[29] A DVD version was also released as a Two-Disc Special Edition and a Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition. As previously mentioned, the September 23, 2009 one-day-only theatrical 70th anniversary showings were also a promotion for the various disc releases six days later. On December 1, 2009, three discs of the Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray Disc were repackaged as a less expensive "Emerald Edition," with an Emerald Edition four-disc DVD arriving the following week. A single-disc BD, containing the restored movie and all the extra features of the two-disc Special Edition DVD, also became available on March 16, 2010.

[edit] Legacy

All of the film's stars except Frank Morgan, who died in 1949, lived long enough to see and enjoy at least some of the film's legendary reputation after it came to television starting in 1956. The last of the major players to die was Ray Bolger, in 1987. The day after his death, an editorial cartoon referenced the cultural impact of this film, portraying the Scarecrow running along the Yellow Brick Road to catch up with the other characters, as they all danced off into the sunset.
Neither director Victor Fleming, nor music arranger Herbert Stothart, screenwriter Edgar Allan Woolf, film editor Blanche Sewell, nor actor Charles Grapewin (who played Dorothy's Uncle Henry) lived to see the film's first telecast. By coincidence, Fleming, Stothart, Sewell and Morgan all died in 1949, which was also the year of the film's successful first re-release in movie theatres. Woolf had died the year before and Grapewin died in February 1956, nine months before the film's television premiere, and a few months after the film's second re-release. Costume designer Adrian died in September 1959, only three months before the highly successful second telecast of the film, the one that would persuade CBS to make it an annual tradition. The film's principal art director Cedric Gibbons died in July 1960, after the 1959 telecast, but only five months before the next TV showing on December 11, 1960.[30] And principal makeup artist Jack Dawn died in June 1961, six months after the film's third telecast. As the 1960's ended, Judy Garland joined them: she died in London, England on June 22, 1969 at the age of 47 from a drug overdose before a scheduled concert appearance.
Co-screenwriter Florence Ryerson died in 1965, after the film's seventh telecast, and principal screenwriter Noel Langley, who reportedly hated the changes that Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf had made to his version of the script,[31] lived to see the film become a television institution, dying in 1980, months after the twenty-second telecast of the film. Oz song writers E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen also lived to see the film become a television immortal, both of them also passing away in the 1980s, as did Oz director of photography Harold Rosson. The principal creator of the special effects which were so much a part of the film, A. Arnold Gillespie, died in 1978.

[edit] Music

Main article: Musical selections in The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is widely noted for its musical selections and soundtrack. Music & lyrics were by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who won the Academy Awards for Best Music Song for "Over the Rainbow." In addition, Herbert Stothart, who composed the instrumental underscore, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Georgie Stoll was associate conductor and screen credit was given to George Bassman, Murray Cutter, Ken Darby and Paul Marquardt for orchestral and vocal arrangements. (As usual Roger Edens was also heavily involved as an unbilled musical associate to Freed).
The song "The Jitterbug", written in a swing style, was intended for the sequence in which the four are journeying to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. Due to time constraints, the song was cut from the final theatrical version. The film footage for the song has been lost, although silent home film footage of rehearsals for the number has survived. The sound recording for the song, however, is intact and was included in the 2-CD Rhino Records deluxe edition of the film soundtrack, as well as on the VHS and DVD editions of the film. A reference to "The Jitterbug" remains in the film; the Witch remarks to her flying monkeys that they should have no trouble apprehending Dorothy and her friends because "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them."
Another musical number that was cut before release occurred right after the Wicked Witch of the West was melted and before Dorothy and her friends returned to the Wizard. This was a reprise of "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead" with the lyrics altered to "Hail! Hail! The Witch is Dead!." This started with the Witch's guard saying "Hail to Dorothy ! The Wicked Witch is dead!" and dissolved to a huge celebration of the citizens of Emerald City singing the song as they accompany Dorothy and her friends to see the Wizard. Today, the film of this scene is also presumed lost and only a few stills survive along with a few seconds of footage used on several reissue trailers. The entire audio still exists and is included on the 2-CD Rhino Record deluxe edition of the film soundtrack.[32]
The songs were recorded in a studio before filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. Therefore, while Ebsen had to be dropped from the cast due to illness from the aluminum powder makeup, his singing voice remained in the soundtrack. [as noted in the notes for the CD Deluxe Edition] In the group vocals of "We're Off to See the Wizard," his voice is easy to detect. Jack Haley spoke with a distinct Boston accent and thus did not pronounce the r in wizard. By contrast, Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Judy Garland, and thus pronounced it. Of course, Haley rerecorded Ebsen's solo parts later.

[edit] Songlist

[edit] Cultural impact

Regarding the original Baum storybook, it has been said: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is America's greatest and best-loved home grown fairytale. The first totally American fantasy for children, it is one of the most-read children's books . . . and despite its many particularly American attributes, including a wizard from Omaha, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has universal appeal."[33] The television showings of the film have taken its fame to a level far above what it had been in the pre-TV and early TV era. It has become almost literally a national institution, a cultural icon recognized by millions.
The film also has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, which selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989. In June 2007, the film was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.[34] The scene in which the Wicked Witch captures Dorothy and threatens her in the castle placed at number 86 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[35] In 1977, Aljean Harmetz wrote The Making of The Wizard of Oz, a detailed description of the creation of the film based on interviews and research; it was updated in 1989.[36]
In a movie section front page retrospective of The Wizard of Oz, noted San Francisco Chronicle film critic and author Mick LaSalle declared on October 30, 2009 that the film's "entire sequence, from Dorothy's arrival in Oz to her departure on the Yellow brick road, has to be one of the greatest in cinema history — a masterpiece of set design, costuming, choreography, music, lyrics, storytelling and sheer imagination."[37]

[edit] Sequels and reinterpretations

The Wizard of Oz was dramatized as a one-hour radio play on the December 25, 1950 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater, with Judy Garland reprising her earlier role. An official sequel, the animated Journey Back to Oz, starring Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, as Dorothy, was produced beginning in 1964 to commemorate the original film's 25th anniversary. The unfinished film lost financing early on and was not finished until 1972 when the producing studio, Filmation, had made enough profit from its television series to finish the film. It was released in the USA in 1974, and again in 1976 with additional live-action footage. In the movie, Dorothy is the victim of another minor head injury incurred during another Kansas tornado. She wakes to find herself back in Oz. There, she is reunited with her old friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, but none of them have time to spend with her or the desire to fight yet another wicked witch (played by Ethel Merman). She befriends the kindly Pumpkinhead, voiced by Paul Lynde, and a horse named Woodenhead Pinto Stallion III. Drama ensues, resulting in both the witch's death and that of Pumpkinhead, her creation. However, a single tear that proves her love for her friend, saves Pumpkinhead. Soon, Dorothy wakes to find herself back in Kansas with her aunt and uncle.
In 1975, the stage show The Wiz premiered on Broadway: it was an African-American version of The Wizard of Oz reworked for the Broadway stage. It starred Stephanie Mills and other Broadway stars and earned Tony awards. The play's financing was handled by actor Geoffrey Holder. The play inspired revivals after it left the stage and a motion picture made in 1978, starring Diana Ross.
Disney made a sequel Return to Oz in 1985. Based mostly on the books Ozma of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz, it fared poorly with critics and in the box office, although it has since gone on to become a cult classic.[38]
In 1964, a one-hour animated cartoon, also called Return to Oz, was shown as an afternoon weekend special on NBC. In this production, the Wicked Witch of the West somehow comes back to life, and not only steals the Scarecrow's brain, the Tin Man's heart, and the lion's medal, but returns them to the exact situations they were in before they met Dorothy.
For the film's 56th anniversary a stage show also entitled The Wizard of Oz was based upon the 1939 film and the book by L. Frank Baum. It toured from 1995–2008, except for 2004 - see The Wizard of Oz (1987 stage play).
In 1995 Gregory Maguire published the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was later adapted into the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, Wicked, a back story to The Wizard of Oz that describes what happened before Dorothy dropped into Oz and how the Wicked Witch was really misunderstood, and eventually became known as wicked.
In 2007, the sketch comedy series MadTV made an alternate ending to the movie, in which Dorothy responds reactively rather than proactively to the fact that she could have returned to Kansas at any time. She yells and curses at Glinda, insults the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion, and ends trying to strangle Glinda, at which point the Tinman (who is gay in this version) clicks his heels, repeats "There's no place like home," and returns to a bed where he is shown to be having an intimate relationship with another tin man.[39]
A prequel to Wizard of Oz is scheduled to be released in 2013. The working title is "Oz: The Great and Powerful." It will be directed by Spider-Man's Sam Raimi and will likely star Robert Downey, Jr.[40]

[edit] Urban legends

An old urban legend claimed that, in the film, a Munchkin could be seen committing suicide (hanging by the neck from behind a prop tree and swinging back and forth) far away (left) in the background, while the Tin Man, Dorothy and the Scarecrow are singing We're Off to See the Wizard and skipping down the yellow brick road into the distance. The object in question is actually a bird borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo, most likely a crane or an emu, one of several birds placed on the indoor set to give it a more realistic feel.[41][42][43][44][45][46] Clearer views of this scene, including occasional large-screen theatrical re-issues of the film and hi-definition home video releases, have enabled debunking of this story.
Another popular urban legend claims that Miss Gulch swears during the scene early in the film where Toto is taken away, telling Aunt Em she'll "bring a damn suit that'll take your whole farm!"; the line in question is actually "...bring a damage suit."
A much smaller urban legends claims that when Dorothy first encounters the Munchkins, there is a Munchkin being hung, again swinging back and forth. This was easily proved to be an actor simply stepping left to right, dancing.
The pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd music album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the film produces moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other in a music video-like experience. This juxtaposition has been called Dark Side of the Rainbow.[47]

[edit] LGBT culture

The Wizard of Oz has been identified as being of great importance to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) fans. One reason for this is Judy Garland's starring role; Garland would go on to be a gay icon and later in her career acknowledged the gay fans of her rendition of "Over the Rainbow" from the film.[48]
Numerous analyses of the film and its impact on LGBT-identified persons have been made. Creekmur and Doty, in their introduction to Out in Culture, write that the film's gay resonance and interpretations depend on camp.[49] According to the Jungian writer Robert Hopcke, the dreary reality of Kansas implies the presence of homophobia and is contrasted with the colorful and accepting land of Oz.[48] When shown in gay venues, it is "transformed into a rite celebrating acceptance and community."[48]
Queer theorists highlight a feeling of kinship felt by LGBT people for the misfit heroes (and villains) of the film,[48] and attribute the feeling of identification to the hidden or double lives of the characters, drawing parallels to the problems faced by LGBT people in real life: "Its emotionally confused and oppressed teenage heroine longs for a world in which her inner desires can be expressed freely and fully. Dorothy finds this world in a technicolor land 'over the rainbow' inhabited by a sissy lion, an artificial man who cannot stop crying and a butch-femme couple of witches."[49]

[edit] Awards and honors

According to The Observer, the film has the greatest soundtrack of all time.[50] The film was nominated for several Academy Awards upon its release, including Best Picture and Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It lost the award in the Best Picture category to Gone with the Wind (another MGM release, though MGM did not actually film it), but won in the category of Best Song (Over The Rainbow) and Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. Although the Best Song award went to E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, the Best Original Score Award went to, not the songwriters, but Herbert Stothart, who composed the background score. Judy Garland received a special Academy Juvenile Award that year, for "Best Performances by a Juvenile" (this meant that the award was also for her role in the film version of Babes in Arms). The Wizard of Oz did not receive an Oscar for its now-famous special effects — that award went to the 1939 film version of The Rains Came (a now little-remembered film in comparison to The Wizard of Oz), for its monsoon sequence. Additional nominations were for Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning for Art Direction and to Hal Rosson for Cinematography (color).
In current reviews, The Wizard of Oz is still praised by critics. On the film's Rotten Tomatoes listing, 100% of critics give the film positive reviews, based on 70 reviews.[51]
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten American films in ten genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The Wizard of Oz was acknowledged as the best film in the fantasy genre.[52][53]
American Film Institute recognition
The film is among the top ten of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.[54]

[edit] Other noted honors

[edit] See also

Oz portal
Film portal

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Fricke, John (1989). The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0446514462. 
  2. ^ Fricke; Scarfone; and Stillman. The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History. Warner Books, 1989.
  3. ^ a b "Beloved movie's premiere was far from L.A. limelight". Wisconsin State Journal. 2009-08-12. 
  4. ^ Jahangir, Rumeana (March 17, 2009). "Secrets of the Wizard of Oz". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7933175.stm. Retrieved 18 March 2009. 
  5. ^ Rhodes, Jesse (January 2009). "There's No Place Like Home". Smithsonian 39 (10): p. 25. 
    This short article also speaks to the donation of a pair to the Smithsonian and to auctions of pairs.
  6. ^ a b c d e The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Making of a Movie Classic (1990). CBS Television, narrated by Angela Lansbury. Coproduced by John Fricke and Aljean Harmetz.
  7. ^ a b Aljean Harmetz (2004). The Making of The Wizard of Oz. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8352-9. See Chapter "Special Effets".
  8. ^ Clarke, Gerald (2001). Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. Delta. p. 94. ISBN 0385335156. 
  9. ^ Fricke, John; Jay Scarfone, William Stillman (1986). The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History. New York, NY: Warner Books, Inc.. p. 18. ISBN 0-446-51446-2. 
  10. ^ a b Warner Bros. "Wizard of Oz Timeline". Warnerbros.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070907233032/http://thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com/movie/cmp/timeline.html. Retrieved September 10, 2007. 
  11. ^ Fordin, Hugh (1976). World of Entertainment. City: Avon Books (Mm). ISBN 9780380007547. 
  12. ^ ""Hollywood Reporter, Oct. 20, 2005"". http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001433010. 
  13. ^ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Making of a Movie Classic. CBS Television, 1990, narrated by Angela Lansbury. Co-produced by John Fricke and Aljean Harmetz.
  14. ^ Fricke, John and Scarfone and William Stillman. The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History, Warner Books, 1989
  15. ^ newsfromme.com (2003). "Oz Stuff". povonline. http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2003_07_07.html. Retrieved September 10, 2007. 
  16. ^ Hearn, Michael Patrick. Keynote address. The International Wizard of Oz Club Centennial convention. Indiana University, August 2000.
  17. ^ "Hanging Munchkin". Snopes.com. http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicide.asp. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  18. ^ Jim's "Wizard of Oz" Website Directory. ""The Wizard of Oz"...A Movie Timeline". geocities.com. Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20071114114015/http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6396/timeline.htm. Retrieved September 10, 2007. 
  19. ^ "THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939, U.S.)". Kiddiematinee.com. 1956-11-03. http://www.kiddiematinee.com/w-woz.html. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  20. ^ video.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_en_mo/us_film_wizard_of_oz_anniversary
  21. ^ "The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary ... 11/17/2009". Ncm.com. 2009-11-17. http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/Premiere/WizardofOz_Encore.aspx. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  22. ^ The Wizard of Oz (1939) - TV schedule
  23. ^ "Ford Star Jubilee" The Wizard of Oz (1956)
  24. ^ Red Skelton - Other works
  25. ^ Richard Boone (I) - Other works
  26. ^ Dick Van Dyke - Other works
  27. ^ Danny Kaye - Other works
  28. ^ Julien WILK (2010-02-28). "LaserDisc Database — Search — wizard of oz". Lddb.com. http://www.lddb.com/search.php?search=wizard+of+oz&sort=title. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  29. ^ "Off To See The Wizards: HDD Gets An In Depth Look at the Restoration of 'The Wizard of Oz' (UPDATED — Before and After Pics!)". Highdefdigest.com. 2009-09-11. http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/MGM/Warner_Home_Video/Film_Restoration/Michael_S._Palmer/Off_To_See_The_Wizards:_HDD_Gets_An_In_Depth_Look_at_the_Restoration_of_The_Wizard_of_Oz_%28UPDATED_-_Before_and_After_Pics!%29/3397. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  30. ^ Brainerd (Minnesota, USA) Daily Dispatch, Dec. 9, 1960, accessed through newspaperarchive.com on March 12, 2009
  31. ^ "The Making of the Wizard of Oz: Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM (9780786883523): Aljean Harmetz: Books". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Making-Wizard-Oz-Movie-Studio/dp/0786883529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254585343&sr=1-1. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  32. ^ The Wizard Of Oz: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack — The Deluxe Edition, 2-CD set, original recording remastered, Rhino Records # 71964 (July 18, 1995)
  33. ^ "The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale". http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oz/. 
  34. ^ "UNESCO chooses The Wizard of Oz as USA's Memory of the World". UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=21437&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=202.html. Retrieved 2008-03-21. [dead link]
  35. ^ Bravotv.com. "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". Bravotv.com. http://www.bravotv.com/The_100_Scariest_Movie_Moments/index.shtml. Retrieved September jrngurgnjdtt hhrtr r hbhthrth10 2007. [dead link]
  36. ^ ISBN 0-7868-8352-9
  37. ^ ""Thoughts on 'The Wizard of Oz' at 70"". http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-10-30/movies/17186160_1_video-experience-movie. Retrieved 2010-02-25. 
  38. ^ ""Return To Oz" Still Haunts Me". www.nypost.com. http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/item_aslN3yqm2nuORskhudj2eL. Retrieved 2010-01-26. 
  39. ^ MadTV - Wizard of Oz (Alternate Ending) at YouTube
  40. ^ "Sacred Cow Watch: 'Wizard of Oz' Prequel May Actually Happen". www.newsweek.com. http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/pop-vox/2010/06/16/wizard-of-oz-prequel-directed-by-sam-raimi-not-a-joke.html. Retrieved 2010-06-18. 
  41. ^ Doolittle, Leslie (29 October 1996). "Really Most Sincerely, Still a Munchkin.". The Orlando Sentinel. 
  42. ^ "article: "Wizard of Oz" Munchkin Suicide: Hanging Munchkin". Snopes.com. http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicide.asp. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  43. ^ "The "Hanged Man"". http://members.cox.net/stegokitty/dsotr_pages/hanged_man.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
  44. ^ "What's the myth of the hanging Munchkin?". BBC News. August 9, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5242160.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
  45. ^ Fine, Marshall (26 April 1990). "Defusing the Rumor of 'Oz'.". Gannett News Service. 
  46. ^ Malcolm, Paul (20 December 1996). "L. Frank Baum's Silent Film Collection.". LA Weekly. p. 90. 
  47. ^ "DSOTR". http://members.cox.net/stegokitty/dsotr_pages/dsotr.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
  48. ^ a b c d Caonner & Sparks (1998), p. 349 Conner, Randy P.; Sparks, David Hatfield and Sparks, Mariya (1998). Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit. UK: Cassell. ISBN 0304704237. 
  49. ^ a b Green (1997), p. 404 Green, Thomas A. (1997). Folklore: an encyclopedia of beliefs, customs, tales, music and art. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780874369861. 
  50. ^ The Observer Music Monthly (March 18, 2007). "The 50 Greatest Film Soundtracks". London: Guardian Unlimited. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2032992,00.html. Retrieved September 10, 2007. 
  51. ^ "The Wizard of Oz garners full approval at Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1092277-wizard_of_oz/. Retrieved 2008-03-21. 
  52. ^ American Film Institute (2008-06-17). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46072. Retrieved 2008-06-18. 
  53. ^ "Top 10 Fantasy". American Film Institute. http://www.afi.com/10top10/fantasy.html. Retrieved 2008-06-18. 
  54. ^ "The 50 films you should see by the age of 14". Daily Mail. July 20, 2005. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-356395/The-50-films-age-14.html. Retrieved September 18, 2009. 
  55. ^ "100 Maverick Movies in 100 Years from Rolling Stone". Filmsite.org. http://www.filmsite.org/rstone.html. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  56. ^ "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time by Entertainment Weekly". Filmsite.org. http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  57. ^ "100 Best Films — Village Voice". Filmsite.org. 2000-01-04. http://www.filmsite.org/villvoice.html. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  58. ^ "Sight & Sound | Top Ten Poll 2002 - The rest of the dirctors' list". BFI. 2006-09-05. http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/directors-long.html. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  59. ^ Total Film (2005-10-24). "Film news Who is the greatest?". TotalFilm.com. http://www.totalfilm.com/movie_news/who_is_the_greatest. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 
  60. ^ "Total Film's 23 Weirdest Films of All Time on Lists of Bests". Listsofbests.com. 2007-04-06. http://www.listsofbests.com/list/30267. Retrieved 2010-03-06. 

[edit] External links

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Posted by Link at 11:35 AM

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