August 17
WIZARD OF OZ DAY
“Follow the Yellow Brick Road ... There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home ... Oh, Auntie Em, Auntie Em ... and Toto, too!”
Theatre goers first saw the magical The Wizard of Oz in a gala premiere on this night in 1939. The first movie to use the combination of black and white and color film starred Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale; Bert Lahr as both the Cowardly Lion and Zeke; Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow and Hunk; and Jack Haley as both the Tin Woodsman and Hickory. Originally, Buddy Ebsen was in the role of the Tin Man; but he became ill and had to leave the production before its completion.
The movie was based on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which he wrote in 1900 and adapted into a musical play. Directed by Victor Fleming, the Hollywood version took an Oscar for best movie score (Harold Arlen and E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg), and for best song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. With its superb acting, special effects, singing midgets and wonderful songs like Ding Dong the Witch is Dead (the wicked witch was delightfully played by Margaret Hamilton while Billie Burke was equally charming as the good witch); Munchkinland, and Follow the Yellow Brick Road, The Wizard of Oz would probably have won the Best Picture Oscar. As fate would have it, there was another show-stopper filmed that year, Gone with the Wind, and only one film could win.
The Wizard of Oz turned into such a triumph that television later clamored to get the rights to show it. William. S. Paley of CBS made sure his network (which also gave Garland the spotlight with her own show in the 1960s) was the one to bring The Wizard of Oz to new generations of viewers. The movie, now released on video, is still shown on TV and remains a popular favorite of young and old alike.
“Oh, we’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. We hear he is a wiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was...”
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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