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7-18-2002 - 13:03
Off to see the Wizard We're off to see the Wizard tonight.
That is we are going to see an outdoor musical production of 'The Wizard of OZ' tonight. Starlight Theater, which is the local theater-in-the-park, puts on TWOZ about every 5 years and I think I have seen them all. Last time I saw it, the apple tree did a rap number. Another time Phyllis Diller played the witch and she was stumbling drunk. I swear I don't make this stuff up. Maria has never been so she is already up and wanting to get dressed. She has ruby slippers, of course. C'mon, who's her Daddy? We're going to pack a picnic and eat in the park before the show. Pray that the temperature drops below 90 by showtime. Meanwhile, here's some fun OZ trivia from yesterday's KC Star that I didn't know: The song Over the Rainbow almost didn't make it into the movie; studio execs thought it slowed things down. Another concern: whether an MGM star should be performing a ballad in a barnyard . The longest casting search was for Toto. Her (yes, her) real name: Terry. Terry, I don't think we're in Kansas Anymore? Nah Of the nine principal actors, Judy Garland was paid the least: $500 a week. Ray Bolger (Scarecrow) and Jack Haley (Tin Man) earned top pay: $3,000 a week.The Emerald City has a glass ceiling, apparently Frank Morgan played five roles in the movie: Professor Marvel, the Emerald City doorman and carriage driver, the Wizard's guard and the Wizard himself. When filming started, Dorothy had long blond curls and a nose reshaped with putty. Then-director George Cukor didn't like either. "The Wizard of Oz" has been a staple in theaters for 100 years now. A musical-comedy version was first staged in 1902 in Chicago. 37 years before the MGM musical Blooper alert: In the apple tree scene, eagle-eyed viewers will notice that, for a split second, Dorothy is wearing her black (Kansas) shoes instead of her ruby slippers. Adriana Caselotti, who voiced Snow White in Disney's 1937 animated classic, is the offstage soprano heard singing, "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" in the Tin Man's "If I Only Had a Heart" number. Also during that song, the "smoke" that shoots out of the Tin Man's hat was compressed air and talcum powder. Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion suit was made from real lion skins. YIKES, where was PETA? Buddy Ebsen (later Jed Clampett and Barnaby Jones) was the original Tin Man, but a severe allergic reaction to aluminum dust in his makeup put him in the hospital. He was replaced by Jack Haley. In the first theatrical version, which became a smash on Broadway, Dorothy's pet was not Toto but a cow named Imogene. Are we sure they don't mean Fruity Pebbles? The movie's shooting script described Dorothy as being 12. Judy Garland was 16. Wicked Witch Margaret Hamilton was a former kindergarten teacher. Judy Garland had to wear a special corset so she'd appear less busty. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) is said to sync up nicely with the film, although band members deny they created their album as an alternative "Wizard of Oz" soundtrack. (Wanna try it? Start the album after the third roar of the MGM lion.) I've done, it's amazing1 Does the story present Kansas in an unflattering light? Some Kansans think so. "What awaits visitors to Kansas is the real thing...certainly not the Hollywood Kansas of `The Wizard of Oz,'" groused then Sen. Bob Dole in 1991. C'mon Bob, Oz put Kansas on the map. Neither you or the Jayhawks could win the Big One and make Kansas famous "Friend of Dorothy," referring to a gay man, could have something to do with Judy Garland being a gay icon. But that's only one theory about the expression's origin. True, gay men love us some Miss Judy, but notice how there are no gay bars named after 'Meet Me in St Louis' The film ended up costing $2.77 million. That's about the same amount Starlight and three other regional theaters spent to mount their current tour of "Oz." Dorothy, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry lived near Topeka -- at least according to L. Frank Baum's 1902 musical stage version of his story. Topeka? No Way, you can visit Dorothy's house in Liberal, Kansas. I've done it Margaret Hamilton, the movie's Wicked Witch, also played the pointy-hatted one at Starlight, in 1975. The production contained "smidgens of bathroom humor" that Hamilton didn't appreciate. In the L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's adventure is not presented as a dream. Oz instead is a real place. Of course it is! Also a bar in NOLA A 1925 silent-film version of the fairy tale featured Oliver Hardy (before he teamed with Stan Laurel) as the Tin Woodman. "I think it was a very good picture," Garland said a few years before her death (in 1969), "but I don't think I was good. I think I was boring." This is your brain on drugs, Judy. You were great Box-office champ Shirley Temple, then 10, was considered a shoo-in to play Dorothy. Two problems: Her studio wouldn't lend her out, and MGM wasn't convinced she had the pipes for the role. Funnyman W.C. Fields was an early choice for the role of the Wizard. No, witchy-woman Miss Gulch doesn't curse at Aunt Em, although it sure sounds like it. What she actually says is: "If you don't hand over that dog, I'll bring a damage suit that'll take your whole farm." Margaret Hamilton was also known in her later years as Cora, pitchwoman for Maxwell House coffee. Actress Gale Sondergaard was initially cast as the Wicked Witch. She was to be a glam, slinky sorceress, but execs decided moviegoers wouldn't accept it, and Sondergaard wasn't willing to ugly herself up. Michael Jackson, friend of Dorothy? Uh, yeah. He played the Scarecrow in the 1978 film "The Wiz," based on the hit Broadway show. Diana Ross was Dorothy in the flick. Ewww, Michael Jackson as a FOD...gag Several white horses played the "horse of a different color" in the movie. Each was tinted with a different variety of Jell-O, which the animals kept licking off. Again, where was PETA Legend has it that L. Frank Baum came up with the name Oz after noticing the letters on two file-cabinet drawers: A-N and O-Z. But it may not be true. An on-set accident put Margaret Hamilton out of commission for six weeks. Her hat and broom ignited as the witch was exiting Munchkinland in a puff of smoke and fire. The actress's face and right hand were badly burned. "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind," both released in 1939, were both directed by Victor Fleming, although filming of "Oz" started and ended with other directors at the helm. There's no mention of a rainbow in L. Frank Baum's first Oz book, published in 1900. And in the book, Dorothy's magical shoes are silver, not ruby. Red looked better in Technicolor. The bees in the breeze and the bats in the trees couldn't save "The Jitterbug." The number took five weeks to film but was chopped because the movie was too long. The footage was apparently destroyed. In 1962 Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli, then 16, voiced Dorothy in "Journey Back to Oz," an animated feature. Not released till the '70s, it flopped. The 124 "little people" in the film ranged in size from 2 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 8. Contrary to lore, most were well-behaved. The band Toto (big hit: "Rosanna") took its name from Dorothy's pooch. Judy Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli was once married to Tin Man Jack Haley's son, Jack Haley Jr. "The Wizard of Oz" is probably the most-quoted film in Hollywood history. I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!
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