It's the 75th ANNIVERSARY for the M-G-M classic THE WIZARD OF OZ

I watching it, as a child, on a black and white tv. It wasn't until years later, when I was an adult in my thirties, that I saw it again and was pleasantly surprised by the color.

It is truly a magical film- just goes to show you that great movies with great stars (great talent) last.

I have never liked this movie ... except for the flying monkeys.

Kids today will never understand how special it was to be only able to see a movie one time a year. It truly was a big event.

It's a pretty creepy and druggie movie.

I first saw it when I was in Kindergarten. I loved it. It's become sort of a tradition in our family, to watch it whenever it is on.

TNT and TBS play it a few times a year. Usually around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

R1, please give us a spoiler alert when you drop a bomb like that on us.

Which color, R1?

Think I've told this before. When I was three, our family was watching The Wizard of Oz on our old black-and-white TV. I think it must have been a big deal to my parents, since normally we kids were only allowed an hour of TV a day.

When it got to the part where the Wicked Witch of the West is holding Dorothy captive in her castle and produces the hourglass, I started to bawl. Everything that was happening in that box was real as real to me, and I was scared out of my little three-year-old mind.

After a while of this, my mother finally snapped something along the lines of "Oh, for heaven's sake, stop crying, it's just a show, none of it's real."

That instant was an absolute revelation to me, one that I remember vividly to this day. In one blinding flash, I understood that some things were not real, and that Oz and Dorothy and everything I'd ever seen in that big black box was just a pretend world--and I howled inconsolably for the rest of the evening.

[quote] I howled inconsolably for the rest of the evening.

Good golly, oh my, oh dear, and MARY!

Danny Kaye

I've told this story before too. I was 6 when this was broadcast for the first time on CBS. It was around my birthday and Thankgiving. I was sitting in our den watching this on our black and white Zenith TV. My mom walks through the room, looks at the screen and says "well this was done before Judy Garland got fat and started slitting her wrists." That remark took me out of the fantasy. But I continued to watch this every year, went through several home video formats (tape,DVD, Blu ray). LOVE this movie. I even saw it last fall when it came out in 3D. It still holds up.

August. I wonder if that's when this promotional tour was filmed? They look sweltering.

Do you think Mickey and Judy ever fucked?

I've never been able to stand the schmaltzy "There's no place like home" bullshit. The whole movie for me is Margaret Hamilton being so hilariously mean.

I used to watch every year just for the part where Glinda says, "Begone! Before somebody drops a house on you!" and Margaret Hamilton jerks her face up to the skies in fear as the music makes a "sting." That's still my very favorite part of the movie.

R13,I believe that first part of the video with all the screaming fans and the one with mayor Fiorello LaGuardia were shot during the promotional tour for OZ. Mickey and Judy performed between showings of WIZARD at the Capitol Theatre in Times Square.

Doncha think Judy seems a wee bit jittery and full of 'pep?'

I probably didn't get to see it every year (no VCRs back then) but I must have fallen asleep or been sent to bed before the ending because I was in middle school before I realized the whole thing was a dream. (Or was it?)

I was fortunate to discover THE WIZARD OF OZ on its 50th anniversary. I was 9 in 1989 and had a hard time making friends because of my asperger's. But in 3rd grade I had made a friend and I went to his house on the last day of school (Friday, June 16). He asked what movies I wanted to watch, but I was only interested in SUPERMAN. I was on a Superman kick and had seen all four movies repeatedly. One of the main reasons was because I loved staring at Christopher Reeve's bulge and ass in those tights, but the flying also captivated me.

But my friend said no because we had seen them together before, and I had a fit. I demanded to be taken back home. Finally, his mother convinced me to watch THE WIZARD OF OZ. She talked me into it by telling me it was full of music and fairies and magical shoes. I relented and completely found myself absorbed into it.

From then on, THE WIZARD OF OZ replaced SUPERMAN in my eyes. I couldn't get enough of it. Coincidentally, that summer there was WIZARD OF OZ stuff everywhere -- shirts, costumes, action figures, Barbies, boardgames, Dixie cups. OF course, I wanted it all. I thought it was all for me!

[quote] I probably didn't get to see it every year (no VCRs back then) but I must have fallen asleep or been sent to bed before the ending because I was in middle school before I realized the whole thing was a dream. (Or was it?)

It had better be a dream or else the logic is full of holes!

R18, what holes?

They cut out the part where Uncle Henry was in the shower.

[quote]I was 9 in 1989 and had a hard time making friends because of my asperger's.

Mmmmmm...... ass burgers!

[quote]When it got to the part where the Wicked Witch of the West is holding Dorothy captive in her castle and produces the hourglass, I started to bawl.

Funny, when I was a kid I didn't understand why just didn't turn the hourglass around before it ran out.

The Wizard of Oz is movies, it's art, it's life.

You can't say too much about The Wizard of Oz, it's perfect. From the classic script, bursting with vaudeville humor ("That's you all over") and sentiment ("I think I'm going to miss you most of all") to Judy Garland's seminal performance as Dorothy and every one of her supporting players, to the superb Arlen/Harburg score, this movie will never die.

With five directors, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, King Vidor, Victor Fleming and Norman Taurog, who directed Boys Town and Presenting Lily Mars, and a dozen or more writers - there is no reason this movie should have been so wonderful. It should be a confusing muddle. Yet there it is.

Little girl actresses love this movie and tough guy directors love it.

I don't care if it makes me the mary-est mary of marys but I adore this movie and watch it every time it comes on TV. I love everything about it.

Did anyone go to the 3D IMAX presentation?

The IMAX 3-D version is breathtakingly well done, aside from a fairly minor sound synch issue. I assume they'll re-release that version this year for the anniversary, and I hope they fix the synch, because other than that, it's astonishing and perfect.

I read the re-release didn't make much money.

I did, R25. I loved it.

If they had only paid more attention to the continuity withy the lengths of Judy's wigs.

And kept "the Jitterbug"

Other than that, yes a perfect movie with an unforgettable performance from a fresh faced, alert and all together charming Garland

I will say it for you....DOUBLE MARY'S!!

Me too R25. It was wonderful

I saw the 3D premiere at Grauman's last year and didn't notice any of the sound problems that others have mentioned. I hope they do bring it back again this year. I felt like I was watching it for the very first time.

It actually did very well business in 3D. But I read lots of people were pissed that it didn't get to a theater near them.

No sound problems when I saw it at the AMC IMAX

I had to drive 30 miles to see the 3-D version, but it was worth it - really exceptionally well done.

Well if anybody wants to drive to Coronado it's showing August 7 to close out their film festival.

The 3-D version was excellent. I didn't notice any sound glitches when I saw it at a local theater last year.

There is a 3-D HD DVD of it that was also released last year.

I have the 3D version, it's nice.

I disagree about the Jitterbug number, it would have dated the movie and stalled it out when they needed the momentum to get to the castle.

A LOT happens in just 112 minutes.

I saw it in '71 because its showing coincided with my 5 week hospital stay.

It was the highlight of my stay.

R36 No doubt it's the truth. Would be awesome if the original filmed footage had survived just to see it as supplemental material. Because of this cut and several other musical cuts it left the last half of the film without musical numbers. But I'm not complaining. It is "The Wizard of Oz."

I could see where old people might like it, but now-a-days with good special effects and awesome CGI, it's just way too fake looking to be enjoyable.

I mean the scene after Dorothy wakes up when the Good Witch makes it snow on the poppies, you see a cardboard cut out of the Emerald City.

OK that may have been acceptable in 1939 (I mean Depression Era audiences were one weep from a suicide anyway) but it just is awful.

I like the story of Garland and Rooney being driven to their performing engagement at the 5,000 seat Capitol Theater where the film was having its' NY opening engagement.

When Garland saw the thousands of people who had lined up all morning to see the show she had no idea what was going on and asked "What's up?" and Rooney replied, "We are!"

Also I understand that the boxoffice take was a lot less than expected simply because people kept staying to see the show again so that there wasn't a big turnover.

At least it's more advanced than it's predecessor.

I wish we could see the Thorpe footage of the original shoot before some of the cast was replaced.

Buddy Ebsen was Scarecrow, Gale Sondergaard was The Wicked Witch and Helen Lawson was Dorothy.

The cut scene off Judy's sobby, soggy reprise of "Over The Rainbow" while she is imprisoned in the Wiches' castle is squirm-inducingly awful with a sledgehammer sentimentality that is nowhere else in the film.

The big loss was not the "Jitterbug"...it was the triumphant return to the Emerald City after killing the Wicked Witch of the West with a reprise of "Ding, Dong The Witch is Dead". It would have been a perfect 'bookend' to the scene in Munchkinland.

The cut from the Witch's castle to the long hall to Oz's throne room is too abrupt.

Where did Billie Burke get that accent? Wiki said she was born in Washington, DC and her dad was a circus clown- certainly not upper class or British.

"Thay-ah you ah..."

Billie Burke was a stage actress, R45. She spoke in the Mid-Atlantic (meaning halfway between American and British) accent that American stage actors used in those days.

R40 Not cardboard cut out there. But they did use glass matte paintings. I think the special effects in "Oz" are tremendous and most hold up quite well. You can still sit most children down in front of that movie and they will be transfixed for 101 mins.

But you're not alone R40 and I've heard others grumble the same things. I guess that's why they made "Oz: The Great and Powerful" for folks like you.

R44 The reprise of "Over the Rainbow" was said to have been cut because children found it too disturbing. I thought Judy did a terrific job on that and they said there wasn't a dry eye in the house the day they filmed that scene.

I agree about the Renovation sequence being the big loss. You can feel that something was cut at the point the Winkie guards are yelling "Hail to Dorothy...."

It's like when I kept hearing how great, "Rear Window" was.

Oh for Allah's sake, it was horrible.

First of all it looked like a cheap Broadway play, the way the sets and staging was.

And second of all she's Grace FUCKIN' Kelly. I never saw her before, she's fuckin' BEAUTIFUL. Was there ever a prettier face?

And she's supposedly in love with ugly as fuck Jimmy Stewart? And he treats her, with indifference and she still comes back for more.

She's Grace FUCKIN' Kelly, she would have men climbing all over her. And not just old fuck every single man.

I forgot all about Grace Kelly, she was pretty wasn't she. Can you imagine how Martha Hamilton from the Wizard of Oz would've had her lez self all over her.

That's the reason they dumped her off an episode of The Facks of Life, because she kept doing "inappropriate" things.

When did CBS stop doing the once a year airings? I remember watching an airing in the early 90s when I was 5 or 6. Does anyone else remember one of the big four networks doing Thanksgiving airings of E.T. for several years?

yeah but in real life it happens all the time. Don't you know any couples where the woman is drop dead gorgeous and her man is butt ugly or the man is the beauty and the woman is not attractive.

James Stewart wasn't handsome but he had a sweet, charming personality and sometimes those things can make someone not so attractive seem beautiful.

Regarding the special effects, I think the tornado sequence holds up quite well. If you've seen actual footage of tornadoes, they got the look and sound just right.

I thought James Stewart was very cute in a next door boy kind of way. He certainly had that "aw shucks" quality, which is endearing.

I remember I was probably 7 years old and it was on the front of the TV guide. This was the early '70s when it was still a big annual network tv event. I was so excited all week long, couldn't wait to see it again, as I think I'd only seen it just once before.

The hour arrived, I was so excited...and my dickhead, alcoholic father comes in just as it starts and says he's watching 60 Minutes. He did it just to terrorise me. I immediately started crying hysterically and in no time he sent me to my room where I cried and cried. I remember the sun was still out and I hated that, being sent to bed when it was still daylight. After about 10 minutes I could hear through the vents that the rest of the family was now watching The Wizard of Oz. But no one came to get me. I exhausted myself crying and felt such pain. It was unnecessarily cruel and left me with a terrible sense of abandonment and loneliness. This scenario was repeated throughout my childhood and teen years whereby my father would abuse me (yes, later physically), I would be sent to my room and no one in the rest of my family ever did anything to stop it or rescue me in any way. I was very much kept on the outside of the family.

I live in the UK now and the BBC usually shows it on Boxing Day. But in the last few years I've taken to watching it again at Easter time, as it was in my youth. I don't always get around to watching it every year but when I do it is with a great sense of enjoyment and satisfaction. I've been estranged from my birth parents for 10 years now, after years of continued abuse of a Catholic, conservative homophobic sort.

R51 here is a listing of TV broadcasts for THE WIZARD OF OZ

A few weekends ago I watched the original version of A Star Is Born with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March and Auntie Em is in it at the beginning playing Janet Gaynor's aunt and talking her down the same way she did Dorothy! It's the exact same performance! What a one note actress she was.

R57, maybe that's why she killed herself.

"I guess that's why they made "Oz: The Great and Powerful" for folks like you."

Too bad they forgot to write a script for that dreck.

[quote]I forgot all about Grace Kelly, she was pretty wasn't she. Can you imagine how Martha Hamilton from the Wizard of Oz would've had her lez self all over her.

That's the reason they dumped her off an episode of The Facks of Life, because she kept doing "inappropriate" things.

Oh, dear.

Bump for Judy!

r55, that is so sad. I was sent to my room once before Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer came on and I can still recall how much that hurt me. I have no idea what I did to warrant the punishment, but I remember being brokenhearted and crushingly disappointed.

[quote]Don't you know any couples where the woman is drop dead gorgeous and her man is butt ugly

We are not talking about any woman, this is Grace Kelly, have you seen a picture of her? She's is AB-SO-LUTE-LY B-A-OOOO-Ta-FULL.

She isn't a pretty with ugly guy thing. She is a fucking beautiful woman. No way in hell would Grace Kelly go after Jimmy Stewart.

OK so she was beautiful, no one is going to disagree on that point.

Someone needs to start a thread on Grace Kelly for this guy.

Oh, god, no.

R63, and yet she went for Ranier. who was ugly as sin.

R66 I don't think he was ugly as sin. I've seen uglier. He had nice eyes!

Didn't Grace Kelly have affairs with the likes of Bing Crosby etc. He wasn't a handsome man.

R67, but James Stewart was 10x better looking than Rainier, so it's not unbelievable that Grace Kelly would be married to him.

August 15, 1939 THE WIZARD OF OZ opened today at the Capitol Theatre NYC. Judy and Mickey Rooney were on stage for a week of personal appearances.

[quote]Martha Hamilton from the Wizard of Oz ..

Oh, brother.

I plan on OD'ing on the john tonight to celebrate.

Did someone say poppy fields?

I think I read Totie Fields, R72

R38 Really? The hospital chicken kiev was that good?

Reminds me of the time I was browsing my mother's cookbooks. I came across one that had a recipe for meatloaf, with the tagline "Almost as good as school cafeteria's." Almost as good? heh

R74, there was a time before the industrial food complex that school cafeteria food was good food cooked by local grandmothers.

R72 how could Judy look in the mirror and not be overcome with grief at her reflection?

I liked at the end when Dorothy is saying goodbye to all her new friends and says "Scarecrow, I liked you the best, the other ones sucked"

R77 haha I think she said "most of all" since she'd known him the longest.

I have always wondered what happened to Miss Gulch after the storm. Did a house fall on her, too?

[quote]I have always wondered what happened to Miss Gulch after the storm.

She and her life partner Miss Finster opened a bed and breakfast.

I'm watching it now and have more questions than answers:

Where did the red brick road go? Were there wicked witches of the north and south too? How did Dorothy and The Scarecrow know which way to go at the crossroads? Was the tin man gay? Was the guy playing him Boy George's grandfather? Did the actors from West Side Story use The Lion as inspiration for how they talked? Is the gay obsession with this movie leaving the small black & white hometowns from which you were ostracized from to the colorful big cities which accepted you?