I think it's time we revisit "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) & every Oz movie that followed

Judy is a Goddess in this

I'm no Judy queen, but she IS the reason that the original "WoO" works. Her acting is open and vulnerable, the fact that she reacts to the weirdness of the fantasy world as if it were really there makes it seem real to the viewer, and her vulnerability makes the viewer care about what happens to her when she's there.

It's a trick Diana Ross tried and failed to duplicate in "The Wiz". Ross comes across as a whiner and a buzzkill rather than believable and vulnerable, she takes the fun out of everything.

I watched the"Jitterbug" sequence of clips on YouTube. That would have been a kick-ass scene with great music. Wonder why they axed it?

Ponder this....

R3, the jitterbug scene actually makes no sense to the plot. It’s on the original soundtrack however

The 'Jitterbug' sequence was restored in the licensed stage version. But even then it still doesn't make sense.

The visuals in Oz The Great and Powerful were gorgeous. It’s a movie that needs to be seen in theaters. Very beautiful to look at.

I'm surprised they haven't done a real television adaptation of the Wizard of Oz and the following books (although they get pretty nutty, irrc, because L. Frank Baum wrote a ton of the sequels to get out of debt). The character of Princess Ozma/Tip is also very modern/pro-trans!!!

I remember watching reruns of a Japanese anime adaptation of The Wizard of Oz on Canadian television as a kid, but no one else seems to recall watching it.

R2 No, bitch. Diane failed because she couldn't match MY star power in The Wiz.

Yes, R7, "OtGaT" looked great, but the performances were terrible and/or grating. Instead of liking Dorothy in the 1939 movie, empathizng with her, and rooting for her during her strange journey, one wants to smother everyone in "OtGaT" with a pillow. Or hit them with a brick.

Well, maybe excepting Rachel Weisz, but Franco has never been more irritating and that's saying a lot.

R10 I liked Rachel Weisz a lot. She really milked it and it worked, as opposed to Mila who gave a more grounded performance

The 1939 OZ (there were a few silent versions before it) is the product of a Hollywood Studio system at perhaps the peak of its collective creative power - the same year also produced GWTW. Judy is great, but almost everything else about the film is great too - the other performers, the script & songs, the art direction and special effects - it is all just simply outstanding creative work. The jitterbug sequence was cut because they felt such a timely cultural reference would quickly date the film, and that was the right decision. The Wiz is a big mess, Ross it too old and the film constantly gets bogged down under it’s own weight - it shows how much work it actually takes to make a huge movie feel effortless to the audience - which the 39 version does from start to finish.

I believe the jitterbug was just the dance of the times and that's why it was stuck into the movie.

Return to Oz should be in the Criterion Collection

They were right to cut the jitterbug number, as it makes a joke of a threat. One of the reason the 1939 movie works is because in the last act the WwotW is very much a real threat - the Scarecrow is ripped up and Dorothy is sobbing from terror. It's unreal, yet the feeling of menace is quite real. The jitterbug number would have ramped down the threat level.

The studio desperately wanted Shirley Temple to play Dorothy. She was the top box office star at the time, but I think she would have been terrible in TWOZ. Judy brings such humanity to the role. I still go back and forth as to who would be a better Tin Man: Jack Haley or Buddy Ebsen.

Shirley would have been miscast. Nothing but cute from her.

Glenda the Good Witch should have told Dorothy from the beginning, after she got her ruby slippers, that she just had to click them together to get back home to Kansas. But she kept that secret from her until the end. Whatta cunt!

[quote]But she kept that secret from her until the end.

Dorothy + "No place like home." = Moral of film.

Bless your obviously retarded, new heart Tin Millennial.

1984 Wiz revival....

WICKED is coming Christmas 2021.

This sounds like DL...

Am I the only one who looks at Judy in TWOO, and thinks "THAT'S a 17-year-old???!"?

I hate to be that queen, BUT Judy would have been 16 during filming, not 17.

She looked older because of how she was styled.

Michelle Williams was so wrong for the part of Glinda. They wanted Blake Lively but she turned it down. That would have been more interesting, as she was younger and more youthful in how she carries herself.

[R18] You will get a kick out this "alternate ending" from the MadTV series. Hilarious!

"The Wizard of Oz" is better every time I see it. It is sublime entertainment!

Currently my favorite part is the sepia-toned Professor Marvel scene. Judy Garland and Frank Morgan are incredibly good in it.

The Wiizard of Oz is such a timeless film. I always forget it was made in 1939. It has such a modern feel to it - or a timeless feel. The mix of black and white and colour seems so seamless. Judy is amazing, and the rest of the cast is fantastic. Margaret Hamilton was perfectly cast. r15 makes a good point - the Wicked Witch really was menacing. Hamilton still scares me in this.

I am a big fan of Return to Oz. Fairuza Balk was a great choice, and her Dorothy is different from Judy's but Balk, like Judy, is able to be likable and vulnerable. Jean Marsh, like Hamilton, made for a great villainess. There are some great set pieces in the film - the mental institution, the Wheelers, and the room of Mombi's heads. It's a dark film but it works.

The flying monkeys, the tornado... today's special might be more realistic but they wouldn't be an improvement.

* today's special effects

I keep forgetting how many times I've bought this movie.

1989: 50th Anniversary VHS

1996: Large-size box set with a book and another VHS copy.

2000: Single-disc DVD.

2005: Three-disc DVD

2016: Single-disc blu-ray.

Now it's available in 4K remastered blu-ray. Think I'll hold off a little while for this.

R32 I just bought the 4K one today after seeing this thread. I love this film. It is top notch. Bought Oz The Great and Powerful too.

The No Place Like Home theme seems pretty wrong-headed in this movie. Why would you want to be on that dreary farm where Ms Gulch remains a threat to her and Toto, and her Aunt and Uncle seem to not have time for you?

Because, while things aren’t great r34, they could be a worse.

Bitch at R35, please!

Dorothy had a choice between staying in Oz as the confidante of the new ruler of the Emerald city, with all the delights life at a monarch's court can offer, or she can go back to Kansas where her only friend is a dog, and he's about to be taken away. What sane person would choose Kansas.

Know that there was shock that Diana Ross had been cast as Dorothy in The Wiz from the moment they announced it. I saw the movie shortly after the opening in a Times Square theater of screaming fans in 1978. I'd seen the Broadway show with Stephanie Mills (who was perfection) and was very disappointed for her. The musical numbers were good and the creative ways they used NYC were well done, but, Ross or not, the movie of The Wiz just doesn't click. It was a lead balloon and still looks that way today.

PS: I LOVED The flying monkeys as a kid in the original

That's the whole point, there is NO PLACE LIKE HOME. No matter where you go, or how much better things seems, there is NO PLACE LIKE HOME..

But you trolls knew that.

See also: Home is where the heart is

[quote] Why would you want to be on that dreary farm where Ms Gulch remains a threat to her and Toto, and her Aunt and Uncle seem to not have time for you?

Anything to get away from those fucking Munchkins.

I love Diana Ross but she was AWFUL as Dorothy. A whiny, mopey, humourless bitch throughout the entire film, with that hideous, aging hair.

They should have cast Mills, although I don't know if her acting would have translated well to screen from Broadway. But I'm sure she would have been better than Ross. And Sidney Lumet was ill-suited to direct.

LOVE The Wiz. 1970s NYC, disco, modern urban version. One of my favorite movies.

[quote]"Return to Oz" (1985) was another one I found creepy, but more appropriate in its casting and a lot closer to the source material than The Wizard of Oz, but still not as good. The changes made in the 1939 film worked better and made for a better movie, and hit. Fairuza Balk was very cute, though.

Told this story here before but true. I was working in a big beautiful movie theater. We played "Return to Oz" in then state of the art 70MM and full stereo sound. First matinee, first show full of kids. The closet of heads comes on and as the head screams "Dorothy Gale!", it was in booming surround sound. All of a sudden kids jump up and run up the aisle and out of the auditorium. It was before stadium seating so they had a straight course right up and out. One kid made it all the way out to the outer lobby and I grabbed him before he actually left the theater. Of course parents were running up trying to catch them. These kids about five and sixish were terrified (and fast!). We had to warn parents at the box office and they kinda laughed and brushed it off, but it was a PG not G, but we were prepared for it and it definitely happened through out the run.

I know Radio City Music Hall played it as their big summer show, now that would have been a nightmare in that giant theater.

The Mombi heads scene is just so fucking brilliant.

Return to Oz is an under appreciated masterpiece

Remember Roseanne?

Although I bet the flying monkeys scared the crap at out kids in 1939 too.

The angry apple trees freaked me out more than the flying monkeys.

[quote]Although I bet the flying monkeys scared the crap at out kids in 1939 too.

Imagine: kids were seeing it on a huge screen with booming sound and in color which was still rare. It must have been quite an experience 80 years ago.

R48 for adults also

This is my absolute favorite movie of all-time, but this floating head thing scared me as a little guy...

The visuals were amazing for the time. Wow. Still look great now.

The angry apple trees? The flying monkeys? You guys as wusses.

Old family story / my aunt was so terrified of the Wicked Witch my grandmother had to take her home halfway through the movie. I’m sure that happened quite a bit during the theatrical releases.

As we’re discussing all things Wizard of Oz, what’s the DL consensus on Geoff Ryman’s ‘Was’? I’ve always meant to read it, but have never got round to doing so.

Have always loved the film, but I confess the last time I saw the film the last quarter was something of a slog - there is no music. I don't think "The Jitterbug" was a big loss (thank god the soundtrack recording survives) , but the "Triumphant Return and Entry to Oz" with the broomstick, where all the city rejoices in a chorus of "Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead" served as a glittery catharsis and a neat bookend to the song in Munchkinland. The soundtrack and stills exists and it wasn't a long number. There is an abrupt cut between the scene where Dorothy receives the broom, to the slow hall walk to the Wizard's Throne Room. You can tell something is missing.

[quote] The soundtrack and stills exists and it wasn't a long number. There is an abrupt cut between the scene where Dorothy receives the broom, to the slow hall walk to the Wizard's Throne Room. You can tell something is missing.

If something was missing it wasn’t The Jitterbug scene because that would have come right after the Wicked Witch of the West released the Flying Monkeys.

If any of you have not yet read “The Wizard of Oz: The Screenplay,” you should. It reproduces the whole screenplay and also reveals the plot twists and turns — and there were a lot of them — that didn’t make it into the movie.

The "Ding-Dong The Witch Is Dead" follows the melting of the witch and Dorothy receiving the broom. I was pleased to see this on another OZ web page:

Anyway, those are a couple of the moments I miss from THE WIZARD OF OZ. There are, of course, others. But if I could have just one segment to reinstate – all of sixty seconds long – there’s no question: It would be the musical number colloquially described as the “triumphal return” (or as it’s officially titled on the music cue sheets, “Ding-Dong! Emerald City” [reprise]). This routine began in the tower of the Wicked Witch of the West; she’s been melted, Dorothy & Co. have commandeered her broomstick, and the Winkie Guards chanted one last time, “The Wicked Witch is Dead!” In the film as it premiered, the scene quickly dissolved to the Head of the Great Oz, asking, “Can I believe my eyes? Why have you come back?” But watch the mouths of the Winkie Guards as the picture segues from castle to throne room. Their lips are moving; they continue to say SOMEthing (even though it’s not on the soundtrack), but what they’re actually doing is beginning to sing, “Hail! Hail! the Witch is Dead….” Their rendition continued for eight bars of music, at which point there was a screen dissolve to a joyous parade of some three hundred green-clad Emerald City extras, who not only sustained the song but escorted the Fab Four through the streets to their second audience with the Wizard. This was a sequence of spectacle and full production-number value, with a strutting band, marching soldiers, singing and swaying townspeople, girls bedecked with garlands of flowers, rapt onlookers…and our friend, the Scarecrow, proudly brandishing the broomstick of the Witch of the West. All of this was cut and (to date) lost -- apart from a brief glimpse of footage in the OZ trailer, a handful of black-and-white production stills, a color Kodachrome accompanying the OZ feature in LIFE Magazine (July 17, 1939), some random Technicolor test frames, and a couple of different vocal arrangements from the soundtrack.

[Side consideration to mull: With the loss of the “triumphal return” in the Emerald City, “The Jitterbug” in the Haunted Forest, and Judy’s reprise of “Over the Rainbow” while locked in the Witch’s tower room, THE WIZARD OF OZ became a musical that lacked any musical numbers after “If I Were King of the Forest.” Lahr’s tour de force was followed by thirty-four minutes of strict dramedy.]

Thank you for the longer explanation, R57.

In the later books, Baum surrendered to the appeal of Oz and had Dorothy and her uncle and aunt move there permanently. I mean, who wouldn't?

Did they move to a good area?

Damn, I'm glad I didn't see Return to Oz as a kid. Nightmare city.

Anybody remember Tin Man? Me either, and I watched all of it.

I have never read any of the Oz books, but understand in the universe of the books Oz is a real place while the movie shows Oz to be a only a dream Dorothy has while unconscious after getting hit on the head during the tornado.

Or am I misreading the movie - do some of you feel the movie supports the idea that Oz is more than just a dream?

Why haven’t the original scripts for the 1939 film leaked? Richard Thorpe was working from a different script for the two weeks he was filming.

The earlier drafts are trippy. There are portions of them out there and references. They were beyond bizarre.

R57 knows his stuff. More than 2/3s of Margaret Hamilton's part was cut because she terrified young children during previews. And yet her remaining minutes are among the most remembered in the film.

[quote]The earlier drafts are trippy. There are portions of them out there and references. They were beyond bizarre.

Some of those scenes were dropped because they were considered too expensive to film. I've always thought that the Rainbow Bridge sequence which was never filmed was inspired by Wagner's Ring. as there's nothing like it in Baum's novels.

Can someone describe the scenes with Hamilton that were cut?

The 1993 MGM/UA Home Video laserdisc set "The Ultimate OZ" came with a copy of the penultimate preview cut continuity screenplay with the missing scenes indicated in bold and italics. I have never seen this anywhere else and that's why I have kept it despite re-buying the movie on DVD, Blu-Ray, and now 4k which I think will be the last time for me.

I thought Was was brilliant—haunting and beautiful.

We did the stage musical in high school. Rams-Witmark licensed a version that combined parts of the vaudeville version and the movie, including “The Jitterbug.” The number was fun, but way out of the style of the rest of the story. The script was s mess—lots of shtick.

[quote]Or am I misreading the movie - do some of you feel the movie supports the idea that Oz is more than just a dream?

You're absolutely right, r62. In all of the Oz books, the Land of Oz was a very real place. It was only in the movie that it only existed in Dorothy's dream. The movie's shortened plot line was more or less faithful to [italic]The Wonderful Wizard of Oz[/italic] book, from whence it came, right up to the time that Glinda told Dorothy to click her heels together. Dorothy was transported back to Kansas (ugh), but it wasn't a dream, as in the movie. Also, she wore silver slippers, not ruby ones.

R69 it was changed to ruby slippers instead of silver ones when they decided to make the movie color. It was one of the first to use color, and they knew the red would look more vibrant and beautiful in color than the silver.

[quote]Can someone describe the scenes with Hamilton that were cut?

The fisting of the flying monkey and the Winkie orgy are two I can think of.

[quote] Some of those scenes were dropped because they were considered too expensive to film. I've always thought that the Rainbow Bridge sequence which was never filmed was inspired by Wagner's Ring. as there's nothing like it in Baum's novels.

There were more witches in one draft, Glinda and WWW were sisters, China girls, etc. The scripts were insane.

[quote] Can someone describe the scenes with Hamilton that were cut?

Not much was cut. They simply edited down some of her lines and it originally was Surrender Dorothy or Die. They cut the or Die part.

[ italic] The Wiz [/italic] dispenses with the whole idea of Oz being a dream.

The Wiz didn't have to DREAM anything.

It was too busy dealing with the REALITY of being a flop.

R50 That floating head scared the shit out of me too, and was confusing because of the giant alien head from Star Trek, that looked exactly like it.

"Little People, Big World", The Little Couple", 7 Little Johnstons, today the Munchkins could have had their own show on TLC.

The famous 'almost' was Gale Sondergaard as the WWW, clearly modeled on the Evil Queen of SNOW WHITE. Her dress was originally slinky and covered in black sequins. She would have either been godawful or FABULOUS.

As SNOW WHITE was briefly the highest-grossing sound film in Hollywood history (until GONE WITH THE WIND) , one can see how MGM originally took inspiration from it. Andrea Casselotti, (the voice of Snow White) was responsible for "Where for art thou, Romeo". And the print ads for OZ proclaimed it "Greatest Since SNOW WHITE!"

99% of you guys already know all this, but I thought I'd post the info anyway.

According to this fascinating essay (with lots of information) , Disney was interested in acquiring THE WIZARD OF OZ from Goldwyn as a possible animated follow-up to SNOW WHITE:

Now what's kind of interesting about all this is -- just prior to Samuel's attempt to snag the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in mid-to-late 1933 -- MGM had also been talking with the Baum family. That studio had seen the huge success that Walt was having with his "Silly Symphonies" series and now wanted to get in the animation business in the worst way. And the idea that MGM executives came up -- which they hoped would eventually turn into some serious competition for Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons -- was to do a series of full-color animated shorts built around Baum's "Oz" characters.

Unfortunately for MGM, Frank J. Baum and L. Frank's widow, Maude, thought the amount that this studio was offering for the rights to use the "Oz" characters in animation was far too low. So when Samuel Goldwyn came along and offer them $40,000 for the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the Baum family immediately said "Yes."

Another interesting side note: On the heels of the "Three Little Pig" 's huge success, Walt finally got serious about the idea of producing a full-length animated feature. And what was one of the stories that he considered as possible fodder for Disney Studio's first full-length feature? You guessed it. L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." As the story goes, Walt asked his brother Roy to discreetly make inquiries about whether the screen rights to this book was still available in early 1934. Only to then have the Hollywood trades break the news on January 26, 1934 that Goldwyn had officially scored the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

r2=Mary Wilson

[quote]Did they move to a good area?

It was in one of the better postal codes.

Hey R79 do you have a better link to that article?

Is it not coming up for you, r82? Hold on: Here it is. It's written by ultra-Disney nerd Jim Hill, who I've never heard of. I think he is goes too far in trying to explain alway Disney's anti-Semitism, but he's dug up a lot of interesting stuff I've not read elsewhere.

Ah, yeah. Meryl Streep's speech at the National Board of Review awards. Where -- before she handed Emma Thompson the best actress award for her stellar performance in "Saving Mr. Banks" -- Streep first went out of her way to attack the late Walt Disney. Calling him racist, sexist and anti-Semitic.

Look, Floyd Norman has already effectively addressed the racism issue. And Amid Amidi did a great job of debunking Meryl's claim that " ... Walt hated woman and cats." As for me ... Well, I'd like to try & use one of the greatest fantasy films of all time -- MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" -- to prove once & for all that Walt Disney wasn't an anti-Semite.

....And Sam Goldfish (who is now known as Samuel Goldwyn and is already one of the true giants in Hollywood history) catches a screening of "Three Little Pigs." And what does Sam see as he views this animated short? Well, yes, he see a brief unfortunate joke that does feature the stereotypical Jewish peddler ...(Though -- to be fair here -- were you to view a sampling of animated cartoons that had been produced by the other major studios during this exact same period in Hollywood history, you'd see that ethnic humor was one of the mainstays of animation during this era in American entertainment. It was something that the movie-going public readily accepted & genuinely seemed to enjoy during this time in our country's history. More to the point, when Walt realized that these sorts of gags were no longer considered palatable by the greater movie-going public, he had the offensive sequence trimmed & re-animated.)

... Anyway ... Now getting back to Samuel Goldwyn and Disney's "Three Little Pigs." What does Goldwyn see as he views this soon-to-be Academy Award-winning short? He sees the future. To be specific: A time when movie-goers will hunger for similar sorts of Technicolor fantasies, only the feature-length kind.

And given that Samuel now prides himself on being a fully assimilated American, he wants his studio to make a distinctly American film fantasy. Which is why -- according to Jay Scarfone & William Stillman's "The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion " (Harper Design, October 2013) -- Goldwyn reaches out to Frank J. Baum, the son of the late L. Frank Baum and offers to buy the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

Now what's kind of interesting about all this is -- just prior to Samuel's attempt to snag the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in mid-to-late 1933 -- MGM had also been talking with the Baum family. That studio had seen the huge success that Walt was having with his "Silly Symphonies" series and now wanted to get in the animation business in the worst way. And the idea that MGM executives came up -- which they hoped would eventually turn into some serious competition for Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons -- was to do a series of full-color animated shorts built around Baum's "Oz" characters.

Unfortunately for MGM, Frank J. Baum and L. Frank's widow, Maude, thought the amount that this studio was offering for the rights to use the "Oz" characters in animation was far too low. So when Samuel Goldwyn came along and offer them $40,000 for the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the Baum family immediately said "Yes."

Another interesting side note: On the heels of the "Three Little Pig" 's huge success, Walt finally got serious about the idea of producing a full-length animated feature. And what was one of the stories that he considered as possible fodder for Disney Studio's first full-length feature? You guessed it. L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." As the story goes, Walt asked his brother Roy to discreetly make inquiries about whether the screen rights to this book was still available in early 1934. Only to then have the Hollywood trades break the news on January 26, 1934 that Goldwyn had officially scored the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

And just so you know: When it came to the movie version of "Oz" that Samuel wanted to make, the connections between that project and Disney's "Three Little Pigs" were quite strong. Goldwyn even went so far as to hire Ann Ronell (who wrote the lyrics for the hit song from that animated short, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?") to do the songs for his proposed "Oz" production. And in another weird parallel between the way that Samuel Goldwyn & Walt Disney thought, according to Scarfone & Stillman ...

... When negotiating with the Baum family to purchase the screen rights (to this book), Goldwyn had contemplated The Wizard of Oz as a Technicolor talkie with Mary Pickford in the lead. "What's so weird about that?," you say. Well, in early 1933 when Walt was actively looking for a hook to build Disney Studios' first full-length feature around, he actually shot a Technicolor test with screen legend Mary Pickford. With the idea being that this then-41 year-old actress would then be the only human performer in an all-animated version of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." (Which -- if you know your Disney history -- given that, just 10 years earlier, Walt had burst on the scene in Hollywood by being the guy who made that "Alice in Cartoonland" short. Which featured 5 year-old Virginia Davis capering with cartoon characters ... Well, that would have been kind of intriguing to have Walt revisit the idea that had initially helped him break through in Tinsel Town as the way for his studio to now expand into features).

But as the two images that I've folded into this article show, by 1933, "America's Sweetheart" could no longer really pull off the sort of ingenue roles that she'd built her fabled film career on. Which is perhaps why -- just after this "Alice in Wonderland" test at Disney Studios -- Mary officially announced her retirement from on-screen acting. Though she would then continue to produce films at United Artists (i.e., the movie studio that Pickford formed back in 1919 with Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith and her then-soon-to-be-husband, Douglas Fairbanks). Getting back to Samuel Goldwyn's proposed movie version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" now: While his studio let word leak in 1936 that they were considering child star Marcia Mae Jones for the role of Dorothy, "Oz" never really moved into active development at Goldwyn. Some say this was because the writers that Sam hired for this proposed production never delivered a screenplay that he liked. Still other have suggested that it was Goldwyn's mercurial nature, his infamous indecision, that ultimately did the project in.

All that is known is that In December of 1937, Goldwyn momentarily became disenchanted with the picture business and -- on a whim -- began divesting himself of the various story properties that he owned. Most significantly, Samuel began entertaining offers on The Wizard of Oz, and a bidding war ensued.

Now -- to be blunt here -- Samuel's timing (at least when it came to the sale of the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz") couldn't have been worse. For December 21, 1937, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs " premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater. And as Disney's first full-length animated feature began its nationwide roll-out in February of 1938 and then began racking up record-breaking sales (For a brief while there, "Snow White" was actually the highest grossing sound film in Hollywood history), there was the cinematic equivalent of the Oklahoma land rush. As the whole of Hollywood seemingly hurrying to get into the feature-length fantasy film business.

It's now time to bring our second key player in the development of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as a major motion picture on the scene. And that's legendary movie producer & director Mervyn LeRoy. Born in San Francisco in October of 1890 to Jewish parents Edna (née Armer) and Harry LeRoy, Mervyn's family (which owned a successful department store in the city) was financially ruined by the Great Earthquake of 1906.

To help make money for his family out during this extreme tough time, LeRoy (just as the young Walt Disney did) sold newspapers. As he grew older, Mervyn drifted into the world of entertainment. First as a singer and a dancer, and eventually -- as he transitioned from vaudeville to silent film -- as a director of highly successful motion pictures like "Little Caesar ."

Which is why -- on February 3, 1938 -- MGM brought LeRoy onboard as a producer. With the hope that Mervyn would then become create some highly successful films for that studio as well. And what's the very first thing that LeRoy did after he arrived at MGM? He makes sure that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer outbid Twentieth Century Fox for the screen rights to "The Wonderful World of Oz." Fox had been pursuing this property as a possible vehicle for Shirley Temple. But at Mervyn's urging, MGM swooped in at the very last minute. And on February 18, 1938, MGM won the screen rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by offering to pay Samuel Goldwyn $75,000 for the property.

Mind you, not everyone in Hollywood was happy that MGM now owned the screen rights to "Oz." As Scarfone & Stillman recall in their "The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion," Hollywood columnist Paul Harrison snarked in a March 16, 1938 story that ... "I hope the ghost of L. Frank Baum gives Samuel Goldwyn a good haunting for not selling the rights to The Wizard of Oz books to Walt Disney."

Now why would Harrison say something like that? Well, you have to understand that -- on the heels of "Snow White" 's success -- all of Hollywood was hailing Walt as Tinsel Town's new resident genius. I mean, you had industry giants like Cecil B. DeMille sending telegrams to the studio saying that " ... I wish I could make pictures like Snow White." And as Neal Gabler recounts in his "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination" (Knopf, October 2006) ...

Critic Gilbert Seldes, long a Disney admirer and advocate, was given a private screening (of 'Snow White') and left saying "he thought Metro Goldwyn might just as well close their studios as long as you produce feature films."

So you could perhaps understand why the Hollywood press would react negatively when LeRoy announced that MGM's version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" wouldn't be an animated feature. But -- rather -- a live-action musical which would simulate a cartoon. "And why would the Hollywood press react negatively to that particular piece of news?," you query. Because there were a lot of people in town who still remembered what a train wreck Paramount's live-action version of "Alice in Wonderland " had been back in 1933.

On paper, this motion picture looked like it was going to be a smash hit. Paramount Pictures had loaded up this live-action version of Lewis Carroll's books with the biggest stars of the day. We're talking about people like W. C. Fields playing Humpty Dumpty, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle and Gary Cooper as the White Knight. With each of these performers decked out in elaborate costumes & make-ups which attempted to duplicate the exact look of John Tenniel's pen-and-ink illustrations for the Alice book. But given the limitation of make-up back in the 1930s (or -- to be completely blunt here -- given that the make-up department at Paramount couldn't compete with what Jack Pierce & his team were doing over at Universal), what was supposed to be a family-friendly film wound up being more of a horror movie.

Paramount's elaborate costumes and make-ups made it so members of the audience couldn't actually recognize most of the big-name stars who were appearing in this motion picture. I mean, look at the photo below. Is there anything about this image that lets you know that this frog footman is actually being played by Disney Legend Sterling Holloway (i.e., the voice of the stork in "Dumbo ," the Cheshire Cat in Disney's animated version of "Alice in Wonderland ," Kaa the Snake in "The Jungle Book ," not to mention the voice of the title character in Disney's "Winnie the Pooh and the Hunny Tree ")?

Given how badly Paramount Pictures' "Alice in Wonderland" crashed & burned when it was released to theaters in December of 1933 ... Well, that was one of the main reasons that Goldwyn backed away from doing his live-action version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Not to mention giving Walt pause when it came to doing that live-action / animated version of "Alice" that Disney Studios was (at that time, anyway) thinking of co-producing with Mary Pickford. More to the point, when LeRoy announced that "The Wizard of Oz" was going to be this live-action musical that would simulate the look & feel of a feature-length cartoon ... Well, to many in Tinsel Town, that just made it sound as if MGM were about to repeat all of the mistakes that Paramount had made with its live-action "Alice in Wonderland."

Ah, but what many Hollywood observers didn't understand was that Meryn LeRoy actually held Walt Disney in extremely high esteem.

In later years, Mervyn stated that Walt was one of only two geniuses that he had ever met -- MGM producer Irving Thalberg being the second. (SIDE NOTE: After Disney's Technicolor 'Silly Symphony" 'Flowers and Trees" became a huge hit in 1932, Thalberg wanted to bring Disney to MGM, but Louis B. Mayer said no, as he personally hated 'Flowers and Trees'. )

(In fact), LeRoy so admired Disney that he was the member of the Motion Picture Academy who came up with the idea of giving Walt one Oscar statuette plus seven small ones when he was honored for "Snow White" at the eleventh annual Academy Awards in February 1939.

So given that Mervyn thought so highly of Walt, LeRoy didn't hesitate to reach out to Disney when he felt MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" (Mervyn had snipped the "Marvelous" off of this proposed motion picture's title as soon as Metro had acquired the screen rights to Baum's book) was going off-track. As Scarfone & Stillman recounted in their "The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion" ...

... Dissatisfied with a flurry of meandering Wizard of Oz script drafts and rewrites from more than two months prior -- all contributed to by various screenwriters -- the producer sought to revitalize his production team's mind-set about the elements of successful fantasy. On May 10, 1938, LeRoy screened Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at M-G-M, the print on loan directly from Walt Disney himself at LeRoy's request. Among the production staff undoubtedly in attendance were songwriters Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, who had begun their association with The Wizard of Oz just the day before.

Not just to circle back on the central premise of today's piece: If Walt Disney actually were the sort of anti-Semite that people like Meryl Streep seem to think that he was, then why would Walt repeatedly go out of his way to help someone like Mervyn LeRoy? Who was, after all, a Jew?

And when I say "repeatedly," I mean repeatedly. Look at the huge favor that Walt did for Mervyn once principal photography on "The Wizard of Oz" had wrapped back in February 1939.

(Now that this motion picture was complete) save for post-production and retakes, LeRoy turned his attention to marketing his movie characters, and went straight to the best for outside expertise: Walt Disney. Like any self-made mogul, Disney was fiercely protective of his brand, yet he didn't see The Wizard of Oz as a threat to his domain, in equal parts perhaps the film was live-action and because he and LeRoy had a genuine rapport. In an affable gesture, Disney put LeRoy in touch with Herman "Kay" Kamen ... Kamen had achieved remarkable success leading Disney character merchandise throughout the 1930s. (Kamen wasn't a Disney employee but an independent contractor free to pursue outside business ventures, provided there was no conflict of interest with his primary work for Disney). Now it's important to understand here is that Kay Kamen -- like Mervyn LeRoy -- was a Jew. More to the point, Disney's New York-based merchandising office had so many Jewish employees working there that Kay used to joke that the place " ... had more Jews than the Book of Leviticus."

Disney even went further than this when it came to helping out LeRoy. Given Mervyn's obvious affection for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Walt arranged for Adriana Caselotti (i.e., the talented young actress & singer who voiced the title character of that animated feature) to do a vocal cameo in "The Wizard of Oz." Which is why -- if you listen carefully as the Tin Woodsman warbling "If I Only Had a Heart" -- you can hear Adriana sings "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

In the end, Disney was very pleased with the way "The Wizard of Oz" turned out. After catching this MGM production a week after its world premiere at the Grauman's Chinese Theater, Walt sent a letter to Mervyn on August 23, 1939 which said ...

"Mrs. Disney and I saw The Wizard of Oz the other night and we both liked it very much. The sets were swell, the color was perfect for the story, and the make-ups far exceeded anything I though possible. Knowing the difficulty that we have with cartoons, a medium that is limited only to the imagination, I can fully realize how tough a production of this type would in the live-action medium. All in all, I think you turned out a fine picture and you have my congratulations."

(SIDE NOTE: Is this the entire letter? Did Disney mention nothing about the performances and score??!)

LeRoy immediately wrote back to Disney, saying that ...

"It is needless for me to tell you how proud I am to know that you liked The Wizard ... "

Again, does any of the above sound like the behavior of an anti-Semite? Who -- according to the definition that I cited earlier -- is " ... a person who discriminates against or is prejudiced or hostile toward Jews"?

Anyway ... The way that Hollywood saw it, Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" & MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" were inexorably linked. In fact, Scarfone & Stillman came across a Metro-Goldwyn in-house letter which -- back in August of 1939 -- promised that "This Xmas the kiddies will be asking for characters from The Wizard of Oz instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Sadly, that wasn't actually the case. Partially because -- in spite of Kay Kamen's best efforts -- only two dozen officially licensed "Wizard of Oz" products were available for purchase by Christmas 1939. Now compare that to the 100+ officially licensed "Pinocchio " products that were available during this very same holiday period. Which is all the more remarkable, given that Disney's second full length animated feature wasn't actually due to be released to theaters 'til February 1940.

Thanks R 83 you're a peach!

Walt tried to get an Oz movie made in the 1950s with [italic]Rainbow Road to Oz[/italic] with Mouseketeers in it. Darlene Gillespie was to have been Dorothy and Annette Funicello was supposed to be a Princess. Plans somehow fell through, the studio renewed Annette's contract and not Darlene's after [italic]The Mickey Mouse Club[/italic] went off the air, and they made [italic]Babes in Toyland[/italic] instead with Ray Bolger as the villain. The design for the Cowardly Lion was later used for King Leonidas of Naboombu in [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic].

[italic]Return to Oz[/italic] was greenlit under Ron Miller and released after Michael Eisner replaced him. It follows the M-G-M movie's idea of Oz being a dream while casting a Dorothy closer in age to how L. Frank Baum actually wrote her. It wasn't a box office hit, but it aged better than [italic]The Black Cauldron[/italic].

Love this movie, just bought it on Amazon streaming so that I can watch it whenever I want.

Those flying monkeys haunted my nightmares as a child.

Oh, that Darlene!

Yeah, the blonde girl with the overbite who went to jail.

Hey “It’s Time We Revisit“ Troll, hope your revisitation of the holidays is going well!

Unsurprisingly, RETURN TO OZ is Tim Burton's favorite movie. He owns a print of it he screens for guests.

The Blu-ray looks fantastic, and you can easily find a used copy on eBay.

The Wizard of Oz is on TCM now.

[quote]I know Radio City Music Hall played it as their big summer show, now that would have been a nightmare in that giant theater.

The kids would've tired out way before reaching the lobby.

I love both The Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz. Fairuza Balk was wonderful as Dorothy in Return to Oz. She had the daunting task of taking on an iconic role previously played by an iconic legend. But Balk pulled it off. She was the perfect Dorothy in a rather disturbing and dark film, an Oz that was the complete flipside of the '39 version.

R13, the Jitterbug was not a dance of the moment. Though it shares the same name, the Wizard of Oz was make years before the jitterbug dance was invented. The Jitterbug from the film bears no resemblance to the Jitterbug you know from the 1940s.

L. Frank Baum rolled in his grave when the film ended with the cliche "There's no place like home."

It is the most un-Baumian idea they could possibly have tacked on to his story.

What do you think "The Wizard Of Oz" would have been like with Shirley Temple as Dorothy? With Buddy Ebsen as the Tin Man?

Shirley Temple was awful.

Probably much like Shirley Temple's fantasy film "The Blue Bird", [R103] - i.e., unwatchable kitsch.

^Up next on TCM.

THE BLUE BIRD 's forest fire sequence is pretty spectacular .

^It actually got an Oscar nomination for special effects.

Does anyone know where I can watch Under The Rainbow, with all the horny dwarves?

R99, in my experiences seeing movies at Radio City years and years ago, most kids got bored and spent the time running up and down the aisles screaming.

Radio City should have never shown movies