5. The Movie - The Legend and Trivia
5.1. Has there ever been a soundtrack release?
5.2. When was it first shown on American television?
5.3. When has it usually been shown?
5.4. Who have been the hosts for the television broadcasts?
5.5. Is The Movie shown on TV in other countries?
5.6. How many American video releases have there been?
5.7. What's this I hear about the Ruby Slippers being auctioned off for a lot of money?
5.8. Where are the Ruby Slippers now? Can I go see them?
5.9. Is it true that Ted Turner wants to colorize the Kansas sequences?
5.10. Why won't the United States Congress let the film be colorized or altered?
5.11. Where does The Wizard of Oz rank on the AFI's Top 100 list?
5.12. Who owns The Movie now?
5.13. Where can I find other fans of The Movie?
5.14. Does Miss Gulch swear in The Movie?
5.15. What is Miss Gulch's first name?
5.16. What's the name of Professor Marvel's horse?
5.17. Where does the Red Brick Road go?
5.18. What is that the Scarecrow is carrying in the Witch's forest?
5.19. What are the Wicked Witch's guards called?
5.20. What is it that the Wicked Witch's guards are chanting?
5.21. What is wrong with the Scarecrow's math? Doesn't he know the Pythagorean Theorem?
5.22. What's this I hear about a connection between The Wizard of Oz and the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon?
The songs from The Wizard of Oz has been a popular subject for record albums ever since it was released. There were a few different versions in 1939, the most famous being one by Ken Darby and his orchestra, with Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" and "The Jitterbug." This was not a true soundtrack, however, as these were specially recorded sessions for the album, not songs taken directly from The Movie's soundtrack. It was available on cassette well into the 1990s, most recently coupled with songs from Walt Disney's Pinocchio, but it is currently unavailable. In conjunction with The Movie's television debut, MGM released a version on November 3, 1956, taken from The Movie itself, with some dialogue interspersed with the songs to tell the story. This was later expanded upon for a CD release in the late 1980s. In the 1990s the original, unedited film soundtracks were discovered, allowing a true musical soundtrack of The Movie to be released for the first time. Rhino Records issued a deluxe two-CD set in 1995, which includes outtakes, some alternate and rehearsal versions, the background score, and other oddities, as well as an illustrated booklet. Rhino also released a standard one-CD version without the extras in two different packages, one aimed at children. The Lux Radio Theater performed The Wizard of Oz on its Christmas, 1950 edition, with Judy Garland playing Dorothy, and it's been released on record, audiocassette, and CD. And a 1939 edition of The Maxwell House Good News radio show, which featured a number of Oz actors and the public debut of The Movie's music, has been released on record, audiocassette, and CD (in the latter format with the original Maxwell House commercials, and an extended radio advertisement from MGM).
In the early 1950s, MGM began leasing some of its films to individual television stations, but held back some of its biggest films, including Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. CBS expressed interest in a national showing of Gone with the Wind, but MGM immediately said no. So CBS countered with an offer to show The Wizard of Oz, and the television rights were sold for $225,000 each for two showings. Oz was first shown as part of the Ford Star Jubilee on Saturday, November 3, 1956. The broadcast was introduced by Bert Lahr, Judy Garland's ten-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli, and thirteen year old Oz collector Justin Schiller, who had loaned CBS a first edition of the book for Lahr to read to Minnelli. (Schiller would go on to found IWOC two months later.) It was watched by an estimated audience of forty-five million. CBS again showed The Wizard of Oz on December 13, 1959, and from then on it was shown every season on CBS until 1967, when NBC acquired the film for the next eight showings. CBS got it back again in 1976, and has shown it on average once a year since then. Before the advent of cable and videotape, Oz was regularly one of the highest rated shows of the season, and often the highest rated movie, rarely slipping out of the top twenty for the week it was shown. In 1998, The Wizard of Oz was shown on network television for an unprecedented thirty-ninth time, but this would also be the last. When that contract expired, the rights reverted to Time Warner, who decided to show it on one of their own cable channels. As of this writing, The Wizard of Oz is scheduled to make its first cable showing on Superstation TBS sometime in the 1999-2000 television season.
At first The Wizard of Oz was a Christmas movie, shown in December. Gradually, however, showings got pushed further back, until it became an Easter staple. For a very long time it was shown in the spring, but in recent years CBS has shown it around Thanksgiving as well. It is unknown exactly when it will be shown on TBS.
Until more time was needed to show commercials, each showing had a host to introduce The Movie. Besides Lahr, Minnelli and Schiller in 1956, the hosts have been Red Skelton and his daughter Valentina in 1959, Richard Boone (the star of Have Gun Will Travel) and his son Peter in 1960, Dick Van Dyke and his children in 1961 and 1962, and Danny Kaye from 1964 to 1967. The 1970 broadcast, the first since Judy Garland's death, was prefaced by a brief tribute to Garland by Gregory Peck. And in 1990 and 1996, Angela Lansbury hosted a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Movie and its lasting popularity.
While it seems not to have quite gripped the collective imagination abroad as it has in America, Oz has been an annual staple on television in other countries, such as Canada (shown on the CBC) and Great Britain (shown by the BBC).
Several. The Wizard of Oz is one of the all-time best selling videocassettes in America (around twelve million copies), and it has been issued in a number of different packages. But there have been at least four different versions of the actual tape. The initial release was pretty straightforward, with just The Movie. In 1989, in commemoration of The Movie's fiftieth anniversary, a new edition was released, with the Kansas sequences rendered in sepia for the first time since The Movie's initial theatrical release, and about twenty minutes of extra behind-the-scenes footage added at the end. This included Arlen's home movies of "The Jitterbug," Bolger's extended "If I Only Had a Brain" dance, film of Garland and Mickey Rooney at the 1940 Oscars ceremony, and some early publicity film, with Buddy Ebsen still playing the Tin Woodman. The original packaging for this edition included a booklet of behind-the-scenes information (which was dropped in later issues). In 1993, Turner Home Entertainment released a deluxe collector's edition, The Ultimate Oz, that included a new cleaned-up print of The Movie; a second cassette with the 1990 Angela Lansbury documentary (including extra material not shown on television) and more behind-the-scenes footage, including test film of the actors and special effects, and other neat stuff; a hardbound copy of the script; and a folio of photographs. A new video edition, with a digitally restored picture and soundtrack remastered in THX, was released in late 1996, which was also released in the DVD format in 1997 (the first North American version of the DVD release includes soundtracks and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.). The digitally restored Special Edition seen in theaters is due to be released on VHS video on two tapes (the second tape with the Angela Lansbury special and other footage) late in 1999 in both a standard edition and a gift edition, which will include much of the same extra material as The Ultimate Oz. (This version will also be released on DVD, again in both standard and gift sets. It's not known at this time if there will be even more features on the DVD version than the VHS tape.) For more details on the various videotape releases of The Movie, check out http://www.homestead.com/ozvideos/ozvideos.html on the WWW, a page devoted to just this topic. It includes the many different covers and cases.
Five different editions have also been released on videodisk, most with a separate audio program on the second sound channel. One from Criterion in the early 1980s included an inaccurate commentary from film historian Ron Haver, one from MGM at roughly the same time came with an audio track that had been found without most of the dialogue for use in foreign dubbed versions, and one from Turner in the disk version of The Ultimate Oz included better, more accurate commentary by Oz historian John Fricke. One version also had Spanish and French soundtracks on two different channels.
Dorothy's shoes from The Movie have gone on to be one of the most famous and recognized pieces of movie costuming -- and the most sought after, considering how much money pairs have fetched at auction. The first pair auctioned off was at MGM's studio auction in 1970, when they went for $15,000. (This pair now belongs to the Smithsonian Institution, and recently toured America as part of the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary celebration.) Since then, other pairs have turned up. (Like other Hollywood costumes, there was more than one pair of Ruby Slippers -- and Bobbie Koshay, Garland's stand-in, had a different shoe size, meaning some had to be made to fit her as well.) At least five pairs are known to exist, and they have fetched higher and higher prices at auctions. The last pair known to be sold went for $165,000 ($150,000, plus a $15,000 commission) at Christie's auction house in New York City in 1988, the highest price paid at that time for a piece of movie memorabilia. (This pair, by the way, had been given away as a contest prize in 1939, and the winner had kept them for nearly fifty years before putting them up for auction.)
One pair is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. In fact, that's one of the Smithsonian's most popular attractions. Another pair has been on display at the Disney-MGM Ride the Movies attraction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida (but these may now be back in the owner's hands). One pair has been mentioned as being on display at certain times at the Philip Samuels Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri. A test pair with a different design that never appeared in The Movie is on exhibit at Debbie Reynolds' movie memorabilia museum in Las Vegas. And another pair is also in Las Vegas, this one at the Planet Hollywood in the Caesar's Palace hotel. One pair often goes on tour to shopping malls. (Please note that much of this information is probably out of date, and it's best to make inquiries before going on a Ruby Slipper trek.)
Ted Turner, the Atlanta television mogul who launched TBS, TNT, CNN, and other cable channels, became the owner of The Wizard of Oz when he bought all of MGM's back library in the 1980s. He then immediately renegotiated a deal with CBS, extending their rights to show The Wizard of Oz through 1999, in exchange for the TV rights to his all-time favorite film, Gone with the Wind, which CBS also held at the time. While Turner has caused a stir among movie purists with his use of modern technology to add color to previously black-and-white films, he has stated that The Wizard of Oz must have its Kansas scenes in black-and-white. In fact, Turner must be commended by Oz and movie fans for restoring the original sepia tones to the Kansas sequences, which had previously only been seen during the film's initial release in 1939. Besides, even if he wanted to, the United States Congress wouldn't let him without a lot of hassle (see the next question).
Even if Turner wanted to colorize the Kansas sequences, he couldn't legally do it now anyway. In response to the advent of colorization and other film alterations, and testimony in Congress from many of today's top filmmakers, a National Film Registry was established, maintained by the Library of Congress. Twenty-five films are added to the Registry every year as being outstanding examples of "culturally, historically, or esthetically significant" American movies. These films cannot be edited or otherwise altered without full disclosure, and only within certain limits. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first twenty-five films put in the registry, placed there in 1989. This is why the annual American television showings of Oz during the 1990s ran two hours and ten minutes, or extra material was added, as nothing can now be cut out or the film can't be speeded up to make more room for advertising breaks, as had been done before. (The Movie itself is 101 minutes long. Ironically, when shown in the 1950s and '60s, nineteen minutes out of two hours was considered too much time for commercials, so CBS used guest hosts to introduce the film in an effort to use up more time. The increasing cost of rights to show The Movie and the advent of the hard-sell put an end to that practice.)
In 1998, to celebrate the first century of American filmmaking, the American Film Institute polled movie makers, film historians, and others to come up with the top one hundred films of that century. The Wizard of Oz placed at number six, and it was the highest ranked musical, fantasy, and family movie on the list. Ahead of it were Lawrence of Arabia at number five, Gone with the Wind in fourth place, The Godfather in the third position, Casablanca at number two, and Citizen Kane at the top. A year later, the AFI put out lists of the top twenty-five American movie actors and actresses. Judy Garland placed eighth among the actresses (Shirley Temple, who was considered for Dorothy and later played Tip and Ozma on television, ended up at number eighteen). To see the complete lists on the WWW, go to http://www.afionline.org/100movies/ and http://www.afionline.org/100stars/.
Okay, let's see if we can keep this straight. For a long time, of course, The Wizard of Oz was owned by MGM (actually, by the studio's parent company, Loews, Inc.), since they made it. In the 1950s, when it was determined that theater owners who also owned the studios were illegal monopolies, MGM was spun off from Loews and became its own company, and it retained the rights to The Movie. There may have been a few ownership changes I'm not aware of in the intervening years, but in the mid-1980s, Ted Turner bought the rights to hundreds of old MGM and RKO movies, including his all-time favorite film, Gone with the Wind. This lot included The Wizard of Oz. Then, in 1995, Turner merged his media empire with Time Warner, which means that Time Warner is now the owner of The Wizard of Oz.
Many Oz fans are also fans of The Movie, and Movie fans sometimes become fans of the books. So if you can find Oz fans in general, you can probably find fans of The Movie. But if you are interested in only The Movie, there are two online resources, both run by Time Warner, that would be good places to start. At the official site of The Movie (http://www.thewizardofoz.com), there is not only information about The Movie, there is also a chat board set up. At the Oz community in Acme City (http://oz.acmecity.com, or http://www.acmecity.com/oz/), there is a chat room, bulletin boards, and all kinds of other resources for fans of The Movie.
In 1939? With the Hayes Commission, the Legion of Decency, and city censorship boards? In the same year David O. Selznick was fined $5000 for Rhett Butler's parting words to Scarlett O'Hara ("Frankly, my dear, I don't give a...")? In a movie that millions of children would see? Not likely. No, the line that people mishear and think includes a mild swear word is: "If you don't hand over that dog, I'll bring a damage suit that'll take your whole farm." (Emphasis mine.)
Almira. Aunt Em reveals it to us in her tirade against the old hag after taking Toto ("Almira Gulch, just because you own half the county..."). And yes, that is the proper spelling, as given in the script.
Sylvester.
Many people have spotted the Red Brick Road intertwined with the more famous Yellow Brick Road, and asked about this. There is no definitive answer, however. The Munchkin Army enters the city via the Red Brick Road, so that may be the way to the barracks. Also, Glinda's bubble appears to head in that general direction, so that may be the way to her home in the north. (This was, in fact, the basis for an amusing story, "Follow the Other Brick Road" by Frederick E. Otto, in the 1989 edition of Oziana, IWOC's annual fiction anthology.) It does appear, however, that Glinda's bubble enters Munchkinland from the opposite direction.
When you go off into a strange forest to fight a wicked witch, be prepared. That's what's up with all the strange devices Dorothy's three friends are carrying. The Tin Woodman, besides his ax, wields a large monkey wrench. The Cowardly Lion has a butterfly net and an old-fashioned chemical sprayer. And the Scarecrow has a very large stick and -- this is the one that is hardest to notice, and causes the most alarm when people do see it -- a pistol. (Dorothy is only carrying her basket, with Toto inside, so I guess she thinks the others will protect her.) These implements were presumably dealt with somehow during "The Jitterbug," which was subsequently cut from The Movie.
Although not named in The Movie, those tall, green-skinned men she has enslaved to be her guards are the Winkies. This name goes back to the book, as the Winkies are the people who live in the west and are enslaved by the Wicked Witch there as well. Some have speculated that, since the Winkies and the Wicked Witch are both green and long-nosed in The Movie, the Wicked Witch is herself a Winkie. The Winkies in the book, it should be added, are not tall and green, they're rather ordinary Ozites like the Munchkins.
The Witch's Winkie guards, while parading outside her castle, are chanting something that sounds almost like it might actually mean something. Some have speculated that they're saying "All we own, we owe her," or "Oh we love (or loathe) the old one," or just nonsense, like "ooh ee ooh, ee ooh ooh." According to the screenplay, they're chanting, "O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!"
No, he doesn't. In The Movie, when he receives his diploma, the Scarecrow quite clearly (but rapidly) states: "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side." But this is mathematical nonsense. The Pythagorean Theorem, which it is assumed he is trying to say, states that the sums of the squares (not square roots) of the legs (not just any two sides) of a right triangle (not an isosceles one) is equal to the square of the hypotenuse -- which would be the remaining side, so the writers didn't get it entirely wrong... At any rate, the Scarecrow's diploma isn't as effective as he or his friends believe it to be, at least not in that scene. (In the book, the Wizard fills the Scarecrow's head with bran, pins, and needles, thus making his bran-new brains sharp. But they actually seem to work in the book, as he is wise enough not to recite any math equations at all.)
There seems to be one, if you look for it. Nobody seems to know how this phenomenon was discovered, but if you start Dark Side of the Moon on the third roar Leo makes at the very start of The Movie, you can observe some unusual coincidences. Sometimes the action in the album matches the action on the screen, sometimes the characters seem to be lip synching or dancing to the music, and sometimes other odd things happen (such as the cash register for "Money" starting up just as The Movie changes to color). Since Dark Side of the Moon is shorter than The Movie, people have tried a variety of ways to extend the effect, either by repeating Dark Side or by putting on another Pink Floyd album. Others have even tried starting the album at different points in The Movie. All seem to have found some success.
This raises the question, was it deliberate? Did Pink Floyd plan to match the album up with The Movie? The odds are very long for this being the case, since there was no home video version of The Wizard of Oz in 1973, the year Dark Side of the Moon was released, that the musicians or writers could have consulted for the timing. The variety of different ways people have found to play the two together also casts doubt on any sort of plan. Most of the members of Pink Floyd also have denied any knowledge of this, claiming The Wizard of Oz never came up once during recording. Band leader Roger Waters, however, has been mysteriously silent when asked about it...