The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and featuring words and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen, receives its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12, 1939.
The beloved characters and familiar plot points were mostly all there in the original children’s book, from the Kansas farm girl in shiny slippers transported to Munchkin land by a terrible tornado, to the wicked witch, the brainless scarecrow, the heartless tin woodsman and the cowardly lion she encounters once she gets there. But what’s missing, of course, from Frank Baum’s bestselling novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is the music that helped make those characters so beloved and those plot points so familiar. First published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was adapted numerous times for the stage and screen and even set to music prior to 1939. It was that year’s film adaptation, however, that earned Baum’s work a permanent place not only in cinema history, but also in music history.
Lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Harold Arlen were both seasoned songwriting professionals before teaming up in 1938 to write the original songs for The Wizard of Oz, though they had worked together very little. Harburg’s best-known credits to date were “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” (1931) and “It’s Only A Paper Moon” (1933), and Arlen’s were “Get Happy” (1929) and “Stormy Weather” (1933). Their first collaboration was on the Broadway musical Hooray For What! (1937), which yielded the now-standard “Down With Love.” The success of The Wizard of Oz, however, would quickly overshadow those earlier accomplishments.
Not only did Judy Garland’s signature song, “Over The Rainbow,” earn Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg the Oscar for Best Song at the 1940 Academy Awards, but it quickly became an indispensable standard in the American Songbook, later being acknowledged as the #1 song on the “Songs of the Century” list compiled in 2001 by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
First and foremost, however, Arlen and Harburg’s songs accomplished their primary goal with flying colors, carrying and deepening the emotional impact of the story in the film for which they were written. As innovative and impressive as the production values of The Wizard of Oz were in 1939, it is impossible to imagine the film earning the place it has in the popular imagination without songs like “The Lollipop Guild,” “If I Only Had A Brain” and “We’re Off To See The Wizard.”
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I remember seeing it when I was 4 or so. It scared the hell out of me
That wicked witch & the flying monkeys sure were scary!
Here’s something: What do these 4 things (2 movies, 2 other things) have in common?
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939, G, 1H42m)
JUMANJI (1995, PG, 1H44m)
COMMON DECK OF PLAYING CARDS
CONCEPTS IN THE BOOK “THE 4th TURNING”
Here’s a small hint in the form of a ~20 second scene from JUMANJI:
????!!!!
It is also worth remembering that there is another side to the novel, a political side. The 1890’s were a period of ‘crisis’ over whether our money and currency would be controlled by the the large urban gold centers or the rural small community silver producers. Go read William Jennings Bryan’s ‘cross of gold’ speech at the 1896 Democratic convention. In the novel, the yellow brick road leads to the corruption of the urban gold centers, while the heroine’s silver slippers could take you anywhere you wanted to go. Yes, the movie changed the slippers to red, but Dorothy wore silver slippers. The issues over who controlled the money and currency creation loomed large at the time.
They still loom large.
Interesting, SL. So many of these classic novels had deeper meanings that I like learning about. Bambi is another one that most don’t realize had a deeper meaning. It was originally meant for adults, not children.
By the way, what do you think red slippers (changed from silver) would be symbolic of?
Toto made $125/week while making the movie. No royalties I guess.
What is $125 worth of 1939 dollars? $2,848.81 today and is a good bit more than a troy ounce of gold.
But, you couldn’t legally own most forms of gold in 1939, you would have had to wait until 1974 to own a troy ounce gold coin or bullion.
Immediately following passage of the Gold Reserve Act (1933), President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, changed the statutory price of gold from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35, after 1933 it was illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold in the form of gold bullion. This was all by “Executive Order”, no messing around trying to convince the Senate or Representatives.
The limitation on gold ownership in the United States was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars, etc. The institution that “handles” the prices of the precious metals, the COMEX, is the main exchange for silver and gold futures, was first founded in 1933 through the merger of four smaller exchanges based in New York—the National Metal Exchange, the Rubber Exchange of New York, the National Raw Silk Exchange, and the New York Hide Exchange.
If you thought the Wicked Witch of the West, (no, not Hillary…,) and Flying Monkeys in the movie were scary, just wait.
But, it won’t matter because you will not own anything and you’ll be happy.
Anybody ever tried this?
https://www.goldminemag.com/features/how-to-view-the-wizard-of-oz-with-dark-side-of-the-moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_pgcapIisc&ab_channel=callinshumen
Oconomowoc.
LOL
What’s wrong with a normal name? Something like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?
I managed to cleverly break several ribs outside of Mineral Point WI some years ago while attempting an ill advised jump on my dual sport, but I found during the visit that Welsh Miners settled the town and region as I hit a local pub (expect to be called ‘Flatlander’ if you are from IL / Chicago).
Quite a scenic town, and the Welsh ” Llanfairpwyll..” sprach seems to have survived quite well in the local vocabulary.
https://www.travelwisconsin.com/atv-utv/cheese-country-recreation-trail-198894
I don’t know if this is an Urban Legend or not, but supposedly when they were looking for the Wizard’s suit in a vintage clothing shop, they found one that “looked” right. Sewn on the inside pocket, it said “Tailored for L. Frank Baum”.