A testament to Mr. Rogers, children were frightened of the Wicked Witch so much that they had a hard time separating the character from the actress. In her later years, he brought her on to show people the actress and show how much of a delight she was. She even puts on the old costume to prove its her. I think he mainly did it cause he knew she was having a hard time with kids being scared of her in real life.
Been a while since I looked this up, but I'm pretty sure he brought her on because her Sesame Street episode had just been banned because there were too many complaints about children being scared of her.
Something that a lot of people miss is that the Scarecrow, who wants a brain, comes up with all the Ideas; Tinman, who wants a heart, is always worried and crying; and Lion, who wants courage, is willing to risk his life to save Dorothy. Also, Mr. Wizard also played the doormen and the carriage driver in Oz.
Nick Fury : And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys. Thor : Monkeys? I do not understand. Steve Rogers : I do! [Stark rolls his eyes, while Captain America looks proud of himself] Steve Rogers : I understood that reference. _--(from 'The Avengers' (2012)_
I was born in 1966 and raised in the 70s. Back then The Wizard of Oz aired once a year. You get excited weeks in advance knowing it's going to be on again. All the kids at school would be talking about it. Those were different times. I do return faithfully, and I'm still young at heart. ❤
Born the same year. I remember it well. My sisters would make a big paper bag of popcorn, then turn on the TV and let it warm up. We had a wired remote that would turn the roof antenna and dad would make sure we got clear reception, then we would watch as a family. That part where they go to the witches castle terrified me when I was really young, I had to watch from between my fingers.
Yes! Before VCR's, it was appointment television whenever it came on. I have seen this movie dozens of times, but just a few times from the very beginning.
I have a picture of my brothers watching the Wizard of Oz shortly before I was born in 1966. Because the movie was only shown once a year, it is one of the few pictures that I can narrow down when it was taken to the day and hour. (there is a web page somewhere that lists when it was broadcast each year)
@@indiiedreamer Oh, that’s the best! And this - “And remember, my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much *you* love; but by how much you are loved by others.”
The reason the twister in the background looked so good is because it wasn't a screen effect, it was really there and moving towards them. It was made of a huge piece of pantyhose material that was spinning and went from the floor up into the rafters of the sound stage. An amazing effect for the time.
Judy Garland was a volcanic talent. Held her own dancing with Gene Kelly. Competent actress. Fabulous singer with amazing breath control. One of the most tragic casualties of Hollywood's 'star system'.
A few years ago I was putting a Christmas CD mix. One of the songs I chose was a rendition of The Christmas song that Judy sang with Mel Torme when he appeared on her talk show. I would highly recommend watching the video if it is still up on TH-cam.
@@coreydonohoe8121I love her version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from Meet Me In St Louis, her second best movie. Also LOVE her version of Ole Man River from her show. It’s almost life changing! (On the other side, the worst version of that song is a horrendous jazz version by Bing Crosby! It’s on TH-cam!) Other best scene on Judy’s show: Judy interviewing new star Barbra Streisand, with Barbra being Barbra, even then, passive-aggressively dominating the interview and poor Judy, when up from the audience rises, like Godzilla from the depths, Ethel Merman! With that big booming voice she joins them and immediately puts Barbra in her place and Barbra becomes small, and weak. This is all sort of figurative, but it was so amazing to watch lol
In her 40's the biz told her she was "too old." She was an ( non-sober ) alcoholic and died in poverty. Her daughter Liza Minelli also had success in singing and movies.
Back in the 30's , america was a big place and a lot of the little people never saw another little person like them ever in their life, When they got the call for the screenings and all the little people showed up, it was the first time hundreds of them never saw other little people, when they all met , it was a wild party. The hotel where they stayed during the filming, said that there were stories of debauchery and madnes.
Most of the little people (i believe some 79-80 strong) were from a German performance troop. They didn't speak English and had to have their lines dubbed.
In the books there's no dream, she really gets picked up in a tornado and really lands in Oz, she returns a couple times having adventures until she eventually decides to live in oz together with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em
@@treetopjones737the director originally wanted Shirley Temple for the role but fox wouldn't release her to MGM for the movie. Back in the days when actors had contracts with studios. Shirley temple was devastated as it was her favorite childhood story
Anyone in the U.S. born between 1950 and 1975 almost certainly watched this broadcast on television every year. I remember my third viewing was in 1969 after we’d gotten our first color tv. The thrill of the switch to color was something I’ll always remember.
Well I was born in 1958 and it took my folks a tad longer to get a color TV😉so instead my sisters and I went down the street to our cousin’s house to watch it… but I love that you remember such specifics about that☺️
The gent that played the Munchkin Coroner, used to come into to the book store that my wife worked in back in high school and do children's reading in his costume, up until he passed away. A wonderful gent!
When I was a kid, my siblings would memorize the catchiest lines from the music of this movie and sing them over and over. "Follow the yellow brick road" and "Ding dong the witch is dead" were common favorites. Just to be different, the first song I memorized was the coroner singing "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her and she's not only nearly dead, she's really most sincerely dead!" I would imitate his tone and cadence too. Was a big hit with my parents.
Here's a really interesting fact, Margaret Hamilton was feared by children in real life that didn't understand that the film wasn't real. The actress then eventually made a guest appearance on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood in order to inform kids that she was just a normal, sweet old lady that only acted asa villain, even having her put on the costume to better explain to kids that she was all just pretend. She was apparently a fan of the show and would watch the show with her granddaughter.
Margaret Hamilton also used to sit and have lunch with Judy Garland on the set of the movie. They were such close friends that Judy Garland said it was difficult to act scared in the scenes. Another interesting tidbit: the original Tin Man was supposed to be Buddy Ebsen (Uncle Jed from the Beverly Hillbillies). He was allergic to the metallic looking makeup paint they needed to use, the part went to Jack Haley, and Buddy Ebsen went on to television history.
Buddy Ebsen, he played Jed Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies", was the original pick to play the Tinman. Nine days into filming, he was hospitalized with breathing problems. The problem was caused by his silver makeup. The make was applied by covering his face with white grease paint, then turning it silver with a pounce bag. As the bag was, lightly, tapped on his face, fine aluminum powder was deposited on his face and was inhaled into his lungs. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital and a month at home, recuperating. They replace him with Jack Haley and mixed the aluminum powder with the grease paint, to form a cream that could be applied, without forming a dust could around his face.
I'm 67, and have seen this movie dozens of times in my life..Every time I see the lion dive through the glass I expect a TV commercial to come on, because that's what happened back then..Lol!..Ah, the things that stick with you.
The book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published in 1900, as the first of a popular series. Basically, it was Harry Potter way before Harry Potter, Narnia way before Narnia. This movie came out the same year as "The Hobbit" (book). I'm glad you guys enjoyed this movie. It's worthy of the term "classic."
@@WraithWTF You are right. Apparently "The Hobbit" was published in September of 1937 in England, selling all 1500 copies before the end of the year. The first publication in the US occurred in 1938. Not sure where I got 1939 from for the publication. My apologies. 🤷♂️
Possibly the best summary of the film: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again."
Although it should be added that in both instances,Dorothy’s killing of the Wicked Witch of the East and the West were accidental.She didn’t deliberately set out to kill them.
12:22 The "crow" is actually a Raven. Jimmy the Raven in fact, the same one as Uncle Billy owned in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. He was a major Hollywood star, insured for hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1939 money !
"Probably so much asbestos" Well, about that, guess what they used for the fake snow effect Fun fact: Disney have made multiple movies based on the Oz books, including "Return to Oz" and "Oz, The Great And Powerful", both of which I would recommend. However, they were not allowed to use the ruby slippers (Which were changed from the crystal slippers in the book) nor the specific shade of green used on the Wicked Witch, since both were under MGM's copyright.
SO! I HAVE THW ANSWERS!!! the most commonly known version of Cinderella is the Perrault (Charles) version from 1697 written in French called "la petit pantoffel de verre". then came the brothers Grimm "aschenputtel" 115 years later where she wore shoes of gold, and (like in into the woods) the sisters eyes were pecked out and they cut of their toes and heel to fit in the shoe. so the glass slipper came first, the fur shoe? ah om so glad you didn't ask, in the mid 1830s Balzac (novelist) wrote "La comédie humaine Sur Cathrine de Médicis". and remembering that the biggest industries at the time were carriage drivers and whalers (whale oil was pre electricitie's, electricity WHOO!!!) and furriers, and if you know anything about fur, it obviously changes value animal to animal, (in regards to fashion...one wouldn't want a coat of bear fur, or gorilla, no no) so rabbit (chinchilla wasn't in France in the 1830s) sable (baby seal) Mink , white mink and the red squirrel were desired, raccoon opossum were not. the French word for squirrel fur is "vair", obviously very similar to the word for glass "verre". and Balzac claimed (because only the most elite upper-class were even allowed to wear furs) the shoes were "no doubt made of fur" and because of that a ton of authors have relied on the story that the original 1697 version was mistranslated, in an effort to make the whole story more human. I hope that clarifies thing, Ive never wanted to comment on a comment so bad!, I don't know why I know so much about cinderella, but 1830s fashion is my Roman Empire @@ryanj2052
5:56 Really cool how they did this. They couldn't shoot B&W and color so the whole room was painted in sepia. A stand-in wearing a sepia colored dress opens the door, then steps out of frame. Then Garland steps in wearing full color.
Well if you understand the real meaning behind the wizard of oz. You will know that the witches represents the banks. It is normal for 1 bank to get rid of all others and buyout the government/president(the wizard).
Finally my history degree has a use! The MidAtlantic accent was designed to sound equally familiar to British and American audiences. Witches riding brooms was an inversion of women's roles as homemaker in medieval Europe. The Witch eschewed what women were supposed to do and instead of using a broom to clean, she would ride it backwards through the sky with the power of the devil (and often do a lot of sexual stuff with it). Many people claim that it was a political allegory, but that interpretation came out several decades after the author wrote the book, and it's disputed whether it is true. There are some key differences from the book that add some context, however. The Emerald City isn't actually green, everyone who enters has to wear green goggles that make everything look green. The characters throughout show that they each already have the thing they want - the lion is repeatedly brave, the scarecrow thinks of clever solutions to their problems and the tin man is always caring about people. Also there's a sequel from the seventies that's a literal fever dream.
One correction, I believe the sequel you're thinking of is RETURN TO OZ, which came out in 1985. You might be getting it mixed up with THE WIZ, which is a remake of THE WIZARD OF OZ with an all-black cast and came out in 1978.
"The MidAtlantic accent was designed to sound equally familiar to British and American audiences." I wouldn't be surprised if this is why Vincent Price always sounded British even though he was from Missouri.
I can’t believe this movie is 85 years old and still just as good as ever. I’m amazed by what they were able to accomplish practically back then with all the costumes, set design, effects, etc. It truly is a classic.
One of the benefits of physical film is that the resolution is as good as the original film stock's quality. Barring poor storage and degradation, you can get really high-res scans from old films with modern technology. Contrast this to digital recording which is limited to the resolution of the original camera, which going back to the late 90's or early 2000's was considerably limited compared to today's digital recorders. While you can upscale to some extent you'll generally not get that perfect image from older digital when viewing with newer machines.
It's called a "Mid-Atlantic" accent, George, and it was considered prestigious precisely because no one spoke it normally: you had to be educated to it at fancy northeastern boarding schools. It faded out after WWII. The most famous practitioners were Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Hepburn was a socialite who came by it the normal way; Grant educated himself to it, as he was a very smart man who was determined to be the epitome of male elegance. Some people will tell you he came by it 'naturally', but they underestimate how much the 'Cary Grant' persona was a role he created. He said himself that he played him until he became him. EDIT: so apparently it's deliberate adoption by the entertainment industry (and Hepburn) was more widespread than I realized. They were imitating the boarding school style, though. *2nd EDIT: Per Geoff Lindsay's excellent video, my original comment was correct except that it was just an upper class variation of the standard non-rhotic New England accent. So it was natural, just fairly specific in terms of class and geography (and taught in New England boarding schools).*
Grant definitely didn't come by it naturally, since he was British (born Archie Leach) and spent years deliberately getting rid of his blue-collar Bristolian accent. I would agree that he created a "movie star" persona and then perfected playing that person. Almost everything about him was manufactured or a deliberate front.
There is no 'normal' way to come by the Mid-Atlantic accent, and Katherine Hepburn did not grow up with it. She hired vocal coach Frances Robinson-Duff to teach her the accent when she was first a struggling New York actor. She did keep using the accent after it fell out of favor and many others stopped.
@@mainmac Well I appreciate the correction regarding Hepburn, but it absolutely WAS learned by the upper class at boarding schools, and then imitated by the entertainment industry - I think Tilly (for its invention) and Edith Skinner (for adoption by actors) cited as the most prominent proponents. I assumed from Hepburn's background she learned it before she became an actor but I'll take your word for it . EDIT: The Geoff Lindsay video has convinced me that the many Tilly/Skinner citations are bogus. It was just upper-class New Englander, and Hepburn came by it naturally.
I always found it funny that Margret Hamilton who was best known for being one of the best villains in cinematic history for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, a character that scared the daylights out of little children, was a school teacher that loved kids and loved teaching them.
The tornado effect was done with a long, flexible, column of muslin stocking material, which could be moved independently at the top and bottom along the stage. The dust coming off of it was an old Hollywood favorite, Fuller's earth, also known as bentonite clay, which was sprayed from the top and bottom of the funnel using air hoses. The results speak for themselves. Yes, as was mentioned, the snow in the poppy field was made from asbestos. Worth noting is that this movie was made AFTER people were already aware that asbestos was dangerous. A lot of people (were) sacrificed to get this movie made, and the nightmare that the costumes were to wear is a rabbit hole all on its own. One incident involved the original Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, who almost died because of the silver makeup they put on him. The silver powder on his face had coated his lungs. They switched to a different makeup when Jack Haley replaced him, though he still ended up with an eye infection from it. Numerous accidents also happened on set, injuring Margaret Hamilton and her stunt double, among others. Oz famously has a number of cut/lost scenes. The one that probably should have stayed was an extended dance sequence by the Scarecrow. They almost cut the scene of Dorothy singing Over The Rainbow, because they were desperate to shorten the movie, and some of the execs thought that having a girl sing in a barnyard was undignified.
I'd love to have seen the Jitterbug scene though! And there was a "rainbow bridge" scene that takes them from the witch's castle back to Emerald City, if I'm not mistaken.
When I was young, this was the first B/W (sepia) film I had seen. When it switched, I asked my grandmother what it was like to live in B/W days. She started to describe films, but I interrupted and clarified: What was it like when all PEOPLE became color and was it painful? Never did my grandmother laugh so hard in the time she was alive. After she (reduced) laughing enough, she explained that people were always in color, film wasn't. Light bulb moment.
This was one of the first things our family watched when we got our first color console TV. As a kid maybe seven years old, I came up with, “Now we get to see what color the yellow brick road is.” It will be part of my legacy.
7:01 The most magical optical effect in Hollywood history - and so simple. Internal house set painted in sepia with a stand in actress dressed in an identical sepia coloured dress. Door opens and in steps Judy in full colour costume. Imagine how that looked to audiences in 1939 !
Simple, but it’s possibly the best practical special effect of Old Hollywood that I can think of. Even knowing how it was done, it still looks like magic.
It is so simple and yet it fools, like a good magic trick. For years I wondered how they managed that single shot of the colour inside the sepia door and I came to check if anyone explained it before I did.
I’m of an age where black and white TVs were still fairly prevalent. My grandparents, however, had a color console set, and every Thanksgiving (end of November in the U.S.) we’d visit for annual family feast. That night the Wizard of Oz would air on network television. I remember hiding behind the couch whenever the wicked witch showed up. All in all an amazing experience which still thrills me to this day. Glad you enjoyed it!
“We call her Baba Yaga.” “The Wicked Witch?” “Well, Dorothy wasn’t exactly the Wicked Witch. She was the one you sent to drop a house or throw water on the Wicked Witch.” “Oh.”
This coming out today is great. This was my Moms favorite movie and today is her birthday. I did not plan on watching it but it showing up today is awesome. She passed away 2 years ago, so it's quite special. I also learned that her birthday (the 25th of march) is when the One Ring is destroyed in Mt Doom. She would have loved to know that, I wish I knew sooner. Thanks for a great time George and Simone
Judy Garland was 16. The abuse at the hands of Hollywood led her into alcoholism. She didn't make it to 50. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was a monster hit and the largest selling, non-holiday single record for decades in the US. My mother saw this as a 10 year old. She had nightmares about the Wicked Witch for months. You nailed the name of the accent. In Baum's story, the Scarecrow represented agriculture, the Tinman represented Industry, and the Lion represented Government. What the characters are lacking, Baum thought Farmers were dumb, Industry was heartless, and Governments had no courage. After she left Hollywood, Margaret Hamilton lived in Connecticut. The University of Connecticut had an English department course called Children's Literature. Ms. Hamilton would guest lecture for one period each semester it was available. In the 1980s, she would end the lecture by cackling "I'll get you my pretty...AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!" Hundreds of extra students would attend the lecture just to see and hear her. In the US, the Wizard of Oz was a pre- Thanksgiving holiday (in November) staple presentation on network television. Thus most boomer and Gen X Americans have those iconic lines and songs embedded in their memory.
When I was a child in the 70s, I had a record that was the entire recording of the movie - all the dialogue and the songs. All these years later, I can still quote big chunks of it.
The Tin Man makeup was modified for Jack Haley after Buddy Ebsen ( the original actor playing the Tin man) was hospitalised by a rection to the aluminium based original formula. Ebsen blamed life long health problems on residual effects of the make-up. He became best known for playing Jeb Clampett in the Beverly Hillbillies TV series.
And though they re-recorded Haley's lead vocals on "If I Only Had a Heart," it's actually Ebsen's voice singing with Garland, Bolger, and Lahr on "We're Off to See the Wizard."
I saw this at the movie theater when I was 5. The flying monkeys were TERRIFYING. I did NOT understand why Dorothy wanted to go home and leave that amazing, beautiful place (Oz). I NEVER would have looked back ever!!! We had a violent, hitting, screaming mom all day while dad was at work. I thought all mothers were the same and it was normal. If I had had a chance to live in Oz without a mother, nothing could have stopped me! Great reactions! This movie was the height of technology when came out. Color TV was a brand new thing in the early 60s. Aprox 1963/4 our dad said we 4 kids could have Christmas with all the presents OR we could get a color TV, but not both. The dollar amount I heard was $450. We wanted our normal Christmas, and kept the black and white tv.📺
Frank Morgan, the actor who played the fake psychic, played multiple roles in the Emerald City: -the door guard -the carriage driver -the Wizard's sentinel -the Big Head -the Great Wizard Oz Frank Morgan also appeared in a number of films as Dr Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. Originally, the part of the Wizard was offered to WC Fields. The studio originally wanted the part of Dorothy to go to Shirley Temple, who was younger than 15yr-old Judy Garland, and so was closer to the literary character's age. Margaret Hamilton was, prior and after her role in this film, a kindergarten teacher.
Fun fact: In the DC area, there's a big mormon temple that used to have green lights shining on it at night. It's kind of local folklore to jokingly call it the Emerald City, and for years there was a tradition of graffitiing 'surrender Dorothy' on the side of a train bridge on the highway that took you right next to the temple.
The accent that you mention is called the Mid-Atlantic Accent. It used to be taught to theater actors and movie actors to overcome whatever accent they grew up with. It served two purposes: (1) making American actors sound rich and educated and upper-class; and (2) making characters who are supposedly in other countries speak English with a "foreign" accent. Charmian Carr wrote in her book "Forever Liesl" that she and the other children in "The Sound of Music" were trained by a dialogue coach to drop their American accents and say their lines with the Mid-Atlantic accent, because they were playing Austrian children in the movie. It's a very pleasant-sounding accent, easy to understand, and was helpful when theater actors had to project their voices to the back row, so you can see why it was popular.
7:57 "Only bad witches are ugly" - Glinda to Dorothy "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" - Also Glinda to Dorothy Glinda straight up calls Dorothy ugly.
Honestly, I think it's the other way around. If only bad witches are ugly, her asking Dorothy if she's good or bad would be saying that she isn't ugly. If she were ugly, Glinda would immediately assume she's a bad witch, and thus wouldn't ask. Her statement is "only bad witches are ugly" not "all bad witches are ugly", meaning that there could be a beautiful wicked witch, but there could not be an ugly good witch.
In the novel, Glinda actually is the Good Witch of the South, and isn’t met until the end when she helps Dorothy get home - the Good Witch of the North is a separate character who welcomes her once the house drops. MGM just combined the characters into one. Also, and I’m sure this has been said, the original shoes were silver, but MGM changed them to ruby to show off the newfangled Technicolor. 😄
The switch between black and white to color was partly deliberate to show off the new color movie technology. But, it also has a lot of significance to the book. The first few pages of the book describes Kansas, and the farm, and everything at the beginning of the story as dull and grey. L. Frank Baum made it a point to describe it as colorless. If you guys haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it, because there’s a lot more to the story, and most of it wouldn’t fit a children’s movie very well.
@@MacGuffinExMachinatrue. But, if you want to get REALLY technical, they were still filmed in black and white, but colored sepia-tone in a later process.
@@MacGuffinExMachinaI only ever saw the Kansas stuff in black and white when I watched this on TV growing up, it was only when I got the movie on DVD in the ‘90s that I saw it in sepia. I must be so used to the black and white version that I kind of miss it, but I like black and white anyway so… 🤷🏼♂️
In the books, Oz is a real place Dorothy visited. For some reason, in the film they decided to make it a fictional place she dreamed. In return to Oz, a semi-sequel it's actually a real place but no one believes her. Also, it's an 80s dark fantasy - the era was crazy. Should be noted The Wizard of Oz film made a lot of changes, i.e., ruby slippers are originally silver.
Another change from the books is Glinda being the Witch of the North in the movie. She was originally the Witch of the South and didn't appear until the end of the book, and the Witch of the North, who Dorothy met when she first landed in Oz, went unnamed (to the best of my knowledge).
Although... that Oz movie from a few years back with Mila Kunis named the character Theodora and the show Once Upon a Time named the character Zelena. Seems really up in the air for each new adaptation to reinvent her as they see fit. What else...? I forget, did the miniseries with Zooey Deschanel have a version of this character? Looking that up... Hm, I guess Azkadellia is her counterpart in that one (although unlike Theodora and Zelena, Azkadellia never turns green) but that series did some massive overhauls on every single character in the story so that they all barely resembled their counterparts from the original story anyway. (I'm not at all familiar with Wicked but the assertion that Elphaba is definitely the correct name just didn't sound right to me because of those other examples. I had to look up each of the ones that I've named for reminders on all of these other names, but somewhere in the back of my mind they had to have been rattling around in there. And when I looked up Elphaba the search results all seem to indicate that that name is only associated with Wicked's version of the character.) EDIT: Hm, just came across a short-lived series called Emerald City. Looking at it now I think I have seen it before, but before now I kinda forgot it had existed. This one also reinvented characters in some big ways like Tin Man did (no green skin here either) but its version of this character was just simply named West. EDIT2: I'm not sure if this one ever came across my radar at all but there was a movie called Dorothy and the Witches of Oz... Apparently it was a remastered version of a miniseries called The Witches of Oz. An adult Dorothy lives in New York and is a popular childrens author, and one day she learns that her stories are repressed childhood memories when the wicked witch shows up in New York. And I guess the witch spent some time undercover on Earth before this reveal since it says that she was working as a book publisher under the name Billie Westbrook. Wild cast list in this one... Mia Sara, Christopher Lloyd, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Ethan Embry... And apparently this story has Glinda as the good witch of the south (as I've heard that the books had her) and it gives the name Locasta to the good witch of the north. (Is this the only story to name her?)
@@MuljoStpho So maybe those films gave her different names, that is cool. Wicked is not new, not even close. Wicked, the musical, is based on a book that was published 30 years ago. It has Glinda, The Munchkins, The Wizard, The Lion, The Flying Monkeys, and Dorothy. It takes place in the beautiful land of Oz. It is the ONLY writing to have permissions from the original author’s family to continue the story. He did so with grace and dignity. Other shows, like The Wiz (which I still love), had no permission and named the characters on their own- they also changed the characters attitudes as they saw fit. The other films and television shows, including the ones you are speaking of are considered non-canonical. Her name in this film is The Wicked Witch of the West and the only other name listed is Elphaba which was given to her in 1995.
The Wicked Witch was sadly seriously burned doing her fiery exit. Also most witches since base their performance on hers in some way or another. Another unfortunate thing was the original Tin Man getting seriously sick from his aluminium face paint, aluminium is very bad for you, so he got replaced and so did the makeup.
When this film was released, there weren't a dozen hollywood movies every month. This film and many others were played year after year in movie theaters. You could have been born in 1950 and still seen it in a theater for the first time.
What's so funny to us older folks is that not many people had color TVs until 1965-66, so "Kansas" and Oz were the same color to us. My family didn't see the difference in the yearly broadcast until I was 7. And I wasn't terribly afraid of the flying monkeys like most kids. No, what I found most disturbing was the way the feet of The Wicked Witch of the East curled up and went under Dorothy's house. Why did the dead thing move?! Later in the book I read that the witch was so old that she turned to dust, a la Dracula, and that's what the curling feet represented.
Something that stuck out at me while watching this reaction was the way her toes curled slightly and then her legs slid under the house while my memory of the scene (born in the 80s, seen it a few times over the years) was that her entire legs curled up (no sliding back, only curling). I don't know, maybe it got mixed up in my mind with Simpsons or some other cartoon drawing it that way when mimicking the scene? But yeah, the sliding motion is so strange. It makes it look like something under the house is dragging the body away.
Okay. In the book, the Witch of the South is Glinda, who sends her home at the end, and the Witch of the North is just the witch she meets in the first town who tells her to follow the yellow brick road. The movie combined them into the same witch, and just about every other adaptation has followed suit. I can't recall any adaptation actually having four witches.
*The Wiz* (1978), though it translates the story into a very different context with an all-black cast, retains the original four witches, and also gives Dorothy silver shoes, as in the original book.
Subsequent books in the series make clear that all four lands were originally ruled by evil witches, but the northern and southern ones had been displaced by good witches. The former wicked witch of the north, Mombi, now out of power, is the villain of the second book of the series, The Land of Oz. In 1960, the initial episode of the second season of the TV series Shirley Temple's Storybook was an adaptation of that novel.
In The Muppets Wizard of Oz, Miss Piggy played all four witches. There are also a couple relatively faithful anime adaptations from the '80s that also featured both Glinda and the Good Witch of the North.
@@richardzinns5676 Shirley Temple's *Land of Oz* features Agnes Moorhead as Mombi, four years before she got her signature witch role as Endora on *Bewitched.*
My parents thought they added the color later because it used to always be kind of a big deal when they would play this movie on TV and they had black and white TVs. The color is original even though it's from 1939. Most people don't know color actually predates sound in movies but it was just rarely used because it was so expensive
The three actors playing Dorothy's companions were all veterans of Vaudeville and early cinema. Their experience as song-and-dance men made them perfect for the over-the-top characters in Oz. Judy Garland occasionally struggled to avoid being pushed into the background during dance numbers. Frank Morgan played numerous roles in the film, Professor Marvel, the man who answers the doors in Oz, the driver of the coach with the multicolored horse, and, of course, the Wizard of Oz. I always wanted those green, fuzzy mittens! Thanks for the great reaction!
I met Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch) in 1977. I got a job working for an ad agency and they had cast her in a Maxwell House coffee ad in the '60s and she was visiting our offices. I got a photo with her. She was very kind.
A little fun fact: Mel Brooks' Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs (1987), was filmed at the same MGM studio lot where The Wizard of Oz was made. Mel said in his autobiography that he was glad to be walking in Judy Garland's old stomping ground. 😊
@@trouty42 And when he was disappearing after the Liquid Schwartz bit towards the end, you can hear him say "Oh, what a world, what a world" like the witch did when she was dying.
Childhood memories. As a kid and a family, we waited every year for the announcement of when this would be on the TV. It was a family event. Iam 58 now and still watch it with full enjoyment.
Same here! I'm also 58 and remember how big of a deal it was to watch it. Before streaming and before home video, one only saw the classics when they were shown on television (or the odd theatrical re-release). I used to scan all the movie listings for the week every time we got a new TV Guide. And The Wizard of Oz was definitely one of the big ones. And, like you, I'm still happily transported each and every time I watch it. 💖
71 here. I was an annual event on TV late 50s/early 60s. Color TVs were rare (we certainly didn't have one), so I never saw all the color until much later.
Fun fact: The Wizard of Oz was the first book to put forth the idea of a "good witch". Before it, all witches were written as evil and/or ugly. Frank Baum changed our conception of magic and witchcraft, and what they represent. To this day, the reveal of Munchkinland through the door of Dorothy's house still gives me goosebumps. It's so utterly simple, and yet it may be the most magical shot ever put on film. (Lack of high tech means nothing to effects when you have willingness and ingenuity.) Glinda was originally the Witch of the South, and didn't show up in the story until the very end. The Witch of the North, who met Dorothy at the start, was never given a name. The screenwriters decided to combine the two to simplify the story. Also, Dorothy had to travel to the land of the Quadlings in the South in order to consult with Glinda. (The idea of traveling in bubbles didn't appear until the fifth book, where it was used to transport royal guests out of the country after a feast, thus avoiding the Deadly Desert.) Americans did speak differently in the early 20th century. English evolves here just as much as it does in any other country, as much as any other language, and the accents evolve along with it. If you listen to recordings of people talking in the 20's and 30's, you'll hear the difference. It isn't huge, but it's there. Southern accents in particular have evolved from the original Irish and British accents of the colonials into what we know now. (Viven Leigh's half-British/half-Southern accent in Gone With the Wind was actually closer to how Scarlett would have spoken than any Southern accent at the time the movie was made.) The "Mid-Atlantic" accent, though, did not evolve. It was deliberately created to bridge the gap between the elite in England and the elite in America, who didn't like sounding like hicks to the Brits. It was widely used in theater and films; no actor who wanted a real career would forego training in it. (Katherine Hepburn is the premier example of the Mid-Atlantic accent, and the actress whose image is most tied into it.) It became a signifier of class; if you didn't talk like that, you were lower class and probably dirty. So much for the US being a "classless" society. If you think the Tin Man's long time all rusted up was bad, you should read how he _became_ a tin man. It's the stuff of nightmares. The 19th century didn't mess around coddling kids. Dorothy's predicament in the Witch's castle is much more awful in the movie than in the book. She's never threatened with death in the book. Instead, she's locked up and made to be the Witch's slave. She finally escapes with the help of the Lion, who was also locked up. Margaret Hamilton had to contend with the image of the Witch for decades. So much so that Mr. Rogers invited her onto his show to dispel it. She brought her Witch costume and put it on piece by piece, all the time talking pleasantly about acting and pretending. It's an amazing video; you can see it here on YT. :)
Margaret Hamilton was severely burned on the set of Wizard of Oz, during the scene in which she disappears in a ball of fire, but didn't sue because a small actor suing a big studio at the time would have been the end of their career. She continued acting for decades afterwards, including guest appearances on the original Addams Family TV series playing Morticia's mother.
Fun facts: the prop dept. went to a second-hand store looking for a jacket for Professor Marvel. They wanted one that showed shabby nobility. The actor put his hand into a pocket and found the nametag of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz books. The Cowardly Lion's costume was made from a real lion pelt and weighed 50-75 lbs. The makeup for the Scarecrow made permanent marks on his face. The first exit of the Wicked Witch included flames which caused the copper makeup on her face to burn scarring her face. Production shut down for 6 weeks while she healed. After that, her exits had no flame, only smoke. In America, this was shown on TV annually, and everyone I knew would watch it every year, like clockwork. I missed it the first time when I was 22 years old! Also, note that the Scarecrow with no brains had all the ideas (making the apple trees angry, etc.) and the Tin Man with no heart was the emotional one.
Judy died aged 47 in 1969.Lion died in 1968,Tin Man in 1979,a few weeks after Oscar hosting with Scarecrow actor who lived thru to 1987...Bad witch lived to 1985🎩
"You've always had the power to go back to Kansas... she had to learn it for herself." But she DIDN'T learn it for herself, you had to TELL her! You could have told her at the beginning and saved her from a long, perilous journey. Just admit you withheld that important tidbit of information long enough for Dorothy to do your dirty work for you! 🤣
I've always said that one of the best scenes that sometimes go unnoticed is when they first meet the lion and he starts to cry...He's wiping his eyes with the tip of his tail...That is so funny.
Frank Morgan played 5 different roles in this movie. The lion costume was made from an actual lion skin. So much trivia behind this film. One of the most unique films ever made. And one of my favorites.
The Tin Man: The actor originally cast for this part was Buddy Ebsen. To create his “tin” face, an aluminum powder makeup was invented. After only ten days of filming, inhaling this powder caused Ebsen to have a severe reaction as the dust entered his lungs. He nearly died. Jack Haley was then cast as the Tin Man, without anyone telling him what had happened to Ebsen. At least MGM changed the composition of his face makeup: the aluminum powder was turned into a paste, to avoid the danger of inhaling it. But the paste gave Haley an eye infection that required surgery.
Also, before filming began, the producers allowed Bolger and Ebsen to switch roles. Ray Bolger was desperate to play the scarecrow and Buddy Ebsen didn’t mind at all. He wasn’t to know his kindly gesture would land him in hospital fighting for his life.
I like to think the theme of this movie is all about the power of home. It says that we carry our home within us, wherever we go, and the problems we meet on life's journey can be defeated using what we learned from home ("She always had the power"). In fact, she realizes how important home is at the end when she says, "There's no place like home."
Margaret Hamilton, The Wicked Witch, made an appearance on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in the mid 70's to show kids that she was just an actress and not a real witch. (She also played "Cora" in a long running series of TV commercials for Maxwell House coffee.)
In the 70s when we only had three television stations, the Wizard of Oz would be shown once a year (I think around spring time). It was an event. You have to remember no streaming, no DVDs, - you watched it when it was on TV or not at all. It was like a holiday when it came on. Now a days we have so many options that we rarely have an experience like that.
i remember it as Thanksgiving...after the games...and the meal. The food coma took out the kids a half hour in per my aunt. I only saw the entire film as part of the 50th anniversary special and documentary. 2039 and the 100th anniversary is right around the corner. Wizard lost out for the Oscar to a very forgotten film "Gone with the Wind"😉
What's kind of awesome about you guys finally watching this movie is the countless references to it in pop culture you will start to notice. This movie used to be played on TV yearly before cable became widespread and people would watch it over and over. It became quoted or allegories made to it constantly because just everyone knew the story so well.
Trivia correction: -Judy was already a user of both amphetamines and barbiturates which her mother put her on when she was very young to keep her awake or put her to bed to keep up her schedule as part of a family musical preforming act. If you’re interested in learning more about either the production of this movie or about any other Oz media, other movies cartoons stage shows or the books I recommend Tori over at the Oz vlog. She does a really good job of conveying the information.
I liked all the talk about how Mandy Patinkin's version was so beautiful and they'd never heard Garland's -- I'm not sure they've heard it yet. (I do expect reactors to talk, by the way, but . . .)
I didn't love Wicked onstage (though I'm definitely looking forward to movie versions), but I LOVED the book it was based on, by Gregory Maguire. So much of what made the book utterly fascinating to me wouldn't have fit into a stage musical, so I get it. But it's so much more intricate, and much darker.
I actually worked on restoring The Wizard of Oz for Blu-Ray and other future releases, back in early 2008 or 2009. I was part of a large team that went through the origiinal master reel and would then digitially paint and remove any scratches or imperfections on the reel, before printing it onto new film stock. My understanding is that film tends to only have a life-span of about 100 years, and this would've been for the 75th anniversary to celebrate and preserve the film at it's best.
@@amandaally7623Nope, I mean I scanned it frame by frame on a 32 inch monitor - you'd typically spend 10 seconds shuffling 1-4 frames backwards and forwards to see if anything caught your eye. Never saw anything ha
They completely flip the 'DREAM SCRIPT' by having the DREAM WORLD (Oz) in COLOR, and the REAL WORLD (Kansas) in BLACK & WHITE! Brilliant!! This COULD BE the GREATEST MOVIE EVER!!
In the movie, the tension had been increasing since Dorothy ran away and was at it's peak when she was caught in the twister. They realized they had to release the tension a bit (as this is a movie for children) by having various funny things fly by the window (the old lady in the rocking chair, the men in the rowboat), then the transition into Oz (Miss Gulch turning into the witch) was easier on the kids ... Very clever story-telling!
Oh, that was delightful. I love it when you guys laugh. Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, was one of the most successful song-and-dance performers of his generation. The work required for that floppy, ragdoll dancing must have been tremendous. Someone's probably already mentioned this, but Frank Morgan (Professor Marvel) was *all* the men they met in the Emerald City -- the guard at the gates, the driver of the coach, the warden of the Wizard's palace, and the Wizard himself.
Odd little fact but Glinda the good witch was played by Billie Burke who was married to Florenz Ziegfeld the impresario who produced the famous Ziegfeld Follies but had to return to work after the 1929 crash wiped out much of their assets.
Billie Burke is wonderful as the harried hostess in Dinner At Eight (1933), which also features knockout performances by Jean Harlowe, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. MGM, more stars than there are in the heavens. And in or out of the witch costume she sounds the same!
To help Billie Burke pay off her debts, MGM bought from her the rights to the Ziegfeld name, which allowed the company to make "The Great Ziegfeld," (a true musical spectacular; well worth watching), "Ziegfeld Girl," and "The Ziegfeld Follies."
Aside from the other stand-out cast members, Bert Lahr was a popular and well-known comedian and actor. He was born in New York city to Geman-Jewish immigrant parents, started in vaudeville and burlesque, and served in the Navy in WW1. He didn't do a lot of Hollywood films, instead mainly doing Broadway and other stage plays/musicals, and played Estragon in the US premiere of the famous play Waiting for Godot, then later won a Tony award for best actor. I remember my grandparents, who were fans of his, remarking sadly that many of Judy Garland's co-stars outlived her despite her being so much younger than them. The show business world knew how talented she was and really just ran her ragged with a ridiculous schedule. I was 6 months old in 1969 when she died at 47.
The accent was created because recording hardware back then required you to annunciate carefully or else it wouldn't be picked up on the radio properly. Also The Wiz Ft. Michael Jackson would be a interesting reaction.
There are a lot of people that have a problem with how the witch died. But the wizard said it, You liquidated her. And to a kid the word liquidate would be done with water. I remember when I was a kid and commercials would advertise the liquidation of their inventory and I wondered how that worked. So to Dorothy if you wanted to get rid of something, water would do it.
When I was growing up this came on TV every year for the holidays. We always watched it and I would always go hide under my bed as soon as the flying monkeys showed up. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man but had a very serious reaction to the silver paint and was replaced while in the hospital. The interesting thing about it is that people said Buddy was “cursed” and had missed his chance for fame and yet he went on to further roles in TV shows and his replacement wasn’t really successful. It was also commented on how despite his brush with death Buddy Ebsen went on to outlive all the main characters actors. Only a few of the Munchkins and some set workers outlived him. This is one of the few movies that are labeled as a timeless classic that I feel really deserve the title.
"Professor Marvel" also portrays the Guard at the entrance to Emerald City, the driver of the cart with the horse of a different color, the guard to the Wizard, and the Wizard of Oz, himself.
I grew up near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which is the hometown of Judy Garland. They did a lot of annual events honoring Judy and the Wizard of Oz when I was growing up, and one year my school went to see the movie in theaters and some of the actors were there signing autographs. I still have an autograph from Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Coroner.
The jacket worn by Professor Marvel was found in a second hand store and when looking it over there was a tag saying Frank L. Baum, the writer of Wizard of Oz, so it was fate concerning that jacket
Actually, that was a lie put out by the MGM publicity department, who even claimed it was vouched for by the Baum family. The Baum family said it wasn't true, MGM never came to them, and Baum was never there at the time to sell or pawn the coat. (I wanted to believe it, too.)
Margaret Hamilton actually started out as a Kindergarten teacher, but started acting to better support her young son. She actually learned she had gotten a part in THE WIZARD OF OZ at a baseball game. She then asked, "Who am I playing?" Her agent said, "Well.......the Witch." Hamilton exclaimed, "THE WITCH??!!" And then her agent said the clencher, "Yeah, what else?" Hamilton's performance in the film is actually only about 40% of her performance as she was deemed FAR TOO SCARY by early test audiences. A few decades later, she reprised her role as the Wicked Witch on the children's show SESAME STREET, but again, she was considered wayyyy too scary. The episode never aired again and was considered "LOST" until it was found and uploaded on the internet just last year.
Writer Peter David pointed out that given that this movie was made during the Great Depression, the message of this film could be taken as "don't dream of a better situation, be happy with your lot, don't dream, just accept the fact that you live in poverty and don't try to get away from your fate."
The legend of witches from medieval Europe is that the witches carried a broom stick like a staff as a signifier of their membership in the order. The broomstick would be brought to a witches gathering or Coven and the legend is the witches would straddle their broomsticks and gallop around a fire mimicking horseback riders. This would later morph into them levitating into the air as they rode around and later it became flying through the air on broomstick like we see today. it is not certain if they held their brooms with the brush on top or carried it with the brush on the bottom, nor is it certain if they straddled the broom with the brush at the top or trailing behind them. It has been illustrated in both orientations.
@@montylc2001 ...there weren't "panties" until the 19th century, so no one had them TO wear. And there's some debate about whether or not women wore the braies commonly depicted on men in medieval artwork.
Watch this again with Rifftrax joke commentary. Funny as hell! "Look at those poppy fields! This isn't Oz, it's Afghanistan!" "Guess now we know why the Wizard's so powerful."
omg OMG OMG that was one of the most magical and colorful reactions to The Wizard of Oz! Particularly enjoyed Simone and George discovering many film references they've seen elsewhere. Another is Cowardly Lion crashing through the window was parodied by Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! along with Johnny doing the Auntie Em a twister, a twister.
A testament to Mr. Rogers, children were frightened of the Wicked Witch so much that they had a hard time separating the character from the actress. In her later years, he brought her on to show people the actress and show how much of a delight she was. She even puts on the old costume to prove its her. I think he mainly did it cause he knew she was having a hard time with kids being scared of her in real life.
❤️
I loved that episode then (even though I wasn't one of the frightened kids) and years later when I saw it on TH-cam.
Been a while since I looked this up, but I'm pretty sure he brought her on because her Sesame Street episode had just been banned because there were too many complaints about children being scared of her.
so we have actual documentation of the first time the next generation was intentionally weakened?
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't she a teacher before becoming an actress so she knew how to speak with kids too.
Something that a lot of people miss is that the Scarecrow, who wants a brain, comes up with all the Ideas; Tinman, who wants a heart, is always worried and crying; and Lion, who wants courage, is willing to risk his life to save Dorothy.
Also, Mr. Wizard also played the doormen and the carriage driver in Oz.
The original placebo effect.
and the great and mighty Wizard of Oz
This fact is made more clear in the parody film The Wiz, where Dorothy directly tells them this at the end.
A lot goes over the heads of these two
Although the Lion does need a lot of encouragement from others to carry on.
Nick Fury : And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.
Thor : Monkeys? I do not understand.
Steve Rogers : I do!
[Stark rolls his eyes, while Captain America looks proud of himself]
Steve Rogers : I understood that reference.
_--(from 'The Avengers' (2012)_
I was born in 1966 and raised in the 70s. Back then The Wizard of Oz aired once a year. You get excited weeks in advance knowing it's going to be on again. All the kids at school would be talking about it. Those were different times. I do return faithfully, and I'm still young at heart. ❤
And The Ten Commandments
Born the same year. I remember it well. My sisters would make a big paper bag of popcorn, then turn on the TV and let it warm up. We had a wired remote that would turn the roof antenna and dad would make sure we got clear reception, then we would watch as a family. That part where they go to the witches castle terrified me when I was really young, I had to watch from between my fingers.
Yes! Before VCR's, it was appointment television whenever it came on. I have seen this movie dozens of times, but just a few times from the very beginning.
I have a picture of my brothers watching the Wizard of Oz shortly before I was born in 1966. Because the movie was only shown once a year, it is one of the few pictures that I can narrow down when it was taken to the day and hour. (there is a web page somewhere that lists when it was broadcast each year)
@bvokie1546 Yep, I was born in 1965 and can relate. It was the same for "The Peanuts/Charlie Brown" holiday episodes.
So many quotes from this movie. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" is my favorite.
“I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. “ and a lot of people quote it incorrectly, which bugs me of course
“And your little dog, too!” Or “I think I’ll miss you most of all” or “Fly, my pretties! Fly!” Just so many good ones!
"Now I know I've got a heart, cause it's breaking" makes me cry everytime
@@indiiedreamer Oh, that’s the best! And this - “And remember, my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much *you* love; but by how much you are loved by others.”
@@Ivy94F That last is a Mandela Effect example. The Witch only shouted, "Fly! Fly! Fly!" (Some number of times.)
The reason the twister in the background looked so good is because it wasn't a screen effect, it was really there and moving towards them. It was made of a huge piece of pantyhose material that was spinning and went from the floor up into the rafters of the sound stage. An amazing effect for the time.
Good to know.
Really? It looked so real I thought they filmed twisters for real and then "green screened" the actors in front of the footage.
@@ColombianThunderthe most advanced technique they had for such things in the '30s was rear projection, which was still fairly new.
@@WolfHreda yeah that's why I put it in quotes. Forgot what the technique was called and knew it wasn't greenscreen. Thanks for the answer!
@@WolfHredaUsed to great effect in _2001._
Judy Garland was a volcanic talent. Held her own dancing with Gene Kelly. Competent actress. Fabulous singer with amazing breath control. One of the most tragic casualties of Hollywood's 'star system'.
Thank you for sharing this.
A few years ago I was putting a Christmas CD mix. One of the songs I chose was a rendition of The Christmas song that Judy sang with Mel Torme when he appeared on her talk show. I would highly recommend watching the video if it is still up on TH-cam.
@@coreydonohoe8121I love her version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from Meet Me In St Louis, her second best movie.
Also LOVE her version of Ole Man River from her show. It’s almost life changing! (On the other side, the worst version of that song is a horrendous jazz version by Bing Crosby! It’s on TH-cam!)
Other best scene on Judy’s show: Judy interviewing new star Barbra Streisand, with Barbra being Barbra, even then, passive-aggressively dominating the interview and poor Judy, when up from the audience rises, like Godzilla from the depths, Ethel Merman! With that big booming voice she joins them and immediately puts Barbra in her place and Barbra becomes small, and weak. This is all sort of figurative, but it was so amazing to watch lol
In her 40's the biz told her she was "too old." She was an ( non-sober ) alcoholic and died in poverty.
Her daughter Liza Minelli also had success in singing and movies.
Back in the 30's , america was a big place and a lot of the little people never saw another little person like them ever in their life, When they got the call for the screenings and all the little people showed up, it was the first time hundreds of them never saw other little people, when they all met , it was a wild party. The hotel where they stayed during the filming, said that there were stories of debauchery and madnes.
Under the Rainbow is a 1980s movie loosely based on those events.
Good for them.
Good to know.
Man, that movie was on HBO back in the day, ALL THE TIME!! lol @@RoninUK-e3u
Most of the little people (i believe some 79-80 strong) were from a German performance troop. They didn't speak English and had to have their lines dubbed.
In the books there's no dream, she really gets picked up in a tornado and really lands in Oz, she returns a couple times having adventures until she eventually decides to live in oz together with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em
She was also on an episode Mr Rogers as herself
And in the books she's a child, not a teen as in this movie.
@@marktracy1721what?
@@treetopjones737the director originally wanted Shirley Temple for the role but fox wouldn't release her to MGM for the movie. Back in the days when actors had contracts with studios. Shirley temple was devastated as it was her favorite childhood story
@RachelXKnight666 Did you happen to see The Bluebird,Foxs' 'answer' to "..Oz" starring Shirley?
Anyone in the U.S. born between 1950 and 1975 almost certainly watched this broadcast on television every year. I remember my third viewing was in 1969 after we’d gotten our first color tv. The thrill of the switch to color was something I’ll always remember.
80s baby and remember watching with my great grandma and mom. Such great memories.
Well I was born in 1958 and it took my folks a tad longer to get a color TV😉so instead my sisters and I went down the street to our cousin’s house to watch it… but I love that you remember such specifics about that☺️
We didn't have color until 1970, so my first was then that the door scene had the effect.
The gent that played the Munchkin Coroner, used to come into to the book store that my wife worked in back in high school and do children's reading in his costume, up until he passed away. A wonderful gent!
To this day one of my favourite lines is "Not only is she merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead." 😂
That is marvelous-that must have been a lovely bookstore.
Oh my God! That is so awesome! The coroner was always my favorite munchkin! No offense to the others but he was so authoritative!
Was that really his voice? Or was it dubbed? It always sounds overlaid to my ears. In any case, it's my favorite musical bit in the whole film. :)
When I was a kid, my siblings would memorize the catchiest lines from the music of this movie and sing them over and over. "Follow the yellow brick road" and "Ding dong the witch is dead" were common favorites. Just to be different, the first song I memorized was the coroner singing "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her and she's not only nearly dead, she's really most sincerely dead!" I would imitate his tone and cadence too. Was a big hit with my parents.
Here's a really interesting fact, Margaret Hamilton was feared by children in real life that didn't understand that the film wasn't real. The actress then eventually made a guest appearance on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood in order to inform kids that she was just a normal, sweet old lady that only acted asa villain, even having her put on the costume to better explain to kids that she was all just pretend. She was apparently a fan of the show and would watch the show with her granddaughter.
She also made an appearance on an episode of Sesame Street that so terrified children that it was removed from the reruns.
Margaret Hamilton also used to sit and have lunch with Judy Garland on the set of the movie. They were such close friends that Judy Garland said it was difficult to act scared in the scenes. Another interesting tidbit: the original Tin Man was supposed to be Buddy Ebsen (Uncle Jed from the Beverly Hillbillies). He was allergic to the metallic looking makeup paint they needed to use, the part went to Jack Haley, and Buddy Ebsen went on to television history.
Buddy Ebsen, he played Jed Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies", was the original pick to play the Tinman. Nine days into filming, he was hospitalized with breathing problems. The problem was caused by his silver makeup. The make was applied by covering his face with white grease paint, then turning it silver with a pounce bag. As the bag was, lightly, tapped on his face, fine aluminum powder was deposited on his face and was inhaled into his lungs. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital and a month at home, recuperating. They replace him with Jack Haley and mixed the aluminum powder with the grease paint, to form a cream that could be applied, without forming a dust could around his face.
And then he was recast as the leader of the Winkies in the Witch's castle, so he still got to be in the movie!
Ironically, Ebsen was originally supposed to play the Scarecrow, but Ray Bolger wanted to switch roles.
I'm 67, and have seen this movie dozens of times in my life..Every time I see the lion dive through the glass I expect a TV commercial to come on, because that's what happened back then..Lol!..Ah, the things that stick with you.
Omg, you’re right! That was the commercial break! I remember that, too! Lol!
Yes! That and RIGHT before Dorothy steps into Technicolor!
I remember that! Also, "Poor little thing...I hope she gets home alright..." and commercial.
The book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published in 1900, as the first of a popular series. Basically, it was Harry Potter way before Harry Potter, Narnia way before Narnia. This movie came out the same year as "The Hobbit" (book).
I'm glad you guys enjoyed this movie. It's worthy of the term "classic."
No it didn't...The Hobbit released in 1937, Wizard of Oz (the movie) didn't come out til 1939.
@@WraithWTF You are right. Apparently "The Hobbit" was published in September of 1937 in England, selling all 1500 copies before the end of the year. The first publication in the US occurred in 1938. Not sure where I got 1939 from for the publication. My apologies. 🤷♂️
Possibly the best summary of the film: “Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up with three strangers to kill again."
Also heard of it as classed as the ultimate chick flick, because it's about 2 women fighting over a pair of shoes!
I never thought of it in that way but you are correct in your description.
Although it should be added that in both instances,Dorothy’s killing of the Wicked Witch of the East and the West were accidental.She didn’t deliberately set out to kill them.
So, just manslaughter then?
So, in other words, the typical plot of almost *every* fairy-tale. 😁
12:22 The "crow" is actually a Raven. Jimmy the Raven in fact, the same one as Uncle Billy owned in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. He was a major Hollywood star, insured for hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1939 money !
He was in dozens of movies at the time.
People were rave-n about him.
He was in Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace and Meet John Doe !
"Probably so much asbestos"
Well, about that, guess what they used for the fake snow effect
Fun fact:
Disney have made multiple movies based on the Oz books, including "Return to Oz" and "Oz, The Great And Powerful", both of which I would recommend. However, they were not allowed to use the ruby slippers (Which were changed from the crystal slippers in the book) nor the specific shade of green used on the Wicked Witch, since both were under MGM's copyright.
It was silver shoes in the book. It's an allegory.
@@australo88 I blame Cinderella for me getting confused about shoe materials
@@MrGBH and Cinderella originally had fur shoes I believe. 😁
They did use the Ruby Slippers in *Return to Oz,* but had to pay a licensing fee to MGM.
SO! I HAVE THW ANSWERS!!! the most commonly known version of Cinderella is the Perrault (Charles) version from 1697 written in French called "la petit pantoffel de verre". then came the brothers Grimm "aschenputtel" 115 years later where she wore shoes of gold, and (like in into the woods) the sisters eyes were pecked out and they cut of their toes and heel to fit in the shoe. so the glass slipper came first, the fur shoe? ah om so glad you didn't ask, in the mid 1830s Balzac (novelist) wrote "La comédie humaine Sur Cathrine de Médicis". and remembering that the biggest industries at the time were carriage drivers and whalers (whale oil was pre electricitie's, electricity WHOO!!!) and furriers, and if you know anything about fur, it obviously changes value animal to animal, (in regards to fashion...one wouldn't want a coat of bear fur, or gorilla, no no) so rabbit (chinchilla wasn't in France in the 1830s) sable (baby seal) Mink , white mink and the red squirrel were desired, raccoon opossum were not. the French word for squirrel fur is "vair", obviously very similar to the word for glass "verre". and Balzac claimed (because only the most elite upper-class were even allowed to wear furs) the shoes were "no doubt made of fur" and because of that a ton of authors have relied on the story that the original 1697 version was mistranslated, in an effort to make the whole story more human. I hope that clarifies thing, Ive never wanted to comment on a comment so bad!, I don't know why I know so much about cinderella, but 1830s fashion is my Roman Empire @@ryanj2052
5:56 Really cool how they did this. They couldn't shoot B&W and color so the whole room was painted in sepia. A stand-in wearing a sepia colored dress opens the door, then steps out of frame. Then Garland steps in wearing full color.
It still knocks me out how creative and inventive that transition was.
When you really think about it, this was Glinda (the "good" witch) using Dorothy as a catspaw to get rid of 2 other witches and the wizard.
Well if you understand the real meaning behind the wizard of oz. You will know that the witches represents the banks. It is normal for 1 bank to get rid of all others and buyout the government/president(the wizard).
Finally my history degree has a use!
The MidAtlantic accent was designed to sound equally familiar to British and American audiences.
Witches riding brooms was an inversion of women's roles as homemaker in medieval Europe. The Witch eschewed what women were supposed to do and instead of using a broom to clean, she would ride it backwards through the sky with the power of the devil (and often do a lot of sexual stuff with it).
Many people claim that it was a political allegory, but that interpretation came out several decades after the author wrote the book, and it's disputed whether it is true. There are some key differences from the book that add some context, however. The Emerald City isn't actually green, everyone who enters has to wear green goggles that make everything look green. The characters throughout show that they each already have the thing they want - the lion is repeatedly brave, the scarecrow thinks of clever solutions to their problems and the tin man is always caring about people.
Also there's a sequel from the seventies that's a literal fever dream.
Well, I’ll never look at witches on brooms the same way ever again 😮!
Thank you for sharing this vital and fascinating information.
One correction, I believe the sequel you're thinking of is RETURN TO OZ, which came out in 1985. You might be getting it mixed up with THE WIZ, which is a remake of THE WIZARD OF OZ with an all-black cast and came out in 1978.
"The MidAtlantic accent was designed to sound equally familiar to British and American audiences." I wouldn't be surprised if this is why Vincent Price always sounded British even though he was from Missouri.
The use of women's household implements for witchcraft is also reflected in the use of cauldrons for brewing potions instead of for cooking.
I can’t believe this movie is 85 years old and still just as good as ever. I’m amazed by what they were able to accomplish practically back then with all the costumes, set design, effects, etc. It truly is a classic.
The tornado is incredible, it looks real!
In the 1902 stage play, Martinka's magic shop did the special effects.
One of the benefits of physical film is that the resolution is as good as the original film stock's quality. Barring poor storage and degradation, you can get really high-res scans from old films with modern technology. Contrast this to digital recording which is limited to the resolution of the original camera, which going back to the late 90's or early 2000's was considerably limited compared to today's digital recorders. While you can upscale to some extent you'll generally not get that perfect image from older digital when viewing with newer machines.
The film color dye-ing was done extra strong to get the high saturation color.
It's called a "Mid-Atlantic" accent, George, and it was considered prestigious precisely because no one spoke it normally: you had to be educated to it at fancy northeastern boarding schools. It faded out after WWII. The most famous practitioners were Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Hepburn was a socialite who came by it the normal way; Grant educated himself to it, as he was a very smart man who was determined to be the epitome of male elegance. Some people will tell you he came by it 'naturally', but they underestimate how much the 'Cary Grant' persona was a role he created. He said himself that he played him until he became him.
EDIT: so apparently it's deliberate adoption by the entertainment industry (and Hepburn) was more widespread than I realized. They were imitating the boarding school style, though.
*2nd EDIT: Per Geoff Lindsay's excellent video, my original comment was correct except that it was just an upper class variation of the standard non-rhotic New England accent. So it was natural, just fairly specific in terms of class and geography (and taught in New England boarding schools).*
Grant definitely didn't come by it naturally, since he was British (born Archie Leach) and spent years deliberately getting rid of his blue-collar Bristolian accent. I would agree that he created a "movie star" persona and then perfected playing that person. Almost everything about him was manufactured or a deliberate front.
Kate in On Golden Pond: "Boah, boah, boah"
There is no 'normal' way to come by the Mid-Atlantic accent, and Katherine Hepburn did not grow up with it. She hired vocal coach Frances Robinson-Duff to teach her the accent when she was first a struggling New York actor. She did keep using the accent after it fell out of favor and many others stopped.
@@mainmac Well I appreciate the correction regarding Hepburn, but it absolutely WAS learned by the upper class at boarding schools, and then imitated by the entertainment industry - I think Tilly (for its invention) and Edith Skinner (for adoption by actors) cited as the most prominent proponents. I assumed from Hepburn's background she learned it before she became an actor but I'll take your word for it .
EDIT: The Geoff Lindsay video has convinced me that the many Tilly/Skinner citations are bogus. It was just upper-class New Englander, and Hepburn came by it naturally.
It's Transatlantic actually.
I always found it funny that Margret Hamilton who was best known for being one of the best villains in cinematic history for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, a character that scared the daylights out of little children, was a school teacher that loved kids and loved teaching them.
Many of the cast of this movie was born in the 1800's. The actors who played Dorothy's aunt and uncle were born shortly after the Civil War.
Young people will never understand what it was like to only have this movie come on once a year. It was always a special occasion.
Growing up in the 1970's it was definitely a big deal when it aired on television.
Imagine when it premiered. See it in theaters and that's it. TV premiere was 1956.
Having to be at your tv at a certain day & time, having to rush back from the bathroom as commercials ended , etc.
@@dogawfulthis, Yellow Submarine every Labor Day, and Willy Wonka every Thanksgiving
From what I remember, I think Wizard of Oz aired during the springtime every year?
The tornado effect was done with a long, flexible, column of muslin stocking material, which could be moved independently at the top and bottom along the stage. The dust coming off of it was an old Hollywood favorite, Fuller's earth, also known as bentonite clay, which was sprayed from the top and bottom of the funnel using air hoses. The results speak for themselves.
Yes, as was mentioned, the snow in the poppy field was made from asbestos. Worth noting is that this movie was made AFTER people were already aware that asbestos was dangerous.
A lot of people (were) sacrificed to get this movie made, and the nightmare that the costumes were to wear is a rabbit hole all on its own. One incident involved the original Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, who almost died because of the silver makeup they put on him. The silver powder on his face had coated his lungs. They switched to a different makeup when Jack Haley replaced him, though he still ended up with an eye infection from it.
Numerous accidents also happened on set, injuring Margaret Hamilton and her stunt double, among others.
Oz famously has a number of cut/lost scenes. The one that probably should have stayed was an extended dance sequence by the Scarecrow. They almost cut the scene of Dorothy singing Over The Rainbow, because they were desperate to shorten the movie, and some of the execs thought that having a girl sing in a barnyard was undignified.
I'd love to have seen the Jitterbug scene though! And there was a "rainbow bridge" scene that takes them from the witch's castle back to Emerald City, if I'm not mistaken.
"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking"
Said in 1939, more true then ever today.~
FOR SURE!!!!!
At least 435 of them come to mind.
Some Canadians apparently do an awful lot of talking too - one might wonder why...🤔
These two are proof of that
When I was young, this was the first B/W (sepia) film I had seen. When it switched, I asked my grandmother what it was like to live in B/W days. She started to describe films, but I interrupted and clarified: What was it like when all PEOPLE became color and was it painful? Never did my grandmother laugh so hard in the time she was alive. After she (reduced) laughing enough, she explained that people were always in color, film wasn't. Light bulb moment.
haha, Pleasantville IRL
I had a similar belief as a kid, but never mentioned anything
This was one of the first things our family watched when we got our first color console TV. As a kid maybe seven years old, I came up with, “Now we get to see what color the yellow brick road is.”
It will be part of my legacy.
7:01 The most magical optical effect in Hollywood history - and so simple. Internal house set painted in sepia with a stand in actress dressed in an identical sepia coloured dress. Door opens and in steps Judy in full colour costume. Imagine how that looked to audiences in 1939 !
I gotta say those colours still pop ever after all these years.
Simple, but it’s possibly the best practical special effect of Old Hollywood that I can think of. Even knowing how it was done, it still looks like magic.
It’s not an optical effect, it’s all in camera. Brilliantly devised, it’s one of my favorite shots in movies. 😊
It is so simple and yet it fools, like a good magic trick. For years I wondered how they managed that single shot of the colour inside the sepia door and I came to check if anyone explained it before I did.
I’m of an age where black and white TVs were still fairly prevalent. My grandparents, however, had a color console set, and every Thanksgiving (end of November in the U.S.) we’d visit for annual family feast. That night the Wizard of Oz would air on network television. I remember hiding behind the couch whenever the wicked witch showed up. All in all an amazing experience which still thrills me to this day. Glad you enjoyed it!
Dorothy: "I miss Kansas."
Toto: "I miss the rains down in Africa."
You win the thread with this comment!
😂😂😂😂
Ok, I laughed right out loud at that one.
👏👏👏
Except it's "bless"
“Dorothy goes John Wick if the dog dies.”
Oh, George 😂
I would pay to see that movie
“We call her Baba Yaga.”
“The Wicked Witch?”
“Well, Dorothy wasn’t exactly the Wicked Witch. She was the one you sent to drop a house or throw water on the Wicked Witch.”
“Oh.”
I'm all in on this. When does Wizard of Oz come out of copyright?
@@robertgibson1156 The book hasn't been in copyright since 1956. The film version becomes public domain in 2034.
@@WJS774 You're telling me that to make this a reality I need to READ a BOOK?
This coming out today is great. This was my Moms favorite movie and today is her birthday. I did not plan on watching it but it showing up today is awesome. She passed away 2 years ago, so it's quite special. I also learned that her birthday (the 25th of march) is when the One Ring is destroyed in Mt Doom. She would have loved to know that, I wish I knew sooner. Thanks for a great time George and Simone
A bit of trivia: "somewhere over the rainbow" was nearly cut from the film. They left it in and it won the Academy award for best song.
The Wizard of Oz is arguably the single most iconic movie ever produced in human history.
You know, I honestly cannot disagree with that statement. Probably would not be my pick, but I cannot think of any arguments against it.
Definitely in the conversation. Certainly, it could be on the Mt Rushmore without question
Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) I would also put up there as most iconic
It's been on my Top 10 GOAT Films for decades and still is. Up there with A Wonderful Life, Lord Of The Rings, The Matrix and Terminator.
Movies took an entirely different direction afterwards.
Judy Garland was 16. The abuse at the hands of Hollywood led her into alcoholism. She didn't make it to 50.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was a monster hit and the largest selling, non-holiday single record for decades in the US.
My mother saw this as a 10 year old. She had nightmares about the Wicked Witch for months.
You nailed the name of the accent.
In Baum's story, the Scarecrow represented agriculture, the Tinman represented Industry, and the Lion represented Government. What the characters are lacking, Baum thought Farmers were dumb, Industry was heartless, and Governments had no courage.
After she left Hollywood, Margaret Hamilton lived in Connecticut. The University of Connecticut had an English department course called Children's Literature. Ms. Hamilton would guest lecture for one period each semester it was available. In the 1980s, she would end the lecture by cackling "I'll get you my pretty...AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!" Hundreds of extra students would attend the lecture just to see and hear her. In the US, the Wizard of Oz was a pre- Thanksgiving holiday (in November) staple presentation on network television. Thus most boomer and Gen X Americans have those iconic lines and songs embedded in their memory.
When I was a child in the 70s, I had a record that was the entire recording of the movie - all the dialogue and the songs. All these years later, I can still quote big chunks of it.
The Tin Man makeup was modified for Jack Haley after Buddy Ebsen ( the original actor playing the Tin man) was hospitalised by a rection to the aluminium based original formula. Ebsen blamed life long health problems on residual effects of the make-up. He became best known for playing Jeb Clampett in the Beverly Hillbillies TV series.
It wasn't an allergic reaction. The original makeup was like powdered aluminum which basically got in his lungs and nearly killed him
Sad but true.
And though they re-recorded Haley's lead vocals on "If I Only Had a Heart," it's actually Ebsen's voice singing with Garland, Bolger, and Lahr on "We're Off to See the Wizard."
_Barnaby Jones_ would like a word.
I saw this at the movie theater when I was 5. The flying monkeys were TERRIFYING. I did NOT understand why Dorothy wanted to go home and leave that amazing, beautiful place (Oz). I NEVER would have looked back ever!!! We had a violent, hitting, screaming mom all day while dad was at work. I thought all mothers were the same and it was normal. If I had had a chance to live in Oz without a mother, nothing could have stopped me!
Great reactions! This movie was the height of technology when came out.
Color TV was a brand new thing in the early 60s. Aprox 1963/4 our dad said we 4 kids could have Christmas with all the presents OR we could get a color TV, but not both. The dollar amount I heard was $450.
We wanted our normal Christmas, and kept the black and white tv.📺
Frank Morgan, the actor who played the fake psychic, played multiple roles in the Emerald City:
-the door guard
-the carriage driver
-the Wizard's sentinel
-the Big Head
-the Great Wizard Oz
Frank Morgan also appeared in a number of films as Dr Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes.
Originally, the part of the Wizard was offered to WC Fields. The studio originally wanted the part of Dorothy to go to Shirley Temple, who was younger than 15yr-old Judy Garland, and so was closer to the literary character's age.
Margaret Hamilton was, prior and after her role in this film, a kindergarten teacher.
Fun fact: In the DC area, there's a big mormon temple that used to have green lights shining on it at night. It's kind of local folklore to jokingly call it the Emerald City, and for years there was a tradition of graffitiing 'surrender Dorothy' on the side of a train bridge on the highway that took you right next to the temple.
The Emerald City is a metaphor for Washington DC.
Thank you. I LOVE this story! :D
The accent that you mention is called the Mid-Atlantic Accent. It used to be taught to theater actors and movie actors to overcome whatever accent they grew up with. It served two purposes: (1) making American actors sound rich and educated and upper-class; and (2) making characters who are supposedly in other countries speak English with a "foreign" accent. Charmian Carr wrote in her book "Forever Liesl" that she and the other children in "The Sound of Music" were trained by a dialogue coach to drop their American accents and say their lines with the Mid-Atlantic accent, because they were playing Austrian children in the movie. It's a very pleasant-sounding accent, easy to understand, and was helpful when theater actors had to project their voices to the back row, so you can see why it was popular.
Good information, and I will just add that it is very often called the transatlantic accent as well, so he was correct in remembering that.
Radio and then t.v. broadcasters of the time learned it as well.
I often wondered about that. I'm assuming it's a carryover from the 19th century and The Enlightened Era of the late 1800s
❤thx for the funfact
"It really came out of nowhere."
Heh. Welcome to Kansas (and Tornado Alley in general).
Speaking of which, they should react to Twister.
@@HaganeNoGijutsushiRed meat--we crave sustenance!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Rabbit is wise, Rabbit is good!
@@HaganeNoGijutsushiMother of gawwd ...
@@RideAcrossTheRiver THE FINGER OF GOD
7:57 "Only bad witches are ugly" - Glinda to Dorothy
"Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" - Also Glinda to Dorothy
Glinda straight up calls Dorothy ugly.
Honestly, I think it's the other way around. If only bad witches are ugly, her asking Dorothy if she's good or bad would be saying that she isn't ugly. If she were ugly, Glinda would immediately assume she's a bad witch, and thus wouldn't ask.
Her statement is "only bad witches are ugly" not "all bad witches are ugly", meaning that there could be a beautiful wicked witch, but there could not be an ugly good witch.
@@digifreak90 Good use of logic there.
In the novel, Glinda actually is the Good Witch of the South, and isn’t met until the end when she helps Dorothy get home - the Good Witch of the North is a separate character who welcomes her once the house drops. MGM just combined the characters into one.
Also, and I’m sure this has been said, the original shoes were silver, but MGM changed them to ruby to show off the newfangled Technicolor. 😄
The switch between black and white to color was partly deliberate to show off the new color movie technology. But, it also has a lot of significance to the book. The first few pages of the book describes Kansas, and the farm, and everything at the beginning of the story as dull and grey. L. Frank Baum made it a point to describe it as colorless. If you guys haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it, because there’s a lot more to the story, and most of it wouldn’t fit a children’s movie very well.
Technically, ☝️🤓
It's sepia, not black and white.
@@MacGuffinExMachinatrue. But, if you want to get REALLY technical, they were still filmed in black and white, but colored sepia-tone in a later process.
@@MacGuffinExMachinaI only ever saw the Kansas stuff in black and white when I watched this on TV growing up, it was only when I got the movie on DVD in the ‘90s that I saw it in sepia. I must be so used to the black and white version that I kind of miss it, but I like black and white anyway so… 🤷🏼♂️
In the books, Oz is a real place Dorothy visited. For some reason, in the film they decided to make it a fictional place she dreamed. In return to Oz, a semi-sequel it's actually a real place but no one believes her. Also, it's an 80s dark fantasy - the era was crazy. Should be noted The Wizard of Oz film made a lot of changes, i.e., ruby slippers are originally silver.
The reason for the change was they didn't believe the silver slippers would be seen. They were changed to Red to show off the contrast.
The studio didn't think people would accept an actual fantasy place. Cue Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.
Return is the closest to the books.
Another change from the books is Glinda being the Witch of the North in the movie. She was originally the Witch of the South and didn't appear until the end of the book, and the Witch of the North, who Dorothy met when she first landed in Oz, went unnamed (to the best of my knowledge).
@@michaelnewsham1412 None of which had been made yet.
10:29 - Yes that’s Elphaba. Wicked is what happened before Dorthy was there and then what happened between the witches once she was there.
Although... that Oz movie from a few years back with Mila Kunis named the character Theodora and the show Once Upon a Time named the character Zelena. Seems really up in the air for each new adaptation to reinvent her as they see fit.
What else...? I forget, did the miniseries with Zooey Deschanel have a version of this character? Looking that up... Hm, I guess Azkadellia is her counterpart in that one (although unlike Theodora and Zelena, Azkadellia never turns green) but that series did some massive overhauls on every single character in the story so that they all barely resembled their counterparts from the original story anyway.
(I'm not at all familiar with Wicked but the assertion that Elphaba is definitely the correct name just didn't sound right to me because of those other examples. I had to look up each of the ones that I've named for reminders on all of these other names, but somewhere in the back of my mind they had to have been rattling around in there. And when I looked up Elphaba the search results all seem to indicate that that name is only associated with Wicked's version of the character.)
EDIT: Hm, just came across a short-lived series called Emerald City. Looking at it now I think I have seen it before, but before now I kinda forgot it had existed. This one also reinvented characters in some big ways like Tin Man did (no green skin here either) but its version of this character was just simply named West.
EDIT2: I'm not sure if this one ever came across my radar at all but there was a movie called Dorothy and the Witches of Oz... Apparently it was a remastered version of a miniseries called The Witches of Oz. An adult Dorothy lives in New York and is a popular childrens author, and one day she learns that her stories are repressed childhood memories when the wicked witch shows up in New York. And I guess the witch spent some time undercover on Earth before this reveal since it says that she was working as a book publisher under the name Billie Westbrook. Wild cast list in this one... Mia Sara, Christopher Lloyd, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Ethan Embry... And apparently this story has Glinda as the good witch of the south (as I've heard that the books had her) and it gives the name Locasta to the good witch of the north. (Is this the only story to name her?)
@@MuljoStpho So maybe those films gave her different names, that is cool. Wicked is not new, not even close. Wicked, the musical, is based on a book that was published 30 years ago. It has Glinda, The Munchkins, The Wizard, The Lion, The Flying Monkeys, and Dorothy. It takes place in the beautiful land of Oz. It is the ONLY writing to have permissions from the original author’s family to continue the story. He did so with grace and dignity.
Other shows, like The Wiz (which I still love), had no permission and named the characters on their own- they also changed the characters attitudes as they saw fit. The other films and television shows, including the ones you are speaking of are considered non-canonical.
Her name in this film is The Wicked Witch of the West and the only other name listed is Elphaba which was given to her in 1995.
The Wicked Witch was sadly seriously burned doing her fiery exit. Also most witches since base their performance on hers in some way or another. Another unfortunate thing was the original Tin Man getting seriously sick from his aluminium face paint, aluminium is very bad for you, so he got replaced and so did the makeup.
When this film was released, there weren't a dozen hollywood movies every month. This film and many others were played year after year in movie theaters. You could have been born in 1950 and still seen it in a theater for the first time.
Like Disney movies used to come into cinemas every 7 years. I saw Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book in the cinema decades after release.
They used to make a lot more movies per year than they do now and much more quickly.
What's so funny to us older folks is that not many people had color TVs until 1965-66, so "Kansas" and Oz were the same color to us. My family didn't see the difference in the yearly broadcast until I was 7. And I wasn't terribly afraid of the flying monkeys like most kids. No, what I found most disturbing was the way the feet of The Wicked Witch of the East curled up and went under Dorothy's house. Why did the dead thing move?! Later in the book I read that the witch was so old that she turned to dust, a la Dracula, and that's what the curling feet represented.
Something that stuck out at me while watching this reaction was the way her toes curled slightly and then her legs slid under the house while my memory of the scene (born in the 80s, seen it a few times over the years) was that her entire legs curled up (no sliding back, only curling). I don't know, maybe it got mixed up in my mind with Simpsons or some other cartoon drawing it that way when mimicking the scene? But yeah, the sliding motion is so strange. It makes it look like something under the house is dragging the body away.
Okay. In the book, the Witch of the South is Glinda, who sends her home at the end, and the Witch of the North is just the witch she meets in the first town who tells her to follow the yellow brick road. The movie combined them into the same witch, and just about every other adaptation has followed suit. I can't recall any adaptation actually having four witches.
*The Wiz* (1978), though it translates the story into a very different context with an all-black cast, retains the original four witches, and also gives Dorothy silver shoes, as in the original book.
Subsequent books in the series make clear that all four lands were originally ruled by evil witches, but the northern and southern ones had been displaced by good witches. The former wicked witch of the north, Mombi, now out of power, is the villain of the second book of the series, The Land of Oz. In 1960, the initial episode of the second season of the TV series Shirley Temple's Storybook was an adaptation of that novel.
In The Muppets Wizard of Oz, Miss Piggy played all four witches. There are also a couple relatively faithful anime adaptations from the '80s that also featured both Glinda and the Good Witch of the North.
@@richardzinns5676 Shirley Temple's *Land of Oz* features Agnes Moorhead as Mombi, four years before she got her signature witch role as Endora on *Bewitched.*
@@richardzinns5676 The north and the south ones had been displaced by evil witches or had displaced the evil witches?
My parents thought they added the color later because it used to always be kind of a big deal when they would play this movie on TV and they had black and white TVs. The color is original even though it's from 1939. Most people don't know color actually predates sound in movies but it was just rarely used because it was so expensive
The whole thing was shot on colour film, but the 'reality' parts were printed to B&W for that sepia effect.
The three actors playing Dorothy's companions were all veterans of Vaudeville and early cinema. Their experience as song-and-dance men made them perfect for the over-the-top characters in Oz. Judy Garland occasionally struggled to avoid being pushed into the background during dance numbers. Frank Morgan played numerous roles in the film, Professor Marvel, the man who answers the doors in Oz, the driver of the coach with the multicolored horse, and, of course, the Wizard of Oz. I always wanted those green, fuzzy mittens! Thanks for the great reaction!
I met Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch) in 1977. I got a job working for an ad agency and they had cast her in a Maxwell House coffee ad in the '60s and she was visiting our offices. I got a photo with her. She was very kind.
A little fun fact: Mel Brooks' Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs (1987), was filmed at the same MGM studio lot where The Wizard of Oz was made. Mel said in his autobiography that he was glad to be walking in Judy Garland's old stomping ground. 😊
And of course Brooks parodied the character's approach to meeting Yogurt to when Dorothy and crew first meet the wizard.
@@trouty42 And when he was disappearing after the Liquid Schwartz bit towards the end, you can hear him say "Oh, what a world, what a world" like the witch did when she was dying.
Childhood memories. As a kid and a family, we waited every year for the announcement of when this would be on the TV. It was a family event. Iam 58 now and still watch it with full enjoyment.
Same here! I'm also 58 and remember how big of a deal it was to watch it. Before streaming and before home video, one only saw the classics when they were shown on television (or the odd theatrical re-release). I used to scan all the movie listings for the week every time we got a new TV Guide. And The Wizard of Oz was definitely one of the big ones. And, like you, I'm still happily transported each and every time I watch it. 💖
@@torontomameThat made me think of all the hours I would spend looking through & reading the TV Guide. Big nostalgia.
71 here. I was an annual event on TV late 50s/early 60s. Color TVs were rare (we certainly didn't have one), so I never saw all the color until much later.
It marked the end of summer and the return to the school year, in Kentucky when I was a kid.
It always played every year, just as school started.
Fun fact: The Wizard of Oz was the first book to put forth the idea of a "good witch". Before it, all witches were written as evil and/or ugly. Frank Baum changed our conception of magic and witchcraft, and what they represent.
To this day, the reveal of Munchkinland through the door of Dorothy's house still gives me goosebumps. It's so utterly simple, and yet it may be the most magical shot ever put on film. (Lack of high tech means nothing to effects when you have willingness and ingenuity.)
Glinda was originally the Witch of the South, and didn't show up in the story until the very end. The Witch of the North, who met Dorothy at the start, was never given a name. The screenwriters decided to combine the two to simplify the story. Also, Dorothy had to travel to the land of the Quadlings in the South in order to consult with Glinda. (The idea of traveling in bubbles didn't appear until the fifth book, where it was used to transport royal guests out of the country after a feast, thus avoiding the Deadly Desert.)
Americans did speak differently in the early 20th century. English evolves here just as much as it does in any other country, as much as any other language, and the accents evolve along with it. If you listen to recordings of people talking in the 20's and 30's, you'll hear the difference. It isn't huge, but it's there. Southern accents in particular have evolved from the original Irish and British accents of the colonials into what we know now. (Viven Leigh's half-British/half-Southern accent in Gone With the Wind was actually closer to how Scarlett would have spoken than any Southern accent at the time the movie was made.) The "Mid-Atlantic" accent, though, did not evolve. It was deliberately created to bridge the gap between the elite in England and the elite in America, who didn't like sounding like hicks to the Brits. It was widely used in theater and films; no actor who wanted a real career would forego training in it. (Katherine Hepburn is the premier example of the Mid-Atlantic accent, and the actress whose image is most tied into it.) It became a signifier of class; if you didn't talk like that, you were lower class and probably dirty. So much for the US being a "classless" society.
If you think the Tin Man's long time all rusted up was bad, you should read how he _became_ a tin man. It's the stuff of nightmares. The 19th century didn't mess around coddling kids.
Dorothy's predicament in the Witch's castle is much more awful in the movie than in the book. She's never threatened with death in the book. Instead, she's locked up and made to be the Witch's slave. She finally escapes with the help of the Lion, who was also locked up.
Margaret Hamilton had to contend with the image of the Witch for decades. So much so that Mr. Rogers invited her onto his show to dispel it. She brought her Witch costume and put it on piece by piece, all the time talking pleasantly about acting and pretending. It's an amazing video; you can see it here on YT. :)
Margaret Hamilton was severely burned on the set of Wizard of Oz, during the scene in which she disappears in a ball of fire, but didn't sue because a small actor suing a big studio at the time would have been the end of their career. She continued acting for decades afterwards, including guest appearances on the original Addams Family TV series playing Morticia's mother.
Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch) is buried in Gates of Heaven Cemetary, Vahalla, NY next to my grandparents. 🙂
Fun facts: the prop dept. went to a second-hand store looking for a jacket for Professor Marvel. They wanted one that showed shabby nobility. The actor put his hand into a pocket and found the nametag of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz books. The Cowardly Lion's costume was made from a real lion pelt and weighed 50-75 lbs. The makeup for the Scarecrow made permanent marks on his face. The first exit of the Wicked Witch included flames which caused the copper makeup on her face to burn scarring her face. Production shut down for 6 weeks while she healed. After that, her exits had no flame, only smoke. In America, this was shown on TV annually, and everyone I knew would watch it every year, like clockwork. I missed it the first time when I was 22 years old! Also, note that the Scarecrow with no brains had all the ideas (making the apple trees angry, etc.) and the Tin Man with no heart was the emotional one.
@martiwalsh2069 They showed it annually on TV in the UK too, and on Christmas Day.
Honestly George being surprised that Simone said she was a human is more suspicious than her saying it.
I notice that they are never in the same room at the same time.
@@timbuktu8069 there are actually some reactions where they are next to each other... but that does not rule out the fact that they are not human...
Clearly that robot movie Simone was in was actually a true documentary. George has said he works in AI. The signs have been there all along.
@@ProgressiveRoxx the clues were all there from the beginning...
Every single video-
Simone: Random opening line
George: (Puzzled face) Hmm??
Judy died aged 47 in 1969.Lion died in 1968,Tin Man in 1979,a few weeks after Oscar hosting with Scarecrow actor who lived thru to 1987...Bad witch lived to 1985🎩
I'm really surprised Simone hasn't seen this already
"You've always had the power to go back to Kansas... she had to learn it for herself." But she DIDN'T learn it for herself, you had to TELL her! You could have told her at the beginning and saved her from a long, perilous journey. Just admit you withheld that important tidbit of information long enough for Dorothy to do your dirty work for you! 🤣
I like how Wizard of Oz unintentionally gives you a quintessential RPG party for the main cast.
Conspiracy theory - Simone is not totally a human ... she's an angel. Covered in Dorito dust.
I've always said that one of the best scenes that sometimes go unnoticed is when they first meet the lion and he starts to cry...He's wiping his eyes with the tip of his tail...That is so funny.
I like Glinda's wicked humour: "Now, begone! before someone drops a house on you too!"
@@RideAcrossTheRiver A great line.
Frank Morgan played 5 different roles in this movie. The lion costume was made from an actual lion skin. So much trivia behind this film. One of the most unique films ever made. And one of my favorites.
They killed a lion? 😮 Savages!
@@stevenulch2764 🤣Somebody had to
I rather it had from a natural deceased lion, not killed while it was living. That's all I meant.
@@stevenulch2764 I don’t know if it was or not. Probably not, but who knows?
@@stevenulch2764 The only time anyone or anything can be killed is when it's living...
The Tin Man: The actor originally cast for this part was Buddy Ebsen. To create his “tin” face, an aluminum powder makeup was invented. After only ten days of filming, inhaling this powder caused Ebsen to have a severe reaction as the dust entered his lungs. He nearly died.
Jack Haley was then cast as the Tin Man, without anyone telling him what had happened to Ebsen. At least MGM changed the composition of his face makeup: the aluminum powder was turned into a paste, to avoid the danger of inhaling it. But the paste gave Haley an eye infection that required surgery.
Also, before filming began, the producers allowed Bolger and Ebsen to switch roles. Ray Bolger was desperate to play the scarecrow and Buddy Ebsen didn’t mind at all. He wasn’t to know his kindly gesture would land him in hospital fighting for his life.
I like to think the theme of this movie is all about the power of home. It says that we carry our home within us, wherever we go, and the problems we meet on life's journey can be defeated using what we learned from home ("She always had the power"). In fact, she realizes how important home is at the end when she says, "There's no place like home."
Margaret Hamilton, The Wicked Witch, made an appearance on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in the mid 70's to show kids that she was just an actress and not a real witch.
(She also played "Cora" in a long running series of TV commercials for Maxwell House coffee.)
In the 70s when we only had three television stations, the Wizard of Oz would be shown once a year (I think around spring time). It was an event. You have to remember no streaming, no DVDs, - you watched it when it was on TV or not at all. It was like a holiday when it came on. Now a days we have so many options that we rarely have an experience like that.
i remember it as Thanksgiving...after the games...and the meal. The food coma took out the kids a half hour in per my aunt. I only saw the entire film as part of the 50th anniversary special and documentary. 2039 and the 100th anniversary is right around the corner. Wizard lost out for the Oscar to a very forgotten film "Gone with the Wind"😉
The annual showings actually began in 1959, three years after the film was first shown on television.
We had it on Easter week
What's kind of awesome about you guys finally watching this movie is the countless references to it in pop culture you will start to notice. This movie used to be played on TV yearly before cable became widespread and people would watch it over and over. It became quoted or allegories made to it constantly because just everyone knew the story so well.
Trivia correction:
-Judy was already a user of both amphetamines and barbiturates which her mother put her on when she was very young to keep her awake or put her to bed to keep up her schedule as part of a family musical preforming act.
If you’re interested in learning more about either the production of this movie or about any other Oz media, other movies cartoons stage shows or the books I recommend Tori over at the Oz vlog. She does a really good job of conveying the information.
I like how they complain no one is listening to Dorothy, while they talk over Dorothy's dialogue.
I liked all the talk about how Mandy Patinkin's version was so beautiful and they'd never heard Garland's -- I'm not sure they've heard it yet. (I do expect reactors to talk, by the way, but . . .)
@@HuntingViolets These two morons never shut up
This film was released in 1939, 85 years ago. While it wasn’t the first film in color, it revolutionized color use in film. Pure magic.
Yes that is Elphaba. I can’t wait for Wicked to come out. I’ve seen the musical 3 times and it turns this entire story on its head.
I consider it an alternate universe. Much like the show Lucifer, Wicked victimizes a wicked being and makes being bad look okay in the right light.
I didn't love Wicked onstage (though I'm definitely looking forward to movie versions), but I LOVED the book it was based on, by Gregory Maguire. So much of what made the book utterly fascinating to me wouldn't have fit into a stage musical, so I get it. But it's so much more intricate, and much darker.
@@torontomame the clock tower with 2 d-s kind of made me uncomfortable… (also Elphaba being a hermaphrodite).
I hated the book so much I've never seen the musical
I actually worked on restoring The Wizard of Oz for Blu-Ray and other future releases, back in early 2008 or 2009. I was part of a large team that went through the origiinal master reel and would then digitially paint and remove any scratches or imperfections on the reel, before printing it onto new film stock. My understanding is that film tends to only have a life-span of about 100 years, and this would've been for the 75th anniversary to celebrate and preserve the film at it's best.
Thank you!
Very cool! So is there really a body of a hanging man in the background of the forest scene? 😆
@@amandaally7623Nope, I mean I scanned it frame by frame on a 32 inch monitor - you'd typically spend 10 seconds shuffling 1-4 frames backwards and forwards to see if anything caught your eye. Never saw anything ha
@@JJ_WI mean I was like one of probably a hundred people ha, but happy to work on it
They completely flip the 'DREAM SCRIPT' by having the DREAM WORLD (Oz) in COLOR, and the REAL WORLD (Kansas) in BLACK & WHITE! Brilliant!! This COULD BE the GREATEST MOVIE EVER!!
In the movie, the tension had been increasing since Dorothy ran away and was at it's peak when she was caught in the twister. They realized they had to release the tension a bit (as this is a movie for children) by having various funny things fly by the window (the old lady in the rocking chair, the men in the rowboat), then the transition into Oz (Miss Gulch turning into the witch) was easier on the kids ... Very clever story-telling!
Oh, that was delightful. I love it when you guys laugh.
Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, was one of the most successful song-and-dance performers of his generation. The work required for that floppy, ragdoll dancing must have been tremendous. Someone's probably already mentioned this, but Frank Morgan (Professor Marvel) was *all* the men they met in the Emerald City -- the guard at the gates, the driver of the coach, the warden of the Wizard's palace, and the Wizard himself.
Odd little fact but Glinda the good witch was played by Billie Burke who was married to Florenz Ziegfeld the impresario who produced the famous Ziegfeld Follies but had to return to work after the 1929 crash wiped out much of their assets.
The one other movie I remember her from is “Topper,” she’s Mrs. Topper.
That’s kind of sad but at least she played Glinda the Good.
Billie Burke is wonderful as the harried hostess in Dinner At Eight (1933), which also features knockout performances by Jean Harlowe, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. MGM, more stars than there are in the heavens. And in or out of the witch costume she sounds the same!
To help Billie Burke pay off her debts, MGM bought from her the rights to the Ziegfeld name, which allowed the company to make "The Great Ziegfeld," (a true musical spectacular; well worth watching), "Ziegfeld Girl," and "The Ziegfeld Follies."
I always found her annoying in movies - that fake little voice.
Aside from the other stand-out cast members, Bert Lahr was a popular and well-known comedian and actor. He was born in New York city to Geman-Jewish immigrant parents, started in vaudeville and burlesque, and served in the Navy in WW1. He didn't do a lot of Hollywood films, instead mainly doing Broadway and other stage plays/musicals, and played Estragon in the US premiere of the famous play Waiting for Godot, then later won a Tony award for best actor.
I remember my grandparents, who were fans of his, remarking sadly that many of Judy Garland's co-stars outlived her despite her being so much younger than them. The show business world knew how talented she was and really just ran her ragged with a ridiculous schedule. I was 6 months old in 1969 when she died at 47.
I believe in ancient Celtic tradition, people would “ride” a broom, trying to jump higher and higher, in order to make their crops grow higher.
The accent was created because recording hardware back then required you to annunciate carefully or else it wouldn't be picked up on the radio properly. Also The Wiz Ft. Michael Jackson would be a interesting reaction.
There are a lot of people that have a problem with how the witch died. But the wizard said it, You liquidated her.
And to a kid the word liquidate would be done with water.
I remember when I was a kid and commercials would advertise the liquidation of their inventory and I wondered how that worked. So to Dorothy if you wanted to get rid of something, water would do it.
Frank Morgan played The Wizard and Professor Marvel...and the Gatekeeper, the Carriage Driver and the crying guard.
When I was growing up this came on TV every year for the holidays. We always watched it and I would always go hide under my bed as soon as the flying monkeys showed up. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Man but had a very serious reaction to the silver paint and was replaced while in the hospital. The interesting thing about it is that people said Buddy was “cursed” and had missed his chance for fame and yet he went on to further roles in TV shows and his replacement wasn’t really successful. It was also commented on how despite his brush with death Buddy Ebsen went on to outlive all the main characters actors. Only a few of the Munchkins and some set workers outlived him. This is one of the few movies that are labeled as a timeless classic that I feel really deserve the title.
"Professor Marvel" also portrays the Guard at the entrance to Emerald City, the driver of the cart with the horse of a different color, the guard to the Wizard, and the Wizard of Oz, himself.
Billie Burke plays "Glinda The Good Witch" and she was well known for her high-society way of speaking. She was in many movies.
I grew up near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which is the hometown of Judy Garland. They did a lot of annual events honoring Judy and the Wizard of Oz when I was growing up, and one year my school went to see the movie in theaters and some of the actors were there signing autographs. I still have an autograph from Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Coroner.
The jacket worn by Professor Marvel was found in a second hand store and when looking it over there was a tag saying Frank L. Baum, the writer of Wizard of Oz, so it was fate concerning that jacket
Actually, that was a lie put out by the MGM publicity department, who even claimed it was vouched for by the Baum family. The Baum family said it wasn't true, MGM never came to them, and Baum was never there at the time to sell or pawn the coat. (I wanted to believe it, too.)
I heard a lot of behind-the-scenes stories for this movie (some true, some not), but this is the first time I'm hearing this one.
Margaret Hamilton actually started out as a Kindergarten teacher, but started acting to better support her young son. She actually learned she had gotten a part in THE WIZARD OF OZ at a baseball game. She then asked, "Who am I playing?" Her agent said, "Well.......the Witch." Hamilton exclaimed, "THE WITCH??!!" And then her agent said the clencher, "Yeah, what else?"
Hamilton's performance in the film is actually only about 40% of her performance as she was deemed FAR TOO SCARY by early test audiences.
A few decades later, she reprised her role as the Wicked Witch on the children's show SESAME STREET, but again, she was considered wayyyy too scary. The episode never aired again and was considered "LOST" until it was found and uploaded on the internet just last year.
I'd love to watch some deleted Wicked Witch scenes with Margaret Hamilton!!
Writer Peter David pointed out that given that this movie was made during the Great Depression, the message of this film could be taken as "don't dream of a better situation, be happy with your lot, don't dream, just accept the fact that you live in poverty and don't try to get away from your fate."
The legend of witches from medieval Europe is that the witches carried a broom stick like a staff as a signifier of their membership in the order. The broomstick would be brought to a witches gathering or Coven and the legend is the witches would straddle their broomsticks and gallop around a fire mimicking horseback riders.
This would later morph into them levitating into the air as they rode around and later it became flying through the air on broomstick like we see today.
it is not certain if they held their brooms with the brush on top or carried it with the brush on the bottom, nor is it certain if they straddled the broom with the brush at the top or trailing behind them. It has been illustrated in both orientations.
Well, you left out that they didn't wear panties while broom riding. They could get a better grip.
It’s interesting that a lot of depictions show the witches riding the broom ‘sidesaddle’ while as a kid I always thought they straddled the broom.
@@montylc2001 ...there weren't "panties" until the 19th century, so no one had them TO wear. And there's some debate about whether or not women wore the braies commonly depicted on men in medieval artwork.
@@tracy4290 jeezus it's a JOKE.
Watch this again with Rifftrax joke commentary. Funny as hell!
"Look at those poppy fields! This isn't Oz, it's Afghanistan!"
"Guess now we know why the Wizard's so powerful."
Until the Rifftrax track, I never noticed that when they went to kill the witch, the scarecrow brought A GUN.
i know they had limited knowledge going in but, “…another song…” during a Musical, little did they know. 😂😊
omg OMG OMG that was one of the most magical and colorful reactions to The Wizard of Oz! Particularly enjoyed Simone and George discovering many film references they've seen elsewhere.
Another is Cowardly Lion crashing through the window was parodied by Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! along with Johnny doing the Auntie Em a twister, a twister.
For decades, this movie would come on during the (american) thanksgiving weekend. It became a tradition for generations to watch it once a year.
This one really has it all. Flying Monkey’s, angry apple trees, giant wizard heads, and everything is really just over the top:)