On August 25th of this year, the film Wizard of Oz will be 70 years old!
For me, watching Wizard of Oz as a kid on television (pre-video/pre-DVD) was a big event! I can remember getting excited at least a day in advance - we kids would talk our mother into fixing dinner early and eating on TV trays (remember those>?) in the living room.
I would be glued to the television and watch the broadcast and get scared at the flying monkeys and wicked witch and just lose myself in the film. When we finally got a color television set, I could hardly wait to see what it looked like in color!
Over the years, I have probably seen the film all the way through at least 50 times, and still catch myself watching parts of it when I am channel surfing and happen to come across it.
I think Wizard of Oz is most certainly one of the all-time classic films. I know it has pretty lame special effects compared to today’s standards, but I hope young children still get the same thrill and excitement at watching it as I did.
To this day, whenever I hear Over The Rainbow - there is a severe tug of nostalgia for those days as a kid when I would lie on the floor and find myself magically transported to the Land of Oz.
I second this. I always enjoyed when they showed it each year (usually around Halloween, IIRC). It’s one of the better movies made, and it’s a shame it was put out in a year when there was some of themost amazingcompetition for Oscarsaround. :eek:
My family has actively referenced it since my parents were children. It’s part of our vocabulary.
Though not as good, but very interesting for the behind the scenes story (the only film Dr. Seuss was ever official involved with) The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is an enjoyable lost classic in a similar vein.
Not to mention that several categories where Wizard would’ve been strong competition (Costumes, Make-Up) didn’t even exist with the Academy yet. Still, despite such a strong year, it was only one of two films (the other being Stagecoach) that managed to bring home more than one Oscar despite the GWTW juggernaut. I caught the lion’s share of it yesterday on TCM and so many things about it still remain timelessly entertaining.
I agree the Wizard of Oz was a special event. It’s hard to believe the Wicked Witch was only in it for like 12 minutes.
*Are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Oh I’m not a witch at all*
The one thing I like is when the WW of the West sees her sister with a house on top of her and says “Who killed my sister?”
Even as a little kid I thought, now if a house fell on someone I would assume it’s a tornado or a freak accident, murder wouldn’t be the first thing on my mind. Dropping a house on a person must be a common method of murder in Oz
The Wizard of Oz was a for certain yearly view in my house, even though my parents were not big on tv. Of course, as a young child I was scared of the witch and would hide behind the couch when she was on the screen. Poor Margaret Hamilton! They used to show it at varying times, but often it was shown over Thanksgiving weekend although I’m not sure exactly why the Thanksgiving holiday. Maybe because families were joined together to celebrate, I don’t know. But like others, I’ve probably seen it at least 50 times over the years. I think it was 1955 when they first started the yearly showings on tv.
TCM showed it last night, along with a behind-the-scenes making of documentary beforehand; it was all very interesting stuff, most of which I already knew about but some of it was new to me. I loved seeing Judy’s kids talking about her and how she would tell these elaborate stories, and people believed them!
I didn’t get a chance to see it in color - well, the parts in color, that is - until I was a freshman in college (my parents didn’t get a color set until I was in college, believe it or not). I actually saw it in one of the auditoriums on campus and I was wonderfully entranced at finally seeing the technicolor Oz, especially the horse of a different color.
What a wonderful, classic film; the special effects should most definitely NOT be judged by today’s standards; by those of the day, they were top notch.
It’s my opinion that TWOO is the most referenced American work of fiction (all mediums) ever. Rare is the day that goes by without an average person hearing some mention of it, somehow.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas, anymore” Good/Bad witches. Toto. Man behind the curtain. Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy’s dress…
When I was a kid, we went to my aunt’s house to watch it, since she had a color TV. It was a VERY big deal (even if the colors didn’t look quite right). There were also special “host” segments. According to one book on The Wizard of Oz, Dick Van Dyke hosted for two years, doing sketches on-camera (he was apparently a pretty good artist). I recall from later on, whjen Danny Kaye was host.
Incidentally, one of the effects guys was A. Arnold Gillespie, who was an effects animator for Disney, and later did the Monster (and other effects) for Forbidden Planet. The Glass Paintings in the film were gorgeous, and I’m still impressed by the tornado when you see it in the background
I don’t have much to add about The Wizard of Oz (except that as a Kansan, I kind of resent its role in introducing “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore - heh heh” into the pop culture vernacular). However, you all may be interested to know that Turner Classic Movies is paying tribute this month to 1939, Hollywood’s Greatest Year. It looks like they’ll be showing The Wizard of Oz tonight at 6 p.m. as well as other 1939 movie classics throughout July.
One of my top 5 all-time favorite movies. Maybe even top 2.
I consider it notable that last night I sat down and watched the whole thing on TCM and, even after having seen it well more than 50 times, still got choked up, felt joy, excitement, and was not bored for an instant. (I have, however, gotten over my witch/flying monkey fear.) Like others have mentioned, I grew up on it as a yearly TV event, and raised my daughter in the age of VCRs and DVDs to love it equally. Even now that she’s grown and married, we will occasionally lie on the bed, pop it in the DVD player and watch together from beginning to end while our husbands do man-stuff. I still get a little shiver when Dorothy opens that black and white farmhouse door onto the Technicolor spectacle of Munchkinland.
Haven’t yet watched the 1939 celebration documentary, but I am in the middle of a New Yorker article about Victor Fleming who concurrently directed Oz and GWTW. Quite the accomplishment to add to a resume!
I’ve recently finished rereading Wicked and McGuire attempts to lampshade this by instilling the witch with a sense of paranoia since childhood…which only got worse because she hadn’t been sleeping much at all for months before her sister died.
It does work pretty well at making her bitchy without actually being evil.
I also share a love of the movie going back to my childhood. It was a special event when it was on TV and when color TV’s came out it was that much more special.
Many years ago I attended an outdoor Halloween party at a bar district and what I remember most was a small shop owner who projected the movie onto the storefront window. It wasn’t long before a circle of adults formed around the window and I couldn’t help but smile when I realized we all looked like a bunch of kids watching it in front of the television.
Those flying monkeys scared the bejezus out of me as a kid. Still do.
And that has to have been Margaret Hamilton’s greatest role. An actor stooges around hollywood, does a million bit parts, and then one day they get a role that people will remember until the end of time. Like lightning out of the blue.
I’m a huge fan. Not enough to decorate my house in the stuff, or buy the Dept. 56 stuff, but I did consider getting one of the figurines.
Growing up the year was basically a long wait until the next showing. I was mesmerized from beginning to end. I even ended up reading the books, although that was so long ago I can’t say I remember much.
My daughter handed me the DVD today, but it was right before nap time. Maybe I’ll curl up with her and watch it tonight. She’s almost 4.
I agree. I own the book Pufnstuf & Other Stuff, about the Krofft kids’ shows from the 70s, and there’s a section in which Billie Hayes, who played Witchie-Poo on H.R. Pufnstuf, talked about her friendship with Margaret Hamilton, and how heartbroken she was that her best-known character was one that scared children so badly. Margaret was somewhat jealous of the fact that children LOVED Witchie-Poo but would run screaming from the WWotW.
