In the Wizard of Oz, as I’m sure you all know, there is a trio of farmhands in Kansas that become the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion in Dorothy’s dream.
Why do three guys from Kansas talk like they’re from Brooklyn?
Because we all know there are no criminals in Kansas.
If you mean within the movie, there’s no explanation at all.
If you mean in real life, they were all vaudeville comedians who moved to Hollywood, so they started (I assume, I haven’t checked) in NY.
If you mean in the world of supposition, then you could try to sell a prequel movie about three guys who were friends but couldn’t find work in NYC during the Great Depression, so headed out west and got stranded in Kansas. They were taken in by kindly Auntie Em, who gave them jobs on the farm. Hilarity ensues when Auntie Em’s brother and sister were killed in a hotel fire in Chicago, and baby Dorothy comes out to live with them at the farm. Talking pigs optional.
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
Wha? I thought you were talking about Oz the prison series, not The Wizard of Oz the movie.
Your header - “Oz” - threw me off so badly I didn’t even SEE the first few words of the post. I figured some guy is in the jug having a cliché gay epiphany or something à la Kiss of the Spider Woman, only not so original. (Hey, it’s TV.)
(Note to self: coffee first, Reply button later.)
Now to your actual question. A quick IMDb search reveals that while Bert Lahr (the Lion) was a native New Yorker, Jack Haley and Ray Bolger both hailed from greater Boston. Although it’s likely their delivery got “New Yorkified” quite a bit with all their years on Broadway.
But the thing is, see…all three were veteran vaudeville comedians of the day. And for the most part, vaudeville comics were big city, East Coast kinda guys. Before the movies, most talent got discovered close to home. Three seasoned song-and-dance-men with Midwest twangs would have been hard to find. Even Chicago-born Buddy Ebsen - slated early on to play the Tin Man - was kind of a rarity, and he’d come up as a slow-talking, hayseed comic dancer, not your classic all-around funnyman.
What the hell kind of suppositional world makes talking pigs optional? :dubious:
, I was wondering where that first post came from. I was prepared to be upset that you thought all people from Brooklyn were criminals? 
**
C K Dexter Haven**: I think that was a great answer except the Talking Pig part. Is that a non-Oz Reference?
Jim
Well, I know there is not supposed to be some subplot in the story that explains this, but I was wondering if the actors were given any direction regarding their elocution. If Dan Rather can do a neutral accent on his broadcasts, then I would expect these guys could have done so in the movie, if so directed.
I’m just wondering if this was a deliberate style choice of the director/producer to connect to an audience, or if that’s just the way they talked and nobody thought they should talk any differently.
They were comic relief. In 1939, comic relief had a Brooklyn/Bronx Accent. See Bugs Bunny for further references to this phenomenon. 
Jim
Accent? What accent?
In the old Frankenstein movies, some of the villagers talk like Brits, some like Americans. I just figured Hollywood wasn’t too careful about such things back then.
You’re hung up on that, but the accents of the Munchkinland born-and-bred Lollipop Guild Representatives gives you no pause?
Hey, c’mon. Sure they’re short and funny lookin’, but that’s no reason to go insinuatin’ that they got paws!!
(bolding mine)
Holy crap! Dorothy Gale was the result of an incestuous union!? I’d never heard that before! So basically **Oz ** is like the sequel to Flowers in the Attic?
I always figured they had traveled to Kansas to find work seasonally. Either that, or due to the depression/Dust Bowl they had to travel as far as Kansas to get a job. That wasn’t at all uncommon. I do believe that farmhands of that era would travel seasonal circuits, saving enough money to live through the winter and start the cycle anew in the spring though.