Wizard of Oz (1939)

It was slightly unusual, but by no means unique, in that the musical was originated on film; this was more common in the '30s and '40s than it is today, when typically only musicals that have already succeeded on Broadway are slated for transition to film.

Judy Garland's Breakout Role

The Wizard of Oz was the star-making role for sixteen year old Judy Garland, who was under contract with MGM. The 'Dorothy' of the novel was a much younger girl, between 7 and 10, certainly pre-pubescent. Casting a teenager in the role lessened some of the novel's dramatic tension - threatening a child is considerably more alarming to an audience than threatening a teen, who can be expected at some level to be able to take care of themselves. Of course, a ten year old probably could not have handled the songs.

The songs are what makes The Wizard of Oz an unforgettable movie. That, and the fact that it was shown on network television every year for decades...

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Oh my. What a cast. The Wizard of Oz was filmed when MGM ruled the musical roost. It was also the heyday of the contract system, when actors were contracted to particular studios on a multi-year basis, rather than serving, as they do today, as 'independent agents' working for production companies on a project-by-project basis.

Accompanying Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale on the Oz's Yellow Brick Road were Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion ("I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts, I do, I do, I do, I doooo."), Jack Haley as the TinMan (called the Tin Woodsman in the novel) and Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow. Add a good witch (Billy Burke as Glinda), a bad witch (Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West), a collection of Munchkins and a band of flying monkeys and you have a movie to conjure with.

Wizard of Oz Cult Status

All baby boomers are intimately familiar with The Wizard of Oz, having grown up watching it on television yearly. But it is in the gay community that it first attained true cult status. As the travellers on the Yellow Brick Road gain entry into the Emerald City by claiming to be Friends of Dorothy, the phrase 'a friend of Dorothy' (or FOD) became a codeword for gay that is used even today, when codewords are presumably no longer necessary. Gays adopted the rainbow as their symbol, and Judy Garland was perhaps the first recognized 'gay icon'. Five days after her death in 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. Raiding gay bars was nothing new, and the police did it all the time in the sixties, but this time, it touched off violent riots, which many attribute to the gay community's smouldering sense of loss and outrage. The Stonewall Riots, which lasted for several days, are generally seen as the beginning of the 'Gay Liberation' movement.