"The Wizard of Oz" turns 70

maybe it's because i had to watch the movie constantly as a kid, but i now can't stand the movie....but i am still a huge judy garland fan. (i feel like sharing my 'judy collection' with ya'll)

...as for that book written by her daughter (me and my shadow), i dont think that book was fair to Judy. i know she had issues, of course, but eh...i got the impression that most of the stuff in that book was either exaggerated or made up. yikes, i better go before i start on a full rant. :-P

I absolute adore Return to Oz. I think alot of people were turned off by it, expecting perhaps something more like the Wizard of Oz. Instead they got a non-musical, VERY dark movie that was actually more in tune with the Frank Baum books. I know it kinda bombed in theaters, but it's probably one of my favorite movies for not being so glossed over and over-friendly to all audiences, much like the original.

I saw Wicked and thought it was also nice, but I have to admit, for as much fun as it is when you're there watching it, only Defying Gravity and Popular resonated enough, or were just catchy enough, to stay in my mind as music/songs I'd want to listen to over and over again.

Like so many others this motion picture truly resonated with me as a young naive child of about 9 in the early 1960's when I saw it on a B+W TV.  The experience truly changed my life. When I look back on my fascination of all things "Oz" and Judy Garland it now seems like a dull gay cliche, however it was an integral part of who I was and who I am to this very day. I was gay long before I even knew what gay was! The fates picked me to be a friend of Dorothy's.

In my neighborhood I was known as the "somewhere over the rainbow kid" probably something not to be very proud of. I remember many years calling my neighbors down the street each year because they had a COLOR TV.

I guess I have very mixed feeling about the film now due to the fact that I have seen it so many many times. Unfortunately maybe I just grew up in an intolerant world. Sad in a way...

Can't wait for the new Streisand CD!!  

"Yup, I'm Gay!"   Oh well... as Tony Soprano would say...    Ay, whatta ya gonna do?

It's our Founding Allegory

No one appreciates you at home, so you leave and join a band ot simpatico outcasts fight Evil, and discover that you SHOULD "pay attention to the little man behind the curtain."

RAINBOW, starring Andrea McArdle as Little Frances Gumm...  If I didn't know I was a Friend of Dorothy, I sure did after taking in this 1978 made-for-TV movie, featuring Don Murray as Judy's gay daddy, Frank. 

Directed by Jackie Cooper, I believe it was based on a book, though there were only subtle hints at Mr. Gumm's sexuality in the movie version.  Like the scene where Mrs. Gumm (Piper Laurie) berates her husband for having an affair, and shaming the family name.  "If it were another WOMAN, it would be one thing."  (Or something to that extent.)

Realizing that Dorothy Gale's real-life father was gay made it a little easier to (eventually) accept my own homosexuality.

DRAMA QUEERS! by Frank Anthony Polito

Kensington Books/June 2009 

www.dramaqueers.net

When the film was restored and broadcast, I tried to watch it as an older kid because it had been so hyped as a seminal cultural thing. By the time the 'little people' started showing up, I had turned it off.  

I've never tried to watch it since.  I think people watch because it feels compulsory.

I can't tell you how many times I'd seen "Wizard" over the years, including throwing various "Oz" themed parties, but the first time I saw it at the Castro was a revelation.  The colors were so vivid, it was almost hyper-real.  And, of course, having a gay audience picking up every double-entendre or great line, as well as singing along, was frosting on the cake.  The Judy Garland-Stonewall connection probably cemented the film's relationship with the gay audience, no matter how much some gays have carped about it over the years.  (There may be some self-hating homophobia involved there from more militant gays who refuse to acknowledge any link between Garland's funeral and the riots later that night.)

I'm mid-way through reading the recent-ish bio of L. Frank Baum.  His mother in law, Matilda Gage, was a renowned feminist who worked with Susan B. Anthony, and his wife Maud also espoused many feminist beliefs.  The Baums were also interested in theosophism (look it up), and many of these threads thus found their way into Frank's masterpiece.  (Note: a land where four witchy women run the country and the only major male is a "humbug," and the heroine is a young girl who has no traditional heterosexual romantic subplot/paradigm.  Also, all of the other three major male characters are not human, and are searching for certain qualities of self-improvement.)  However, a few major symbols from the film--the rainbow, the ruby slippers--have become inextricably linked with the story, to the point where people are surprised, confused, or even offended if you tell them they're not accurate.  (Trust me, some people at the Butchart Gardens one Christmas when I was there were very flummoxed by a dancing Dorothy statue as the book depicts her--wearing green glasses and silver shoes.) 

I love "Return to Oz," and "Journey" is a fascinating mess that, like "Return," purees "The Marvellous Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz" together.  "Wicked" the book is a brilliant concept, but I'm not sure how well it dovetails with Baum by its finish.  The musical "Wicked," interestingly, does a terrific job of stripping away a lot of the clutter from Maguire's book, keeping the key characters and throughline, and also bringing in chunks of Baum and the 1939 film; however, by the time it gets to the last 10 minutes of the show, the show's writers basically throw up their hands and chuck Baum, the movie, AND Maguire out the window for an ending which makes no sense if you think about it.  (No spoilers here.)  It's still worth seeing for its marvellous examination of women's roles in politics and their personal lives--when Glinda and Elphaba (the witch of the West) have their fight before and during "Defying Gravity," it's a refreshing moment in art: two women really arguing about some VERY big issues, and how to negotiate their place in the world.  Baum would've probably been thrilled.

Final odd note: the coat Frank Morgan (the Wizard) wears in "The Wizard of Oz" was found in a second-hand shop by an MGM costumer before shooting.  When they turned the label inside out on one of the pockets, they found the previous owner's name neatly stitched on it: L. Frank Baum. 

flying monkeys....'nuff said

fabulous sets, costumes, dance numbers,  an anthem of yearning to break your heart, fiercc evil pver-the-top bit, er  witches...a lion who was more pussy...cat, finding the brain, the heart ans the courage to be yourself within yourself, and favulous shoes!!

i hope some lost footage has been found, like the 'jitterb-bug' sequence which was cut to not make the film seem dated

did antone see the sci-fi channel's 'tin man' with alan cumng, zoey deschanel nd neal mcdonough, and i believe richard dreyfuss as the wizard?