Archive for May, 2015

“JE NE SUIS PAS BUGINGO”

Tuesday, May 26th, 2015
Logo

Logo

Groupe National

(Montréal, le 26 mai 2015 à 9h15) Le journaliste et commentateur Roger-Luc Chayer, dirigeant du Groupe National et ex-Président de l’Association Canadienne des Journalistes du chapître de Montréal, lançait ce matin une campagne inusitée visant à redonner confiance au public envers les journalistes qui peuvent afficher clairement et sans ambiguité le logo “JE NE SUIS PAS BUGINGO”.

“Les journalistes sont les gardiens de la démocratie, de la libre circulation des idées et des événements qui ont des effets collectifs sur la santé et la vitalité de nos démocraties. Le journalisme constitue un pouvoir important au même titre que celui des élus, des juges et des forces de l’ordre. François Bugingo a commis certains gestes qui minent la confiance du public envers une information qui a l’obligation d’être réelle et basée sur des faits documentés”, déclare Roger-Luc Chayer, auteur du logo reposant sur le comcept de Charlie Hebdo.

“La plupart des journalistes professionnels sont des défenseur de l’intégrité. Ils agissent à titre de chien de garde des intérêts de la société et à ce titre, ils ont une obligation de moyens qu’il faut remettre à l’avant-scène de manière à clairement garantir aux lecteurs, aux téléspectateurs ou aux internautes que l’information qu’on leur donne est de première qualité, du triple A de l’info”, conclut le journaliste.

Tous les journalistes qui souhaitent placer sur leur page Facebook, sur leur compte Twitter ou sur leur blogue ce logo de garanti peuvent le faire librement dès maintenant. Le logo ayant été lancé sur la page Facebook de Roger-Luc Chayer https://www.facebook.com/gayglobe.media

François Bugingo

Saturday, May 23rd, 2015

Wikipédia

François Bugingo (né en 1974 à Kisangani, au Congo – ) est un animateur et journaliste québécois.

Il est vice-président international de Reporters sans frontières et président de la section canadienne de cet organisme.

Le 23 mai 2015, le journal La Presse publie un reportage affirmant que plusieurs événements relatés au cours de sa carrière sont inventés. 1

Animation

  • Animateur de l’émission Points chauds à la station Télé-Québec.
  • Collaborateur couvrant les nouvelles internationales à l’émission Dutrizac au 98,5 FM.
  • Été 2007, il anime l’émission de radio Parce que c’est l’été à l’antenne de la Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada.
  • 2007-2008, il remplace occasionnellement l’animatrice Christiane Charette, particulièrement pendant la période des fêtes 2007 à l’émission Au détour du monde.
  • Été 2008, il anime Sans détour, toujours à Radio-Canada.
  • Depuis 2007, il anime un mois sur deux des conférences sur des enjeux internationaux au Musée de la civilisation à Québec.
  • À partir de janvier 2009, il commente l’actualité, la politique et la culture dans l’émission Génération 2000 présentée sur les ondes de Musimax. Cette émission passe en revue les évènements marquants de chaque année de la décennie 2000.
  • En 2011, il devient l’animateur de la première émission La course Évasion autour du monde diffusée sur le canal Évasion.
  • 9 septembre 2013, il co-anime la nouvelle émission d’informations internationales 30 sur le radar sur la chaîne LCN.

Publications

  • Africa Mea: le Rwanda et le drame africain, Liber, 1997
  • La Mission au Rwanda, Liber, 1997
  • Rebelle sans frontières, en collaboration avec Marc Vachon, Boréal, 2005, traduction dans 10 langues

Chroniques

Prix et distinctions

En février 2009, il est lauréat du mois de l’histoire des Noirs à Montréal.

全球同性恋集团推出简体中国服务 Quánqiú tóngxìngliàn jítuán tuīchū jiǎntǐ zhōngguó fúwù

Friday, May 22nd, 2015
发布
同性恋环球媒体集团同时发布盖伊环球电视,盖伊环球杂志,新闻网国际站与文化科的记录节奏宣布,其所有的服务,电影和文本现在将提供给中国读者的中国文字简化。
“实验已经尝试了几年前,但该技术还没有准备好一定程度的自动化,但在今天,多亏了自动翻译技术,我们能够提供我们的服务,在最在世界上,我们有可能达到数百万中国同性恋群体的重要市场, “罗杰 - 吕克· Chayer ,第一同性恋传媒集团在魁北克(加拿大)编辑器和老板说。
如果实验成功,盖伊集团全球宣布,他将开发印度,日本和俄罗斯市场的新版本。
信息:罗杰 - 吕克· Chayer info@gayglobe.us

Fābù
tóngxìngliàn huánqiú méitǐ jítuán tóngshí fābù gài yī huánqiú diànshì, gài yī huánqiú zázhì, xīnwén wǎng guójì zhàn yǔ wénhuà kē de jìlù jiézòu xuānbù, qí suǒyǒu de fúwù, diànyǐng hé wénběn xiànzài jiāng tígōng jǐ zhōngguó dúzhě de zhōngguó wénzì jiǎnhuà.
“Shíyàn yǐjīng chángshìle jǐ nián qián, dàn gāi jìshù hái méiyǒu zhǔnbèi hǎo yīdìng chéngdù de zìdònghuà, dàn zài jīntiān, duōkuīle zìdòng fānyì jìshù, wǒmen nénggòu tígōng wǒmen de fúwù, zài zuì zài shìjiè shàng, wǒmen yǒu kěnéng dádào shù bǎi wàn zhōngguó tóngxìngliàn qúntǐ de zhòngyào shìchǎng, “luō jié - lǚ kè· Chayer, dì yī tóngxìngliàn chuánméi jítuán zài kuíběikè (jiānádà) biānjí qì hé lǎobǎn shuō.
Rúguǒ shíyàn chénggōng, gài yī jítuán quánqiú xuānbù, tā jiāng kāifā yìndù, rìběn hé èluósī shìchǎng de xīn bǎnběn.
Xìnxī: Luō jié - lǚ kè· Chayer info@gayglobe.Us

Judy Garland

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

Wikipédia

Frances Ethel Gumm, dite Judy Garland, née le à Grand Rapids (Minnesota) et décédée le à Londres (Royaume-Uni), est une actrice et chanteuse américaine. Elle est considérée par l’American Film Institute comme la huitième meilleure actrice de légende du cinéma. Elle est aussi la mère de la chanteuse et actrice Liza Minnelli.

Biographie

L’enfant de la balle

Les « Gumm Sisters », Mary Jane, Virginia et Judy.

Les parents de Frances Ethel Gumm, Frank et Ethel Gumm, ont été acteurs de variétés avant que son père devienne le gérant du seul cinéma de la ville. Judy y fait ses débuts sur scène, entre deux films, avec ses deux sœurs aînées, Mary Jane et Virginia, accompagnées par leur mère au piano. À trois ans, elle interprète « Jingle Bells » sur la scène1.

En 1927, la famille Gumm déménage en Californie à Lancaster à la recherche d’un climat plus favorable car Frances Ethel est sujette à des allergies2. La famille sillonne les grandes villes américaines et en 1934, les Gumm Sisters se produisent à l’Exposition universelle de Chicago. C’est là que Georges Jessel, la vedette du spectacle, conseille à la jeune Frances d’opter pour le pseudonyme de Garland1. Un an plus tard, la jeune starlette changera également son prénom, emprunté à une chanson à succès « Judy ». Elle commence sa vraie carrière en solo après le mariage d’une de ses sœurs et se produit au Lake Tahoe où elle est remarquée par la critique. Un dépisteur de talent suggère à sa mère de lui faire faire du cinéma. En 1934, elle prend Al Rosen comme agent et compte parmi ses admirateurs le réalisateur Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Tous les deux réussiront à la présenter à la MGM1.

Ainsi à 13 ans, en 1935, elle passe une audition devant Louis B. Mayer, patron de la Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, qui lui offre un contrat sans passer de bout d’essai. La même année, elle perd son père, une mort qui la marquera profondément. Judy rejoint les bancs de classe de la MGM aux côtés des enfants stars de la MGM, Lana Turner, Jackie Cooper, Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew et Deanna Durbin.

En 1936 à l’occasion de sa première apparition dans un court-métrage, sa voix attire l’attention du public dans Every Sunday avec Deanna Durbin.

Judy Garland fait une incursion dans les studios de la 20th Century Fox pour son premier long métrage Pigskin Parade, et à quinze ans, elle se fait remarquer dans The Broadway Melody of 1938, film dans lequel elle chante « Dear Mr. Gable, you made me love you » devant une photographie de Clark Gable, chanson qu’elle avait déjà interprétée en l’honneur de l’anniversaire de la star de la MGM. C’est le compositeur Roger Edens, ami de Judy qui compose la chanson1.

Vedette de la MGM

Judy Garland dans Le Magicien d’Oz.

Mickey Rooney et Judy Garland au Grauman’s Chinese Theatre en 1939.

Judy tourne dans quelques films familiaux, chers à Louis B. Mayer, où elle chante. En 1939, avec son rôle de Dorothy dans Le Magicien d’Oz, elle est propulsée, à 17 ans, au rang de star. Ce rôle fut proposé en premier lieu à la star de la Twentieth Century Fox, Shirley Temple, mais la MGM ne put l’obtenir et après avoir envisagé Deanna Durbin, elle donna à Judy le rôle par défaut. Elle y chante la chanson qui sera oscarisée et qui allait tout au long de sa carrière devenir son cheval de bataille, Over the Rainbow. Elle-même remporte l’Oscar spécial de la meilleure des jeunes actrices de l’année. Le film deviendra l’un des plus vus de l’histoire du cinéma grâce à ses passages à la télévision drainant des millions de spectateurs, la licence ayant été cédée à C.B.S., en 19563.

Elle enchaîne avec Place au rythme avec Mickey Rooney, qui rapportera deux millions de dollars uniquement aux États-Unis, le soir de la première du film, c’est la consécration, elle appose ses empreintes au Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Le duo Judy Garland – Mickey Rooney formé par la MGM devint le couple à succès des films musicaux du studio. Après leur premier film, Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (ils devinrent tout de suite de très bons amis), ils tourneront huit films ensemble. Outre les trois films de la série Andy Hardy, ils jouent ensemble dans Place au rythme, En avant la musique, Débuts à Broadway, films de Busby Berkeley et Girl Crazy de Norman Taurog. Ils se retrouveront une dernière fois en 1948 dans Ma vie est une chanson également de Norman Taurog.

En 1940, Judy est l’une des dix vedettes les plus populaires au box-office, la seule femme à faire partie de ce palmarès avec Bette Davis.

C’est à cette époque qu’elle devient toxicomane. Étant déjà habituée aux médicaments (ayant un solide appétit, sa mère l’obligeait à en prendre pour qu’elle garde la ligne), la situation empire lorsque les studios lui prescrivent des amphétamines, afin qu’elle garde la forme et supporte mieux les nombreuses heures de tournage. Mais cela la rend insomniaque et elle doit alors y ajouter des barbituriques pour l’aider à dormir. Sa santé va rapidement se dégrader.

Pendant le tournage de Little Nellie Kelly où, selon la publicité de l’époque, elle joue sa première scène d’amour, elle annonce ses fiançailles avec le musicien David Rose, ex-mari de Martha Raye. Malgré le désaccord de sa mère et de Louis B. Mayer (qui suit de près sa carrière et sa vie privée), Judy épouse David Rose le 10 juin 1941.

Elle apparaît ensuite dans de nombreuses comédies musicales à succès produites par la MGM, La Danseuse des Folies Ziegfeld, Lily Mars vedette, Girl Crazy, Parade aux étoiles, et les célèbres Le Chant du Missouri (Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944) et Parade de printemps (1948), deux productions du maître de la comédie musicale MGM, Arthur Freed. Freed, entouré d’une équipe de créateurs, « la Freed Unit », produisit la plupart des films de Judy au sein de la MGM. Il produisit également les plus prestigieuses comédies musicales de l’époque et recruta un jeune débutant de Broadway, Gene Kelly, en 1942 pour en faire un partenaire de Judy dans Pour moi et ma mie. C’est lui qui engagea Vincente Minnelli, alors connu comme directeur artistique de revues à grand spectacle, afin de réaliser son premier film, Un petit coin aux cieux.

Freed réunira Minnelli et Garland pour le film Le Chant du Missouri (Meet Me in St. Louis). Pourtant au départ réticente au projet, Judy y compose un de ses rôles les plus attachants. Le film libère le musical des conventions héritées de la scène de Broadway; les couleurs aux tons pastels, la réalisation évitant la mièvrerie du sujet et les chansons font du film un succès critique et populaire. Minnelli et Garland tombèrent amoureux pendant le tournage et cette fois avec l’approbation des studios MGM. Judy l’épousa au mois de juin 1945 (elle avait divorcé de David Rose en 1944). Sa première fille Liza naîtra l’année suivante. Elle fit trois autres films avec le duo Freed-Minnelli, L’Horloge un de ses rares films non musical4, Ziegfeld Follies film à sketches5 et enfin Le Pirate où elle retrouve Gene Kelly6.

Les ennuis de santé de Judy Garland deviennent de plus en plus sérieux. Fatiguée, elle tombe malade pendant le tournage du Pirate et multiplie les sautes d’humeur, les absences répétées et le manque de ponctualité. Malgré cela, la MGM enchaîne les tournages. Elle a un nouveau partenaire de prestige Fred Astaire qui remplace Gene Kelly, s’étant cassé la cheville la veille du tournage, pour un autre succès de la MGM, Parade de printemps6. Le film est un répit pour l’actrice, ravie de travailler avec Astaire, mais de courte durée.

De plus en plus sujette aux dépressions nerveuses, elle doit renoncer à retrouver Fred Astaire, et c’est Ginger Rogers qui la remplace dans Entrons dans la danse7. Elle cède également son rôle à Betty Hutton dans Annie du Far West, à Jane Powell dans Mariage royal8 et à Ava Gardner dans Show Boat9.

Judy Garland dans sa loge au Greek Theater de Los Angeles
en 1957.

Judy passa trois mois dans une clinique de Boston2, puis retourna aux studios pour tourner son dernier film à la MGM, La Jolie Fermière. Le tournage dura six mois après bien des retards dus aux absences et crises de nerf de l’actrice. Le producteur Joe Pasternak et le réalisateur Charles Walters décidèrent, le film terminé, d’ajouter un numéro musical et de la faire revenir. Elle revint en pleine forme et exécuta le numéro Get happy8.

En 1950, alors âgée de 28 ans, l’accoutumance de Judy Garland à l’alcool et aux médicaments la rendant ingérable, la MGM met un terme à son contrat8.

Fin de carrière

Judy Garland en 1963.

Une profonde dépression la mène à une tentative de suicide en 19502. En 1951, elle divorce de Vincente Minnelli et épouse le producteur Sidney Luft (en), avec qui elle aura une fille, Lorna, et un garçon, Joseph. Il relance sa carrière grâce à une série de tournées. Il la persuade de se produire au Palladium de Londres pendant un mois, c’est un triomphe. Puis elle revient au music-hall, elle bat tous les records de recettes pendant dix-neuf semaines au Palace Theatre de New York. Ces retrouvailles avec ses fans et le succès lui redonnent de l’assurance.

En 1954, Sidney produit le film Une étoile est née dans lequel elle joue le rôle d’une jeune artiste qui accède à la popularité grâce à l’aide d’une star sur le déclin, troisième des quatre versions tournées sur le même sujet. Le film obtient un énorme succès auprès de la critique et du public malgré les mutilations opérées par la Warner Bros qui ampute le film de 90 minutes pour des raisons de distribution. Nommée aux Oscars la récompense échoit à Grace Kelly, à la surprise générale.

Un an plus tard, elle fait ses débuts à la télévision en 1955 dans show de la C.B.S. Elle participe à de nombreux shows où l’on retrouve ses amis comme Frank Sinatra et Dean Martin.

Elle continue ses tournées durant les années 50 et 60, elle triomphera au Carnegie Hall en 1961 dont un album « Judy au Carnegie Hall » sera enregistré, les ventes atteindront le million de dollars2.

Délaissant le cinéma durant cette période où elle ne tourne que 3 films, elle obtient néanmoins une nouvelle nomination aux Oscars pour un second rôle dans Jugement à Nuremberg. En 1963, elle lance une émission télévisée, The Judy Garland Show, qui ne dure qu’une saison en raison de la concurrence de Bonanza. En 1964, elle divorce de Sidney Luft pour épouser l’acteur Mark Herron. En 1966, elle divorce de Mark Herron après avoir découvert qu’il était homosexuel. Elle apparaît dans de nombreux shows télévisés.

En 1969, elle épouse le producteur de disques Mickey Deans (en) le 15 mars. Elle décède le 22 juin à Londres (Grande-Bretagne) d’une surdose accidentelle de barbituriques. Un musée lui est consacré dans sa ville natale.

Judy Garland

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

Wikipedia

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American singer, actress and vaudevillian. She was renowned for her vocals[1] and attained international stardom which continued throughout a career that spanned more than 40 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on concert stages.[2] Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award.

She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star Is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. She remains the youngest recipient (at 39 years of age) of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There, she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney, and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting, beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

Despite her professional triumphs, Garland struggled immensely in her personal life, starting when she was a child. Her self-image was strongly influenced by film executives, who said she was unattractive and constantly manipulated her onscreen physical appearance. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. She also had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to her death at the age of 47.

In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.[3]

Early life

Garland’s birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland was the youngest child of Ethel Marion (née Milne; November 17, 1893 – January 5, 1953) and Francis Avent “Frank” Gumm (March 20, 1886 – November 17, 1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured vaudeville acts. Garland was of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.[4][5]

Named after both her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church, “Baby” (as she was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family’s flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane “Suzy/Suzanne” Gumm (1915–1964) and Dorothy Virginia “Jimmie” Gumm (1917–1977), on the stage of her father’s movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of “Jingle Bells“.[6] Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years.

Following rumors that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances towards male ushers, the family relocated to Lancaster, California in June 1926.[7] Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters into motion pictures. Garland attended Hollywood High School and later graduated from University High School.[8]

Early career

The Gumm Sisters

The Gumm Sisters, a.k.a. The Garland Sisters, circa 1935. From left to right: Mary Jane, Frances Ethel (Judy Garland) and Dorothy Virginia Gumm.

In 1928, The Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietress of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. They appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show.[9] It was through the Meglin Kiddies that they made their film debut in a 1929 short-subject called The Big Revue, where they performed a song-and-dance number called That’s the good old sunny south. This was followed by appearances in two Vitaphone shorts the following year, A Holiday in Storyland (featuring Garland’s first on-screen solo) and The Wedding of Jack and Jill. They next appeared together in Bubbles. Their final on-screen appearance came in 1935, in another short entitled La Fiesta de Santa Barbara.[10]

In 1934, the trio, who by then had been touring the vaudeville circuit as “The Gumm Sisters” for many years, performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after “Gumm” was met with laughter from the audience. According to theatrical legend, their act was once erroneously billed at a Chicago theater as “The Glum Sisters.”[11]

Several stories persist regarding the origin of the name “Garland.” One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard‘s character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century, which was then playing at the Oriental; another is that the girls chose the surname after drama-critic Robert Garland.[12] Garland’s daughter, Lorna Luft, stated that her mother selected the name when Jessel announced that the trio “looked prettier than a garland of flowers.”[13] Another variation surfaced when he was a guest on Garland’s television show in 1963. He claimed that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word “garland” and it stuck in his mind.[14]

By late 1934, the Gumm Sisters had changed their name to the Garland Sisters.[15] Frances changed her name to “Judy” soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.[16] By August 1935 they were broken up when Suzanne Garland flew to Reno, Nevada, and married musician Lee Kahn, a member of the Jimmy Davis orchestra playing at Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe.[17]

Signed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Garland with Mickey Rooney in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938).

Busby Berkeley was asked by Louis B. Mayer to go downtown to the Orpheum Theater, to watch the Gumm Sisters’ vaudeville act, and to report back to him. Afterward, Judy and her mother were brought into the studio for an interview with Louis B. Mayer and Busby Berkeley. In 1935, Garland was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), supposedly without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. The studio did not know what to do with her, as at age 13 she was older than the traditional child-star but too young for adult roles.

Her physical appearance created a dilemma for MGM. At only 4 feet 11.5 inches (151.1 cm), her “cute” or “girl-next-door” looks did not exemplify the more glamorous persona required of leading ladies of the time. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. “Judy went to school at Metro with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, real beauties,” said Charles Walters, who directed her in a number of films. “Judy was the big money-maker at the time, a big success, but she was the ugly duckling  … I think it had a very damaging effect on her emotionally for a long time. I think it lasted forever, really.”[18] Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who referred to her as his “little hunchback.”[19]

During her early years at the studio, she was photographed and dressed in plain garments or frilly juvenile gowns and costumes to match the “girl-next-door” image that was created for her. She was made to wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized disks to reshape her nose.[20]

Garland performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical-short Every Sunday. The film contrasted her vocal range and swing style with Durbin’s operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for the pair, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster.[21] Mayer finally decided to keep both actresses, but by that time Durbin’s option had lapsed and she was signed by Universal Studios.

On November 16, 1935, in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the Shell Chateau Hour, Garland learned that her father, who had been hospitalized with meningitis, had taken a turn for the worse. Frank Gumm died the following morning, on November 17, leaving her devastated. Her song for the Shell Chateau Hour was her first professional rendition of “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart,” a song which would become a standard in many of her concerts.[22]

Garland next came to the attention of studio executives by singing a special arrangement of “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)” to Clark Gable at a birthday party held by the studio for the actor. Her rendition was so well regarded that she performed the song in the all-star extravaganza Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), singing to a photograph of him.[23]

MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of what were known as “backyard musicals.”[24] The duo first appeared together in the 1937 B movie Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry as supporting characters. Garland was then put in the cast of the fourth of the Hardy Family movies as a literal girl-next-door to Rooney’s character, Andy Hardy in Love Finds Andy Hardy, although Hardy’s love interest was played by Lana Turner. They teamed as lead characters for the first time in Babes in Arms, ultimately appearing in five additional films, including two more of Hardy films.

To keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another, Garland, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly given amphetamines to stay awake, as well as barbiturates to take before going to bed so they could sleep.[25] For Garland, this regular dose of drugs led to addiction and a lifelong struggle, and contributed to her eventual demise. She later resented the hectic schedule and felt that her youth had been stolen from her by MGM. Despite successful film and recording careers, awards, critical praise and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, she was plagued throughout her life with self-doubt and required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.[26] Rooney denied that their childhood studio was responsible for her addiction: “Judy Garland was never given any drugs by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mr. Mayer didn’t sanction anything for Judy. No one on that lot was responsible for Judy Garland’s death. Unfortunately, Judy chose that path”.[27]

The Wizard of Oz

Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

In 1938, she was cast in the main role as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the children’s book by L. Frank Baum. In this film, she sang the song with which she would forever be identified, “Over the Rainbow.” Although producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy had wanted her from the start, studio chief Mayer tried first to borrow Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, but they declined. Deanna Durbin was then asked but was unavailable, resulting in Garland being cast.[28]

Garland was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her blue gingham dress was chosen for its blurring effect on her figure, which made her look younger.[29]

Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938,[30] and was completed on March 16, 1939,[31] with a final cost of more than US$2 million.[32] With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms, directed by Busby Berkeley. She and Rooney were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.[33]

The Wizard of Oz was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and promotions costs of an estimated US$4 million (equivalent to $67.8 million in 2015), coupled with the lower revenue generated by children’s tickets, meant that the film did not make a profit until it was rereleased in the 1940s.[34] At the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms.[35] Following this recognition, she became one of MGM’s most bankable stars.

Adult stardom

Garland performing “The Trolley Song” in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). This was one of the first films in her career which gave her the opportunity to be the attractive leading lady, rather than the dowdy girl next door.

In 1940, she starred in three films: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, and Little Nellie Kelly. In the latter, she played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. Little Nellie Kelly was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her to display both her audience-appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss, and the only death-scene of her career.[36] The success of these three films and a further three films in 1941, secured her position at MGM as a major property.

During this time, Garland experienced her first serious adult romances. The first was with bandleader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner.[37] Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose, and on her 18th birthday he gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because he was still married at the time to actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce to become final and were wed on July 27, 1941.[38] Garland, who had aborted her pregnancy by him in 1942, agreed to a trial separation in January 1943 and divorced in 1944.[39] She was noticeably thinner in her next film, For Me and My Gal, alongside Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was top billed in the credits for the first time and effectively made the transition from teenage-star to adult actress.

Promotional image for Presenting Lily Mars (1943).

At age 21, she was given the “glamour treatment” in Presenting Lily Mars, in which she was dressed in “grown-up” gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared onscreen or in photographs, she was never confident in her appearance and never escaped the “girl-next-door” image which had been created for her.[40]

One of Garland’s most successful films for MGM was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), in which she introduced three standards: “The Trolley Song“, “The Boy Next Door“, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas“. Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct, and he requested that makeup artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways, including extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs and dental caps. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.

At this time, Garland had a brief affair with legendary film director Orson Welles, who was then married to Rita Hayworth. The affair ended in early 1945, although they remained on good terms afterwards.[41]

During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, after some initial conflict between them, Garland and Minnelli entered into a relationship. They were married June 15, 1945,[42] and on March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born.[43] They were divorced by 1951.[44]

The Clock (1945) was Garland’s first straight dramatic film, opposite Robert Walker. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. It would be many years before she acted again in a nonsinging dramatic role. Garland’s other films of the 1940s include The Harvey Girls (1946), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe“, and Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).

Leaving MGM

During filming for The Pirate in April 1947, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a private sanitarium.[45] She was able to complete filming, but in July she undertook her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass.[46] During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.[47] The Pirate was released in 1948 and was the first film Garland had starred in since The Wizard of Oz to not be profitable. The main reasons for its failure was not only its expense, but also the increasing cost of the shooting delays while Garland was ill, as well as the fact that the general public was not yet willing to accept her in a sophisticated vehicle. Following her work on The Pirate, she co-starred for the first and only time with Fred Astaire (who replaced Gene Kelly after Kelly had broken his ankle) in Easter Parade, which became her top grossing film at MGM and quickly re-established her as one of Metro’s primary assets.

A pregnant Garland in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Thrilled by the huge box-office receipts of Easter Parade, MGM immediately teamed Garland and Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway. During the initial filming, Garland was taking prescription sleeping medication along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine. It was around this time that she also developed a serious problem with alcohol. These, in combination with migraine headaches, led her to miss several shooting days in a row. After being advised by her doctor that she would only be able to work in four-to-five-day increments with extended rest periods between, MGM executive Arthur Freed made the decision to suspend her on July 18, 1948. She was replaced by Ginger Rogers.[48] When her suspension was over, she was summoned back to work and ultimately performed two songs as a guest in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music which was her last appearance with Mickey Rooney. Despite the all-star cast, Words and Music barely broke even at the box office. Having regained her strength as well as some needed weight during her suspension, Garland felt much better and in the fall of 1948, she returned to MGM to replace a pregnant June Allyson for the musical film In the Good Old Summertime co-starring Van Johnson. Although she was sometimes late arriving at the studio during the making of this picture, she managed to complete it five days ahead of schedule. Her daughter Liza Minnelli made her film debut at the age of two and a half at the end of the film. In The Good Old Summertime was enormously successful at the box office.

Garland was then cast in the film-adaptation of Annie Get Your Gun in the title role of Annie Oakley. She was nervous at the prospect of taking on a role strongly identified with Ethel Merman, anxious about appearing in an unglamorous part after breaking from juvenile parts for several years, and disturbed by her treatment at the hands of director Busby Berkeley. Berkeley was staging all the musical numbers, and was severe with Garland’s lack of effort, attitude and enthusiasm. She complained to Mayer, trying to have Berkeley fired from the feature. She began arriving late to the set and sometimes failed to appear. She was suspended from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton, who stepped in performing all the musical routines as staged by Berkeley.[49]

Garland underwent an extensive hospital stay at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in which she was weaned off her medication and, after a while, was able to eat and sleep normally. Garland returned to Los Angeles heavier and in the fall of 1949, was cast opposite Gene Kelly in Summer Stock. The film took six months to complete. In order to lose weight, Garland went back on the pills and the familiar pattern resurfaced. She began showing up late or not at all. When principal photography on Summer Stock was completed in spring 1950, it was decided that Garland needed an additional musical number. She agreed to do it provided that the song should be Get Happy. In addition, she insisted that director Charles Walters choreograph and stage the number. By that time, Garland had lost fifteen pounds and looked more slender. Get Happy was the last segment of Summer Stock to be filmed. It would be her last picture for MGM. When it was released in the fall of 1950, Summer Stock drew big crowds and racked up very respectable box office receipts, but because of the costly shooting delays caused by Garland, the film posted a loss of $80,000 to the studio.

Garland was next cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She failed to report to the set on multiple occasions, and the studio suspended her contract on June 17, 1950. She was replaced by Jane Powell.[50] Reputable biographies following her death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken glass, requiring only a band-aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat.[51] “All I could see ahead was more confusion,” Garland later said of this suicide attempt. “I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me.”[52] In September 1950, after fifteen years with the studio, Garland and M-G-M parted company.

Later career

Renewed stardom on the stage

In 1951, Garland began four-month concert tour of the United Kingdom, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland.[53] The successful concert tour was the first of her many comebacks, with performances centered around songs by Al Jolson and revival of vaudevillian “tradition.” Garland performed complete shows as tributes to Jolson in her concerts at the London Palladium in April and at New York’s Palace Theater later that year. Garland said after the Palladium show: “I suddenly knew that this was the beginning of a new life. . . . Hollywood thought I was through; then came the wonderful opportunity to appear at the London Palladium, where I can truthfully say Judy Garland was reborn.”[54]

Her appearances at the Palladium lasted for four weeks, where she received rave reviews and an ovation described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.[55][56] In October 1951, Garland’s engagement at the Palace Theatre exceeded all previous records for the theater and for Garland, was called “one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history.”[57] Garland was honored for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville with a Special Tony Award.[58]

That same year she divorced Minnelli,[59] and in 1952 she married Sid Luft, her tour manager and arranger. Garland and Luft were married on June 8, 1952, in Hollister, California.[60] Garland gave birth to Lorna Luft, herself a future actress and singer, on November 21, 1952, and to Joey Luft on March 29, 1955.[61]

Hollywood comeback

Garland in A Star Is Born (1954)

Garland filmed a musical remake of the film A Star is Born for Warner Bros. in 1954. Garland and Sidney Luft, her then-husband, produced the film through their production company, Transcona Enterprises, while Warner Bros. supplied the funds, production facilities, and crew.[62] Directed by George Cukor and co-starring James Mason, it was a large undertaking to which she initially fully dedicated herself.

As shooting progressed, however, she began making the same pleas of illness which she had so often made during her final films at MGM. Production delays led to cost overruns and angry confrontations with Warner Bros. head Jack Warner. Principal photography wrapped on March 17, 1954. At Luft’s suggestion, the “Born in a Trunk” medley was filmed as a showcase for her and inserted over director Cukor’s objections, who feared the additional length would lead to cuts in other areas. It was completed on July 29.[63]

Upon its September 29, 1954 world-premiere, the film was met with tremendous critical and popular acclaim. Before its release, it was edited at the instruction of Jack Warner; theater operators, concerned that they were losing money because they were only able to run the film for three or four shows per day instead of five or six, pressured the studio to make additional reductions. About 30 minutes of footage was cut, sparking outrage among critics and filmgoers. Although it was still popular drawing huge crowds and grossing over $6,000,000 in its first release, A Star is Born did not make back its cost and ended up losing money, As a result, the secure financial position Garland had expected from the profits did not materialize.[64] Transcona made no more films with Warner.[65]

Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and in the run-up to the 27th Academy Awards, was generally expected to win. She could not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft, so a television crew was in her hospital room with cameras and wires to broadcast her anticipated acceptance speech. The Oscar was won, however, by Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). The camera crew was packing up before Kelly could even reach the stage. Groucho Marx sent her a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss “the biggest robbery since Brinks.” TIME magazine labeled her performance as “just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history.”[66] Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.[67]

Garland’s films after A Star Is Born included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (for which she was Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated for Best Supporting Actress), the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (1962), and A Child Is Waiting (1963) with Burt Lancaster. Her final film was I Could Go on Singing (1963), co-starring Dirk Bogarde.

Television, concerts, and Carnegie Hall

Garland before a concert, circa 1957

Beginning in 1955, Garland appeared in a number of television specials. The first, the 1955 debut episode of Ford Star Jubilee, was the first full-scale color broadcast ever on CBS and was a ratings triumph, scoring a 34.8 Nielsen rating. She signed a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only one additional special, a live concert-edition of General Electric Theater, was broadcast in 1956 before the relationship between the Lufts and CBS broke down in a dispute over the planned format of upcoming specials.[68]

In 1956, Garland performed for four weeks at the New Frontier Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a salary of $55,000 per week, making her the highest-paid entertainer to work in Las Vegas.[69] Despite a brief bout of laryngitis, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week.[70] Later that year she returned to the Palace Theatre, site of her two-a-day triumph. She opened in September, once again to rave reviews and popular acclaim.[71]

In November 1959, Garland was hospitalized, diagnosed with acute hepatitis.[72] Over the next few weeks several quarts of fluid were drained from her body until, still weak, she was released from the hospital in January 1960. She was told by doctors that she likely had five years or less to live, and that even if she did survive she would be a semi-invalid and would never sing again.[73] She initially felt “greatly relieved” at the diagnosis. “The pressure was off me for the first time in my life.”[51] However, she recovered over the next several months and, in August of that year, returned to the stage of the Palladium. She felt so warmly embraced by the British that she announced her intention to move permanently to England.[74]

Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many “the greatest night in show business history”.[75] The two-record Judy at Carnegie Hall was certified gold, charting for 95 weeks on Billboard, including 13 weeks at number one. The album won four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year.[76] The album has never been out of print.

In 1961, Garland and CBS settled their contract disputes with the help of her new agent, Freddie Fields, and negotiated a new round of specials. The first, entitled The Judy Garland Show, aired in 1962 and featured guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.[77] Following this success, CBS made a $24 million offer to her for a weekly television series of her own, also to be called The Judy Garland Show, which was deemed at the time in the press to be “the biggest talent deal in TV history.” Although she had said as early as 1955 that she would never do a weekly television series,[78] in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. She was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952, and the failure of A Star is Born meant that she received nothing from that investment.[79] A successful run on television was intended to secure her financial future.

Following a third special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, Garland’s weekly series debuted September 29, 1963.[80] The Judy Garland Show was critically praised,[81][82] but for a variety of reasons (including being placed in the time slot opposite Bonanza on NBC) the show lasted only one season and was canceled in 1964 after 26 episodes. Despite its short run, the series was nominated for four Emmy Awards, including Best Variety Series.[83] The demise of the program was personally and financially devastating for Garland.

Garland sued Luft for divorce in 1963, claiming “cruelty” as the grounds. She also asserted that he had repeatedly struck her while he was drinking and that he had attempted to take their children from her by force.[84] She had filed for divorce from Luft more than once previously, including as early as 1956, but had reconciled.[85]

Final years

Mickey Deans and Garland, at their wedding in March 1969, three months before her death.

With the demise of her television series, Garland returned to the stage. Most notably, she performed at the London Palladium with her then 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert, which was also shown on the British television network ITV, was one of her final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Garland guest-hosted an episode of The Hollywood Palace with Vic Damone. She was invited back for a second episode in 1966 with Van Johnson as her guest. Issues with Garland’s behavior ended her Hollywood Palace guest appearances.[86]

A 1964 tour of Australia was largely disastrous. Garland’s first concert in Sydney, held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the crowds who wanted to see her, went well and received positive reviews. Her second performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000, angered by her tardiness and believing her to be drunk, booed and heckled her, and she fled the stage after just 45 minutes.[87] She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as “brutish.”[88] A second concert in Sydney was uneventful but the Melbourne appearance garnered her significant bad press.[89] Some of that bad press was deflected by the announcement of a near fatal episode of pleurisy.

Garland’s tour promoter Mark Herron announced that they had married aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong; however, she was not legally divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed.[90] The divorce became final on May 19, 1965,[84] and she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965; they separated six months later.[91]

In February 1967, Garland was cast as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls for 20th Century Fox.[92] During the filming, she missed rehearsals and was fired in April, replaced by Susan Hayward.[93] Her prerecording of the song “I’ll Plant My Own Tree” survived, along with her wardrobe tests.

Returning to the stage, Garland made her last appearances at New York’s Palace Theatre in July, a 16-show stand, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. She wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour, which was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.[94]

By early 1969, Garland’s health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run[95] and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969.[96] She married her fifth and final husband, musician Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15, 1969,[97] her divorce from Herron having been finalized on February 11.[98]

Death

Garland’s crypt at the Ferncliff Mausoleum

On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead by Deans in the bathroom of their rented Chelsea, London house. The coroner, Gavin Thursdon, stated at the inquest that the cause of death was “an incautious self-overdosage” of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten 1.5-grain (97 mg) Seconal capsules.[99] Thursdon stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and that there was no evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Garland’s autopsy showed that there was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue in her stomach, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one dose. Her death certificate stated that her death had been “accidental”.[100] Supporting the accidental cause, her doctor noted that a prescription of 25 barbiturate pills was found by her bedside half empty and another bottle of 100 was still unopened.[101]

A British specialist who had attended her autopsy said she had nevertheless been living on borrowed time owing to cirrhosis.[102] She had turned 47 just twelve days before her death. Her Wizard of Oz costar Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, “She just plain wore out.”

After her body had been embalmed by Desmond Henley,[103] Deans took Garland’s remains to New York City on June 26, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan to pay their respects. On June 27, James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, an Episcopal service led by the Rev. Peter A. Delaney of St Marylebone Parish Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans.[104] The public and press were barred. She was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York.[105]

Legacy

Mickey Rooney watches Garland put her handprint into cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, 1939.

Star for recognition of film work at 1715 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has another for recording at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard.

Garland’s legacy as a performer and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.[106] She has been the subject of over two dozen biographies since her death, including the well-received Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir by her daughter, Lorna Luft, whose memoir was later adapted into the television miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which won Emmy Awards for the two actresses portraying her (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).[107]

Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.[108] Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[109] These include “Over the Rainbow“, which was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Songs” list. Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (#76), “Get Happy” (#61), “The Trolley Song” (#26), and “The Man That Got Away” (#11).[110] She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy)[111] and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).[112]

In popular culture

Gay icon

Garland had a large fan base in the gay community and became a gay icon.[113] Reasons given for her standing, especially among gay men, are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in America during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure.[114] In the 1960s, a reporter asked how she felt about having a large gay following. She replied, “I couldn’t care less. I sing to people.”[115]

Portrayals in fiction

Garland has been portrayed on television by Andrea McArdle in Rainbow (1978),[116] Tammy Blanchard (young Judy) and Judy Davis (older Judy) in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001).[117]

On stage, Garland is a character in the musical The Boy from Oz (1998), portrayed by Chrissy Amphlett in the original Australian production[118] and by Isabel Keating on Broadway in 2003.[119] End of the Rainbow (2005) featured Caroline O’Connor as Garland and Paul Goddard as Garland’s pianist.[120] Adrienne Barbeau played Garland in The Property Known as Garland (2006)[121] and The Judy Monologues (2010) initially featured male actors reciting Garland’s words before it was re-vamped as a one-woman show.[122]

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

Wikipedia

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.[2] The film stars Judy Garland; Terry the dog, billed as Toto; Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, with Charley Grapewin and Clara Blandick, and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins, with Pat Walshe as leader of the flying monkeys.[3] Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and unusual characters, over the years it has become one of the best-known films and part of American popular culture. It was a box office disappointment on its initial release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, despite receiving largely positive reviews.[1][4] The film was MGM’s most expensive production at that time, and did not recoup much of the studio’s investment until subsequent re-releases.[5] It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two other categories including Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow.” The song was ranked first in two lists: the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs and the Recording Industry Association of America‘s “365 Songs of the Century“.

The 1956 television broadcast of the film re-introduced the film to the public that eventually made it an annual tradition and one of the most known films in cinema history.[2] The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress who also included the film in its National Film Registry in its inaugural year in 1989. Designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant”.[6] It is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics’ and public polls. It is the source of many quotes referenced in modern popular culture. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left production to take over direction on the troubled Gone with the Wind production). Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The songs were written by Edgar “Yip” Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The incidental music, based largely on the songs, was composed by Herbert Stothart, with interspersed renderings from classical composers.

Plot

The film starts in sepia-tinted Kansas in the early 1900s. Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothy and Toto get in trouble with a cruel neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, when Toto bites her. However, Dorothy’s family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her. Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. He is taken away, but escapes and returns to Dorothy; she then decides to run away from home with Toto to escape Miss Gulch. They meet Professor Marvel, a phony fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that her aunt is ill so that she may return home. She races home as a powerful tornado develops. Unable to get into the storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom. A wind-blown window sash hits her head and she falls unconscious on her bed. She wakes to find the house spinning in the air, held aloft by the twister. In the storm outside the window she sees an elderly lady in a chair, several farm animals, two men rowing a boat, as well as Miss Gulch (pedaling her bicycle), who transforms into a cackling witch flying on a broomstick.

Dorothy (Judy Garland, right) with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke).

The farm house crashes in Munchkinland in the world of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and the Munchkins, welcome her as a heroine because the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her feet exposed. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, arrives to claim the magic ruby slippers worn on her sister’s feet. Glinda transfers them off her feet to Dorothy’s feet instead. The Witch of the West swears revenge on Dorothy and Toto for her sister’s death. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her get back home.

On her way to the Emerald City, Dorothy meets and befriends the Scarecrow who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman who desires a heart, and the Cowardly Lion who is in need of courage. Dorothy invites each of them to accompany her. After encountering the Witch, who attempts to deter them from their destination, they finally reach the Emerald City. Inside, after being initially rejected, they are permitted to see the Wizard (appearing to them in the form of a large head surrounded by fire) who agrees to grant their wishes when they bring him the Witch of the West’s broom.

On their quest to the Witch’s castle, the group pass through the Haunted Forest while the Witch views their progress through a crystal ball. She then sends her flying monkeys to ambush the four and capture Dorothy and Toto. At the castle, the Witch fails to get the slippers off Dorothy due to a magical barrier, remembering that Dorothy must first be killed. Toto escapes and leads her friends to the castle. After defeating three Winkie Guards and stealing their uniforms, they march inside and free her, but the Witch and her guards trap them. The Scarecrow drops a chandelier onto the Winkies, and the group is chased across the battlements, before being trapped on both sides. The Witch sets fire to the Scarecrow and Dorothy splashes a bucket of water onto the flames; the Witch, also hit by it, melts. The guards rejoice that she is dead and give Dorothy the charred broom in gratitude.

Back at the Emerald City, the Wizard refuses to grant their wishes. Toto exposes the “Wizard” as a normal middle-aged man who has been operating and controlling the wizard; he admits to being a humbug and a bad wizard. Nonetheless, he grants their wishes by giving the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a medal, and the Tin Man a heart-shaped watch, enough to convince them that what they sought had been achieved. He then prepares to get Dorothy home in his hot air balloon but Toto chases a cat, Dorothy follows, and it leaves without her. Glinda arrives and tells her that she can still return home by tapping her heels together three times and repeating, “There’s no place like home”.[7] After bidding a tearful goodbye to her friends, Dorothy returns home, coming to consciousness on her bed surrounded by her family, the farmhands, Professor Marvel, and Toto.

Cast

The film’s main characters: Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tin Man
Notable Munchkins

Production

Development and pre-production

Development of the film started when Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs showed that films adapted from popular children’s stories and fairytale folklore could be successful.[2][8] In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to the hugely popular novel from Samuel Goldwyn, who had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor, who was under contract to the Goldwyn studios and whom Goldwyn wanted to cast as the Scarecrow.[8]

The script went through a number of writers and revisions before the final shooting.[9] Originally, Mervyn LeRoy‘s assistant William H. Cannon submitted a brief four-page outline.[9] Because recent fantasy films had not fared well at the box office, he recommended that the magical elements of the story be toned down or eliminated. In his outline, the Scarecrow was a man so stupid that the only way he could get employment was to dress up as a scarecrow and scare away crows in a cornfield, and the Tin Woodman was a hardened criminal so heartless he was sentenced to be placed in a tin suit for eternity. The torture of being encased in the suit had softened him and made him gentle and kind.[9] His vision was similar to Larry Semon‘s 1925 film adaptation of the story, in which the magical element is absent.

After that, LeRoy hired screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz to work on a script. Despite Mankiewicz’s notorious reputation at that time for being an alcoholic, he soon delivered a 17-page draft of the Kansas scenes, and a few weeks later, he handed in a further 56 pages. Noel Langley and poet Ogden Nash were also hired to write separate versions of the story. None of the three writers involved knew anyone else was working on a script, but it was not an uncommon procedure. Nash soon delivered a four-page outline, Langley turned in a 43-page treatment and a full film script. He turned in three more, this time incorporating the songs that had been written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. No sooner had he completed it than Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf submitted a script and were brought on board to touch up the writing. They would be responsible for making sure the story stayed true to the Baum book. However, producer Arthur Freed was unhappy with their work and reassigned it back to Langley.[10] During filming, Victor Fleming and John Lee Mahin revised the script further, adding and cutting some scenes. In addition, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr are known to have written some of their own dialogue for the Kansas sequence.

The final draft of the script was completed on October 8, 1938, following numerous rewrites.[11] All in all, it was a mish-mash of many creative minds, but Langley, Ryerson and Woolf got the film credits. Along with the contributors already mentioned, others who assisted with the adaptation without receiving official credit include: Irving Brecher, Herbert Fields, Arthur Freed, Yip Harburg, Samuel Hoffenstein, Jack Mintz, Sid Silvers, Richard Thorpe, George Cukor and King Vidor.[8]

In addition, songwriter Harburg’s son (and biographer) Ernie Harburg reported:[12]

So anyhow, Yip also wrote all the dialogue in that time and the setup to the songs and he also wrote the part where they give out the heart, the brains and the nerve, because he was the final script editor. And he — there was eleven screenwriters on that — and he pulled the whole thing together, wrote his own lines and gave the thing a coherence and unity which made it a work of art. But he doesn’t get credit for that. He gets lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, you see. But nevertheless, he put his influence on the thing.

The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; therefore, it was reconceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream. Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the score originally featured a song called “The Jitterbug,” and the script originally featured a scene with a series of musical contests. A spoiled, selfish princess in Oz had outlawed all forms of music except classical and operetta and went up against Dorothy in a singing contest in which her swing style enchanted listeners and won the grand prize. This part was initially written for Betty Jaynes.[13] The plan was later dropped.

Another scene, which was removed before final script approval and never filmed, was a concluding scene back in Kansas after Dorothy’s return. Hunk (the Kansan counterpart to the Scarecrow) is leaving for agricultural college and extracts a promise from Dorothy to write to him. The implication of the scene is that romance will eventually develop between the two, which also may have been intended as an explanation for Dorothy’s partiality for the Scarecrow over her other two companions. This plot idea was never totally dropped, however; it is especially noticeable in the final script when Dorothy, just before she is to leave Oz, tells the Scarecrow, “I think I’ll miss you most of all.”[14]

In his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum describes Kansas as being ‘in shades of gray.’ Further, Dorothy lived inside a farmhouse which had its paint blistered and washed away by the weather, giving it an ‘air of grayness.’ The house and property were situated in the middle of a sweeping prairie where the grass was burnt gray by harsh sun. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry were ‘gray with age.’ Effectively, the use of monochrome sepia tones for the Kansas sequences was a stylistic choice that evoked the dull and gray countryside. Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others. Consequently, it took the studio’s art department almost a week to settle on the final shade of yellow used for the yellow brick road.[15]

Casting

Mervyn LeRoy had always insisted that he wanted to cast Judy Garland to play Dorothy from the start; however, evidence suggests that negotiations occurred early in pre-production for Shirley Temple to be cast as Dorothy, on loan out from 20th Century Fox. A persistent rumor also existed that Fox was in turn promised Clark Gable and Jean Harlow as a loan from MGM. The tale is almost certainly untrue, as Harlow died in 1937, before MGM had even purchased the rights to the story. Despite this, the story appears in many film biographies (including Temple’s own autobiography). The documentary The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic states that Mervyn LeRoy was under pressure to cast Temple, then the most popular child star; but at an unofficial audition, MGM musical mainstay Roger Edens listened to her sing and felt that an actress with a different style was needed. Newsreel footage is included in which Temple wisecracks, “There’s no place like home,” suggesting that she was being considered for the part at that time.[16] A possibility is that this consideration did indeed take place, but that Gable and Harlow were not part of the proposed deal.

Actress Deanna Durbin, who was under contract to Universal, was also considered for the part of Dorothy. Durbin, at the time, far exceeded Garland in film experience and fan base and both had co-starred in a 1936 two-reeler titled Every Sunday. The film was most notable for exhibiting Durbin’s operatic style of singing against Garland’s jazzier style. Durbin was possibly passed over once it was decided to bring on Betty Jaynes, also an operatic singer, to rival Garland’s jazz in the aforementioned discarded subplot of the film.

Buddy Ebsen‘s first makeup test as the Tin Man.

Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen (later famous for his role as Jed Clampett on the popular 1960s TV show The Beverly Hillbillies) was to play the Scarecrow.[11] Bolger, however, longed to play the Scarecrow, as his childhood idol Fred Stone had done on stage in 1902; with that very performance, Stone had inspired him to become a vaudevillian in the first place. Now unhappy with his role as the Tin Man (reportedly claiming, “I’m not a tin performer; I’m fluid”), Bolger convinced producer Mervyn LeRoy to recast him in the part he so desired.[17] Ebsen did not object; after going over the basics of the Scarecrow’s distinctive gait with Bolger (as a professional dancer, Ebsen had been cast because the studio was confident he would be up to the task of replicating the famous “wobbly-walk” of Stone’s Scarecrow), he recorded all of his songs, went through all the rehearsals as the Tin Man, and began filming with the rest of the cast.[18]

Bert Lahr was signed for the Cowardly Lion on July 25, 1938; the next month, Charles Grapewin was cast as Uncle Henry on August 12.

W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the role of the Wizard, a role turned down by Ed Wynn as he thought the part was too small, but the studio ran out of patience after protracted haggling over Fields’ fee; instead, another contract player, Frank Morgan, was cast on September 22.

Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch. She became unhappy when the witch’s persona shifted from sly and glamorous (thought to emulate the wicked queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) into the familiar “ugly hag.” She turned down the role and was replaced on October 10, 1938, just three days before filming started, by MGM contract player Margaret Hamilton. Sondergaard said in an interview for a bonus feature on the DVD that she had no regrets about turning down the part, and would go on to play a glamorous villain in Fox’s version of Maurice Maeterlinck‘s The Blue Bird in 1940; that same year, Margaret Hamilton would play a role remarkably similar to the Wicked Witch in the Judy Garland film Babes in Arms.

According to Aljean Harmetz, when the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan, they decided that they wanted a once elegant coat that had “gone to seed.” They went to a second-hand shop and purchased a whole rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department, and director Fleming chose one they thought had the perfect appearance of shabby gentility. One day, while he was on set wearing the coat, Morgan turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had once belonged to Oz author L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum’s widow, who both verified that the coat had indeed once belonged to the writer. After filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum. Baum biographer Michael Patrick Hearn disbelieves the story, it having been refuted by members of the Baum family, who never saw the coat or knew of the story, as well as by Margaret Hamilton, who considered it a concocted studio rumor.[19]

Filming

Filming commenced October 13, 1938 on the MGM Studios lot in Culver City, California, under the direction of Richard Thorpe (replacing original director Norman Taurog, who only filmed a few early Technicolor tests and was then reassigned). Thorpe initially shot about two weeks of footage (nine days, total) involving Dorothy’s first encounter with the Scarecrow, as well as a number of sequences in the Wicked Witch’s castle, such as Dorothy’s rescue (which, though unreleased, comprises the only footage of Buddy Ebsen’s Tin Man).

According to most sources, ten days into the shoot, Ebsen suffered a reaction to the aluminum powder makeup he wore; the powder he breathed in daily as it was applied had coated his lungs. Ebsen was hospitalized in critical condition, and subsequently was forced to leave the project; in a later interview (included on the 2005 DVD release of The Wizard of Oz), Ebsen recalled the studio heads initially disbelieving that he was seriously ill, only realizing the extent of the actor’s condition when they showed up in the hospital as he was convalescing in an iron lung. Ebsen’s sudden medical departure caused the film to shut down while a new actor was found to fill the part. No full footage of Ebsen as the Tin Man has ever been released — only photographs taken during filming and test photos of different makeup styles remain. MGM did not publicize the reasons for Ebsen’s departure until decades later, in a promotional documentary about the film. His replacement, Jack Haley, simply assumed he had been fired.[20] Author and screen-writer George MacDonald Fraser offers an alternative story, told to him by Burt Lancaster‘s producing partner Jim Hill, saying Ebsen had refused to be painted silver and was fired.[21]

Producer Mervyn LeRoy, after reviewing the footage and feeling Thorpe was rushing the production, adversely affecting the actors’ performances, had Thorpe replaced. During reorganization on the production, George Cukor temporarily took over, under LeRoy’s guidance. Initially, the studio had made Garland wear a blond wig and heavy, “baby-doll” makeup, and she played Dorothy in an exaggerated fashion; now, Cukor changed Judy Garland’s and Margaret Hamilton’s makeup and costumes, and told Garland to “be herself.” This meant that all the scenes Garland and Hamilton had already completed had to be discarded and re-filmed. Cukor also suggested that the studio cast Jack Haley, on loan from 20th Century Fox, as the Tin Woodsman. To keep down on production costs, Haley only re-recorded “If I Only Had a Heart” and solo lines during “The Jitterbug” and “If I Only Had the Nerve;” as such, Ebsen’s voice can still be heard in the remaining songs featuring the Tin Man in group vocals. The makeup used for Haley was quietly changed to an aluminum paste, with a layer of clown white greasepaint underneath to protect his skin; although it did not have the same dire effect on Haley, he did at one point suffer an eye infection from it.

In addition, Ray Bolger‘s original recording of “If I Only Had a Brain” had been far more sedate compared to the version heard in the film; during this time, Cukor and LeRoy decided that a more energetic rendition would better suit Dorothy’s initial meeting with the Scarecrow (initially, it was to contrast with his lively manner in Thorpe’s footage), and was re-recorded as such. At first thought to be lost for over seven decades, a recording of this original version was rediscovered in 2009.[22]

Cukor did not actually shoot any scenes for the film, merely acting as something of a “creative advisor” to the troubled production, and, because of his prior commitment to direct Gone with the Wind, he left on November 3, 1938, at which time Victor Fleming assumed the directorial responsibility. As director, Fleming chose not to shift the film from Cukor’s creative realignment, as producer LeRoy had already pronounced his satisfaction with the new course the film was taking.

Production on the bulk of the Technicolor sequences was a long and cumbersome process that ran for over six months, from October 1938 to March 1939. Most of the actors worked six days a week and had to arrive at the studio as early as four or five in the morning, to be fitted with makeup and costumes, and would not leave until seven or eight at night. Cumbersome makeup and costumes were made even more uncomfortable by the daylight-bright lighting the early Technicolor process required, which could heat the set to over 100 °F. According to Ray Bolger, most of the Oz principals were banned from eating in the studio’s commissary due to their costumes. Margaret Hamilton’s witch makeup meant that she could not eat solid food, so she practically lived on a liquid diet during filming of the Oz sequences. Additionally, it took upwards of 12 takes to have Dorothy’s dog Toto run alongside the actors as they skipped down the yellow brick road.

All of the Oz sequences were filmed in three-strip Technicolor.[8][9] The opening and closing credits, as well as the Kansas sequences, were filmed in black and white and colored in a sepia tone process.[8] Sepia-toned film was also used in the scene where Aunt Em appears in the Wicked Witch’s crystal ball.

The massive shoot also proved to be somewhat chaotic. This was most evident when trying to put together the Munchkinland sequences. MGM talent scouts searched the country far and wide to come up with over a hundred little people who would make up the citizens of Munchkinland; this meant that most of the film’s Oz sequences would have to already be shot before work on the Munchkinland sequence could begin. According to Munchkin actor Jerry Maren, each little person was paid over $125 a week for their performances. Munchkin Meinhardt Raabe, who played the coroner, revealed in the 1990 documentary The Making of the Wizard of Oz that the MGM costume and wardrobe department, under the direction of designer Adrian, had to design over one hundred costumes for the Munchkin sequences. They then had to photograph and catalog each Munchkin in his or her costume so that they could correctly apply the same costume and makeup each day of production.

Filming even proved to be dangerous, at times. Margaret Hamilton was severely burned in the Munchkinland scene, and Hamilton provided context that was later included in the DVD commentary. Hamilton was required to ride an elevator that was supposed to take her down while a bit of fire and smoke erupted to dramatize and conceal her exit. The first take ran like clockwork; however, in the DVD commentary, Hamilton states “I had to stand on this dual elevator, that went down slowly or went down fast, and in this case it dropped out from under me, it left my feet and I followed it”. The fire and smoke then erupted. However, for the second take, the timing was off, and Hamilton was exposed to the flames. The grease in her copper-based makeup caught fire and had to be completely and quickly removed before the ensuing second-degree burns on her hands and face could be treated. After spending six weeks in the hospital convalescing, she returned to filming.

On February 12, 1939, Victor Fleming hastily replaced George Cukor in directing Gone with the Wind; the next day, King Vidor was assigned as director by the studio to finish the filming of The Wizard of Oz (mainly the sepia Kansas sequences, including Judy Garland’s singing of “Over the Rainbow” and the tornado). In later years, when the film became firmly established as a classic, Vidor chose not to take public credit for his contribution until after the death of his friend Fleming in 1949.

Post-production

Principal photography concluded with the Kansas sequences on March 16, 1939; nonetheless re-shoots and pick-up shots were filmed throughout April, May and into June, under the direction of producer LeRoy. After the deletion of the “Over the Rainbow” reprise during subsequent test screenings in early June, Judy Garland had to be brought back one more time in order to reshoot the “Auntie Em, I’m frightened!” scene without the song; the footage of Clara Blandick’s Auntie Em, as shot by Vidor, had already been set aside for rear-projection work, and was simply reused. After Margaret Hamilton’s torturous experience with the Munchkinland elevator, she refused to do the pick-ups for the scene in which she flies on a broomstick that billows smoke, so LeRoy chose to have stand-in Betty Danko perform the scene instead; as a result, Danko was severely injured doing the scene due to a malfunction in the smoke mechanism.[23]

At this point, the film began a long arduous post-production. Herbert Stothart had to compose the film’s background score, while A. Arnold Gillespie had to perfect the various special effects that the film required, including many of the rear projection shots. The MGM art department also had to create the various matte paintings for the background of many of the scenes.

One significant innovation planned for the film was the use of stencil printing for the transition to Technicolor. Each frame was to be hand-tinted to maintain the sepia tone; however, because this was too expensive and labor-intensive, it was abandoned and MGM used a simpler and less expensive variation of the process. During the re-shoots in May, the inside of the farm house was painted sepia, and when Dorothy opens the door, it is not Garland but her stand-in, Bobbie Koshay, wearing a sepia gingham dress, who then backs out of frame; once the camera moves through the door, Garland steps back into frame in her bright blue gingham dress (as noted in DVD extras), and the sepia-painted door briefly tints her with the same color before she emerges from the house’s shadow, into the bright glare of the Technicolor lighting. This also meant that the re-shoots provided the first proper shot of Munchkinland; if one looks carefully, the brief cut to Dorothy looking around outside the house bisects a single long shot, from the inside of the doorway to the pan-around that finally ends in a reverse-angle as the ruins of the house are seen behind Dorothy as she comes to a stop at the foot of the small bridge.

Test screenings of the film began on June 5, 1939.[24] Oz initially was running nearly two hours long. LeRoy and Fleming knew that at least a quarter of an hour needed to be deleted to get the film down to a manageable running time, the average film in 1939 running just about 90 minutes. Three sneak previews in Santa Barbara, Pomona and San Luis Obispo, California helped guide LeRoy and Fleming in the cutting. Among the many cuts was “The Jitterbug” number, the Scarecrow’s elaborate dance sequence following “If I Only Had a Brain,” a reprise of “Over the Rainbow” and “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead,” and a number of smaller dialogue sequences. This left the final, mostly serious portion of the film with no songs, only the dramatic underscoring.

One song that was almost deleted was “Over the Rainbow”. MGM had felt that it made the Kansas sequence too long, as well as being far over the heads of the target audience of children. The studio also thought that it was degrading for Judy Garland to sing in a barnyard. Producer Mervyn LeRoy, uncredited associate producer Arthur Freed, and director Victor Fleming fought to keep it in, and they all eventually won. The song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song of the Year, and came to be identified so strongly with Garland herself that she made it her theme song. In 2004, the song was ranked #1 by the American Film Institute on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs list.

After the preview in San Luis Obispo in early July, The Wizard of Oz was officially released in August 1939 at its current 101-minute running time.

Release

A memorial commemorating the film’s world premiere at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939

The film’s first sneak preview was held in San Bernardino, California.[25] The film was previewed in three test markets: on August 11, 1939, at Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts,[26][27] and at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12.[28]

The Hollywood premiere was on August 15, 1939,[27] at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.[29] The New York City premiere, held at Loew’s Capitol Theatre on August 17, 1939, was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They would continue to perform there after each screening for a week, extended in Rooney’s case for a second week and in Garland’s to three (with Oz co-stars Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr replacing Rooney for the third and final week). The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.

Box office

According to MGM records, during the film’s initial release it earned $2,048,000 in the US and Canada and $969,000 in other countries throughout the world resulting total earnings of $3,017,000. While these were considerable earnings, the high production cost, in association with various distribution and other costs, meant the movie initially recorded a loss of $1,145,000 for the studio.[1] It did not show what MGM considered a profit until a 1949 re-release earned an additional $1.5 million (approximately $15 million today). However, for all the risks and cost that MGM undertook to produce The Wizard of Oz, the picture was considered at least more successful than anyone thought it would be. According to Christopher Finch, author of the Judy Garland biography Rainbow: The Stormy Life Of Judy Garland, “Fantasy is always a risk at the box office. The Wizard of Oz had been enormously successful as a book, and it had also been a major stage hit, but previous attempts to bring it the screen had been dismal failures.” Finch also writes that after the success of The Wizard of Oz, Garland signed a new contract with MGM giving her a substantial increase in salary, making her one of the top ten box office stars in the United States.[30]

Reception

The movie received critical acclaim upon release. Frank S. Nugent considered the film a “delightful piece of wonder-working which had the youngsters’ eyes shining and brought a quietly amused gleam to the wiser ones of the oldsters;” “not since Disney’s Snow White has anything quite so fantastic succeeded half so well.”[31] Nugent had issues with some of the film’s special effects, writing that “with the best of will and ingenuity, they cannot make a Munchkin or a Flying Monkey that will not still suggest, however vaguely, a Singer’s Midget in a Jack Dawn masquerade. Nor can they, without a few betraying jolts and split-screen overlappings, bring down from the sky the great soap bubble in which the Good Witch rides and roll it smoothly into place.” According to Nugent, “Judy Garland’s Dorothy is a pert and fresh-faced miss with the wonder-lit eyes of a believer in fairy tales, but the Baum fantasy is at its best when the Scarecrow, the Woodman and the Lion are on the move.”[31]

Roger Ebert chose it as one of his Great Films, writing that “‘The Wizard of Oz’ has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them.”[32]

Writer Salman Rushdie acknowledged “The Wizard of Oz was my very first literary influence” in his 2002 musings about the film.[33] He has written: “When I first saw The Wizard of Oz it made a writer of me.”[34] His first short story, written at the age of ten, was titled “Over the Rainbow.”[34]

In a 2009 retrospective article about The Wizard of Oz, San Francisco Chronicle film critic and author Mick LaSalle declared that the film’s “entire [Munchkinland] sequence, from Dorothy’s arrival in Oz to her departure on the yellow brick road, has to be one of the greatest in cinema history — a masterpiece of set design, costuming, choreography, music, lyrics, storytelling and sheer imagination.”[35]

On the film-critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 105 critics gave the film a positive review, with the critics consensus: “An absolute masterpiece whose groundbreaking visuals and deft storytelling are still every bit as resonant, The Wizard of Oz is a must-see film for young and old.”.[36] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the movie received the maximum score of 100, based on four reviews, indicating “Universal acclaim”.[37]

Differences from the novel

Many details within the plot are omitted or altered, while many of the perils that Dorothy encountered in the novel are not at all mentioned in the feature film. Oz, and Dorothy’s time there, is real in the book, not just a dream. The Good Witch of the North (who has no name in the book), Glinda the Good Witch of the South, and the Queen of the Field Mice are merged into one omniscient character, Glinda the Good Witch of the North. To take advantage of the new vivid Technicolor process, Dorothy’s Silver Shoes were changed to ruby slippers for the movie. Due to time constraints, a number of incidents from the book, including the Dainty China Country and the Hammerheads, were cut. Also in the novel, the four travelers were required to wear green spectacles before entering the Emerald City, whereas in the movie, they were not. The wizard also appears to each member of the group separately in different forms each day and asks them to kill the Wicked Witch of the West in the novel, whereas in the movie he appears to them all on the same day as a large floating head (one of his forms in the book) and asks them to bring them the Witch’s broom.[38] The role of the Witch herself was also enlarged for the movie. (In the book, although she is mentioned several times before, she is only present for one chapter in the exact middle of the book.) This was done both to provide more dramatic tension throughout the film and to unify what was otherwise a very episodic plot. The role and character of Dorothy were also transformed: in the film, she is depicted as a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued, while in the novel, she, a little girl, rescues her friends, in keeping with Baum’s feminist sympathies.

There are at least 44 identifiable major differences between the original book and this movie interpretation.[39][40] Nevertheless, the film was far more faithful to Baum’s original book than many earlier scripts (see below) or film versions. Two silent versions were produced in 1910 and 1925 and the seven-minute animated cartoon in 1933. (The 1925 version, with which Baum, who had died six years earlier, had no association, made Dorothy a Queen of Oz, rather like the later sci-fi TV miniseries Tin Man.) The 1939 movie interprets the Oz experience as a dream, in which many of the characters that Dorothy meets represent the people from her home life (such as Miss Gulch, Professor Marvel, and the farmhands, none of whom appear in the book). In L. Frank Baum‘s original novel, Oz is meant to be a real place, one that Dorothy would return to in his later Oz books and which would later provide a refuge for Aunt Em and Uncle Henry after being unable to pay the mortgage on the new house that was built after the old one really was carried away by the tornado.

Re-releases

Beginning with the 1949 reissue, and continuing until the film’s 50th anniversary VHS release in 1989, the opening Kansas sequences were shown in black and white instead of the sepia tone as originally filmed. (This includes television showings.)[41]

The MGM “Children’s Matinees” series re-released the film twice, in both 1970 and 1971.[42]

In 2002, the film had a very limited re-release in U.S. theaters.[43]

On September 23, 2009, The Wizard of Oz was re-released in select theaters for a one-night-only event in honor of the film’s 70th Anniversary and as a promotion for various new disc releases later in the month. An encore of this event was re-released in theaters on November 17, 2009.[44]

An IMAX 3D theatrical re-release played at three-hundred theaters in North America for one week only beginning September 20, 2013 as part of the film’s 75th Anniversary.[45] Warner Bros. spent $25 million on advertising. The studio hosted a premiere of the film’s first IMAX 3D release on September 15, 2013 from the newly remodeled TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the site of the Hollywood premiere of the original film) in Hollywood. The film was the first to play at the new theater and served as the grand opening of Hollywood’s first 3D IMAX screen. The film was also shown as a special presentation at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[46]

Television

The film was first shown on television on November 3, 1956, by CBS, as the last installment of the Ford Star Jubilee.[47]

Home media

The Wizard of Oz was among the first videocassettes (on both VHS and Betamax format for the 1980 release) by MGM/CBS Home Video in 1980;[48] all current home video releases are by Warner Home Video (via current rights holder Turner Entertainment). The first laserdisc release of The Wizard of Oz was in 1982, with two versions of a second (one from Turner and one from The Criterion Collection with a commentary track) for the 50th Anniversary release in 1989, a third in 1991, a fourth in 1993, a fifth in 1995 and a sixth and final laserdisc release on September 11, 1996.[49]

Prior to the wide-home-video release in 1980, The Wizard of Oz was also released multiple times for the home-video commercial market (on a limited scale) on the Super8 (8mm format) during the 1970s. These releases include an edited English version (roughly 10 minutes, and roughly 20 minutes), as well as edited Spanish versions of the classic. There is also a full commercial release of The Wizard of Oz released on Super8 (on multiple reels) that came out in the 1970s as well for the commercial market.[50]

In addition to VHS (and later, laserdisc), the classic has been released multiple times during the 1980s on the Betamax format, beginning in 1980 simultaneously with the VHS release.[51]

The movie was released for the first and only time on the CED format in 1982 by MGM/UA Home Video.[52]

Outside of the North American and European markets, The Wizard of Oz has also been released multiple times on the VCD format since the 1990s in Asia.[53]

The first DVD release of the film was on March 26, 1997, by MGM/Turner and contained no special features or supplements. It was re-released by Warner Bros. for its 60th Anniversary on October 19, 1999, with its soundtrack presented in a new 5.1 surround sound mix. The monochrome-to-color transition was more smoothly accomplished by digitally keeping the inside of the house in monochrome while Dorothy and the reveal of Munchkinland are in color. The DVD also contained a behind-the-scenes documentary, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic, produced in 1990 and hosted by Angela Lansbury, which was originally shown on television immediately after the 1990 telecast of The Wizard of Oz; it had been featured in the 1993 “Ultimate Oz” laserdisc release. Outtakes, the deleted “Jitterbug” musical number, clips of pre-1939 Oz adaptations, trailers, newsreels, and a portrait gallery were also included, as well as two radio programs of the era publicizing the film.

In 2005, two DVD editions were released, both featuring a newly restored version of the film with audio commentary and an isolated music and effects track. One of the two DVD releases was a “Two-Disc Special Edition,” featuring production documentaries, trailers, various outtakes, newsreels, radio shows and still galleries. The other set, a “Three-Disc Collector’s Edition,” included these features as well as the digitally restored 80th anniversary edition of the 1925 feature-length silent film version of The Wizard of Oz, other silent Oz movies, and a 1933 animated short version.

The Wizard of Oz was released on Blu-ray Disc on September 29, 2009, for the film’s 70th anniversary in a four-disc “Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” including all the bonus features from the 2005 Collector’s Edition DVD, new bonus features about Victor Fleming and the surviving Munchkins, the telefilm The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, and the miniseries MGM: When the Lion Roars. For this edition, Warner commissioned a new transfer at 8K resolution from the original film negatives. This restored version also features a lossless 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track.[54] A DVD version was also released as a Two-Disc Special Edition and a Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition.

On December 1, 2009, three discs of the Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Disc were repackaged as a less expensive “Emerald Edition”, with an Emerald Edition four-disc DVD arriving the following week. A single-disc Blu-ray, containing the restored movie and all the extra features of the two-disc Special Edition DVD, also became available on March 16, 2010.

In 2013, the film was re-released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and UltraViolet for the 90th anniversary of Warner Bros. and as part of the film’s 75th Anniversary.[45][55]

There were also multiple special editions released in celebration of the 75th Anniversary in 2013, exclusively by both Best Buy (a SteelBook of the 3D Blu-ray) and another version that came with a keepsake lunch bag released by Target stores.[56][57]

Music

Music for The Wizard of Oz being recorded in 1939

The Wizard of Oz is widely noted for its musical selections and soundtrack. The music was composed by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics were written by Yip Harburg, both of whom won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow.” In addition, Herbert Stothart, who composed the instrumental underscore, won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. Georgie Stoll was associate conductor and screen credit was given to George Bassman, Murray Cutter, Ken Darby and Paul Marquardt for orchestral and vocal arrangements. (As usual, Roger Edens was also heavily involved as an unbilled musical associate to Freed.)

The song “The Jitterbug”, written in a swing style, was intended for the sequence in which the four are journeying to the castle of the Wicked Witch. Due to time constraints, the song was cut from the final theatrical version. The film footage for the song has been lost, although silent home film footage of rehearsals for the number has survived. The sound recording for the song, however, is intact and was included in the 2-CD Rhino Records deluxe edition of the film soundtrack, as well as on the VHS and DVD editions of the film. A reference to “The Jitterbug” remains in the film: the Witch remarks to her flying monkeys that they should have no trouble apprehending Dorothy and her friends because “I’ve sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them.”

Another musical number that was cut before release occurred right after the Wicked Witch of the West was melted and before Dorothy and her friends returned to the Wizard. This was a reprise of “Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead” (blended with “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “The Merry Old Land of Oz”) with the lyrics altered to “Hail! Hail! The Witch is Dead!” This started with the Witch’s guard saying “Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!” and dissolved to a huge celebration of the citizens of Emerald City singing the song as they accompany Dorothy and her friends to see the Wizard. Today, the film of this scene is also lost and only a few stills survive along with a few seconds of footage used on several reissue trailers. The entire audio still exists and is included on the 2-CD Rhino Record deluxe edition of the film soundtrack.[58]

In addition, a brief reprise of “Over the Rainbow” was intended to be sung by Garland while Dorothy is trapped in the Witch’s castle, but it was cut because it was considered too emotionally intense. The original soundtrack recording still exists, however, and was included as an extra in all VHS and DVD releases from 1993-onwards.[59]

The songs were recorded in the studio’s scoring stage before filming. Several of the recordings were completed while Buddy Ebsen was still with the cast. Therefore, while Ebsen had to be dropped from the cast due to illness from the aluminum powder makeup, his singing voice remained in the soundtrack (as noted in the notes for the CD Deluxe Edition). In the group vocals of “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” his voice can be heard. Jack Haley spoke with a distinct Boston accent and thus did not pronounce the r in wizard. By contrast, Ebsen was a Midwesterner, like Judy Garland, and thus pronounced it. Haley rerecorded Ebsen’s solo parts later.

Song list

  • Over the Rainbow” – Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale
  • Munchkinland Sequence:
    • “Come Out,…” – Billie Burke as Glinda, and the Munchkins
    • “It Really Was No Miracle” – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Billy Bletcher, and the Munchkins
    • “We Thank You Very Sweetly” – Frank Cucksey and Joseph Koziel
    • Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” – Billie Burke as Glinda (speaking) and the Munchkins
    • “As Mayor of the Munchkin City”
    • “As Coroner, I Must Aver”
    • Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” (Reprise) – The Munchkins
    • “The Lullaby League”
    • “The Lollipop Guild”
    • “We Welcome You to Munchkinland” – The Munchkins
  • “Follow the Yellow Brick Road/You’re Off to See the Wizard” – Judy Garland as Dorothy, and the Munchkins
  • If I Only Had a Brain” – Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Judy Garland as Dorothy
  • We’re Off to See the Wizard” – Judy Garland as Dorothy, and Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow
  • If I Only Had a Heart” – Jack Haley as the Tin Man
  • We’re Off to See the Wizard” (Reprise 1) – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Jack Haley as the Tin Man
  • If I Only Had the Nerve” – Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Judy Garland as Dorothy
  • We’re Off to See the Wizard” (Reprise 2) – Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, and Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion
  • Optimistic Voices” – MGM Studio Chorus
  • The Merry Old Land of Oz” – Frank Morgan as Cabby, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, and the Emerald City townspeople
  • If I Were King of the Forest” – Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Jack Haley as the Tin Man
  • The Jitterbug” – Although this song was removed from the final film, it is still available on some extended edition CDs.[60]

An arranged version of “Night on Bald Mountain” is played during the scene where the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion rescue Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle.

Excerpts from Schumann’s “The Happy Farmer” are heard at several points in the film; the first being when Toto runs away from Miss Gulch.

Awards and honors

Academy Awards

American Film Institute lists

The American Film Institute (AFI) has compiled various lists which include this film or elements thereof.

Other honors

Sequels and reinterpretations

The Wizard of Oz was dramatized as a one-hour radio play on Lux Radio Theater, which was broadcast on December 25, 1950, with Judy Garland reprising her earlier role. An official sequel, the animated Journey Back to Oz, starring Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, as Dorothy, was produced, beginning in 1964, to commemorate the original film’s 25th anniversary.[71]

In 1964, a one-hour animated cartoon, also called Return to Oz, was shown as an afternoon weekend special on NBC.

In 1975, the stage show The Wiz premiered on Broadway. It was an African American version of The Wizard of Oz reworked for the Broadway stage. It starred Stephanie Mills and other Broadway stars and earned Tony awards. The play’s financing was handled by actor Geoffrey Holder. The play inspired revivals after it left the stage and an unsuccessful motion picture made in 1978, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow.

Walt Disney Pictures made a film called Return to Oz, which starred (and introduced) Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale, in 1985.[72] Based mostly on the books Ozma of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz, it fared poorly with critics and in the box office, although it has since become a cult film, with many considering it a more faithful adaptation of the Oz series.[73][74]

In 1995, Gregory Maguire published the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was adapted into the Broadway musical Wicked. The story describes the life of the Wicked Witch and other events prior to Dorothy’s arrival.

For the film’s 56th anniversary, a stage show also titled The Wizard of Oz was based upon the 1939 film and the book by L. Frank Baum. It toured from 1995 to 2012, except for 2004 (see The Wizard of Oz (1987 stage play)).

In 2005, The Jim Henson Company produced The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz for television, starring Ashanti as Dorothy, Jeffrey Tambor as the Wizard, David Alan Grier as Uncle Henry, and Queen Latifah as Aunt Em. Kermit the Frog portrayed the Scarecrow, Gonzo portrayed the Tin Thing (Tin Man), Fozzie Bear portrayed the Lion, and Miss Piggy portrayed all the Witches of the West, East, North, and South.

In 2007, Syfy released the miniseries Tin Man, a science fiction continuation starring Zooey Deschanel as DG.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote a musical based on the film, which is also titled The Wizard of Oz. The musical opened in 2011 at the West End‍ ’​s London Palladium. It features all of the songs from the film plus new songs written by Lloyd Webber and Rice. Lloyd Webber also found Danielle Hope to play Dorothy on the reality show, Over the Rainbow. Another production of the musical opened in December 2012 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto.[75] A reality TV show, also titled Over the Rainbow, found a Canadian girl, Danielle Wade, to play the role of Dorothy.[76][77] The Canadian production then began a North American tour in September 2013.[78]

An animated film called Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz was released in 2011 by Warner Home Video, incorporating Tom and Jerry into the story as Dorothy’s “protectors”.

Writer-director Hugh Gross’s independent film After the Wizard, produced in 2010, relates events after those of the film. It was released to DVD on August 7, 2012.

Another Oz film, Oz the Great and Powerful, was released on March 8, 2013. It was directed by Sam Raimi, stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams, and produced and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the second film based on Baum’s Oz series to be produced by Disney, and unlike Return to Oz, it was a largely commercial success and more warmly receptive among people, grossing over $493 million worldwide, though it received a mixed critical reception.

A musical animated film, Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return was released on May 9, 2014.[79]

Cultural impact

Regarding the original Baum storybook, it has been said that “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is America’s greatest and best-loved home grown fairytale. The first totally American fantasy for children, it is one of the most-read children’s books … and despite its many particularly American attributes, including a wizard from Omaha, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has universal appeal.”[80]

The film also has been deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress, which selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1989. In June 2007, the film was listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.[81] The film placed at number 86 on Bravo‘s 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[82] In 1977, Aljean Harmetz wrote The Making of The Wizard of Oz, a detailed description of the creation of the film based on interviews and research; it was updated in 1989.[83]

Quotes from the film such as, “I’m melting! I’m melting!”, “We’re not in Kansas anymore”, “I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little dog too” and “There’s no place like home” can be heard in numerous films such as Field of Dreams, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Spaceballs, The Matrix, Terminator Salvation, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Titanic, Avatar, and Twister, as well as in numerous television shows, and have become common phrases.

In 2010, Fremantle Media produced a Wizard of Oz-themed Halloween episode of The Price Is Right. The show aired on October 29 (a Friday) since Halloween fell on a Sunday that year.[84]

When Ray Bolger, the last survivor of the major players, died in 1987, Chicago Tribune artist Dick Locher portrayed the Scarecrow running over the rainbow to catch up with the other characters.[85][86]

The band Twisted Sister featured a robotic voice singing “The Lollipop Guild” as a hidden track on the bonus disc on the 25th anniversary reissue of their 1984 album, Stay Hungry.[87]

The second stanza of the 2013 single by Bridgit Mendler titled Hurricane contains the lines, “That’s what Dorothy was afraid of. The sneaky tornado” and “There’s no place like home” in reference to The Wizard of Oz.[88]

Ruby slippers

Because of their iconic stature,[89] the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz are now among the most treasured and valuable film memorabilia in movie history.[90] The silver slippers that Dorothy wore in the book series were changed to ruby to take advantage of the new Technicolor process. Gilbert Adrian, MGM’s chief costume designer, was responsible for the final design. A number of pairs were made, though no one knows exactly how many.

After filming, the shoes were stored among the studio’s extensive collection of costumes and faded from attention. They were found in the basement of MGM’s wardrobe department during preparations for a mammoth auction in 1970. One pair was the highlight of the auction, going for a then unheard of $15,000 to an anonymous buyer, who apparently donated them to the Smithsonian in 1979. Four other pairs are known to exist; one sold for $666,000 at auction in 2000. A pair was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and remains missing.[91]

Another, differently styled pair not used in the film was sold at auction with the rest of her collections by owner actress Debbie Reynolds for $510,000 (not including the buyer’s premium) in June 2011.[92]

Urban legend

An urban legend claimed that, in the film, a Munchkin could be seen committing suicide by hanging by the neck from behind a prop tree and swinging back and forth in the left background, while Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are singing “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and skipping down the yellow brick road into the distance. The object in question is actually a bird borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo, most likely a crane or an emu, one of several placed on the indoor set to give it a more realistic feel.[93][94][95][96][97][98]

Impact upon LGBT culture

The Wizard of Oz has been identified as being of importance to the LGBT community, in part due to Judy Garland’s starring role.[99]

Attempts have been made to determine the film’s impact on LGBT-identified persons: Editors Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty, in their introduction to Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture (1995, Duke University Press), write that the film’s gay resonance and interpretations depends entirely upon camp.[100] Some have attempted a more serious interpretation of the film: for example, Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lore quotes therapist Robert Hopcke as saying that the dreary reality of Kansas implies the presence of homophobia and is contrasted with the colorful and accepting land of Oz;”[99] they state that when shown in gay venues, the film is “transformed into a rite celebrating acceptance and community.”[99] Queer theorists have drawn parallels between LGBT people and characters in the film, specifically pointing to the characters’ double lives and Dorothy’s longing “for a world in which her inner desires can be expressed freely and fully.”[99]

Le Magicien d’Oz (1939)

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

Wikipédia

Le Magicien d’Oz (en anglais : The Wizard of Oz) est un film musical américain de Victor Fleming sorti en 1939, adapté du roman éponyme de L. Frank Baum.

Fortement ancré dans la culture populaire américaine1, au même titre que Autant en emporte le vent ou Une étoile est née, Le Magicien d’Oz est le film qui a été le plus vu dans le monde d’après la Bibliothèque du Congrès américain1. Il est classé au Registre international Mémoire du monde de l’UNESCO2.

Synopsis

Dorothy et ses amis (Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley et Ray Bolger).

Dorothy Gale, une jeune orpheline, est élevée dans une ferme du Kansas tenue par sa tante et son oncle. Son chien Toto étant persécuté par la méchante Almira Gulch, Dorothy demande aux trois ouvriers de la ferme de le protéger. Cependant personne ne semble prendre au sérieux les craintes de la jeune fille. Sa tante Em lui reproche son imagination et lui demande de trouver sa place dans un monde sans problème.

Almira Gulch finit par s’emparer de Toto avec l’intention de le tuer, sur ordonnance du shérif. Mais le chien s’échappe et retourne près de Dorothy qui décide alors de s’enfuir. Sur le chemin, elle rencontre le professeur Marvel qui parvient à la persuader de retourner auprès de sa famille, en voyant pour elle dans sa boule de cristal, sa tante en train de pleurer.

Arrivée à la ferme, une tornade se forme avant que Dorothy ne puisse se réfugier dans la cave. Pour se protéger, elle s’enferme dans sa chambre mais la maison est emportée par la tornade. Par la fenêtre, Dorothy voit Almira Gulch sur sa bicyclette se transformant en une sorcière chevauchant un balai. La maison finit par atterrir à Munchkinland, une contrée du pays d’Oz. Dorothy rencontre Glinda, la bonne sorcière du Nord et apprend que la maison vient de tuer la Sorcière de l’Est en lui atterrissant dessus. Dorothy fait ensuite la connaissance avec les Munchkins, les habitants de Munchkinland. Arrive alors la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest qui vient réclamer les chaussures magiques de sa sœur qui vient de mourir. Malheureusement pour elle, Dorothy en a déjà pris possession ; la sorcière jure alors vengeance contre elle et son chien Toto.

la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest (Margaret Hamilton) terrorise Dorothy (Judy Garland).

Glinda demande à Dorothy de partir demander l’aide du magicien d’Oz à la cité d’Émeraude. Pour ce faire, elle doit suivre la route de brique jaune. En chemin, elle rencontre successivement un épouvantail en manque de cerveau, qui pourtant fait preuve d’une grande astuce, un homme de fer-blanc en manque de cœur, qui pourtant fait preuve d’une grande gentillesse, et un lion en manque de courage. Les trois accompagnent Dorothy jusqu’à la cité d’Émeraude avec l’espoir que le magicien d’Oz palliera leur handicap respectif. Mais c’est sans compter sur la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest qui en veut à Dorothy…

Une fois sur place ils rencontrent le magicien d’Oz qui apparaît comme une tête flottante entourée de feu et de fumée. Il fait croire à ses invités qu’il pourra les aider s’ils prennent possession du balai de la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest.

Sur le trajet du château de la sorcière, Dorothy et ses amis sont attaqués par des singes volants envoyés par la sorcière. La jeune fille et son chien sont capturés et amenés à la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest qui lui demande les souliers. Dorothy accepte après la menace de mort envers Toto mais une force magique empêche la sorcière d’en prendre possession. Celle-ci explique alors à Dorothy qu’elle doit la tuer pour pouvoir les lui enlever. À ce moment-là, Toto profite du manque d’attention de la sorcière pour s’échapper. La sorcière enferme alors Dorothy pour réfléchir à la manière de la tuer sans abîmer les chaussures. Pendant ce temps, Toto retrouve les amis de sa maîtresse et les mène au repaire de la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest pour la libérer. Ils la retrouvent mais le groupe est pris au piège par les troupes de la sorcière. Une bagarre s’engage entre tous et Dorothy arrose la sorcière avec de l’eau, ce qui la fait fondre.

À leur retour à la cité d’Émeraude, Toto découvre le pot aux roses du magicien d’Oz. Ce n’est en fait qu’un simple homme sans pouvoir qui utilise des artifices pour paraître impressionnant. Le groupe d’amis est déçu de cette découverte mais le « magicien » tient finalement sa promesse. Il n’utilise pas de magie mais persuade chacun qu’il a déjà au fond de lui ce qu’il recherche depuis toujours.

Après cela le magicien raconte son histoire et comment il a atterri au pays d’Oz. Il promet ensuite à Dorothy de la ramener au Kansas ainsi que la maison, laissant la responsabilité de la cité d’Émeraude à l’épouvantail, à l’homme de fer et au lion. Le magicien, Dorothy et Toto embarquent dans la montgolfière de celui-ci mais le petit chien saute en dehors. Dorothy saute à son tour avec le magicien pour le récupérer, laissant partir le ballon. Dorothy semble résignée à rester pour toujours au pays d’Oz jusqu’à ce que Glinda ne lui montre la voie. Depuis le début, elle avait la capacité de rentrer chez elle mais il fallait qu’elle le découvre par elle-même.

Dorothy fait ses adieux pour de bon à ses amis et suit les instructions de la bonne fée. Elle se réveille alors dans sa chambre du Kansas entourée de sa famille. Elle leur raconte son voyage fantastique qui ne manque pas de les faire rire.

Fiche technique

Sauf mention contraire, cette fiche est établie à partir du générique du film.

WIZARD OF OZ ORIGINAL POSTER 1939.jpg

Distribution

Production

Genèse

En 1924, la Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer envisage d’adapter le roman de L. Frank Baum, Le Magicien d’Oz. La MGM et Frank Joslyn Baum, le fils de l’auteur, ne trouvant pas d’accord, les droits du livre sont obtenus par la Chadwick Pictures6. En 1933, c’est Samuel Goldwyn qui négocie avec Baum pour faire une comédie musicale mais aucun accord n’est finalement trouvé. C’est finalement le que le Samuel Goldwyn Studio obtient les droits du roman pour 40 000 $6.

C’est après le succès de Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains que Louis B. Mayer, président de la MGM, se voit suggérer d’essayer d’acquérir les droits du Magicien d’Oz pour le porter à l’écran et ainsi s’inspirer de la réussite de Walt Disney4. Depuis le décès de Irving Thalberg en 1937, Mayer est à la recherche d’un nouveau producteur. Il finit par engager un producteur-réalisateur de 38 ans, Mervyn LeRoy et par pure coïncidence, l’un des premiers projets qu’il propose au studio est l’adaptation du Magicien d’Oz. Louis B. Meyer accepte de faire ce film mais Mervyn LeRoy souhaite également le réaliser. Meyer refuse estimant que son producteur ne pourra pas assurer le travail de production en plus de celui de réalisation4. LeRoy engage Arthur Freed pour l’aider dans la mise en place de cette production qui s’annonce importante et pour laquelle ils n’ont pas encore les droits4.

Scénario

La valse des scénaristes

Avant l’acquisition des droits du livre de Baum, la MGM se demande comment l’adapter sans perdre la « magie » originelle4. En janvier 1938, William H. Cannon, l’assistant de LeRoy, est le premier à réfléchir à la manière de rendre l’histoire plus dramatique. Un mois plus tard, le , Mervyn LeRoy est officiellement nommé producteur du film avec la signature de son contrat et quelques jours après Samuel Goldwyn accepte de céder les droits du livre pour 75 000 $ à Loew’s Incorporated, une filiale de la MGM6.

Irving Brecher est le premier scénariste à travailler sur le script mais il est immédiatement prié de travailler sur un autre projet, Un jour au cirque avec les Marx Brothers. C’est Herman J. Mankiewicz qui prend sa suite le jusqu’au quand Ogden Nash lui est associé6.

Le 11 mars se joint à eux Noel Langley6, un sud-africain de 26 ans, qui est un de ceux qui apporte le plus à l’histoire. C’est lui qui change les souliers d’argent de Dorothy en souliers sertis de rubis et qui transpose les ouvriers de la ferme dans le monde imaginaire. Il ponctue son script par la morale de l’histoire : « rien ne vaut sa maison »4.

Le 23 mars Mankiewicz quitte l’équipe tandis que Herbert Fields l’intègre le pour trois jours et aucune modification majeure. Un nouveau scénariste, Samuel Hoffenstein, travaille sur le script pendant quelques jours sans rien apporter de nouveau avant que Noel Langley ne rende sa dernière version le . Le scénario est immédiatement transmis à Florence Ryerson et Edgar Allan Woolf qui l’ajustent avant de rendre leur premier jet le 13 juin6. Ils sont alors débarqués du projet par Arthur Freed qui va les faire travailler sur sa nouvelle production, Place au rythme6.

Noel Langley est de nouveau sollicité pour améliorer le scénario et restera en place jusqu’au début du tournage. Le , il est associé à Jack Mintz qui reste moins d’un mois et le script définitif est finalement rendu le 6. Quand Victor Fleming arrive le pour prendre le film en main, il amène dans son sillage John Lee Mahin qui aura pour tâche de modifier le scénario au fil du tournage6.

Finalement, quatorze scénaristes ont été nécessaires à l’élaboration du scénario4, dont la version finale est datée au 6. Seulement trois seront crédités au générique : Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson et Edgar Allan Woolf.

Comparaison du film avec le livre

Les souliers de rubis de Dorothy. Dans le livre, ils sont d’argent.

Il existe plusieurs différences entre le livre original et le film. L’histoire est la même mais des détails changent ou disparaissent dans le film. L’un des changements majeur est la transformation des souliers de Dorothy. Originellement, ils sont en argent alors que dans le film Judy Garland porte des souliers de rubis. Ce changement est une manière de mettre en valeur la nouvelle technologie de l’époque, le Technicolor11.

Au Kansas

Les séquences se déroulant au Kansas sont quasiment absentes de l’histoire originale, n’apparaissant que sous forme de petits paragraphes au début et à la fin du livre. Les trois ouvriers agricoles, Miss Gulch et le Professeur Marvel sont des inventions des scénaristes n’apparaissant dans aucun livre de L. Frank Baum.

Le pays d’Oz

Illustration originale de la « Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest ».

Baum a construit l’univers d’Oz en créant diverses histoires mettant en scène les différents personnages et lieux de ce pays imaginaire, des intrigues secondaires que le film ignore en grande partie. Dans le livre les héros sont notamment confrontés à d’agressifs requins marteaux et se retrouvent dans une ville où tout est en porcelaine, même les habitants.

Dans le roman la Gentille Sorcière du Nord et Glinda, la Gentille Sorcière du Sud, sont deux personnages bien distincts. Dorothy rencontre la Gentille Sorcière du Nord, dont le nom n’est pas mentionné, qui est incapable de se servir de la puissance des souliers d’argent. Pour cette raison elle envoie la jeune fille à Oz et c’est après avoir fait connaissance avec Glinda que celle-ci lui dévoile le secret des chaussures. Dans le film, Glinda est la somme des deux sorcières.

La morale que découvre Dorothy à la fin du film, « rien ne vaut sa maison », est également une invention des scénaristes. Dans le livre la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest ne s’aventure pas à Munchkinland par crainte du magicien et des deux bonnes sorcières. La méchante sorcière du film a un aspect plus conventionnel que dans le livre. Dans l’œuvre de Baum elle est borgne, et elle ne sert pas d’un balai magique pour voler, mais d’un parapluie. Elle a aussi la particularité d’avoir peur du noir et évolue dans un environnement lumineux contrairement au film ou son château est dans les tons sombres. Dans le livre elle porte des vêtements blancs alors que dans le film elle aborde une robe noire.

Autre différence, dans le roman, les singes volants sont ses esclaves par intérim car elle possède un casque lui permettant de faire trois vœux qu’ils exécutent. Dans le livre la sorcière est plutôt décrite comme quelqu’un de lâche et sans grand pouvoir. Dans le film, il s’avère que Dorothy a en fait rêvé toute l’histoire alors que dans le roman son voyage est tout à fait réel.

Dorothy et ses amis

Dorothy et ses souliers d’argent.

Le film nous présente une Dorothy plus mûre que dans le livre, avec une attitude de jeune fille en détresse complètement absente dans l’œuvre de Baum.

Comme dans le film, le livre nous montre les trois amis de Dorothy possédant déjà les qualités dont ils croient avoir besoin. La différence entre le film et le roman est dans la manière dont le magicien « réalise » leurs souhaits. Originellement, il donne un cerveau à l’Épouvantail en lui décrochant la tête et pour la remplir d’aiguilles et d’épingles. Dans le film le magicien lui remet simplement un diplôme attestant de l’intelligence de l’Épouvantail. Pour l’Homme de fer, le magicien du livre lui accroche un cœur en satin alors que dans le film le cœur est une montre. Le Lion peureux se voit administrer dans le roman une potion censée lui donner le courage qu’il souhaite alors que dans le film le magicien lui décerne une médaille honorant son courage.

Différence du ton

Le livre est plus sombre et plus violent que le film. Pour exemple, dans le livre l’Homme de fer utilise sa hache pour décapiter un chat sauvage, plusieurs loups et pour se débarrasser d’arbres vivants. Dans le film il utilise son « arme » à deux reprises pour casser un pot de fleurs afin de faire une couronne pour le lion et lors de la libération de Dorothy qui est prisonnière dans le château de la sorcière.

Les comédiens

Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz trailer.jpg

Dorothy

La première tâche pour les deux producteurs est d’engager les acteurs. Le premier choix envisagé pour jouer « Dorothy » est la vedette du moment, Shirley Temple. Mais après une audition privée où LeRoy et Freed estiment que la jeune actrice n’est pas assez talentueuse pour le rôle4 et le refus de la 20th Century Fox de la « prêter »3, les producteurs jettent leur dévolu sur une actrice de 16 ans déjà sous contrat avec la MGM depuis trois ans, Judy Garland. Ils sont persuadés que le Magicien d’Oz lancera pour de bon sa carrière et qu’elle deviendra une star4. Le rôle de Dorothy lui est alors attribué en 6, bien qu’elle ait un peu de poids à perdre4.

Les sorcières

Billie Burke, interprète Glinda.

Pour jouer Glinda la « Gentille Sorcière du Nord », les producteurs engagent Billie Burke, ancienne coqueluche de Broadway du milieu des années 1900 et épouse de Florenz Ziegfeld, qui a débuté sa carrière hollywoodienne quelques années plus tôt à l’âge de 50 ans.

Margaret Hamilton interprète la « Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest »

Le rôle de la « Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest » est plus difficile à attribuer. Dans le livre original, les illustrations de William Wallace Denslow ne donnent aucun indice intéressant à propos de l’aspect physique de la sorcière. Mervyn LeRoy propose alors un clone de la reine de Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, une sorcière « belle et sexy ». Arthur Freed et les dirigeants du studio ne sont pas d’accord avec cette idée mais LeRoy n’en démord pas. Il fait faire des essais à Gale Sondergaard4, une actrice qu’il avait dirigée dans Anthony Adverse et qui avait remporté l’Oscar de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle pour ce rôle en 1936. Elle apparaît alors en une sorcière si belle que Freed et la direction en sont outrés, estimant que « les méchantes sorcières sont laides, comme la vieille de Blanche-Neige »4. LeRoy demande alors au département de maquillage de rendre Sondergaard laide, ce qui déplaît à l’actrice qui refuse finalement le rôle. Elle dira plus tard qu’elle n’était pas prête à s’enlaidir et qu’elle ne regrettait pas sa décision4.

Le rôle est finalement attribué le 6 à Margaret Hamilton, une ancienne institutrice de 36 ans, qui gagne sa vie en étant une actrice de composition et ayant déjà joué dans six films du studio.

Le Magicien

Frank Morgan in The Great Ziegfeld trailer.jpg

Pour le rôle du « Magicien », beaucoup de comédiens sont envisagés. Ed Wynn refuse, considérant l’importance du personnage trop petite4. Wallace Beery, un des acteurs vedettes du studio, se propose mais les dirigeants refusent, ne voulant pas l’immobiliser sur un long tournage4. Le studio envisage alors W. C. Fields qui les a impressionné dans David Copperfield quelques années plus tôt mais l’affaire ne se conclut pas à cause du salaire que l’acteur demande4.

C’est finalement Frank Morgan, un autre acteur du studio, qui décroche le rôle le 6. En plus du Magicien, il jouera quatre autres personnages : le « Professeur Marvel » ainsi que le portier, le cocher et le garde de la cité d’Émeraude.

Les compagnons de route de Dorothy

Ray Bolger dans le rôle de l’Épouvantail

Bert Lahr dans le rôle du « Lion peureux »

Le , Ray Bolger est engagé par la production pour jouer dans le film. L’acteur en est très heureux et enthousiaste jusqu’à ce qu’il apprenne qu’il a été choisi pour interpréter l’« Homme de fer ». Il en est furieux et vexé car il se voyait déjà revêtir le costume de l’« Épouvantail » qu’il pense être fait pour lui et qui ferait de lui une star. Persuadé qu’il doit obtenir ce rôle, il se rend au bureau de Louis B. Mayer et finit par le convaincre4,6.

Jack haley ragtime2.jpg

Buddy Ebsen qui avait obtenu le rôle de l’Épouvantail accepte sans rechigner celui de l’Homme de fer4. Ce qui semblait être le rôle de sa vie se transforme finalement en cauchemar. Son maquillage nécessite que de l’aluminium soit posé sur son visage mais un soir il éprouve des difficultés à respirer et est admis en urgence à l’hôpital. Après avoir inhalé l’aluminium présent dans l’air après son maquillage, ses poumons en étaient remplis4. Alors qu’Ebsen entame sa convalescence, la MGM décide de le remplacer. C’est pour l’acteur sa plus grosse désillusion professionnelle mais aussi personnelle4.

Pour remplacer Buddy Ebsen, la MGM se fait « prêter » par la Fox une vedette de Broadway et du cinéma, Jack Haley. Il s’engage le 6 en ignorant ce qui est arrivé à son prédécesseur et bénéficie d’un maquillage en pâte d’aluminium4. Lors de la première journée de tournage de Haley, le réalisateur Victor Fleming est inquiet et lui demande de quelle manière il va aborder son rôle. Jack Haley le rassure en lui expliquant qu’il allait le jouer de la même manière qu’il raconte les histoires à son jeune fils4.

Bert Lahr, un comédien de Broadway reconnu pour son style comique, fait l’unanimité au sein des producteurs pour interpréter le « Lion peureux »4 et est engagé le 6.

Les Munchkins

Les « Munchkins » sont interprétés par plus d’une centaine de personnes de petite taille qui ont l’habitude de se produire dans des vaudevilles ou dans des cirques à travers le monde4. Leo Singer, le responsable de la troupe, signe un contrat avec la MGM le pour un engagement débutant le 6.

Pour choisir l’interprète du coroner, le directeur de casting choisit huit personnes parmi tout ce monde et leur fait lire les répliques4. Et c’est finalement Meinhardt Raabe qui obtient le rôle. Adrian prend alors les mesures de tous pour créer des costumes adaptés à chacun. Il faut au département des costumes cinq semaines pour tous les réaliser. Ce temps permet aux Munchkins de répéter et être fin prêts dès l’arrivée des vêtements4. Avant de tourner leur scène, chacun passe devant Jack Dawn qui leur demande quel rôle ils ont. Tous ceux avec un rôle « important » sont alors maquillés par Dawn, puis pris en photo pour que le résultat soit archivé et être ainsi reproduit les jours suivants4. Il faut un peu plus d’un mois pour que la séquence de « Munchkinland » soit bouclée6.

Tournage

Richard Thorpe est engagé comme réalisateur4,3 le et débute le tournage trois semaines après6. Au bout de dix jours de tournage6, pendant qu’est recherché un remplaçant pour Buddy Ebsen, Mervyn LeRoy scrute les rushes et estime que le travail de Thorpe n’est pas adapté à la vision enfantine que le film devrait avoir. Le producteur décide donc de se séparer du réalisateur4 et de repartir de zéro3.

Peu de temps avant de se lancer dans son nouveau projet, Autant en emporte le vent, George Cukor accepte d’aider le film à se monter. Il est stupéfait par le maquillage et les costumes des acteurs qu’il fait modifier aussitôt sa prise de poste. Ce qui le gêne le plus est l’apparence donné à Judy Garland. Il retire alors la perruque blonde de l’actrice et diminue considérablement son maquillage, lui rappelant ainsi qu’elle interprète une petite fille du Kansas4. George Cukor abandonne comme convenu son poste pour s’occuper de son film et ne se doute pas que les modifications qu’il a opérées sont une des clés de la réussite du film.

Pour reprendre la suite de Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy choisi Victor Fleming qui est un réalisateur direct et au franc-parler. Fleming accepte de faire le film « pour que [ses] deux petites filles voient un film à la recherche de la beauté, de l’honnêteté, de la gentillesse et de l’amour dans le monde »4. Il s’investit complètement dans sa tâche mais à quelques semaines avant la fin du tournage, il est sollicité par les studios Selznick. Le tournage d’Autant en emporte le vent tourne au fiasco à cause de la relation très tendue entre George Cukor et Clark Gable. L’acteur vedette menace de quitter le film si son ami Victor Fleming ne prend les rênes du film. Le réalisateur accepte et quitte le tournage du Magicien d’Oz4.

King Vidor est choisi pour être celui qui mettra la dernière touche au film. Victor Fleming lui explique ce qui a été fait et ce qu’il reste à faire. Sur les deux à trois semaines de tournage restantes, Vidor doit filmer la scène se déroulant au Kansas et où Dorothy chante Over the Rainbow4. Une fois le film terminé King Vidor refuse de voir apparaître son nom au générique estimant que tout le mérite revient à Fleming. Jusqu’à la mort de ce dernier, Vidor ne révélera jamais lui-même qu’il avait participé au tournage du Magicien d’Oz4.

Mise en scène

Le Magicien d’Oz surprend par le contraste des couleurs. Alors que la séquence d’ouverture dans le Kansas est tournée en sépia, les scènes du pays d’Oz sont tournées en Technicolor.

Le passage progressif d’un monde à l’autre devait se faire en colorant la pellicule image par image, mais en raison de restrictions budgétaires, une solution plus ingénieuse est adoptée : le décor intérieur de la ferme est peint en sépia et une doublure de Judy Garland habillée d’une robe sépia ouvre la porte. La caméra avance et fait disparaître la doublure du champ. Judy Garland apparaît alors dans sa robe bleue12.

Effets spéciaux

Les effets spéciaux du Magicien d’Oz sont l’œuvre d’A. Arnold Gillespie, un doyen de la spécialité. Il doit concevoir pour le film plusieurs trucages qui n’existent pas encore comme la tornade emportant la maison de Dorothy, la sorcière en train de fondre ou encore la tête du Magicien flottant dans les airs, les singes volants, etc.

Pour donner l’illusion de la maison prise dans une tornade, Gillespie filme au ralenti en fait une réplique miniature tombant du haut du plateau sur le sol peint pour imiter le ciel du Kansas. Il projette ensuite le film à l’envers pour donner l’impression que la maison tombe vers la caméra4.

Pour la tornade, il fait construire une sorte d’entonnoir en mousseline qui est ensuite fixé sur un portique amovible pouvant se déplacer sur tout le plateau, tandis que la partie inférieure passe à travers le plancher, dans une fente en forme de « S ». Le tout, d’une hauteur d’environ 9 mètres, avançant vers la caméra avec un nuage de poussière donne l’illusion d’une tornade se dirigeant vers la maison4.

Les coulisses du tournage

Sur le tournage, les journées semblent interminables pour les acteurs. Leurs journées commencent à 5h pour se finir à 19h30 ou 20h. Chaque matin, Judy Garland doit se faire coiffer de sorte d’avoir exactement la même coiffure que la veille. Ray Bolger se fait poser un masque en caoutchouc lui bouchant les pores du visage. Ce masque et la combinaison de la lumière et de la chaleur qui règne dans le studio bloquent la pénétration de l’oxygène, l’empêchant de respirer convenablement. Bert Lahr, quant à lui, doit porter un costume d’environ 45 kilogrammes4.

Lors de sa première scène, Margaret Hamilton évite le pire. Lors du tournage de la scène où la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest disparaît sous les yeux de Dorothy et Glinda, elle est brulée au second degré au visage et au troisième à la main. Cela aurait pu être plus grave si son maquillage n’avait pas été enlevé aussitôt car celui-ci contenait du cuivre qui lui aurait rongé le visage4. Elle fait son retour sur le plateau six semaines plus tard6.

Malgré les inconvénients d’un tournage exigeant, ils gardent tous le moral4.

Musique

Harold Arlen, le compositeur de Over the Rainbow.

Ce sont Yip Harburg et Harold Arlen, deux jeunes compositeurs de Broadway, qui écrivent les chansons qui rythmeront le Magicien d’Oz. Ils débutent leur travail le 6, Arlen se chargeant de la musique et Harburg des paroles. Le parolier contribue en parallèle au scénario du film et à la finalisation de la distribution4. Une version arrangée de “Une nuit sur le mont Chauve” de Modest Moussorgski est jouée lorsque l’Épouvantail, L’Homme de fer-blanc et le Lion peureux sauvent Dorothy du château de la Sorcière de l’Ouest.

Over the Rainbow

Over the Rainbow est l’une des dernières chansons écrites pour le film. C’est en se rendant au Grauman’s Chinese Theatre avec sa femme que Harold Arlen compose la mélodie de cette chanson. Sur le chemin il demande à sa femme qui conduit de s’arrêter près de la Schwab’s Drug Store et se met à écrire sur un petit bloc-notes ce qui deviendra la chanson phare du Magicien d’Oz4.

E.Y. Harburg écrit ensuite un texte en rapport avec l’état d’esprit de Dorothy qui n’a qu’une chose de colorée dans sa vie, l’arc-en-ciel. C’est à partir de cette idée qu’il décide d’inclure cet arc-en-ciel dans la chanson et ainsi matérialiser le souhait de Dorothy d’avoir un peu plus de gaité dans sa vie4.

Après la seconde projection du film, la chanson est coupée au montage car certains décisionnaires estiment que « ça ralentit le film » ou qu’une star de la MGM chantant dans une basse-cour « ça manque de dignité ». Mais la chanson est finalement réintégrée4.

Durant toute sa carrière, Judy Garland continuera à chanter cette chanson dans ses spectacles3. Elle écrira dans une lettre adressé à Harold Arlen : « Over the Rainbow fait partie de ma vie. Cette chanson symbolise les rêves et les espoirs des gens et voilà pourquoi certains ont les larmes aux yeux en l’entendant. Je l’ai chantée des milliers de fois et c’est toujours la chanson la plus chère à mon cœur »4.

Chansons du film

Après le montage final, dix chansons sont présentes dans le film13. Deux reprises de chansons interprétées plus tôt dans le film sont supprimées dont celle de la séquence où Judy Garland chante le deuxième couplet d’Over the Rainbow dans le château de la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest qui a été jugée trop mélancolique14.

  • Over the Rainbow – Judy Garland
  • It Really Was No Miracle – Billie Burke, Judy Garland et les Munchkins
  • Follow the yellow brick road – Les Munchkins
  • If I Only Had a Brain – Ray Bolger et Judy Garland
  • We’re Off to See the Wizard – Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Buddy Ebsen (pré-enregistré) et Bert Lahr
  • If I Only Had a Heart – Jack Haley
  • If I Only Had the Nerve – Bert Lahr
  • Optimistic Voices
  • The Merry Old Land of Oz – Frank Morgan, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley et les citoyens de la cité d’Émeraudes
  • If I Were King of the Forest – Bert Lahr
Chansons supprimées au montage
  • The Jitterbug – Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley et Bert Lahr
  • Reprise d’Over the Rainbow – Judy Garland
  • Reprise de Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead, un des couplets de It Really Was No Miracle, sous le titre Hail Hail the Witch is Dead – Judy Garland et Ken Darby

Montage

Le tournage s’achève le et une première version est présentée en juin6. Le film dure 120 minutes et semble trop long. Des coupes sont donc effectuées et ce sont surtout des scènes de la Méchante sorcière de l’Ouest qui sont supprimées car jugées trop effrayantes pour les enfants12. La séquence où la sorcière écrit dans le ciel est modifiée : à l’origine son message était « Surrender Dorothy or die – signed WWW »15,16 mais est finalement changé en « Surrender Dorothy »17.

L’une des séquences supprimées est un numéro de danse par Ray Bolger (l’épouvantail) sur la route de briques jaunes. On peut voir cette séquence inédite dans un film documentaire intitulé That’s dancing! (en) qui retrace l’âge d’or de la danse et des comédies musicales dans le cinéma américain.

Sortie et accueil

Promotion

Le Grand Central Terminal, théâtre des émeutes à l’arrivée des jeunes vedettes.

La promotion commerciale débute trois mois avant la fin officielle du tournage4. Le , un char représentant la thématique du film fait son apparition au Tournoi de la parade des roses. Le public a un avant goût du film en voyant les personnages prendre vie sous ses yeux4. À côté de cela, Judy Garland est demandée de toute part et doit se soumettre à un nombre important d’interviews pour des émissions radiophoniques ou à des manifestations en tout genre diffusées aux actualités4.

Conscient de la renommée de Judy Garland et de Mickey Rooney, l’autre jeune star du studio, Louis B. Mayer les envoie à New York pour la première du film. Comme présagé par le patron de la MGM, près de 10 000 fans prennent d’assaut le Grand Central Terminal à l’arrivée des jeunes acteurs et provoquent une émeute. Pour maîtriser ce débordement de joie pas moins de 250 policiers sont mobilisés4. À l’ouverture du Loew’s Capitol Theatre, cinéma accueillant l’avant-première, plus de 15 000 personnes font déjà la queue tout autour du pâté d’immeubles. Entre chaque représentation, Judy Garland et Mickey Rooney exécutent un numéro spécialement préparé pour l’occasion. Le lancement du film est un véritable succès et est une des sorties de film les plus réussies. Il y a un tel engouement que l’on parle du « plus grand événement depuis le retour de Charles Lindbergh »4.

Sortie du film

En 1939, le cinéma américain a plus que jamais accouché de films aujourd’hui considéré comme de grands classiques. Face à cette concurrence, Le Magicien d’Oz, qui est le film le plus coûteux de la MGM4,3, perd de l’argent dès sa sortie4. Un espoir apparaît pour les producteurs lorsque le film est nommé pour cinq Oscars, dont celui du meilleur film, qui se dérouleront le . Ils ne se font pas d’illusion face aux treize nominations d’Autant en emporte le vent, le grand favori, mais espèrent quand même une surprise4. Victor Fleming, non nommé pour la réalisation du Magicien d’Oz car déjà en compétition avec le film de David O. Selznick, remporte l’Oscar du meilleur réalisateur que Mervyn LeRoy lui décerne. Le Magicien d’Oz n’est finalement pas en reste en remportant deux statuettes pour la musique de Herbert Stothart et la chanson Over the Rainbow de Harold Arlen et E.Y. Harburg par laquelle la soirée se conclut4.

Après sa première exploitation en salle, le film continue de bénéficier de séances matinales destinées aux enfants. À partir de 1956, avec l’avènement de la télévision, Le Magicien d’Oz est régulièrement diffusé, surtout pendant la période de Noël1. Mais il faut attendre une vingtaine d’années pour le voir en couleurs4.

Le box-office mondial a rapporté 16 538 431 dollars, le prix du billet d’entrée au cinéma en 1939 étant estimé à 5 cent.[réf. nécessaire]

Distinctions

  • En 1989, Le Magicien d’Oz a été sélectionné par la Bibliothèque du Congrès pour figurer au National Film Registry18.
  • Le Magicien d’Oz est classé dans différents classements établit par l’American Film Institute :
    • il est aujourd’hui classé dixième dans le « top 100 des plus grands films américains » après avoir été classé sixième en 199719.
    • il est classé vingt-sixième dans la liste de films les plus enthousiasmants20.
    • il est classé troisième dans la liste des plus grands films musicaux21.
    • il est classé quarante-troisième dans la liste des films donnant le plus de « sueurs froides »22.
    • il est classé premier dans le « top 10 des meilleurs films fantastiques »23.
    • les répliques « Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore », « There’s no place like home » et « I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too! » sont classées respectivement quatrième, vingt-troisième et quatre-vingt-dix-neuvième dans le classement des plus grandes répliques du cinéma américain24.
    • Over the Rainbow est première au classement des plus grandes chansons du cinéma américain. Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead est classé quatre-vingt deuxième de ce même classement25.
    • La Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest figure à la quatrième place du « top 50 » des plus grands méchants du cinéma26.
  • Ce film fait partie de la Liste du BFI des 50 films à voir avant d’avoir 14 ans établie en 2005 par le British Film Institute, intégrant même le top 10 de cette liste.

Récompenses

Année Cérémonie Récompense Lauréat(s)
1940 Oscars Meilleure chanson originale Harold Arlen et Yip Harburg
pour Over the Rainbow27
Meilleure musique de film Herbert Stothart27
1985 Young Artist Awards Jackie Coogan Award28

Nominations

Année Cérémonie Récompense nommé(s)
1939 Festival de Cannes Palme d’Or Victor Fleming28
1940 Oscars Meilleur Film Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer27
Meilleure direction artistique Cedric Gibbons
William A. Horning27
Meilleure photographie29 Harold Rosson27
Meilleurs effets visuels A. Arnold Gillespie
Douglas Shearer27

Citations

  • « Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore » (« Toto, j’ai l’impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas. ») – Dorothy
    Considérée comme l’une des quatre phrases les plus célèbres du cinéma américain selon un sondage mené par l’AFI en 2005.
  • « Ding Dong, the witch is dead » (« Ding dong, la sorcière est morte ! ») – Les Munchkins
  • « I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too! » (« Je t’aurai, ma jolie, et ton petit chien aussi ! ») – La Méchante sorcière de l’Ouest
  • « Lions? And tigers? And bears? Oh, my !’ » (« Des lions, des tigres et des ours ?! Oh, mon Dieu ! ») – Dorothy, l’Épouvantail, et l’Homme de fer-blanc
  • « There’s no place like home » (« On n’est jamais aussi bien que chez soi. ») – Dorothy

Références culturelles

Le film est considéré comme une référence culturelle aux États-Unis1. On ne compte plus les reprises ou les citations issues du Magicien d’Oz.

Théâtre

Musique

Cinéma

  • John Boorman utilisa divers aspects du film dans son film de science-fiction Zardoz (1974). Le titre est d’ailleurs la contraction de The Wizard of Oz33.
  • Le casting des nains pour interpréter les Munchkins dans Le Magicien d’Oz est le scénario de la comédie Under the Rainbow (en) (1981)34.
  • Dans le drame Shoot the Moon (1982), les enfants de Diane Keaton et d’Albert Finney visionnent Le Magicien d’Oz à la télévision.
  • Dans Qui veut la peau de Roger Rabbit ? (1988), un des personnages (le juge DeMort) dit « Je fonds, je fonds, je fonds. » en référence à la mort de la méchante sorcière de l’Ouest.
  • Dans Sailor et Lula (1990), de David Lynch, Lula (Laura Dern), porte des chaussures rouges, une allusion directe aux souliers de rubis de Dorothy dans Le Magicien d’Oz. Lorsque Lula rêve, sa mère lui apparaît sur un balai, véritable sorcière à la poursuite du couple. La référence est plus évidente lors de la scène finale, où Sailor (Nicolas Cage) voit descendre du ciel dans un halo lumineux une fée que l’on croirait sortie du film de Victor Fleming35.
  • En 1991, dans La Fin de Freddy : L’Ultime Cauchemar, Freddy Kuegger dit « I’ll get you my pretty, and your little soul too ».
  • En 2002, Peter Jackson rend un hommage délibéré dans Le Seigneur des anneaux : Les Deux Tours lorsque Samsagace Gamegie et Gollum s’approchent de la porte noire du Mordor, entendent une voix impressionnante et voient sortir des Southrons. Cette scène est à mettre en parallèle avec l’approche de l’épouvantail, de l’homme de fer blanc et du lion du château de la sorcière[réf. nécessaire].
  • Dans Capitaine Sky et le Monde de demain, rendez-vous est donné à Gwyneth Paltrow dans un cinéma qui diffuse le film.
  • Dans Le Bossu de Notre-Dame (1996) des studios Disney, lors de l’attaque finale, une des trois gargouilles envoie les pigeons sur l’armée en criant « Volez mes mignons, volez ! », et dans une position, une mise en scène identiques à celle du Magicien d’Oz (lorsque la sorcière envoie ses singes volants). On peut également entendre la musique typique de la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest en fond musical pendant ces quelques secondes.
  • Dans Strangeland Le captaine Howdy prononce la célèbre phrase de la sorcière « Wanna Play Ball Scarecrow ».
  • Dans le film Gremlins 2, la nouvelle génération de Joe Dante en 1990, tous les Gremlins fondent lorsqu’ils sont mouillés et ensuite électrocutés à la fin du film. Un des Gremlins porte un chapeau de sorcière noir et crie « Je fonds, je fonds, je fonds. », en fondant en référence à la mort de la méchante sorcière de l’Ouest.
  • Dans le film Top secret ! en 1984, à la fin du film, l’héroïne fait ses adieux à trois amis et soudainement apparait l’homme épouvantail à qui elle dit « Épouvantail, ce sera toi qui me manquera le plus ».
  • Dans Australia de Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman chantonne Over the Rainbow pour consoler le jeune Nullah. Ce dernier reprend plusieurs fois la chanson tout au long de l’histoire. Le film se déroulant en 1939, ils vont même le voir au cinéma, en noir et blanc.
  • Dans Charlie et la Chocolaterie, la maison délabrée de Charlie et sa famille dans l’univers coloré de la chocolaterie rappelle la maison délabrée de Dorothy dans le pays des munchkins
  • Dans Jack, au tout début du film pendant la fête d’Halloween, Brian Powell, le père de Jack, est déguisé en homme de fer-blanc.
  • Dans Jumanji, une multitude de singes saccagent la ville et passent devant une vitrine de magasin dans laquelle est exposé un téléviseur qui diffuse un extrait du film du magicien d’Oz, celui où les singes volants attaquent Dorothy et ses amis. Les singes regardent les images, imitent la posture et les mouvements des singes volants avant de se ruer dans le magasin afin de chacun s’approprier une télévision.
  • Dans La Folle Histoire de l’espace, les quatre personnages arrivent au temple de maître Yaourt. La mise en scène est identique avec la rencontre avec le Magicien d’OZ. Ils avancent tranquillement, ils ont peur. Ils arrivent à la statue et une voix forte et écho demande « Qui ose souiller la demeure de Yaourt ? ». Maître Yaourt sort ensuite d’une petite porte située entre les jambes de la statue de Yaourt.
  • Dans Avatar, le colonel Quaritch accueille ses troupes sur Pandora en déclarant « you’re not in Kansas anymore ».
  • Dans Shrek 2, la première apparition de la Marraine la Fée de Fiona est similaire à celle de Glinda: une bulle qui flotte et s’approche de plus en plus jusqu’à ce que la fée elle-même se matérialise.
  • Dans Avengers, Nick Fury traite deux de ses agents hypnotisés de « singes volants ». Seul le Captain America comprend alors la référence, ayant vécu une partie de sa vie avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et ayant probablement vu le film.
  • En 2013, le film Le Monde fantastique d’Oz, réalisé par Sam Raimi, est une préquelle au film de 1939 et il conte l’arrivée du magicien dans le pays d’Oz.
  • Dans Les Mondes de Ralph, les gardes en forme de biscuits Oreo de la porte du palais de Sa Sucrerie effectuent la même chorégraphie (avec la même musique) que les gardes du palais de la sorcière de l’Ouest, en répétant leur propre nom, comme les gardes aussi. De plus, le roi Sa Sucrerie ressemble physiquement au Magicien, et Vanellope est comme Ozma, la princesse de la contrée qui a oublié son véritable rang.
  • Dans Matrix, lorsque Néo est sur le point de rejoindre le monde réel, Cypher lui dit « It means, buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye » (traduit en français par « attache ta ceinture et bon voyage au pays des merveilles »).
  • Dans le remake de Robocop de 2014, durant l’entrainement virtuel d’Alex Murphy, le mercenaire Maddox joué par Jackie Earle Haley passe la chanson que chante le robot.

Télévision

  • Dans le premier épisode de la saison 2 de la série Malcolm, le personnage de Dewey parle à un épouvantail et lui demande s’il peut se réveiller comme dans le film qu’il a vu la dernière fois à la télévision.
  • Dans le premier épisode de la saison 4 de la série Les Arnaqueurs VIP (Hustle), la bande débarque à Los Angeles et Stacie lance : « j’ai l’impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas » et à la fin de l’épisode, lorsque la bande rentre à Londres, elle dit : « on n’est jamais aussi bien que chez soi ».
  • Dans Lost : Les Disparus, le personnage de Benjamin Linus offre plusieurs références au film (et surtout au livre). Tout d’abord, lors de sa première apparition dans la Saison 2, il utilise le pseudonyme de Henry Gale (l’oncle de Dorothy), référence alors évidente. Enfin, l’épisode de la Saison 3 qui lui est consacré, The Man Behind The Curtain, montre ce personnage comme un arnaqueur de long terme sur une île aux pouvoirs surnaturels, à l’image du magicien d’Oz qui est lui-même un charlatan dans un monde enchanté. Quant au titre de l’épisode final de la Saison 4, There’s No Place Like Home, ou le concept du « réveil » du monde des flashsideways de la Saison 6 (à l’image de Dorothy qui doit se rappeler pour revenir à sa vie réelle), l’hommage est encore ici appuyé.
  • Dans le pilote de la série Veronica Mars de nombreuses références au Magicien d’Oz sont utilisées, notamment, la phrase I’ll get you… and your pretty dog too.
  • L’épisode The Wizard of Paws de la série japonaise Hello Kitty parodie le film avec comme personnages Kitty, une frite-épouvantail, un pingouin en fer-blanc, et un lapin en manque de courage.
  • Dans un épisode de la série américaine That ’70s Show, Jackie fait un rêve semblable à celui de Dorothy dans lequel se retrouvent les personnages de la série : Donna comme méchante sorcière, Eric comme singe volant, Kelso comme l’épouvantail, Fez comme le lion manquant de courage, et Hyde comme l’homme de fer-blanc36.
  • Nombreux sont les épisodes des Simpson qui utilisent ou parodient des scènes du film37 :
    • Dans l’épisode La Dernière Tentation d’Homer, Mr Burns souhaite se venger sur ses employés et ouvre une cage d’où sortent des singes volants et leur crie comme la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest : « Fly my pretties, fly ! ». Mais les singes s’écrasent au sol, ne sachant pas voler.
    • Dans l’épisode Rosebud, les gardes de Mr Burns chantent rappellent les gardes de la Méchante Sorcière de l’Ouest.
    • Dans l’épisode L’Enfer du jeu, Homer met des lunettes, et pour démontrer son intelligence, cite le théorème de Pythagore, du moins l’énoncé erroné de l’épouvantail. Un homme lui répond alors : « That’s a right triangle, you idiot! ».
  • De même, les séries Stargate SG-1 (épisode Perdus dans l’espace) et Le Caméléon (épisode La Folle Équipée) incluent de nombreuses références au Magicien d’Oz.
  • Dans l’épisode Scooby-Doo et le Fantôme de la sorcière, un fantôme d’une sorcière poursuit Scooby-Doo et Sammy ; Sammy se retourne pour jeter un verre d’eau, mais voyant que la sorcière ne fond pas, dit : « Ca marche toujours dans Le Magicien d’Oz ».
  • Dans l’épisode 6 de la saison 3 de Mon oncle Charlie, la famille Harper va à une fête costumée. La mère de Charlie est deguisée en sorcière tandis que Charlie, Alan et Jack sont déguisés en singes volants. L’épisode se termine sur la mère de Charlie leur criant : « Fly my pretties, fly ! ».
  • Dans l’épisode 100 de Scrubs, Mon Retour à la Maison, tout l’épisode est en lien avec Le Magicien d’Oz. Cox appelle J.D. Dorothy, ses chaussures sont peintes en rouge, Turk cherche un cœur pour un patient, Elliot un cerveau pour savoir faire une présentation et Carla a besoin de courage pour être mère. Ils essayent de suivre la ligne jaune pour rentrer chez eux. Jordan est la sorcière de l’aile ouest. Les couleurs sont saturées comme dans le film, et le groupe de Ted interprète Over the rainbow.
  • Dans un épisode d’Angel, De l’autre côté de l’arc-en-ciel, Cordelia Chase se retrouve emportée dans un autre monde par une sorte de vortex. Ne sachant pas où elle est, le premier réflexe qu’elle a est de cogner trois fois ses souliers rouges, ce que Dorothée fait dans Le Magicien d’Oz.
  • Dans l’épisode no 15 de la saison 7 de South Park intitulé Noël au Canada, il est fait référence au Magicien d’Oz. Notamment avec la route unique que doivent suivre les jeunes héros pour retrouver Ike, le frère de Kyle, emmené par ses parents biologiques au Canada. Ils essayent d’obtenir audience auprès du premier ministre canadien qui n’est en fait que Saddam Hussein (référence directe au personnage du magicien d’Oz). Durant leur trajet, ils feront la rencontre de personnages qui souhaitent eux aussi rencontrer le ministre afin de lui faire part de leurs réclamations. Leur arrivée au Canada débute par le crash de l’avion dont ils étaient passagers, tout comme la maison de Dorothy lors de son arrivée dans le monde d’Oz.
  • Dans l’épisode de Futurama, Histoires vachement intéressantes 2, la troisième séquence est un rêve de Leela. Elle est habillée comme Dorothy sauf qu’elle a une salopette au lieu d’une jupe et son extraterrestre de compagnie Nibbler tient le rôle de Toto. Ils sont dans le vaisseau de planète express emporté par une tornade, qui atterrit sur « le sorcier de l’est » (Scruffy, le concierge). Leela vole ses bottes rubis et part faire réparer son vaisseau par le professeur Farnsworth du laboratoire d’émeraude, sur les conseils de la fée du nord (Amy). Elle rencontre l’épouvantail (Fry), l’homme de fer blanc (Bender) et Zoidberg. La sorcière de l’ouest, elle, est M’man (la fabricante de robots) et ses singes sont ses trois fils. Au réveil Leela dira : « J’ai fait un rêve merveilleux, sauf que tu étais dedans, et toi, et toi aussi », ce que disait aussi Judy Garland.
  • La série Oz est aussi emprunte du magicien d’Oz, en effet l’histoire se produit dans un block expérimental du pénitencier d’Oswald surnommé Oz. Le nom du block est la cité d’émeraude. L’atmosphère et les couleurs sont en totale opposition avec l’univers d’Oz, en revanche l’extérieur de la prison est montré comme resplendissant de couleurs tout comme le pays d’Oz.
  • Dans la 5e saison de la série Charmed, il y a un épisode intitulé Miroir, gentil miroir (Happily ever after) qui contient plusieurs clins d’œil aux contes. Vers la fin de l’épisode, Piper est coincée dans le musée contenant les reliques des contes mais elle réussit à rentrer au Manoir Halliwell en utilisant les souliers de rubis.
  • Mad TV a fait une parodie de la fin du film, la scène où Oz vient de s’envoler dans sa montgolfière, abandonnant Dorothy, et que Glinda, la Bonne Sorcière du Nord, se matérialise pour lui venir en aide. Si le début de la scène est identique au film original au niveau des répliques, tout se dérègle dès l’instant où Glinda révèle à Dorothy qu’elle a toujours eu le pouvoir de rentrer chez elle. Dorothy se met à réagir violemment à l’annonce de cette nouvelle et en viendra même aux mains. À l’instant critique, c’est le bûcheron en fer-blanc qui se met à claquer trois fois des talons pour échapper à ce cauchemar… Et il s’avère que tout cela n’était en effet qu’un mauvais rêve du bûcheron en fer-blanc, qui se réveille aux côtés de son amant. S’ensuit une blague à connotation sexuelle au sujet de la « burette à huile ».
  • Dans Ally McBeal, l’arrivée de Lucy Liu est souvent accompagnée par le thème musical de l’arrivée de miss Gulch sur sa bicyclette.
  • Dans la 3e saison de la série Sabrina, l’apprentie sorcière, l’épisode intitulé Le Mouton Noir, la tante Dorma envoie des pavots dans la maison des Spellman. Les pavots endorment alors les tantes Hilda et Zelda. Sabrina lance un sort de neige dans la maison pour les réveiller.
  • Dans le 6e épisode de la saison 2 de Suits, avocats sur mesure, Harvey dit à Mike qu’ils ne sont plus au Kansas lorsqu’ils arrivent à Atlantic City, et il l’appelle Dorothy.
  • Dans Kyoryuger, chacun des quatre généraux ennemis évoque un membre du quatuor du Magicien d’Oz.

Jeu vidéo

  • Un jeu vidéo adapté du film est sorti en 1993 sur Super Nintendo.
  • Dans World of Warcraft Burning Crusade, au raid de Karazhan, dans l’opéra, on peut assister à une représentation aléatoire du Magicien d’Oz où apparaissent les personnages : Dorothée, Graou, l’Homme de Paille, Tête de fer et la Mégère faisant référence aux personnages du conte (sur PC).