I know it isn't 80's, but I didn't know where to put it under.
I was talking to my mom about it the other night, because I remember when I was a kid, before we had VCRs and HBO...that was the thing we waited for all year. When they played The Wizard of Oz on TV.
I can remember, waiting for it, and if we were out somewhere..like at my Grandparents..me and my brother would be flipping out, cause we would be telling my mom we needed to leave, so we could get home, get a bath and get our jammies on, make some popcorn, and get ready to watch the movie.
It was Intense stuff.
It was the whole build up of that movie. My son really likes it even now. We haven't watched it again for awhile, but I'll never forget the feeling when we would see it advertised in the TV Guide as a kid, it was way cool.
Posted by HipsterMom27 (Member # 2161) on :
As I recall, it usually played around Easter time...I wonder if it had anything to do with the spring break vacation.
There were a lot of annual showings like that -- The Sound of Music, Heidi, It's a Wonderful Life.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
...also, Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" is usually shown around every Easter on ABC-TV.
Posted by Sam Hain 666 (Member # 3150) on :
I love the "Wizard of Oz", and I'm not ashamed to admit it either.
I always thought Burt Lahr's performance as the Cowardly Lion was over the top.
I wish I would have had a chance to party with the Munchkins, those guys and gals were crazy. But I think with my 245lb frame I would be able to drink them all under the table.
Posted by Chris Fulmer (Member # 3197) on :
Well, you could if you hurry. There's still about 10 Munchkins still alive today, in various parts of the country (the green Lollipop Guilder's out in L.A., the Coroner's in Florida, one Soldier's in Idaho, another's in Texas, a Fiddler's in St. Louis, and one or two are in Arizona, but I can't pin down all of them at this moment. I could look it up for you, though, if you'd like).
Posted by Saint_in_London (Member # 2575) on :
The Wizard of Oz was also a film always shown at Christmas time here in the UK and was always a big event as a kid. I look it up on the internet a while ago and there was some intrestiong stuff about deleted scenes, the one that springs to mind is the Jitterbug? scene. Which was to be just be for the flying monkeys......go look it up!!
Posted by Muffy Tepperman (Member # 1551) on :
I rememeber what Isis and you all are talking about....The Wizard of Oz always seemed to play around Halloween when I was growing up. I always waited for that and the Sound of Music to play on TV every year. Classics indeed!
So you guys know about the whole playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard right....???
So tell me has anyone tried it??? I wanna know... Such a silly little stoner thing it is yet.....you have to wonder.
Posted by SouthernKat (Member # 3239) on :
Ok, Lisa (Isis),
You hit a nerve on this one! The ins and outs about this classic film really fascinate me.
Here is some trivia:
Everybody knows that Buddy Ebsen was slated to play the tin man. However, he had horrific allergies to the silver paint and had to be replaced by Jack Haley.
Though I have never seen it, there is supposed to be a scene from the soundstage in "munchkin land" where a shadow of a hanging munchkin is visible. They supposedly started shooting, failing to realize that a munchkin had offed himself by hanging, and the scene somehow made it into the final print.
Again, though I have never tested this, supposedly the "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd tracks perfectly with the movie. One of those observations born in a bong, I suppose.
Judy Garland's weight yo-yoed so much during the filming that they actually had to delay shooting several times and even then the costume strains on her in some scenes, swims on her in others.
In '97 or '98 the movie was re-released in theatres around Christmas. So I grabbed the chance to watch it in big screen glory. There were no coming attractions or cheesey announcements, just all Wizard of Oz. The movie had been done in 35 mm so they had to doctor up the screen configuration to make it more square. Seeing the Tin Man 20 feet high was quite a kick and the more intense scenes (tornado, flying monkeys) had much more impact on the big screen.
A few months ago I was surfing on the Illuminati website, where they had this exhaustively detailed article about the occult influences and parallels in the Wizard of Oz. From the East/West and North/South witches to the trial from the Wizard and the coroner making a decree for the dead wicked witch of the east it was hugely fascinating reading. If I come up with the link, I will post it. The website also makes guesses about the religious faith choices of L.Frank Baum.
Speaking of, during the Christmas season of 1989, the late John Ritter starred in a wonderful movie about the story of L.Frank Baum. How he lived his early life, how he came up with the Wizard of Oz characters and on and on. As far as I know, it was just aired that one time.
Oh well, here are my apologies for the long rambling post but The Wizard of Oz is a truly brilliant movie on a bunch of different levels. I enjoy re-watching it even now!
SouthernKat
Posted by Sam Hain 666 (Member # 3150) on :
quote:Originally posted by SouthernKat:
Though I have never seen it, there is supposed to be a scene from the soundstage in "munchkin land" where a shadow of a hanging munchkin is visible. They supposedly started shooting, failing to realize that a munchkin had offed himself by hanging, and the scene somehow made it into the final print.
definitely a hoax
quote:A few months ago I was surfing on the Illuminati website, where they had this exhaustively detailed article about the occult influences and parallels in the Wizard of Oz. From the East/West and North/South witches to the trial from the Wizard and the coroner making a decree for the dead wicked witch of the east it was hugely fascinating reading. If I come up with the link, I will post it. The website also makes guesses about the religious faith choices of L.Frank Baum.
For putting that link up. It makes for extremely fascinating reading for anyone who has ever enjoyed "The Wizard of Oz."
SouthernKat
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Wow, that is freaky, even if it was a hoax, it is creepy just thinking about it.
I heard those Munchkins were quit the party animals.
I was addicted to Dunkin Donuts- "Munchkins"...until I had my cholesterol checked-
I had a Wizard of Oz puzzle, 1000 pieces, that was the biggest puzzle I ever did, and I went in to my bank, and the manager had the same puzzle, glued and framed on her wall, and she collected Wizard of Oz stuff, and it was all over her office, because she came from Kansas. I thought that was cool.
I remember my sister-in-law was deathly afraid of the flying Monkeys.
SouthernKat-those are really cool pieces of trivia about the movie, I love that behind the scene stuff.
For me...any movie with a tornado in it freaks me out, I dream about tornadoes constantly...it is like the #1 one scariest thing I dream about.
I never heard of the Pink Floyd thing ever.
Posted by PaulShrimpton (Member # 1022) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sam Hain 666: I love the "Wizard of Oz", and I'm not ashamed to admit it either.
Sam - I would never have thought you a Friend Of Dorothy....
Posted by Chris Fulmer (Member # 3197) on :
The Munchkin hanging rumor is defintely inaccurate. What appears to be a hanged person is a large crane flapping its wings (they brought in numerous exotic birds as background fillers). And it's also untrue that they were alcoholics. With so much of the day spent working, they had little time to party when they got back to the hotel (one guy did have an unpleasant breakup with his wife, who later married the Mayor, but that was really about it).
Posted by ValleyCat (Member # 1322) on :
Chris apparently you never watched "Under The Rainbow", the documentary with Chevy Chase & Carrie Fischer. Those Munchkins could party! Wait a minute that wasn't a documentary it was a suppose to be a comedy. Well it wouldn't fit into either category....how about the hard to watch category.
As for the classic "The Wizard Of Oz", for many seasons it was featured regularly on network TV as a prime time event (its first two showings were on CBS television on November 3, 1956 and in December, 1959) and then annually for Thanksgiving, Christmas and/or Easter time. I remeber the excitement about watching it every year as a kid as well.
All of its images (the Yellow Brick Road, the Kansas twister), characters (e.g., Auntie Em, Toto, Dorothy, the Wicked Witch), dialogue ("Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!", "We're not in Kansas anymore," "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," or the film's final line: "There's no place like home"), and music ("Over the Rainbow") have become indelibly remembered, and the classic film has been honored with dozens of books, TV shows (such as HBO's dramatic prison series Oz), references in other films, and even by pop groups (singer Elton John with his Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road album, or Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon).
Posted by ValleyCat (Member # 1322) on :
Also, there may not have been a munchkin hanging, but there was a near-fatal burning accident on the set involving Margaret Hamilton the wicked witch. She nearly quit The Wizard of Oz after a December 1938 accident in which she was severely burned during the appearing/disappearing scene in Munchkinland. She was off the film for more than a month.
Posted by piratemoviefan12 (Member # 2715) on :
Some cool news:
ABC is going air a MUPPETS "Wizard of OZ"...
It's still in Production, but I saw a commercial duing "extreme home makeover". I think they said, this FALL, but I'm not sure.
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Such a silly little stoner thing it is yet.....you have to wonder.
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