Friends of Dorothy- Page 4

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 8:24am

Does anyone think the Wizard would have been better portrayed by W.C. Fields (as it was written for) than Frank Morgan?

[tommyboy]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 8:32am

OMG -- this is the most facinating of threads. Thanks to all (specially PJ and Besty) for your insights.

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 8:40am

tommyboy, do you know that you and Diva share the same birthday? I happened to notice it when I was looking at your profiles. I wander if there are any other posters who share the same birthday.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:35am

W.C. Fields would have made a good Wizard, but he always played himself. I can't see him playing all five of the smaller roles that Frank Morgan played in the film.

Although, that wasn't even an option at the time he turned down the part. He was only approached about playing the Wizard character in the final scenes of the movie. And the primary reason he turned it down was because it was too small a role.

Ed Wynn also turned it down, because the money wasn't good enough.

So they used their own MGM contract player (Frank Morgan), who was more adept at playing a variety of characters, and that's when they added those extra roles for him throughout the movie: the guardian, cabbie, soldier and best of all, Professor Marvel. So he ended up with five roles, and made quite an impression in the film.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:44am

I can't see WC Fields as the wizard at all.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 9:59am

How about Fanny Brice as Glinda? Or Edna May Oliver?

They were both early favorites, before they decided to make her more glamorous and less comedic.

I think they got both glamour and comedy with Billie Burke. She was beautiful, but was also a comic character actress. Perfect casting. And she was 53 years old when she played it. Talk about "timeless beauty."

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:00am

Was she really that old? I wouldn't have thought that!

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:08am

Actually, I was off by a year. I looked it up just now.

She was 54!

[nygrl232]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:19am

Trying to post again...

Bestie, you should lecture about this. Why don't you do a presentation? And have wine and cheese and stuff? People would totally go.

[tommyboy]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:25am

I would pay $50 -- and I would also pay to come to the program. SHUT UP STEWIE!

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 10:58am

LOL

A wine and cheese Oz lecture. Love it!

I'm totally launching a new career!

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 11:02am

I agree.......Best, that would be an awesome idea. Everyone could come dressed in their favorite Oz character. You would be a very knowlegeable host for such an event.

Updated On: 11/23/08 at 11:02 AM

[nygrl232]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 11:19am

Costumes...awesome. Bestie could be Prof. Marvel.

Someone organized a big screening of 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Castro Theater in SF, and Olivia Hussey did a Q&A with the host afterwards. It was a big success.

People love the classics, however you slice 'em.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 12:40pm

Maybe I could come as Olivia Hussey!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 12:46pm

Well, you've already got he "Hussey" part down, Besty.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 1:00pm

I think W.C. Feilds would have been awful in the part(s).

Frank Morgan played several roles so well, that it took me a few years of seeing it to realize they were all the same person.

Besty,
Let's do it. You lecture, I'll do my one Wo-Man version of WOO and we could have Lorna there!

$100.00 a ticket.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 1:18pm

I'll handle the marketing.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 3:15pm

I'd go!

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 3:17pm

We're onto something here!

Professor Marvel's Traveling Wine & Cheese Wizard of Oz Show

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 3:18pm

I'm really going to start crying now.

I'm sitting upstairs in my bedroom and suddenly I hear Judy Garland singing "Over The Rainbow." I walk out to the top of the stairs and I can hear my daughter singing along with Judy.

She's sitting downstairs in the dining room on the computer You-Tubing Judy and then doing duets with her. (This is made all the more moving because of her severe speech impairment.) *sniffle, sniffle*

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 3:26pm

That's wonderful, Miss P.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 5:04pm

"Professor Marvel's Traveling Wine & Cheese Wizard of Oz Show"

I'll bring my oven mitt from the 1996 Munchkin Celebrity dinner!

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 5:07pm

I will have hundreds of those produced with your and Bestie's caricatures for purchase after the show, along with your WOO-related cookbooks. I will also order up some Bobble-Heads of each of you.

[nygrl232]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 5:39pm

I got dibs on the intellectual property rights.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/08 at 5:48pm

Screw you, we thought of it!