It's like seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time! — Page 4

Well I've already shown that I am a sap, so the crying is a given!

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"Who's her? Who's her?"

LOL!

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This is such a feminist tale! The women have all the power!

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I have 2 yes! My daughter has seen it once, I think she was 6.

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Besty-
For the record, I already OWN the Turkish Oz.

My first exposure to the movie was May/June 1990. We used to rent videos at Albertson's (local grocery store), and even though I owned "The Little Mermaid" on VHS, at the age of 4, I didn't have much concept of how the whole owning process worked. So, Mom humored me by renting it weekly. Well, one week she decided she'd had enough, so she forced me to get Oz. I griped. I moaned. The movie started in Black and White, and I moaned more. And Mom kept saying "Just wait, just wait." From the moment the tornado hit I was intrigued, and the second it switched to color I was sold. Mom still says she has NEVER Seen me that focused on anything like I was that movie on that day. Enough so that when it came time for lunch, the Wicked Witch was threatening Dorothy with the hour glass and I refused to leave until I knew Dorothy was safe...so we had a picnic in the living room.

I joke now that I was singing "Over the Rainbow" before I was saying the Ten Commandments, but it was probably very true. I do not remember a time before Oz, and by the time I saw it, the 50th anniversary was ending, but the merchandise was still EVERYWHERE. I still have the action figures, play sets, the dolls and several of the books. It was also the first movie I bought with allowance...back in 1997 when THX remastered it the first time.

Flash forward to fall 2006. The night of the 50th Anniversary of it's TV premiere, my cousin and I decided to watch the movie. So we ordered a pizza, and put on pajamas, and watch in the girl's dorm TV room (Better TV, and quieter area). Before "Over the Rainbow" even began, we had a group of 8 people joining us. One of them was a foreign exchange student from Taiwan who had never seen it before, and watching with her was like what Miss P was describing, seeing it for the first time. We had to explain a few things (The Wizard isn't magic, but Glinda and the Witch are, and others), but she ate it up.

Growing up, I was always that social outcast for being gay. Everyone always knew. Oz was my escape. I was still pretending to be in the show when I was in my Senior Year of high school. And I always wanted to be Dorothy for Halloween...which this year I am finally going to do. With a handmade costume.

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Miss P-
Mine is finished, and I have a pic or two in it already...i just have to get the wig...and better socks.

Actually, the MGM version borrowed a few things from earlier adaptations. The snow in the poppy field came from teh 1902 stage Version, as did the farmhands (not the doubling, just having them.)

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I told my son that when people open their doors, instead of saying "Trick or treat!" he should say "Put 'em up! Put 'em up!" and take the "boxer" stance that Bert Lahr does when he meets the others for the first time.

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I went as the Scarecrow when I was younger.

I remember when I watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time. It got the movie on VHS for Easter when I was three, and watched the same day. I was instantly transfixed and it became my favorite movie. I would watch it almost every day and act out the scenes, especially the ones with the Scarecrow (who was, and is, my favorite character).

I had a special connection with my Godmother over this movie. We both loved it, and I always called her Glinda (her favorite character, of course). Unfortunately, she passed away several years ago, but I really treasure the memories I shared with her because of this movie.

It really is a truly wonderful movie. I actually haven't watched it in a while, maybe I'll watch it this week.

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WW11, that's a beautiful recollection of your grandmother.

JB2, I read that Judy Garland tried to adopt "Toto" after filming the movie, but his owner was not agreeable.

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I was never an Oz character for Halloween either. But my daughter was Glinda when she was 3. My husband took her around the neighborhood in a little wagon that had a door on the side. He'd stop at the house, open the door for her, help her out and then she'd walk up to the door, ring the bell and say, "Happy Halloween!" (She didn't catch on to "Trick of Treat" until she was 4!)

Then she walked back to the wagon, took my husband's hand, stepped back into the wagon, sat on the little seat inside while he pulled it to the next house, and repeated the "ritual." It was so cute.

That Christmas, I took a picture of her in the Glinda costume and used it for the front of our Xmas card. On the inside it said, "Have you been a good witch or a bad witch this year?" (I wanted to get as much use out of that costume as possible!!!)

Of course this was years before "Wicked," so people weren't "adapting" the Oz characters like crazy the way they do now.

(Besty, I won't make any jokes about Bob Dole being made of tin.)

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Did everyone else know that Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" was supposed to be modeled after Dorothy? How did I miss that? DUH!

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That's funny, Miss P!

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I have a friend who doesn't like them...or midgets in general.

Then again, she's scared of puppets and the Pope...so...

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