THE JITTERBUG

Posted: 5/24/08 at 11:16am

how do you think our time continuum would be different if THE JITTERBUG number had been included in THE WIZARD OF OZ?
THE JITTERBUG

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 11:18am

I think we'd have had a Moonbase by now, there would be peace in the Middle East, and Al Gore would be leaving the White House in January.

I blame all our ills on that. ;oP

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 11:25am

No, but I DO think the time-continuum would be vastly different if Judy Garland had done the movie versions of Gypsy, Hello Dolly and Mame.

In retrospect, there's something slightly blackface/racist about the Jitetrbug lyrics.

===

(Listen all you chillun to that voodoo moan,
There's a modern villun worser than that old boogie woogie.
When that goofy critter spots your fancy clothes,
He injects a jitter,
Starts you dancing on a thousand toes,
There he goes!)

Who's that hiding in the tree top?
It's that rascal, The Jitterbug!
Should you catch him buzzing 'round you,
Keep away from, The Jitterbug!

Oh! the bees in the breeze and the bats in the trees
Have a terrible, horrible buzz,
But the bees in the breeze and the bats in the trees
Couldn't do what The Jitterbug does!

So be careful of that rascal,
Keep away from The Jitterbug!
The Jitterbug!
Oh! The Jitter!
Oh The Bug!
Oh! The Jitterbug,
Bug-a-bug, bug-a-bug, bug-a-boo.

In a twitter, in the throes,
Oh the critter's got me dancing on a thousand toes,
Thar' she blows!

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 12:05pm

Actually none of the Wizard of Oz song intros (including that racist one) were written for the film.

They were all written afterwards for the sheet music releases.

Still... there were two big problems with that number. 1) It slowed the film down in a section where it didn't need to be slowed down. 2) It was based on a trendy popular dance craze that many felt would date the film, once the trend died down.

Even though the jitterbug dance craze lasted all the way into the 1950s, it still would date the film quite a bit today. And although there are no songs at all in the movie after the lion sings "If I Were King of the Forest," I still don't think adding one in there, or anywhere else in the final sequences of the film would have helped it in any way. It wasn't needed.

Of course they found that out after filming the whole thing and scrapping it. I would LOVE it if the footage were found some day. For now, we have the soundtrack recording and Harold Arlen's home movies to give us a glimpse of what it would have been like:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mhsc6bMTi-Q

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 12:19pm

I choreographed the stage production (RSC) a couple of years ago, and this was by far one of our - and the audience's - favorite numbers. Not sure how it would work in the movie, but it worked very well on stage.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 12:48pm

It works great on stage. We did it too, when I played the Tinman, and the audience loved it. They like big, splashy production numbers. And they don't mind halting the story to see one.

It doesn't work the same way in movies though.

And Wizard of Oz was revolutionary in its day, where ALL the songs that are included serve to either advance the story or develop character.

The Jitterbug would have done neither. It's a "stop and sing" number, which was the norm back then in the 1930s, but Freed, Harburg and Arlen were trying to do something new. And they did.

Posted: 5/24/08 at 12:59pm

just think, somewhere theres a time continuum where shirley temple got the role!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 2:05pm

I still think I, personally, would enjoy the film much more had "The Jitterbug" and Judy's heartbreaking reprise of "Over the Rainbow" been included. I also would have liked to see the "Ding Dong Emerald City" sequence included as I've always felt the transition between the witch melting and the return to the wizard was too abrupt.

[SpellingBeeFan4Ever]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 2:16pm

I would have liked the scene where the Tin Man was turned into a bee hive.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 2:23pm

"just think, somewhere theres a time continuum where shirley temple got the role!"

...and Jed Clampett played the Tinman!

...and Gale Sondergaard was the (glamorous) Wicked Witch!

...and Fanny Brice was Glinda!

...and Mickey Rooney was the Scarecrow!

...and W.C. Fields was the Wizard!

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 2:30pm

Here's what it would have looked like, somewhere in that parallel universe:

Dorothy:


The Scarecrow:


The Tinman:


The Wicked Witch:


Glinda:


The Wizard:

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 3:24pm

I believe Buddy Ebsen originally was to be the tin man but had to drop out as it turned out he was allergic to the silver paint he had to be made up with.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 3:41pm

Fanny Brice as a Jewish Glinda never ceases to make me smile.

"Oy vey! Vat a schmell of sulfeh! Vat a schtink dat vicked vitch meks! Blecchh!"

"Go vay--before somevun should drop a house on you too! Nu?"

"Click your heels--but don't scuff dem!--and say 'Dis vas a nice place to visit but I like mine Kenzis betteh...dis vas a nice place to visit but I like mine Kenzis betteh..."

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 4:04pm

Far from allergic. They were blowing aluminum powder in his face, breathing it is is poisonous to anyone. Once Ebson was taken to the hospital the makeup people had to change what they were using.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 6:23pm

The Eartha Kitt "Jitterbug" from the Madison Square Garden cast recording is my favorite to listen to. I'm glad they finally gave the witch something to sing. I didn't get to see the tour, but I saw a regional production that used the MSG sets and costumes and performed that version of "The Jitterbug" and it was very exciting. Imagine Margaret Hamilton singing the song. That would have been fun.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 6:37pm

Buddy was actually hired first to be the Scarecrow, after it was decided that Mickey Rooney would be too busy with other projects to spend so much time on "Oz" (which was a very long production schedule, and he was the #1 box office star in the world that year!). So, Buddy was the Scarecrow, based on a very successful dance routine he had done the year before with Judy Garland in Broadway Melody of 1938. Ray Bolger was approached to be the Tinman. He really wanted to be in the movie, but he talked with Freed, Mervin LeRoy and L.B. Mayer and begged to be the Scarecrow. He really thought his talents would be better suited for that part. They asked Buddy if he objected to switching roles with Ray. And Buddy thought it was fine. His billing and salary would remain the same, and he didn't much care which part he played. He liked them both.

...and that decision is what ultimately led to his life-threatening illness due to inhaling the silver "dusted" makeup. He spent weeks in an iron lung, and nearly died. And of course he had to be replaced. MGM borrowed Jack Haley from 20th Century Fox to play the Tinman, with almost no rehearsal or any preparation.

In fact, they threw him into re-recording only the solo parts the Tinman sings in the movie, because there wasn't time to bring everyone else back in with the orchestra to redo the group stuff as well. They had already lost six weeks of filming.

So... you can still hear Buddy Ebsen's voice as the Tinman, every time they sing We're Off To See the Wizard! Jack only sings the solo bits. When they sing as a trio or a quartette it's Buddy!

I do find it interesting that as close as Buddy had come to death in 1938 during the early filming of "Oz" he actually outlived both Bolger and Haley by quite a few years.

For such a perfect film, it sure had a lot of fateful changes along the way!

[DG]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 8:14pm

Besty - did you read Buddy's autobiography "The Other Side of OZ"? I was taken aback by how bitter he seemed after all those years had gone by (not against anyone in particular, just at the situation in general.) It actually made me a little sad.

And the thought of Temple as Dorothy has always been one of the most sickening things I can think of.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 8:37pm

DG---I didn't read his biography, and I'm surprised he was so bitter! Wow...

That makes me sad, too.

And don't worry. Shirley Temple was only considered briefly, until Fox literally LAUGHED at MGM at the thought of loaning out the most popular star in the entire world to a rival studio for their big-budget movie.

"Over the Rainbow" was written AFTER Garland had the role, when the songwriters KNEW they had a singer who could do it justice.

We might have gotten a much simpler "barnyard ditty" had Temple actually played Dorothy. But not the soaring melody of (IMO) the best song ever written.

...ASCAP thinks so too.

...so does AFI.

It's a completely perfect song.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 5/24/08 at 9:59pm

I've never seen the Sondergaard makeup/costume test photo before. I knew she had been mentioned for the role, but never knew it went that far.

MGM was obviously thinking of a 'live action' version of the Evil Queen from SNOW WHITE.

(And the original ad campaign for OZ included the line "the Greatest since SNOW WHITE!")

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 12:52am

For anyone who doesn't have them, I highly reccomend both:
Wizard of Oz: 50th Anniversary Pictoral History by John Fricke
and
Wizardry of Oz by Willard Stillman (I think?)

Both have TONS of pictures and lots of great information about the original versions.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 1:23am

There are pictures of Margaret Hamilton with her hair down looking a little bit more glamorous prior to the re-shoots. Even some of Judy in her Blonde "Alice in Wonderland" wig.
Updated On: 5/25/08 at 01:23 AM

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 3:44am

Updated On: 1/23/09 at 03:44 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 4:20am

Here's Margaret looking a little more glamorous with her hair down and Judy in her blonde wig and maybe about twice as much make-up. Her costume also has a different collar and her sleeves have more poof.


Updated On: 5/25/08 at 04:20 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 9:18am

Those books are great, Husk!

CatsNY--That photo was taken during the first six weeks of filming, when Richard Thorpe was directing the movie. Buddy Ebsen was the Tinman, Judy was blonde, Maggie had her hair down, and only wore a fake nose (no fake chin yet). They shot most of the sequences in the Witch's castle toward the end of the story, plus the first meeting of Dorothy and the Scarecrow in the (much different-looking) cornfield.

When Thorpe was fired, all of the above changed. They brought in George Cukor for all of three days as an "interim" director. He didn't shoot any film during those days, but he did give us one MAJOR contribution. He looked at the footage of Judy and said, "She's supposed to be a little girl from Kansas!" He ordered the heavy makeup removed from her face, asked that her hair be a "natural" color in a simple hairstyle. Basically, he is the reason she looks the way she does in the final film.

Not a bad contribution for only 3 days on the picture! Then they brought in Victor Flemming, who directed everything but the final few weeks on the film---the Kansas scenes. He was taken off of "Oz" to go save Gone With the Wind. So King Vidor stepped in and directed all the Kansas scenes at the end of the shoot, including Over the Rainbow.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 5/25/08 at 10:20am

Another one, that has a fantastic introduction by Margaret Hamilton is The Making of the Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz...I haven't read it all the way through yet, but the 50th anniversary edition had pictures I had *never* seen before.

The amount of people that worked on the film is phenomenal...and it still amazes me *all* the changes that happened. Especially in the script. At one point the Lion was a transformed prince, and had a love interest named Ethel (I think it was Ethel) and the Witch (who was now MRS Gultch in Kansas) had a son named Walter who she was trying to make the new King of Oz.

I wish the footage of all the Witch's cut dialouge, which was mostly added back to the RSC adaptation, still existed, and I am still very surprised no one has edited back in the Scarecrow's dance sequence...maybe when it goes to Blu-Ray