THE JITTERBUG — Page 2

It's my favorite movie. I've spent a lifetime absorbing everything I could about how it came to be.

I would love a Blu-ray release of Wizard of Oz, with the extended Scarecrow's dance available to play seamlessly in the movie. "Seamless branching" (as it is called) is possible with Blu-ray. No glitches, pauses, or shifts. That's how they put all three versions of Close Encounters on the same BD. They all branch off to include or exclude the various scenes.

That said... I'm not sure I'd want to HAVE to watch it with that extended dance included.

There was a reason the dance was cut. Aside from slowing the film down a bit, the three "companions" that Dorothy meets are balanced very carefully with relevance in the film. It was something the writers wanted, but also the stars that were playing the parts. They wanted the roles balanced so there would be no upstaging (some argue that it might have been contractual as well, but I've never seen it included in any legal contracts for their work in "Oz"), so MGM did the following:

Scarecrow---gets the most screen time in the movie and the most lines, since he's the first one Dorothy meets on her journey.

Tinman---not on screen as much as the Scarecrow, so he gets an extra dance during his song to add a little presence to the role.

Lion---not on screen as much as the other two, so he gets a shortened version of the "If I Only Had..." song, but then gets his very own number (If I Were King Of the Forest).

That's how the writers balanced the roles.

Add the dance in for the Scarecrow, and the balance of the trio is thrown off.

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Very cool, DG! I'm sure it wouldn't have been in Haley's contract since he was added in after shooting had already begun. It actually doesn't make sense that it would have been a contractual request to balance the roles, since they did film the Scarecrow's dance (and spent big bucks on it). They only cut it in post-production. And it really upset Ray Bolger at the time, but he got over it.

At least the negative survived!

I think the best reason to cut it is that it doesn't "jive" with the rest of the film. That one sequence was directed by Busby Berkeley, and it's kinda crazy. Even for Oz. I think it went too far (and too long, and too much).

I would love it if someone would find the footage for the other "lost numbers" (The Jitterbug, Over the Rainbow Reprise, Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead Celebration in the Emerald City). Those would be incredible finds.

One thing they could do on a Blu-ray Release is add some of the cut orchestral score back in. The original idea was to have the film be wall-to-wall music. No breaks anywhere with either songs, dances or underscoring. It ended up not working very well, but the score has survived (and is out on CD with extended orchestra cues). That could be added back in as an "alternate extended score" audio track. It would be fun to see/hear exactly why it didn't work. The music they cut is terrific!

Alas, I don't have any Oz contracts, but I do have my letters, signed photos and a few postcards from Maggie, when she was my second grade pen pal. We stayed in touch for years after that too. She was everything an Oz-obsessed kid could hope for!

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Oooh! I just found another Gale Sondergaard "witch test" photo.

Here she is before! Glamorous Gale, wonderful screen villain, slinky, serpentine, and a recent Oscar-winner for Best Supporting Actress. No wonder they wanted her:



Here she is with the "Snow White's Wicked Queen" look, which she liked for the Wicked Witch of the West, but MGM did not:



And here she is "uglified" for the direction MGM wanted:



You can even tell from this last test photo that she wasn't very happy with that choice. She didn't feel she was right for that kind of witch, so she bowed out of the movie.

Thank GOD, so we got THIS instead!

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I pray that one day the footage for "The Jitterbug", "Over the Rainbow" reprise and "Ding Dong Emerald City" is found. They were all three included in the very first test screening, correct? I can't help but feel that some greedy collector still actually has the original rolls and just isn't sharing them.

This is pretty great! Somebody cut a "modern" trailer for Wizard of Oz, as if it were being released today for the first time.

Very clever, and pretty accurate as to the approach:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eItXS0a0y10

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When my daughter was little, she was obsessed with TWOZ, so we watched it repeatedly...once, I remember I watched it 3 times in one day.

I saw it so many times that I started to buy all the books about it and collect all the documentaries about it.

In one of the documentaries, Maggie Hamilton tells the story of being asked by her agent if she'd be interested in appearing in the movie. It went something like this:

"My agent phoned. I said 'Yes?' and he said 'Maggie, they want you to play a part in The Wizard of Oz.' I said to myself, 'Oh Boy, The Wizard of Oz! That has been my favorite book since I was four.' I enthusiastically asked him, "What part?" and he said 'The Witch' and I said 'The Witch!' and he said 'What else?'"

It's great because she tells the story with such humor, pretending to be shocked and appalled!

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That trailer is awesome.

Indeed. Also, his original title for the novel was "The Emerald City", but his publisher warned that any book with a jewel in the title would not sell.

his publisher warned that any book with a jewel in the title would not sell.

huh?

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The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie and like Miss Pennywise's children, it was not uncommon for me to watch the movie more than once a day. A couple of years ago, my family and I went up to Tannersville (they were antique shopping) and I came across a cool looking book store. After rummaging around for a while in the back, I came across what looked like "The Wizard of Oz". Sure enough, it was a first edition copy in incredible condition. The book owner seemed to have no interest in it and offered me $50 for it. You better believe I took her up on the offer!

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And, besty, let's not forget his "unofficial" 15th book.

When Baum died, the books were still very popular, so the publisher's scrambled to find a replacement, which they did in Ruth Plumbly Thompson. To help ease the transition, they released book 15, "The Royal Book of Oz" as "Written by L. Frank Baum, with notes by Ruth Plumbly Thompson" (Or something along those lines.)

Thompson I know wrote more than Baum did, with her final one being in the early 40s. (I think it was about 1943.) She also wrote several radio plays and stage plays, and at least one play for a department store.

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THE WIZARD OF OZ was one of my top 3 movies as a kid. Coincidentally, a family friend introduced me to it on the Golden Anniversary of the film. Of course, I did not know this at the time, so I figured everyone shared my enthusiasm, what with toys, books, boardgames, lunchboxes everywhere I looked.

Anyway, two years ago, my bro, sis-in-law, and I drove cross-country from CA to MA. En route, we drove through Kansas and I saw a billboard sign advertising the Oz Museum in Wamego. Unfortunately, it was out of our way and we were strapped for time, not to mention my bro and his wife were the least bit interested. But the little kid in me wanted to turn the car around, and I probably would've if I'd been driving at the time.

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