Today is L Frank Baum's birthday. He's the fertile mind from which the wonderful world of Oz and all its outre inhabitants (as well as the visiting Kansans) emerged. In all he wrote 14 books about this magical place somewhere over the rainbow. There were some silent shorts made during Baum's lifetime. But it was twenty years after his death when this world was visualized most famously in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. It's one of the greatest, most beloved, and culturally absorbed movies ever made. A bonafide A+ masterpiece. I can't say I've read this author's collected works but I am deeply grateful for their existence given my colossal affection for the movie. It's one of those films that makes my heart swell. I figure reminiscing about it is a smart and optimistic way to start off a new week.
All it takes is one visual or aural hook, like say the green witch emerging from that colorful cloud of smoke, or the way Judy G lifts her fingers to her mouth when she starts tearing up, or the tin man's breathy dreamy singing "I hear a beat.... how sweet" and the whole movie is playing in my head.
tags: Judy Garland, movies, classics, Oz, The Wizard of Oz
