Literary Influences: Anne Shirley

Samantha Ellis and I share an affinity for Anne Shirley of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. This precocious, spunky orphan taught me about love, drama and independence in ways I hadn’t considered until now. The most striking thing about …

Literary Influences: Dorothy

In case you missed it, I’m working on a series of posts inspired by Samantha Ellis’s How to Be a Heroine in which she explains how her favorite literary characters influenced and inspired her. So, technically this first post is about a …

75 Things to Love about “The Wizard of Oz”

In honor of the 75th anniversary of one of my favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz, I’ve decided to pay homage and create a list of 75 things I love about it. These are in no particular order. Without further preamble, let’s jump in, shall we?

1. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is beautiful and iconic. Any rendition of it sends chills down my spine.
2. Judy Garland is a performing powerhouse. Her Dorothy is beloved for many reasons including the innocence with which Judy approached the character while maintaining her strong “Judiness”.
3. Judy Garland singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – Great voice + wonderful song = awe and wonder
4. “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with!”
5. The switch from sepia to technicolor is a cinematic marvel that still takes my breath away in the time of CGI. The scene in which Dorothy leaves her farmhouse to explore Oz is perfect. She tentatively approaches the color-filled wonderland and for a few frames the audience sees a beautiful shot: Dorothy and her home in neutral colors opening up to the bright, bold world of Oz.
6. Ray Bolger’s performance as Scarecrow is adorable. I love when he walks with legs are floppy because they are made of straw – genius.
7. The Cowardly Lion is hilarious. Bert Lahr was perfectly cast as the king of the forest. I’ve been watching this movie since I was born, literally. When I was about 7 or 8, it came to the big screen and my mom, dad and I made the trip just to see it as it should be seen. During one of the reprises of “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” Bert Lahr says/sings “the nerve,” and I cracked up – still do, in fact. I can’t write about it and do it justice, so you’d better go watch the movie so you can laugh, too.
8. Jack Haley made a man made of tin so endearing. To this day, I don’t understand how he does that dance move where he keeps his feet planted but sways dangerously from side to side. If you know how they did that, don’t tell me. It’s a mystery of life I never want to uncover.
9. The Wicked Witch of the West is successfully terrifying, and I love it. She’s the picture of evil. Who would want to hurt an innocent little girl from Kansas and her little dog, too? Let’s just say Margaret Hamilton is superb. According to IMDB, they shortened her scenes because MGM was worried that audiences would find it too scary. Bravo, Miss Hamilton!
10. Toto
11. Glinda the Good Witch is the epitome of beauty and kindness. Her fluffy pink dress was enough to make this tomboy long for something similarly poofy. Billie Burke‘s sweet, high-pitched voice and gorgeousness convinced me that being the good witch was way better than the green skin that came with being the wicked one.
12. Glinda’s mode is transportation is chic.
13. It took me a few years (maybe 8) to realize that the fantastically talented Frank Morgan wasn’t just Professor Marvel/the Wizard but also a bunch of other characters. To my young mind, he was a chameleon blending in with his surroundings.
14. The Yellow Brick Road
15. Ruby slippers – At 22, I own four pairs of red flats. I take particular pride in the sparkly red Toms I own that always elicit “Those remind me of Dorothy!”
16. The Jitterbug – Even though it was cut from the final reel, “The Jitterbug” is one of my favorite songs, and I dance to it regularly.
17. It’s amazing that Harburg and Arlen wrote “If I Only Had a _____” and placed in nouns that fit each character. I love the recurring melodic theme.
18. The color-changing horse is also a movie marvel of which I never tire. I did find out how this was done (Kool-Aid, anyone?), but I still think it’s cool.
19. The Emerald City – It’s so green.
20. The Flying Monkeys were/are scary. They were so scary that my little brother used to have nightmares about them for which I teased him intensely – bonus for me.
21. The movie is dedicated to the young at heart. Because I will always be young at heart, this movie was dedicated to me. That’s pretty nifty.
22. “Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable” is shockingly profound – a great line.
23. “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others” see above
24. Blue gingham
25. I’ve always liked the idea that being kind made you beautiful and being mean made you ugly. see 9 & 11
26. I’m from Nebraska, Dorothy’s from Kansas. We Midwestern girls have to stick together.
27. The Wizard’s hot-air balloon says “Omaha.” see above
28. The twister scene is all at once funny and scary. Seeing the farmhands row a boat through the storm is awesome. Seeing Miss Gulch transform into a witch is frightening.
29. The twister is another example of movie magic.
30. The girl who was Snow White’s voice, Adriana Caselotti, sings “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?”
31. It inspired Wicked, my favorite musical.
32. My name is Roz – rOZ. It’s fate.
33. “If I Were King of the Forest” is full of wit and humor. I love when the Lion lists the things he isn’t scared of: “Not even an elephant?” “I’d wrap him up in cellophant!”
34. “How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?” ‘I don’t know… But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking… don’t they?”
35. I love it when the Tin Man axes the green flowerpot to make the Lion’s crown, and it breaks into the perfect crown shape.
36. Auntie Em is stern but loving like a real mom has to be.
37. Uncle Henry is a big softie and loves Dorothy so much.
38. I’ve always thought the crullers Auntie Em offers Hunk, Zeke and Hickory look delicious.
39. Poppies have never been more beautiful…
40. …and snow has never been more magical.
41. As a recent college graduate, I find this even more entertaining (and true): ‘Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got: a diploma.”
42. The deep friendship displayed by Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion is great. These four are willing to do whatever it takes to help the others achieve their goals. The guys willingly take on the Wicked Witch to take care of Dorothy. It’s a wonderful lesson in self-sacrifice wrapped up in a beautiful technicolor musical package.
43. This is a movie everyone has seen and most everyone loves.
44. “We get up at 12 and start to work at 1, take an hour for lunch and then at 2 we’re done” is the ideal workday.
45. The clicking of the heels
46. Professor Marvel is a kind-hearted scheister.
47. When Dorothy first meets Scarecrow, he’s up on his pole and constantly switches his hands causing great confusion for Dorothy. That’s highly entertaining when you’re 5.
48. The Lollipop Guild
49. The giant lollipop given to Dorothy by the lollipop guild is the candy of my dreams.
50. The oil Dorothy and Scarecrow use on Tin Man always looked so refreshing.
51. “Oooh weeee oh, ohhhh um”
52. The Cowardly Lion’s tail has a mind of its own.
53. Uncle Henry: Dorothy? Well, what has Dorothy done?
    Miss Gulch: What she’s done? I’m all but lame from the bite on my leg!
    Uncle Henry Gale: Oh! You mean she bit you?
    Miss Gulch: No, her dog!
    Uncle Henry: Oh, she bit her dog, eh?
54. The Munchkins
55. The shiny flowers in Munchkinland
56. Glinda’s insistence that Dorothy figure out the movie’s moral for herself.
57. Brains, a heart, courage and a home are all admirable things for which to aspire and find.
58. When the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man are traveling through the forest to the Wicked Witch’s castle, a sign reads “I’d turn back if I were you” – classic sign humor.
59. You can watch this movie with your grandma or your baby cousin and know they’ll both like it.
60. “You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.”
61. ‘We’re Off to See the Wizard” never fails to make me smile. It’s full of unbounded optimism.
62. Haven’t we all met the Wizard (or our own personal equivalent) and been a little disappointed? Dorothy gets us.
63. The Tin Man made it okay for boys to cry.
64. Ogden Nash wrote a draft of the screenplay.
65. The patented skip
66. Skywriting
67. Water proved to have great power and a cleansing effect.
68. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
69. It’s constantly referenced and is a pop culture staple.
70. The day Judy Garland died, there was a tornado in Kansas.
71. The movie magic used on the crystal ball in the Wicked Witch’s castle is incredible. When Dorothy looks in and sees a worried Auntie Em, it makes me marvel while also making me sad.
72. It took five directors to make this movie.
73. It lets us all get out of our sepia worlds and go somewhere over the rainbow.
74. After 22 years, it remains one of my favorite movies of all time.
75. Because, after all, “There’s no place like home.”

Did I miss anything?

“You’re the best friends anybody ever had.”

From my daily check-up on NPR, I stumbled upon a beauty of an interview with Julie Klam, author of the book “Friendkeeping.” It got me thinking, as a senior in college about to move onto the grown-up stage of life, about friends – what they were, what they are, what they may be. Ms. Klam asserts that friendships require constant maintenance and that, for adults, this can be a tasking responsibility that falls through the cracks between family and professional obligations.

My personal friendship style is to be incredibly loyal until something egregious leads to distrusting or disliking a friend. Luckily for me, this hasn’t happened often. I have lost friends, though, as a result of getting too busy with life, exactly what Ms. Klam spoke about. It makes me worry a little; what will happen with my friends when I have real responsibilities like a full-time job or kids and a husband to care for? In the interview, Ms. Klam said of friendships, “you don’t really put that effort in until either you’re celebrating something or something awful happens.” Is that so bad, though? Aren’t friends the people you see every once in a while, and it feels as though no time has passed? Aren’t they the ones you call when a loved one is sick or your kid won the spelling bee? As an adult, do you need to share the mediocre moments in life to truly be friends? I don’t know, I’m not an adult.

I do know that my friends from grade school, high school and college don’t expect or require this kind of maintenance. We meet when we meet, and everything is great. If something awesome or awful happens, I’ll call. If something awesome or awful doesn’t happen, I don’t call. We’re fine with that. It works out beautifully.

Ms. Klam knocks the “Sex and the City” friendship foursome as an inaccurate portrayal of female friends. I agree with her. Instead, Klam uses the most fabulous foursome to grace the movie screen as a reference for true: Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. On this subject, I thoroughly agree with her. They were brought together because they had the same goal of reaching the Wizard to change their circumstances. That’s what real people do, too. We become friends because we’re in the same place at the same time – at the same school, on a similar career path, enjoy the same hobbies, whatever. And, like Dorothy and the Gang, we help each other towards our goals. Dorothy had to leave the Emerald City to fulfill her familial obligations. Auntie Em and Uncle Henry took precedence. The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion didn’t fault Dorothy for this. Yes, they may have cried in front of the hot air balloon, but when the Wizard left without Dorothy, they felt her pain. As Glinda made her entrance, the Scarecrow suggested asking the good witch for a way back home – a pretty selfless act for the good of his friend. Back in Kansas, Dorothy didn’t maintain her friendships because she didn’t have to. After all, they’ll always have Oz.

But, again, I’m not an adult, so I don’t know the true nature of adult friendships explored by Klam. All I know is that my Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion are my friends with or without maintenance, and I hope it stays that way.