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The Wizard Of Oz (1942 Musical)
''The Wizard of Oz'' is a musical commissioned by the St. Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny) based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 film, '' The Wizard of Oz'', using the film's songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. The book of the musical is by Frank Gabrielson, who would later write an adaptation of ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'' for Shirley Temple (1960). The musical was first presented in 1942 at The Muny and has been revived many times since, both by The Muny and by other companies. Background ''The Wizard of Oz'' was first turned into a musical extravaganza by L. Frank Baum himself. It was a loose adaptation of Baum's 1900 novel that had no Wicked Witch, Toto, magic slippers or yellow brick road, but had several new characters and subplots. It first played in Chicago in 1902 and was a success on Broadway the following year. It then toured for seven years. Other early stage and film adaptations of the novel followed, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including " Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Munchkinland
Munchkin Country or Munchkinland, as it is referred to in the famous MGM musical film version, is the fictional eastern region of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). Munchkin Country is in the East, noted by later being ruled by the Wicked Witch of the East. In ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', it was originally called "the land of Munchkins", but is referred to as "Munchkin Country" in all subsequent Oz books. Munchkin Country is linked to Oz's imperial capital the Emerald City by means of the yellow brick road. The native inhabitants of this quadrant are called Munchkins. In the story, the novel's protagonist Dorothy Gale, attends a celebration upon her arrival to Oz at the mansion of Boq, who is the friendliest and wealthiest Munchkin man. "Munchkin" does not necessarily mean someone of short stature. Many Munchkins portrayed in the books are of normal height, most notably Nick Chopper (also known as the Tin Woodma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cass Daley
Cass Daley (born Catherine Dailey; July 17, 1915 – March 22, 1975) was an American actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of an Irish streetcar conductor, Daley started to perform at night clubs and on the radio as a band vocalist in the 1940s. Career Daley began singing as a child in front of neighborhood storefronts. Noted for her buck teeth and comical singing style, she sang at clubs as a teen while working as a hat-check girl and electrician. In the 1930s, she began a stage career, including a role in a production advertised as a "Great Vaudeville Show" in 1934. She appeared in the 1936-1937 Ziegfeld Follies featured as the "Cyclone of Syncopation." In the 1940s, Daley embarked on a movie career, most notably in ''The Fleet's In'' (1942) with Dorothy Lamour and Betty Hutton and '' Crazy House'' (1943) with Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. She also starred opposite Dick Powell and Dorothy Lamour in '' Riding High'' in 1943, and opposite Eddie Bracken and Diana Lynn i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Hamilton (actress)
Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American actress. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch, in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education. Early life Hamilton was born in Cleveland, Ohio and practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. Hamilton made her debut as a "professional entertainer" on December 9, 1929, in a "program of 'heart rending songs'" in the Charles S. Brooks Theater at the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter DeRose
Peter DeRose (or De Rose) (March 10, 1896 – April 23, 1953) was an American composer of jazz and pop music during the era of Tin Pan Alley. Biography A native of New York City, he showed a gift for all things musical at an early age. He learned to play the piano from an older sister. F.B. Haviland published his first song, "Tiger Rose Waltzes", when he was eighteen years old. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1917, he found a job at a music store as a stock room clerk. His composition "When You're Gone, I Won't Forget" led to a job at the New York office of Italian music publisher G. Ricordi & Co. In 1923, he met May Singhi Breen when she performed on radio with the ukulele group The Syncopators. A relationship developed, and she left the group to join DeRose in a musical radio show on NBC called ''The Sweethearts of the Air'' in which he played piano and she played ukulele. The show lasted for 16 years, during which time the two entertainers were married. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen. Biography Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 1900 His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901, aboard the '' SS Dresden'' when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City, where he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and received his education in the public schools. He attended Columbia University and N.Y.U. and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He eventually abandoned the notion of practicing law to become a songwriter. He served his apprenticeship as a writer of special material for vaudeville acts, and later established himself as a writer of songs for stage, screen and numerous musical revues. By the late 1920s, Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emerald City
The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). Fictional description Located in the center of the Land of Oz, the Emerald City is the end of the famous yellow brick road, which begins in Munchkin Country. In the center of the Emerald City is the Royal Palace of Oz. The Oz books generally describe the city as being built of green glass, emeralds, and other jewels. In the earlier books, it was described as completely green. However, in later works, green was merely the predominant color while buildings were also decorated with gold, and people added other colors to their costumes. In ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) In the first book, ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900), the walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in the Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted spectacles. This is explaine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum as the protagonist in many of his ''Oz'' novels. She first appears in Baum's classic 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and reappears in most of its sequels. In addition, she is the main character in various adaptations, notably the classic 1939 film adaptation of the novel, '' The Wizard of Oz''. In later novels, the Land of Oz steadily becomes more familiar to her than her homeland of Kansas. Dorothy eventually goes to live in an apartment in the Emerald City's palace but only after her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have settled in a farmhouse on its outskirts, unable to pay the mortgage on their house in Kansas. Dorothy's best friend Princess Ozma, ruler of Oz, officially makes her a princess of Oz later in the novels. Appearances In literature In the Oz books, Dorothy is raised by her aunt and uncle in the bleak landscape of a Kansan farm. Whether Aunt Em or Uncle Henry is Dorothy's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Dixon (actor)
Lee Dixon (January 22, 1910 – January 8, 1953) was a tap dancer, singer, musician and actor in the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in Hollywood musicals and other films as well as on the Broadway stage. Career Dixon is best remembered for creating the role of Will Parker in the original Broadway production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical ''Oklahoma!'' In the summer of 1942, Dixon created the role of the Scarecrow, at The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis, in the first stage production of '' The Wizard of Oz'' to use the songs from the 1939 MGM film. Evelyn Wyckoff played Dorothy Gale, Donald Burr played the Tin Man, Edmund Dorsey played the Cowardly Lion, Helen Raymond played the Wicked Witch of the West, Patricia Bowman played the Sorceress of the North, aka Glinda, and John Cherry played the Wizard of Oz. Death Dixon died of alcoholism on January 8, 1953, in New York City, fourteen days before his forty-third birthday. Filmography * ''A Modern Cinderella'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricia Bowman
Patricia Bowman (December 12, 1908 – March 18, 1999) was an American ballerina, ballroom dancer, musical theatre actress, television personality, and dance teacher. Dance critic Jack Anderson (dance critic), Jack Anderson described her as "the first American ballerina to win critical acclaim and wide popularity as a classical and a musical-theater dancer... Her sparkling stage personality won her many fans." She was the first prima ballerina of the Radio City Music Hall when it opened in 1932, and is chiefly remembered for her work as a founding member of the American Ballet Theatre with whom she was a principal dancer from 1939 to 1941. Active as a performer in Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals from 1925 to 1944, her performance credits on the New York stage include: the ''George White's Scandals'' (1925-1927), the ''Ziegfeld Follies, Ziegfeld Follies of 1934'', ''Calling All Stars (1934 musical), Calling All Stars'' (1934-1935), Arthur Schwartz's ''Virginia (operetta), Virg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Raymond
Helen Raymond (September 3, 1878 – November 26, 1965) was an American stage actress who did comedy roles on Broadway, and also appeared in Hollywood motion pictures and in vaudeville. Early years Raymond was born September 3, 1878, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music with an emphasis in piano. Career Raymond performed in vaudeville in addition to her other work on stage. One of her early theatrical roles was Mrs. Eichorn in ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' in a New York production and in a touring troupe in Australia and in the United States. Her Broadway debut came in 1915 in ''Very Good Eddie''. Raymond's success in the Broadway production of ''Twin Beds'' resulted in her going to London to perform in that show for three seasons. Presenting the play in England required a change of title, however. to ''Be Careful, Baby'', which Raymond said "had no connection with the plot at all". In 1931, Raymond starred in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Merry Old Land Of Oz
"The Merry Old Land of Oz" is a song from the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' and the musical. It is sung by the townspeople of the Emerald City, who are joined at appropriate times by the group of four travelers: Dorothy (with Toto), Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. It was written by lyricist E.Y. Harburg and composer Harold Arlen. The verse of the song suggests that the people of the city do no actual work, since they "get up at twelve, and start to work at one, take an hour for lunch, and then at two they're done". Their actions contradict that funny sentiment, however, as they are clearly doing plenty of work to "freshen up" the group of four to go see their desired person of the hour. The revelers' laughter is interrupted by the Wicked Witch of the West, who is circling over the city, skywriting with her broom, ordering the citizens to "SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE". In the final cut of the film, the words "OR DIE" were dropped from the film as being too strong for the presum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
