Transcript
WEBVTT
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Hello, I'm film historian Tony Mae.
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And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.
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We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age.
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We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.
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And, of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.
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As does your self-delusion.
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Welcome to Going Hollywood, Brad.
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I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
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Tony, it sounds like you're trying to give an idea of what we're going to discuss today, but I'm not sure where you're going with this.
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That's such a lame hint.
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We're talking about the Wizard of Oz.
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Of course we are.
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You could have said I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too.
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Oh, I could have said a bunch of lines, but I think the reason we're talking about this is because, first of all, there's so many things to say about the Wizard of Oz.
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I don't think that this is going to be our only episode.
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I think because there's so many things to say, but basically because I don't have the bandwidth for anything else right now.
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Anything else right now I am filming a documentary on Vincent Minnelli and so I'm so deeply immersed in the world of Vincent Minnelli I was like this is kind of tangential to that with Judy Garland, so I can handle a Wizard of Oz episode.
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I guess we'll see.
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I doubt you were spending much time researching this one.
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No, I did Well.
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Yeah, it's kind of in my DNA, like it is with so many gay men.
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I mean, who doesn't have the Wizard of Oz in their DNA?
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Who's a gay man.
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This is the point where I normally say Tony, why don't you describe what this movie is about?
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But I kind of think everyone knows this one.
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Yeah, I kind of think it.
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I mean really.
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I mean really, I mean there are.
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You know what I want to say too.
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There are entire podcasts just about the Wizard of Oz.
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So I think that you know the fact that we're doing one episode on it.
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There's another reason like you know, you can't cover all of it in one episode.
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We're going to do our best.
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Yes, but I do have a description that floats around the internet that I can share.
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Oh cool.
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Transported to a surreal land.
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A young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams with three strangers and kills again.
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That's the story in a nutshell.
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I love that.
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That is the best description.
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You know, you could just do that with all movies and just get.
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That's a great description.
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That is a great description.
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I mean, that's what this is about.
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It's not in Cold Blood, it's the Wizard of Oz.
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She kills and kills again.
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Yeah, that's amazing.
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You know, for the first time, I found this movie really disturbing.
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I mean, it's grotesque.
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They're dancing and singing Ding Dong.
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The witch is dead.
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Well yeah.
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And then the rest of the movie.
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Her quest is to kill the witch.
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I think that's something that you come to when you see it as an adult, after having grown up with as a child, is you realize how gruesome it can be and how it certainly is dark.
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But, yeah, you realize.
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Oh, oh, my gosh.
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No wonder this terrifies children.
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I mean, the wicked witch is truly a terrifying character.
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You know what I mean, and so it's, I think you come to at least I came to it as an adult the first time whenever I saw it as an adult and you kind of realize, or maybe, as you, as you learn more and more about it, you realize wow, this is some violence here is happening you know,
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He was like this is just like Grimm's fairy tales.
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For example, you had the lumberjack, who the witch put a spell on, so he starts chopping off his limbs and that's how you got the tin man.
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Start cutting off his limbs.
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I know right, I mean that's kind of crazy.
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Equally disturbing is when Dorothy gets the scarecrow off the post.
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He then, to get revenge, starts breaking the necks of the crows that have been bothering him, and it says that when he was done, he's standing in feathers and pools of blood.
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So I guess it's safe to say that MGM sanitized it a bit, to say the least, to say the least for 1939.
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To fit the production code requirements they could only have so many things.
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You know I love the Oz books.
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I read them all as a child.
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The thing that I think is so genius about this film, this film of the Wizard of Oz, is how the screenwriters and there were a slew of screenwriters on this film how they made it so logical.
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Having the introduction and having the characters already implanted in Dorothy's head and then to see them manifested in their Oz characterizations I think is so genius.
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They had to make it a dream In the books, and I don't know if I'm telling anybody this that they don't already know if they're listening to this podcast.
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In the books it's not a dream.
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In the books Oz is a real place and she goes there in the cyclone, yes, but in the movie obviously it's a dream.
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And another genius idea because at this time in Hollywood in the late 30s, there was a very, very, not bad, but they did the production of Alice in Wonderland at Paramount, which bombed and then, right on the heels of that Snow White the year before, was a huge, huge hit.
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So they wanted to find a way to make sure this film was palatable to audiences who wouldn't necessarily believe the fantasy, and so they made it a dream, and I think that's just one of the many brilliant changes they made to the story which make it work so well.
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Yeah, I was really surprised.
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In the final book Dorothy's actually in her 30s and Auntie Em and Uncle Henry are living on a farm in Oz.
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In Oz.
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They all end up moving to Oz eventually, which I don't blame them.
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Yeah, their farm went bankrupt, so they moved to Oz.
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Depending on what happens with the next election, I think I might want to move to Oz.
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Oh, I am with you there more than you can even know.
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You know I mean my God.
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But I think that that's amazing.
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I might even read some of these Oz books again, because there's all kinds of characters that come in as the story.
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You know, ozma comes in and there's a Jack Pumpkinhead and all these lands in Oz and it's just fascinating.
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It's kind of like a Tales of Narnia for you know the early 20th century.
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I love it.
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But I think what MGM did was brilliant, was genius with it First of all making it a musical and also making it in the frame reference, in the reference of a dream.
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How did you come upon the Wizard of Oz?
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What's your first recollection of watching it?
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It was back before cable.
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So we waited for the one time a year that the Wizard of Oz was on and the one time a year that the Ten Commandments were on, and then you had to wait all year for the Charlie Brown Christmas to show one time, the Grinch to show one time.
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It made it so special, didn't it?
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Yes, they were once-a-year specials and they were big events.
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You waited all year for them.
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It was amazing.
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I remember, for some reason I'm having a recollection of the Wizard of Oz being around Easter, not Christmas.
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I think when they first started airing it in 59 on television it was Christmas time, but I have a recollection of it being and I you know this is from the late 70s of it being around Easter.
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So I like that because it meant summer was coming when the Wizard of Oz was on.
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I don't remember.
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But the Wizard of Oz was an event.
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I feel badly for kids.
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I feel bad for kids today who, I mean, they can watch it anytime they wanted to, and there was something really wonderful about waiting and it was that yearly event that every I know everyone talks about this.
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Everybody got in front of the TV and watched it and it was something to look forward to.
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Just like they don't know what they're missing not having Saturday morning cartoons.
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Yeah, it was the one time a week that it was the big event.
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Oh, I know right oh.
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Now you can just turn on the Cartoon Network anytime you want and watch them.
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And it's actually a negative because it's just not the same.
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It's not the same.
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It's not the same to have it at your disposal 24-7.
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Not at all.
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I mean I love it.
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I just put it on a couple days ago and watched it and that's great, but I went through that whole ritual of it every year being so special.
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It's still special.
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It's still a phenomenal film.
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I mean just the technological aspects of it are phenomenal.
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There's no CGI here.
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I mean that cyclone is muslin, everything in the matte paintings and the dissolve, everything on that was figured out.
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Someone in their head figured out how to do it live.
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And it works.
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People don't have to wear makeup nowadays.
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They just wait till they're done filming and change it via CGI.
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Right, exactly, exactly.
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It's fascinating, fascinating.
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So you remember seeing it on TV and what were your initials?
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They were much better than when I just watched it last week.
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Really.
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Yes.
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I think we're going to have to talk about that.
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I was kind of let down because I really loved this as a kid and I didn't this time, and we'll see.
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As far as the flying monkeys go, I was never afraid of them growing up, but watching them now they are horrific.
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I can understand why the kids had nightmares.
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Yeah, I know they're pretty terrifying.
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Terrifying, to say the least.
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That's so funny because I think one of Judy's children talks about the first time they saw the Wizard of Oz on TV and they were freaking out because Mommy was being taken away by monkeys.
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She's like I'm right here, darling, I'm right here.
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Yeah, they saw Mommy being flown away screaming help, help, yeah yeah, exactly.
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It must have been terrible.
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They're like flying rodents.
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I mean, that would freak me out.
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Tony, I'm stopping our conversation real quick.
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Why we're in the middle of a podcast.
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But this is about the podcast and it's very important.
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Okay.
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Listener.
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Whatever app you're listening on, whether it's on the computer or on the phone, reach your finger or your mouse over.
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It usually says follow.
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Some still say subscribe and click that.
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And what's going to happen when they do that, tony?
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They're going to get notified when a new episode is available and they can listen to us again.
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You know you don't want to miss that.
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No.
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Can we get back to the episode that we were recording?
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Of course, please.
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Can we get back to the episode that we were recording?
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Of course, please, of course.
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All right, thank you.
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Don't forget to subscribe and follow
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Let's talk about the reception the Wizard of Oz got.
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It was nominated for Best Picture in 1939, and 1939 was a huge year for movies.
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Yeah, 1939 was the year.
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Yeah, of course we had Gone with the Wind.
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Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
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There was Stagecoach, which is the one John Wayne movie that I can think of.
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That I liked Love Affair, which people know from Sleeping Seattle, isn't it?
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Yeah, yes, yes, sleepless in Seattle.
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Yeah, I mean, there's a big one in there.
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You forgot, did you say Gone with the Wind?
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Yes, Did you say gone with the wind?
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Yes, did you say?
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Oh, you did.
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Okay, I missed it, missed.
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Gone with the wind was the big winner that year.
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It's the one that won, and it wasn't called best picture, then it was called outstanding production and it also did not go to the producers and went to the studio right.
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So selznick won, which I believe is well deserved.
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well, just the scale of it and selznick pretty much had that in the bag.
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I mean, the scale of that film is just astounding, even when you think about this and this is also true with the Wizard of Oz movies had only learned to talk 10 years before, .
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So the fact that they not only had sound but they had glorious technicolor Technicolor was also something that was very rare in 1939.
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I think there were only like four technicolor technicolor was also something that was very rare in 1939.
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I think there were only like four technicolor cameras.
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Um, they were behemoths, they're huge, and at that time they thought you needed massive lighting in order for technicolor to register.
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So that's why whenever you see candid shots behind the scenes of wizard of oz and you can see the sets, the lights are just it's like the center, you know, it's like the, like the sun, it's so bright.
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So these actors were in these huge costumes.
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You know Burt Lahr was in this huge Cowardly Lion thing that must have weighed 40, 50, 60 pounds and sweating profusely.
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And I think Jack Haley said Jack Haley played the Tin man in an interview in the 70s, said people always come up to him and ask him wasn't that wonderful, wasn't it fun to make that movie?
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And he's like no, it wasn't fun, it was hell, it was work, it was terrible.
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I heard nobody remembers that film fondly because it was so difficult.
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Yeah, except for the hardships.
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Oh, I think they remembered it fondly.
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I mean, ray Bolger certainly remembered it fondly and Judy did.
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How could she not?
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I mean, I think this is a good point to talk about some of the myths about the Wizard of Oz which everybody kind of knows.
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But they think they know the reality of it.
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And just to be clear, shirley Temple was never seriously considered to play Dorothy.
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And I see it all over the place that she was
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For a minute she was, but this movie was conceived by Mervyn LeRoy, who was the producer, and Arthur Freed, who was his associate producer uncredited.
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Arthur Freed is basically responsible for the great MGM musical period, but he was not the producer on this, he was the.
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He was, uh, mervyn Leroy's associate.
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Mervyn Leroy was brought in from Warner brothers as kind of like a replacement for Irving Thalberg, who had passed away a few years before.
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And if I'm getting too deeply into the weeds on this, well, that's this podcast.
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Mervyn Leroy and Arthur Freed.
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Arthur Freed had been a fan of Judy's since she was signed to the studio in 35.
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And he wanted this project for her.
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Now, when they got to the budget and they saw how much this was going to cost, for a minute they thought maybe we should have a big star and Shirley Temple was the biggest box office star in the world at that time.
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So they did go to her and she sang for them and they went and that's not going to happen.
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There's no way this child can handle the score.
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So it went right back to Judy.
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But that's always been kind of blown out of proportion, the whole Shirley Temple angle.
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Age-wise Shirley Temple is more accurate to the book, because the book does say she was a child.
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The book.
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Yes, she's a child If you look at the illustrations in the book.
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She's a little child In every other respect.
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Judy Garland was so perfect for this role because she had the sincerity, she had the vulnerability, she had the pathos you need someone to identify with and to feel for and that's Judy Garland to a T at this time, throughout her career actually.
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But we're not going to go that.
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But I mean, and she was so perfect for it because you feel for Dorothy, your heart breaks for Dorothy.
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There's a wonderful outtake that's available of there was to be a reprise of Over the Rainbow that Dorothy sings in when she's trapped in the witch's castle right before the witch goes Annie, annie.
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I remember she's seeing Annie M in the crystal ball and then it turns into the witch Right before she's at.
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She was supposed to sing a reprise of Over the Rainbow, which is heartbreaking, and they took it out because it was so heartbreaking and so terrifying.
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They didn't want to have the original Over the Rainbow in it, so they weren't going to have a reprise of it.
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But I mean, she had such, she had such sympathy and such audience goodwill and she's just so wonderful in this film.
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She did a great job and I will grant you that.
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But you know, they did have to tape her breasts down and we kind of had a laugh a minute.
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And then I thought well, you know what, If Stockard Channing can get away with playing a teenager on Grease, I can accept Judy as a little girl, Isn't that true?
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Well, how about when they did the Wiz and they made Dorothy in her early 20s?
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Because it was Diana Ross In the Wiz, dorothy's a child?
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Stephanie Mills was a short person and you could believe she was a young, but they had to age her up for the Wiz.
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I'm glad they didn't do that with the Wizard of Oz, because Dorothy makes a perfectly believable young girl of indeterminate age at that point.
00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:18.062
Young girl of indeterminate age at that point.
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But you know the stories about how, when they first started filming it under Richard Thorpe, who was the original director, how they had her in the blonde wig and they had her made up to look a little bit more like a Kewpie doll and she was kind of acting it that way too.
00:16:32.072 --> 00:16:32.955
She was acting it.
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It was very artificial.
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The original shots, whenever you see them, this was when Buddy Ebsen was still in the film.
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The original Tin man.
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The Tin man.
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Buddy Eben was originally the Tin man and what happened was they did about?