Wednesday, August 11, 2010

"The Making Of The Wizard Of Oz" By: Aljean Harmetz






















As most of you know, I'm a "Wizard Of Oz" fanatic! There's very little I don't know and I've been studying and collecting my entire life. I read this when I was about ten and recently re-read it around the time of the movie's 70th Anniversary. It's a really marvelous look not only at the movie itself and what went into making it, but the time period and the way the studio system worked in the late 30's. It's a great Hollywood history lesson!

The author covers every single aspect of film making. The initial script ideas are particularly interesting, for instance, early on in production, The Wicked Witch Of The West had a son who she wanted to place on the throne of Oz. The chapter on special effects is a great learning experience as well. It's amazing how much imagination it took to accomplish those things back when they didn't know they couldn't do it, so they did! Everything was manual. No computer generated special effects.

There are some priceless interviews with the cast members and crew who worked on the film and a Preface about the auctioning of the Ruby Slippers and other MGM artifacts as well as a brief biography of L. Frank Baum.

All in all, this is one of the most well-researched accounts of the making of a movie I've ever read and I'd strongly recommend giving it a gander!

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