April 3, 2014 (Thursday )
If you have never seen, “The Wizard of Oz” movie, then you are part of a minority so small you all could probably sit with comfort on the head of a pin.
The movie is the screen version of a book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), a prolific writer of children’s books. The movie was made in 1939. My mother took me to see it at the Loew’s State Theater (long since demolished), where they showed only MGM movies, on Main Street in Houston. It continues its long run on television year after year, and is timeless.
It had become a stage show and a musical soon after it was written. It made its appearance as a movie as The Great Depression seemed to be losing its grip on the world, but World War was getting under way in Europe. It was a troubled time in world history. People entered the theater with sadness, but emerged later with gladness. It was a children’s movie, but as it turned out, enjoyed by adults too. It was filled with optimism, an attitude sorely needed at the time.
It made the point that you can have your heart’s desire, because in all probability it already exists within you. It spoke of “a land that we’ve heard of once in a lullaby,” somewhere over the rainbow.
Have you ever wondered where the author got the name, “Oz,” for the parallel world? He got it from the label on a file drawer on his desk labeled O-Z. When he saw that, he coupled it with “Wizard,” which he had already selected, and now we all know about the land of Oz, which some say was really The United States of America: the land where dreams can come true, you can have your heart’s desire, and you can become your best self.