You can have
Harry Potter! THE WIZARD of OZ will always be my favorite! I recall sitting
enraptured in second grade while our teacher read a chapter or two every day
following lunch.
When the
story came to an end, I was both sad and disappointed. I was hoping Dorothy
would remain in Oz, despite knowing how badly she wanted to go home. -- Why
couldn’t Oz be her new home?
Here was a fantastic
magical land where she was fortunate to be. Yet this fool was longing to return
to a Kansas farm and a humdrum life.
I realized Dorothy
had family back home, but now she had another ready-made one in Oz! I know
which one I’d choose! I wished to be Dorothy, more as my school years dragged
on. I still revisit high school in my nightmares.
I imagined
the next best thing; I longed for a spaceship to pick me up and carry me away
to a universe with technology so advanced it would feel like magic! There I
would dwell in a gloriously wonderous place akin to Oz! Light years away from
those mean kids at school and their snottery, indifferent teachers, & my
parents with their impossible expectations I could never achieve.
But if my
fantasy miraculously had materialized the outcome might have been quite different.
Perhaps I’d be the subject of excruciating medical experiments so horrific
they’d end up killing me, only to be resurrected repeatedly as the torture
continued. A literal hell in space!
I do not
believe as does our vice president with his pusillanimous ignorance and
arrogance that space aliens are demons. However, not all are benevolent. Some
view us the way we do lab rats.
Or if taken
to an alien planet, I’d end up caged and on display like a zoo animal just like
that astronaut in the TWILIGHT ZONE episode. – Or I may end up caged on this
planet for criticizing the orange buffoon currently occupying the white house.
Human beings
rank high among monsters!
A year after
second grade, the movie version of The Wizard of Oz was now being shown on TV
every spring for years to come, right around Easter. And for the majority of
these I was able only to watch half! The latter was at the same time as MAVERICK.
My father’s favorite program.
I love
westerns, but I found most episodes of Maverick uninteresting no matter which
brother was featured that week.
Of course, I
knew exactly how the movie ended! But it would have been nice to see it acted
out on screen. Eventually, Maverick was cancelled and I was thrilled!
But I must
admit I thought Judy Garland was all wrong for the role. Dorothy was a little girl,
and Judy looked like an adult dressed up as one. Who did they think they were
kidding?
I read the
first choice was Shirley Temple, even worse! I couldn’t stand that little ham
actress. In that role it would have been Shirley Temple in Oz and NOT Dorothy.
Fortunately, she signed with a rival studio that didn’t want to share.
Why were
these two the only option? Hollywood must have had a plethora of child
actresses who could sing & dance, all looking for their big break. Probably
it had to do with name recognition the studio thought would attract a large
audience and bring in big bucks.
The Dorothy
I’ve always envisioned is different. She’s a delicate-boned, but a plucky kid of
around 10 years old, with short nut-brown pigtails that fell just below her
chin. Her face is freckled with a cute pug nose. A small girl, but with the confidence
and daring a hoyden. This is the character planted permanently in my brain.
Over the
years, I’ve seen several versions of the story. An updated one, including a
violent & gruesome fantasy made for TV, & two recent movie versions with
the wicked witch as the hero. I enjoyed all of them. And I enjoyed the Judy
Garland one, and I’d have liked the movie even if it had starred Shirley Temple.
The story is just too imaginative and extraordinary not to grip me.
But my
favorite, the only version I truly love is the Frank Baum one in the book!
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