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33ST33STWizardOfOZ
The Original Sound Track Recording
From the book by L. Frank Baum
Music by Harold Arlen
The Wizard of OZ
MGM Records - Electronically enhanced for Reproduction in Stereo...SE-3996 ST...33 1/3 LP
Cover: VG
Record: G...tracks well very little noise...$5.00
SIDE 1
The listener can follow with ease the story of Dorothy Gale's adventures in OZ through the dialogue on the record. She expresses her yearning for a "place where there's no trouble" in the lovely song,
Over The Rainbow. Suddenly a cyclone strikes, Dorothy is knocked unconscious by a flying window, and she awakes in the dazzling Land of OZ. There, in a fairland of color and beauty, Dorothy learns she's a herione because the house in which she arrived struck and killed a wicked witch. The Munchkins sing
Ding-Dong The Witch Is Dead, but Dorothy is interested in returning home to Kansas. Glinda, the beautiful good witch, advised Dorothy to see
The Wizard of OZ, who will help her return to Kansas. Dorothy follows The Yellow Brick Road, and soon meets a talking, dancing scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who tags along with her because he hopes the Wizard will give him a brain. Soon they meet The Tin Woodman (Jack Haley) who joins them on the Yellow Brick Road because he wants the Wizard to get him a heart. And their party is complete when the meet The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) hopes the Wizard will give him courage. Each of the newcomers sings a song about his plight:
If I Only Had A Brain - Bolger;
If I Only Had A Heart - Haley
and
If Only I Had The Nerve - Lahr.
Together with Dorothy, they sing
We're Off To See The Wizard as they wend their way down the endless Yellow Brick Road.
The cowardly Lion sings
If I Were King Of The Forest as the group waits to see the Wizard. Finally the Wizard appears and agrees to grant their wishes if they bring him the broomstick of The Wicked Witch Of The West (Margaret Hamilton), who has tired to prevent their meeting with him. More adventrues follow as Dorothy is captured and escapes, and as the Witch kidnaps Toto because Dorothy and her friends keep outwitting her. But finally, the valiant quartet conquers the Witch and returns to the Wizard with her broomstick. There, the Wizard (Frank Morgan) is discovered to be a fraud, but he does prove to The Scarecrow that he has had a brain all along, and to the Tin Woodman that he has a heart, and to The Cowardly Lion that he has had courage. For Dorothy, The Wizard produce a huge ballon to take her back to Kansas. But Toto skips away, and as Dorothy chases him, The Wizard is swept away in the balloon. But all is not lost, Glinda, the Good Witch, reappears and tells Dorothy that she can go home anytime she wishes because she has learned a truth: "There's No Place Like Home." Soon, Dorothy is back in her own bed in her own room in her own home in Kansas, and although no one believes the story of her adventures, she is happy again because she is where her loved ones are.
The story has many morals and much charm. Hearing it come to life again and again on records is a refreshing and delightful experience for children of all ages.
The Wizard of OZ is a most remarkable motion picture. Since 1939 it has played to delighted audiences of children and grown-ups in theaters all over the world. In recent years it has become a Christmas Season tradition on television, drawing incredibly large audiences in homes all over America. It's a warm and whimsical story with plenty of excitment and thrills, and with messages galore for the young viewers. But most of all, The Wizard of OZ has a bubbling musical score highlighted by one of the greatest songs in American popular music - Over The Rainbow.
Three Academy Awards honored this film: Best Original Music Score - Herbert Stothart; Best Song - Over The Rainbow; and a special award to Judy Garland.
When producer Mervyn LeRoy and director Victor Fleming began to put together the pieces that would make up this film classic, they were working with a book by L. Frank Baum which had been enjoyed by an estimated 80,000,000 persons. A stage version of the story, starring Fred Stone and Dave Montgomery, had played 941 American cities after a Broadway run of more than four years. A huge budget was alloted the film, and two years of creative effort went into it.
The cast assigned the main roles proved to be superb in every respect. Judy Garland was Dorothy Gale, and her winsome redition of Over The Rainbow so captured America that it became identified with her and her alone through the 20-odd years since the film came into being. Today Judy cannot complete a concert without singing Over The Rainbow. Bert Lahr was a perfect cowardly lion. His bluster and bluff and he wonderful mobility of his face made the character come to life. Ray Bolger was The Scarecrow in look, voice, and manner. Jack Haley was magnificent as The Tin Woodman. Billie Burke was gentleness personified as Glinda, The Good Witch. Margaret Hamilton couldn't have been better as The Wicked Witch of The West (Even today, Miss Hamilton reports, children occasionally recognize her and immediately askher why she was so cruel to Dorothy! Although Miss Hamilton has portrayed many roles, comic and seious, in her distinguished career, her portrayal of the The Wicked Witch in The Wizard of OZ has been her strongest in audience identification). And beloved Frank Mogan was a remarkable Wizard, a mixture of suavity and bumbling that became an outstanding landmark in his long career.
The Wizard of OZ worked magic on its audiences...and on its cast, as well. The leading actors, all individual stars in their own right, went on to further triumphs in motion pictures or the Broadway stage, but, inevitably, their performances in The Wizard of OZ became indelibly linked with them.
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