Tuesday, September 29, 2009

"The Wizard of Oz": Seventy Years Later

Here's my piece commemorating the 70th anniversary of the release of "The Wizard of Oz" posted on Big Hollywood at 2:40 p.m. (PST)... http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mckendall/2009/09/29/the-wizard-of-oz-seventy-years-later-still-inspiring-still-relevant/#more-237218

Tags: , , , , , , , , Posted Sep 29th 2009 at 2:40 pm in Classic Hollywood, Film, Politics
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Friday, September 25, 2009

Upcoming 70th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz" -- stay tuned...

Working on my next article... this one commemorating 70th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Oz on September 29, 2009...

Meantime, here's the piece I wrote, titled "The Strings of Judy Garland's Heart," commemorating the 40th anniversary of this legendary star's death... http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mckendall/2009/06/22/the-strings-of-judy-garland%e2%80%99s-heart/print/

Amazingly, Judy died just a week before the 30th anniversary of the premiere of "Over the Rainbow." On June 29, 1939, she sang this classic song for the very first time in public, during the 60 minute NBC radio show "Good News of 1939" in the episode titled "Behind the Scenes at the Making of The Wizard of Oz." The host was Robert Young; his guests, in addition to Judy, included Ray Bolger, Harold Arlen ("Over the Rainbow" composer), Hanley Stafford, Bert Lahr, Meredith Willson and The NBC Orchestra, E.Y. Harburg ("Over the Rainbow" lyricist), Fred Stone, Frank Morgan, and Fanny Brice.