Wizard of Oz with Shirley Temple 1939

-

 

The Wizard of Oz went through many changes from start of production to finished film. Mutiple screenwriters wrote assorted drafts, the original director, Richard Thorpe was fired after a week to have all his scenes reshot by new director Victor Fleming, and the cast could have been quite different.

 Before Judy Garland captured the role of Dorothy the studio considered borrowing Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox. She was closer to age of protagonist in the book but her singing voice wasn't quite right for the songs in the movie. Another consideration was Deanna Durbin, who had a beautiful singing voice and was six months older than Garland. 

W. C. Fields was first chosen as the Wizard. I think he could have been great as Professor Marvel and the various disguises of the Wizard but Frank Morgan was so good in the film I feel he was the right choice. Ray Bolger was originally cast as the Tin Man and Buddy Ebsen as the Scarecrow but Bolger wanted switch parts. Buddy Ebsen filmed for nine days before having to be hospitalized after having a reaction to the aluminum dust in the makeup. Although he was replaced by Jack Haley his voice is still in movie during the song "We're Off to See the Wizard". Gale Sondergaard was going to be a beautiful Wicked Witch of the West. Makeup and costuming tests were done but as the character was turned into a "hag" she dropped out and Maragaret Hamilton stepped in. She became identified with that role reprising it on "Sesame Street" and "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special".

On set footage of deleted musical number I mention on the back of the cover can be seen here: https://youtu.be/UB9BdxPDCwQ?si=85lTalbwOUpx2jSb

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Police XYZ 1987

-
Image
 The last album of new material The Police put out was Synchronicity in 1983. It was not meant to be their last though. In July of 1986 the trio planned on recording another album. It not only didn't happen but all three members of the band say a new album is unlikely. Here then is an album that might have been. I chose songs from Sting's "... Nothing Like the Sun", Andy Summers' "XYZ" and a track by Stewart Copeland from the Wall Street soundtrack. In choosing the songs I picked mostly Sting songs as I presume that is how it would have been. Andy Summers performs on two of Sting's songs: The Lazarus Heart and Be Still My Beating Heart so I had to choose those. I eliminated the cover of Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing because I believe it would have sounded different if Summers and Copeland performed on it than how Sting did it. This is what I think the CD booklet and tray card would look like.
Read more

Raiders of the Lost Ark with Tom Selleck 1981

-
Image
 Since a new Indiana Jones movie is coming out I think it is good time to revisit the first one. However this is the one that almost was. Most people know Selleck was originally cast but there were a lot of changes before it was finally filmed. The synopsis on the back of the DVD cover above will cover some of them. I first heard about Toht's mechanical arm when I got the book "Raiders of the Lost Ark: the Illustrated Screenplay and page 87 had a storyboard drawing of a very different Toht than we know today.  The illustration I used for the front cover is from an old Playboy and I believe Joann Daly is the artist.
Read more

KISS Hot in the Shade 1989

-
Image
 Peter was the first to leave the group and The Monkees had to find a way to carry on....Sorry, wrong quartet. Even though Kiss has had a lot of members, some whom have been in the band longer than Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, there is something about having the original four together that excites the Kiss Army.  These songs are picked from the Kiss album Hot in the Shade and Ace Frehley's Trouble Walkin' which had Peter Criss on backing vocasl. Both albums had the song "Hide Your Heart", co-written by Paul Stanley. From Trouble Walkin' I chose the titular song, "Back to School" and Ace's version of "Hide Your Heart" for some extra Peter and Ace. The remaining songs I split between Gene and Paul. It seems like the competition between them would ensure of that. Critics have said that at 15 songs Hot in the Shade is a bit bloated. For this version I pared it down to the standard 10 songs total.
Read more