EMERALDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

Everyone loves The Wizard of Oz!

Of course we do! What's not to love? Judy in her gingham frock and  Ruby Slipper dancing down the Yellow Brick Road with Ray, Jack and Bert, plus Munchkins, Winkies and Flying Monkeys, Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch cackling insanely at every opportunity, Billie Burke sweetly simpering as the Good Witch and Frank Morgan humbugging from behind the curtain as the Great and Powerful Oz!

Timeless stuff! But, as it happens, 2013 marks the film's 75th anniversary which has provided an opportunity for the publication of––––––

This is, of course, not the first book on the making of Oz and – when one considers the film's standing in the public's affections – it is unlikely to be the last. But it is without question one of the very best and will be difficult to better. Authors, Jay Scarfone and William Stillman, are noted scholars of Oz lore with one of the world's most comprehensive archives on the subject – outside of the Emerald City library itself!

The book, stunningly laid-out to reflect the Art Deco styling that influenced the film's art direction and original 1930's publicity, is crammed with all-you-need-to-know facts and figures lavishly illustrated, page-on-page, with an amazing array of costume and set designs, production stills, memos and letters, Technicolor tests and behind-the-scenes shots – many of the never-before-seen variety – that bring alive the fascinating story of the making of this historic film and the people in front of, and behind, the camera who made it.

Here are a just one or two of the book's delights...

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

 

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection 

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone. Published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; © 2013 by Author.

 Scarfone/Stillman Collection

Tucked inside the back of the book is a cache of collectible treasures including a set of certificates from the Wizard himself (for anyone in need of brains, heart, courage or instructions how to find their way Home) along with other replica memorabilia.

It's safe to say that anyone who loves Oz would be especially happy if Santa were to leave a copy of this knowledgeably and engagingly written – and exquisitely presented – book under the Christmas tree in a few weeks time!

Jay Scarfone and William Stillman's The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion is available from Amazon.com here and from Amazon.co.uk here – where, incidentally, you will find more spreads illustrated that I was permitted to reproduce (even with all the obligatory credit lines peppering this post!). Amazon's sneak-peeks include these...

Dear Warner Bros: Sue Amazon, not me!!

NOTES FOR PENNIES

I love stories told by book collectors of rare finds picked up for a song. Well, here's one of mine...

Many years ago, I was walking up Charing Cross Road when it was still the street of a dozen bookshops and outside one of them, on a trestle, was a cardboard box of assorted paperbacks, "All one price: 10p", among them, this one...

Being a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz, I instantly recognised the name Bert Lahr, although I was later surprised that the cover image shows Lahr in Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Worth 10p of anybody's money, I thought and I was right!

This was an American paperback of John Lahr's 1969 biography of his father and, as such, was very tightly-bound so I paid my ten pence without even opening (or trying to open) the book.

Later that day, home-bound on a train, I decided to take a closer look at my bargain purchase and, for the first time, saw the title-page...

Many years, later I told this story to the book's author but, for some reason, he didn't seem to find it too amusing – I guess because Sir Ralph was still alive when I bought the book!

Oh, well, never mind, it made me very happy!

As for Bert Lahr, he said of his most famous role: "That was my one big Hollywood hit, but, in a way, it hurt my picture career. After that, I was typecast as a lion, and there just weren't many parts for lions."

But, fortunately, there was that one!

MAGNETIC ATTRACTIONS

I seem to have gathered rather a lot of fridge magnets over the years and looking at them the other day, I realised that they represented a kind of saga of my life (and the lives of my friends) over the last decade or two.

Click on images to enlarge

So I thought I'd make a small, but representative, selection of the dozens of magnets currently on display, relieve them of the notes and out-of-date vouchers they normally keep in place and share with you their origins which turn out to be quite international...


Top Row (left to right): A pair mini-clogs featuring Miffy, the rabbit created by the Dutch artist and writer, Dick Bruna.

Cartoon of David by a caricaturist with whom he worked at some corporate dinner. She caught something of his character really rather well: the impish twinkle, perhaps, just before he produces your chosen card!

One of Oscar Wilde's cleverisms purchased in the shop at London's National Portrait Gallery on a trip there with our friends Val and Michael..

I'm not sure where I got the ceramic dodo, but I've always had a kind of empathy with these absurd, hapless birds so cruelly condemned to extinction by unthinking Man.

Second Row: Ena Sharples (a memorable early character in Coronation Street, played by Violet Carson) from the shop at Granada Studios in Manchester, during a visit there with my best mate, radio producer, Malcolm Prince, when we were making a series about soap operas. Alas, the Studio Tour is now sadly closed to visitors.

Las Vegas bottle opener brought back from the Strip by my old pal, Irascian. Decorative and functional - the gift, I mean, although the same could also be said of the giver!

Souvenir of The Living Seas pavilion in EPCOT Center, Walt Disney World, Florida, the opening of which I attended with my good friend and fellow Disney historian, Richard Holliss. You won't find Mickey Mouse there these days as it's been re-vamped as The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Hmmm...

Keepsake from Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California, the fabulous, fanciful home of William Randolph Hearst who was the original inspiration for Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. It was bought on a unforgettable visit with the aforementioned Malcolm Prince when we were driving from San Francisco to LA during the making of a radio series about Walt Disney.

Kangaroo decorated by an aboriginal artist bought in The Rocks Market, Sydney Harbour, en route to New Zealand on Rings business.

The Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, although I'm not sure where she came from -- other than the West, obviously!

Third Row: Rocket from the Tintin adventures Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon bought at a Hergé exhibition which David and I visited at the Centre George Pompidou, Paris.

John Tenniel's Humpty Dumpty (from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass) bought from that Carrollian cornucopia in Oxford known as Alice's Shop.

A stylised representation of the classic Doric architecture of Paestum, brought back from Italy for us by Richard and Chris Holliss. A reminder that whilst we know Venice like the back of our hand, most of Italy is, well, a foreign country to us...

"Aah, Bisto!" The classic 'twenties advertisement featuring the Bisto Kids by cartoonist Wilf Owen. This came from the nostalgia section of the shop in the Imperial War Museum. Not being a great lover of planes, tanks and guns, I'm afraid I spent most of my time in the shop!

100% Toro from Spain, courtesy of our own dear Polkadotsoph. Like all great logos, it's 100% simple and effective.

Bottom Row: Edinburgh Festival poster from our last visit in 1997 - goodness, is really that long ago?

One of a set of magnets given away with Findus frozen products in 1992 when Disneyland Paris had just opened and was still known as EuroDisneyland. Of course I have the complete set (God knows how many packets of fish fingers I had to get through!) but this magnet is of my favourite section of the park, Fantasyland, and features Peter Pan.

E H Shepard's Pooh and Piglet (though manufactured under license from Disney, naturally!) with a caption that I used to try and heed when approaching the fridge in the days of my diet! I must start looking at it again!

Athena's Owl from a tat-shop in the Plaka, Athens. True, the head is too big - but then maybe that's due to all the wisdom crammed within!

Memento of the Jurassic Park attraction at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, visited during yet another American jaunt with Mr Prince. "Was this work?" you ask. Well, let's just say it was research!

This is, believe me, only a fraction of the stuff on our refrigerator. I'll give you a further tour another day.

In the meanwhile, why not tell me - or show me - what's on your fridge?

*

Oh, yes, and happy birthday greetings today to Sibley-blog regular, Boll Weavil...

Many Happy Returns, Boll!

NO PLACE LIKE... er... WHERE?

Ah, well, as Sam Gamgee famously remarked, "I'm back..."

Is there, I wonder, any more unsettling experience than returning from a time away - especially in a Never Never Land like Venice - to the uncompromising facts of How Things Really Are?

Dorothy Gale may have come to the conclusion that there's "No place like home..." and preferred the dreary, monochrome world of tornado-torn Kansas to the gloriously eccentric Technicolor splendour of Oz, but - frankly - I think she was plain daft!

Anyway, here we are: back in our cold, un-centrally heated flat and facing a yawning vacuum of a year ahead that waits to be be filled, in my case, with hospital appointments (starting this very afternoon - oh joy!) and which, as yet, is entirely devoid of any prospects of work...

Still, we've some great memories of our time away, many captured on camera, such as our last walk across Piazza San Marco, the night before last. It was a scene rarely witnessed by the tourist: the great square absent of those normally ever-thronging hordes who - in a month's time - will be back for Carnevale!

In the meanwhile, St Mark, his fellow saints and their flocks of guarding angels - along with most of the rest of Venice - takes a short, but well-earned, winter nap...


Image: © David Weeks, 2009