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Slaney Entertainment
6 August 2013
www.slaneynews.com
View From The Nosebleeds We’re Off TO See The Wizard Jamie’s Good News… Unless you’re a wrestling fan, this will go completely over your head. However, I feel this good news should be shared. There is a small, clean living, comic book obsessed wrestler poised to become the next WWE Champion. No, it’s not me, it is a certain long bearded individual named Daniel Bryan. As I said, this will not have any effect on your life unless you are a wrestling head, but it is what it signifies, People Power. Bryan is, simply put, one of if not the most popular wrestlers plying his trade today and he has been rewarded for basically being great at his job and universally loved. I write on these and other topics on www.wrestlingrambles.com. Yes!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!!! Follow The Yellow Brick road If you have never seen The Wizard of Oz, first of all you have grown up from a deprived childhood and I feel genuinely sorry for
you. Secondly, you are missing out on one of the greatest live action spectacles you are likely to throw your eyeballs over in this lifetime. I realise it has a lot to compete with these days with Guillermo Del Toro having robots fighting all over the shop and glittery vampires looking moody and boring half the sane population but The Wizard stands tall. Let me put it into context. The film was made and released in 1939 by MGM Studios. The film was based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by Frank Baum. The budget for the picture was a mammoth $2,000,000. It was notable for its glorious use of Technicolor, elaborate make-up and huge set designs. In today’s money, the film would have cost exactly $33,898,305.08. That is mental. Read that again. This was 1939! And MGM put literally all their eggs in the one basket, financially and otherwise! Despite being pushed relentlessly by the
PR machine and receiving mostly positive critical reviews, the film only pulled in $3,017,000 at the box office thus failing to get back the studio’s initial investment. Subsequent releases made it the film it is today. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture on a re-release, losing out to Gone With The Wind. Television also had a hand in its enduring popularity – first rebroadcast in 1956 it would be reshown every year thereafter for an extraordinary amount of time. The story behind the film has always fascinated me as a student of film and an avid movie trivia fan in general. Allow me to regale you. On the success of Disney’s Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (1937), other studios realised that fantasy films based on popular children’s fairytales could be box office monsters. MGM bought the rights of the novel from Samuel Goldwyn (noted for being instrumental in
Paramount Pictures and the production of the first motion picture filmed in Hollywood in 1913). Goldwyn wanted Eddie Cantor to be the Scarecrow and star of the vehicle. The studio wanted to tone down the magical elements of the film almost eliminating the Lion, The Scarecrow and The Tin Man story arcs! And people say studios have a habit of being moronic….. Writers were brought in, took out and brought back in. There were drafts, re-drafts and re-redrafts. The final draft of the script was completed on October 8, 1938 following numerous rewrites. Judy Garland was always first choice for Mervyn LeRoy, but there is a rumour that Shirley Temple was secretly drafted in to play Dorothy. There was supposed to be a trade-off exchange between MGM and 20th Century
Fox for Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. The Tin Man was originally supposed to be Buddy Ebsen and he took the role, starting principal photography until the aluminium powder used for his make-up landed him in hospital. He left the production and Jack Haley stepped in. The opening scenes were shot in sepia black and white and the Technicolor used was three strip Technicolor. The shoot proved to be somewhat chaotic. Especially when moving to Munchkin Land. The talent scouts searched high and low for over a hundred little people to fill the roles. They were paid $125 a week and were all individually photographed and catalogued for the records so the costumes wouldn’t overlap or get lost. There was also an element of danger on set, Margaret Hamilton, The Wicked Witch,
was placed on an elevator that disappeared into the ground when she made her exit. First take went swimmingly. Second take not so well, the flames used to conceal her exit caught onto the copperbased make-up she was wearing and she was nearly burned alive. There are more stories as regards the shoot, post-production, re-releases and the eventual ruination of Judy Garland by the same studio heads that made her a star. Come back next month for Part Two. We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz, because, because, because…. n
Follow Jamie’s movie views and reviews on his blog http://thepanch. wordpress.com.
BlaCkStairS BlueS FeStival September 13th to 15th a weekend of free gigs plus three late-nighters 19th year of bringing the Blues to the South east! the Official launch of the enniscorthy Blackstairs Blues Festival will be in rackards Bar, Friday 23rd august, from 9pm. Go along, sure you’d never know who might turn up as the longest running Blues Festival on this island is officially launched.
FeStival PerFOrmerS: Graham robins (uk), Bert Deivert (uSa), roy Fulton Band (N. ire), Preacher Caseys (ire), kenny Blue (ire), t Bone kelly (ire), Graham robins (uk), BabaJack (uk), Sonny and his Wild Cows (Hun), Dermot Byrne (ire), ain't misbehavin (ire).
FeStival veNueS: antique, Doreens, the Bailey, Holohans, Stamps, rackards, Wilsons, treacys Hotel, DBar, toss kavanaghs, John Jude Doyles, Wallaces alba, Cotton tree Cafe the Festival will actually start on thursday 12th September with an extra gig in DBar featuring Bert Deivert & Graham robins. Blues workshops and guitar lessons will also feature this year, as will early evening and afternoon gigs on the Fri, Sat and Sun in Wallace’s Wine Bar, starting with Dermot Byrne at 6pm on Fri 13th. all Gigs are free including the three late night gigs which on the Saturday night features Sonny and his Wild Cows which promises to be a wild night to remember!
Full details in our next issue – 3rd Sept, and visit www.blackstairsblues.com
Bert Deivert
Sonny and his Wild Cows
BabaJack