Two magazines or bookazines rather, have been released in acknowledgement of the 75th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. For those that aren't familiar, bookazines are more than magazines, but not quite books. They are usually printed on heavier stock than average magazines and they have beautiful glossy pages. I love that two American institutions such as Reader's Digest and CBS have chosen to honor Oz in such a way. As much as I enjoy the writings of the Oz experts, it's nice to see points of view from authors other than the usual suspects. They're on newsstands everywhere.
The CBS issue is about 100 pages long and it's retail price is $9.99. It'll be on sale until January 5, 2015. CBS delves into a little general Oz history. There's chapters on director Victor Fleming, the cast, the making of the movie, the legacy of Oz which goes into the annual showings of The Wizard of Oz on CBS, and the Oz museum featuring the collections of Willard Carroll and Tom Whilhite.
Reader's Digest is also about 100 pages and it's retail is $10.99. It's on sale until December 29. Like it's CBS counterpart Reader's Digest features chapters on the cast of The Wizard of Oz, but here there's bonus points for including a section on Toto. Also included are pages on costume designer Adrian, the ruby slippers, Oz since the 1939 movie, and some history with the Macy's parade.
For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't do features on collecting and the 75th anniversary items. There are a great many people that enjoy Oz as a movie and leave it at that, and that's perfectly fine, but for others of us, a big part of Oz is collecting. The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind are the two most collected films and yet hardly anyone addresses that. That nitpick aside, I do highly recommend them both for Oz fans. They offer enough to keep both the seasoned and budding aficionados happy.
