There is no way I can possibly express how excited I am for a new book by Jay Scarfone and William Stillman. You would think everything that could be said has been said about a movie that is almost 80 years old. BUT that is one of the things I love about Oz in general. Try as we might, we'll never know everything and there's always new, exciting discoveries. This will be a page turner of Ozian epic proportions for sure!
Highlights include:
A thorough synopsis of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the script, inspired by the book, of the 1903 Broadway musical-comedy extravaganza
An overview of the plots of prior silent film adaptations of Oz and how they influenced the MGM film
An analysis of newly discovered audio transcriptions of Wizard of Oz radio programs from 1931 - 1932 and 1937 - 1938, all of which were previously unknown
A complete accounting of Sam Goldwyn's proposed (and aborted) 1934 Technicolor musical version of Oz starring Eddie Cantor (including commentary from Cantor's sole surviving child)
A thorough analysis of the October 10, 1938 MGM shooting script (provided by descendants of comedian and Cowardly Lion actor Bert Lahr) that predates the beginning of production by seventy- two hours
Startling revelations about the operetta that seeming inspired Over the Rainbow
Judy Garland's trials and tribulations with the studio including the threat that MGM was grooming a sound-alike who tested for Oz
The supporting player who was cast in two roles in Oz's fantasy sequence- the second role revealed for the first time in Scarfone and Stillman's text
The Munchkin midgets' pre- 1939 Wizard of Oz connection
Oz's film editor with a direct connection to Walt Disney and Snow White
Studio nepotism, favoritism and politics at the height of Hollywood's golden age on the making of the world's most famous film
Scarfone and Stillman have one of the world's largest Oz collections and have written articles for countless periodicals and authored the books The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History (co authored with John Fricke), The Wizard of Oz Collector's Treasury, The Wizardry of Oz, The Wizard of Oz: The Official 75th Anniversary Companion. They've also submitted entries to the official Wizard of Oz blog.
Releasing October 1, 2018
