dual personalities

Tag: The Wizard of Oz

May 23, 2013

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

by chuckofish

Two years ago today the city of Joplin in our flyover state was devastated by a tornado, the fifth deadliest since 1900.

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We felt their pain then and we feel for those poor people in Oklahoma who suffer the effects of Monday’s EF-5 tornado.

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We know about tornadoes here. We take them very seriously.

This image from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) was always very scary to me growing up because it was true-to-life.

This image from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) was always very scary to me growing up because it was true-to-life.

Every time I look at the sky and it looks like this:

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my heart does a little flip flop. We keep an eye on the sky.

2 p.m. in the afternoon yesterday

2 p.m. in the afternoon yesterday

Things look worse. But then, usually,

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things look better. But not always. Plenty of times we have taken to the basement.

I remember once at school when I was in the fourth grade or so, we filed down to the lowest level and sat along the wall on the terrazzo floors and waited. I remember being really worried–not about myself, because I figured I was safe downstairs with the rest of my school. But I just knew my mother at home was ignoring the sirens. And probably not only ignoring them, she was no doubt outside looking up at the sky, daring the weather gods, hoping to get a good look at this tornado. After all, she was not originally from the Midwest–what did she know? I was really worried.

I’m sure I told her so when I got home. I’m sure she laughed.

Many’s the time when the sky looked threatening and greenish and we all would run outside and yell, “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!” We learned that from our mother. But she also taught us when to take the sirens seriously and go downstairs.

That’s the trick in life. Knowing the difference.

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June 22, 2012

Somewhere over the rainbow

by chuckofish

On this day in 1969 Frances Ethel Gumm, better known as Judy Garland, was found dead in the bathroom of a rented house in Chelsea, England of an “incautious over-dosage of barbiturates”. She was only 47, but she had been working for over 40 years.

On June 26 Garland’s remains were taken to New York City, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan to pay their respects. James Mason gave a eulogy the next day at her funeral, an Episcopal service.

Recently I happened to watch The Wizard of Oz on TCM for the umpteenth time. It really is one of the best movies ever made. Definitely on my Top Ten list. It should have won Best Picture in that year of years 1939, but, of course, it lost to the over-blown and over-esteemed Gone With the Wind. This movie has everything, including a flyover state tornado! Everyone in it is perfect from the smartest, bravest dog ever in movies (Toto) to the Munchkins to Billie Burke as Glinda and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West to the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion. The sets, the music. And 17-year-old Judy Garland as the brown-eyed Dorothy Gale: Wonderful.

Much has been written about the sad life of Judy Garland and her misbegotten career in Hollywood. She only made about 30 movies, but she will be remembered forever for a handful of really good movies and one great one: The Wizard of Oz. Everyone should own it and watch it once a year. Remember in the old days when they would broadcast it on Thanksgiving night? We looked forward to it every year, and always watched it. For a long time Danny Kaye introduced it and warned people not to adjust their televisions when the screen suddenly turns to color when Dorothy wakes up in Oz. Genius. Of course, we never had a color TV growing up, so our mother had to explain to us what happens in the movie. I never saw it on the big screen–it must have been magical.

Anyway, watching The Wizard of Oz would be a good way to honor the great Judy Garland today. May light perpetual shine upon you, Judy.

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