Oz Celebrates 70 Years this Week

Wizard of Oz fans everywhere are celebrating its 70th annivesary this week.  The film first opened August 15th, 1939 and eventually became a cult classic when it showed in theaters everywhere as the first color film. Now the show has not only seen references in everything from ‘Star Wars’ characters like Chewis and C3PO but a prequl best selling novel and Broadway play based on the characters. The film took a while to find a serious home among audiences, as the year it premieredd “Gone with the Wind” stormed through the Academy Awards, though “Over the Rainbow” picked up the award for Best Song, as well as Best Core and Best Performances by a Juvile went to Judy Garland for her work in this film as well as “Babes in Arms.” It was a decade later, upon its re-release in theaters that the witches of Oz and Dorthy and her friends really caught the mainstream attention they deserved, earning twice as much as they had before. When the film first debuted on television in 1956 - it streamlined to over 45 million viewers. Though the “Wicked” series, which starts with the novel turned play and continues on with two more stories (and a fourth on the way), are the only Oz novels. If you want to celebrate its seven decades, get the next best thing to a televised version of the show with Wicked tickets today.

Posted in Uncategorized on August 24, 2009

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