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The
Wizard of Oz: when a nasty neighbor tries to have
her dog put to sleep, Dorothy takes her dog Toto
and runs away. As she does so a tornado appears
and carries her to a magical land. Wishing to
return, she begins to travel to the great city
where a great wizard lives and on her way she
meets a Scarecrow who needs a brain, a Tin Man
who wants a heart, and a cowardly lion who desperately
needs courage. They all hope he will help them,
before the Wicked Witch of the West catches up
with them.
Judy Garland: "That Old Man River keeps rolling
along" was one of the many songs that Judy
Garland recorded. She was born in the Upper Mississippi
River town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where the
Judy Garland Museum takes up an entire floor of
the old grade school. A block away is the site
of the home where Garland spent the first five
years of her life. That spot is now occupied by
a multiplex cinema in the town's only shopping
center. Garland's father operated the only movie
theater in Grand Rapids until he moved the family
to California in 1927. Garland made her stage
debut at that Grand Rapids theater with her two
older sisters. In 1934 the Gumm Sisters performed
in Chicago during the World's Fair there. That
is where Frances Gumm was advised to change her
name to Judy Garland. Her voice got her into film
acting when she was 13 and kept her in demand
for stage and television performances after her
film career was over. The Judy Garland in the
later movies was much slimmer than the teenager
who co-starred with Mickey Rooney and who played
Dorothy.
Click
here to see The Wizard of Oz Film Cells available...
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