“We were looking for a summer family-friendly movie that everyone loves,” Buskirk-Chumley Assistant Director Rebecca Stanze said.
When “The Wizard of Oz” first premiered Aug. 25, 1939, people didn’t know what to expect. The film brought to life a new era of cinema with its innovative use of Technicolor in the switch from sepia to a world of color.
But it wasn’t just the technology that made it the film of its time. It was the entire composition: the talented cast, including the young star Judy Garland, Victor Fleming as the director, who also directed “ Gone With the Wind ,” and the musical score, earning the film two Academy Awards for Best Original Song “Over the Rainbow” and Best Original Score.
“The reason why we chose this movie is because of the universal appeal,” Stanze said. “If a movie has lasted 75 years, then it has got something going for it that appeals to a lot of people.”
“‘The Wizard of Oz’ is a film that represents the best of the old and new,” said Erika Dowell, the associate director and the head of public services at IU’s Lilly Library.
“The story was old, but it had great performers and the special effects at the time were pretty good,” Dowell said. The film premiered 39 years after L. Frank Baum’s book was released in 1900.
The book’s first edition was rare enough to be kept in the library’s vault, Dowell said.
“It has influenced the culture principally by giving it a story and a language that it can apply to all different kinds of situations,” Dowell said. “There is language in the film that persists in our culture.”
Iconic references and symbols such as a yellow brick road or ruby slippers keep the story alive in popular culture. It’s the even more apparent usage in sitcoms, cartoons or assorted memorabilia, Dowell said , that keep them circulating in children’s lives. Dowell called it ?“recycling.”
“The story is present in today’s culture, even if people aren’t familiar with the whole story,” she said. She opened a box of antique McDonald’s Happy Meal dolls inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” and then motioned to a board game for the film.
“The Wizard of Oz” books and memorabilia are not currently on public display, but they are available to see at the Lilly Library by contacting Dowell.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we could get on Wikipedia and find ‘Wizard of Oz’ references in different kinds of creative works today,” Dowell said. “It would still expose young people to the story without having read the book or even having seen the 1939 movie.”
Aaron Pacentine, a producer of the documentary “The Wonderful World of Oz: Celebrating the Oz Community,” has a personal appreciation for the film as a viewer and a filmmaker.
“As a child, I became somewhat obsessed with the 1939 film and the Disney movie ‘Return to Oz,’ not just because of the story, but because the music was so brilliantly written and the set magically transformed all of us to Oz and back home again,” he said.
Pacentine has interviewed “The Wizard of Oz” historians, collectors, impersonators and recently Judy Garland’s daughter, Lorna Luft, on his Oz-devoted talk show. Pacentine brought his documentary and assorted memorabilia to the screening.
Despite his vast Wizard of Oz knowledge and intrigue that has grown since childhood, his appreciation for “The Wizard of Oz” is simple.
“‘The Wizard of Oz’ is important to me for the same reason it is to others,” he said. “It’s because the story never grows old. Even before the movie starts, in the opening credits, it says that it was dedicated for those of us who are young at heart.”
The screening at the Buskirk was considered an anticipated event not just for adults who reminisce on the memories “The Wizard of Oz” brought to their childhood, but also for the children who experienced the magic behind the screen for the first time.
“We want it to be for the whole family,” Stanze said. “I think it’s a movie that appeals to a lot of adults as well, to their childhood memories.”
The screening of “The Wizard of Oz” was meant to be an event of the summer that included a costume party and movie screening at an affordable rate for the community. Stanze said she had her costume set, complete with a metal funnel as her hair ?ornament.
“Sunday is an affordable day for people to screen movies,” Stanze said. “There’s a movie partner program and a greatly reduced fee that makes it more accessible to the community to come and promote films as a form of entertainment and ?education.”
Stanze said she wants the community to revisit their roots through the memories of a childhood favorite in a classic theater.
“I think that it goes back to that timeless element.” Stanze said. “‘The Wizard of Oz’ has excitement, danger, adventure, beautiful scenes and just an element of amazing-ness.”
