Before The Wizard of Oz opened in Hollywood in 1939, MGM sent it to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The studio had spent roughly $2.8 million on the fantasy musical, a huge sum then, and it wanted to watch real audiences react in small towns before risking a big premiere.
According to the American Film Institute, as cited by Parade, the film began opening regionally on Aug. 10, 1939, at the Orpheum Theatre in Green Bay. It was also advertised as a “world premiere” on Aug. 12 at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The Census Bureau lists Oconomowoc, Kenosha and Dennis, Massachusetts, among the places MGM tested it.
Premiere and a modest return
The Hollywood debut came at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 1939. New York followed two days later. The national release landed on Aug. 25.
Reviews were good and audiences were interested, but the film was no instant windfall. It earned about $3 million in its first run, barely above what it cost. Later re-releases improved its fortunes.
The honors were real, though. The film earned six Academy Award nominations and won for Original Score and for Original Song, “Over the Rainbow.” Judy Garland received a special Juvenile Achievement Oscar.
Not the first Oz
The MGM picture was not the first time Oz reached an audience. The Library of Congress notes that an extravagant stage musical by L. Frank Baum opened in Chicago in June 1902 to strong reviews, and the 1903 New York production became one of the biggest Broadway hits of its day. Four one-reel silent films from the Selig Polyscope Company followed in 1910. Baum started a Hollywood company in 1914; its five silent features and some short films flopped, and the studio closed in 1915. Chadwick Pictures released another silent version in 1925, which took liberties with the book and also failed at the box office.
Then came 1939. The Library of Congress calls it a rare case of a great book becoming a great film. Its costumes borrowed from W. W. Denslow’s illustrations for the first edition of the book, so the characters look closer to the page than the 1925 version did.
Heat, lights and hidden cameras
The film was shot on sets built inside the MGM studio. One scene could be covered by as many as nine cameras tucked into bushes or potted plants for close-ups, while the main camera rode a moving boom to capture the whole stage. Technicolor demanded enormous lighting. Banks of lamps lined the floors and the catwalks overhead, and the sets became uncomfortably hot, especially for actors in heavy costumes. A November 1938 production still shows producer Mervyn LeRoy leaning over to talk with director Victor Fleming during a scene where Dorothy and the Scarecrow invite the Tin Man to join them while the Wicked Witch of the West eavesdrops.
The principal players were Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion and Frank Morgan as the Wizard. All five made other films, but the Library of Congress says they are best remembered for this one.
A film everyone saw
Television did the rest. Because of its many showings between 1956 and 1974, the library says, the film has been seen by more viewers than any other movie. In a People Magazine poll it was named the favorite movie of the twentieth century. Eighty-seven years after the first Wisconsin screenings, it remains the standard that other Oz adaptations are measured against, from The Wiz in 1975 and 1978 to Disney’s Return to Oz in 1985.
Sources
- How MGM's Test Screenings Helped 'The Wizard of Oz' Become a Classic
- To See the Wizard – The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale | Exhibitions – Library of Congress
