From “La cooka ra cha La cooka ra cha ” the 3 leprechauns from“Finian’s Rainbow” made the quantum leap “Over the Rainbow” “We’re off to see the Wizard “ “Ding done, the Wicked Witch of the West”
Judy Garland’s teeny bopper role as Dorothy, a Kansas farmorphan, searching “Over the Rainbow” for an escape from her Charlie Grapevine uncle and aunt Surrogate niches..
E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s magic touch and lyrics, enriching Harold Arlen’s karma (his pianistic ‘Buffalodians’)
II
How did this unholy holy trio coalesce their larger than life sizesouls (Mervyn Leroy impresario’s role) “One small step forthe “land of Oz” A giant leap for the “Wizard of Oz” (Frank Morgan’s fortune telling crystal ball) was beyond my ken.. the studio interview 1939.. a 6TH grader, McKinley Elementary, Santa Monica..
A sneak preview in Central California’s San Luis Obispo was fraught with decision making and semantics, Louis B. Mayer, the studio honcho and the director George Cukor, tacking a realistic cue, while the unholy holy trio, into assuming a Mozartapt birthright ..
III
“Somewhere over the rainbow, there’s a land way up high. There’s a land that I heard of. Only once in a lullaby.”
IV
From those Culver City MGM haunts on West Washington Boulevard to San Luis Obispo, the 1939 five unlike the Liverpool Beatles, corralled their “collective consciousness” to Central California, for a sneak preview without Hollywood Boulevard klieg lights, scorching the ceiling of the skies
No red carpet fantasy or shrieks to support their manifesto, theNation in a food stamp Kansas basket depression, the San LuisObispo’s natives living out “Over the Rainbow“ their eyes and ears open to “ Jack Haley’s *“Heart”, **Bert Lahr’s “Courage”, and the ***Scarecrow’s quest for a brain”.. Ray Bolger.
V
Dorothy ,the *Tin Man (Jack Haley), the **The Cowardly Lion(Bert Lahr), the*** Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) hop skip and jumping on the Yellow Brick Road to the land of Oz…. Munchkin Country, the Wicked Witch of the North, her crystal gold slippers, a tornado, Toto’s barking flight. And Professor Marvel ..Frank Morgan in another guise, un like the Wicked Witch of the West..
“Somewhere over the Rainbow, there’s a land way up high.There’s a land that I heard of. Only once in a lullaby”
September 12, 2014, The City that never sleeps.
