Showing posts with label Judy Garland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judy Garland. Show all posts

May 15, 2026

Lyman Frank Baum ~ A Wiz of a Wiz

 ~     
 
Thursday, May 15, 1856, was the day the author of children's books, Lyman Frank Baum was born. He wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series; in addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen.       
 
The book was written in 1900 with the following introduction:

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.

 
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - front cover  
1900 edition
 
 
A free eBook version is available at the Gutenberg Project with all twenty-four chapters linked individually (link below).      
 
       
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - title page, 1900 edition 
illustration by W. W. Denslow 
 
 
The fantasy tale was made into a film in 1939 and starred Judy Garland as Dorthy with an amazing cast of actors; Jack Haley as the Tin Woodman, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. 
 
 

 
 
Of course, it also featured Billie Burke as Glinda the Good Witch of the North . . .   
 
 

 
 
. . . and her evil counterpart, Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. 
 
 
 
 
 
I didn't see the film until the 1949 re-release. I was a little kid and had seen the ads about the "Glorious" color of the film. I remember being very excited about going to see the film then watching it start and being bitterly disappointed that it was in sepia not color. I felt cheated; that's what had been promised!!!!! (link below) Interesting that even as a kid I was aware of color quality!  
         
 
 
     
Baum was born and raised in Chittenango, New York. He started writing early in life, possibly prompted by his father buying him a cheap printing press. His younger brother Henry (Harry) Clay Baum, helped him in the production of The Rose Lawn Home Journal. The brothers published several issues of the journal, including advertisements from local businesses, which they gave to family and friends for free. By the age of 17, Baum established a second amateur journal called The Stamp Collector, printed an 11-page pamphlet called Baum's Complete Stamp Dealers' Directory, co-written by Henry Clay Baum and William Norris, and started a stamp dealership with friends.  
 
When he was 20, Baum took on the national craze of breeding poultry. He specialized in raising the Hamburg chicken, a Dutch breed. In March 1880, he established a monthly trade journal, The Poultry Record and, in 1886, when Baum was 30 years old, his first book was published: The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs.    
 
 
 
  
Baum moved west after an unsuccessful stint as a theater producer and playwright. He and his wife opened a store in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and he edited and published a newspaper called The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. They then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and published children's literature, coming out with the first Oz book in 1900. While continuing his writing, among his final projects he sought to establish a film studio in Los Angeles, California.             

Baum's description of Kansas in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is based on his experiences in drought-ridden South Dakota.     
 
In 1897, he wrote and published Mother Goose in Prose, a collection of Mother Goose rhymes written as prose stories and illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. Mother Goose was a moderate success and allowed Baum to quit his sales job (which had had a negative impact on his health). In 1899, Baum partnered with illustrator W. W. Denslow to publish Father Goose, His Book, a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was a success, becoming the best-selling children's book of the year.       
     
      



     
     
     
     
     
     
      
      
      
      
        
Viewfinder links:                  
        
L Frank Baum      
Billie Burke         
Judy Garland      
Margaret Hamilton           
Maxfield Parrish        
The Wizard of Oz LaserDisc    
        
        
Net links:                  
        
Good Reads ~ L Frank Baum Quotes         
imdb ~ L Frank Baum      
Literary Hub ~ The Wizard of Oz at 125 Years                   
Literary Traveler ~ The Man Behind The Curtain          
Project Gutenberg ~ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz eBook       
Smithsonian ~ Ruby Slippers Dancing Down the Hall        
Washburn Edu ~ L. Frank Baum       
     
YouTube links:                  
 
Building the Yellow Brick Road (13 min., 25 secs.)    
       
       
        
       

“Everything has to come to an end, sometime.” 
                                    ~ L. Frank Baum 

 




















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April 6, 2021

Capitol Records ~ the inner sleeve: The Capitol Tower

 ~   
Capitol Records record sleeve 
photo by Styrous®
 

Sixty-five years ago today, April 6, 1956, Capitol Tower, the home of Capitol Records was dedicated. It was the first circular office tower designed in America.    
 
 
Capitol Records record sleeve detail
detail photo by Styrous®

 
That day is crystal clear in my mind as it was at the pinnacle of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, I was deep into it and the building was right out of one of the books and pulp magazines I devoured. I thought to myself it was the future coming to life right in front of me. Little did I know my life would witness MANY Sci-Fi fantasies come true.      
 
Located at 1750 North Vine Street in Hollywood, a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California, it is thirteen stories tall and 92 feet in diameter. The photo below shows the Capitol Records Building seen from the Hollywood and Vine intersection near sunset on June 30, 2009.         
 
      
Capitol Records headquarters building
  photo by Downtowngal


Designed by Welton Becket with Louis Naidorf, a young architect from Becket's office, serving as project designer the earthquake-resistant Capitol Records Tower is the world's first circular office building. Home to several recording studios, it is one of Hollywood's most distinctive landmarks. Although not intended as a tribute to record players, its wide curved awnings and tall narrow tower mimic the appearance of a stack of gramophone records atop a phonograph. The building was commissioned by EMI after its acquisition of Capitol Records in 1955 and was completed on April 6, 1956.           
 
 

According to Atlas Obscura (link below), the light at the top of the tower on the Capitol Records Building sends out a secret message. It was the former president of Capitol Records, Alan Livingston, who got the idea to have the light on top of the building send out a signal in Morse code. The word chosen for this secret message was “Hollywood.” When the building opened in 1956, Samuel Morse’s granddaughter Leila Morse had the honor of turning the light on.    


Capitol Records Building construction - 1955
 photographer unknown

       
Photographer Ted VanCleave has done a series of very dramatic and beautiful black and white images of the Capitol Records Building. Phaidon has issued a book, California Captured which features the tower. According to Slipped Disc, the tower has been shut down and its staff laid off; and Moses Avalon says it has been converted to condos (links below).   
 
 
Capitol Records Building - July 25, 2009 
photo by Jelson25
       
      
Capitol Records, as did other record companies (link below), advertised the artists they represented on the record sleeve of a vinyl LP.  
      
      
  Capitol Records record sleeve ads
photo by Styrous®
 
    
      
      
      
      
     
Viewfinder links:
      
Ray Anthony          
Beastie Boys        
Garth Brooks         
Nat "King" Cole      
Neil Diamond          
Judy Garland          
The Inner Sleeve        
The Kingston Trio        
Peggy Lee     
Paul McCartney      
Katy Perry          
Record Labels       
Frank Sinatra      
Ringo Starr         
Tina Turner        
Brian Wilson         
     
Net links:
     
Atlas Obscura ~ Capitol Records Building Morse Code      
Moses Avalon ~ Capitol Records Building goes condo          
Slipped Disc ~ Capitol Records Tower is no more     
udiscovermusic ~ In Celebration of Capitol Records     
Ted VanCleave ~ Capitol Records Gallery     
     
YouTube links:
      
The Capitol Tower Opens  (1956)       
The Capitol Tower (1958)       
     
     
     
     
     
     
 


     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, April 6, 2021   

















 
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October 29, 2020

20,000 vinyl LPs 248: Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy

~       
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP front cover 
photo: September 25, 1945
photo of record cover by Styrous®


Today is the birthday of Fanny Brice who was born Fania Borach in 1891, in Manhattan, New York City. She was an American comedienne, illustrated song model that was was a popular form of entertainment in the early 20th century in the United States, singer, theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. She is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series The Baby Snooks Show.             
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP front cover detail 
photo: September 25, 1945
photo: film still 
detail photo of record cover by Styrous®


This album does not have music, it consists of eight radio episodes of Baby Snooks & Daddy performed and recorded live before a studio audience from 1948 to 1950.   


Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover details
detail photos of record cover by Styrous® 

 
Brice's first radio show was the Philco Hour in February 1930. From the 1930s until her death in 1951, she made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by playwright Moss Hart. Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS, with Alan Reed playing Lancelot Higgins, her beleaguered "Daddy". Brice moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Coffee Time, with the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and actor Frank Morgan.        
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover 
photo: film still 
photo of record cover by Styrous®
 
 
Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life.                   
 
 
Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks - 1940 
photographer unknown
 
 
Thirteen years after her death, Brice was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in the 1964 musical Funny Girl; Streisand also starred in its 1968 film adaptation, for which she won an Oscar, and in the 1975 sequel, Funny Lady.      


 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover details
detail photos of record cover by Styrous®
 

 
 
She told biographer Norman Katkov: 
"Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist."        
  
Fanny Brice & Bob Hope - 1936 
photo by Murray Korman

 
On screen, Brice portrayed Baby Snooks in the 1938 film Everybody Sing in a scene with Judy Garland as Little Lord Fauntleroy.             
 
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®
 
 
Though Brice reportedly spoke no Yiddish, she played into the popularity of ethnic comedy by adopting stereotypical mannerisms and the accent. In 1910 she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies in 1910 and 1911. She was hired again in 1921 and performed in the Follies into the 1930s. In the 1921 Follies, she was featured singing My Man, which became both a big hit and her signature song. She made a popular recording of it for the Victor Talking Machine Company. The second song most associated with Brice is Second Hand Rose, which she also introduced in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.          
    

 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP record sleeve, side 1 
photo by Styrous®
    
 
 
 
 
 

 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP record sleeve, side 2 
photo by Styrous®
 
   
  
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - The Cat-Man's Revenge    
A2 - Abnormal Psychology    
A3 - The Man Who Came To Dinner    
A4 - The Trial    

Side 2:

B1 - The World's Most Patient Father    
B2 - At The Doctor's...    
B3 - To Bee Or Not To Bee    
B4 - Snooks And Tallulah

Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford ‎– Baby Snooks & Daddy
Label: Radiola ‎– MR-1039
Series: Comedy Series – No. 15
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: USA, Canada & UK
Released: 1974
Genre: Non-Music    
       
         
Viewfinder links:        
        
Fanny Brice           
Bob Hope         
Barbra Streisand               
        
Net links:        
        
Jewish Women's Archive ~ Fanny Brice's Ziegfeld Follies debut   
LA Times ~ Norman Katkov dies at 91         
Musicals 101~ Funny Girl Debunked: Fanny Brice Facts        
PBS ~ Fanny Brice         
Publisher's Weekly ~ Books by Norman Katkov & Reviews        
        
YouTube links:        
        
        
        
        
        
       
       
       
Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks - 1950
illustration by David Stone Martin
 
         
 
"I lived the way I wanted to live and 
never did what people said I should do."    
                          ~ Fanny Brice
 
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Thrusday, October 29, 2020       














    
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August 15, 2020

20,000 Vinyl LPs 236: The Wizard of Oz & Over the Rainbow

~       
On August 15, 1939, 81 years ago today, Judy Garland sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow . . . 
 Somewhere Over the Rainbow (film clip)   

[Verse 1]
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

[Chorus]
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

[Verse 2]
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

[Outro]
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?
  

. . . in a sepia world . . .    


Dorothy (Judy Garland) 

. . opened a door on a dazzling Technicolor fantasy . . . 




. . . that made film history!


The Wizard of Oz movie poster


Seventeen years later MGM Records released the soundtrack for the film in stereo and mono; my recording is the mono version.           


The Wizard of Oz vinyl LP front cover 
photo of front cover by Styrous®


Garland was sixteen years old at the time of filming, however, she was not the only girl in the running for the part. Several actresses were considered for the role of Dorothy, including Shirley Temple, at the time, the most prominent child star, and Deanna Durbin, a relative newcomer, with an operatic voice. Garland was the most experienced of the three. Officially, the decision to cast her was attributed to contractual issues. The film premiered in Hollywood, CA.     


The Wizard of Oz vinyl LP back cover 
photo of front cover by Styrous®

     
Since fantasy films generally were unsuccessful at that time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer portrayed Oz as a head-trauma-induced delirium, instead of a real place. It is implied that Oz is merely Dorothy's dream since she awakens in bed at the end, though Dorothy is convinced that her journey was all in fact real.    

The main song from The Wizard of Oz, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, has been covered by almost EVERYone; including Tiny Tim and Homer and Jethro! I've linked my favorite versions to YouTube. There's a complete list of covers of the song on Second Hand Songs (links below).    




















   
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1     Over The Rainbow    
A2     If I Only Had A Brain    
A3     If I Only Had A Heart    
A4     If I Only Had The Nerve    
A5     Ding--Dong! The Witch Is Dead    
A6     We're Off To See The Wizard

Side 2:

B1     If I Were King Of The Forest    
B2     Ding--Dong! The Witch Is Dead    
B3     We're Off To See The Wizard    

Companies, etc.



Credits:

    Chorus – M-G-M Studio Chorus*
    Conductor – George Stoll, Herbert Stothart
    Featuring – Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan (2), Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger
    Orchestra – M-G-M Studio Orchestra*
    Written-By – Harburg*, Arlen*

Notes:

 Copies with black labels were released in 1962.

Various ‎– The Wizard Of Oz
Label: MGM Records ‎– E3464 ST, MGM Records ‎– E3464 St.
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1956
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack

   
         
Viewfinder links:        
           
Frankie Avalon          
Ray Charles         
Eric Clapton
Doris Day     
Eddie Fisher         
The Flaming Lips      
Connie Francis            
Aretha Franklin           
Nina Hagen         
Homer & Jethro         
Jerry Lee Lewis         
Glenn Miller         
Willie Nelson          
Frank Sinatra       
Sarah Vaughan         
The Wizard of Oz LaserDisc         
         
        
Net links:        
          
Second Hand Songs ~ Who sang Over the Ranbow?        
        
YouTube links:        
       
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (film clip)                
Somewhere Over the Rainbow ~       
Frankie Avalon       
Tony Bennett
Ray Charles          
The Checkers           
         
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Saturday, August 15, 2020       
       
















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